Koreanovela star all praises for Maja Salvador

Maja Salvador is one lucky girl. She got Korean heartthrob Kim Bum (Yi Jeong) of the hit Koreanovela “Boys Over Flowers” as her partner in the new television commercial she did for RC Cola, the softdrink product that the young actress endorses.

Held Saturday at the 9501 restaurant of ABS-CBN was the press launch of Maja and Kim to announce that the new RC Cola TV commercial that the two did would be shown on October 18.

Maja was tickled pink as Kim Bum likened her beauty to that of Hollywood actress Catherine Zeta-Jones. The actress is likewise flattered to have been given the opportunity to work with the popular Korean actor who has a forthcoming series titled “Dream” that will be aired soon on ABS-CBN. Kim Bum said that Maja has a lot of charm in her.

“I am very happy to be working with him. We became friends. It was a good experience working with him. It was some experience to work with Kim Bum because it seldom happens that one gets the chance to interact with a good-looking actor and popular one at that,” said Maja on her working with the Korean idol and member of the Korean F4.

According to Kim Bum, who communicated via an interpreter, he had a great time working with Maja. He also expressed interest to return to the Philippines to know more of the people. The short time he spent in the country enabled him to experience the warmth of the Filipinos and he wants to come back at any time to experience more of that.

Kim Bum also expressed admiration for Maja who remained cheerful even after nearly 24 hours of work. “I was really impressed with her. Her call time was at 5 a.m., but even if we’ve been working for 24 hours, she still has that smile and she doesn’t seem tired,” the Korean star added.

Since the Filipinos became avid fans of the series “Boys over Flowers,” this gave the owners of RC Cola here in the Philippines to cast Kim Bum with Maja in the TVC.

Kim Bum is a certified idol in Korea. He has appeared in series namely “Outrageous Women,” “Unstoppable High Kick,” “East of Eden,” “Boys Before Flowers” and the forthcoming series “Dream.” He has done three movies – “Emergency,” “Gosa/The Story” and “I Like It Hot.” At the 2008 Korean Drama Festival, he won the Netizen Popularity Award.

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“Boy,” the latest film of award-winning director Aureaus Solito (“Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros” and “Pisay” among others) will be shown at Robinson’s Galleria Indie Sine Cinema 8 from October 7 to 13. The film was earlier screened last July at the Cinemalaya film festival where it competed in the NETPAC section.

Aureaus is now at the Binger Film Lab in Amsterdam where he is attending a screenplay development program for his next film. He is happy to say that he was the first Filipino to be accepted at the said program.

“I am really saddened by the series of natural disasters happening to our country now, especially that I am far away in Amsterdam. So I feel weird now that I have to ask you to help support the screening of my film 'BoY' at Indie Sine,” he said in his message. “I tried asking them to move the playdates but alas it has been booked and I have no choice but to ask help to promote a film that I really worked hard on.”

“Boy” was kind of controversial when it was banned for exhibition for Singapore when it was supposed to compete for the festival last April.

“Boy” is Solito’s ode to a phenomenon in Filipino movies, the "macho dancer" genre. In the film, an unnamed boy is smitten by a macho dancer – or male stripper – and decides to buy him and bring him home for the New Year.