Hollywood Discovers Korea's Talented Actors | Newsweek Movies | Newsweek.com

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Korean pop superstar Rain in character as Raizo in Warner Brothers' 'Ninja Assassin'

"In the late 1990s a Korean wave washed over Asia. From TV soap operas and movies to pop music, the region couldn't get enough of Korean culture and its good-looking stars. But the wave never quite reached the American entertainment industry. At most, Hollywood embraced the remake of several Korean films—including The Lake Houseand, more recently, The Uninvited.

Lately, however, ethnic Korean actors have started to gain traction in American film and TV. Kim Yunjin and Daniel Dae Kim broke through when they were cast in Lost in 2004, followed by Sandra Oh in Grey’s Anatomy and James Kyson Lee in Heroes. 


  

Daniel Henney                               

This year Korean-American heartthrob Daniel Henney appeared in X-Men Origins: Wolverine as the villainous Agent Zero, and now stars on the new CBS medical drama Three Rivers.

The Korean War Baby is very pleased on Daniel Henney's IMDb skyrocketing career. His best role was in "My Father" Daniel and Aaron Bates Interview.

Daniel did a fantastic job with many very emotional heavy dramatic scenes. The KWB knows a bit about the film business because he was 'in the film business' as well, though, only B-movie Character actor and stuntman. Usually he was one of the bad guys, goons, thugs, not handsome like Daniel to he loved to do the crazy mad type roles. 

"Lee Byung-hun took on the role of Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. And John Cho, who played Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek, is currently starring as an FBI agent in ABC's drama FlashForward.

Jeong Ji Hoon, a.k.a. Rain, a pop superstar in much of Asia but still little-known on the global stage. Rain appears in the lead role of the latest big-budget martial-arts thriller, Ninja Assassin, starring Jeong as the title character.

Asian actors in the U.S. are still often typecast as martial-arts experts. "Stereotype does still exist when casting films," says Rain. "Asians have our own broad and unique culture; it's just that more people have been interested in the martial-arts side than others."
The KWB always knew that stereotypes would limit the major roles but by creating their own ‘characters’ and props, they made interesting roles.
Hollywood Discovers Korea's Talented Actors | Newsweek Movies | Newsweek.com


No business like Show Business!

 

 

The KWB had many different ‘faces' and worked from 1976-1985 in Filipino and international films shot on location in the Philippines and Hong Kong. He would be proud to have Daniel Henney, whose mother was a also a Korean adoptee in 1958, play him in a biographic film about the Korean War Baby (In the KWB dreams). Makeup, facial hair, various hairstyles would make him perfect for the many faces of the KWB.Don Gordon Bell

  

Of course the KWB was only a B-movie character actor in action, war drama, comedy, and some say that some of these low budget flicks were 'so bad they were good.' His friends continue on to this day, 'In the business'. Andrew Leavold Blog address has immortalized us for cyberhistory. Andrew has painstakingly put together commentary on bamboo gods and bionic boys

It was a great time and many of his friends stayed on in the Philippines with impressive film credits. Such as Nick Nicholson and Nick's blog on his incredible but true to life tales of our escapades, Henry Strzalkowski who just directed a music video last month, Romano Kristoff, Steve Rogers who now runs a business in Sagada for white water rafting and trekking, Bill Kipp who coined the phrase "Pigs in Space", James Gaines, Mike Monty, Bruce Baron, and so many more. Yes, our Cadre helped teach and prepare men and women from all over the globe to work in Filipino and International films.

 



The Korean War Baby is very happy with these developments. It is his hope that Daniel Henney might play HIM in a future film about the KWB. A comedy about the life of character actors making films in the Philippines. The stories we could tell need to be told!