Blast from the Past #95: Rain & BMW—Sheer Driving Pleasure
~ Cloud Cover by Terri :-}, Managing Editor
Hello lovely Clouds,
It was completely accidental that I stumbled over this little jewel this morning: An English-subbed version of the FULL commercial film BMW Meets Truth, starring Rain.
This extremely effective BMW advertisement was one of the first glimpses I got of Rain’s stellar acting abilities. I’m a real fan of the soft-sell entertainment approach, too. So, I gotta give kudos to BMW marketers for being bright enough to use Rain’s draw to sell their cars in Korea.
By the way, did you know that BMW has used the soft-sell, entertainment approach in other markets as well? Yes, they have. In the American market (2001-2002), they presented “The Hire” movies, a series of short films shot by famous movie directors and starring Clive Owens as “The Driver.” These short films were seen by 100 million viewers worldwide. If you’re interested, you can watch “The Hire” movies on BMWblog.com. My personal favorites are: The Follow, Powder Keg, Beat the Devil and Ticker.
In 2005-2006, BMW also released their BMW Audiobooks, which featured four short stories written by several of the day’s popular authors. You can listen to BMW’s podcasts of those four stories on BMW’s Podcast Website. They are also supposed to be available on iTunes for download, but I couldn’t access iTunes’ store this morning. So, I can’t say for sure whether they are or not. But you can check that out for yourself.
When you have some time, please do read about Rain’s entire BMW Meets Truth project in our Sheer Driving Pleasure: Rain meets BMW post. In the meantime, however, please enjoy the full film (in 3 parts) below, which includes the full music video of Rain’s song, “I Still Believe,” courtesy of BMW and yllarablonda on DailyMotion.com.
Terri @cloudusa.wordpress.com :-} / www.cloudusa.org
∞∞∞
∞∞∞
Cloud USA 
You know is a shame that this story was made only to advertise a car cuz its so good that it could be a drama series on its own right. Rain’s acting was awesome, so believable and full of shades for this character that you want to see more of it. JYP was good too, I think that he could do a career out of villians characters cuz he do it well. The bald guy is so frigging freaky that gives me the hivee jeeves to this day, great acting and the girl is all we expect out of the damiselle in distress, beautiful, delicate but dangerous. Rain did soo good in this ad that he should be awarded. Just saying…;)
LikeLike
Totally agree, Mari.
Terri :-}
LikeLike
I agree with Bialamode. When I first saw this mv it was soon after I’d watched NA and I was just astounded watching him have so much swag. Love watching him do this choreo, it’s so sexy. This is also one of my fave songs of his and I do think I’ll have to go watch again, not that I’m complaining in the least!
LikeLike
Este es un minidrama, muy bonito y Rain demuestra una vez mas, ser un gran actor. Y la canción “I Still Believe” es muy bonita, es una de mis favoritas, A veces cuando mi mama maneja su auto yo pongo esa canción
y me acuerdo de él. Aquí en Perú ponían estas historias de la BMW en las agencias bancarias, mientras esperábamos nuestro turno.
LikeLike
yup i do i have see this in Youtube
rain was so dark when he mad ahahahah anyway this was about him and his friend his best friend cheat him with rain girl friend and that why rain so mad at her but he could even kill the guy instead they are raising the car together i felt the emotion about how rain felt and love her but she all up loving the other guy !! anway JYP was drink rain and full him around it was good small epi of this i very love MBW how the racing car is also i love the ending too i “I Still Believe,” rain let her goes very love the song too
it a very nice advisement for the car and they put into mini movie is that awesome !!
LikeLike
Did any of you ladies watch the Clive Owen videos? They were quite interesting. I love me some Clive. Yummy. :-}
Terri :-}
LikeLike
Clive is The MAN…..he’s one my favorites too. What videos are you referring to Terri?, I must be out of the loop.
LikeLike
BiA,
In the article I mention the short films by BMW, called The Hire? There are 8 (I think) short films that all star Clive Owens as “The Driver.”
I did mention that, didn’t I? I thought I put a link to them…maybe I’d better go look.
Terri :-}
LikeLike
Yes, I see now……….I missed it sorry! Thanks Terri………….
LikeLike
Heck and these films are on a BMW web site from Houston…..Katy Freeway, I was on that side of town this morning.
LikeLike
Lord, I just watched him in King Arthur this morning. Rarrrrr!
Stephe ^@@^
LikeLike
Yep, me too!
LikeLike
I watched them and my faves were Chosen, Powder Keg, Hostage and Ticker. I found Star rather hilarious though….lol.
LikeLike
Ha ha. Yeah. Madonna was quite the character, wasn’t she?
Cute.
Terri :-}
LikeLike
Talk about a great way to advertise a car….loved watching all the videos, it’s kinda like a mini movie.
LikeLike
Thanks for these videos. “Still Believe in Love” is the first thing after NA that I saw Bi in and saw that Soul-Brotha swag. I went on the “musical journey” with him after that. LOVE This!!
LikeLike
Ladies, make sure you let the videos buffer…or watch them on Daily Motion. WordPress is being a b**ch today.
Terri :-}
LikeLike