Actors in politics…in South Korea too!
Forget NTR, MGR and Jayalalitha...forget even Shatrughan Sinha, Vinod Khanna or Sunil Dutt…Now even South Korea has a film star in the Government.
It is not only in India that film artists dangle in politics and make a career out of it. A country as large as USA had a president in Ronald Regan who was a popular star before he confronted his Democrat Party opponents and became the President. The US even now has Arnold Schwarzeneger, a hugely popular action hero not only in US but also in Japan, Asia, Europe and other parts of the world. The man now holds the chair of the governorship of California and recently been reelected.
Now, in South one cabinet minister stands out for his elegant traditional robes and a coveted award honouring him as the country's top screen actor. Kim Myung-gon, a former movie star, traditional Korean opera singer and National Theatre director, occupied a space in the council of ministers just earlier this year. He is South Korea's minister of culture. When Kim, 54, makes appearances in his new role as a cabinet minister, members of the public still treat him like a star by taking pictures of him and asking for autographs.Kim's appointment in March has added colour to a government dogged by low public approval ratings and shaken over criticism it mishandled relations with North Korea, political analysts say. Kim first made a name for himself as an opera singer specialising in a traditional story-telling song called pansori, which is like a one-man opera where the singer voices many characters and uses a folding fan as a prop. Kim then became a movie star after stumbling into the lead of a movie that dominated the local box office for years.He won the country's top acting honour for the 1993 film 'Sopyonje', which tells of a down-and-out pansori singer trying to find a place in a modern world that has passed him by. Kim, who has appeared in more than 20 movies playing heroes in historical dramas and down-on-their-luck guys in contemporary films, has written books and lectured at universities.
Forget NTR, MGR and Jayalalitha...forget even Shatrughan Sinha, Vinod Khanna or Sunil Dutt…Now even South Korea has a film star in the Government.
It is not only in India that film artists dangle in politics and make a career out of it. A country as large as USA had a president in Ronald Regan who was a popular star before he confronted his Democrat Party opponents and became the President. The US even now has Arnold Schwarzeneger, a hugely popular action hero not only in US but also in Japan, Asia, Europe and other parts of the world. The man now holds the chair of the governorship of California and recently been reelected.
Now, in South one cabinet minister stands out for his elegant traditional robes and a coveted award honouring him as the country's top screen actor. Kim Myung-gon, a former movie star, traditional Korean opera singer and National Theatre director, occupied a space in the council of ministers just earlier this year. He is South Korea's minister of culture. When Kim, 54, makes appearances in his new role as a cabinet minister, members of the public still treat him like a star by taking pictures of him and asking for autographs.Kim's appointment in March has added colour to a government dogged by low public approval ratings and shaken over criticism it mishandled relations with North Korea, political analysts say. Kim first made a name for himself as an opera singer specialising in a traditional story-telling song called pansori, which is like a one-man opera where the singer voices many characters and uses a folding fan as a prop. Kim then became a movie star after stumbling into the lead of a movie that dominated the local box office for years.He won the country's top acting honour for the 1993 film 'Sopyonje', which tells of a down-and-out pansori singer trying to find a place in a modern world that has passed him by. Kim, who has appeared in more than 20 movies playing heroes in historical dramas and down-on-their-luck guys in contemporary films, has written books and lectured at universities.
interesting story.
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