Artist Spotlight: Jaunary- Rain

Welcome to my Artist Spotlight, every month on my World Tour show (Wednesday's 3-4pm KCC Live) I select an musician or band and play tracks from their discography, and on this blog I'll be writing about the artist or musician in question. This month's Artist Spotlight is Rain from South Korea.

Described by a Guardian article as a Korean Justin Timberlake, Rain (real name Jeong Ji-Hoon) has been on the South Korean music scene since 2002 and to date has released 6 albums, 5 of these albums (Bad Guy, How To Avoid The Sun, It's Raining, Rain's World and Rainism) were Korean albums he also released a Japanese language album entitled Eternal Rain.

It was from this article by the Guardian that I got into Rain's music after listening to the track the article featured (I'm Coming featuring Tablo from the South Korean Hip Hop/RnB group Epik High) with it's catchy chorus and strong beat the video was also really interesting to watch with it's almost militaristic dance interlude.

Rain's style is RnB and Pop and his live performances has Rain both singing and dancing, in one interview he stated that he like to incorporate martial arts into his dance moves. For most of his singles, Rain sung behind a pop or RnB beat, however the first single from his third album It's Raining had a hip hop beat to it the song, the first time he had used such influences in his music, the single It's Raining proved to be very popular reaching number one in several countries including his native South Korea. Rain has also experimented with Latino influences in the song Sad Tango from his Japanese album which also includes an English version of the song.

It's not just Korea and Japan where Rain 'reigns', his albums have had success in other Asian countries such as China, Indonesia and Taiwan it is also in these countries where audiences were introduced to Rain as an actor in the TV Series Full House which he won a Best Actor Award for his role as Lee Young-Jae.

His acting isn't just limited to television work, in 2006 he starred in the Korean film I'm A Cyborg winning the Best New Actor Award at the Baek Sang Art Awards, it was also around that time where he became noticed in the West, making the Time 100, People Who Shaped Our World list and even made number one of a reader poll for the 100 most influential people from the same magazine in 2007 and placing second in the 2008 poll prompting the 'third' most influential person on the list that year Stephen Colbert to invite his 'rival' Rain onto his show for a Dance-Off which surprise surprise Rain won.

Not only has Rain performed concerts in the United States but he has also starred in two American films, first he played Taejo Togokahn in Speed Racer and most recently starred in Ninja Assassin (which I reviewed here) both films showing off the martial arts skills that he had incorporated into his dancing.

It's difficult to say what Rain will do next, his last album Rainism caused some controversy due to the title track having a line which was inappropriate for anyone under the age of 19 because of it's implied sexual content a clean version of the album with a warning label was issued. But with his exposure to western audiences he may even go the way of fellow Korean RnB artist BoA and release an English album but who knows? He does have a clothing line (Six to Five) to run, an entertainment company (J Tune Entertainment) to help run as well as his acting career to keep him busy.

Ninja Assassin Review

Ninja Assassin is the latest project from the Wachowski Brother's (The Matrix, V For Vendetta, Speed Racer) staring Korean pop star Rain, who plays a ninja who is on the run from the Ozunu Clan (who took him in as a child) after he refused to kill a deserter, instead attacking the clan's leader, meanwhile two agents from Europol try to link a series of assassinations to the clan, both unaware that their paths will cross.

For those unaware as to how Ninja Assassin came about, it was actually due to the kids film Speed Racer (which producers The Wachowski Brothers directed) the brothers were impressed by the martial arts skills of Rain (who plays lead character Raizo in Ninja Assassin) that they wanted to do a film which was utilised martial arts in a way that The Matrix didn't.

For a film that was designed to highlight Rain's skills as a martial artist and actor and with a script which was reportedly written in 53 hours you'd be forgiven for thinking that it was one of those B-Movies that would have been better off being a direct-to-DVD.

Instead we get a film which blends the Martial Arts sensibilities of betrayal and revenge with the conspiracy film that finds a couple of people in law enforcement (in this case agents from Europol) trying to uncover the truth behind so many assassinations over the years and thereby becoming targets themselves with former ninja Raizo being the only one who can really put a stop to the Ozunu Clan (isn't it always the way eh?) It's a real hit or miss combination as though the film is trying to work out whether it is a martial arts film or a conspiracy/cop thriller, though the martial arts tends to win out more often than not.

The first half of the film is quite possibly the most frustrating part with Raizo's past interwoven with the main plot of the film and while it is an interesting way to tell Raizo's back story it often feels disjointed as though you're flipping through channels between Raizo's plot to his past to the plot involving Europol agent Ryan Maslow (Ben Miles) and Forensic Researcher Mika Coretti (Naomie Harris).



The martial arts scenes are fantastically choreographed and the weapon work is a real highlight with weapons such as the double bladed katana and a kyoketsu shoge (which is a double edged blade attached to a long chain) rarely seen in these types of films and thus giving the film a unique style. There's also a nice use of almost 'bullet time' style slow motion used when the kyoketsu shoge. However these scenes are hindered by the overuse of 'CGI gore' which is extremely noticeable and at times over the top. As this is a film about ninjas, the vast majority of the action takes place under the cloak of darkness, making the fight scenes slightly difficult to follow at times however there are instances in the film where the dark action scenes are used in a smart way such as Raizo in ninja garb fighting another ninja in Mika's blackout hit apartment and the only way you can tell there is a fight going on is through the sounds of metal clashing there is a nice use of effects when ninjas blur into the shadows really building on that mythos that ninjas were at one with the shadows.



While it does boast a cliched martial arts ending of student versus master the final battle has an unexpected vibe to it going for an all guns blazing approach on top of the martial arts. Ninja Assassin is an enjoyable film and while some of the Europol scenes seem to be filler to pad out the story, the action (or at least the action which isn't cloaked in too much darkness) more than makes up for it. Rain plays a convincing Raizo and there are times when it looks as though he has done more martial arts films (this is only his third film). It's refreshing to see a western made martial arts film which isn't comedic or features a lackluster and overdone story, instead we get this film with great moves and a good unique storyline.