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Korean actor Ju Ji-hoon becomes king of fan service in Manila
Korean actor Ju Ji-hoon becomes king of fan service in Manila
From selfies to giving hugs, Korean actor Ju Ji-hoon captivated the audience at his first fan meeting in Manila.
The star of Netflix’s "The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call" and "Kingdom" held his Juniverse in Manila fan meeting on Aug. 2 at the Newport Performing Arts Theater.
Ju Ji-hoon (주지훈) gained fame through the 2006 Korean drama “Princess Hours” and has since starred in other notable acting projects including “Along with the Gods,” “Asura: The City of Madness,” “Jirisan” and “Light Shop.”
He won best actor for "The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call" at the Baeksang Arts Awards and Blue Dragon Series Awards.
The hunky actor opened his fan meeting by performing “Relieved,” a song by Korean singer Lee Juck.
“I’m so happy to meet you all tonight,” he told the audience.
The fan meeting, with Sam Oh as emcee, spotlighted his career and personal life but more importantly, it showed Ju Ji-hoon’s generosity for his fans.
He is being called the king of fan service. Lucky fans who were called to the stage to interact and play games with him got the chance to have a selfie with the star and hug him.
The segments of the fan meeting delved into everything about Ju Ji-hoon.
JuTube
In “JuTube,” different topics were presented. In “Mukjihoon” about food, Ju Ji-hoon said he has visited the Philippines before and has tried Filipino food.
“Whenever I travel to a new country, I visit the local markets as well so I try local food a lot,” he said. He said he tried eating chicken, fried rice and crispy pata.
To maintain his muscular physique, Ju Ji-hoon said, “I still maintain my usual diet but I think I eat a lot of meat. In the character [for a project] I’m going through right now is asking to have this more defined body. I’m eating a lot more meat.” Ju Ji-hoon is currently filming Disney's "The Remarried Empress."
In “TagalJihoon,” Ju Ji-hoon tried saying Filipino phrases “Miss na kita (I miss you),” “Mahal kita (I love you) and “Ang ganda mo (You are beautiful).” He said “Mahal kita” to one fan who was called to the stage to meet him.
In “ChillJihoon,” Ju Ji-hoon took a selfie with a lucky fan named Elena, recreating Nick and Judy from the movie “Zootopia.”
Juniverse Awards
In “Juniverse Awards,” it centered on topics related to Ju Ji-hoon where the audience voted for.
In the first category, “How do you feel when you see Ju Ji-hoon in real life?,” the answer voted by fans was “Seeing him in person if you make eye contact with him…system error.”
Ju Ji-hoon said when he meets a person for the first time, “They say I’m too big, that I’m too big and too dark.” His profile listed his height as 187 cm or 6.13 feet.
On the advantages and disadvantages of being tall, he said, “Of course, the good thing of being tall is that I can reach over the top shelf to get something. But the bad thing is that the sizes don’t match me that much.” A fan was called to the stage to compare her height to him.
On his secret to connecting with people, he said, “It’s because of how you express your love to me. I absorb it as much as possible.”
On the question, “What’s the most charming line you’d love to hear from Baek Kang-hyeok in real life,” referring to Ju Ji-hoon’s character in "The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call," fans voted “Shut up.”
Fans also voted romantic comedy as the genre that they wanted to see more of Ji Ji-hoon.
“I really enjoy black comedy,” he said, adding that people want to see him in a fantasy role.
Thinkerverse
In the segment “Thinkerverse,” Ju Ji-hoon read questions and messages written by fans on Post-it notes.
In the first message, a fan from Thailand flew to Manila to watch the fan meeting, her second time to attend the event. Ju Ji-hoon sang “Happy Birthday” to her.
Fans whose messages were read were called to the stage to have selfies with the actor.
Mingling with the crowd
After the segment, Ju Ji-hoon surprised fans by coming down and going around the audience area to mingle and be up close with them.
Fans had a great time taking photos and videos of Ju Ji-hoon as he roamed around the theater.
The next segment was “Jutopia,” where nine fans were selected through a draw to play the games pirate roulette, one mind, one body, and three-legged race with Ju Ji-hoon.
He also played “Jutorial” wherein fans selected “O” or “X” for questions until the winners were selected. One of the winners was a five-year-old girl.
Filipino fans, on the other hand, surprised Ju Ji-hoon with a video that contained their messages.
“It was so touching and while watching the video, I realized that I’m doing my best right now but I must do better after seeing your video,” said Ju Ji-hoon.
“I’ve been going through shoots recently in Korea but while I’m here in Manila, I’m so happy to be receiving energy from you guys. I’ll be using this energy to do more shoots, to do better while I’m in Korea,” said Ju Ji-hoon in his last message to fans.
He ended the fan meeting with a performance of “Pretty,” a song by Hong Kwang Ho.
Ju Ji-hoon’s Juniverse in Manila fan meeting was presented by Wilbros Live.