Rain(III)
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Rain was born in Seoul, South Korea on June 25, 1982 as Jung Jihoon. He
was extremely shy in elementary school; in interviews he's stated that he
barely spoke. He caught the desire to become a dancer at a school talent
show in sixth grade; when nobody from his school stepped forward to dance,
he gave it a try, imitating the moves he saw on TV. The applause was extremely
gratifying, and he decided right then to become a professional dancer. To
learn, he sought out older street dancers who sometimes helped him--and
other times bullied and beat him up. Rain and his younger sister Hana enjoyed
a comfortable life until the Korean recession of 1997, when his father's mill
and bakery businesses failed. Bankrupt, his father left for Brazil to pursue
economic opportunities, leaving Rain's mother to try to support the family
as a food vendor.
Rain got a start in the entertainment business as part of a 6-member boy band,
Fanclub. Revealing abuses in the Korean entertainment industry, Rain described
the Fanclub members as "caged animals" locked in the rehearsal room for up to
10 hours without food. After Fanclub released only two CDs, the company
promoting them failed and Rain was back to square one. During his junior year
of high school, he lived with some of his dance-group members, subsisting
mostly on cups of ramen noodles. He auditioned 18 times for entertainment
companies but was told that, although he was talented, he was too ugly
to become a star. He was told that he should have plastic surgery to create
"double eyelids", a common Korean practice to obtain more western-looking
eyes. Finally, in 2000 he was accepted by JYP Entertainment as a trainee. CEO
Park Jin Young, who put Rain through a grueling 3-4-hour audition, described
him as "desperate" and "like a tiger who was about to starve to death" (2008
Discovery Channel documentary "Hip Korea"). JYP stipulated that Rain had to
attend college, so after studying "ferociously," Rain got accepted to Kyunghee
University and became a music major. He spent three years as a trainee and
back-up dancer for JYP, who has stated that he was particularly critical of Rain
in order to push him to be the best and keep him from getting a "swelled
head."
During Rain's time as a trainee, his family lived in poverty and his
mother became increasingly ill with diabetes as she lacked money for
insulin or medical care. Rain drove himself hard to prove that he was
ready to make his debut, but he didn't achieve success in time to save
her life; she died of complications from diabetes a year before his
debut. This had a huge impact on him; he has said in interviews that he
regrets having had conflict with her over skipping school to go to dance
practice, and that he believes she is in heaven where she can see him. He says
that a major motivation in his life is to make her proud and he visits her
grave before embarking on each new project. Another motivation he has
mentioned is remembering what being hungry was like. He is a self-professed
workaholic, and after acting alongside him in Speed Racer, John Goodman
called him "the hardest working man in show business."
was extremely shy in elementary school; in interviews he's stated that he
barely spoke. He caught the desire to become a dancer at a school talent
show in sixth grade; when nobody from his school stepped forward to dance,
he gave it a try, imitating the moves he saw on TV. The applause was extremely
gratifying, and he decided right then to become a professional dancer. To
learn, he sought out older street dancers who sometimes helped him--and
other times bullied and beat him up. Rain and his younger sister Hana enjoyed
a comfortable life until the Korean recession of 1997, when his father's mill
and bakery businesses failed. Bankrupt, his father left for Brazil to pursue
economic opportunities, leaving Rain's mother to try to support the family
as a food vendor.
Rain got a start in the entertainment business as part of a 6-member boy band,
Fanclub. Revealing abuses in the Korean entertainment industry, Rain described
the Fanclub members as "caged animals" locked in the rehearsal room for up to
10 hours without food. After Fanclub released only two CDs, the company
promoting them failed and Rain was back to square one. During his junior year
of high school, he lived with some of his dance-group members, subsisting
mostly on cups of ramen noodles. He auditioned 18 times for entertainment
companies but was told that, although he was talented, he was too ugly
to become a star. He was told that he should have plastic surgery to create
"double eyelids", a common Korean practice to obtain more western-looking
eyes. Finally, in 2000 he was accepted by JYP Entertainment as a trainee. CEO
Park Jin Young, who put Rain through a grueling 3-4-hour audition, described
him as "desperate" and "like a tiger who was about to starve to death" (2008
Discovery Channel documentary "Hip Korea"). JYP stipulated that Rain had to
attend college, so after studying "ferociously," Rain got accepted to Kyunghee
University and became a music major. He spent three years as a trainee and
back-up dancer for JYP, who has stated that he was particularly critical of Rain
in order to push him to be the best and keep him from getting a "swelled
head."
During Rain's time as a trainee, his family lived in poverty and his
mother became increasingly ill with diabetes as she lacked money for
insulin or medical care. Rain drove himself hard to prove that he was
ready to make his debut, but he didn't achieve success in time to save
her life; she died of complications from diabetes a year before his
debut. This had a huge impact on him; he has said in interviews that he
regrets having had conflict with her over skipping school to go to dance
practice, and that he believes she is in heaven where she can see him. He says
that a major motivation in his life is to make her proud and he visits her
grave before embarking on each new project. Another motivation he has
mentioned is remembering what being hungry was like. He is a self-professed
workaholic, and after acting alongside him in Speed Racer, John Goodman
called him "the hardest working man in show business."
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