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The Great Kim Myung-min By Eve Berliner |
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By
Eve Berliner In a transmutation of
infinite mystery, he seeps into the interior of the character and disappears
into its burning essence. He is the
mind. He is the body. He is the history. He is Beethoven in the guise of Maestro
Kang, his hair flying in the wind, the majesty upon him. He is Jang Joon-hyuk, the brilliant
surgeon, relentless, amoral, the genius with the heart of ice and arrogance
who leaves you haunted and weeping. He
is the beautiful young man, Jong-woo, brave and ironic, stricken by Lou
Gehrig’s Disease, in a state of dying as he falls deeply in love . He devours the character
and the character devours him. He is
brutal to himself, going to the precipice in pursuit of the truth of the
character, turning himself into a skeleton, emaciated and weakened, starving
himself to the edge of life, disintegrating as the disease ate at him,
consumed him, a 45-pound loss,
suffering as Jong-woo, being Jong-woo. Deep complex characters. And when it is time to
let it go, he plunges into the abyss.
Something is lost from him. Something that was buried in the deep of
him. Kim Myung-min, among the
great actors of the world. In * * * He struggled in
obscurity for years, anonymous bit parts, amateur stage roles, faceless
appearances in the world of Korean television drama, until the accumulation
of despair overtook him and he made the dreaded decision to abandon acting
and relocate to There had been high
hopes. In 1996, he won the Sixth Annual Seoul Broadcasting System [SBS]
Talent Contest, competing against 400 aspiring performers. In 2000, he was
acclaimed Best New Actor and declared a “promising new face.” His 2001 debut as a lead actor in the dark
suspense film, Sorum, drew attention and praise. Once again he was
named Best New Actor. And yet, like a shadow,
he returned to obscurity, disappeared off the radar; going nowhere. The terminal blow was the motorcycle stunt
accident for the film, Stuntman, an acrobatic ride that resulted in a
four month hospitalization, smashed legs, surgeries, pain and thoughts of
letting go the dream. The year 2004
was a bottomless pit. It was to be the strange
confluence of destiny in the darkest hour, the beautiful birth of his son,
Jae-ha and the simultaneous coming of the Immortal Admiral Yi Soon Shin, who
arose out of the mist, the role that would transform his destiny, the true
birth of his life as an actor. He
viewed it as a gift from his son. It was an epic
role. Admiral Yi Soon Shin, heroic
legend of Korean history who was victorious against the ferocious Japanese
invaders, died at the Battle of Noryang on His dying words: “The battle is at its height. Beat the war drums! Do not announce my death.” Kim Myung-min’s
performance was of such power, so gripping, so intense, so deeply embedded in
the blood and soul of the nation, that he was immediately elevated to the
realms of artistic greatness. The
year-long KBS television drama would run for 104 episodes. Here is Kim Myung-min’s
emotional Acceptance Speech when he was bestowed the Grand Prize of Acting, The
2005 Daesang Award: “Playing the great
Admiral Yi Soon Shin was the biggest blessing in my life. Dear Admiral, you gave me such mental
anguish but now you give me this great award.
You are truly great. I thank
the Lord for bringing me Yi Soon Shin and encouraging me to restart my life… “I’m truly appreciative
of my great senior actors. They helped
me when I made frantic attempts to mimic Yi Soon Shin. They covered my hollow performance. To our dear extra actors, thank you for
giving your best shot even though you were playing minor roles…They had
suffered in the battlefield filming locations for one and a
half years. Fighting with the extreme hot-cold weather. I love all of you. “I feel grateful to my
wife who had taken care of Jae-ha for about one and a half years. I love you
so much. I promise that I’ll not act
only for myself. Thank you.” * * * The ensuing years have
produced works of extraordinary power:
Beethoven Virus, a masterpiece.
Among his greatest
creations, Maestro Kang Gun Woo, [Beethoven Virus], world-renowned
conductor; blistering, sharp, autocratic; fearsome detonations, cruel verbal
assaults …and yet…and yet, a figure of supreme elegance and beauty, a
rhapsodic conductor, the orchestra swept under his power, his magnetic spell. Something there in the
loneliness of him, old scar of childhood, old hurt deep in the heart
ensconced by a hard, magnificent shell, the beautiful hidden vulnerability
there in the eyes, in the slight breaking of the voice, the pain within. The Maestro walks with
immense grace accompanied by his great companion Thoven, his large, utterly
beautiful collie dog floating along beside him, as if out of a dream. And as Kang Mae [Maestro Kang] lies down
exhausted on his bed late one evening, gulps a handful of pills, slips on his
black sleeping mask, and falls into a deep, impenetrable slumber, he is
unaware that the open bottle of sleeping pills has fallen on to the ground
and Thoven is devouring them. He awakens to Thoven’s
lifeless body sprawled on the floor. Distraught, frantic, he
is beside himself with shock and grief.
In the end, Thoven’s
life is saved by a viola player/veterinarian in the orchestra. “Thoven, my poor Thoven,
what you went through,” the Maestro cries out. On the floor, holding, cradling Thoven in
his arms, sobbing, burying his face in her luxuriant white fur, “Thoven, my
poor Thoven.” * * * So many incredible
scenes. The concert of the
imagination in the field. The wind
softly blowing, fraqrance of flowers. “Crescendo! “Fantasia” “Like a dream,” the conductor
utters. And he is lost into the
music, the orchestra transported, Gabriel’s Oboe on the wind. * * * The erotic scene, Closer
to Heaven, the stricken Jong Woo now a paraplegic, his body, but not his
senses, failing him, the lovemaking so extraordinary, so rich, so deeply
intimate and honest, beautifully suggestive, shadows on a wall – their act of
love transcending the tragic to the sublime, their true love more powerful
than inexorable death. * * * The fire scene, Lord
of the Dramas. Anthony Kim,
ruthless, selfish, despised television producer, king of the industry, as
portrayed by Kim Myung-min. And it is Anthony who,
in an astounding revelation of character, runs into a raging inferno of a
fire that has erupted on the set to save the pathetic old actor who several
minutes earlier had been fired for disrupting filming with his tubercular
coughing. Anthony emerges from the flames with the old man in his arms. The
cast, transfixed, breaks into cheers. * * * The first concert of the
orchestra, Beethoven Virus. And what passes almost mystically between
Kang Mae and Ru-mi, the first violinist, during that glorius opening concert,
a nameless connection, deep and inchoate, unbeknownst to him, taking him
unawares, as he pulls her through a hearing crisis during the performance –
his eyes, his voice suffused: “Hey Gamecock, look at me, Stay with me. More
softly. Slow,” he murmurs. An inner struggle over
Ru-mi. Battling with himself. Talking to himself: “That time why did you
have to do that to me. However bad the
loneliness. I was already used to
bearing with it…And suddenly when someone comforts me...” At drama’s end, the
Maestro is offered the position of lead conductor of the esteemed Munich
Philharmonic. At his goodbye with Ru-mi,
he suddenly grabs her arm, removes his own ring, and places it in the palm of
her hand, closes her hand over it. . She clutches it, places it on her ring
finger. “It’s not the time yet but the time is
coming. I know it. I can’t run forever,” he says. “I know
that.” And walks off into the distance, his beloved
Thoven by his side.
* * * The drama, White
Tower, among the greatest of his creations, Dr. Jang Joon-hyuk, chief of
surgery, driven by untamable ambition and the lure of challenge, his mind,
his scalpel, his forceps, his daring – these, his surgical weapons. Arrogant,
brilliant, slicing mind, imperious, obsessive, many enemies, but always
commanding the highest respect as the physician, always striving, reaching
for the next pinnacle. The young interns
idolize him: “How can we be like
you?” “Don’t rest and fight to
the end. Then you will get what you want,” he responds. Dr. Lee Joo-wan, his
former professor, predecessor as chief, adversary: “Pride is the path to destruction
and arrogance will make you fall,” he remarks tellingly. The surgery scenes are
riveting, high-wire performances by Dr. Jang filled with tension.The
never-before-attempted triple transplantation of liver, pancreas, and kidney,
in a patient riddled with cancer, the rich American medical director’s wife. The incredible triple organ transplant is Dr.
Jang’s peak and his undoing. In the intoxication of
his achievement, he neglects a lesser patient who dies in the aftermath of a
misdiagnosis of complications, after successful surgery. Dismissive of the patient’s deteriorating
condition, his ambition blinds him to his duty. His patient pays the
price and he pays the price as well. The family of the
deceased launches a medical malpractice suit against Dr. Jang Joon-hyuk and
the hospital. An excruciating,
protracted legal hearing is undertaken, and Dr. Jang is found guilty of
malpractice. The toll it takes on him
is Draconian. He is stricken with a
sudden, vicious, aggressive cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, a rare malignancy of
the bile duct. The death scene, an
unspeakable sorrow, as if your own loved one was dying, everyone weeping, no
matter how loved or hated he was, treacheries between these doctors,
jealousies, they are all weeping. His
father-in-law, his child-like wife, his closest friend, Dr. Choi, his loyal
interns, and even Dr. Lee, who had stepped in to perform the final high risk
surgery in an attempt to save his life, only to discover that the metastasis
was everywhere and inoperable. Dr. Lee
wiping his eyes with grief. His last spoken words
raspy and barely audible: “My surgery is a
success. “It isn’t me. “I didn’t do anything
wrong. It isn’t me. “Scalpel”… moving his hand in a surgical
maneuver… “Dying. I’m
going to wake up. I’m going….” * * * “I watched it at home
and felt like it was me who had actually died. I sat there empty-headed until late at
night. He may have been viewed as a
villain but many times I cried for him in my heart. That may be why I’ve found it so hard to
forget about him.” –
Kim Myung-min * * * The deaths. The doctor’s death. The death of Jong-woo. The death of the Immortal Admiral. Haunting. Wrenching.
Three of the four
protagonists die, another one goes blind
[Anthony Kim]. Only one happy
ending, Bad Family, a 2006 gem,
a wonderful riot, sentimental, ingenious, wacky and endearing little fantasy,
Kim Myung-min portraying a lovable thug. [ex-thug], with his thug street
accent, his crazy walk, his shyness. A great gift for comedy. And they all live happily ever after. * *
* The Drama Awards that
have been bestowed upon Kim Myung-min are too vast to enumerate. But among them: 2009: 30th
Blue Dragon Film Awards: Best Leading Actor, Closer to Heaven;
46th Daejong Film Awards: Best Leading Actor, Closer to
Heaven; 45th Paek Sang Arts Awards: Best Television
Actor, Beethoven Virus; 2008: MBC Drama Awards:
Grand Prize, Beethoven Virus; 3rd Korea Drama
Festival: Awards, Best Actor in
Television Drama, Beethoven Virus; MBC Drama Award
Awards: Best Television Grand Prize, Beethoven Virus; Grand
Prize, Daesang Drama Award, Beethoven Virus; 2007: Paek
Sang Arts Awards, Best Television Actor, White Tower; 20th
Grimae Awards: Best Actor, White Tower; Paek Sang Awards
for Best Actor, White Tower; 2006: SBS Drama
Awards: PD Award, Bad Family; 2005: Grand Prize,
2005 Daesang Award , Immortal Admiral Yi Soon Shin;18th
Grimae Awards: Best Actor Immoral Admiral Yi Soon-shin; KBS
Drama Awards: Grand Prize, Immortal Admiral Yi Soon-shin. * * * In closing, the
wildly improbable happened to this most serious actor, Kim Myung-min, with
the airing of those 18 episodes of “Beethoven Virus” to the South Korean public
on MBC-Television in 2008 and 9. Maestro Kang became a
pop culture phenomenon! A
sensation. The scowl, the half-lip
curling with contempt, smirking with self-conceit and nastiness, fodder for
late night television comedians. And
on a cold January afternoon, thousands of young screaming girls, enthralled
with him, descended on his small table at his first fan signing, the girls in
a state of chaos and ecstasy, Kim Myung-min in a state of disbelief, laughing
to himself, shaking his head at the quiet amazement of it all. KIM MYUNG-MIN: THE ACTOR IN PERFORMANCE [video] *TRAILER CREATED BY
EVE BERLINER
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