[News] Jang Keun Suk’s multi-sided charm invades Japan

Source article: ifensi
English translation: Aphrael77

Jang Keun Suk’s charm invades Japan – Jap media compliments his multi-sided charm

13 May 2011 – Korean star Jang Keun Suk’s debut single “Let me cry” topped the Oricon weekly sales chart upon its release, making JKS the only overseas artiste to achieve this feat in history. The splendid results from his first entry onto the Japanese music scene has served to increase his reputation accumulated from “You are Beautiful” (YAB), as well as made the Korean media look at JKS in a new light and start to analyze the reasons for the “Jang Keun Suk” effect in Japan.

Japan Fuji TV’s star programme “Hey! Hey! Hey!” had an interview with JKS and to increase viewership, the interview was spread out over 2 weeks. Their afternoon drama slot is currently airing YAB for the third time, becoming the overseas drama with the most number of repeat broadcasts. TBS will air “Marry me Mary” from 20 May, another drama starring JKS. A strong competitor to Fuji and TBS, Japan TV is not lagging behind – “Sukkiri”, its morning general news programme, aired a special 19-minute feature “New Hallyu IKEMAN Jang Keun Suk” on 12 May, analyzing the reasons why 23 year old JKS has become Japan’s brightest Hallyu star. “Sukkiri” points out that besides the two known external reasons of JKS’ acting skill being honed since his high school days and his singing prowess, Jang Keun Suk’s gender-neutral sexiness and his consideration and sincerity towards fans and fellow workers are his internal characteristics that account for his gradual transition to the ranks of Hallyu superstars.

Just walk into any bookstore in Tokyo, in the Korean section, more than half the magazines have JKS on the cover. After JKS-endorsed Suntory makkori commercial aired on major TV stations in Japan, Suntory sales for the past 2 months have jumped, selling around 7,000,000 bottles.

“AN AN”, the Japanese magazine most popular among Japanese young women, initially only decided to do an interview with JKS for one issue, but after the chief editor saw JKS’ excellent photos at the set, she could not bear to just insert the photos as part of the interview, so she made the risky decision to put JKS on the cover page, with his photos and interview as a main selling point. Never did the magazine think that their sales for that issue was 30% more than usual (280,000 copies). “AN AN” editor expressed that despite this issue being released only 2 weeks after Japan’s big earthquake and the whole of Japan was in a self-restrictive mood, sales was not only unaffected but in fact better. The editor pointed out JKS’ unique characteristic: his gender-neutral sexiness which was different from the previous, main-stream male Hallyu stars who emphasized on masculinity. And JKS is only 23 years old; in future, he has many more charms yet to be discovered.

GAM magazine prepared a special JKS-devoted magazine “Cri-J” with 4 issues over a year. GAM editor said during an interview , “Since the second half of last year, all the news on JKS received much attention. At that time, we felt that he would become extremely popular soon, so we planned this special magazine for him.” She revealed that GAM has two other magazines introducing other big-shot Hallyu stars and general Korean entertainment news, but Cri-J’s sales volume is about 5 times more.

“Sukkiri” interviewed manager Kim Byung Gun who has supported JKS for more than 6 years. Kim says that it is very hard to define JKS’ charm. “His charm lies in his unpredictability. JKS has domestic pastimes such as reading and cooking. He also enjoys the usual guys’ activities such as driving. Not only is JKS considerate towards his fans, he also takes care of his fellow workers. “Sukkiri” points out that JKS’ agent company only has one artiste, which is JKS himself. It is a “family-style” company that is not big, but JKS treats all workers nicely. Manager Kim reveals that once, the workers were working late in the company and “JKS brought food that he personally cooked to thank them for working late, which made everyone feel very touched.”

Interestingly, a new name was brought out by “Sukkiri” programme – Keun-yang. The media rarely uses this honorific way of addressing someone in Japan (usually reserved for big-shot stars like Bae Yong-joon), which indicates that JKS has been included in the ranks of popular Hallyu stars. But fans complained that it sounds awkward; after all, JKS is young, and adding “yang” after his name loses a sense of friendliness.

A few secrets of JKS were also revealed in “Sukkiri”, such as the Japanese actors that JKS admires most are Takuya Kimura and Jo Odagiri, the director he admires most is Takeshi Kitano. A Korean reporter also reveals that JKS’ nickname in Korea is 조노인 jou-nou-in* (which means a young oldish man, being too mature for his age), because although he is only aged 23, he started in showbiz since 5 years old and thus he is more mature than his peers and always so considerate towards people around him.

In Jan this year, JKS was filming the MV for Every Little Thing (JKS’ big fan Kaori Mochida had flown personally to Korea to invite JKS to participate in the MV). At that time, all the workers including Kaori Mochida were feeling very tired because of the tight schedule and the atmosphere was quite down, JKS suddenly said to Kaori, “Mochida-san, actually, I like biscuits very much.” (The pronunciation of ‘biscuit’ in Japanese is the same as the word 持in Mochida’s name). Everyone present burst out laughing at JKS’ attempt to joke. The programme host complimented JKS on being able to say this kind of similar-pronunciation joke which even Japanese may not think of, and that JKS indeed has the potential to become Keun-yang.

If saying that JKS is the first overseas artiste to create the record of being number 1 on Oricon chart in his debut single’s first week of sale is still not enough to understand the situation, another way of realizing the aggressive momemtum of JKS’ development in Japan is that even including Japanese singers, JKS is the only one in 30 years after Kondō Masahiko to achieve this feat. Of course, everything is double-edged. Such a high-level starting point will definitely increase the stress on JKS – the expectations for the box office results of movie “You’re my Pet” and the sales for JKS’ next single will be much higher. As what the Korean media have commented, whether JKS is a Hallyu superstar or meteor (i.e. flashes out of sight fast), only time will tell.

* Translator’s note: I may have gotten the Korean nickname wrong but the meaning is there.

张根硕魅力侵袭日本 日媒赞其是魅力多面体
www.ifensi.com 2011-05-13 09:31:41　来源：粉丝网论坛

韩国男星张根硕的日本出道单曲《Let me cry》初登场即获得公信榜周榜冠军，令他成为史上第一位创下此纪录的海外艺人。进军日本歌坛的第一张成绩单如此漂亮不仅令他继《都是美男》积淀的人气后，在日本的知名度更加UP，也使得韩国本土的媒体对其刮目相看，纷纷撰文剖析日本产生“张根硕效应”的原因。

日本富士台的王牌节目《HEY!HEY!HEY!》对张根硕进行专访，为了吸引收视，把内容分隔成两周进行播出。下午的“韩剧专场”正在热播《都是美男》，这已经该剧第三次重播——成为重播次数最多的海外剧。TBS则会从5月20日起放送张根硕主演的另一部剧集《玛丽外宿中》。而富士、TBS两家电视台的劲敌：日本电视台似乎是不甘落后，在5月12日早晨的情报综合节目《SUKKIRI!!》以“新韩流IKEMAN张根硕”为题，推出约19分钟长的张根硕特辑，解剖年仅23岁的张根硕为何会成为当今日本韩流最旬的明星。该节目指出除了初中的演技和歌唱实力这两个众所周知的“外在”原因外，张根硕身上独具的中性sexy气息和他对粉丝、身边工作人员的周到用心也是令他逐渐迈向韩流巨星行列的“内在”因素。

　　随意走进东京的一家书店，在韩流系杂志一栏中，张根硕当封面人物的杂志占了大半。代言的三得利米酒广告在日本各大电视台播出后，近两个月的销量大涨，约卖出700万瓶。堪称最受日本年轻女生欢迎的《AN AN》原本只是打算做张根硕的一期专访，“但主编在拍照现场看到张根硕状态出奇的好，实在舍不得割爱(只把照片当访问的插图)，于是作出了让张根硕担任这期杂志封面人物(照片、专访主打)这个冒险的决定，没想到那期的销量比平常增长30%(约28万部)”《AN AN》杂志的编辑矢部光树子表示尽管张根硕当封面人物的这期杂志的发行时间是东日本大地震发生的两周后——日本全国都处于“自肃”(自我约束相关的娱乐活动)的氛围中，但销量不仅没有受到影响反而更好。矢部指出张根硕的中性SEXY和“以往主打阳刚男人味的韩流男星有所不同，并且他还只有23岁，将来有太多的魅力有待挖掘”。

　　GAM杂志社专门制作了“张根硕专刊”《CRI-J》，一年分四期发行，该杂志的主编田中千鹤子在接受采访时表示“去年后半年开始，凡是关于张根硕的新闻都获得超高的人气，在那时我们就预感未来不久的时间内他会爆红，于是为他策划了这个专门的杂志”，田中透露杂志社旗下还有两本介绍其他大牌韩流明星的韩流综合专刊“但《CRI-J》的销量是后者的5倍左右”。
《SUKKIRI!!》采访了一直在身边支持了张根硕6年多的经纪人金炳建，后者称很难去定义张根硕的魅力，“他的魅力的不确定性正是其魅力所在。张根硕有爱看书，爱做料理等这些看起来很宅的爱好，也喜欢开车兜风等一般男生爱玩的运动”。张根硕不仅对粉丝贴心，对身边的工作人员也是爱护有加。《SUKKIRI!!》指出张根硕所属的经纪公司只有张根硕一名艺人，虽然是“家庭式”的规模不大的会社，但张根硕对所有的员工都不错。金炳建曝一次，众工作人员在公司熬夜加班，“张根硕亲自做料理来慰劳我们，令大家非常感动”。

　　有趣的是，《SUKKIRI!!》节目引出一个新名词“Keun样”，尽管这个尊称(日本媒体甚少使用，一般将裴勇俊这样级别的韩流大牌才会在其名字上加“样”后缀)标志着张根硕跻身韩流人气明星之列，“可听起来还是挺别扭，毕竟他年纪不大，而且加上‘样’无亲切感”张根硕的某粉丝抱怨道。

　　《SUKKIRI!!》节目中还公开了几个张根硕的小秘密，包括其最欣赏的日本演员是木村拓哉和小田切让，欣赏的导演是北野武等。有意思的是，韩国媒体的记者曝张根硕在韩国的花名是“若年寄”(小老头：指老成、年纪轻轻就暮气沉沉的人)：“因为5岁时就出道，虽然现在也只有23岁，但他看起来比同龄人更老成些，对身边的人都是体贴有加”。
今年1月拍摄日本人气组合Every Little Thing新歌的MV时(该合作也是组合主唱——张根硕的big fan持田香织亲自造访韩国请张根硕出演的)，“当时包括持田等一众工作人员都因档期太紧的缘故，累得够呛，气氛有些低沉，张根硕突然向持田冒出一句‘持田桑，实际上，我很喜欢饼(‘饼’的日文发音和‘持田’的‘持’一样)’，当场的所有人都被他的冷笑话逗得爆笑起来”该节目众主持赞“能说出这样的谐音笑话，即便是日本人也不容易想到，他的确有成为‘Keun样’的潜质”。

　　如果说“出道曲就拿到公信榜周榜冠军是第一个海外艺人创下的纪录”这一说法令人理解起来太抽象的话，那么“即便是把日本本土歌手算在内，张根硕也是继近藤真彦后的30年来第一个获得此成绩的艺人”的说法或者更能让人体会他此次在日本的出道气势之凶猛。“当然凡是都有两面，如此高的起点，也必然会加大他身上的压力——即将开拍的电影《宠物情人》的票房以及下一支单曲的销量会被寄予更高的期望，张根硕是韩流中的巨星还是流星，待时间去验证”某韩国媒体评论道。