What is Binnie looking for in a girl? What did his parents, especially his dad, who once chased him with a baseball bat for disobedience, want him to become before he got bitten by the acting bug? At what age does he see himself getting married? Find out the answers to all these and more, as a US-based Filipino K-drama fan and Hyun Bin diehard, seemingly possessed with the intensity and resourcefulness of a spy venturing beyond the 38th parallel, did a bit of juicy spadework to give you the inside skinny on one of the hottest actors on the planet ATM.
By RUBY ADONAY-CLEMMONS
Addictive and fun, Korean drama or K-drama shows are like a balm to my body-mind aches caused by these rather long months of hunkering down.
It’s White Flower, Salonpas, Tiger Balm, Vicks, lavender oil and Jo Malone rolled into one. A most welcome salve to a rather wounded lull time on a quarantine day. It gets my full attention that even the much-admired Coumo brothers’ (that’s New York Gov. Andrew and baby bro and CNN journalist Chris) love fest on CNN had a hard time competing against.
K-entertainment is clean fun. A peck on the cheek, a hug, a five-second lip lock, are mostly what it offers as far as sexual tensions go. There’s no nudity and the language is clean (at least the English translation shows that). The food scenes are also fantastic that a dish or two inspired by what I see on the drama would sometimes appear at dinner. And there’s the accompanying OST (original sound track) composed of mostly sappy, boppy songs that I would end up humming or dancing to.
The shows are alcohol-heavy, though as the narrative of the Korean corporate culture of drinking (hoseik) is played out well, too well: the characters are royally sloshed, often juiced on beer and soju (and the moms and the grandmas are at the ready with hangover soups)! But that’s par for the course.
K-drama casting is also quite impressive, in that not all actors in the show are Ken- and Barbie-pretty. We also see a fair amount of natural, blemished Korean faces and body types, untouched by massive makeovers money can easily buy. There’s also the noticeable fact that the characters are not romantically involved in real life, like the actors of the moment Hyun Bin and Son Ye Jin of the hit drama Crash Landing On You or simply CLOY to it countless devotees. The emphasis is to promote the actors’ craft, the strength of the script, the production design and the direction, not their personal lives.
“So have I convinced you yet? Please do get the most soothing therapy from the Land of the Morning Calm. Again, relax and watch CLOY during your coronacation,” was my message to my American friends through a Facebook post, as I enumerated the above.
It elicited a lot of laughs, as were my little, quirky posts about CLOY while going through the series. To my American friends, I was probably the first one to write a rather convincing, yet intriguing post about K-drama. To my Filipino friends, however, I was too late to the party, years too late.
I watched CLOY, my first-ever Korean drama in mid-March right around when “stay at home” orders were issued in New England states and did not finish the series till early April, around the time when the mainstream newspapers here started carrying glowing reviews about the series.
So after CLOY, I watched a few other series and they’re all winners in my book—Itaewon Class, Memories of the Alhambra and The Heirs. But are my American friends watching them, too? I was curious.
No, not that train!
Just to test the waters, I decided to do a mini-survey a couple of weeks ago and reached out to people who I thought would never touch the genre at all, nor would pay any attention to it because, well, these people are “serious.”
First to pick up was a Yale alum who’s on faculty at Harvard Medical School.
Me: “Hey there…do you watch Korean drama by any chance?”
Silence…and he responded: “Ummm, yes.”
“Crash Landing On You?” I pressed on, unable to control my thrill.
“No,” he answered, “it’s Train to Busan.”
Next, I dialed the number of a renowned brain surgeon on the West Coast, catching him at work day’s end, with cocktail in his hand while enjoying a good book in his study with a view of the San Francisco Bay.
Me: “Have you ever heard of Captain Ri?” I asked.
Long pause…but finally said after clearing his throat, “Yes, I have” and proceeded to tell me his views about the love story between the chaebol heiress and the North Korean soldier.
What a revealing moment. It felt like I heard a Clark Gablesque voice and a clink of a highball glass in the background, but instead of telling me he was enjoying a single malt whiskey, he proudly said, “Diet Coke, with lots of ice.”
So cool. I smiled—I was on a roll!
My little survey is yielding results that made me realize that my friends are at least having light moments during these rather dark, depressing days.
K-drama is a game changer and seems like it’s getting into the consciousness of mainstream America without a problem. I was enjoying the phenomenon so much that it became almost a conversation starter for me and my friends these past few weeks.
It’s worth mentioning though that the dramas are not my introduction to the Korean culture. I lived in Los Angeles for a very long time, home to the biggest Korean immigrant population in the US. A few years ago, we also hosted a Korean teenager at home for a few weeks, a lovely daughter of a diplomat from Seoul who was on an immersion trip to the States.
More importantly, I’ve been to Seoul as a young journalist. I went to Seoul in March 1990, two years after the Summer Olympics, to cover a climate change conference convened by a Swiss-based umbrella organization of the world’s most influential church groups advocating for justice, peace and the environment.
And, as luck would have it, my name was drawn to join a small group of foreign journalists on a bus to accompany major guests of the meeting for a United Nations-guided tour of the DMZ.
So yes, I spent a day in Panmunjom, heard the loudspeaker propaganda of the day by the southerners (a Swiss guard intimated to us that it was the day’s menu being read to the Northerners, with each dish carefully described), crossed the military demarcation line into North Korea inside the building that housed the peace talks between the two countries and had face-to-face encounters with a few, stoic-faced North Korean soldiers standing tall and proud on their side of the 38th parallel.
They’d be that era’s Captain Ris back in the day. Or were they? It happened so long ago that my memory of those faces were rather fuzzy and I never talked much about the experience. In fact, it would surprise most of my friends, both here in the US and Manila, to find out that I “crossed” into North Korea way ahead of Se-ri. Hah!
The man of the hour
But let’s talk about the very reason for all this excitement, the man of the hour, the captain himself who has captured so many hearts across the globe, Hyun Bin.
A female friend, nonplussed about the whole Captain Ri phenomenon commented: “He is very intriguing, but I wonder what he’s really like in real life?”
Not much is known about HB’s current personal life or his off-camera ways since he does not use social media. He guards his privacy with precision that anything official about him is released through Vast Entertainment & Media, a company that he founded with his former manager. From the company’s official website here’s what we know:
Fast Facts:
O Age 37 (born on Sept. 25, 1982, Libra, born in the year of the dog).
O He stands around 6’1”, weighs about 163 lbs. and his blood is type is B.
O He loves swimming, basketball, baseball, snowboarding, golf, and photography.
O He’s the younger of two boys and attended the Juilliard of Korea, Chung-Ang, a private, highly-selective research university where he tucked in both undergrad and master’s degrees in film and theater (the same institution that produced A-list Korean actors Lee Byung Hun, Lee Min Ho and Park Shin Hye, among other big names).
O The website also lists him as having made 11 movies since starting his entertainment career in 2003. He won seven awards, including the grand prize in the TV category at the 47th Baeksang Arts Award (South Korea’s version of the Oscar’s) for Secret Garden.
O We also found out that he has made lots of endorsements for products ranging from food, beverage, clothing, cosmetics to home appliances and cars.
I wanted more info, so to satisfy my (and my friend’s) curiosity, I moved to Instagram and tapped on the expertise of the HB superfans, the purveyors of the latest, juiciest HB news on the planet. They do deep vibes, they search for clues, they read message boards, they leave no stones unturned and in the end they write dissertation-like analysis. Above all, they write wonderful, elaborate “what happens next” scenarios involving Se-ri and Capt. Ri. Thus, in one all-night trawling I got to know Hyun Bin in an exciting light, but first things first –here’s a spoiler: the guy walks on water.
On his Captain Ri role: Hyun Bin (Kim Tae Pyung in real life) was not the original choice for the role of the North Korean special forces captain. In fact, he was not even the second or third choice, but the sixth! The role was first offered to actor Nam Goong Min, who declined because he was busy filming another project. It was then offered to Jo In Sung, who also said no because he was preoccupied with some personal affairs. Next to decline was Park Hae Jin because he wanted to have a relaxing schedule. Lee Seung Gi read the script, got interested and auditioned for the role, but changed his mind after he was selected for the series, “Vagabond.” Ji Chang Wook was also approached for the role, but was not interested.
On his family: Hyun Bin (or Binnie to his family) comes from a pretty conservative and moneyed family that has produced a long line of lawyers. He went against his father’s wishes by dabbling into theater while in high school and got chased by the latter with a baseball bat. In due time, however, Mr. Kim allowed his youngest son to follow his star on one condition– if he could get into Chung-Ang University, the nation’s top school for theater studies. And HB did! He got into the undergraduate program due to the strength of his high school grades and later on, to the graduate program not on special terms accorded to stars that were already establishing their names, but because his college transcript was strong.
On his investments: HB and his family invested in an expensive real estate property in the Gangnam District of Seoul and developed it into a seven-storey, mixed use building, with Vast Entertainment occupying three of top floors. The family reportedly paid $10 million for the property in, get a load of this, cash. The negotiation happened around the time HB was coming back after a two-year service in the Marines.
On his generosity: Stories also abound about how HB quietly donated 200 million won (P8.5 million) to the Korean Community Chest to help fight COVID-19 in South Korea during the early stages of the crisis. His charity work was only found out when someone in the organization leaked the information to the public.
Another account of HB’s generous heart was from a co-star, who said that he was just starting in the business when he found himself going to a wake with HB.
“When we got to the place I stayed back outside because I was embarrassed. I had no money and did not have an envelope to give to the family of the deceased. I was just there outside, waiting patiently. After a few minutes, however, HB came out and gave me an envelope with money inside so I could come in and condole.”
The same actor also said that since he was new, he would call HB every night to ask for acting pointers. “He would take the calls and spend hours helping me. I only stopped calling him when the director found out and he chastised me for harassing the star of the movie,” he added in a video interview translated in English.
On his ideal girl: When he looks at a girl, the first thing that HB puts his gaze on is not the girl’s face, but her hands. “I think I could see whether a girl is capable of becoming a good wife through her hands. Actually, I don’t care much about the appearance, the most important thing is having a kind heart,” he was quoted as saying in a video interview a few years back. Moreover, HB is attracted to a girl who knows how to eat well and who can understand the pressure and intricacies of his job as an actor. He was also quoted in an earlier interview as saying that he’s willing to settle down with a woman who’s older than him “as long as he is not older than my mother.” We don’t have a clue how old Mama Kim is, but there you go ladies, age does not really matter to the captain if you happen to steal his heart.
On marriage: HB has said in an interview he would like to marry before he turns 40. Here’s the caveat though– HB will not marry someone that both of his parents will not approve of. And what kind of husband will he be? “Whether a woman is considered pretty depends on her cooking skills, the way she fixes herself and how her husband looks. Which means, when a woman cooks well, dresses up well, and there is a charming husband standing beside her, she’d look exceptionally pretty. I hope I could satisfy one of the three requirements in order to make my woman prettier. The first two requirements she’d have to work hard on her own, I’d be responsible for the last one.”
The jury is still out if HB has already found the woman of his dreams. The Instagram discussions on his currently possible relationship with Son Ye Jin or renewed dalliance with ex-girlfriend Song Hye Kyo is pretty intense and insane. I don’t want to be caught in the crossfire between the super fans, also known as shippers, by dwelling much on his rumored love life.
On his love for his fans: HB loves his fans, he communicates with them and allows them to visit him on set thru arrangements made with Vast Entertainment. His Asian fan base is so huge that Vast set up a site called “The Space” to allow a streamlined system for HB fans all over Asia. Membership to the site is based off on real-name system and official IDs for locals and foreigners alike are required during registration. One may apply to this official fan club, but approval is only given after a good vetting process.
Fans express their love of and personal support for the bedimpled one by sending generous gifts like huge flower arrangements for press cons, pizza trucks, artisan coffee trucks with elaborate drinks, sandwiches, desserts, candies, and snacks, plus cute, fluffy toys and bags of personal gifts (and by the way, HB prefers café Americano). They also send tented, onsite-catered barbecue parties for the whole production crew during shoots. Vast schedules this expression of support and judging on the notices posted on the site, there is a beeline for this.
Well loved, well supported by many rich fans from places like China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Taiwan, that’s HB’s star power for you.
Which brings me to this question. What do HB Filipino fans bring to the table?
Pinoy fans love dearly, but clearly cannot compete with such styles of affection mentioned above. What the Filipino diaspora brings, however, is far more important and packs the biggest punch. It’s the Filipino fans who bring HB closer to the English-speaking countries in the West. They are the ones running HB’s social media fan accounts with the highest metrics. They express their love unabashedly. They defend HB with ferocity and they do deep dives, in perfect English (grammar, syntax and all), for the love of HB and only HB. And what they post are being read by every English-speaking Binnie baby scattered all over the world. HB really hit the jackpot when he entered the Philippine market and I seriously believe that he’s aware of his Filipino fans’ online talents and dedication.
What did he say again in that Smart commercial: ” Simple, Smart ako.” Oh yes, you are so right , Hyun Bin, smart ka nga!
EDITOR’S NOTE: Ruby Adonay-Clemmons is a former Manila-based journalist. She lives in New England with her husband and two daughters. She can be reached at rubywrites8@gmail.com.
