Enishi @ Five Celebration Jeju

Note: No photography was allowed of the Enishi photo display area and of the event. As such, you will not see any photo of these posted here. Only venue photos before the start of the event will be posted.

Whether you have met Park Sihoo-ssi in person or over the air as his characters in his dramas, you would have been exposed to his special kind of magic. 

It is something indescribable. The man’s good looking but he is certainly not the most gorgeous looking man in the world. He just has this special charm, his special kind of magic that he weaves around so many of us, giving us that warm, fuzzy feeling and making us his fans.

Well, last night, I was exposed again to his special kind of magic. At his “One Summer night in Jeju” fan meeting, that coincided with his Japan exclusive magazine Enishi’s fifth anniversary!

It was a beautiful garden party held in the Jeju Lotte Hotel & Resort.  An elegant  white and gold setting in the hotel’s garden. A simple backdrop at the front with raised stage fronted by greenery and flanked by its steel structure stage lightings. The red carpet was rolled out in welcome with an approach to an intricate ice carving with the event’s name in the centre. 

Before the event proper, we strolled a little side garden which was where the Enishi photo exhibition was held, bringing fond memories of past photos that were shot for the magazine. Creatively displayed in various parts of the garden, we had little Jami and Dami and mini Park Sihoo-ssi peaking out from the shrubs to guide us through. And we voted for our favorite photos.

As was tradition, we partook of dinner first before the event started at 7.30pm.

An Enishi 5th anniversary cake took the centre stage. And when the event backdrop flashed the theme of the event graphics, the “commercial” rolled out for Enishi. Past covers of Enishi, along with an animated photo book with a beautiful showcase of photos, brought us down memory lane over the 5 years of Enishi.

Park Sihoo-ssi then appeared, walking down the red carpet from the event entrance. Dressed in a black tuxedo, crisp white shirt, white pocket square, black bow tie and super shiny leather shoes with his short hair styled, he was picture perfect. You would think he was dressed to walk down the red carpet of some glamour, star studded entertainment event! But of course, it was only us, his fans he was meeting.

He went from table to table, toasted champagne and clicking glasses with every one. Kanpei! A toast to his successful return to Korean mainstream broadcasting and to the 5th anniversary of his long running magazine, Enishi!

He then went up the stage and we baded happy birthday to Enishi! And as he cut the cake, the fireworks went off accompanied by the music “congratulation and celebration”….

The next segment was about his new KBS drama “My Golden Life”. and the Episode 1 trailer was played on screen. He briefly gave an overview of the drama, saying that it was a weekend drama that encompassed the pursuit of love and happiness. When asked how many in the audience watched the drama…well, you can easily guess, almost everyone! What do you expect?

Another video showed scenes involving Park Sihoo-ssi’s character, Choi Dokyung, including the meeting room presentation, the ladies in the lift, the gay self conversation and the car accident when he was called ajeossi. Park Sihoo commented that Choi Dokyung is an idealist and he can be particular about certain things, even sweating small stuff. He started off being an interesting character but he would grow even more interesting as each episode unfolded. Yeah! We look forward to seeing more of Choi Dokyung for sure!

It was purely co-incidental that there were some similarities between “My Golden Life” and his earlier drama “Cheongdamdong Alice” such as the meeting presentation and the accident scenes. He only realised it when we mentioned it.

Park Sihoo-ssi shared that all the scenes which he appeared in in Episode 1 were filmed in one day. He had a bad flu on that day but had to continue filming. As a result, his face might have appeared bloated and on the plump side during the filming. 

One of the drama scenes was highlighted – the accident scene when Seo Jian gave the spill about no insurance etc as excuses to get out of reporting the accident to the police and Choi Dokyung regurgitating  the points when rebutting her. Park Sihoo-ssi was asked to re-enact the scene. He said that since it was fairly recent, he was confident he could remember his lines as compared to June when he had to remember those in the Princess Man lines from a long time ago.  The audience took the role of Seo Jian, acting out her pleading in begging gestures and Park Sihoo-ssi flawless recited his lines! Well done!

Then photo posters of his Choi Dokyung and Seo Jian were shown on the screen. These included the fantastical fairytale one. Park Sihoo-ssi divulged that it was not easy to capture the jump. When they did the jump together, there was always something not right about one of them. In the end, the final photo used was a merging of two different photos to make one perfect whole. The result being the beautiful romantic piece we saw.

Photos of the off-track bike rider and the biking scenes were shared. The weather was bad and it poured. Some scenes had to be cut including one where the bikes were to take to the water with a river scene. How tough and tiring this bike riding scene was could be seen in the video of Park Sihoo-ssi falling off his bike. The shoot looked absolutely scary and dangerous in our eyes! But he made it through, even looking gorgeous in biking gear that had been muddied!

Connected with the off track bike riding were photos of him in a white shirt with black patterned lines which Hoo Factory shared. We saw more. One showed him talking on a mobile and another of him taking a selfie with his phone but actually he was looking at himself in the mirror. There was one of him having a conversation with a foreigner. This was an American who was acting for a first time and having some lines in the drama. The American was really excited and wanted to show himself in action to his mother but alas, it turned out his face was practically covered under a riding helmet! The emcee asked what we have been curious about. Did he speak to the American in English or Korean, but we didn’t get an answer – well at least this was what I heard.

Other scenes of the drama included the poster filming of the family shot, Park Sihoo-ssi rehearsing for the off-track bike riding photo shoot and one of him on stage with the foreigner. 

When asked what his expectations were of the drama’s rating. He said he hoped to achieve 30% average, after the exceptionally high rating of “My father is strange”. And when the emcee asked what the audience wanted for achieving this, we said they wanted a hug from him. If this happened, then another event would have to be organised for Enishi. And it would only have one activity on its programme. Hugs! It might take a couple of days for Park Sihoo-ssi to finish all the hugs if all Enishi readers were to attend the event! Immediately, hearing that, Park Sihoo-ssi upped his target to 35%, to which the audience said “no deal”, so the original 30% stays! So ladies, you know what to do if you want a hug from Park Sihoo-ssi! Let’s go for the big 3 zero at least! We want our hugs, don’t we?

Then the outcome of an earlier poll of the audience on their favourite photo from the Enishi photo display in the garden was revealed. The audience loved the Princess Man photo…and Park Sihoo-ssi? He blew us some flower petals…so do you know which one?

Remember before the event, fans were asked for their opinions and to give creative ideas on the concept they would like to see for Enishi?  Well, we had two selected ideas (I think as I went to visit the little girls’ room during this time). Park Sihoo-ssi had to act out the ideas that were selected. One of the winner liked to see him in a driver’s seat, showing his skills behind the steering wheels. Like “Family Honour”, there would be a passenger beside him. He would give the passenger a kiss while driving. Park Sihoo-acted this out, sans passenger…he did well at the steering wheel…but was a slow starter when it came to the kiss! And then it came at one passionate movement! Hahaha! Watch the traffic yah?

I wasn’t there for the second selection but heard it involved a sleepy head Park Sihoo-ssi, all drowsy and cute!

There were also costumes suggested for Enishi filming including him wearing a futuristic outfit like that of the Final Fantasy and also of the super flamboyant Michael Jackson. He said that MJ’s costume would be interesting and he wouldn’t mind trying that out.

When Park Sihoo-ssi arrived yesterday, after checking in, he went off immediately to a photoshoot…and he shared some gorgeous results of the afternoon just prior to the airing of “My Golden Life”. Absolutely dashing photos…We will be in for a feast of the eyes in Enishi 2017 volume 4! Can’t wait to receive my copy when it gets published!

He also watched “My Golden Life” premiere episode with this team and his family that evening….I think somewhere there were some talks about Jeju food and Samgyetang or ginseng chicken but I can’t figure out what was said.

This was followed by an Enishi quiz where we had to refresh our memories of the information in the different issues of Enishi since the first issue was published! Not easy even if you have owned every copy of Enishi magazine since day one! Or for the prize of having a one-on-one photo with Park Sihoo-ssi, some might resort to winning it by hook or crook!

Park Sihoo-ssi then read a letter which he wrote for his Enshi readers. I don’t know what he said since I know no Korean or Japanese so we will just have to wait for the official translation to read what he wrote.

He then sang his signature song Kimiwo, talked little bit more about his drama and then was asked to read out the word “Enishi” slowly. He did and then the fireworks exploded overhead, celebrating the success of his return and the birthday of his magazine Enishi.

The evening then came to a close but not before Park Sihoo-ssi went round giving out commemorative gifts to each and everyone of us at our tables. What a befitting and beautiful keepsake…our Princess Man, our golden Princess Man!

Park Sihoo-ssi’s kind of special magic! High touch on every aspect including to get the hotel to provide big towels to every person in the audience as the evening could get a little chilly! Your kind of special magic is so very precious in our hearts!

Thank you!

Photo Credits – Many thanks! KBS Drama, kbs.co.kr, Sport News, Samish Leather, Nance

---