Rain's Interview At The Press Conference

Hollywood movie , which international superstar Rain (Jung Ji-hoon) appears in, will hit the big screens globally on May 8th. This movie is directed by the Wachowski Brothers of trilogy.
When Rain met with reporters for an interview on the 21st, he said, "Although I do not know whether it will be successful in the box office, I've already signed a contract for the third sequel of ." (Deb's note: How come 3rd and not 2nd?? Not sure, just translating whatever was said in the Chinese article)

Summary from the press con:

Question: You play a supporting role. Knowing perfectly well that this was a supporting role, why did you choose it?

Answer: In the US I received many invitations to play lead roles. If I were to compare this to like baseball, I would want to make it on a team of a major league tournament, not of a small league tournament. Moreover the directors of this movie are the Wachowski Brothers whom I like a lot, I thought that I would be able to learn many things. So during the time of shooting I put in my all, and in the end the directors gave the lead role of to me.
is a Western action movie, but the Wachowski's want to make an Eastern movie featuring Chinese acrobatic fighting. I took a little bit of taekwando and aikido when I was a child; I took only 30 minutes to complete kicks and maneuvers from the movie. Perhaps it's because of this that the directors hold such high esteem of me. Also, during the shooting of a competition scene (Deb's note: I think here he meant ), the filming was done in front of a large screen. At that time I had on leather clothing that had no ventilation, my body temperature felt like it was above 30 degrees Celsius, and while the other actors were resting, I persevered and went on filming. I wanted to let them know that Koreans are very strong and have much endurance.
During meal times I ate together with the production crew. I wrote out Korean for them, saying "Isn't Korean very attractive", and as a result the writing of "Taejo Togokhan" in Korean was unexpectedly included in the movie.

Question: Your English lines are very fluent, how did you feel at that time when you used English to act in a movie?

Answer: Who would've thought that I would make an American movie, and come out with an album in the US? If I knew earlier on I would have worked hard on learning English back in high school. (Laughs) I want to be confident in everything that I do. I am after all a Korean, no matter how diligent I am, my English standards are still not like that of native speakers'. And because my language teacher is British, I also encounter difficulty due to the British-type pronunciation, but I've become more natural. Thankfully my pronunciation from the film shoot didn't turn out too bad. (Rain's English pronunciation sounds very pleasing to the ear.)

Question: Some people say your character's flow of emotions are "one-way", but there are also many people who say this is a very important supporting role.

Answer: The directors paid great attention to details, but they also requested of me a kind of mysterious charm. Don't know if it's too early for the present public to know, but I've already signed a contract for the 3rd sequel, the natural premise is that the movie will be successful. Although no one is saying anything, but I feel I can act in the sequel. The director said that by playing the role of a company boss, I must be steady but must also have a deterrent force. My tone of voice had to be intentionally brought down lower, to signify depth. In the movie my expressions were serious, cold and detached. Any slight happy or 'sunny' expressions were overruled by the directors.

Question: How do you feel working with renowned Hollywood movie stars such as Emile Hirsch, Matthew Fox, Susan Sarandon, John Goodman and so on?

Answer: From the very beginning I had only one thing in mind, that I must have self-confidence. (Laughs) They are famous stars, particularly Susan Sarandon as she has been my idol since I was a child. Never imagined that she would take my music album wanting me to autograph it for her. In addition to that, she wrote me a letter in return. In the letter she wrote: "I hope that this movie will be your first step towards your road of success." There was one day, an actor celebrated a birthday, Susan, Matthew, Emile and others all attended the evening birthday party, and even went bowling together. (Deb's note: Skipping the next statement because I'm not sure how to translate it, sorry...) I never thought that they would be so pleasant and friendly.The Asian fans were also very warm-hearted, they even personally came to Berlin to the film site to encourage me. The other actors might not have such warm-hearted fans.
During the time of shooting, the director of Michael Bay also came by the film site. Probably because was a great success in South Korea, he likes South Korea a lot, at the same time regarding South Korea as a very important market.

Question: In the movie, the name "Taejo Togokhan", is it South Korean or Japanese?

Answer: "TAEJO" is indeed a Korean name. I once asked the director, he also knew that "TAEJO" referred to a Korean emperor. "KHAN" is for Mongolian kings, but "TOGO" probably does not have any concrete meaning. "TAEJO" is a Korean name, but in the movie the father "AREUM" is Chinese.
The Wachowski Brothers are unbiased people. In the movie there were people of different ethnicities who were in charge of explaining the scenes. In addition to that, Korean was also spoken, seemed as if they were specifically pointing me out as a Korean.

Question: When will you return to the South Korean film and television scenes?

Answer: will end its film shooting at the end of July, and this autumn I will be coming out with a special edition album for the Asian fans. In addition, to promote the movie, for one month I will be making separate stops in South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan. After that I must make preparations for the release of my English album. So it won't be till next year before I can act in a Korean piece. (END)

Source: Various sources from Korean Press
Posted by azafighting@RainHK
Translation & edited by dsl99a@SexyBi & Rain-USA

ADDITIONAL INFO:
In another press release, it states that he's actually signed on for both 2nd and 3rd sequel to . Rain said that while in Berlin he always went out to eat and bowled with Emile Hirsch, Matthew Fox and John Goodman. Meanwhile, Susan Sarandon apparently watched his dance clips on YouTube, which brought her to personally write him a letter to encourage him. ^ ^ Rain had wanted to give her one of his albums for her birthday, but she beat him to it and asked for his autograph instead.

Articles posted by azafighting & wsd@RainHK
Translation: dsl99a@SexyBi & Rain-USA