Kang Ha Neul’s fans were in for a treat as the charismatic actor was back in Singapore to promote his latest movie Midnight Runners, along with Director Jason Kim.
This being Kang Ha Neul’s third visit to our sunny island, he manages to show off his Singlish with phrases such as “Hello lah”, “Okay lah”, “I love you lah” and “Chio bu” (meaning pretty girl).
In addition to taking photos with fans and being generous with hugs, Kang Ha Neul also showed off his drawing skills at the public meet and greet at Bugis Junction.
Nicknamed Mr. Bookworm in Midnight Runners, Kang Ha Neul’s role, Hee Yeol, in the movie is a brainy guy who is disciplined, stick to his rules and someone who thinks before he acts. In real life, Kang Ha Neul feels that there are some similarities between him and Hee Yeol, but he doesn’t confine himself to the boundaries and does follow his intuition at times.
Just like the title of the movie, the lead actors Kang Ha Neul and Park Seo Joon had to run a lot during the shoot, and it wasn’t easy as they had to run in the cold winter weather, on rocky roads, and sometimes they had to run again and again due to technical difficulties.
Another tough scene in the movie was the scene where both him and Park Seo Joon were tied to the ceiling and he had to spit at Park Seo Joon to wake him up (don’t worry fans, it’s fake spit). It took a couple of retakes to film that scene as it was hard to spit in the correct direction. When the host asked if he had to make any special preparations for the scene, he joked and said “that’s just my usual self” and made everyone in the room burst into laughter.
To film the topless scenes in the movie, Kang Ha Neul put in a lot of hard work in the gym behind the scenes, but the humble actor admitted that despite his efforts, his body could not match up to Park Seo Joon’s sculpted body. He also said that it would be tough to have a body like Park Seo Joon’s as he prefers to live comfortably and eat whatever he wants (laughs).
The relationship between Kang Ha Neul, Park Seo Joon and Director Kim were also like real brothers rather than co-workers at the set.
“Whenever I film a movie, the most important thing for me is the atmosphere at the set. During the filming of Midnight Runners, Director Kim was really like an elder brother who valued my opinions and was attentive to details. The atmosphere was always joyful and hence I had a great time filming this movie,” said Kang Ha Neul.
“I worked with my two lead actors to discover what we wanted and expanded on them. We worked as a team to see what they could offer to the audiences as an actor,” explained Director Kim.
At the end of the press conference, Kang Ha Neul finally got the chance to “meet” his co-actor Park Seo Joon, who could not make it for this promotional trip to Singapore. Upon the request of the local media, he showed the bromance between him and Park Seo Joon as he hugged and kissed the standee for the photocall.
This visit in Singapore will be Kang Ha Neul’s last in the next two years or so as he will be enlisting on 11 September 2017, but fret not! You can still catch him in the theatres when Midnight Runners opens in Singapore cinemas on 7 September 2017.
For more photos from the press conference, do visit and like KAvenyou’s Facebook page: Kang Na Neul – Midnight Runners Press Conference
Article by: Victoria @ KAvenyou
Photography by: Junsi @ KAvenyou
