Fan frenzy surprises even Kim Myung-min

52 January 3, 2009January 3, 2009

by javabeans

It’s Kang-mae mania!

Kim Myung-min (Beethoven Virus, White Tower) held a fan signing event on January 3, and although he doesn’t typically fall into the category of idol star or crowd generator, he had just that effect with the thousand fans in attendance.

The event was to promote his new classical music compilation album, called Classic Maestro. One of Kim’s managers explained his own surprise that the numbers were greater and the crowds more enthusiastic than expected:

“We had planned to sign autographs for the first 200 people who bought the album in the morning. However, more than 600 fans came the night before, starting at 10pm, to wait at the event location. …The signing event began in the afternoon at 3pm, but there were more than a thousand fans present. We didn’t know there would be so many interested people.”

I say: Aw, unexpected fan frenzy couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy.

It’s not an unusual occurrence to see such crowd craziness for pretty-boy idol groups and kpop stars, but it’s not every day you see this level of adoration for a man known primarily as a gifted actor and not as heartthrob.

Kim was surprised to hear that fans had lined up overnight to wait for the event, and said, “I’m both apologetic and thankful.”

We can thank the “Kang-mae syndrome” for the rapid increase in Kim’s popularity; his role in Beethoven Virus wasn’t merely lauded, it was positively a pop-culture phenomenon.

Added to that is Kim Myung-min’s recent Daesang win at the 2008 MBC Drama Awards, and although he had to share the Grand Prize award with Song Seung-heon, the controversy that has arisen in the wake of the awards ceremony — which has been almost universally panned as unfair, even for MBC award standards — actually favors Kim. After all, most Koreans are incredulous that Song was awarded the same prize as Kim, and the backlash has proven two things: MBC awards have sunken to a new low, and Kim is being proclaimed the “true” winner by, well, pretty much everyone.

(To reiterate a sentiment from the previous award show post: The reaction doesn’t indicate that people hate Song Seung-heon. It’s more that this is a case where the result is SO outrageous that nearly everybody agrees that the Daesang was unfairly given. In contrast, you don’t see anyone clamoring that it’s unfair for Song to have to share his award with Kim — you know the situation has to be pretty obvious when there’s such overwhelming consensus.)

Kim, for his part, has been gracious with the press when asked how he feels about his prize, answering that he is happy with the results because “I’ve already been awarded by the fans.”