The SBS television news program 8:00 News on the 11th of May has reported that the Marines Corps will be producing Hyun Bin's photobook on his life at the military, capturing his training and life in the barracks. It is expected to be produced at the end of this year; a professional photographer and writer has already been secured for this purpose.
The Marine Corps has given the production rights to a certain publishing house, with the condition that they share part of the profits. When questioned on the subject of sales, the Marine Corps remain noncommittal. Their stand on it: "The photobook's purpose is to promote the Marines, not Hyun Bin." Yeah riiight. People will be parting with their hard earned cash to see how's life like in the Marines, not Binnie. It has nothing to do with the Binnie factor. Nope. Nada.
No $$$ for Binnie either. He gets nothing out of this because in accordance to the South Korean law, a civil servant who performs official duties bearing a uniform does not get to enjoy portrait rights (i.e cannot profit from the sales). Hyun Bin has already agreed to take the pictorial for free.
He was enlisted into the Marine Corps earlier this March, and after 7 weeks of recruit training he was sent to Byeongyeong Island for service.
Chloe Says: Personally though, I cannot understand the appeal of photobooks. I rather spend my cash on other collectables like DVDs, manhwas, or even the occasional kdrama calendar or two. Photobooks? Me don't get.
Via Sports Chosun, Chosun Ilbo
I am not Korean so please excuse my ignorance on some technicalities. I'm just beginning to appreciate the acting skills of Hyun Bin but I personally think that his marine service has been highly publicized. The way I see it, this is an effort of his agency to keep him visible to fans and prevent his popularity ratings from going down. The marines on the other hand is using Hyun Bin to encourage young men to join the army. Sometimes I find it pathetic already. My only concern is why do they have to make a fool of everybody? I mean, everything seems to be pre-planned already. Am I the only one feeling this?
ReplyDeleteI'm not Ko either so I wouldn't know. But I don't think his agency is desperate to "keep his name alive" but rather, everyone's milking the Hyun Bin factor. For male artistes, all the big names (Jo In Sung, So Ji Sub, etc) have have to go to the army someday, and it's probably a norm for the star's management agencies and they have already anticipated these matters.
ReplyDeleteThere's no doubt that big stars will remain big, so why the paranoia? It's not like he just shot to stardom so that doesn't make sense. My conclusion is that everyone's STILL not willing to let go, they'all want a piece of the Binnie pie :)