Last week, I wrote a somewhat rambling post about the new Blood: The Last Vampire film that features Koyuki and Jeon Ji Hyun. For this post, I'm going to backtrack to that post for just a little bit.
For the purposes of this film, Blood: The Last Vampire, at any rate, Jeon Ji Hyun changed her name to Gianna Jun. Why did she do that? I don't know. I'm guessing it has something to do with the international nature of this film since it's a Hong Kong-French co-production. As I sort of alluded in my previous post about her, when I lived in Seoul there was a mini-controversy among her fans when it emerged that Jeon Ji Hyun was something akin to her stage name. A juicy girl friend (Yes, you read that right.) at the time told me that Jeon Ji Hyun's real family names were Wong and Mok, which are Chinese names. However, to be fair, "Wong" is the Chinese pronunciation of the kanji character for "king". The Korean pronunciation is "Hwang". The Japanese pronunciation of the same kanji character is "Oh", just so you know. Regardless of which pronunciation you use, there were some in South Korea who were just more than a little upset that Jeon Ji Hyun may not be a true 100% South Korean, or hanguk min. It doesn't matter. Jeon Ji Hyun's popularity managed to outlast than minor controversy. I'm still not changing my opinion about her film Windstruck (2004), however. It's not even close to being in the same league as her first monster hit, My Sassy Girl (2001), a film I liked quite a bit.
Speaking of My Sassy Girl, if my memory serves me correct, here is the TV commercial that got Jeon Ji Hyun the leading role in My Sassy Girl. The story that I remember reading was that the director of My Sassy Girl, Kwak Jae Young, was looking for a new fresh face to cast in the female leading role. One day, Kwak Jae Young saw on TV a commercial for a Samsung printer (Yes, the very same Samsung everyone loves to hate.) that featured a girl dancing with a "sassy", carefree attitude. After seeing the commercial Kwak Jae Young immediately cast Jeon Ji Hyun in the film. I'm not too sure about the accuracy of the story, but it was something like that.
When you see the commercial, it's easy to see why Jeon Ji Hyun got cast in My Sassy Girl.
Who says sex doesn't sell? I almost forget that this is supposed to be a commercial for a printer.
The Samsung printer commercial is tame compared to some of the other commercials I've seen Jeon Ji Hyun appear in. When I lived in Seoul, she made a series of advertisements for Giordano Jeans that were deemed to be to explicit for South Korean TV. Some fans thought those commercials were a little too much on the slutty side. I'm going to have to agree with those fans. Some were pretty bad, even for me. You'd never see, say, Takako Matsu do any of the things that Jeon Ji Hyun did in some of those commercials. Then again, the personas of Jeon Ji Hyun and Takako Matsu are, for the most part, light years apart.
A couple of weeks ago, I found an article over at Asianbite about the recent press junket that featured both Koyuki and Jeon Ji Hyun promoting Blood: The Last Vampire in Tokyo. All I can say is Y-I-K-E-S!!! Jeon Ji Hyun is quite the stunner nowadays. I mean, she's a helluva lot better looking now than a few years ago. It's amazing really. Jeon Ji Hyun can come over and knock on my door at any time of day or night. I'll make sure I'll have plenty of cabbage kimchi and soju available here in my apartment. On a personal level, it was this photograph that made the biggest impression. In the photograph, Jeon Ji Hyun looks exactly like someone I used to know very well in Seoul. In fact, she looks like someone I should have married. It's one of the biggest regrets I have in life, but that's another story.
On to lighter subjects...
On a professional level, Jeon Ji Hyun needs Blood: The Last Vampire to be a hit. Based on my analysis, she just hasn't found the right project to succeed My Sassy Girl. That's just me.
As for as Koyuki is concerned, the future looks quite bright since she changed her management. In addition to Blood: The Last Vampire, Koyuki's other big film this year is a leading role in Yoichi Sai's adaptation of Kankuro Kudo's script for Kamui Gaiden, which also features Kenichi Matsuyama in the title role and Koichi Sato. Based upon what I've read, the film was made on location in Okinawa. Did you know that both Yoichi Sai and Kankuro Kudo are both Korean-Japanese? Interesting, isn't it? Kamui Gaiden is scheduled to be released in Japan this September. Like Goemon, this looks pretty cool, too.
The Kamui Gaiden website now has a slightly longer teaser trailer than the one above. Hopefully, a two-minute trailer will be available before too long.
well..
ah yeah.. somehow that Last Vampire movie didn't hit right. even from beginning. as far as i see.
Posted by: nuralisya | June 23, 2009 at 10:01 AM
Cool! I love viewing this video. Thanks for sharing it!
Kamui Gaiden is the best.
Posted by: Ov Watch | December 14, 2010 at 02:17 AM