January 29, 2021
I decided to create a more complete page about Ilwoo’s and Dara’s friendship. She is one of his celebrity friends and they have known each other for 13 years now. They met in the set of The Return of Iljimae back in 2009. Since then they have managed to stay in touch and support each other in their respective careers. Dara was born in South Korea but it was in the Philippines where she began her artistic career when she won a talent show called Star Circle Quest in 2004. She returned to South Korea and became a member of the musical group 2NE1 in 2009. After it disbanded in 2016, she continues to perform as a Solo artist under contract with YG Entertainment.
These are some stills from The Return of Iljimae where she plays Rie a young Japanese maiden who falls in love with Iljimae as he washes up near her house. If I remember correctly he is discovered near his death by her father. Rie’s dad is a ninja and soon Iljimae finds himself not only learning the skill of the ninja, but almost becoming the future husband of Rie…
…But he leaves as he has to return to South Korea…The Return of Iljimae!
This is a video of Episode 7 where well… he breaks her heart:
To see more stills from their Iljimae time visit HERE.
F0r general information about the series “The Return of Iljimae” go HERE. If you haven’t seen this drama make sure you do… it is one of Ilwoo’s best!
Fortunately as they filmed they became good friends. In today’s video they revealed they became friends because of Gochujang sauce. This is a red pepper spicy sauce Koreans use in many dishes. So he was spicing his Japanese food?! ^ ^ This is what a bottle of one looks like:
After Iljimae they have managed to keep in contact and they have met in different occasions and supported each other through social media and attending each other’s performances. Here are some of these moments in time:
2013
Dara asks Ilwoo if he’s coming to her concert through their tweeter accounts:
2015
Jung Il woo talks about Sandara being his only female friend:
Here she is performing one of her big hits: “Kiss”
2018
Jung Ilwoo and Dara meet in Thailand by chance! He posted the following photo in his Instagram and wrote:
“Long time no see! To think we’d meet in Thailand. Thai goddess.”
2020
Dara goes to see Ilwoo’s play “The Elephant Song.”
Jung Il woo goes to see Dara’s New Musical, even though he was exhausted from filming Sweet Munchies and had barely gotten any sleep:
She wrote:
“Il Woo is here! He’s so busy these days because of filming for his drama, but Il Woo is the best for coming to see my performance even after filming all night. Thank you so much! I’m sure you were tired, but you kindly said that you felt healed because the musical was so much fun. He said that he discovered a new side of me. We’ve been friends for 12 years now. I wonder if all of my friends are saying this because the ‘Another Oh Hae Young’ character is so different from my appearance in real life haha. Thank you so much and I’ll look forward to the drama ‘Late Night Man and Woman.’ Good luck!” Source
You can read about her musical Here.
You can see a bit oh her musical below:
And here they are in last week’s Fashion Video:
To see my many screen captures go HERE. Below you will see Ilwoo’s and Dara’s respective Instagram posts celebrating their time together:
Today Jung Ilwoo and Dara treated us to another wonderful video of them cooking:
WITAT
It is good to know that Ilwoo has at least a good female friend besides his mother. One can tell it is an honest, easy going friendship where they support each other when they are able. They are both so very sweet in nature. It was heartwarming to see them together.