Fans of South Korean actor Park Bo Gum got more than they bargained for at the star’s sold-out fan meet last Saturday.

The three-hour event at The Star Theatre at The Star Performing Arts Centre in Buona Vista was longer than the typical two hours for such events, which usually include re-enactments of K-drama scenes, games with fans and singing.

It also sprung a surprise guest – popular Descendants Of The Sun star Song Joong Ki, 31.

Park, 23, was on his best form, performing crowd-pleasing antics with the zest of an Energizer bunny on a mission to make his fans feel special.

On stage, he handmade yubuchobap, a Korean dish of tofu pockets stuffed with rice, then tenderly fed one to an admirer.

Read also: 1,500 more tickets released for sold-out Park Bo-gum fan meet

He ran after fans to give them a handshake or hug as they left the stage after a game and several audience members went home with mementos including soundtracks from Park’s television dramas and outfits he had worn before.

The actor also gave civil servant Shirley Ong, 29, an early birthday surprise, picking her out from the audience to sing her a birthday song – a request from Ms Ong’s sister, who was with her at the show.

He also wrote her a birthday card and gave her his pullover sweater.

After the show, Ms Ong, who is born in April, was still reeling from what she described as a “surreal experience”.

“I was immensely surprised. I wondered if I heard wrongly at first, but later I realised he was talking about me. It was really touching that he wrote me a personalised card.

“This is the best birthday of my life,” says the bachelorette.

The actor also stayed behind for 11/2 hours after the show to give each fan a high-five on stage.

Student Michelle Tan, 19, speaking to The Straits Times after the fan meet, says: “It was my first time seeing my favourite idol up close. Even though Park was tired after high-fiving so many fans, he still greeted each with the same amount of energy and enthusiasm.”

Read also: Park Bo-gum named most hardworking actor of 2016

The first batch of 2,000 tickets to last Saturday’s event sold out within three hours in December last year, prompting local organiser Unusual Entertainment to release another 1,500 tickets.

The second batch soon sold out too.

These ticket-holders got to see two of the hottest Korean actors at the same event.

Both Park and Song ruled last year’s K-drama scene – Park in the top-rated period drama, Love In The Moonlight, and Song in the global hit, Descendants Of The Sun.

The pair, who are from talent agency Blossom Entertainment, are fast friends.

The younger Park counts Song as his mentor and, in a previous interview, told of how he sought advice from Song when he was at a loss on how to tackle his crown prince role in Love In The Moonlight.

This is the third time Song is appearing during Park’s Asia tour. He was also with him at a fan meet in Thailand earlier this month and at another meet in Taiwan last month. Singapore is Park’s last stop on his Asia tour to meet fans.

Many went home satisfied.

Ms Joyce Tay, 24, who works in sales, says: “Song Joong Ki made waves in the first half of 2016 and then it was Park Bo Gum’s turn in the second half of the year.

“It is rare to have an opportunity like this to see two top actors at one meet.”

This article was first published on Feb 20, 2017.
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Actor Lee Min-ho will drop an album worldwide in March, according to the actor’s agency MYM Entertainment on Friday.

Through the new single, titled “Always by Lee Min-ho,” Lee wanted to communicate with fans the “happiness and gratitude he felt” during his 10-year career, according to his agency.

The song will be revealed for the first time at a fan meeting at Seoul’s Kyung Hee University on Saturday and Sunday.

Lee previously released songs from 2013 to 2015, also in tribute to his fans.

Songs such as “My Everything” and “Song For You” then topped the Oricon Daily Albums chart in Japan. “Song For You” ranked No. 1 on Taiwan’s iTunes chart.

“It is not ordinary for an actor who is not officially pursuing a singing career to release an album internationally,” Lee’s agency said.

Angelina Jolie will unveil her new film on the horrors of the Khmer Rouge era on Saturday at the ancient Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia, a country the star shares a deep affinity with through her adopted son Maddox.

Cambodia’s king and survivors of the communist regime will be among some 1,500 people invited to the debut screening of “First They Killed My Father”, directed by Jolie and based on the memoirs of Loung Ung.

Loung Ung was five years old when Khmer Rouge troops, led by Pol Pot, swept into Phnom Penh plunging her family into a harrowing ordeal that saw them sent to brutal labour camps before her eventual escape to the United States.

In its quest for an agrarian Marxist utopia, the regime killed up to two million Cambodians between 1975-79 through execution, starvation and overwork.

It is the second movie by Jolie to tackle the subject of genocide — in 2011 she made a film about the Bosnian conflict featuring mostly local actors.

But her latest silver screen offering is more personal.

Jolie adopted her first child Maddox from an orphanage in Cambodia’s western Battambang province in 2002 and she has been given Cambodian citizenship.

The Hollywood star previously said it was Maddox who pushed her to make the film.

At a press conference in Siem Reap, Jolie described Cambodia as a “second home”, adding that she chose Loung Ung’s book because she wanted to tell the story of the Khmer Rouge era “through the eyes of a child”.

Read also: Brad Pitt refuses to pay Angelina Jolie $141,380 in child support

It also brought her closer to her son, she said.

“I wanted to focus not just on the war but on the love of family and on the beauty of the country and in fact I wanted to understand what my son’s birth parents may have gone through. And I wanted to know him better and I wanted to know this country better,” she said.

Maddox is accompanying his mother on the trip and was seen visiting the Angkor temple complex on Friday.

Local cast and language

In a tribute to those who survived the brutal regime, Jolie has pushed to ensure the film would be both made by Cambodians and accessible to them.

Almost the entire film is in the Khmer language while the cast members and much of the crew were local hires, including the two child protagonists.

The film is also co-produced by Rithy Panh, Cambodia’s most acclaimed filmmaker.

He lost almost all his immediate family during the Khmer Rouge years but went on to produce searing documentaries that helped break the silence surrounding the genocide.

Loung Ung, who Jolie described as a “family friend”, said that while the film centred on her family’s experience, her story would be familiar to all Cambodians.

“I view it as the story of all of us,” she told reporters.

Despite the prosecution of a few top Khmer Rouge cadres, the genocide continues to be a controversial subject.

Strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen, who was a former regime cadre before he defected and has run the impoverished country for more than thirty years, is opposed to any new prosecutions of regime leaders.

But the Cambodian government has welcomed Jolie’s film so far.

Veteran foreign correspondent Elizabeth Becker, one of a handful of western journalists to visit Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge era, described Jolie’s film as “heartrending”.

“You see how a country as beautiful as Cambodia could experience genocide,” she told AFP.

Jolie added that she hoped her film would remind viewers of the need to help children escaping war and persecution today.

“There are little Loungs all around the world today in many different countries, many different war zones where we have no access to them and we don’t know if they’re going to be alright,” she said.

The premiere will be followed by screenings across Cambodia, some seven months before the film is released to a global audience on Netflix.

Jolie’s arrival in Cambodia marks a rare public appearance since her high-profile split last year from Brad Pitt.

Together they raised Hollywood’s most celebrated family, with three of their six children adopted from overseas.

With chiseled features and deep dark eyes, Go Soo has earned himself the nickname “the statue of David” among Korean fans — but his identity as an actor has been less defined.

Now nearing 20 years since his debut, the actor had a busy but less-than-noticeable 2016, starring in the TV period drama “The Flower in the Prison” as a mysterious tradesman and making a brief appearance in the film “The Age of Shadows.”

Go returns to the big screen as the lost, confused, tired but determined lead in the psychological thriller “Lucid Dream,” hitting local theatres Wednesday. In the film, which straddles reality and dreams, Go plays Dae-ho, a journalist and a father whose son has been kidnapped.

After three years of painful waiting, Dae-ho decides to visit a prominent sleep research lab and probe his memory using an induced lucid dream state, which, according to the film, will allow him to retrieve from his subconscious details from the day of the kidnapping.

Himself a father of two, Go says his focus was to “communicate the state of a tortured parent,” at an interview Friday at a cafe in Samcheong-dong, Seoul.

On choosing this film, Go said he was attracted to the subject matter of dreaming and the visual spectacle the dream state setup could offer on screen.

“I read the script. There’s a part where (Dae-ho) opens a door and is walking in the middle of the ocean as the sun is going down. And a scene where it’s raining fireworks,” he said. “I became curious about what would happen in this movie.”

But the actor admitted he wasn’t entirely satisfied with the turnout of his performance.

“It was a challenge to maintain Dae-ho’s state of emotions throughout the film,” he said. “If things were too intense in the beginning, then the catharsis at the end would decrease.”

In many ways, Go’s career has followed an unpredictable path. He debuted in a soft drink TV commercial, then appeared as an extra in a music video. His breakout role came in the 2001 TV drama “Piano,” where he portrayed a tabooed romance between stepsiblings.

Since then, Go’s roles have varied from melodrama leads on TV series such as the 2009 “Will it Snow for Christmas?” to a scrapyard worker with hidden powers in the 2010 film “Haunters,” never quite achieving the same acclaim, both critically and in terms of popularity, as he had done in “Piano.”

“There seems to be no right answer to acting,” he said. “It’s not a matter of knowing techniques or theories. When I first started, I stood in front of the camera knowing absolutely nothing.”

Has he learned much over the years? “It’s all a process,” Go answered after a pause.

The actor hinted at a desire to play different characters, but was reluctant to define his career, his goals, or even his personal life in any way.

“You make mistakes and learn. I just try to be sincere in my approach. You have to have different experiences. It’s a way of finding myself.”

One thing is certain: the 38-year-old actor still keeps himself busy. He is filming a new movie, tentatively titled “South Castle” alongside heavyweight actors Lee Byung-hun, Kim Yun-seok and Park Hae-il. Vague as usual, Go declined to offer details on his role.

Rubbing his face with his hands at the end of the interview, he said, “I’m still always embarrassed about my performances. Every set feels new and I get nervous.”