Singapore, 2015 – Super-charming actor Kang Ha Neul was in Singapore October 31, 2015 for his first showcase at Plaza Singapura! Despite having only arrived the night before the event, he was all bright and cheery upon his arrival at the event venue, and had his fans captivated by his endless charms while displaying lots of aegyo and eye-smiles to the crowd of fans present in the mall. With his sweet honey-like vocals, the actor surprised fans with an opening performance of the song “Three Things I Have Left (내게 남은 세가지)” which he sang as an OST for the drama Angel Eyes. If you didn’t know, Ha Neul is a multi-talented artist; not only does the dashing actor actively participate in production of movies and dramas, Ha Neul actually kick-started his career through musicals!

This is his first overseas fan-meeting event, and in spite of his bold and confident image as an actor, the well-known actor is actually very shy in person! As he stood on stage before the crowd, Ha Neul would occasionally shyly smile and giggle in response to the fans’ chants and cheers. He also revealed that he is an uninteresting person, which we definitely would all refuse to agree to! Ha Neul showed us his quirky and fun expressions as he played a game on stage with five lucky fans, and whenever he could not answer the right name of the song sung out or hummed by the five fans, he would attempt to drag the time limit by making random guesses or grabbing the emcee’s arms tightly as if to ask for more time. Most of the songs used in the game were top songs in Korea, such as H.O.T’s Candy, BEAST’s Fiction, and even APINK’s LUV, but it seems that Ha Neul wasn’t too into pop songs, and had trouble answering the song titles. But fret not, his fans were at his rescue by shouting out the titles and artists’ names to him. With that many amount of voices overwhelming him all at once, there were times which he would mishear song titles and end up creating new names for the songs (2PM’s I’ll Be Back was answered as 2PM’S 2PM). We definitely all had a good time laughing as the adorable actor was having fun on stage interacting with his fans. At the end of the game, one fan emerged champion with 4 out of 5 songs correctly guessed by Ha Neul, and despite the original plan of having only the winner take a polaroid photo individually with him, Ha Neul requested to have a group photo with all five fans, one polaroid for each of the five fans to bring home! The winner did have more privilege though, as Ha Neul gave her a hug throughout the photo-taking session (that’s more than 10 seconds, I would say!).

Seizing the opportunity, Ha Neul answered some questions from both the emcee and the media. Before beginning the QnA session, Ha Neul once again sheepishly reminded the crowd of his limited English skills, saying, “Ah… Sorry. I can’t speak English very well.”, which had fans cheering on for him. Throughout the event, Ha Neul tried to make use of some English terms whenever he could, and when he couldn’t, he commented “Sorry, English terrible!”. When asked if he likes singing on usual days, Ha Neul responded “I like singing this OST (Three Things I Have Left), and on usual I like singing too, so I will practice singing at home or whenever I have time as a hobby.” However, he has no plans on making his debut as a singer, stating in English “I’m just actor”. Ha Neul describes his thoughts on his new movie DongJu as “a movie depicted after a famous poet, Yoon Dong Ju; it’s inspired by him.” And the mandatory question regarding his impression of Singapore, Ha Neul answered it fully in English: “Singapore is err… very very hot. But err… beautiful view, beautiful hotel, beautiful food, and beautiful drink. I love Singapore!”. Since it is his first trip to our sunny island, Ha Neul said that he didn’t know there would be so many fans of his here, to his surprise, and he is very happy to see his fans.

Despite not having given any previous thoughts to it, he has expressed through the event his desire to work with Hollywood actor Jim Carrey, whom he respects a lot and wishes to meet in person someday. Ha Neul’s love for coffee has led him to wanting to star in a commercial for coffee! Fans would have noticed that Ha Neul often poses with the V sign when taking photos, and you may ask what the reason behind that is? “Because it’s awkward!”, Ha Neul admitted while laughing out loud, slightly embarrassed. And when asked to rate his variety skills or sense of humour, he sighed and shook his head, giving “So terrible….” as his response to the question!

Ha Neul concluded the event by singing the song “I Choose to Love You” by Zoo without M.R. (Music Recording), and took a group selfie with all the fans present using a selfie stick. We sure did enjoy our time with the rising-star, and hope that he will return to our sunny shores in the near future. Be sure to check out his dramas and movies, because we’re sure you’ll find the boy-next-door actor as lovable as he looks!

More photos of Kang Ha Neul: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1603850959883646.1073741864.1422494651352612&type=1&l=94fc8ba6aa

Article by: Cherlyn
Photos by: Carmen

We would like to thank KMTV Asia for the invitation to this event!