Jo Hyun Jae

We have received permission from the Official JHJ Fan Club to relay news from their May Vol.1 magazine to our readers here, provided that we “change the words.” Since we have changed the language, we reckon we are obeying instructions. We have not translated the words, just the general meaning, and we have added information from Wikipedia (to fill our readers in on some background.)

The Republic of Korea army is by far the largest of the military branches of the South Korean armed forces, with 522,000 members as of 2008. (One of these is our own JHJ!) The size is maintained through conscription. South Korean men must complete 24* months of military service between high school graduation and the age of 35, provided they pass a stringent medical check. (*Only 22 months for JHJ — date of discharge from army: 6/19/10.) This is in response to the heavy North Korean presence, with its 1 million strong army, two-thirds of which is permanently garrisoned in the frontline near the DMZ (demilitarized zone.)

These two pages show the life of Jo Hyun-Jae in the army. The map shows the location where JHJ is serving — Pocheon military base. After 5 weeks of basic military training, JHJ was assigned to the Ammunition Depot (under Army Logistics Command) as a “dog soldier”, working with military dogs. (Please see our May 27 post: “JHJ’s army dog”.) The two photos of JHJ in uniform on the top page are released soon after JHJ joined the army and show him with his fellow trainees. The small photo at bottom right is taken on the day he enlisted — August 5, 2008, as are the three photos on the bottom page.

A day in the life of a Korean soldier
06:00 Get up, toilet, change into uniform
06:30 Roll call on field, morning exercise
07:30 Breakfast, clean up dishes
09:00 Military exercises before lunch begin
12:00 Lunch
13:00 Military exercises after lunch begin
17:00 End of exercises
18:00 Dinner
19:00 Free time (for bath,etc.)
20:00 Clean up, briefing by superior officers
20:30 Free time
21:30 Roll call
22:00 Bedtime
(Winter: get up 30 minutes later.)

The boots on the bottom right of the bottom page have an interesting “legend”. (Please see our April 16 posting: “Farewell to JHJ: Seeing him off to join the army (Part 2)”) We were told by a Chinese-Korean that Korean women often leave their men when they join the army. Perhaps a two-year separation is too much for some relationships. The army boots are a reminder that their men are serving their country, and the women have to wait for their return.

**FOR COPYRIGHT REASONS, PLEASE DO NOT REPRODUCE OR TRANSFER ANYTHING**

Maria’s answer to Shirley

I love all of Jo Hyun-Jae’s dramas, especially “Sunshine” — it is light and bright: “light” as the opposite of “heavy” and “bright” as the opposite of “dark”. I know, I know, it has the standard fare of the sins of the fathers visited upon the children. But in spite of everything, the overall mood is joyous and “sunshiny”, thanks in no small part to the JHJ character Jung Eun Sup.

Eun Sup is not perfect (apart from his looks.) He has many weaknesses (but lasciviousness is NOT one of them):
- he’s immature — In Paris he’s involved in a relationship with an older woman who treats him like a spoilt child.
- he’s impulsive — He flies from Paris to Seoul to try to stop his girlfriend from marrying someone else.
- he’s selfish — At the beginning he only cares about himself and his own happiness.
- he’s self-indulgent — He does whatever pleases him, regardless of consequences for other people.

I do not believe Eun Sup means to take advantage of Yeon Woo (played by Song Hye Kyo.) There is no need to. If he makes a move, she will not resist. JHJ in a pastry chef uniform is so drop-dead gorgeous that no woman can resist him.

Yes, Eun Sup has just been jilted by his former girlfriend, and for Yeon Woo to catch him on the rebound is not unusual. And don’t forget Yeon Woo is younger and prettier than the other woman. Eun Sup thinks he loves his former girlfriend, but it soon becomes obvious that the attraction is superficial and physical. So it’s not as if he sees one, loves one, see another, loves another.

The most moving performance in the whole of “Sunshine” occurs in Episode 9, when Yeon Woo declares her love for Eun Sup to Min Ho (overheard by Eun Sup, as it is.) Min Ho says: “What do you know about love?” And Yeon Woo replies: “No? Then what do you call this heartache whenever I think about him? For the first time since I was born, in all my 26 years, I feel something stuffed in my heart. I feel I’m about to explode. I cannot breathe. However unhappy I am, just looking at his face makes me feel blessed. What do you call this? Is this not love?” and “Why can’t I feel this way? Is it because I’m an orphan? Is it because I have no education, no money, no ability? I can feel. I know what heartache is.”

I am thoroughly convinced Yeon Woo loves Eun Sup. The fact that she has only known him for a few weeks is beside the point. That’s how love is! Yeon Woo has known Min Ho all her life and she does not love him the way she loves Eun Sup. What she feels for Min Ho is affection but not love. If she really loves Min Ho, there would be no way Eun Sup could squeeze himself in. Something that Han Yi Joon says in “Only You” applies here. Remember that scene when the four of them are having a night snack at his restaurant? Actually Han and Eun Jae are having an intimate soiree and Soo Yeon (#2 female) and Hyun Sung (#2 male) crash the party. Han says to Hyun Sung: “If you’ve known someone for 16 years and are still just friends, you’re going to remain friends forever, that’s all.” Han is very arrogant but he is right. Eun Jae and Hyun Sung can never develop beyond the “good friends” stage. Same with Yeon Woo and Min Ho in “Sunshine”. He may love her, but if she has not fallen in love with him in all these years, it is highly unlikely she will after she meets Eun Sup.

The sweetest part of “Sunshine” is when Eun Sup and Yeon Woo are in the first flush of love, when neither is sure it is love. The scene when he buys her the hair clip and when he puts it on for her, and a scene on a bus when Eun Sup wipes away some lipstick for Yeon Woo who has put on some make-up for him and he tells her she looks more beautiful without, and another scene on the bus home (after Yeon Woo’s declaration of love), when the driver hits the brakes and they both (sitting at the back of the bus) jerk forward, Eun Sup protectively puts out his arm and halts Yeon Woo’s forward motion — would all these be regarded as “touchy-feely”? I do not see this as an “invasion of personal space” at all. After all, Eun Sup has lived in Europe for a number of years, so he probably doesn’t pay much heed to protocol, unlike a traditional Korean male. Holding Yeon Woo’s hand from behind to teach her how to whip cream is perfectly natural. He has to show her exactly how to use “force”. Before that he teaches her how to wear her uniform and rolls up her sleeve. I do not sense any resentment in Yeon Woo at all.

The second half of “Sunshine” falls into the standard pattern of Korean drama. Yeon Woo discovers Eun Sup’s father is the one who “kills” her father. (As it turns out, he is not the real murderer.) Love goes out the window and ambivalent feelings set in. She cannot hate him because it is not really his fault, but she cannot love him anymore. But instead of telling him the reason, she suffers in silence and makes him suffer too. Then she goes flip-flopping. She wavers between Eun Sup and Min Ho, driving both crazy. I think her conduct here is unforgivable. I can accept that she can no longer accept Eun Sup, but to give Min Ho hope when she knows she can never love him is callous. There is nothing in love that says the one who comes first has priority. In “Sunshine”, the problem lies with the previous generation — the crimes of the father visited upon the children. So if the premise is reconciliation is impossible (at least that is Yeon Woo’s attitude), then the second half is just running rings around the actors. I find the second half tedious.

The real weakness of “Sunshine” lies in the ending. All accounts point to JHJ’s role is originally the supporting one (the other guy who plays Kim Min Ho is the lead.) But when the drama starts on TV, Korean viewers swamp the SBS website with praise of JHJ. Ever responsive to the audience, SBS expands JHJ’s role. But I guess they cannot possibly relegate the #1 male Rye Seong Beom to a subsidiary role. (Rumour has it Rye’s brother is a director, maybe even a friend of the director of “Sunshine”.) Hence the director/scriptwriter in their unfathomable wisdom conceive of this perfect way to end the drama — a threesome. They cannot let Eun Sup and Yeon Woo come together. They cannot very well make Yeon Woo and Min Ho a couple. So they devise this “everybody lives together happily ever after” ending which pleases no one, least of all JHJ fans.

Shirley has a pet peeve.

If my memory serves me right, in Episode 6, Eun Sup had only known Yeon Woo for about 10 days. And what a 10-days it was! In those 10 days, Eun Sup was ruthlessly dumped by his former lover and had to stay with some total strangers just to hide from his own estranged father. He also lost his passport and could not go back home. It was rather amazing that he was not in a state of “mental wreckage”, having gone through all these in such short period. A mere 10 days would be too short for one to recover from the pain of loss after a long-term relationship, let alone start to pursue a new one. At least that is my humble opinion.

But to my surprise, in the middle of Episode 6, Eun Sup started to comment on the relationship between Yeon Woo and Min Ho, which I took as a sign of showing interest in the leading lady. Eun Sup was then a half stranger to Yeon Woo’s family which kindly took him in. And along the way, Yeon Woo had secretly developed some feelings for him . But he didn’t know anything about it. He was expected to leave soon, after gathering all the necessary travel documents. He was also aware of Min Ho’s love for Yeon Woo and sensed the reluctance on Yeon Woo’s part. I think he should not have made such a comment. By all means, one’s personal feelings is something, just like it is called, quite personal. That means now he had set his eyes on Yeon Woo? In that case, how should I label a charactor who can so easily forget and then quickly fall in love again (even if the girl was quite unusual and had remarkable qualities)? I know I would not use the word “solid” here. (By the day, he reminded me of Jung Woo Jin in “Love Letter”, who knowingly wedged himself between Andrea and Eun Ha. I don’t blame him for loving Eun Ha, but I detest what he did to the relationship between her and Andrea.)

Then a few minutes later, Eun Sup made an excuse and tried to get so close to Yeon Woo that eventually he forced her to stand up and leave the table. Eun Sup sensed her uneasiness but asked her why she couldn’t bear to be so close to him, but would allow Min Ho to do that. OK, this time he found himself an excuse, that he was seeking friendship. Even if I could accept it at face value, I found it a bit bogus. Aren’t we all yearning for true, trustworthy, long-lasting friendship? But we don’t really go asking to have a 10-day acquaintance substitute for a twenty-year long friendship. It is not possible. And “Thou ought not invade other people’s personal space” would be Social Etiquette 101. I don’t really expect a well-bred Korean-born Frenchman to do such a thing.

In Episode 7, both Eun Sup and Yeon Woo started to work for Soo Ah, who was Eun Sup’s ex-girlfriend. One day, Soo Ah told them that the cake made by Eun Sup was highly praised by the financial backer she was seeking for, and encouraged them to make an even better one that could meet the financier’s specific needs. Of course they congratulated themselves for the achievement. Eun Sup was so happy that he put his hand on top of the girl’s and would not let go of it. I was still puzzled with this when the final blow came.

Actually, there was a very sweet and sad moment in that part of the drama. Watching Eun Sup sifting the powdery ingredient for the cake reminded Yeon Woo of her father. She had flashbacks of her father working and smiling at her in her mind. She was too lost in her memory to notice that Eun Sup was waving at her all this time. Coming back to real life, Yeon Woo found out that Eun Sup was asking her about how she was doing on the cream. Then Eun Sup tried to show her how to correctly use the whisker. OK, to all the girls out there, if a man wants to show you how to properly make whipping cream, in which way would you expect him to do it？Normally, one would expect that person just to pick up the whisker and whisk away. Or maybe hold your hand if you know each other very well. To have someone wrap you in his arms and show you how to do it? Mm, you tell me who that person could be. But that was exactly what Eun Sup did to “show” Yeon Woo the correct way of making whipping cream. To me, that was the bottom line.

Playwrights can portray the unspoken attraction between two characters in very beautiful ways. When the affection is secretly broiling under the placid surface, the emotions are very delicate and beautiful. It is better to let actors’ eyes and expressions do the work. Witty and interesting conversation definitely helps. The characters should adhere to the “hands-off” policy (if there is such a policy, but you know what I mean) until later when the time is right, in my opinion. In this drama, the lead male character was never touchy-feely to the leading lady. That means the scriptwriter knows how to make a character respectful. So to have Eun Sup behave in this Casanova fashion, the purpose was to instill some kind of imperfection in the second leading male character, I would have guessed. I was not sure which direction this character of Eun Sup was heading towards. To avoid more of such scenes or other “evil” traits that the second leading man normally must possess in order to make the first leading man more attractive, I did all a viewer could do when facing unwanted scenes — stopped watching. I did just that.

(Since then, I learnt from other viewers that our prince had gracefully bowed out of the tangled relationship and there was no more “evil” spirit other than what I have felt dumped on his character. But I still don’t have the heart to pick up from where I have left. Maybe some other time.)

The Cover

If our heads get bitten off again, well, it won’t be the first time. But it would mean we’ll not be able to share the contents of the magazine with you. Actually they are pretty harmless, just rehashing old news. But of course we have to obey the regulations.

It is good to see the Japan Official JHJ Fan Club finally doing something. This is the first ever written communication we have received since becoming members in February 2009. If they allow the contents of the magazine to be made public, it would mean they have learnt a thing or two about public relations. The more people know about JHJ, the more popular he will be.

(Photo courtesy of the Official JHJ Fan Club.)

*(FOR COPYRIGHT REASONS, PLEASE DO NOT REPRODUCE OR TRANSFER PHOTO.)*

JohyunjaeHongKong launched their first charitable activity on May 23. A group of JHJHK members visited seniors who lived alone and distributed to them Chinese dumplings. (May 28 is the Dragon Boat Festival.*) Here in their own words (translated from Chinese):

We only visited 6 seniors since the rest (assigned to us by a charity organization) opted to collect the dumplings themselves. The funny thing was — the addresses were a little confusing, so even after taking the elevator, we often had to run up and down the stairs.

In case the seniors could not hear the doorbell or were slow in opening the door or were wary of strangers, we rang the bell and knocked on the door and loudly announced the purpose of our visit.

The seniors were all very happy to see us and talked about their daily lives or complained about their old mates or told us about their ill health, like a broken leg that took months to heal. They all appeared very friendly if a little lonely.

These seniors are all over 80 years old. Their health and responses are remarkably good. Old people in Hong Kong are better off than those in other parts of the world. All they need are some attention and care.

Even though today is a stormy and rainy day and we got all wet (normally on a day like this we would have stayed home), we all feel very happy to have participated in such a meaningful activity. We hope to convey our concern and caring of our community in the name of Jo Hyun Jae.

Today is the first time JohyunjaeHongKong embarked on a charitable activity which we found most meaningful and memorable. This is the first step. We will carry on. Fighting!

* EDITOR’S NOTE: The 5th day of the 5th month in the Chinese (lunar) calendar is the Dragon Boat Festival — in memory of Qu Yuan (c.340 BC-278 BC) of the Warring States Period. A high-ranking official of the state of Chu, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in a river in disgust over court corruption because he could not get the king to listen to him. He was much respected by the local people who threw dumplings into the river so the fish would not eat his body. They also used their long narrow paddle boats (see photo) to try to scare the fish away with the thunder of drums and the fierce-looking carved dragon head on the boats’ prows (hence they are known as Dragon Boats.)

(Thank you, JohyunjaeHongKong, for the report.)

We are loyal fans of Mr. Jo Hyun Jae and we are writing to you to appeal for more news and photos of him.

Ever since Mr. Jo entered the army in August 2008, there has been very little news and only a few messages from him. Except for a couple of photos released while he was in training, there has been nothing.

We cannot read Korean or Japanese, so our source of news is even more scant. We know the Korean fan clubs CAFE and EVER are doing a good job. What we don’t understand is this: Why is the Official Jo Hyun Jae Fan Club in Japan? Do you know how difficult it is to join this official fan club if you are not Japanese? Almost impossible! Don’t you want more people to join this official fan club?

You must realize Mr. Jo is no longer just a Korean actor — he has transcended Korea. He has become an international star. Do you know how popular he is in South-East Asia (not to mention China)? (in the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc.) Do you know how frustrating it is for fans there not to be able to understand what’s going on? Mr. Jo has also conquered North America and even parts of Europe and Central Asia. These fans can only read English, but there is hardly any website that caters for them.

And when we try to fill that void, we find our hands are tied. We cannot share what we read on the Official JHJ Fan Club website with our readers. Why don’t you release the photos taken on his birthday to the Korean fan clubs? Why don’t you allow the photos to be made public? What is the harm of letting fans see the latest photos? Everybody is dying for a glimpse of Mr. Jo. Do you think you are protecting him? We are sure you know the English saying: “Out of sight, out of mind.” Fans are very fickle and handsome young actors emerge on the Korean entertainment scene every day. Fans switch loyalties if they are not satisfied. There are still more than 390 days to go. How do you expect to keep the fans?

Apparently only members of the Official JHJ Fan Club who have paid the membership fee are allowed to see the photos. Then what about the MANY, MANY MORE fans all over the world who care about Mr. Jo but who are not, cannot be, or do not want to be members? Are you in effect saying to them they do not count? This is not fair: Mr. Jo belongs to all of us, not just to a few thousand fan club members.

Apart from the photos, there are the CDs, DVDs, calendars, photo albums, etc. — Mr. Jo’s souvenirs. They can only be obtained through the Korean or Japanese fan clubs. If you have no connections, too bad. Doesn’t it make more business sense to sell these publicly, say, on the internet? In that case, even overseas fans can buy them online. Don’t you think they will sell better this way? We have heard complaints from fans who find the hurdles too much. As Mr. Jo’s management company, shouldn’t you make it easier for his fans?

We are sure you are planning something special for Mr. Jo when he finishes his military duties. How he returns to the Korean entertainment scene is very important: whether he can make a career breakthrough after a two-year hiatus. He needs a good role, a good script. So many of his fans are waiting; so many people will be watching. We are counting on you to ensure that Mr. Jo’s future will be even more splendid than his past or present.

Meanwhile, we appeal to you to bear in mind our interests. Everything is global now, including your superstar. For the sake of all Mr. Jo’s fans, in any part of the world, please feed us as much information and news as possible in these lean times, so we won’t starve to death while waiting for him to return from the army. Thank you!

Yours sincerely,
M & M
(representing the silent majority)

P.S. Our editor is in Los Angeles at the moment and she has just reported that “Seo Dong Yo” is showing on a Vietnamese TV channel, dubbed in Vietnamese with Chinese subtitles. Isn’t that great? Doesn’t that prove to you just how far-reaching Jo Hyun Jae’s popularity is among different peoples all over the world?

Jo Hyun Jae fans give presents to all his camp-mates on his birthday 

The Korean fans prepared the birthday cake and all kinds of food, and the Japanese fans brought over 200 beautifully-packaged presents from Japan for JHJ’s camp-mates who were very surprised and really appreciated the gesture.

A Star n Hit official (JHJ’s management company) said: “JHJ is very moved by his fans’ ardour and sincerity. He pledges to fulfil his military duties to the best of his ability and return in good spirits and great health.”* Hong Kong? We asked around and still couldn’t find out who was so lucky to be there. His most ardent supporters celebrated JHJ’s birthday at a get-together in Hong Kong, so all the likely suspects can be ruled out. Who could it be?

(Photo courtesy of CarpeDiemKorea. Thanks!)

P.S. EVERKorea also has a photo of Jo Hyun-Jae cutting their birthday cake outdoors in the open air, but they do not allow it to be transferred. You can see the cake in our post of May 11 “More birthday presents from JHJ fans” (first one). It’s a different cake, equally coloured with the fans’ love, and JHJ cuts it with as much concentration and appreciation as he does the other one (shown above.)