KOREAN WAVE SUPER STAR: LEE MIN HO
When he first showed up on the screen, we had a hunch the e will be a rising star. Since his debut 8 years ago, his career has skyrocketed and became a huge Korean wave star.
He did not become a super star overnight. He has been around since he first came out on the EBS Drama ‘Secret Campus.’ For the last 8 years, he has pursued a pretty solid career path as a young actor and he became bigger and bigger. In 2013, he played the famous prince-like role, Kim Than in the huge hit SBS drama, the Heir, which attracted many female viewers’ mind all over the Asia. He literally became a super star slash charismatic actor with a huge fan base in Japan, China as well as Korea.
Early this year, he became the very first Korean celebrity who came on New Year’s special feature of the nation-wide CCTV show <Chunwan>, which is said to be watched by millions of Chinese viewers. Now he is undeniably in the center of Korean wave in China. On the show, he sang the OST song of Taiwanese version ‘Boys before flowers’ and it is estimated that over 700 million Chinese viewers watched him sing in Korean. Even before his hit drama ‘the Heir’ became a mega hit show in China and made him a Hallyu super star, his name was pretty well known due to the growing popularity of other Korean drama that he was on such as boys over flowers, Personal Preference, City Hunter. In 2011, City Hunter was only a mere start and public fever over LEE Min Ho skyrocketed after ‘the Heir’ in 2013.
Last June 15th, he was invited to a promotional event of Chinese Liquor Brand and this time he proved his being a hallyu super star by riding on a chartered plane on his way to Beijing. His movie schedules for ‘Gangnam Blues’ were so tight that he cannot really spare much time for the event. So the event manager suggested him to use the charter plane and try every effort to make this happen. His visit was surprising news for Chinese fans. As a main Guest of the event, he hosted mini fan meeting for Chinese fans. To show his gratitude to his enthusiastic fan he sang a song from his own music album, took photos with female fans, gave hugs and try to make good memories with them.
Recently, he found a good way to make a meaningful communication with his fan. In return for huge support from his fan, he has decided to participate in the act of charity and open a charity platform ‘Promiz’ at www.pmz2014.com. Promiz is a compound word combining the word ‘promise’ and the name of his fan club ‘Minoz’ and it is planlled, ‘LEE Min Ho Library Project’ has initiated from the motive to cultivate educational environments for the undereducated students in extremely poor areas of China. Additionally, ‘Minoz Chile’ has created ‘LEE Min Ho Forest’ in the Patagonia, Chile last year. They have donated hundreds of tree under his name since the area has been devastated by forest fire. The good deed of his fan is a good example of social involvement of Hallyu star fans.
LEE Min Ho is scheduled to come back to the fans with the movie, Gangnam Blues in December. This action noir movie features the collusion of politicians and outlaws in Gangnam area of Seoul in 70s when the property development has started to boom. He played KIM Jong Dae, a tragic main character, and showed delicate emotional acting and dangerous stunt actions. The actor, LEE Min Ho, who said he wanted live a fierce life in his 20s, is continuing his challenging and intense journey to be a better actor. Just as his determination to show mature side of him as a person and an actor, we are sure to see the new and improved LEE Min Ho. It is a pity for all those fans who have waited for so long since the end of ‘the Heir’ that we they need to keep waiting until this December to see his next drama.