Can you just imagine seeing local announcements saying that Rain’s concert is coming to your city in the U.S.A.—and SOON?
Can you imagine actually being able to buy tickets to his concert from an English site quickly and efficiently?
Can you imagine seeing Rain’s name up in lights—like this?
Can you imagine being there the day Rain took the stage at Madison Square Garden and blew the minds of his sold-out audience?
Can you imagine Sam’s astonishment at being chosen to come up on stage and be Rain’s girl and then getting a kiss to boot?! (Well, she says she got a kiss, but I’ve only seen a picture of a hug…or maybe it wasn’t her saying this? Anyone know?)
Can you imagine writing a fan account about your close encounter with Rain?
Can you imagine reading news articles about Rain’s upcoming concert without having to translate them because they are already in ENGLISH?
Please enjoy this, Rain’s 2005 performance at the Korea/Japan Friendship Concert sponsored by NHK, in Osaka. He hits “It’s Raining” and “I Do”, and he does it oh so well.
Rain 2005 NHK Korea&Japan Friendship Concert in Osaka, JAPAN. (courtesy of 7nanana7 @YT)
If we’re used to anything, it’s seeing Rain on the sides of buses, planes, SUVs, moving vans, and all manner of vehicles rolling. So why should it be any different with his Korea tour? Haha. I’ll take one in black, please. (image: shelleyshea @weibo / tip: wawalala)
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Revisiting Raizo on location: The hottest ninja assassin there ever was! (screen caps: 27ANDREACS @memo-rain)
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Rain’s BEST Beijing 2011, as tagged. Brush your shoulders off, baby boy. ♥
WOW. *continues to gaze Lt. Jung TaeHoon* WOW. *clears throat* What was I going to say… Oh, yeah.
Main caption and first sentence translation:
Hot Summer, [Flight: Close To The Sun] Filming.
Korea’s first public action blockbuster, the movie [Flight: Close To The Sun]…
This looks to be page 26 of a magazine (military, perhaps?). The rest of the text on it gives CJ E&M Pictures the photo credit, mentions an Air Force sergeant (as a source?), and seems to talk about how despite the dreadful heat, someone was devoted to cast shots and visited the base for monthly editing duties. I don’t see Rain mentioned by name, so perhaps this is part of a photo sketch from (or an article about) someone in the production team…?
Well, bottom line: It’s a GREAT picture. Terri thinks that, for those of you familiar with Top Gun, this could be TaeHoon’s “losing Goose” moment. It does not give away any of the story at all, so time will tell! 🙂
— Stephe @cloudusa.wordpress.com
(Photo credit: CJ E&M Pictures / image source: DC Rain Gallery)
Yes, Rain, that is what we said about you back on July 23, when we were trying our darndest to figure out what you were up to concerning your Korea tour.
All of your promo images were so different in style and tone from ADIEU! 2010 and The BEST Rain Asia 2011 stuff, and you were looking so sneaky (haha!), that it felt as if something we wouldn’t expect at all was coming. A concert that bore no resemblance to the other two at all, perhaps.
And that’s what you’ve done.
The only characters that you’ve brought from ADIEU and BEST Asia into your Korea tour are your 90s Hip Hop persona and your locked-and-loaded commando. Virtual reality game superhero: New. 70s fundadelic flower child: New. 80s smooth lounge singer: Sort of new. There are shades of Legend of Rainism suited elegance there, but only until you get past that red blazer and to those GREAT buckled down pants. And your new lounge club way of doing “Love Song” , “Love Story”, and a few other numbers is simply golden. Talk about smoky/sexy/titillating…! (Whew! Moving on.)
But what really makes me happy is how you grabbed old songs from your albums that you don’t sing on stage, or that you haven’t sung in forever, and threw them at us, in your grown-man voice. What a wonderful surprise. That gets you four hearts right there, buddy. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
You make things so much fun. Thank you, dearest JiHoon.
This is always one of my favorite posts to do each month, so enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
Let’s bring En Vogue and Salt & Pepa up into the mix, shall we? “What a Man, what a Man, what a Man… What a mighty good Man!”
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(Rain… Being A Man. Cloud USA 1290 x 810. You can get a smaller size in the Gallery below. *NOTE: You can set it however you’d like, of course, but this is a specially sized wallpaper that looks better “centered” rather than “stretched.” And if you center it on a larger monitor with a black background, everything appears to be floating.)
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(1280 x 730. By wawalalal @The Cloud Photo Board.)
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(700 x 680. From the Rainstorm blog, Osaka.)
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(Lotte Duty Free. 1280 x 1024. Additional sizes are in the Gallery below.)
Rain at his Sepang F1 post-race show in Malaysia, this past April , singing “Harudo” (Not A Single Day). Thanks for sharing, Taki! — ^@@^ [FC] 110410 Malaysia 2011 GP – Rain – Unknown Not A Single Day. (courtesy of kellyazia @YT)
— Written by Stephe Thornton, Managing Editor ^@@^
Recently we posted the news that Rain’s new “Top Gun” movie 비상 [飛上]: 태양가까이 (Flight: Close To The Sun), a revival of the groundbreaking 1964 film Red Scarf and the first aerial blockbuster of its kind in South Korea, has finished filming and is now in post-production.
We were aware that his former director for Ninja Assassin, James McTeigue, was directing a new fictionalized account of the last days of poet Edgar Allen Poe’s life called The Raven, but just today it has come to our attention that Raven is expected to be released in March 2012.
We have always appreciated how McTeigue watched over, encouraged, and supported Rain during his Ninja Assassin odyssey, and we wish nothing but the best for him and his future endeavors. There is no release date nailed down as of yet for Flight: Close To The Sun—so far, word on the street is late 2011 or early 2012—but how cool would it be for their first individual movies after Ninja Assassin to come out at roughly the same time? Both movies are in post-production NOW, at the same time, so time will tell.
Perhaps a few celebratory texts are in their future.
McTEIGUE: “Dude, we’re both killing it at the box office!”
RAIN: “I know! Let’s go drop a couple of soju bombs!” 😉
(The Raven movie poster courtesy of TheFilmInformant.com. We really like it because it’s dark, it’s brooding, and it lists “Ninja Assassin” in McTeigue’s credits at the top! “From the Director of Ninja Assassin and V For Vendetta…”)
According to these captures from the DPCAF site, Rain will be singing three songs: “Love Song” (널붙잡을 노래), “Rainism” (레이니즘 ), and “Hip Song” (힙송), and the legendary Mr. Jose Feliciano will also sing three songs: “Rain”, “Once There Was A Love”, and “Que Será” (What Will Be).
Sounds heavenly to us! With all the artists on the marquee to perform that night, it’s going to be a great show.
[2011 RAIN Korea Tour Schedule/ all concert times from InterPark] August 13, 14 (Sat, Sun) – Busan BEXCO • 7 PM Sat/5 PM Sun Sat 27 August – Daegu EXCO Priest • 7 PM Sat, September 3 – Jeju Convention Center • 7 PM Sat, September 17 – Gwangju (Location TBA) • 7 PM Sun September 18 – Daejeon (KOTRA Trade Exhibition Center) • 7 PM September 24 and 25 (Saturday, Sunday) – Seoul Olympic Park Stadium • 5 PM both days
THE FILMING FOR RAIN’S NEW MOVIE IS DONE AND THE FOOTAGE IN POST-PRODUCTION AS WE SPEAK! Sorry for yelling, but it couldn’t be helped. How exciting is that! *doing a Red Muffler dance* Congrats, JiHoon. 😀
Thanks to Ronnie Yang, a close friend of Rain’s and CEO of Caba Entertainment (a sponsor of the RAIN The Best Show 2011 Korea Concert Tour), we now have video to go with » our previous “Gotta sing, gotta dance” Tweet post from August 9, from the beginning of this month when Rain was rehearsing for his tour.
Nice moves, Rain. GREAT legs, Gori. Thumbs up, Ronnie! 😀
(Original video Source & Credit: noniboy23 @yfrog, 8/30/2011 / courtesy of ratoka @YouTube)
To our delight, this week’s K-Wave Station includes a nice K-Wave News segment featuring the first RAIN The Best Show 2011 tour stop, at the Busan BEXCO venue, the weekend of August 13 and 14.
Reasons you should watch this: 1) Rain. 2) You get a bird’s eye view of the goings-on inside and outside of the BEXCO for the event. 3) You see the vast diversity of Rain’s global fans, who are coming from all over the world to be a part of this tour and to embrace their sister Korean fans. 4) You get translations of some of his chatter to the audience, and of course, most of it is hilarious stuff from JiHoon the Jokester. 5) Rain. 6) Did I say RAIN?
This week’s entire K-Wave episode is pretty interesting, actually, from going on the set of drama “Ojakgyo Family” to a Beautiful Minds segment about actor Kang JiHwan, and other nice tidbits for those of us who adore Rain but like to have more than just the “Rain part.”
(Pssst… I love this show and JaeWon is doing a great job, but sometimes I want to GLUE HIS RIGHT HAND TO HIS SIDE. Just sayin’. 😛 )
BbaekGa getting down (who are you, Bi-ee-ee?), Rain nearly busting his @ss, and some Crew rocking steady to the MiggityMack, all during the Best Daegu encore. ROFLMAO! — ^@@^ 110827 Rain The Best Show in Daegu – Encore ~ Instead of saying goodbye. (credit: miyupy @YT)
Yes, JiHoon, that is what it’s like to have an older woman as “your girl”, dear. We will look you dead in the eye, talk confidently (and loudly) back to you, prance around that stage like we OWN it and make you keep up with us. We’ll even pull mama rank on you, probably. Hiding behind our hands ain’t happenin’.
We will show you more fun than you thought possible. Now you know. Haha! 😀 ♥ What great fan cams!
110827 8 THE BEST SHOW IN DAEGU 내여자이벤트 전 비느님멘트 (a before My Girl moment with Rain). (credit: raintic @YT)
110827 9 THE BEST SHOW IN DAEGU 내여자팬이벤트 (My Girl fan event). (credit: raintic @YT)
Have mercy! Is this a dream come true or what? Our girl Insooni and JiHoon jump-jumping on the same stage together and having a good ol’ time! So great. 😀 I didn’t know who Superstar K winner Huh Gak was until looking him up because of this fan cam, but apparently JiHoon recognized him right off (or met him beforehand). Very cool.
And as you can see, Rain didn’t let his senior get away after all the stage aerobics without giving her a full, respectful bow, as he should have.
Hopefully the brief below means that we’ll be getting more information soon on this very cool and very interesting subject.
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TV Report/News Nate 8/27/2011 — [English translation by rain bird @rain-eu.]
Rain and Jose Feliciano will give a great performance which gives hope to many people
Singer Rain, ahead of his military service, will give a great performance with blind singer ‘Jose Feliciano’.
For the opening acts of The 2011 Festival of The Handicapped’s Art and Culture on September 29th at 6pm, Rain and ‘Jose Feliciano’ will be on board.. ‘Jose Feliciano’ who has overcome a physical disability, is a world-famous singer who has won 8 Grammies and 32 Gold Records.
Meanwhile, while going on a nationwide tour, Rain has been spending busy days.
— Written by: Stephe Thornton, Managing Editor ^@@^
Asia broadcast 8/27. (screen caps: Stephe @CloudUSA)
Holy Moly! We’re — we’re in Dresden! Santokki, indeed! Hello, Mr. Vogler. Good to see!
*calming it down a bit*
Oh, cripes, there goes my blood pressure right back up a few seconds into the first scene, with a dark-suited JiHoon strolling down a Dresden street in the daytime on May 18, on his way to his photo call with Jan and Jan’s MCM-clad cello. 😀 And after the photographers are all satisfied and the photo call is done, we are off to his Classic Meets Pop joint concert rehearsal. This reeks of awesomeness because 1) we’re getting everything from a Backstage Pass point of view, and 2) we get to ogle him in The Gray Tux That Nipped and Tucked in All The Right Places. Sooo cool.
Jan truly is spectacular on the cello, even while Rain is teasing him from across the stage. He isn’t world renowned for nothing, let me tell you. I hope and I pray that one day I’ll be able to attend a Vogler show in person. *sigh*
Oh my my my, peeps… do you all remember back last summer (2010) when JiHoon was in China doing his magazine spread for ELLE? And how one of the interviewers in an article (I’d have to go back and look up which one) mentioned how he comfortably spoke to the photographer in English for a good part of that photo session? Well, that came flying back up in my memory as I watched him conduct this Dresden rehearsal partly in English and in Korean, and if I do say so myself, his English here sounds pretty damn good. MORE than good. As Arsenio Hall used to say, Makes you go hmmmm!
*grinning at the THE KING OF THE WORLD IS COMING, TAKE COVER intro on the opera house JumboTron*
Boy, dig that deep concentration on his face as they run through “Rainism” until he’s satisfied with it. You know he had to be just a tad nervous on top of everything else, being somewhat out of his element like that. Or rather, bringing his element onto an unknown and unpredictable landscape. Bless his heart. “It’s Raining” seemed to go smoothly, and it made me smile to see how some of the tension seemed to leave JiHoon during the times he and Vogler had their heads together about something or other. Vogler had a terrific effect on him (and vice versa!), which is wonderful because it means they weren’t just posturing for the cameras. They genuinely believed in their collaboration for the Dresden Music Festival. They knew that they really were making a difference.
OMG, listen to that cello come in during “Escaping The Sun”! OMG. *strikes a dramatic pose with a hand to my forehead* As Vogler then plays another intro and leads into “Love Song”, I honestly don’t think I can take any more. It’s just too much. Too much of a beautiful thing.
Oh thank heavens that’s over! I was about to explode from over-stimulation of the Pop Classical kind. More than likely, we’ll pick up here next week, so I’d better get myself together and be prepared to “fight the feelin” again!
GREAT episode, JiHoon and RAINY DAY. Until next time, fans!
We’ve put some of the first fan cams out of yesterday’s Best Daegu concert over on our Facebook, and we’re on the lookout for the next batch we hope is coming down the pike. (Not to be ugly or anything, but some Daegu stuff is KILLING our eardrums. Ouch.)
In the meantime, do enjoy these jewels from Busan two weeks ago AND one from 2007, where Rain was dead tired but still managed to belt out “Harudo” like a pro. 😀
(OMG I STILL can’t believe he pulled Chajayo out of his hat! I’ve loved that song for so long, and have never heard it sung live! ♥)
110813_Rain The Best Show in Busan_B4.마리_01 Hip Song+Touch Ya. (credit: B4.마리 / B4marie1 @YT)
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110813_Rain the Best Show in Busan_B4.마리 08 영상+내여자. Clothing tease and “My Girl.”(credit: B4marie1 @YT)
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Someone’s been sweaty and awfully naughty! ^@@^110813_Rain the Best Show in Busan_B4.마리 06 Only You. (credit: B4marie1 @YT)
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110814 24 THE BEST SHOW IN PUSAN 찾아요 (Chajayo). (credit: raintic @YT)
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110814 25 THE BEST SHOW IN PUSAN DANCE TIME. (credit: raintic @YT)
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And a Bonus:
[Fancam] 071027 RAIN RAIN’S COMING in Daegu – Not a Single Day (Harudo). (credit: terry820625 @YT)
Behind every Cloud is a silver lining. His name is RAIN.
Cloud USA (EST. January 21, 2010) is a promotional/fan site where all English-speaking Rain Clouds of every age and ethnicity around the globe can share in their love of JI-HOON JUNG, the talented Korean artist known the world over as RAIN [비] (Bi). We want to provide a comprehensive introduction of Rain to those who may not know much about him, as well as help increase his presence in North America.
We also would like to further the popularity of Korean art and culture in the United States.
ENGLISH SPEAKERS FROM ALL COUNTRIES ARE WELCOME HERE. We hope you will visit and participate often!
Cloud USA
c/o Terri Robinson & Stephe Thornton
P.O. Box 1506
Mableton, GA 30126
EMAIL:cloudusa [at] gmail [dot] com
No copyright infringement intended; all videos (embedded or linked; there are NO uploads) and images remain the property of RAIN and their respective owners and are used for promotional purposes of Rain only.
Cloud USA 