So Jisub – The man whose melancholic charm gets stronger with every “bad guy” he portrays

At the moment, the Korean actor So Jisub (32) is gathering a lot of attention in Japan and abroad. He’s received several movie awards for his film “Rough Cut” (Korean title: Yeonghwa neun yeonghwa da; Japanese title: Eiga wa eiga da) in Korea and the USA. As part of the “next generation” of a wave of actors who are following in the footsteps of the actors in their late 30s who represent Korea, like Lee Byung Hun and Jung Woo Sung, So Jisub is the one people are expecting the most from.

He is meeting these expectations not just in his home country. Actress Zhang Ziyi personally chose him for the role of her lover in the movie “Sophie’s Revenge” in which she plays the female lead and which she also produced. And in Japan, he is the first overseas actor to play the lead character in the joint production original drama “I am GHOST” which is currently up for download on BeeTV.

The characters So Jisub plays are often “men who are wild and sexy yet at the same time lonely and melancholic”. Just as we were preparing for his photo shoot in which we wanted to translate this very charm into pictures, we were surprised when he called us and said he himself wanted to prepare himself as well – because even though people usually arrive at the scene of the photo shooting where everything is prepared for them, to have someone say “I want to prepare myself” is definitely a rare thing.

During the photo shoot, So Jisub works very hard to respond to all of our requests and doesn’t lose his intense gaze and facial expressions for a second, just like he is playing a role in a movie. His concentration and professionalism are so high, the tension at the shoot is rising as well.

And then, the second the shooting is over, he instantly returns to his gentle and shy self and talks to us. A true actor without a trace of the pretentiousness of a celebrity.
The atmosphere at the set becomes calm at once.

We were told by his staff that he wasn’t good at talking but we wanted to take the opportunity of this peaceful mood and ask him for the readers of VOGUE about everything from acting to love.

In “I am GHOST” you’re portraying a killer who doesn’t talk in order to keep his true identity secret. Wasn’t it difficult to play a role without any lines?
For an actor it can be quite difficult to not have any lines but I was totally attracted by the thought of overcoming this difficulty and try and create this character so I accepted this role.

We heard that you don’t talk much. Does that mean you don’t like people who talk a lot?
Of course not. (Laughs.) I also have friends who talk quite a bit. A lot of my friends are as old as I am but it often happens that I’m the youngest so I can’t just sit there and not talk. But yes, people used to have that strong image in their heads that I didn’t talk much.

In this photo shoot we wanted to show your sexy and wild side. What do you think about people telling you you’re sexy?
It feels a bit awkward but it’s alright. Women are probably a lot happier when they hear they are sexy. Don’t you think so?

Then what about when people tell you you’re wild?
I like that. (Laughs.) But I prefer the kind of wildness that isn’t fake but comes out naturally.

What’s masculine sexiness like for you?
I try to see what’s inside people rather than just looking at their outward appearances so I think men and women who work as hard as they can and try so hard they have sweat running down their bodies are really sexy.

What’s a character you’ve played so far that’s wild and sexy?
The gangster Kang-pae I played in “Rough Cut”. He has a lot of masculine attractiveness. And I think it’s the very fact that he’s looking so hard for something that makes him sexy.

Who do you think is sexy as a woman?
(After thinking for a bit) Attractiveness is an aura that appears quite naturally. People often feel that a woman is sexy because she has a glamorous body, but I get that feeling from that aura of sexiness that’s created by her whole being.

Are you in love with someone at the moment?
No, not right now. I’m in a situation where I can’t be a kind and loving partner to someone, where I can’t dedicate myself completely to the other person so feelings like that just won’t develop. I’m working a lot abroad at the moment so it wouldn’t be very fair on my partner [if he was in a relationship].

His secret to success is to become completely absorbed in turning into another person for the role

It’s probably different for every role but can you tell us more about your technique for creating your characters?
Thank you for asking me about it. [He obviously prefers talking about the technical aspects of his profession to giving out details about his love life.] For me, the basis is the script. I create a character by asking myself how I can embody the character described in the script. Before I start acting, I make sure I don’t watch any movies with characters which are similar to my role. I talk with the directors and script writers instead and then create my character.

Has there been a role so far that you haven’t been able to shake off?
When I finish a movie, there’s this difficult period of time when I’m still carrying this character still around with me, but as soon as I’ve decided what my next project is going to be I’m able to throw myself into that new role.

What was it like after “Rough Cut”?
It still stayed with me for a while. There were times when I was told I was a bit scary when I went out with my friends. And there was also this one occasion when I went out for a drink and another customer who had seen the movie started talking to me like the characters talk in that movie.

When you become absorbed by a role so much, what do you do to distract yourself from it?
I often stay at home. I just relax and listen to music and things like that. When I’ve had enough of that, my number one thing to do is having drinks with the people around me. (Laughs.) But when I’m shooting a movie I’m trying not to drink any alcohol. I stop drinking alcohol about two days before shooting starts.

Are your friends actors too?
I don’t have many friends who work in the same industry as I do. I’m friends with Song Seung Hun and Park Yong Ha and then there about ten more people who do other work than I do.

Who would you like to meet in Japan?
I used to be a swimmer so I wanted to meet Kitajima Kōsuke. I still have this urge to watch him on TV every time he swims in the relay team.

What’s the role you’ve played so far that resembles you in some way?
I think I’ve changed a lot from what I was like in the past, but the character that resembled me the most at the time when I was playing that character was the one in the drama “Jigeumeun Yeonaejung/We Are Dating Now” (2002). (A man who tries to act cool, but can’t get along very well with the woman he likes.) I don’t really know what my own character is like at the moment. (Laughs.) But back in those days, I was suffering a bit because of the fact that he resembled me so much. When the role you’re playing is too much like yourself then you feel exposed and it can wear you down quite a bit.

You are also an active musician. Do you write and compose your own songs?
I don’t know if I can be called a real musician, let’s just say I’m giving my best and want to continue doing music in the future. I create the outlines for the lyrics. The rap parts always have to fit in perfectly with the music and I just can’t write that well, so I write a sort of summary for what I want the lyrics to be like and ask the respective writer to use it as an inspiration for the lyrics.

What artists do you like?
I like quite a lot of artists but as far as music is concerned I really like Snoop Dogg.

While looking back on himself, he believes in the flow of things to come

You are blessed with a body height of 182 cm and you used to work as a model. What made you turn to acting?
It’s right to say that I made my debut in the entertainment industry as a model and worked as a catalogue model and did that for a short while. But after that, right at the beginning of my career, I had my first role in a drama. It’s not that I thought in the beginning that I wanted to be a model or that I wanted to be an actor, it felt more like a part-time job to me. Originally, I was just a swimmer and was already accepted by a university. In my last year of school I had a bit of free time so I just applied for those jobs and that’s when it started off. In university I joined a special swimming course and received money from the country which paid for my tuition. During my first year I was able to go to my classes and work but in the end I chose acting.

What do you find attractive about being an actor?
It might be a cliché but it’s the chance to live a lot of different lives. Normally, everyone only has one life to live, but actors get to live so many different lives. There are still so many things I want to experience.

Has your attitude towards your work changed after you finished your military service?
I wasn’t able to be an actor for about 26 months and during that time it became very clear to me once again how much I love acting. And compared to before, I now feel a lot more at ease after I was discharged from the army. In the ten years before joining the army, I had always been running and running but when I joined the army, I had the time to look back and reflect on myself a little bit. I also came to realize that it’s necessary to have a bit of time for yourself.

What characters do you want to play from now on?
There’s just too much I want to do… I’d love to try a comedy if the script is good. And to give just one more example, what I think would be really interesting is to play a bad guy that gives you goose bumps just by looking at him.

And what’s next? Hollywood?
If I focus on that alone, I’ll have to miss good opportunities in Korea, China and Japan. So I won’t let it become my immediate goal and just try and make it there if the chance comes up naturally.

[Scans by me, click for larger images.]

Translation: Yuuya@coinlockerbaby.org
Do not repost without credits.

Happy new year, belatedly, as always. In a tiny bit, I’m going to post a translation of a long interview So Jisub did for Vogue Nippon. I did that translation almost two months ago which goes to show that I collect all sorts of things to update with but then I never get around to actually posting the stuff. Haaa (<– the ultimate sigh of defeat).

This is going to be a massive post about … sheep! Yes.

My grandfather used to own a couple of sheep (5 or 6?) so I should have been able to form a valid opinion an these animals but to be honest, sheep have always been a bit of a mystery to me. They were just standing in a shadowy corner of the field, slowly chewing their daily doses of grass. And that’s it. They don’t exactly have a wide range of facial expressions and they aren’t really as soft as you’d think.

And then there’s Murakami Haruki who made it know to the book-reading public that sheep are, yes, mysterious creatures. I highly recommend Hitsuji wo meguru bôken/A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance to anyone who hasn’t read it yet to see what I mean.

Do I think sheep are cute? No. Do I find them disgusting? Not at all. Do I think they pose a threat to those of us with a historical sensibility, especially if they have a star-shaped mark on their backs? Hm, maybe. Do I find them a bit fascinating? Yes, certainly. Do I think that it’s work collecting anything and everything related to them? Yes, absolutely!!

This is what one small area of our kitchen looks like:

Now, this is what our kitchen table looks like as a background for my growing collection of sheep mugs:

Aren’t they true pieces of art? All of these were bought in the past year and I hope to hunt out a lot more in the years to come :)

PONY BROWN, one of those great little Korean stationary designers, made a really great window stickers set that also featured a white sheep with a black face, my favourite kind when it comes to sheep. One of them went on the door of my room at my parents’ house, along with a sign consisting of alphabet stickers which I arranged to say “Schafzimmer” which is a little play on words because “Schlafzimmer” is German for “bedroom”, “Schlaf” means “sleep”, but “Schaf” (without the “l”) means “sheep”, so it means something like “sheep room”, or “the sheep’s room” :)

It looks like this:

And Topshop has awesome sheep ankle socks this autumn. They were available in boring grey, in red (which weren’t in stock anymore when I wanted to buy them) and in pink. I bough a pair in pink. They have white sheep with black faces and black sheep with white faces ♥

And that’s enough sheepish nonsense for today.

I’m too busy to make a new layout for this place (and I still like it a lot too), but after the (invisible) WordPress update earlier this week I modified the blog code a bit based on the new WordPress version so we now have tags for every post and a tag cloud in the sidebar. Yay!

I’ve sorted through the huge backlog of entries and have tagged everything back until the beginning of 2005, I think. I might tag older posts whenever I have some time to spare. Going through all the older posts, I’ve realized how much I used to blog until four years ago, before I moved to Berlin. I don’t think I’ll ever again have that much time to spend on the internet like back then, but oh well, it’s not that I’m not happy with the way things are now either.

Updating this blog to latest version of WordPress: done.
(Should have done it ages ago, it looks so much better and is so much easier to use than the one I had installed previously. But I’m always worried about the update process going wrong or losing my database or something so I try to postpone updates as long as possible.)

I have nothing really important to say at the moment, except that I’m very sad and worried and at the same time I feel completely powerless because I’m not feeling sad or worried about myself. So there’s nothing I can do except write this cryptic paragraph down which must be frustrating for you, the readers, and I’m sorry about that.

Tomorrow’s November 12. End of the ultimatum.

As the end of the year draws closer and closer I can safely say that Aruto koronii no teiri (アルトコロニーの定理), the 5th album by Japanese rock band RADWIMPS, is already among my favourite albums released in 2009.

I’ve been meaning to translate a “7 Keywords” feature they did as part of the promotions for the new album (released on March 11) in the Japanese music magazine B-PASS (4/2009) ever since I got it, but alas have only found the time to do it this week. Name-dropping Foals and Radiohead is probably the safest way in getting me to translate something ^^;

Just a short bit of information about the band:
RADWIMPS are Noda Youjirou (vocals & guitar), Kuwahara Akira (guitar), Takeda Yuusuke (bass) and Yamaguchi Satoshi (drums), all born in 1985. They debuted in 2003.

Here’s the B-PASS interview. Please see the credits at the end of this entry before posting this translation anywhere else!
[Translator's notes look like this.]

We set out to analyze (!?) RADWIMPS for everyone who wants to know more about RAD and, of course, their album with the help of seven keywords.

The origin of the album title

Noda: I like mathematics but I’ve never really believed in “theorems” or “propositions” [Japanese: teiri]. It’s just that in my opinion this album can become a kind of “solution” when you’re confronted with problems and doubts in your life.
“Alt” [Japanese: aruto] is a term which refers to a register. It’s pretty high for a man and totally fits the songs we recorded.
The term “colony” [Japanese: koronii] expresses our wish to create a collective with this album.
And it’s also a pun on “in a land far, far away” [Japanese: aru tokoro ni]. *laughs* We have some fairy tale-inspired songs, like track 8 on the album which is called Meruhen to Gureeteru [Märchen to Gretel, English: Fairy Tales and Gretel] too, so we thought we just had to give the album that title.

The design concept of the album cover [click here for a close-up]

Yamaguchi: I think the cover image represents what we are as a band quite nicely in the sense that it maintains its balance even though it looks like it’s out of balance and it becomes one whole being the second its respective components are put together with a certain intention. The character on the cover looks a lot like Youjirou because it’s wearing a hat, so it was exactly the right thing for us and we instantly chose it to be on the cover. According to Nagato Tetsuya, the collage artist who let us select one of his works, the character’s name is “Jack” [Japanese: Jakku] because we used it as the album cover [jaketto (jacket) in Japanese]. *laughs*

Your lucky number

Yamaguchi: 4. It has that sort of round-ish image like a “circle” in my head and it gives off a certain “sense of solution” which I find really nice. But that’s just the image I have of it. *laughs*
Noda: It’s probably 7 for me, just like you’d expect. I have a certain affinity for the number 7, so much so that I even wanted to call this album “7″. I’ve always liked numbers but the number 7 had that image of “it’s a bit of trouble but a good one after all”.
Takeda: For me, it’s got to be the number 3. Every time I want to buy something, let’s say juice, I buy three bottles of it. It’s the same for cup ramen. It just makes me feel at ease if I have three of them. *laughs*
Kuwahara: It’s the number 2 for me. Simply put, I just think that two people is better than one person alone. If you want to go shopping it’s so much easier to walk around when it’s just two people instead of three. And if you want to talk about something serious with someone, I really like it when there’s just me and one other person talking face to face.

What you were into during the recording of the album

Yamaguchi: We all drank Dekavita [a vitamin softdrink] when we were exhausted. I also wrote about it in our blog but let me just repeat that it really worked and gave us new energy. We drank so much that I’m now asking myself “Wouldn’t it be cool if they finally let us appear in a commercial for it?” *laughs*
Noda: Probably sleeping. They had pillows and blankets prepared for us in the studio so I used to lay down and sleep for a bit. But of course every time I flopped down and thought “Ah, I can finally fall asleep”, someone came calling for me. *laughs*
I always find it very hard to fall asleep to begin with, plus when we’re in the studio recording an album I’m totally excited all the time so it was pretty hard for me.
Takeda: I was very fond of alcohol. *laughs* During recording breaks I often went for drinks all by myself. I also liked to buy cheap whiskey at the convenience store and drink it mixed with cola.
Kuwahara: For me, it was meeting friends. We were classmates in middle school and they don’t have anything to do with music nowadays. We went to family restaurants and bars and stuff and just chatting to them always made me feel relaxed, more so than anything else.

A few words to your fellow band mates

Yamaguchi: I have to say “The restaurant you took me to yesterday had the best take-out food I’ve ever had!” to Kuwahara. *laughs* Every once in a while we go out and have dinner together. He’s the type of person who likes to check out everything before he finally decides for something. Me and Takeda on the other hand are the kind of person to make quick decisions so we demonstrate our leadership when it comes to food. *laughs*
Noda: I want to say “Thanks” to [Yamaguchi] Satoshi. He’s sent me emails pretty often during the recording of the album. The other two haven’t sent me any messages at all, though. *laughs* I recorded my vocal takes alone in the studio, so Satoshi messaged me with his impressions. In a way, the band members are my first audience to me, so it makes me really happy when I receive criticism in the form of simple words.
Takeda: I’m going to talk about an email message too now. On the very last day of recording, Youjirou sent all of us a message that read “I’m so glad that we made this as the band we are” which made me extremely happy. So I’m just going to use this opportunity to say thanks, too.
Kuwahara: There’s this huge wardrobe in Youjirou’s apartment which we bought at IKEA and which all four of us assembled. And I paid for it. Won’t you pay me back soon? *laughs*

An impressive concert you went to recently

Yamaguchi: I went to see Foals. Well, it wasn’t all that recently, rather in May last year. I saw them at Ebisu Liquidroom. It had been a while since I last went there. And it had also been quite some time since my last concert at a live venue. The way they put together their sound is pretty close to what we sound like. I bought their CD as well. We’re also pretty close as far as age is concerned so there are things about them that I find quite impressive. They’re really cool.
Noda: I saw Radiohead at an extra tour date at Tokyo International Forum. I fought my way through to the fifth row from the front and I think we made eye contact a couple of times. But everyone thinks that, don’t they. *laughs* They’re only humans so of course the band made some mistakes but that couldn’t spoil their fun and they were so into the music, which was great to watch. It made me realize that I want the people who create something as interesting as Radiohead to receive a lot of praise in the Japanese music scene, too.
Takeda: Bread&Butter. I was able to watch them from their rehearsal on. They are all such talented and influential musicians so everyone did their job very efficiently. When they were playing, everyone had a lot freedom but at the same time they were a very tight ensemble which I found very inspiring.
Kuwahara: I saw 9mm Parabellum Bullet last November. They were even cooler than on CD.

A challenge you want to face in 2009

Yamaguchi: Cooking. I already like cooking quite a bit but I want to do it more often. I’m really concerned about current issues and I think that I haven’t had enough of the awareness of “appreciating things” up until now. Bearing that in mind, I want to get to know a lot more about what we call “food”. I love tanmen [Chinese noodle soup] and I want to cook the most delicious food in the world. *laughs*
Noda: I just want to do something exciting, like every year. On the one hand, this includes music because we made this album and a lot of doors have opened for us. This might sound a little abstract but I don’t like carefully planned, preestablished harmony to begin with so I think I just want to try and do exciting things.
Takeda: I want to build a musical instrument. I had the idea before but didn’t really know how to do it and lacked quite a bit of determination. I don’t think I can go as far as chopping the wood myself, though. *laughs* I just want to try to collect all the necessary parts and assemble a bass. I think that when I say it now I’m definitely going to do it, so here is my announcement!
Kuwahara: I’ll just talk about my life as a musician now, but I really want to do a Battle of the Bands tour. I’m only friends with 9mm at the moment *laughs* and that way I’d be able to hang out with a whole lot of other bands too.

Translation credits: Yuuya @ coinlockerbaby.org.
Please leave this line intact when re-posting this on other sites.

Oh, I still like knowing what’s become of the (ex-)members of the bands I followed many years ago. Yesterday when I was browsing random music information sites, I came across the news that kannivalism are going to resume their activities very very soon!

Kannivalism are the band Ryo and Kei were in before baroque, a band that originally came out of the visual kei scene but actually had songs worth listening to (and that I had a fansite for), was formed. After baroque disbanded, Ryo and Kei revived kannivalism, Yuchi of k@mikaze (another not-so-visual vkei band that put out quite good CDs which I can still listen to today without feeling ashamed of myself) and Kiri from Porori (yet another fun not-so-visual vkei band that etc. blah blah, I ♥ed them) joined and they could have turned into my new favourite band except I had completely grown out of that sort of music, especially because of its fanbase. Their releases were good but nothing too exciting so I never really followed kannivalism. I wasn’t too surprised when they suspended their activities in January 2008. They were on Avex, Ryo and Kei were young and liked to have fun so I knew it wasn’t meant to last.

Now last week, on August 25, the band held a press conference at the Avex headquarters in Tokyo and announced they are ready for a comeback! This is what kannivalism look like in 2009:

They have a new drummer, Mitsuya (far right in the picture above). Ryo who’s been suffering from adjustment disorder said at the press con that he’s doing fine now and wants to give his best now that they have a new member in the band. Even though Mitsuya’s younger than him, Ryo thinks he’s got a really strong attitude and comes across more like the singer in the band (sort of more like a band leader). Yuchi added that because of Mitsuya it really feels like a fresh start as a band and Mitsuya himself hopes the band’s going to be even better than before now that he’s joined them.

Kei also said at the press con that they and the record company have been thinking about changing the band’s name because it doesn’t exactly have the most positive meaning, obviously. He’s been wanting to ditch the kanniva bit and reduce their name to “ism”. The timing would be perfect now but they’re not sure if they really want to pull through with the name change.

Kannivalism have a full schedule for autumn and early winter including a new single and a concert:

- From September 9 on, kannivalism’s new song “life is” will be available for download as a full ringtone via mu-mo.

- On September 30, a solo mini album by Kei titled “for a fleeting moment.” is supposed to come out (also via Avex).

- On November 11, a diary-like book by Ryo will be published (by Random House/Kodansha – Avex often has tie-ups with Kodansha) chronicling his fight against his illness (AD). At the press conference he stated that he’s very optimistic now when it comes to his illness and hopes to offer a little bit of support to those people who’re suffering from a mental illness just like him. I think that’s a very admirable thing to do, especially in a society who likes to remain silent about people with mental problems. It’ll also offer a good explanation what he’s been going through when kannivalism was inactive. But at the same time, I can’t shake a certain feeling of suspicion because the book release is so conveniently placed before the band’s comeback… Anyway, I really hope Ryo is strong enough to keep kannivalism alive with the other band members. The entertainment industry probably isn’t the easiest surrounding to work in when it comes to stress but I wish him all the best!

- A week later on November 18 (yes, how convenient), a new single will be released.

- Shortly before the end of the year, on December 26, the band will play a comeback show at Zepp Tokyo.

- A new album, kannivalism’s second, will be released in 2010.

Well, well. We’ll see how that goes.
News link 1 & 2.

PS. As a personal note to myself, baroque’s Akira and Bansaku are now in a band called boogieman, together with Kagerou’s Yuana and Yuuichirou from Metronome. One would think that something like baroque+Kagerou+Metronome would make something completely amazing, but no, not in this case :( They are a quite horrible visual kei band that sounds just like what 80% of vkei bands sounded like when I was still a fan. Not that visual kei every scored high when it came to originality, but still. Some things never change, ey?