When visiting Singapore, there seems to be only one thing on celebrities’ minds: Crab.

South Korean actor Song Joong-ki got his black pepper and chilli crab fill last night (Dec 6), and told regional media in a press conference today at Hard Rock Hotel Sentosa about what he got up to in the morning.

“This is my seventh… no, eighth time in Singapore,” the 37-year-old heartthrob revealed. “I really wanted to come to Sentosa island, and this morning I played golf here and I'm so happy now.”

He shared about his new K-drama Reborn Rich, and that he was surprised at the love it received outside South Korea.

“Frankly, I never expected this response, since this isn't a romantic comedy drama,” he said. “I heard that many Asian audiences love Korean romcoms, but this wasn't one.”

Reborn Rich has Joong-ki play Yoon Hyun-woo, a loyal but abused employee working for the chaebol (conglomerate) Soonyang Group, who gets brutally murdered in Turkey in a cover-up by his employers. 

He wakes up in the year 1987 and discovers himself reborn as Jin Do-joon, the youngest grandson of Soonyang Group founder Jin Yang-chul (Lee Sung-min), and plots to take over the company.

The cast and crew of Reborn Rich got to shoot in Istanbul, and Joong-ki was impressed by the hospitality of Turkish citizens towards them.

He added: “Shooting in Turkey gave our project more of a variety, and gave it a deeper quality. At that point, I could express Yoon Hyun-woo’s emotions more deeply, about his isolation and conflict.”

Turkey also gave him his “second-favourite scene” in the drama. 

“The ending scene in episode one in Turkey, on the big rock next to the sea — the last facial expression Hyun-woo made, that face, I loved that,” he said. 

“Hyun-woo at the time knew, ‘Oh, I will be killed soon,’ so I loved Hyun-woo’s face because it was the last expression and emotion of his life.”

What was his favourite scene in the drama? That is a spoiler, but Joong-ki told us to watch episodes 12 and 13 to catch a particular sequence between Do-joon and his grandfather.

A spoiler he did reveal was that his next drama project is with an actor he admired greatly: Jo Han-chul, whom he worked with on his previous hit drama Vicenzo and for the second time in Reborn Rich. In the latter, he plays Do-joon’s uncle Dong-gi.

Joong-ki also said part of the reason he took on his role in Reborn Rich was because of veteran actor Sung-min, 54, whom he proclaimed to be “the Korean Al Pacino,” and that he thought it was an honour to be working with co-star Shin Hyun-been for the first time.

“Ms Shin was incredible. I’ve watched many of her previous projects, and I always thought she was brave and really sincere,” he said.

Hyun-been plays Seo Min-young, Do-joon’s love interest.

Would Joong-ki like to be Reborn Rich?

Despite playing two roles, Joong-ki prefers Hyun-woo, the office employee who got murdered, over Do-joon, the rich and popular grandson.

He only got to play Hyun-woo for two episodes, but he said: “I think I have an obsession with Hyun-woo, I was happy to express his emotions and his life.”

However, since Do-joon knows the events of the future, he would be a great friend to have for the financially-minded. Joong-ki said: “A friend from middle school told me if I had the talents of Do-joon, he'd like to buy stocks in Google.”

But the life of the ultra-wealthy isn’t something that Joong-ki would like to experience.

Joong-ki, who has an older brother and a younger sister, said: “Huge amounts of money makes a family have conflict and I hate that. Money is not the number one thing [in life].

“Humans like money but that’s not the number one thing, so I don't want to be reborn into a rich family.”

He claimed he wasn’t a popular kid in school either.

“I was just an ordinary student, not like Do-joon. Silent, a boring type of student,” he said. 

Though, he did reveal that he went to a boys’ school and finally met girls in university, which made him “happy”. According to some sources, the girls were really happy with him, too.

Reborn Rich streams on Viu every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

ALSO READ: 21 new shows to catch in December starring Song Hye-kyo, Daniel Craig, Cha Eun-woo and K-pop stars

drimac@asiaone.com

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