PUBLISHED ONApril 17, 2023 9:17 AMByJolynn ChiaSouth Korean entertainment is undeniably popular, but behind the scenes, it can be an intense world – actor Kim Jae-hoon, also known as Kimkim, can attest to this.
Speaking to AsiaOne recently, the South Korean singer-turned-actor, who has been acting in Taiwan for the last 10 years, spoke candidly about his past experience as a K-pop trainee in his home country.
The 30-year-old shared: "Competition for (K-pop) trainees was very stiff. Newbies were working in an extremely tense environment.
"As a trainee in South Korea, there was a lot of pressure about not debuting – we were worried that we would be removed [from the programme] without debuting."
And of course, there were high standards placed on their looks.
"I am not fat now, but I had to be even slimmer as a member of a K-pop group," the actor recalled. "I had to be 63kg or below and maintain it."
Speaking in Mandarin, Kimkim felt that it was fate that brought his career to Taiwan, and his switch from singing to acting. He had a chance to do press interviews in Taiwan and found the environment more relaxed than in South Korea.
While in South Korea, one's popularity in K-pop was more dependent on whether the management company was big enough and thus able to do enough publicity for the bands, Kimkim felt that it was more meritocratic in Taiwan showbiz.
As long as he worked hard, he would be able to get opportunities to develop his career.
And work hard he did, especially in picking up Mandarin.
"Every day, I watched Chinese dramas and read Chinese newspapers, and mimicked the way they speak in Taiwanese dramas. I also attended classes for pronunciation," he added.
Now that he has filmed his first drama series in Singapore, Oppa, Saranghae!, Kimkim observed that the environment here is similar to that in Taiwan.
Both places are relatively more relaxed than South Korea when it comes to showbiz, but he also noted Singapore's multiculturalism.
"During filming, there are fewer people surrounding me in Singapore than in Taiwan, but the language is different because you have people from different places. Your cameraman could be from Hong Kong, the stylist from Malaysia and some people speak Hokkien."
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Kimkim started his showbiz career as a member of K-pop band Quattro Code in 2013. He has since acted in several TV drama series, including See You in Time (2017), My Tooth Your Love (2022) and Women in Taipei (2022).
In Oppa, Saranghae! Kimkim plays Du Xiaojun, the love interest of 40-year-old career-minded woman Qiqi (Rui En) who manages to magically pull him out of her TV. The show follows Qiqi as she navigates her new relationship alongside her career and friendships.
The twist is that the actual heartthrob actor who portrays Xiaojun, fictional South Korean actor Cha Tae-woo (also played by Kimkim), is also in Singapore and in a relationship with Qiqi's colleague Shine (Tasha Low).
Meixin acts as Qiqi's best friend and leader of Tae-woo's fan club.
When asked about K-dramas and whether he would want to pull any characters out of the TV like in Oppa, Saranghae!, Kimkim instantly mentioned the popular series The Glory (2022), which is a revenge story that revolves around school violence.
"Of course I'd want to pull out the evil villain in The Glory and beat her up. I'm not sure about current times, but school violence was indeed a persistent problem during my school days," Kimkim told us.
He revealed that he had suspected his classmates were being bullied. It did not necessarily happen in front of him, but he had an inkling that they were treated poorly by others. Most of the students would pretend that they didn't know about school bullying to avoid becoming implicated, he said.
Although he has moved on from Korean showbiz, Kimkim still watches K-dramas frequently as he sees it as part of his training as an actor, and also to learn from shows which are popular.
This might have helped him in his roles in Oppa, Saranghae! where he found that the greatest challenge was playing two different characters, namely fictional South Korean actor Cha Tae-woo and K-drama character Du Xiaojun.
"I even read the scripts for the characters separately so that I wouldn't get confused," he added.
Though Kimkim found playing Tae-woo to be slightly easier as they shared the same profession, he felt that there was difficulty as Tae-woo was a superstar but he was not one himself.
Understandably, his most memorable scene came from the one where Tae-woo came face-to-face with Xiaojun in the show.
He also added that he had many kissing scenes in the show and he found it challenging as all of them involved "different plots, different contexts and different persons", though he was careful not to reveal any spoilers.
Oppa, Saranghae! is currently streaming on meWATCH, and will be shown on Channel 8 Mondays to Fridays at 9PM.
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