Talk:Kim Myung-min

Link Farm for Hancinema ?
Jeez is wikipedia a link farm now for Hancinema? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 175.239.248.199 (talk) 10:50, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Observation anent "Beethoven Virus"
Consider the need of the cast to effect a suspension of disbelief. A director cannot accomplish this; the conditions can be set for it, but an ensemble of actors actually makes it happen. "Beethoven Virus" was effective for me — a Western Devil — because this crew was excellent, and the largest part of this was Kim. I have known conductors with international scope, and both singers and instrumentalists of similar background; when younger and more foolish, I even played "spear carrier" in a few operas with some of them. I have lived in Europe as well as in the United States.

Kim got it. To be sure, so did the director and the makeup artist and the costume designer (the hair was right, the clothes were right, &c.) but in Kim's performance I was, as it seemed, face to face with a musician of uncompromising ability and flawless taste.

An example of detail: The Chorale in the 9th symphony is not simple, the interplay between soloists and chorus and orchestra not readily followed. The poem, an adaptation of Schiller's "An die Freude" is involved; Beethoven's setting is complex and keeping all the horses galloping together seems a feat of Will to me. Kim apparently bothered to learn the poem as Beethoven adapted it, as well as the music. One sees him singing it as he conducts the Chorale. He appears to have bothered to understand the complex set of classical allusions of a Aufklãrung poet (pagan and Christian and Latin and German — Himmel!) and a late-Classical, transitional musician driven by the dæmons of Romanticism and Idealism. And so on.

When added to the presentation of the personal complexity of the character — only rarely obscured by descent into Korean-drama convention (what one might call the haut-bourgeois parvenu Chaebol arrogance? I could make a case for that as a convention...), which is for me a distraction (Korean dramaturges do seem to have this deep-seated need to deal with class struggle) — the result is powerful. I would argue that this role is as good, maybe better a gauge of Kim's ability as an actor than is his powerful representation of Yi Soon Shin.--djenner (talk) 12:45, 28 June 2011 (UTC)