Rain Under William Morris Agency

Rain (left) signe a contract with John Mass (right) at Lotte hotel in Seoul. Photo from OSEN (www.osen.co.kr)

     The Korean famous pop singer-cum-actor Rain (In Korean, 비[Bi]) and in real, Ji-Hoon Jeong) signed with the William Morris Agency (WMA) on Feb. 13. 2008 at Lotte Hotel in Seoul. Head of Corporate Consulting of WMA, John Mass and Dong-Won Cho, the CEO of Rain’s Korean representative company, jTune Entertainment attended to the press conference and announced the strategic alliance between WMA and jTune. In this conference, they announced that Rain will be a hero in the new movie, ‘Ninja Assassin’ which is the succession of ‘Speed Racer’ and will be directed by Joel Silver and Wachowski brothers. As the press describes, “WMA boasts a 100-year-old history, helping legends like Elvis Presely and Marilyn Monroe rise to stardom. It has also discovered actors, writers and directors that eventually took part in hollywood blockbuster films like ‘Spiderman 3′, ‘X-Men’ and ‘Kill Bill’. In addition, the agency took part in producing and distributing popular TV shows like ‘24′, ‘Lost’ and ‘American Idol’. International stars like Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson, Alicia Keys and Eminem also belong to the WMA.” (http://english.kbs.co.kr) Moreover, Yun-Jin Kim, the actress of ‘Lost’ is also under the WMA.

     Actually, even though Rain was one of my old friends and I saw his potential long time ago, I could not expect that he would be this kind of a big star. When I was friendly with him, he was just a boy who much liked to dance and enjoyed with others. After he told me his dream to be a singer, he entered an art high school. At that time, no one knew how he famous he would be. However, he is stand on the world market with his own name, Rain (Bi). He was so successful from music to movie and soap drama in Asian market and then most teenagers and 20s know who Rain is in Asia. So, no one suspect his success in the Asian market now. However, it is questionable whether he could success not only US market, but also whole world market. As an Asian, especially as a Korean, there are just few people who succeed in the US market. For example, although Yun-Jin Kim stand in a good position in ‘Lost’ and became a successful Asian actress in US now, there was lots of obstructs behind her success like the race discrimination.

     Compare to Yun-Jin Kim, Rain’ English is just on the first step now. Although he is trying to learn English, it will be much difficult to learn not only the language skills, but the US culture which is most difficult for me for my whole US life. So this would disturb the communication with others, even though there is an interpreter around him. Moreover, he is originally a singer, not an actor. It would be good challenge for him to play an actor in order to be a multi-entertainer. It is obviously true that the more experiences, the better success he can grab. However, he tries to enter the US entertainment market as an actor which is not his best talent. Actually, his fame was based on his song and dance, not on acting. So, I hope that he would focus more on his activities in US as a singer than as an actor.     By taking in the WMA boat, Rain will be able to take the wings named WMA and then fly to the US market with the wings outspread. As I think, his success in US market would be depend on what market strategies for Rain WMA have and how much Rain would try his best by overcoming the despairs from everywhere he stands. As a old friend, I really hope that he can be stand in the US market with his name, Rain.For more infomation about Rain,

http://www.asiafinest.com/korean/rain-bi.htm

http://kr.youtube.com/results?search_query=Rain+Korean&search_type=