Movie Q&A: Rain with NOW Magazine

The man they call Rain enters the Windsor Arms suite quietly, escorted by a retinue of half a dozen people – manager, stylists, studio minder, translator. He's dressed elegantly but simply – except for a diamond-encrusted wristwatch, which I'm pretty sure cost more than my car.

Rain is a superstar in his native Korea, a pop idol and an actor who's appeared in several films, including Park Chan-wook’s quirky romance I’m A Cyborg (But That’s OK), but he’s virtually unknown in the West.

Well, he used to be, until Stephen Colbert created a (fake) rivalry with the pop star over their positions at the top of Time Magazine’s online Top 100 list in 2008.

That was right around the time Rain popped up as one of the many international cast members in the Wachowski brothers' Speed Racer, which led directly to a title role in their next production, Ninja Assassin.

That's how he ended up in Toronto, talking about slashing stuntmen, how martial arts is a lot like dancing, and singing in Korean.

You look very different in Ninja Assassin than you did in I'm A Cyborg or Speed Racer. Working out?

I needed to make my body fit, like Bruce Lee. I trained for eight months, five days a week, eight hours a day, over and over and over again. I ate just chicken breasts and vegetables – it was terrible. And I learned a lot of martial arts – tae kwon do, tai chi, kick-boxing, karate, and kung fu with swords and double swords, shuriken, chains – a lot. It was fun!

The film's stunt choreography is very fluid, and in some scenes it almost looks like you're dancing with your opponents, like in a musical number. You've done some dancing onstage – were you able to draw from that?

The dancing helped. Dancing and martial arts are very similar. And I had role models: Bruce Lee and Jet Li. I really love Bruce Lee and Jet Li and Jackie Chan movies – they're my heroes. But I'm powerful, I'm faster, I'm younger than them.

The Wachowskis didn't stop with just one Matrix, and Ninja Assassin leaves the door open for a sequel. Would you put yourself through the training regimen again?

I haven't decided yet.

What's next? Another movie, or back to the recording studio?

I'd like to do everything. A romance, or another action film. Or an album, just in Asia or worldwide. I haven't decided yet, but very soon. I want to focus on Ninja Assassin for now because it is very important to me. After that, I have a concert in Las Vegas on Christmas Day.

Does the Ninja Assassin press tour include a stop at The Colbert Report?

I wanna be on the show again. It was fun. It was a great experience.

By Norman Wilner
Source: nowtoronto.com