Identifying the insanity in daily life. That was the goal of the interview with Kim Heechul (29). His ambiguous thoughts that make him either a fourth dimension “dork” or a genius, appearance that looks like a man and a woman, his wide repertoire that compromises many generations even though he is an idol star, and years of experience that go against eminent critiques, meet with his very young and innocent eyes making him a very interesting person. The general impression that the public have of Heechul, a singer (Super Junior) and as well as an actor, broadcaster and many more, is generally very similar. Enjoying the distinguished and pompous life, but not really hated, anyways, a character that is very hard to grasp.
#”If I didn’t have this face, would I be here today?”
This is the observation since the debut in 2005 till now. He had a band-aid on his face which was a size of about a 500 won coin because he was hit with an LED board thrown by a fan, during the Shanghai concert which happened quite recently.
Usually I live unstressed, but these days, every morning I look in the mirror, I feel stress from deep inside my bones. I wasn’t even like this when I was involved in the car crash…. “I can’t sing, dance, nor do I have special talents. All I have is the face, and I work hard to take care of the only thing that I can present…” Just like his words, he was distinguished for his “beauty” in the group Super Junior.
The pride for my appearance went through the roof as I, Kangwon-do country boy, auditioned for SM Entertainment and beat all those other trainees, even though ever since I was young, I heard many praises of my appearances, and had strange girls following me even though I treated badly and partied for 20 years and had no talents. Then I though “My face works everywhere”. “Ah, let me fix that. It’s not that the face is everything. I think the better analysis would be that there were other talents, but with my face the synergy becomes greater.”
#”Please make him a person”
Words that my parents said as they heard about the contract with SM Entertainment were “There’s a place that will accept you?” and “You should make the contract last for 30 years.” The only memory of my youth is hanging out with my friends. I, who enjoyed hard rock music, went to karaoke 4,5 times a week singing Lim Jaebum’s and Michael Bolton’s songs, never cared about other’s attentions of my clothes and actions. I never caused trouble even though I searched for rebellious acts. For example, I left home but always went to school.
The year I turned 18, I worked in a display factory, restaurants and more as a part time worker. I learned plenty about life and the society through 30 and 40 year old friends that I made while working.
“What is it that you want to be…”. Parents’ worries grew by day, but to him, he had a sense of pride and hope for his future. The ones that will become, will become. He stepped his first step in becoming a celebrity when he joined SM when he turned 20, after living without stress and not experiencing competition.
#”There wasn’t really a song to listen to”
A thought came to mind suddenly when working as an idol singer and listening to a song that was being broadcasted on TV. It wasn’t easy to come across a song that could give joy to others, unlike those of his childhood, such as Jo Youngpil, Patty Kim, Hae Eunie, Park Namjung, Sobangcha, Kim Wansun, which the family sang when they went to karaoke.
Since then I started to search and listen to old songs. The titles might be unfamiliar but the song isn’t. He felt proud for himself for “listening to different genres of music and strengthened his qualifications as a singer ever since he was young.” Even though he is the youngest in the programs and, he demonstrates his abundance of knowledge for pop culture and over powers other middle aged MCs.
#”Wouldn’t it be just stereotypes of AB”
The audience, people around him, and even his own parents say that he is different/weird; Heechul himself does not think so. His thinks that people have stereotypes of AB applied to him. If his best friends Samdi, Hongi, Sangchu were asked the same question they would say that he is perfection normal. But then of course all his friends are AB. He debates “I’m just saying what I have to say.” It is like the person that has to put the bell on the cat’s neck. “All the members seem to order jajangmyun, but I really want to eat jjamppong. Then I order jjamppong because I want to eat it. Saying what is on my mind is what others think my weirdness is.”
#”I protect the small things to be free”
He has an image of being a free soul, but he never made the headlines for doing anything bad. He always asks himself when he is tempted. “Is this worth my everything?” He has certainty that even though celebrities are not politicians, but still have tremendous power that can affect many people. I try not to say a wrong thing since the criteria for a celebrity is quite strict. “Celebrities like us, if we do one thing wrong, we are gone”. His goal is to “work hard to play hard.”
His sense of identity wrapped around his “insanity”. This makes him a very intelligent free man.
Source: kyunghyang shinmun
Translated by Jee (www.sup3rjunior.wordpress.com)
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