Daniel Henney: Spring Waltz

Spring Waltz is the four and final TV drama in director Yoon Seok-ho's Endless Love series. It was released in 2006 and stars Seo Do-young, Han Hyo-joo, Daniel Henney, and Lee So-yeon. It run on KBS2 and was quite popular. 

Daniel Henney was nominated for a KBS Drama Award for the popularly award.

Daniel Henney stars as Phillip the global manager of the main character Lee So-ho/Yoon Jae-ha. Philip speaks a little Korean but not a whole lot. He is Korean and Austrian and he was once an musician who was expected to do great things. Philip falls in love with Seo/Park Eun-young but like most characters in a drama he doesn't get the girl he wants. 

I think his role in this drama was better than his performance in Seducing Mr. Perfect. I think he worked harder on his acting abilities and gave a stronger performance. It's nice to see that a drama can be different by casting some American who is only half Korean. It is a small change they can open doors for people who never really had a chance to act in a Korean drama. 

Daniel Henney: Seducing Mr. Perfect

Seducing Mr. Perfect is a 2006 South Korean romantic-comedy starring Daniel Henney and Uhm Jung-hwa. The premise is Uhm Jung-hwa is a businesswoman named Min Joo who discovers she has a new American boss after she is dumped by her boyfriend and accidentally hits someone's car. 

Daniel Henney plays Robin Heiden who can can understand Korean but finds it a pain to speak it. Robin is a man who doesnt take dating too seriously and he even coaches Min Joo on how to get a man and without him knowing she falls in love with him using everything he taught her to try to get Robin. 

It is nice to see that Daniel who is half Korean be treated as an equal on screen. It would be extremely difficult for him to secure the romantic lead in an Hollywood movie. Daniel was able to act well at times but he needed some improvement. He seems to enjoy it at least and had some real chemistry with Uhm. It was nice to see a Korean movie with a lot of English in it, weird as it sounds. It made his role of Robin easier to understand and to relate to. He may not have been the best actor but he proves that he can take the lead. 

Daniel Henney

Sorry for the lack of posts but I'm back to updating this blog!

Time for some new blood, you may know him you may not but here's Daniel.

Daniel Henney is a Michigan native as the son of an American (Irish) father and a Korean Adoptee mother.

Daniel's career started in 2001 as a model eventually working in Europe and Asia. He debuted in Korea by starring in a advertisement and he eventually became the co-face of several company advertisements. His career breakthrough and acting debut would be in the South Korean Drama My Lovely Sam Soon in 2005 even though he could not speak an ounce of Korean. The next year he would star in another drama called Spring Waltz. He also learned some Korean from guest starring on a few Korean variety shows.
His movie career didn't start until he starred in the Korean film Seducing Mr. Perfect. Even though he couldn't really speak Korean then, his character only spoke English while his co-star Uhm Jung-hwa only spoke Korean. The film worked and he made Korean cinema history with his second film My Father which won many awards. It was the first time that a foreigner was nominated for every best new actor award in all the major film awards. His American film debut wouldn't be until he starred in X-Men Origins: Wolverine as Agent Zero in 2009.
It appears now he is focusing his attention to his home country by doing small roles in TV shows like Hawaii Five-o, Revolution, NCIS: Los Angeles, and Criminal Minds.

Daniel will be a series regular in the new spin off Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.

Filmography

Films:

Big Hero 6
The Spy: Undercover Operation
One Night Surprise
The Last Stand
Shanghai Calling
Papa
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
My Father
Seducing Mr. Perfect


TV SHOWS

Criminal Minds
NCIS: Los Angeles
Revolution
Hawaii Five-o
The Fugitive Plan B
Three Rivers
Spring Waltz
Hello Franceska
My Lovely Sam Soon

James Hong; R.I.P.D.

 

"A recently slain cop joins a team of undead police officers working for the Rest in Peace Department and tries to find the man who murdered him."

 

A film featuring an old school superstar and a younger rising actor fail to do anything that good in this film. Its poorly directed, edited, written and has poor special effects. What it does well is the comedy aspect. Though at times Jeff Bridge's voice was annoying and at times hard to understand. Its a movie you should skip at all costs.

 

 

James Hong has a very small role as the avatar for Ryan Reynolds star. Though I don't think he would complain much as most of his appearances are with a "hot" woman. He does some good things but he is such a small figure you might actually forget he is in the movie. It would have been cool to see him as the head of ripd or some kind of other role.

 

 

James Hong: Big Trouble in Little China

"Kurt Russell plays truck driver Jack Burton, who helps his friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) rescue Wang's green-eyed fiancee (Suzee Pai) from bandits in San Francisco's Chinatown. They go into the mysterious underworld beneath Chinatown, where they face an ancient sorcerer named David Lo Pan (James Hong)." - wiki

Not the best film I have ever seen nor should it really be considered "good". Its bizarre that it should be mostly about rescuing Wang Chi's fiancée but It felt like Dennis Dun didn't get a bigger role as it is Kurt Russell who steals the spotlight. The script is very bad, I wish all of the actors could have been made more important rather than just background people typical for an American movie with Asian culture heavily present. Though I don't think this was John Carpenter's idea for this movie but at least he made a movie with Asian actors playing Asians in a film heavily influenced by Asian films. He gave a lot of people a chance to work



David Lo Pan (James Hong) was a nice villain, he was entertaining to watch (to me he was the most entertaining thing about this film). James Hong did a good job, actually this might be the first movie that I have seen him have a lot of screen time. It was nice to see someone different even if I couldn't tell who he was. Villains that wear make up have a long history of success or cult like status like Beetlejuice, Heath Ledger's Joker, etc. So why does James Hong get forgotten in the mix? I think its mainly due to the poor special effects in the film. Its hard to take a villain serious if the effects are a complete waste. Sadly to say this villain is one most of us have forgotten but shouldn't we at least review James Hong's performance?

James Hong

Now this is a man that I have seen a ton of times but never knew his name until now it's James Hong

 

 

James Hong was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, his father emigrated from Hong Kong and owned a restaurant. He would go to Hong Kong but would come back to the states when he was 10. James intended to study Civil Engineering but fell in love with acting and chose to train with Jeff Corey. He was a road engineer for a few years, acting on days off before quitting to become a full time actor. No wonder I have seen him a lot, he has 399 on camera appearances.

 

He started out dubbing soundtracks of Asian films like Godzilla, The King of Monsters. Afterwards he did a lot of stereotypical Asian roles in television like Charlie Chan's New Adventures. He is also one of the founders of the East West Players theater group which was founded in 1965. His career didn't really pick up until he made starred in the 1986 film Big Trouble In Little China.

 

His career portfolio lists tons of bit parts and supporting roles play stereotypical Asian roles. Even though he has appeared in famous movies and shows he is not that famous. He is yet another face that should be known due to his dedication to the wonderful world of film.

 

 

Selected Television Appearances

 

The New Adventures of Charlie Chan

The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin

Peter Gunn

Bonanza

Hong Kong

The Lloyd Bridges Show

Ensign O'Toole

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

The Bill Cosby Show

The Bob Newhart Show

Hawaii Five-o

Kung Fu

Dynasty

 

 

Selected Film Appearances

 

Blade Runner

Big Trouble in Little China

The Golden Child

China Girl

Wayne's World 2

Mulan

Balls of Fury

Kung-Fu Panda

The Day the Earth Stood Still

 

 

 

 



Mako: Avatar the Last Airbender

 

A twelve year old boy named Aang is unfrozen by two children from the water tribe, they discover this twelve year old is the Avatar. The master of all the elements and the person that can change the world forever but he'll need a lot of help.

 

 

Mako happened to voice the character of Uncle Iroh, the wise knowing man who appears calm and lazy. I actually watched this series many years ago and I never for a million years thought that a man named Mako actually voiced this character. I was blown away that the same man that did Aku from Samurai Jack did Uncle Iroh. This showed me that Mako had some very talented acting skills that I hadn't seen from him in his live action performances. Is that due to the fact you don't see the person who is providing the voice? Whatever it is critics all say that Mako did a wonderful job with this character. Sadly Mako died before he could close the book on this character and was replaced by Greg Baldwin.

 

But Mako will live forever in the minds of his fans as his image and voice is ingrained in the history of movies and Television.