Meet Lee Min-ho, Action Star!

SEOUL — I knew that Lee Min-ho has many fans in the Philippines but I never suspected that there was that many until I came back from this city and posted pictures of Min-ho on my Instagram. That’s when “likes” flooded the site and convinced me beyond any reasonable doubts (well, not that I had any) that Min-ho is a superstar in the hearts of Filipino fans, thanks to his hit Koreanovelas like Boys Over Flowers (2009), the breakthrough tele-drama that won him several awards including Best New Actor at the 45th Baeksang Arts Awards; City Hunter (2011) for which he was honored as Most Popular Actor at the 48th Baeksang Arts Awards and Outstanding Korean Actor at the 7th Seoul International Drama Awards; The Heirs (2013) for which he earned a nomination for Most Popular Actor at the 50th Baeksang Arts Awards; and Faith, which recently aired on ABS-CBN.

He has released two albums, My Everything in 2013 and Song For You in 2014.

My first interview with Min-ho was three years ago also in Seoul when he did a pictorial as Bench endorser. It was on June 22 and Min-ho was turning 25 (born in 1987), so Bench boss Ben Chan gave him a big birthday cake topped by three smaller chocolate cakes. I remember Min-ho to be so quiet, so soft-spoken and so shy that, when he was requested to blow the single candle, he blushed and blushed as we broke into a rousing Happy Birthday chorus. But he very gladly agreed to have photos with the visiting Philippine team.

This much I gathered from that interview: He has one sibling (an older sister); his idol was Cristiano Ronaldo, the Brazilian football superstar, that’s why he wanted to be a football player but was frustrated when he injured his knee when he was in Grade 5; he would spend his spare time at home with computer games; and he felt at home in any Asian country but his favorites happened to be Maldives and England.

Last month, I did another one-on-one with Min-ho also in Seoul for his first movie, Gangnam Blues, which casts him in an action role, something that fans used to loving him in rom-com roles will be pleasantly surprised to see — and love Min-ho all the more. Directed by the iconic Yoo Ha (Frozen Flower, etc.) as the third part of his Gangnam Trilogy, after Spirit of Jeet Keun Do (starring Kwon Sang-woo) and A Dirty Carnival (starring Zo In-sung), Gangnam Blues is set in the ‘70s when Gangnam was being transformed from a vast agricultural area into the modern hub that it is now.

Min-ho and co-star Kim Rae-won play orphans in a slum area, growing up like brothers. When their homes are bulldozed, they get separated, only to meet again years later as heads of rival gangs hired by powerful groups fighting over dominance of Gangnam. Meet Lee Min-ho, the Action Star. To understand his metamorphosis from a romantic hero to a tough gangster, imagine the likes of John Lloyd Cruz playing, why not, Asiong Salonga?

I saw the movie during its premiere and it struck me as Yoo Ha’s tribute to Francis Ford Coppola. It has scenes reminiscent of Coppola’s The Godfather (find out when the movie is shown starting on Wednesday, March 4, released in Tagalized version by Viva Films). Freddie Aguilar’s international hit Anak is played whole twice (the original version), first in the series of scenes showing Min-ho and his gang demolishing their rivals with a haul of bullets) and in the end as the credits roll.

Gangnam Blues was an instant hit in this city, grossing over $10M (from 1.36M total admission) as per the record of the Korean Film Council, during its first few days (and earning much, much more by now after it opened in Singapore, Myanmar and Taiwan, with play dates in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, US and Canada.

Good news: Lee Min-ho will be in Manila on Tuesday, Feb. 24, as endorser of KyoChon Chicken which has opened an outlet in the Philippines.

As in the first interview, during the pre-red carpet second interview (with Yoo Ha and Rae-won sitting-in), I rushed because of time constraints, there was an interpreter. Here are excerpts:

(To Min-ho) How are you? 

“I’ve been really busy promoting Gangnam Blues these days.”

(To Min-ho) What did you find interesting in your role in this movie?

“I thought that Kim Jong-Dae is the kind of character that I could not portray convincingly when I got older. I’ve been waiting and searching for a role like it. I’m very happy that I found it. I was lucky to have contacted director Yoo Ha so I was I’m able to play the role.”

(To Yoo Ha) Why did you choose Lee Min-ho and Kim Rae Won for the roles instead of the two actors from first two films of the Gangnam Trilogy?

“You are right. Gangnam Blues is part of the Gangnam Trilogy. The stories of these movies revolve around Gangnam, the street and the youth. Actually, each movie has its own story so they don’t have the same ending. I wanted to work with the actors who could do the characters Kim Jong-dae and Baek Yong-gi. I thought Lee Min-ho and Kim Rae-won are perfect for these characters so I chose them.”

(To Min-ho) How was it working with Yoo Ha?

“Director Yoo Ha is one of the famous directors in Korea so all the Korean actors actually really want to work with him. As I said, I’m very lucky to have a chance to work with him and I’m honored to participate in this project.”

(To Rae-won) And how was it working with Min-ho?

“I’ve known Lee Min-ho for a while but this is my first time to work with him. It turned out to be really good. You know, we had a really good time during our shooting.”

(To Min-ho) Did you take up Martial Arts preparation for the movie since it’s your first movie and your role is “action?” It’s so different from your other roles in your TV shows.

“Gangnam Blues is not the kind of movie with Kung Fu or Taekwondo so I just really needed to have hard-core training. But I did get some basic training for the action scenes. The back-story of this movie is about the 1970s in Korea which was not industrialized at that time. Fans in the Philippines know me in romance stories in my TV shows but I’m sure they will be happy to see me in a quite different genre. I’m proud of this movie and I hope my fans in the Philippines will be proud of me, too. I’m really pleased to show my other side as an actor to the Filipino audience.”  

(To Yoo Ha) You grew up in Gangnam so the movie has a sentimental value to you. How was it growing up in Gangnam?

“Today, Gangnam is a metropolitan city. But 40 years ago, it was totally agricultural so basically it was like living in a farm. These memories of Gangnam influence me in writing the scripts of the two Gangnam movies and Gangnam Blues.

The movie is about the problem of the youth and I do believe that it’s the same with young people in Korea and the Philippines. And I do think that the Philippine audience will understand the situation.”

Do you think Lee Min-ho and Kim Rae-won can equal or even surpass the success and record of your first two actors?

“I do believe that these actors will do many more movies but I’m not so sure if Gangnam Blues will be the milestone of their careers. But I am sure that the audiences will be very happy to see a different Lee Min-ho and a different Kim Rae-won.”

(To Min-ho) Have you watched any of Yoo Ha’s movies?

“Yes. I watched Spirit of Jeet Keun Do and A Dirty Carnival. I think that these films have a target audience. I like the movies’ theme about the devotion and attitude of young men in high school. The stories are about loyalty and betrayal. I enjoyed the two movies as part of the audience and not as an actor.” 

(To Yoo Ha) What lessons did you learn from making the Gangnam Trilogy?

“The stories of the three movies are about young men who cannot be part of mainstream. Their view of the world is distorted; they think that they are victims of society because of the circumstances they are in. They are controlled by an evil mind. They wander from place to place. With the Gangnam Trilogy, I want the young people to appreciate their youth and to do their best while they are young.”

(To Yoo Ha) By the way, why did you choose Anak as one of the movie’s theme songs?

“I tried to select a song that I have heard in the ‘70s. The song Anak was ranked top in the Billboard chart before Gangnam Style. The main reason why I chose it was because it matches the message of the film. Anak is a song sung in Tagalog about a father watching out and worrying for his son. I thought this song about a father’s love would somehow be adequate for this film about two orphans.”

(To Min-ho) You’ve been to Manila twice and the second time was to promote Bench which you are endorsing. Any places in Manila that you wanted to visit but didn’t have the time to?

“Yes, I was really busy so I didn’t have any chance to visit any place except for Manila. If I have time and the chance to travel in the Philippines, I would like to go to an island which is not popular to have a good vacation — you know, just chilling out.”

(To Min-ho) Would you like to say something to your fans in the Philippines?

(In passable Tagalog) “Kumusta kayo. Mahal ko kayo!”

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