RAIN KRÓNIKA: 2009.05.11.

FELTÖLTÉS ALATT


NEWSWEEK

Hollywood Discovers Korea's Talented Actors

By Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop On 11/5/09 at 7:00 PM EST

In the late 1990s a Korean wave washed over Asia. From TV soap operas and movies to pop music, the region couldn't get enough of Korean culture and its good-looking stars. But the wave never quite reached the American entertainment industry. At most, Hollywood embraced the remake of several Korean films—including The Lake House and, more recently, The Uninvited.

Lately, however, ethnic Korean actors have started to gain traction in American film and TV. Kim Yunjin and Daniel Dae Kim broke through when they were cast in Lost in 2004, followed by Sandra Oh in Grey's Anatomy and James Kyson Lee in Heroes. This year Korean-American heartthrob Daniel Henney appeared in X-Men Origins: Wolverine as the villainous Agent Zero, and now stars on the new CBS medical drama Three Rivers. Lee Byung-hun took on the role of Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. And John Cho, who played Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek, is currently starring as an FBI agent in ABC's drama FlashForward.

Next up: Jeong Ji Hoon, a.k.a. Rain, a pop superstar in much of Asia but still little-known on the global stage. On Nov. 25, Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers will release their latest big-budget martial-arts thriller, Ninja Assassin, starring Jeong as the title character, who seeks revenge on the secret society that raised and trained him and killed his best friend.

The casting of Korean stars in prominent Hollywood roles reflects the new business realities: Jeong and his peers have a huge following in Asia, one of the few regions where movie audiences are growing. Korea, in particular, has become a key foreign market for Hollywood films, in some cases surpassing the U.K. According to the Web site Box Office Mojo, G.I. Joe earned more this summer in Korea—$13.2 million—than anywhere else outside the U.S.

Hollywood producers are also courting Korean directors who have a proven track record delivering hits for Asian audiences. "Every studio executive here has seen Oldboy by Park Chan-wook, and you can't say that about a lot of foreign movies," says Korean-American film producer Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment. Though Korean directors may be in demand among Hollywood producers, they are reluctant to make the leap. "Top directors in Korea have the ability to make whatever films they want with total creative freedom," says Lee. "With the [U.S.] studios they do not have that control."

Korean actors face cultural challenges, too. For actors from Asia to make it big in Hollywood, they have to commit to mastering English and networking with executives. "In Asia, for the most part, there is no auditioning process," says Grace Chen, the former managing director of William Morris Asia, now an independent consultant in Hong Kong. "So for big Asian stars to go to Hollywood and have to audition, it can be quite a foreign process." Plus, she says, those playing the Hollywood game risks losing opportunities back home.

And Asian actors in the U.S. are still often typecast as martial-arts experts. "Stereotype does still exist when casting films," says Rain. "Asians have our own broad and unique culture; it's just that more people have been interested in the martial-arts side than others."

But things are definitely changing. While it may be a while before Korean actors are cast as romantic leads in Hollywood, references to Korean culture are seeping into American films and TV. "In the past, you'd see a lot of Japanese references, Caucasian characters eating sushi or speaking a few Japanese words. But recently I noticed [they] are being replaced by Korean ones," says Shinho Lee, a Korean scriptwriter who splits his time between Seoul and L.A. Vertigo's Lee cites the rising prominence of Korean-Americans at all levels of the film-production chain: "There are more people of Korean descent working in Hollywood than of any other Asian ethnicity." Especially in front of the camera.

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hongtha

2009.05.11 Rain's 6to5 autography party in Jeju Island.

Rain's fans were willing to staying up all night to participate in his 6to5 autography party.

Rain saw more than 500 overseas fans through his 6to5 autography party in Teddy Bear Museum, alias Teseum, in Jeju Island, on the 9th.

Rain's Japanese fans spending 'Golden Week', long time holidays in a row, visited Jeju 6to5 shop in large numbers, which made the scene of the event get heated.

A person from J.Tune entertainment expressed, " Rain's overseas fans crowded to keep good seats from the early morning, and some kept their seats from the night of the 8th. All of the fans maintained order, so we were able to get through the event without incident."

This autography party was held in commemoration of the opening of 6to5 Teseum shop in Jeju Island. The majority of the fans who swarmed over the place, were overseas fans from all countries of Asia as well as the event was held in Jeju, a tourist resort, which is well known to even foreign countries.

It is thought that this shop will be settled as the main visit course because it has been formatted in the form of a multishop combined with the cafeteria of Teseum.

Rain plans to hold 6to5 fashion show in Hong Kong on the 6th of next month, and regularize the overseas expansion.

credit to Daily SportsHankookBrief translation by rain bird @ rain-eu

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hongtha

2009.05.11 비, 식스투파이브 제주 팬사인회.

가수 비의 팬들이 사인회 참석을 위해 밤샘도 불사했다.

비는 9일 제주도 테디베어박물관인 테지움에서 패션브랜드 식스투파이브 팬사인회로 500여명의 해외 팬들을 만났다. 장기 연휴 ‘골든위크’를 맞은 일본 팬들이 대거 방문해 현장은 뜨거운 열기로 가득했다.

비의 소속사 제이튠엔터테인먼트 한 관계자는 “이른 아침부터 해외 팬들이 앞선 자리를 맡기 위해 현장을 가득 메웠다. 일부 팬들은 8일 밤부터 자리를 지켰다. 팬들이 질서를 지켜 안전사고 없이 잘 마칠 수 있었다”고 말했다.

이번 팬사인회는 비가 디자인에 참여한 패션 브랜드 식스투파이브의 제주도 테지움 매장 오픈을 기념해 열렸다. 해외에도 잘 알려진 관광지 제주도에서 열린 만큼 자리에 운집한 대부분의 팬들이 아시아 각국에서 몰려온 팬들이었다. 이 매장은 테지움의 카페테리아와 결합된 멀티샵으로 꾸며줘 제주도 주요 방문 코스로 자리잡을 것으로 보인다.
비는 내달 6일 홍콩에서 패션쇼를 열고 식스투파이브의 해외 시장 진출을 본격화 한다.
http://news.hankooki.com/lpage/sports/200905/h2009051108134197630.htm