Mar '08 Ecole Saturday afternoon, musical with Park Sihoo

* This interview was set on March 2008 By Ecole Magazine


Translated by Jinju/www.parksihoo.com, thank you!

Thai translation : http://parksihoointhai.blogspot.com/2013/02/psh-2008.html

Saturday afternoon, musical with Park Sihoo

How many months passed since the end of the SBS drama ‘How to Meet a Perfect Neighbor’? As a co-starring actor with Lee Jungi in ‘Iljimae’ a hit of the first half, Park Sihoo was presently in the middle of practicing fencing and horse-riding in the action school.

One Saturday afternoon with bright sunshine beaming down in abated weather after a while, I went toward Jangchung-dong National Theater Haeoreum Theater with a view to watching a musical play with Park Sihoo. At the time appointed, a man was walking up toward Haeoreum Theater the front stairs, who unexpectedly was in plain dress. It was Park Sihoo.

At a single glance, his fair skin caught my eyes. He looked decent enough to think to myself “Oh, that explains it why he has so many lady fans,” while childly bright and clean. After exchange of light eye greetings climbing the stairs, we went toward inside the theater.

Whether because it was the Korea-visit concert of a Broadway original team, the hall was crowded with audience. From first encounter all through to the hall, he was all calm.

His manager tipped me off that he is a lot shy and quiet so that it might be a little hard to be friendly with each other for the first time. So it seemed.

Simultaneously with humming neighbors’ whispers coming to a stop, the curtain of the musical’42nd Street’ rose. All of us held our breaths.

Sunny Saturday afternoon with Park Sihoo

To observe every move of him, I sat on the seat beside him. Carried away from moment to moment by the on-stage actors’ passionate motions, we greeted them with a big applause at each end of episode.

But he, who looked deeply absorbed into the concern, how come he squirmed from interval to interval? I was afraid, in the thinking to myself ‘Is the musical play boring worse than he expected to be?’ Later he said, he was in a serious cold and body ache when he didn’t concentrate on part 1, and that he was very sorry out of regretfulness over it by the end of part 2.

“Due to a cold I caught, my condition these days are terrible. But because I cannot skip my action school practices, I am presently in a bad fix. This day too, I slept 3 hours, got up at 7 o’clock for training and came here therefrom, so that I narrowly missed a good performance. Yesterday, I was shot with an injection of Ringer’s solution. Still, it hasn’t reached recovery.”

Park Sihoo was arranging for a long journey for the filming of the drama 'Iljimae' in 2 days from interview. Because condition control is important above all for an actor, Park Sihoo was in a lot of worries and anxieties before the onset of a drama shooting.

“Since the day after tomorrow, we are to start a long march. In 3~4 months, it begins to be broadcasted. I guess it may take over 6 months in total. I have been cast in the part of a Uigeumbu’s patrolman who chases after Iljimae. The character is totally different from my former one, so that I am in both anticipation and worry. To tell the point of the acting you asked, wouldn’t it be a ‘masculine charisma’ hahaha?”

Close-up Impression on Park Sihoo

Park Sihoo would be called a straight and narrow path life man. Would it because he is a person beyond something like drinking and playing, and even a steady churchgoer? The name tag ‘straight and narrow path guy’ has tagged along with him. Positively speaking, it is ‘straight and narrow path man,’ while negatively speaking, it might be ‘boring guy.’

But as a result of actually meeting, mealing and talking together, it was not the negative case. If not up to an expert in drinking and playing, he was enjoying the drinking place where people gather. Although 2 cups of liquor were all that he could drink, he was the style who stayed up to the end at a drinking party.

To take words from his manager’s mouth, I heard the a cup flushes his face red, two cups makes him drunk, and in 30 minutes he comes back to where he originally was.

Although he is not equal to creating some atmosphere and causing a big laugh, he was just calm but absolutely not ‘a dull guy.’ Rather, he would be a handsome guy who is mild and gentle. In early days at his debut, they say, he was titled‘a handsome actor.’ What impression I saw on him was rather masculine in a sense and sharp in another sense. As well as his look, his character was very manlike.

I might personally guess, the word ‘reticence’ is a nearest word to Park Sihoo. If some more charisma adds to this, the ‘Sihoo’ character might hit it off well together, which Park Sihoo was cast in the part of in 'Iljimae..

I see Park Sihoo smiling, as if saying “Now soon might be the time to hit the jackpot.”
I expect that 'Iljimae' would be a turning point of his acting life.

Park Sihoo would be little fans but only in the 30s. Whether because of the previous pieces of work, he has yet been receiving full attention from lady fans in the 20s~30s, especially the 30s.

Various kinds of indigenous specialties like blue crabs, red ginseng extract was fully occupied in the refrigerator, most of which was from elder lady fans in direct delivery from producing localities. It is said that these days it even occurs whether another refrigerator should be bought.

By that reason, his younger brother baseball player and mother are making healthy advantage of them together, according to a behind story he mentioned.

In smile saying “Looking at me, don’t you think they might have thought up of their first lovers in old days, or their used-to-be suspenseful boyfriends with whom they were on good terms with before their marriage?,” Sihoo intends to make sure of diverse age strata fans through 'Iljimae'.

He makes a joke, “By reaching young fans, I think I should also like to receive herb candies and sticky sweets, instead of blue crabs.”

Park Sihoo might be sensitive and fastidious, because of his sharp eye lines he has. Before meeting him, in fact, even this editor had been afraid of whether he might be a person too sensitive, or person too picky fond of faultfinding with this and that like some of other actors.

However, according to people around him, especially his manager waiting on him, Park Sihoo is indeed such a ‘popular character’ that something star-like special rather cannot be seen.

To the editor who importunes him for something unexpected, he says he is very ordinary and not very naughty, but likes to eat delicious things and, if something odd seen, visits the shop for sightseeing, not unlike other ordinary men.

Oh, he made a joke that he was kind of ‘oldster-like youngster’ who was fond of going on a spar, open-air bathhouse and mountain climbing, unlike younger generation.

When the musical viewing was done, we moved on to a restaurant nearby for an interview. It was an Italian-styled restaurant. Unlike other men, he was seen enjoying pasta and salad very much.

Was it 7 o’clock? Our interview in a light-twinkling good-commanding restaurant in Namsan Tower after dusk continued in an incessant row, almost like a small talk between girls.

“Frankly now, I have no other idea or plan to be set but 'Iljimae'. Journey, of course I’d like to. I mean ‘a comfortable journey’ that I don’t need to be afraid of thereafter. Africa, I heard of it in just a story. I would sure like to be there someday.”

After Danny Jung concert, I wished to learn saxophone. Since my big goal of advancing onto foreign movie markets, I should like to master foreign language, and so on. Park Sihoo, desirous, but right now intends to only concentrate on making some character of ‘Sihoo’ in the drama 'Iljimae'.

Actually meeting him, his hard-drinking capacity was sure one or two. Like his saying, ‘Work is best enjoyed when done enjoying,’ the mission of ‘Watching a Musical Play with Park Sihoo’ was now finished up with a chatter at a late night.

I saw Park Sihoo making up his mind to really better arrange and practice his plans in the future, saying ‘Man is the beginning at the age 30.’ Watching his pace warmly, I guess, it might play as a tonic for Park Sihoo in itself.

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Credit : parksihoo.com, thank you!