Grace Park has been cast for the new television remake of “Hawaii Five-O.”  Grace Park will play Kono Kalakaua, the neice of Detective Chin Ho Kelly – a role filled by LOST actor Daniel Dae Kim.  According to Hollywood Reporter, Kono is a “beautiful and smart champion surfer who is about to graduate from the police academy when McGarrett recruits her to join his team.”  It’s good to see the beautiful Grace Park back on television.  She had a great stint on Battlestar Galactica where she built a great following.

Kim Yunjin of LOST fame will be featured alone on an upcoming cover of Entertainment Weekly.  She had previously been on numerous entertainment magazine covers but with other cast members of LOST.  She’s currently filming in Hawai’i for the last season of LOST.  She’s familiar on both sides of the Pacific ocean having previously starred in Korean movies like “Shiri” and “Harmony.”  I’m all for more Korean women on magazine covers.

Source: Zion Entertainment

It looks like Daniel Dae Kim is staying in Hawaii after the final season of LOST is finished because he has been cast in a lead role for the CBS remake of Hawaii Five-O.  Kim will play Detective Chin Ho Kelly, a role played in the original series by Kam Fong.

The new “Hawaii Five-0″ hails from hot feature writers and “Fringe” co-creators Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and “CSI: NY” executive producer/co-showrunner Peter Lenkov.

Kim, who played Jin Kwon on “Lost” for its six-season run, is the first actor from the show’s core cast to book a new series project this pilot season as the ABC mystery drama heads to its May finale.

Getting key “LOST” players to do pilots this season is proving tricky as ABC’s drama doesn’t wrap its final season until April. In Kim’s case, it helped that both “Lost” and “Hawaii Five-O” are filming in Hawaii.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

The very popular TV show LOST kicks off its final season on Tuesday at 9pm EST on ABC.  LOST was the first time we saw a Korean couple kiss on an American television program, and what was also remarkable about LOST is that the Korean couple played significant roles in the show as the only married couple on the island.  Daniel Dae Kim plays Jin, the very stoic and subdued husband of Sun, who’s played by Korean actress Yunjin Kim.  It was awesome seeing their relationship evolve over the course of 5 seasons but sadly Jin’s death on the show was a shock which shook the series and further created twists in the already crazy story lines of LOST.  Sadly for the viewers, the show is finally concluding this season but we can look back and say that this show was the first to break ground in revealing Korean relationships.

Here’s an excerpt from a recent interview with Yunjin Kim regarding the final season of LOST.

What were your expectations when you signed on as a cast member?

When I read the script, I thought it was like a movie script. I had never seen anything like this on television. I thought, “Either this is going to be the best TV show or the worst TV show.” And when I say it had the potential to be bad, I mean so bad that we would be made fun of for years!

What do you think of the journey of personal growth that Sun has taken over the years?

Sun has come such a long way from the pilot. If you remember, she was very subservient, a really quiet, scared woman who did whatever she was told by her husband. Now you cut to Season 6 and she’s a very different woman and very much her own person. That’s something that [producers] J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof promised from the beginning. I was concerned that I was playing into this stereotypical image of that Asian woman. But J.J. said, “You’re going to end up loving this character.”

Sun and her husband Jin (played by Daniel Dae Kim) differ from most of the other characters. Your thoughts about their relationship?

Sun and Jin’s stories have touched a lot of people, I think, because we are the only married couple on the island. We do have Rose and Bernard, but they’re guest stars. They sometimes show up and sometimes don’t, and they’re loved by fans as well. But Sun and Jin represent the only marriage and the most real and most tangible relationship on the island. And people root for us. They can’t wait to see us get back together and into each other’s arms. People really want to see a happy ending for Sun and Jin. It’s really touching.

What will be your most cherished memory of working on the show?

I had a such good feeling about it once I stepped into the set of Lost for the first time and saw that chopped-off half plane sitting on the beach. That was my first impression: “Oh, my God, is that a real plane chopped up in half?” And they said, “Yeah, we brought it in from L.A.” This beautiful Hawaiian beach and the chaos of the crash site to contradict it, it was quite stunning. I think I will always remember that first moment of just going, “Wow!”

For the promotion video of season 6, go to ABC.com and find a few spoilers.

Sources: ABC.com and Star Telegram

He’s got a cool name and he’s leading the way for all Asian American men on the small screen. As a Korean American, it’s easy to identify with his character – so suppressive or suppressed.

Daniel Dae Kim of “Lost” on Dim Sum with Teddy Zee from Eardog Productions on Vimeo.