Fan Club Goodies

An old but cool interview (5 years ago) with Lee Byung Hun by The Straits Times, Singapore and very much, still relevant.. 

Photos from All In promo pics dated Jan 5, 2003 from newsbankimage (thanks to roger-bhjwlove's previous highlight)


Monday, 31 March 2003

Call me for a date

Lee Byung Hun, star of Korean drama serial All In, is willing to dine with fans or catch a movie with them, thanks to a lack of paparazzi culture in Korea

By Samuel Lee



IF KOREAN actor Brian Lee Byung Hun has any regrets, it is the fact that his Asian fans will not get to hear his deep and manly voice when his latest TV show is exported.

Lee, one of the hottest heartthrobs from the Land Of The Morning Calm, has been keeping South Koreans glued to their television sets with his understated performance as a gambler with a dark past in the immensely popular Korean drama serial, All In.

'It's a pity all the efforts I put into my breathing techniques and my speaking parts will be lost because everything will be dubbed in Chinese,' he lamented in Korean during a press conference earlier this month at Jeju island, where much of All In was filmed. The 24-parter co-stars the beautiful Song Hae Gyo (Autumn In My Heart) as his star-crossed lover.

Since its debut on Jan 15 on the Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) TV network, All In has been one of the most watched prime-time programmes on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10 pm, with viewership reaching as high as 40 per cent across Korea.

Riding high on the so-called Korean wave of TV dramas, movies and pop music which has been sweeping across China, Hongkong, Taiwan and South-east Asia since the late-1990s, All In will premiere in Taiwan on the GTV network early next month. Other TV stations across the region, including both MediaCorp's Channel 8 and SPH MediaWorks' Channel U, are still in negotiations with the distributor.

The ripples generated by the wave have also upped the popularity of Korean stars across Asia. Where the likes of Song and Lee only had a domestic following previously, they are now practically mobbed whenever they go on promotional tours in cities such as Hong Kong, Taipei and even Ho Chih Min City .



Boyish-looking and tanned, Lee's sexiness combines the Sensitive New Age Guy (Snag) of Autumn In My Heart's Song Seung Hun and the bespectacled Bae Yong Jun (Winter Sonata), with the rough-and-ready appeal of Shin Hyun Joon (Guns & Talk) and Jang Hyuk (Volcano High).

Candid and upfront, Lee, 32, admitted to being a narcissist when he was younger. 'I used to think I was very good-looking. But after so many years of looking at myself, I've got bored and don't think so any more,' he told journalists from Hongkong, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore through a translator, before breaking into laughter.

Spotted in 1991 after taking part in a nation-wide acting audition organised by the government-owned Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) TV station, he won acting awards at KBS but never quite made it big.

His luck changed in 1998 when he was cast in a music video for K-pop singer Cho Sung Mo called To Heaven. From then, audiences sat up and paid attention whenever he appeared on the big screen (Harmonium In My Memory and Joint Security Area) and on television (Happy Together and Beautiful Days).

Critics also singled him out for his versatility in tackling sensitive new age roles such as those in Harmonium and Beautiful Days, as well as macho ones in Joint Security Area. He also won praise for the sense of sophisticated masculinity in his acting.

Fans all over Asia are also smitten with him because, unlike stars from Hong Kong, Taiwan or Hollywood, he is quite an open book, thanks to the absence of a paparazzi culture in Korea. He is fine with them using his manager's mobile phone number, which he leaves on his website, to arrange dates with him. Describing it as 'a great honour', he said he would oblige when time permitted.

'I've had dinners with fans from Singapore. In fact, members of my Singapore fan club also came to Seoul last year to watch my movie, Addicted, with me,' he said. Alas for his fans, he has had no time for anything like that lately due to the filming of All In. The schedule during one period was so intense, he had to film for four days on end, followed by a trip to the United States for a location shoot.

'It was so bad I had to ask my mother to pack my bags and pass them to me at the airport,' says the filial son who still lives in Seoul with his widowed mother, grandparents and a younger sister, who was first runner up in the Miss Korea beauty pageant in 1996.

Surprisingly, he makes no bones about the fact that he drinks and smokes and that his favourite brand of cigarettes is Dunhill. Furthermore, despite rumours that he wears a foundation colour darker than his skin tone to make him look more tanned, he openly spoke with journalists while getting his makeup touched up in their presence.

In fact, he was so comfortable with the media, he sat down readily to have a quick bite with them before starting the press conference. 'Just don't take pictures of me eating. I want to enjoy my food,' he said as he cut into his steak.



10 THINGS ABOUT HUN THE HUNK

1 - A MAJOR in French literature, theatre and cinematography at the Hanyang and Joongang universities, both in Seoul, Brian Lee Byung Hun speaks French, English and a bit of Mandarin though he prefers to use a translator when meeting foreign media.

2 - His deep, rich bass voice has lent itself to an animation feature, and theme songs for KBS drama Tomorrow Love and the movie, Who Is Making Me Crazy.

3 - Though swamped with recording offers, he turned them down to focus on acting until 1999, when he released the album, Tears. (edit the title of the album is To Me)

4 - Similarly, he is flooded with more product endorsement deals than he can handle and his face has launched everything from furniture to cologne.

5 - His best buddy is another popular actor, Song Seung Hun, whom he met on the set of Beautiful Days in 2001. (edit the reporter made a mistake here since SSH was never in BD but actually debuted in Beautiful My Lady in 1997)

6 - According to a recent readers' poll by Screen magazine, a Korean version of Britain's Screen International, Lee ranks No. 4 in the list of Top 10 Most Popular Korean Actors - after Sol Kyung Gu, Han Suk Kyu and Jung Woo Sung.

7 - The 12 years he spent in show business have earned him a string of nicknames. The more memorable ones include 'The celebrity who smokes in style', 'Possibly the best kisser', 'A VIP hotel staff love most to serve' and alternately, 'A star most likely to be a playboy' and 'A star least likely to be a playboy'.

8 - Still single, he is looking for 'someone who'd feel like a long-time friend, yet can evoke that first-time feeling of freshness'.

9 - Given his fluent English, Lee is eyeing Hollywood, but is giving himself more time to 'brush up and refine' his acting.

10 - Eight hours in the making, his bedroom scene with Song Hae Gyo in SBS drama serial All In sets a new record in Korean TV production.

The Straits Times, 31/3/2003 straitstimes.asia1.com.sg -- the direct link have expired though