SEOUL, Nov. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Lee Min-ho, a young Korean actor famous overseas as well as at home, is rising high in Asia even before the release of the first film in which he plays a leading role.
The upcoming movie “Gangnam 1970″ has already been sold in Asia’s major markets such as Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Lee’s popularity was already proven even before the filming. At the time, the news of a new movie was posted on Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of Facebook or Twitter, and won more than 100,000 likes less than a half day.
On November 7, 12,000 foreign fans flocked to Seoul’s Jamshil to meet him in a fan meeting promotional event sponsored by Lotte Duty Free Shop in celebration of the recent opening of a new Lotte World Shopping Mall in the southeast of Seoul. The company said it had to mobilize 20 charter planes, 300 charter buses, and even a cruise ship to carry the fans to the venue.
In the fan meeting event that was held for three days, he sang “My Everything,” the theme song in the smash-hit TV drama The Heirs. He followed up with three more songs from previous shows. Lotte Duty Free Shop figured that the economic value created from the event would be in the range of 50 billion won (US$46 million) from the foreign tourists’ stay for three days.
The duty-free shop operator has held similar concerts every year since 2006. This year, it joined with the Korea Tourism Organization to hold a foreigners-only event. This is the third such event this year after ones in April and August.
By Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
My Everything is actually OST for Boys Over Flowers. LMH also sang Painful Love which is OST for The Heirs.