[High Cut Interview Dec 2012] Kang Dong Won Part 1.1

NOTE: This is the first time I’m doing such a translation, so phrasing may be wrong and I’m really not too sure of certain parts ^^;; Just practicing. It’s so long I’m going to break it into a few parts. 예쁘게 봐 주세용. Let me know if I translated something wrongly

 

“A few things that we are curious about about the one who has returned”

 

“It takes courage to say something that you want to but it is also take effort to refrain from saying something.” During the interview, Kang Dong Won was sometimes lost in deep thought. He entered the military service in 18th November 2010. For the other stars, we can still hear from them time to time but for him, it was total silence. Finally, he was discharged from the military service in Nov 12 2012. Everyone is curious about what he did for the past 2 years, what had changed and what he wants to do in the future. In short, it was an interview where the reporter was too anxious and eager to get more information and answers from him. In the end, Kang Dong Won had stomach ulcer a few days after the interview and some time after, he came back for a 2nd round of interview (not saying that there is any connection between these two) We met again for a chat in Director Lee Myeong Se’s studio. The 32 year old Kang Dong Won, isn’t particularly different from the Kang Dong Won from 2 years ago.

– Reporter Kwon Yeong Han

Q: Congratulations on your discharge from the military service. How did you spend the last 2 years?

This is my first interview in 2 years. I worked hard in the military service, of course, while waiting for the comeback.

Q: Now you are a free man. During these 2 years, there were a lot of things that you wanted to do right?

I wanted to return to the screen asap. I wanted to do this pictorial asap too. Some people say that maybe it’s better to be featured in the new year edition, but I wanted to do this in the fastest possible slot. As you know, it’s my comeback after 2 whole years. I really didn’t like the idea of  doing a comeback via a commercial, so I chose to do a pictorial where I can showcase my  true self.

Q: I was watching you shoot the pictorial. It seems like I’m seeing flashes of the characters that you played in past movies. Sometimes I’m reminded of your character in <The Duelist>, yet at other times I feel like I’m seeing your roles in <Temptation of Wolves>, <The Taoist Wizard> or <M>.

After all, they are all me. (Director Lee Myeong Se: “When I received the invitation to shoot this pictorial, we talked about this too. It’s to commemorate his discharge from military service, so we decided to showcase his roles in past movies and also other sides of him that have not been seen before”) There was this scene in The Duelist when on a moonlit night I suddenly appeared from the darkness before the fighting scene with Ha Ji Won. That kind of feeling. I thought, “It will be nice if I can make a pictorial showing that image” and I told that to Director Lee and Photographer Lee Jeon Ho. Of course, I didn’t thought much about anything else besides this and I entrusted the rest to Director Lee.

Q: You must really miss acting. Doesn’t it feel awkward or stiff since you haven’t done it for so long?

Once I go into the mood there isn’t any special new feeling and it’s like doing something that I’ve always been doing.

Q: For an amateur, you seem really good at skating.

I’m really an amateur.  When I was young I skated quite often with my family. When I was in elementary school, there were a number of skating rinks near my place.

Q: I heard that you went home and slept like a log after finishing your first shoot yesterday.

I haven’t done any shoots for so long and I guess it drained me mentally.

Q: I heard that you brought 2 trunks of your personal clothing for the shoot.

One of the bags was for shoes. In Korea, shoes sponsorship is not common. Last time, I went to a Korean fashion agency once. There was a full range of whole shoe collection arranged by brands neatly. However, in Korea, we don’t get much of sample buying (not sure what he meant here) Even though Korea is a small market, I think we should invest in something like that. In Korea, we can’t really change our wardrobe as we wish. For clothes, even though it doesn’t fit, we can still do a fitting and wear  them for a while. But for shoes, we need to walk around in it and because of that sponsorship is even harder to come by.

[not sure if I translated this part correctly]

Q: What is the scale of your personal wardrobe back at home?

Ermm… big. (laughs) I don’t really spend much on other areas and most of my spending is on clothes.

Q: So I guess the collection includes all the clothes that you bought since you started modeling in the late 90s?

With my income from modeling last time, it wasn’t enough to buy clothes. Even for models doing well, the income was around that of an employee in a big company and for the rest, they probably had enough to buy one set of clothes every month at best. It was pretty terrible. The modeling industry. But it has gotten better in recent years.

Q: After becoming an actor, you haven’t even returned to the fashion runway even once, right? Is it because you understand the hardship of modeling from your past experiences?

In a fashion show, I think that the attention is focused on both the model and the clothes. However, I don’t really like to always receive attention based on my looks only. When I was doing modeling, I felt quite inconvenienced because of it. When the models were changing in the fitting room, people suddenly entered with cameras and said they wanted to do an interview. And I didn’t felt good about it. I really felt like snatching away their cameras and throwing it on the ground then. I was angry. Because of the celebrities, they don’t care about the models. I can understand that they don’t have time and they are doing their jobs. But I feel that designers and entertainers involved shouldn’t be like this. Especially designers, I feel that they should treat their own models with more respect.

to be continued…..

See the original interview in the official High Cut website