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Staff Reporter
The epic ``Taewangsasingi'' topped the nation's No. 1 search engine Naver's most searched word list last week. The title stands for the four guardian Gods of the king.
While the soap opera has enjoyed high popularity, its final episode aired by MBC on Dec. 5, caused discontent with the TV audience.
Following the ending, the program's on-line bulletin board was bombarded with messages from viewers, alleging that the final story did not follow the script made public in advance.
As for the public backlash, Song Ji-na, the writer, left a message on the web site, saying she had drafted several endings.
The final episode had a TV audience rating of 35.7 percent, the highest recorded among its 26 episodes.
The Korea Film Festival ranked second. In the event held on Dec. 1 at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Seoul, ``Secret Sunshine'' starring actor Song Kang-ho and actress Jeon Do-yeon swept the festival, winning four prizes including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress.
The sci-fi film ``D-War,'' which had attracted 13 million moviegoers in Korea, won the award in the field of Special Effects.
Coming in third was actress Han Ye-seul, 25.
The sassy female came back to TV screens last week, ending a self-imposed 14-month exile following the smash hit soap opera ``Fantastic Couple'' which aired last year.
With only 10 days to go before the presidential election scheduled for Dec. 19, the frontrunner's approval ratings placed fourth.
According to a poll released on Dec. 6, the approval rating of Lee Myung-bak of the Grand National Party stood at 44.7 percent, distancing himself from other candidates by a big margin.
Following the prosecution's announcement that Lee had no link to the stock price rigging scandal, commonly referred to as ``BBK,'' his approval rating, once deadlocked, has increased gradually.
Actress Yoon Joo-ryun ranked eighth on the list.
Yoon, who has known as the lover of famous singer Kim Jin-pyo, posted photos she had taken with Kim on her blog last week, drawing lots of attention from Internet users.
The TV drama ``Bad Love'' featuring actor Kwon Sang-woo and actress Lee Yo-won, came in ninth.
The drama, which first aired on Dec. 3, succeeded in drawing attention by staging some eye-catching scenes such as a kiss and bedroom scenes at its beginning.
Coming in 10th was the stock price rigging scandal. The prosecution cleared Grand National Party presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak Wednesday of suspicions that he had collaborated with financial scammer Kim Kyung-joon.
pss@koreatimes.co.kr
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