The feeling is mutual: Korean actor loves fans as much as they love him
SOUTH KOREAN actor Park Bo Gum concluded his multi-country fan meet tour which started in Seoul and ended in Manila on June 22 at the Mall of Asia Arena (MOA) in Pasay City.
His fan meet, titled May Your Every Day Be a Good Day, started at the South Korean capital in January with stops in Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, and the Philippines.
“I really appreciate the fans [because] regardless of what language they speak and where they live, they are… sparing their really precious time for me,” Mr. Park said during a press conference on June 21 at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Hotel in Pasay City.
The Philippine leg was originally supposed to be held on April 27 but earthquakes which rocked Luzon and Visayas a few days before the scheduled event resulted in his management, Blossom Entertainment, postponing the fan meet until June.
Mr. Park came into the limelight in 2011 as a supporting character in the thriller Blind. In 2014, he gained his first acting nominations for his work in Wonderful Days and Naeil’s Cantabile, an adaptation of the Japanese manga, Nodame Cantabile.
He also starred as a psychopathic killer in Hello, Monster in 2015, a departure from his usual boy-next-door roles. The role earned him rave reviews. The same year, he played as a prodigy Go player in Reply 1988. The show was one of the highest rated cable television dramas in Korean TV history.
But, it wasn’t until 2016 that he solidified his image as a leading man after playing the lead in Love in the Moonlight. His work in the role earned him a Best Actor nomination and a Popularity award at the 53rd Baeksang Arts Awards. He also won the Top Excellence Award at the 30th KBS Drama Awards.
In 2018, he starred alongside Song Hye Kyo in Encounter where he played a free-spirited young man who falls in love with an older woman.
“All of those characters live in my memory because all of those characters in [those] dramas [are] so, so precious to me,” he said before adding that every character he has played “has something in common with me.” — Z.B. Chua