Clueless as to why he’s crowned as the “Nation’s Boyfriend” in Korea, Park Seo Jun thinks the only reason is because he’s an honest person.
After having spent a good 2 hours with Park Seo Jun, we are not surprised as to how he earned his title and can certainly list you some very good reasons.
He’s not just eligible boyfriend material, but also a Male Best Friend aka Buddy material. He’s pretty much like the “boy next door” as well.
He may not be one of the funniest stars or those who are good at uplifting the atmosphere, but Park Seo Jun earned the hearts of those present with his earnest and easy going nature. He’s straightforward about his thoughts and is also the 慢热型 who takes time to warm up. He’s pretty humorous in his own “Pabo” way.
What I like about him is, he’s a very down-to-earth person who works hard to attain his goals. Just like Ko Dong Man, despite all the obstacles in his life, he works hard to fight for his dreams. He has just been awarded the “Best New Actor Award” for his movie “Midnight Runners” and is of no doubt, one of the rising stars in Korea.
However, there’s not a single tinge of big-headedness or arrogance aura around him. This is what we call a star of no airs. 大头症 & 难搞 are words that cannot be associated with him.
Like how his celebrity friends mentioned, he’s someone with a strong sense of justice and responsibility. He may not be a “walk out of comic” character, but he has a warm and personable allure that draws you to him. He’s someone you would feel comfortable around.
He could be comical, serious, and romantic in his roles. Some of the very popular dramas that he starred in were “Kill Me, Heal Me” and “She was Pretty”. His latest role as Ko Dong Man has clearly won the hearts of those who watched “Fight for My Way”.
Unlike many other fan meets which do not allow photo taking or videoing, the host Matthew Zachary Liu, lifted this ban and encouraged fans to snap and video to their hearts’ content.
We love hosts like him who understand what fans want. By granting fans this flexibility, it makes the whole event more relaxed and enjoyable. It is also good publicity for the artiste, in my opinion. The power of social media should not be undermined. By sharing all the interesting, funny videos and pictures online, it can reach out to more fans worldwide. Inevitably, it helps to do some free promotions for the artiste.
What does this show us?
Park Seo Jun’s very amicable and doesn’t really mind such stuff and it is also part of delivering excellent fan service.
While most fan meets have similar rundown, with Q&A, games segments, cooking and singing segments, no one seemed to really mind, if they could spend some quality time with their favourite star.
Sometimes, it is the simplest things in life that make it more enjoyable.
His fans are a very enthusiastic bunch. They were never quiet from the moment the fan meet commenced. Many fans flew in from Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and Philippines. There was also a handful of Koreans who are studying or working in Singapore.
I wouldn’t say this is one of my most enjoyable fan meets, but I appreciate his sincerity even in how he really spent a lot of time and effort in preparing the pasta for his fans. He also answered every question from the audience (that was not scripted) while he was spending at least 15 min cooking that pasta.
Now, that is quite uncommon for a Korean fan meet as most questions needed to be screened through prior to the event.
(He’s a selfie king too)
He’s pretty 亲民 and accommodating, when he took wefies and gave big hugs to all who went on stage. He acceded to fans’ requests of recording “Good Morning” videos, singing BD songs, even teasing the fans with a “No” when they wanted to him to say “I Love You”.
The ‘Hi-5’ became a ‘Hi-10’, while he was saying ‘Thank You’ to everyone as they leave, and not rushing by.
It would be good if there were more game segments.
Interview Segment
Park Seo Jun shared some childhood photos and also pictures with his brother. He liked playing baseball, however his brother had the flair for it since young, thus his father only pushed his brother to pursue a career in playing baseball.
Luckily for him, he found something he loves to do as his career, which is being an actor.
Many fans love Park Seo Jun’s look in his police uniform in “Midnight Runners”, thus he took the effort to go through many of his photo albums, so that he could find something special to share with his fans. He finally decided on some of the photos from his military days.
Everyone wore the same uniform in the army, so he did some special effects to circle himself out, so that people can see him.
There were some pictures of him being bald aka “Botak”. It was funny how he tried to pronounce that word.
In that scene where he had to shave his head during “Midnight Runners”, he tried to do the best comedy scene he could, but he felt it could be better. No worries, Seo Jun, we were laughing out very hard at the scene in the cinema.
His fans have different opinions regarding his hairstyle, so he was asking if they prefer the hair put down or combed up. Seems like Singapore fans prefer his hair being combed up.
Personally, I think he looks good either way, but if his hair has to be put down, he looks good with shorter fringe.
The host was asking about his “Bromance” with Kang Ha Neul and the young actor mentioned that there was no word to describe, but the work experience with Kang Ha Neul was really awesome, that so many people love “Midnight Runners”. He also praised his co-star to be a kind and smart guy and it was a good opportunity to work with him.
Qn: How would he describe the movie to those who haven’t watched the movie yet?
He felt that “Midnight Runners” is a very fun movie, where audience can feel the young energy and also watch how much he suffered in the movie. He didn’t even need to tell the fans what to look out for as they would definitely enjoy it.
There were 3 scenes that were picked from “Fight for My Way” and Seo Jun shared his feelings and thoughts while filming these iconic scenes.
He thinks this is an important project for him and that is also the reason why he was able to be here to stage his fan meet.
Scene of Dong Man lending his shoulder to Ae Ra
Qn: Does he really think that such a male best friend “Namsa Ching” like Dong Man exists?
In Seo Jun’s opinion, this type of “Namsa Ching” does really exist. While he was studying this role, he thought that he really learnt a lot from Dong Man’s character.
Scenes that he feels his real life character is similar to Ko Dong Man
He joked that firstly, it has to be his looks. He’s also similar to Dong Man in the way that he also thinks positively. His personal belief is whenever there’s a hardship, there’s always a way to go through it.
Boxing Scene and Confessing to Ae Ra at the Ring
For viewers who have watched “Fight for My Way”, you would remember this epic scene whereby it’s a mixture of intense boxing action scenes, complimented with the swooning romantic scene when Dong Man walked up to Ae Ra and knelt beside her after he won the match.
It was Park Seo Jun’s first time filming at this place called Octagon. He worked 13 hours on that scene though it was just a few minutes in the drama.
As he had to stay half naked for the scene, there was a period of time when his muscles became less obvious. He felt that many people were watching Dong Man fight in the ring, so he did push ups whenever he was free.
It was really exhausting and then there was this romantic scene where he had to confess to Ae Ra. He wanted very hard to be romantic and tried to blend into the character but he was too exhausted from the previous scene. Many would have noticed that he had very big eye bags as he was too exhausted.
He also had to kneel down to look up at her (demonstrating how it became 翻白眼), so it was really very tiring.
He also confessed that his abs are “melting” and he would show his abs the next time he comes for a fan meet as the fans were all screaming for him to take off his top.
He likes exercising but it is really difficult when he had to do it for the show. It was really tiring in the sense when he had to see a lot of chicken breast when people went for drinking after the show.
Scene where Dong Man was in the middle of the cross junction and shouting in the middle of the road, after he decided to chase for his dreams
It was an inspirational scene whereby Dong Man decided to give it his all for his dreams.
Qn: If any of his fans want to strongly go for their dreams, what advice he would give to them? What about those who don’t know if they should pursue their dreams?
The actor had goosebumps all over him when he was doing that particular scene. It was in the middle of the road where cars were moving. It was a really meaningful scene and it gave him inspiration to think about a lot of stuff in life.
He felt that it is not just for Koreans, but anyone at that age would have share similar problems. It is thankful that he’s pursuing actor as a career as that’s what he wants to do.
He wanted to send a message to the audience through that scene that, if you want something and want to do it, you should do it.
He hopes we can think about a lot of things through the scene because as an actor, he feels that if he can pass the message through the scene, then he is a successful actor.
Qn: What do these projects “Midnight Runners” & “Fight for My Way” mean to him?
He had a very packed and busy year. When he was working on these 2 projects, he didn’t think that they are going to be big hits. It is really good in a sense that, whenever he feels very tired and exhausted, he can feel how the fans are thinking about him. He met the fans through these 2 projects and hope he can show more of Park Seo Jun with more and better projects soon.
Games Segment
The 1st games segment was to draw 2 fans to play the “Bow & Arrow” Game. If the fans could hit any of the dolls on the table, Park Seo Jun would need to do a forfeit. If he managed to hit any of the dolls, he would be spared from one of the forfeit.
There many squealing fans were hoping they were the lucky ones on stage, when they saw how Park Seo Jun held on to the fan’s hand as he taught her how to shoot the targets. The fans received big hugs and back hugs as well from the actor, not to mention individual selfies that got many fans below the stage zealous.
One of the forfeit was the highly anticipated “Aegyo” scene from Ko Dong Man in “Fight For My Way”, shrugging his shoulders, pouting his lips and saying “Tok Dang Eh”…
He was a little embarrassed to do it but he still acceded to the request though it wasn’t meant as the forfeits that he was asked to do.
Fans just love it definitely.
Pasta Making Segment
2 lucky fans got to sit on stage, watching their favourite actor cook pasta for them. As it took quite some time for the pasta to be cooked, the host went down to the audience floor to select many fans who had questions for “Chef Park”.
He was busy preparing the pasta and you could see he was taking it seriously, putting his heart into it. He would look up and address the fans questions or requests.
A lady mentioned that it was her birthday and hoped that Seo Jun could sing her a BD song. The actor led the hall into a mass sing-a-long session for her.
The host cheekily picked one of the male audiences and asked if he was forced to attend the fan meet. He said he came because of his wife and the wife came on behalf of their daughters.
Now, that could be a little awkward for any actor to handle but Park Seo Jun took it in his stride and said in his matter-of-factly sincere tone “I will take on dramas that not only appeal to the young female generation next, but also something that would appeal to their dads and moms, so that you guys will like and would come to my fan meet next time again”.
Obviously, the male audience was pleased with the answer and quipped that he would bring his daughters along the next time.
The pasta looked very presentable. One fan commented that more salt/cheese could be added, while the other said that was the Best pasta she had ever had.
Selfie Segment
Everyone who got selected on stage had an autographed selfie of Park Seo Jun, and took a wefie with him. On top of that, there were hugs as well.
A Thai fan asked if she could bring him back to Thailand and he jokingly said “NO!”.
He mentioned that he really appreciated everyone who came to the fan meet and hope that he would meet his fans through better dramas.
The sweet-nature boy did not forget to send plenty of Love & Hearts to his fans.
Encore Segment
The “Encore” segment consisted of 2 songs that he prepared for his fans. One is “A Little Girl” 소녀 from the popular “Reply 1988” series, while the later is a song that he sang for Witch Romance OST’s “Come into My Heart” 내 맘에 들어와.
(A Little Girl)
His vocal is not too bad for an actor, though it may need further polishing. Nonetheless, it was good enough for his fans who were present.
(Come into My Heart)
(Smiley Seo Jun series)
Hi-Touch
Having been to several fan meets, I was surprised at how we didn’t get whisked out of the hall and running up the stairs to do a high touch.
The little Dong Saeng was at the exit, awaiting everyone who passed by patiently, met their eyes, raised both his palms and did a “Hi 10” gently, saying “Thank You” in English of course.
I said “Thank You” before he did and he gave a little smile.
All in all, I felt that it was a cosy and relaxed night at the fan meet. Nonetheless, we do hope to see more interactive game segments for the fans.
Maybe, the organisers should look into allowing all fans from different categories to get a group photo or selfie each. It is unlikely that everyone in the hall could get a photo but I thought that might be a good privilege to all who paid so much for a ticket to see their favourite star. Or to have different surprises for fans from different categories, would be very sweet as well.
Thanks for being earnest and being the way you are, drawing the distance shorter between yourself and the fans.
Hope to see your new drama soon & do drop by Sunny Island again~
1 Comment