TVXQPOWERFULGODS[JAPAN日本]: Apr 18, 2011

“Singing skills and stage presence on par with Jo Seung Woo’s”
“Tickets for ‘Tears of Heaven’ sold out in 5 minutes”
“Great experience from performing together with Brad Little”

The Box-Office Newcomer JYJ Kim Junsu

Tough times provide opportunities for one to become stronger. He is now an iconic figure among the idol stars in the musical industry.

“This is all due to the unwavering love and support from fans, for that I will always be grateful. I want to present a more hardworking side of myself to everyone.”

Kim Junsu (24), who transformed from TVXQ’s Xiah Junsu to a musical actor, has matured rapidly in this 1 year. On the 11th, we met up with him in a café at Gangnam, Seoul.

“After the completion of my second musical, ‘Tears of Heaven’, I developed a sense of confidence towards musicals. At the start, because it was a brand new musical, I was worried if I could do it well. Practice durations were short too. But I decided to just go for it with courage. What really attracted me was that I really liked composer Frank Wildhorn’s pieces.”

He smiled brightly as he said, “It was a very valuable experience to stand on the same stage with world-class musical actor Brad Little, and I learnt a lot.” “It would really be a great honor if I could bring a positive impact to the musical industry, because the scale of it is relatively smaller compared to those of other cultural industries such as the movie industry.”

He, who left TVXQ together with Kim Jaejoong and Park Yuchun due to the exclusive contract dispute with previous entertainment company SM Entertainment, overcame various obstacles and hardships after challenging musical ‘Mozart’ last February. It was quickly followed by his second musical, ‘Tears of Heaven’ this February, establishing his position as a blue-chip of the industry. All tickets for his shows as leading actor, Joon, were sold out within 2 to 5 minutes. Black-market tickets became a hot topic of discussion when they were found to be transacting at as high as 3 million won.

He managed to turn misfortune into fortune, riding on the waves of success; the recently released concert DVD, ‘Kim Junsu Musical Concert Levay with Friends’, sold 40 000 copies in 2 weeks, putting him in the limelight. Furthermore, he formed a group called JYJ with Kim Jaejoong and Park Yuchun, and all tickets were sold out for the debut performance of their World Tour held on 2-3 April in Bangkok, Thailand. 10 vocal instructors also ranked him first among other idol group members in a recent survey on live singing skills. “Truthfully, I didn’t expect myself to love musicals this much. TV dramas and movies do not really appeal to me, but I feel musicals are very interesting, and if I have the time I will definitely watch them. I would be amazed every time I watch one, and I will feel proud of the musicals that I am partaking in. I foresee myself being both a singer and a musical actor in the future.”

Kim Junsu continues, “Being a singer only requires me to express my own feelings in the songs, but being a musical actor requires me to express the feelings of the role I am assuming while singing. This is the difficult but charming part to it. A 4th-year senior at Myeong Ji University majoring in musicals, he shows his determination, “Instead of relying on the popularity I have as a singer, I want to work very hard on my acting skills to reach a standard where I will not appear inferior when being compared with professional musical actors.”

People in the musical industry stated that during the period where many male idols entered the musical industry relying on their popularity, Kim Junsu is one of the rare few who succeeded based on his raw talent and ability. As a musical actor with both outstanding vocals and stage presence, the possibility of him becoming a star like Jo Seung Woo is very high. Popular Broadway actor Brad Little once said, “Kim Junsu’s performance on stage is very natural, and he has the ability to communicate with the audience”, and Frank Wildhorn generously praised him, “If there is the chance, I want him to stand on Broadway’s stage.”

“Actually I have been a fan of *Hankyoreh since a long time ago. I think I was in 5th grade or 6th grade when my name first appeared on Hankyoreh. The article was about the performance of the nation’s youngest dance group, SRD, which I formed together with Super Junior’s Eunhyuk. As that was the first time in my life that my name was in the news, I safely kept the article.”
Kim Junsu smiled as he left us with a meaningful last statement, “May Hankyoreh always work hard to write news for justice.”

*T/N: Hankyoreh is the name of the news agency that did this interview with Junsu.

Source: [Hankyoreh] + [TVXQ Baidu]
Translation credits: weishaaan@tohosomnia.net
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