Cloud USA

— Cloud cover by: Stephe, Managing Editor^@@^

Big thanks to Kongsao for telling us about her friend Ella Jane, a Chinese Rain fan currently living in London (yes, she met Rain at MCM London back in January, SO cool). Ella Jane speaks Mandarin and Cantonese, and translated Rain’s interview in Chinese Magazine 哈韓娛樂 (6月刊) [Kazakh Korea Entertainment, June] for her friends on Facebook recently.

Thank you, Ella Jane, for emailing us your translation so that we could share it on Cloud USA. What a kind gesture!

Apparently KKE’s information about JYP and SixToFive is outdated, but that’s not so bad a thing. This is a terrific article! Please enjoy the interview, everyone. I certainly did. 😀

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Rain’s Legendary Road to Success, 17th June

2011 English translation by: Ella Jane

Source: 哈韓娛樂 (6月刊) [Kazakh Korea Entertainment Magazine, June]

Images: btm @raincloudHK

Rain is one of Korea’s most legendary artists, he is multi-talented and have successfully proven himself as a top singer, dancer, actor and now producer to boy group, MBLAQ. Although he’s not old, but he already has his own Kingdom! [I wager they’re talking about a “Pop” Kingdom here, folks. I’ve heard that term before in the popular music realm, so don’t let it daze and confuse you. Thanks. — Stephe ^@@^] He is a super human to most of us as he seems to be able to get by with only a few hours sleep any day. And no matter what challenges life throws at him, he always faces up to it courageously and gets through it with a smile.

No one can predict how high or far Rain will go in the future, but his status in Korea’s history is already ingrained firmly in people’s hearts. From his initial debut in Korea to him sweeping Asia by storm, all this is part of the Rain Legend. He debut at a time when KPop was at its high and gained his popularity at his prime. Even at a young age, he had already set his mind on the horizon afar in Asia and America.

We love Rain for his music, for his courage to go and do things no one else have ever dared. Haters have said that Rain is greedy and money hungry and they can’t wait to see him flop and fall flat on his face. But regardless of what people say about him, Rain kept his focus, kept to his plans and work hard towards his dream of being a great singer, actor and a businessman.

Rain has changed the way people appreciate ‘beauty’. Before Rain, only men with manly brows and big eyes were considered handsome. But Rain has opened up a path for men with small eyes and single eye-lids. He truly is the pioneer in this area, making a name for himself and allowing others with the same features to be considered beautiful men.

It was only recently that Rain revealed in an interview that he had visited the plastic surgeon with his manager early on in his career. Thankfully, he gave up on the idea of having plastic surgery in the end. This was because he felt that it was more important to keep the features that were given to him by his parents. He said: “At the end of the day, being an artist is still a job isn’t it, so it is still important to maintain some personal space. And I really wants to greet the world with my true face and identity!”

In early 2006, Rain was selected by the Time magazine as part of the Top 100 Most Influential people. And last year, he was included in the poll for again. Rain felt so proud and said “In the past, the world is dominated by Western culture, particularly American culture, but now Asian culture is also getting more popular so it’s great to see Asian artists making a name for themselves in the world”.

In the public eye, Rain is always very busy, a man who never stops and it’s hard to catch a glimpse of him. But when he does show himself to the public, it is usually when he has big achievements to share. Even though Rain’s work now crosses so many platforms, his main focus and passion still remains in music and in singing. “Back to the Basics” is an album that he created while in the middle of other busy work. His schedule was fully packed, but he still managed to clear a 2 month slot to learn about producing music and writing lyrics. It is also in this “Back to the Basics” that we saw the change in Rain’s style of music, it wasn’t just about hip hop music and dance moves that involved him ripping off his shirt. His music became more deep and even more meaningful as he started to sing more ballets and soulful songs.

Rain wanted to create a world of his own through his music and he was successful in doing this. Starting with his 3rd album “It’s Raining”, he created “Rain’s World” and following that “Rainism”. Even though he’s no longer under the JYP label, he’s never forgotten how JYP brought him in under his wings when he felt the world had turned on him. Rain works hard and always think of ways to improve his music and improve himself. He will never let his guard down and it’s with this attitude that’s how he went from a no-body to the legendary Rain.

As an actor, Rain really admires Al Pacino’s work and his biggest dream to be able to collaborate with him in a movie one day. Rain has participated in two Hollywood films to-date, namely “Speed Racer” and “Ninja Assassin”. Even though it’s only two films but it is a good start for him to play a small role in “Speed Racer” then moving to be the male lead in “Ninja Assassin”. During the filming of “Ninja Assassin”, Rain had to keep his body super fit for the role, he was training day and night and suffered many injuries and in the grilling 8 months, he was only allowed a bland diet of chicken and vegetables. He recently received a lot of invitations to participate in Hollywood films but he’s had to turn them down because of his military obligations. He said that he must follow the law in his country and complete his enlistment.

Aside from the working as an artist, he is now producing and working closely with boy group, MBLAQ and working on his clothing line “SixtoFive. We can’t claim that he’s successful in his business ventures yet but it sure proves that Rain works hard and pushes himself to the face new challenges.

With success, comes envy, Rain has been involved in some court cases in regards to his business and it made him feel hurt and wronged. He said that money is not the drive behind his hard work. He works hard because he is passionate about the work he does and he loves the feeling of achievement and success when he overcomes a challenge.

From the start, it is almost as if Rain is fighting the battle on his own but he remained focus and had to be emotionless at times. In fighting for his dream, he felt he has become Raizo (his character in Ninja Assassin) crushing and slashing obstacles that are in his way. And it may be this strive for success that has made other envious of him and creating unnecessary criticism.

Rain has said that there are 3 drivers behind his motivation:

1. To work hard to provide the best for his family

2. To ensure that he can eat his favorite food and never have to experience starvation again

And the 3rd driver is the most interesting one, he strives to work hard for his haters. This is because in the world, there are those that love him unconditionally, those that don’t care about him and those that find him annoying. Every time he hears bad comments, it just makes him stronger and he works even harder, to show them what he is capable of.

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