Ninja Assassin's Rain is a true crossover star

By G. ALLEN JOHNSON FILM WRITER
Nov. 27, 2009, 3:20PM

Ninja Assassin star Rain said he grew up idolizing Al Pacino in Scarface and Michael Jackson's music.

He was born Jeong Ji-hoon 27 years ago, but his stage name, Rain, is perfect: He's like a force of nature as he bustles into a suite at the Ritz-Carlton winding up a North American press tour for his new movie, Ninja Assassin, and on his way to perform a concert in Hong Kong.

Dressed in a stylishly patterned black T-shirt underneath a gray sport coat, his gelled-up hair colored an orangish brown, Rain looks like a college kid hanging out at an after-hours club. His penchant for self-promotion ("I have good talent"; "I think my character is very sexy") is never offensive, as he delivers his lines with effortless charm.

But this is no lightweight. Rain has risen from the son of a baker to the brink of international acting stardom because of talent, yes, but also a relentless work ethic. In the past seven years, he has recorded five albums in Korean and one in Japanese and is in the planning stages of his English-language debut.

He's a CEO; two years ago, he started his own company, J. Tune Entertainment, when his previous management company encountered some legal trouble.

In films, he started as the love interest in Park Chan-wook's odd romance I'm a Cyborg, but That's OK and made his Hollywood debut in a supporting role in Andy and Larry Wachowski's Speed Racer. The Wachowski brothers, famous for their Matrix trilogy, saw something in Rain and cast him in Ninja Assassin, which they produced for director James McTeigue.

"I had to make my body fit like Bruce Lee," said Rain, who was determined to conduct the interview in English and rarely turned to his translator. "I trained for eight months, five days a week, eight hours a day. I only ate chicken breast and vegetables. No sugar, no salt, no chocolate."

"You know what? I really love chocolate. I'm a chocoholic. ... It was horrible!"

As a boy, Rain was captivated by Al Pacino's performance in Scarface and Michael Jackson's songs and videos — clearly influences in his own work. As a man, he said his guiding influence is his mother, who died when he was 18 of health issues.

"We were so poor," Rain said. "She's my hero. She's my angel. I always miss her."

That might account in part for his maturity, a trait that seems missing from many pop idol/actors of his age.

"I had a dream," Rain said. "I wanted to be a singer and actor since I was 10. My dream's come true.

But "I want to challenge myself to see where my limit is."

ajohnson@sfchronicle.com

Source: www.chron.com