Hyun Bin’s Fans Cool Off in Japan
Has Korean actor Hyun Bin been blacklisted in Japan? According to media reports, the 40-year-old Hallyu megastar is getting the “cold shoulder” treatment from the same Japanese entertainment agencies who have up till recently been welcoming him with open arms for fan meets in Japan – the reason likely linked to the actor taking on the role of Korean patriot An Jung Geun in upcoming historical film Harbin.
Agencies Asking for “Other Actors” to Replace Hyun Bin
An agency representative responsible for planning fan meets in Japan expressed that although Hyun Bin’s popularity soared to an all-time high from the success of hit drama Crush Landing On You in Japan, there is an about-turn in agencies’ attitudes, as officials previously competing to secure Hyun Bin’s appearances are now using excuses such as slower-than-expected pre-order sales and venue rentals, to turn down the star’s engagements.
A media official who had previously hosted fan meets for Cha Seung-won and Kim Nam-gil shared, “Japanese agencies which had requested fan meets, picturebook releases and other publicity activities and were in talks with Hyun Bin’s agency suddenly asked if they could have other actors to replace Hyun Bin?”, with the timing of the change coinciding with Hyun Bin’s confirmed participation in Harbin.
Set to be filmed in Mongolia and Latvia, the big budget production stars Hyun Bin as An Jung Geum, a Korean patriot famous for assassinating Ito Hirobumi, the Meiji-era statesman key to the Japanese annexation of Korea. An was ultimately executed by Japanese authorities.
Hyun Bin’s Agency Responds
Given Japan and Korea’s longstanding historical conflicts, entertainers who have previously trodden on sensitive political topics have been impacted– singer Lee Seung Chul was barred from entering Japan for 8 years after holding a concert praying for Korea’s reunification at Liancourt Rocks (Dokdo) in 2014.
In response to ongoing rumors, Hyun Bin’s agency expressed, “As (Hyun Bin) has many overseas fans, we constantly monitor online activities, but have not detected changes in the Japanese market. We are still in contact with the Japanese side regarding commercial activities such as fan meets, television and public performances,” It is understood that Hyun Bin is accompanying his wife Son Ye-jin after the recent birth of their son, and will resume filming for Harbin only after the new year.
Source: Upmedia
I remember there was a period many were talking about World Peace….. Unfortunately, our world is not get more peaceful… our world is tearing apart. The tension in Asia is getting more prominent, along with others in different parts of the world.
World Peace is really hard to achieve… I am looking forward to watching Hyun Bin’s new project.
To be honest there is something much more mundane that affects actors of his age. His core fan base is getting older and on top of it he just got married and got a kid. Current fan culture in whole Asia is too much focused on manly figures, with pleasing facial features and ‘boyfriend’ aura. I believe it is not so political as his agency is trying to spin it, and unfortunately not easily changed. His star is on decline in terms of fan popularity not in terms of acting, on the contrary, I expect more mature roles now from him. That is the reason why they try to prolong single status of guy actors to feed this money making fantasy and obsession. He waited a long time to be able to live his life. However, he was aware of the change that would inevitably come as he crossed threshold of 40. He had a lot of data to analyze and decide how to steer his career from this point on. I am sure he’ll be ok. This environment changed a lot in past 5years not for better, pandemics and lockdowns contributed negatively in how obsessive fans are behaving and how many there are out there , add to that cancelation power, and here we are. Unfortunately this trend is not showing signs of slowing down. I would like to stand corrected and I’ll happily admit to it if anything changes.