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Seoul is… from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Rain plays an assassin who was trained to be a killing machine since he was a kid; but ran away from the group after seeing his friend mercilessly executed by the clan. He later saved a Europol agent (Naomie Harris) who is investigating the organisation and the duo work together to bring down the clan.

Check out previous video and photos of Rain training with the stunt and martial arts team. The movie will release in American cinemas on November 25.

[video via 16neelloc@Youtube]

Ninja Assassin (2009) movie trailer from YeinJee's Asian Blog

The acronym doesn’t sound as bad, but it’s absolutely bizarre when they tried to justify what it means. Perhaps I’m too old to understand what the younger generations are thinking; the teenage fangirls might think that it’s a wonderfully cool name. (seriously?)

The boys are going to be popular as long as their performance aren’t too bad; K-pop world is dominated by pop groups in the past couple of years, and there’s room for a few more good looking guys or girls.

And having a famous boss like Rain certainly helps.

Music Boys Live in Absolute Quality? from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Their legal team is sending in evidences that the concert venue in Hawaii was unsafe for performance; it’s said that the equipments were not properly installed and the stage was in danger of collapsing. Sounds like a reasonable reason to cancel the show; but I wonder why they didn’t show those ‘evidences’ at the first place.

Meanwhile, Rain and JYPE are facing another lawsuit in South Korea. StarM, the Korean promoter for Rain’s world tour has filed a lawsuit seeking 4.5 billion Korean Won (USD3.4 million) of compensation from the party for cancelling 16 out of the 35 scheduled concerts (including the Hawaiian one) for the world tour.

Most of the US concerts were cancelled mainly because of a trademark infringement lawsuit filed by Rain Corporation which runs a Beatles tribute show (known as RAIN) across the States. StarM claimed that they weren’t informed on time by JYPE about the lawsuit which led to the concert cancellations and financial damages.

Ironically JYPE has always been blaming the incapability of StarM for causing all the messes. Unfortunately for Rain, despite his claims that he was not directly involved with the cancellations, will have to bear with the possible consequences once again.

And it’s not the end of the story; some promoters from US and Canada could be seeking legal action, particularly the one from Los Angeles where the concert was cancelled just hours before the show. Those peeps are probably still thinking on how to hand the legal papers to Rain to bring him to court.

Lesson of the day… be careful with who you are associated with.

Rain’s legal battle continues from YeinJee's Asian Blog

The judgement was made by a federal court on March 19th in Honolulu; both Rain and JYPE have stated their intention to appeal against the decision.

Rain’s Hawaiian concert at Aloha Stadium was cancelled a few days before the scheduled date; he is facing another lawsuit in LA for cancelling a concert just hours before the show (same tour as the Hawaii concert).

Rain’s spokesperson and JYPE’s representative have expressed their surprise with the verdict, saying that they expected themselves to win the case.

Frankly speaking, it would be very naive if they thought they could win… a concert was cancelled, and they don’t have a really good reason not to compensate, or at least share the damages with the concert promoter.

Asian fans might be shocked with the sum though; in Asian cases the compensations would normally for direct financial loses while neglecting other intangible aspects (e.g. punitive, reputation damage)… obviously it doesn’t work that way in the States.

[update] Rain and JYPE reached agreed on a settlement with Click Entertainment; the amount was not disclosed, but it’s expected to be much lower than the initial compensation [via KBS]

Rain ordered to pay USD8mil for cancelled concert from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Rain is starring as a deadly assassin who was kidnapped and trained to be a killing machine since he was a kid, but later begun to question the organisation’s agenda and joined forces with an Interpol agent (starring Naomie Harris) to fight against the organisation. The movie is set to premier in June 2009.

[Check out some earlier pics of Rain training for his role]

Ninja Assassin – Rain’s training and stunt choreography from YeinJee's Asian Blog

The top 10 in sequence are… Kim Tae-hee, Lee Young-ae, Han Ga-in, Song Hye-kyo, Kim Hee-sun, Son Ye-jin, Han Ye-seul, Jun Ji-hyun, Kim Hye-soo and Shim Eun-ha.

Update – Found out from K-popped that there’s a poll for actors too, and the top 10 in sequence are Jang Dong-gun, Jo In-sung, Rain, Bae Yong-joon, Song Seung-hun, Won Bin, Jung Woo-sung, Hyun Bin, So Ji-sub and Lee Byung-hun.

Kim Tae-hee is Korea’s most beautiful woman from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Sunye’s (from WonderGirls) wardrobe trouble seems to be grabbing the headlines though; and Big Bang’s fans are wondering how their favourite group managed to end up with nothing at all considering how red hot they are at the moment.

The Winners [via Kbites]

Daesang – TVXQ (Disk), Jewelry (Digital)
Bonsang (Disk) – TVXQ, Kim Dong-ryul, SG Wannabe, Rain, Brown Eyes, Shinhwa
Bonsang (Digital) – MC Mong, Brown Eyed Girls, Jewelry, Wonder Girls
NewComer Award – SHINee (Disk), Davichi (Digital)
Popularity Award – Son Ho-young, TVXQ (Disk) & F.T. Island, Tae Yeon (Digital)
Trot Award – Jang Yoon-jeong
Rock Award – Nell
Special Achievement Award – Kim Changwan
New Trend Award – Kim Jong-wook
Producer Award – Lee Soo-man of SM Entertainment

Korean Golden Disk Awards 2008 from YeinJee's Asian Blog

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Jang Dong-gun and Rain – SK Telecom commercial from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Nice body shape and great flexibility; seems like his ninja training was working well…

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Rain bare chested for Only You from YeinJee's Asian Blog

The talk of the town goes to Lee Hyori and Big Bang’s special stage, where Hyori and TOP shared a little smooches… [more kissing pics on Kbites and K-popped]

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Mnet KM Music Festival 2008 from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Rain – Rainism music video from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Nothing special, but a nice song nonetheless.

Rain – Love Story music video from YeinJee's Asian Blog

The power of love

Matthias Steiner of Germany was the men’s +105kg weightlifting champion on Tuesday. When I first saw the picture, I thought of how romantic this guy was… I only knew a day later that the woman in the picture was his wife Susann, who died in a car accident last year, and it sparked plenty of emotions…

Matthias with his gold medal and a photo of his late wife (Image via Beijing2008)

This will probably be the most memorable Beijing Olympics’ photo for me… it draws love, sadness, romance, pride, commitment and loyalty. If I am a woman I would probably fall in love with this guy.

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Beijing Olympics roundup (7) from YeinJee's Asian Blog

The Korean heartthrob announced his plans during a gathering (named “Summer Vacation with Rain”) with more than 3000 fans at the Seoul Olympic Park’s Olympic Hall on Sunday.

Rain and MC Kim Jae-dong

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Summer Vacation with Rain from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Some good questions, and good answers; definitely sounds better than the interview I made. Still need to improve his English obviously, but kudos for the effort… at least he tried.

Rain answered Time’s readers-submitted questions from YeinJee's Asian Blog

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Rain training for Ninja Assassin from YeinJee's Asian Blog

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Rain vs Stephen Colbert from YeinJee's Asian Blog

The interview was done via an interpreter; the only English words Rain had said were “Hi, I am Rain” and “Thank you, thank you. Nice to be hearing from you”… but I’ll take it as an honour regardless. Full transcripts below…

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Korean pop star Rain exclusive interview from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Three videos below… the intro of the original Japanese anime, opening of the US anime, and one of the official trailers of the 2008 movie…

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Mach Go! Go! Go! @ Speed Racer from YeinJee's Asian Blog