Are the Korean Muscles Ruling The Asian Entertainment Industry?

Korean celebrities have seen a surge in popularity and status in recent years, the driving force behind this phenomenon are the super-human Korean male celebrities. Their dominance has spread beyond just Korea and they have become idolised and the envy of the rest of Asia. This is why we have come up with this topic.

Are the Korean muscles dominating the Asia entertainment market?

Are the rest of the Asian celebrities losing ground to them? Who is hotter and sexier? We are here to analyse this Korean tornado trend sweeping through Asia and maybe even across the world (Just ask Megan Fox!).

Let’s start with biggest and argubly most talented male Korean star that is considered the number one:

Rain ( Jeong Ji-Hoon)

The first Korean megaforce we will look at is Rain (Jeong Ji-Hoon). He  is a South Korean singer/dancer/actor, I’m sure you guys have already heard of him.

Rain have released many albums, one of which is a japanese album helping him spread his appeal to a major asian market outside of Korea. This in itself shows his popularity around Asia. He first came into the industry with the album ‘Bad Guy’ in 2002 at the age of 20. Rain’s popularity increased after starring in the drama called “Full House” with Korea’s most famous actresses at the time, Song Hye Kyo. The drama was broadcasted throughout Asia and the United States. His acting in the drama won him the Best Actor Award at the KBS Acting Awards.

There’s no stopping this Korean tornado. Having already made his mark in Asia, Rain raised his game and took his career over to the United States. Rain was voted as Time Magazine’s 2007 “Most Influential People in the World” and in the same year  Stephen Colbert came second behind Rain. The voting battle was close and at the end the Korean star beat Stephen Colbert. Then in 2008, Stephen Colbert came second and Rain came third. After that result, Stephen Colbert mocked Rain and said he would challenge him to a dance-off calling him out with statements  such as “ Hey Rain, let’s see if Korean will lift the embargo on balls”. Stephen Colbert also made a Korean like music video, jokingly mocking Rain‘s “Ways To Avoid the Sun” with a video called “He‘s Singin‘ in Korean“. Was Rain too much for him to handle or was Stephen Colbert riding with the Korean tornado for publicity? Whatever the reason, Rain had created an impact throughout Asia and now becoming an world icon.

Rain has been recognised for his looks and also made it into People’s 2007 list of the “Most Beautiful People” in the world, which Rain felt honoured to be noted as a sex icon. This boosted his confidence and raised public awareness in the United States.

The level of awareness that Rain has raised internationally, brings us to a question. How is Rain recognised differently to other Asian male artists outside of the Asia entertainment industry? What does YoYoasia think?

We think Rain is definitely on his way to becoming an internationally recognised icon without a doubt! With his looks, body, charisma, personality, stage presence, determination and effort, we think he will become a huge icon in the entertainment industry across the world. However, it will hinge on the success of Ninja Assassin and the next 2-3 films he may get involved him. If he can keep up or even raise the bar of his current performances, the Korean tornado will certainly become a powerful force word-wide. He needs to act quickly before the hype and awareness surrounding him fades.

Rain’s training for Ninja Assassin:

One thing that is holding him back is his love for Korea, as he mentioned in an interview. As he was promoting Ninja Assassin (his latest film) he felt home sick and would get so upset to the point where he would shed a tear. Rain found it very tough working outside of Korea for a long period of time. If he can get past this and concentrate on becoming internationally recognised, we are sure he’s got the package to represent what is cool about Asia - just ask Megan Fox!

Why would Megan Fox know? Megan Fox wants to hook up with Rain?

In an Australian radio show tilted “The Kylie and Jackie O Show” Megan Fox was asked “who she wants to date next?”. Her response to that question was:

“There’s this Korean Justin Timberlake named Rain. And I’m really on this situation right now. I’m trying to fix this up”.

Here’s the radio show, the dating question starts at around 5 min mark…

Also during another promotional Transformers interview, Megan Fox also mentioned Rain’s body. No lie! Check it out yourselves!

Megan, Rain…Let us know how you got on. YoYoasia would like to know!

The other Korean male Artists

Taeyang or Sol (stage names)- A Korea hip hop singer/dancer. His Digital singles includes; “Prayer” (2008), “Wedding Dress” (2009) and “Where U At” (2009). He too has reached beyond his native Korean market With the single Wedding Dress he managed to peak number three on the Dutch Music Chart.

Wedding Dress:

Taeyang’s Awards in 2008:

The 6th Korean Music Awards: Best R&B/Soul Song
The 6th Korean Music Awards: Best R&B/Soul Album of the Year
2008 Naver Music Song of the Year- Look Only at Me
2008 Melon Music Awards – Best R&B Award for Look Only at Me

Ju Ji-Hoon – A Korea actor and model. He started his career as a model in 2003. He modelled and advertised for brand names such as Calvin Klein, Levi’s and Reebok. During his modelling career he has won many awards.

After becoming popular through his modelling, Ju Ji-Hoon took another direction in his career and went for acting.

“Old Love” was Ju’s debut drama, but it was “Princess Hours” that raised the awareness of him around Asia. Since then he was involved in more dramas and movies.

Princess Hours:

Ju’s movies:

Antique(2008)
Kitchen (2009)

Ju’s TV dramas:

Princess Hours (2006)
The Devil (2007)

Ju Ji-Hoon’s Drug Scandal

In January 18th  2009, Ju-Ji Hoon was charged of illegal drug use, particularly Ecstasy and Ketamine.

See you soon Ju!

At the start of this new year (2010), it is reported that Ju Ji-Hoon has decided to head off to the military. On January 13th, MMA (Military Manpower Administration) has confirmed that Ju Ji-Hoon will start his five-week of basic military training at the Academy of Gyeonggi Province on 2nd Feb 2010 before serving full-time.

So when will we see the Hot Korean Bad Boy again? Here’s what he said:

“Thank you all for coming to send me off. I will work hard and do my best in the army. Please look forward to a new image of me two years later.”

Are the rest of Asian male stars falling behind?

So who can we bring up to compare to these young talented Korean tornados? We’ll start of with the Hong Kong Dance King, AaronKwok.

Sure the Dance King of Hong Kong has the style, body and the experience to take his career further and compete with the Korean boys, right? For sure Aaron is a huge star in Asia but never really had the recognition world wide like Rain, at this moment. Maybe we should have a look at some younger Asian male artists, Aaron (44) might be a bit too old to compare to the Korean guys mentioned earlier.

Daniel Wu is a popular actor around Asia. He starred in many films with successful actors such as, Jackie Chan and Andy Lau. But the down fall of that is he was never the lead role character. It gave him less chance to show his talent and put a mark on his acting that can cause any serious recognition world wide.

The two successful HK celebs that have made world wide recognition are Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen. These guys are known for there’s action movies. Its unfair to compare these guys with Rain and the others, as the subject is current ‘up and coming’ Asian male artists from different countries but our choices are limited here.

Jackie Chan

Donnie Yen

Conclusion….

So what does YoYoasia think about the Korean tornados sweeping through Asia and the rest of the world? We think the Korean guys have raised the game in the current entertainment industry. They are very talented in many ways and have set trends that other’s wants to follow. Thumbs up from YoYoasia for the Korean trend and the effort the guys are putting in.

For the rest of the Asian celebs, YoYoasia would like to see more up and coming challengers to set new trends and bench marks. Competition is always healthy! We would like to see more!

By no means do we want to see stars from Hollywood movies. We feel the world is ready to see new exciting acts, personalities, styles and thrilling trends from Asia. Maybe, just maybe the Korean boys have the potential to make the world sit up and take notice to see that asia can offer more than just a kung fu movie.

MTC @ YoYoAsia.wordpress.com