Jo Hyun Jae

On the 6th anniversary of CAFE, Jo Hyun-Jae answers questions from his fans — everything you want to know about him, and more.

1. Q. JHJ’s vital statistics. Height (Are you 180cm.? You look taller lately.)
A. I’d like to be taller, but I’m still 180 cm.
Shoe size — around 275; leather shoes — 270.
Tops — 95-100. Trousers– 32.

2. Q. What do you think of your fans’ social work activities? (If there’s a chance, would you join such fans’ activities?)
A. I feel very proud and pleased my fans are doing such meaningful work. I should plan to do some good work myself.

3. Q. What perfume* do you use regularly? (*Editor: should be “cologne”)
A. Almost never. Whatever I come across.

4. Q. What kind of food do you like?
A. Korean, Western, Japanese — I like them all.

5. Q. What book do you find most moving?
A. The 4 great tragedies of Shakespeare.

6. Q. What is your daily consumption of tobacco and alcohol?
A. Half a pack of cigarettes a day. As for alcohol, I drink about once every two months, but I drink a lot each time.

7. Q. What do you do when you’re alone?
A. Read, exercise, watch DVDs.

8. Q. If there’s a next life, what do you want to do?
A. Be an actor.

9. Q. What is your dream at birth? (Editor: I’m not sure I understand this question.)
A. A big bathtub full of water, floating in the blue and green water.

10. Q. Do you read all your fan mail?
A. Yes, I try to read them all. Every time I read a letter from a fan, it gives me great strength.

11. Q. In your dramas, what kind of hairstyle do your favour?
A. Depends. I like both short and long hair.

12. Q. What is your latest problem/trouble?
A. Trouble is trying to act in some good dramas for viewers.

13. Q. Which actor would you like to work with?
A. Too many to list, because there are just too many good actors.

14. Q. What is your style? (hairstyle, clothes, etc.)
A. Casual — T-shirt and jeans.

15. Q. Do you still like rainy days?
A. Yes, but I also like fine days.

16. Q. What do you love most?
A. Family, work, people I like, fans, etc.

17. Q. What fruits do you like most?
A. Almost all fruits, but especially grapes, apple, and pear.

18. Q. Where do you want to travel or which place made a deep impression during your previous travels?
A. Italy remains in my mind. I’d like to go there again.

19. Q. When did you learn to ride the bicycle?
A. I mastered the two-wheeled kind when I was around 5.

20. Q. When did you get your driver’s licence?
A. When I was 18.

21. Q. You act very well in crying scenes. Is it difficult to shed tears on the screen?
A. Actually, yes. To be able to do it more naturally I’m trying harder.

22. Q. What is your favourite season?
A. Spring.

23. Q. When do you feel sexiest?
A. Sweating after exercising.

24. Q. Do you like driving at high speed? What is your highest speed?
A. I don’t like driving at high speed.

25. Q. At home how do you call your parents? And how do they call you?
A. Father. Mama. / Son. That’s it.

26. Q. Do you like coffee? What kind?
A. Caffe Latte or the sweet kind. (Editor: Mocha?)

27. Q. You seem to like jeans and baseball caps a lot. How many do you have?
A. About 30 pairs of jeans and 30-40 caps.

28. Q. Fans request that you dance during fan meeting. Will you do it?
A. Well……..

29. Q. Your martial arts acting is pretty good. Are you good in real-life fighting?
A. I haven’t really fought much. Martial arts acting is based on what I learnt in aikido, coupled with more practice to improve my acting.

30. Q. You sing very well too. Do you plan to release a CD? (or OST)
A. I intend to sing a couple of songs in OST.

31. Q. If you were to shoot a commercial, what kind would you do?
A. Automobiles.

32. Q. If you win the lotto, what would you do?
A. Do some good deeds, then buy some things I want to buy — just ordinary stuff.

33. Q. Whom do you resemble more — your father or your mother?
A. Half/half.

34. Q. Do you still have friends from childhood?
A. From primary school.

35. Q. When you’re physically and mentally exhausted, whom do you think of first, family or friends?
A. Family.

36. Q. What is your ideal girl?
A. Bright, pretty (not necessarily in looks.)

37. Q. Use your own name to write a 3-line poem.
A. 조: 조현재는
현: 현재뿐만 아니라 항상
재: 제(재)일 열심히 하는 모습 보여드릴 수 있도록 노력하겠습니다.
Jo: Jo Hyun-Jae is
Hyun: not just now
Jae: always does his best and gives his all

Until we meet again, be happy and healthy.
Love to see you all again.

(THE END)

The most horrifying ending of any “horror” movie I’ve seen is that of “The Omen” (the original one, all the sequels cannot live up to it.) The cherubic little boy (son of Satan) is taken in by his uncle, the President of the U.S.A., after he has killed his parents and all who stand in the way (without anyone suspecting, of course.) The final frame shows the boy with the face of an angel turning his head and smiling into the camera. It’s the sweetest smile but it sends shivers down my spine. Imagine the havoc this boy can wreak from the White House!

Now if I were to re-write the ending of “G.P.506″, I would dispense with all the violence. The shoot-out between the infected and the not-yet-infected gets tedious after five minutes. The final BIG BANG is melodramatic and, worse, predictable. If I were the scriptwriter, I would not kill the JHJ character. The unidentified disease has a dormant period during which the affected appears normal. All the others can die, but I would have the JHJ character, the lone survivor, discharged from G.P.506 (because certified OK), then re-deployed to another guard post. My last scene will show the JHJ character reporting for duty, say, at G.P.438. The implications are obvious. The horrific cycle will begin all over again. The JHJ character is the carrier of the unknown “virus” which will spread violence and death in the new camp.

Horror that is depicted has the advantage of visual impact. Everything is shown on the screen and the viewer just accepts what his eyes see. But the most spine-chilling kind of horror is not that which can be seen, but that which can be felt. Suggestion is more potent than outright depiction: stimulating the viewer’s imagination can induce greater horror.

“G.P.506″ has a “closed ending” — we know everything is finished. An “open ending”, on the other hand, opens up possibilities and leaves it up to the viewer’s imagination. I can see the JHJ character as the carrier of the unknown virus inflicting damage and destruction in the new guard post. As long as the “virus” is not identified, the horror cycle can perpetuate forever.

But perhaps this kind of ending is too sophisticated for the average viewer. The narrative method of the movie may already pose a problem for some viewers — the constant flashbacks and flash forwards, the weaving back and forth, the shift in time, truth vs. lies, reality vs. fantasy may have confused some viewers. Most viewers want to know what happened; they do not like to be left dangling in mid-air. They want this thing to be concluded; they do not want it to go on. They want to leave the cinema with certainty, not doubt and confusion.

The movie has been successful in its creation of atmosphere and build-up of suspense. The darkness contributes to the gloom and doom. We follow the investigating officer in his discovery of part and parcel of the truth — the more he knows, the lesss he knows, paradoxically. He is nowhere nearer the truth halfway through the movie than at the beginning. But somewhere along the way (about 2/3 in the course of the movie), I sense a shift in focus. Discovery of the truth is no longer the prime objective; resolution of the problem takes precedence. Hence the final explosion that engulfs everyone and everything.

We know the shooting of this movie was interrupted in mid-2007. It finally got completed with new financial backing. Did the new money come with a mandate to wrap up the project ASAP? Pure speculation on my part. But the shift is easily detectable — the first 2/3 of the movie is more artistic, the last 1/3 pure sensation. The explosive ending is deliberately sensational and perhaps inevitable, but not necessarily a natural outcome of the first part.

“G.P.506″ is an ambitious project, and, as such, I would give it an A- overall. It’s not the best Korean movie on the demilitarized zone that I’ve seen — that would be Lee Byun-Hyun’s “JSA”. Just as the creation of atmosphere is very successful, its characterization of the main players is also convincing. The lead actor, the investigator, is very good in holding the parts together. JHJ’s character is most impressive on his first (delayed) appearance, and this is a breakthrough in acting for Hyun-Jae. He proves he can hold our attention even when his handsome features are covered in dirt. He is no longer the same guy as that in “Love Letter”, “Sunshine”, or “Only You”. He has become 1st Lieutenant Yoo; he is totally in character. My only complaint is: he appears too little, and he sort of fizzles out in the end. I don’t like the way the director/scriptwriter disposes of the JHJ character — seems he doesn’t matter anymore and is just gotten rid of (shot dead.) Someone who would do anything to survive should not die like a dog. This is definitely a flaw, and not because I’m a JHJ fan.

I have one lingering question in my mind after watching “G.P.506″ — Is it worth it for Hyun-Jae to devote one whole year of his life to making this movie?

I have some free time today, so I pore over his photos again, and I discover one could be very greedy looking at photos. From his very early photos when he’s looking green, to his lovely photos of daily life, to all kinds of clips from his dramas, to photos of him on stage, to photos he poses for magazines, to photos of fans visiting him on set, to……………I seem totally addicted; I want to go on forever. How can this man look so gorgeous from every angle?! On the way home from work, my head is still filled with his images. But the strange thing is — of all the images in my mind, one keeps popping to the surface. When I look at that photo again on my home computer, I discover its electric voltage is Nth time more powerful than I imagine. God! It’s only a photo, but I just can’t take my eyes off it. I feel I have fallen hopelessly in love with this photo.

Perhaps it’s because I am in the advertising business, I’ve always been very critical of magazine photos, whether of people or still objects. I’ve seen a lot of models at work, but more often than not their poses are forced. Except for a few super models who are truly talented, most do not inspire any delight or excitement. Hyun-Jae is not a professional model, and when he is not shooting a drama or movie, he is very shy and subdued. Maybe it is precisely because of this that this magazine photo of his so mesmerizes me.

He’s just standing there, with his head slightly lowered, in the most casual way, with one hand at his hip, the other arm raised behind the back of his head, again very casually. No exposure, no provocative act, and yet there’s something unspeakably sexy about this pose. Yes, even those creases in his clothes caused by his pose are very sexy to me, not to mention the little bit of midriff exposed due to the uplifting of the garment — enough to cause a crime!

And yet the subtle thing about this photo is not in its casualness (which is just the appearance), and it’s not just casual sexy. The way I see it, the difference between photos of people and photos of still objects lies not in people can move and pose but in the look in people’s eyes which cannot be reproduced. What is “killer looks”? The look in his eyes here is the best definition. He fully understands his own attractiveness; he is absolutely confident but chooses a rather subdued pose. But as he lowers his head, he looks at you steadily and casually exudes strength and a certain wildness out of the stillness. This kind of low-key self-confidence emits a sudden devastating glamour in a split second, so that there is no escape for us.

Let me also comment on the colour and the clothes. The clothes are clean and eternal black, white, and grey, the colours for whom he is the best spokesman. Love his jacket — simple style but with exquisite details, and the material looks very high-grade too. Under the crisp jacket he chooses to wear a knitted cardigan. This displays not just a layered look, but being the same grey colour but of different texture, the ying/yang contrast produces a delicate effect. As for that background, it happens to be this year’s hot colour burgundy which gives a matured and mysterious flavour, perfectly in tune with his “feel” in this instant. To sum up, I like every detail about this photo, almost flawless, at least in my eyes.

Okay! I’m poisoned anyway. Keep looking at me like that and seducing me………….

* See Angie’s earlier posting on 2/26/09 “A tribute to Jo Hyun-Jae”.

(Photo courtesy of EVERjohyunjaeKorea)