Jo Hyun Jae

Rain

Rain’s much-hyped Hollywood debut “Ninja Assassin” opened in the U.S. on Nov.25, the day before Thanksgiving.  The full-page newspaper ad shows his body (bare breast) and the lower half of his face (unrecognizable) with a dagger in his right hand and blood everywhere, which gives you some idea of what this movie is about.  Rating: R for strong, bloody stylized violence throughout, and language.  What on earth is “stylized” violence?  Let me quote from the movie review by Michael Phillips of the Los Angeles Times: “In ‘Ninja Assassin’, which is numbingly gory when it isn’t just plain numbing, the assassin Raizo, played by Korean pop star and budding actor Rain, rains down on his interchangeable adversaries like his own name.  The script is pretty damp too.” and “How’s Rain?  He’s fine. He suffers prettily.”  I’ve seen the TV ads and the trailers online: they’re quite “stylized”, meaning slick, but all dark, which may be the mood of the movie.  Somehow none shows Rain’s face clearly (deliberately mysterious?)  I suppose it is quite an achievement to have a Hollywood movie under your belt, with your name ranking #1 among the cast.  But if Hollywood producers only see Asian actors as killing machines, I do not want Jo Hyun-Jae to ever make a Hollywood movie.  It will be a total waste of his talents.

New Moon

“Ninja Assassin” may be for action buffs, but the movie that has all young people (mostly girls) here in hysteria is the second installment of the so-called “Twilight” saga: “New Moon”.  It posted the third largest opening in American box-office history, having sold an estimated $142.8 million the weekend of its opening on Nov.20, after “The Dark Knight” and “Spiderman 3″.   Opening weekend overseas (in 24 countries) total $132.1 million.  So “New Moon” opened to $274.9 million, the 6th highest worldwide debut of all time.  And “Twilight” is the #1 DVD seller in 2009.  I haven’t seen “New Moon” yet but I rather like “Twilight”.  The actors are pretty; the plot is simple; the mood is romantic in a dark way.  But as film art, it’s totally forgettable.  I look at these figures and I think of JHJ’s “Forbidden Love”.  It is no less beautiful, mysterious, or poignant (perhaps more so) than “Twilight”, and the characters are cooler.  But that’s the magic of Hollywood.  No wonder everybody wants a piece of the pie.

Korean TV

Americans finally switched from analog to digital TV broadcasting in June 2009.  All of a sudden I now have 6 or 7 Korean channels (even though I don’t have cable or satellite.)  They include MBC, MBN, KBSAmerica, Arirang, YTN, and sometimes SBS and CGNTV.  Arirang is the only one in English and it has all these pop singers and actors on all the time, among other things.  Actually Arirang is billed as “Korea’s global TV” and it comes in 7 languages, including Chinese, Russian, and Arabic. The other channels show news, dramas and other programmes in Korean.  Since none has anything on JHJ, I don’t sit down to watch.  But I see a lot of that MC who is on the “Only You” TV Special, the short guy with the glasses and buck teeth, the one who says at another presentation ceremony that he would like to exchange looks with JHJ in his next life.  Since he appreciates JHJ, I’ve always had a soft spot for him.  He is on a lot of shows, some family shows (whole family is on) and game shows, so he must be very popular.  If he can make it big in Korea, surely our JHJ should have no problem making a comeback next year.

Golf

I played a few rounds of golf with my husband when he was still here.  Ever heard of the saying: “Play together, stay together”?  That was why I took up golf a few years ago, even though I don’t have a single sports gene in me.  At one game the other twosome were two Korean young men, Korean-Americans, to be exact.  They work for Samsung and one of them, Jeff, has just relocated back to California after two years in Seoul.  As soon as I heard that, my eyes lit up.  My husband, who could read me like a book, immediately shook his head.  He was afraid I was going to ask him about JHJ.  If he had been a woman, maybe I would, but he’s a man, and a young man at that, so he’s probably more into those sexy female singing groups like the Wonder Girls.  They played very well, especially Jeff, who told me his game improved tremendously during the two years in Seoul because fairways on Korean golf courses are very narrow, so he had to learn to hit really straight.  I immediately thought of Han Soo-Hyun in “3 Dads/1Mom” and those golf scenes which show JHJ could really play (his form is very good), and I don’t mean that ridiculous but very funny scene of him practising in the Men’s room.

A family affair

I don’t know about you but for me “star-chasing” is a family affair.  There is only one star in my firmament, so it makes things simple.  At first everybody was very surprised, of course, since I am of a studious temperament and have never engaged in any frivolous activities in my life.  Then they probably thought it’s the onset of Alzheimer’s and that it’s best to humour me.  When it did not look like I was about to desist anytime soon, everybody started to take JHJ seriously.  My husband has been especially supportive and encouraging.  He keeps telling me: “Do what you want to do, so you won’t have any regrets.”  That’s why I could go to Japan twice and Korea twice in 2008 and the same again in 2009 on JHJ business.  And he knows I’m prepping for the big day in June 2010 (all other trips have to be on hold.)  My son who was here for the weekend asked me: “When is your Korean star coming out of the army?”  I never discuss JHJ with him; I was very moved he even remembered.  And my younger brother (Note: If you’ve been with us from the very beginning in Google.blogspot, you’ll know he’s the one who started this blog for us) came to see me yesterday.  First thing he said was: “How’s your other son?”  Took me a few seconds to catch on.  Now JHJ is a member of my family; everybody has embraced him.  Everybody can see I have become much happier since becoming a JHJ fan (not that I was unhappy before.)  Everybody knows I am busy with our blog every day, so they don’t have to worry about me getting bored or losing my mental faculties.  Thank you, JHJ!