Forget Thailand - Nichkhun is busy conquering Japan
Sorry, kids, but Nichkhun Horvejkul, the Thai-American member of the South Korean boy band 2PM, is still too busy to take any jobs in the old homeland, not that anyone here can really afford his fee for acting or even singing a song. His Thai fans last sa
Nichkhun is just too much of a pan-Asian superstar for us these days, and that status is about to swell again now that he’s been cast in the hit Japanese TV series “Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo” (“Prison Cram School Case”). He’ll play a student in the show otherwise known as “The Kindaichi Case Files”, which derives from a comic series of the same name.
Nichkhun tells the site he’s quite excited about winning such “an important role” and hopes his fans are looking forward to seeing the show. “I think it’s good chance for me to learn from other actors and make new friends too,” he says.
He’s following in the footsteps of Seungri of the group BigBang, another South Korean pop star, who appeared in an episode of the series last January. Nichkhun’s episode in particular assembles actors from across Asia, including Taiwanese singer Wu Chun, Ryosuke Yamada and Daiki Arioka from the Japanese group pop Hey! Say! Jump! and their compatriot, actress Haruna Kawaguchi.
Nichkhun has only just finished shooting scenes for a Chinese series, “One and a Half Summers”, which is due to hit the small screen next summer. Bottom line for the Thai fans: You’re going to be watching a lot of foreign TV shows for awhile.
Bikinis reconciliation
TV host Nawat Itsaragrisil obviously hadn’t quite had enough of beauty pageants when he resigned as director and executive producer of Channel 3’s annual Miss Thailand World show after six years. He set up a pageant of his own! The preliminary rounds in the Miss Grand Thailand competition are being broadcast on Channel 7, and it all comes to a climax tonight.
Naturally it’s nowhere near as well known as Miss Thailand World, so Nawat reckoned he’d better generate some publicity fast. Bikinis, designed to turn heads, did the trick, and it certainly helped that the babes in the bikinis seemed to be interested in current events.
On Sunday Nawat had skimpily clad contestants from 75 countries on TV holding up signs saying “No mob”, “Stop the war” and “Yuti kwam kadyang” (“End the conflict”). Inspired? You bet. “Our country is peaceful and I don’t believe anyone wants to see more violence, so that’s why I came up with this concept,” he says.
The pageant draws to an excited and no doubt weepy conclusion tonight. Nawat has decreed that the winner’s first official duty will be to deliver a written plea for unity to the various protest leaders on the contest organisers’ behalf. “Her duties will involve the whole peace process in many areas,” he says.
We can not wait to see the winner in her bikini handing the message to Suthep Thuagsuban and Jatuporn Prompan. In fact, we promise to get the picture on the front page of The Nation.
