Nichkhun lines up emergency back-up career just in case
Thailand's man on the K-pop frontier, Nichkhun Horvejkun of the South Korean boy band 2PM, turns out to be more than just dulcet tones and a pretty face. Someone stuck a badminton racquet in his hand on Korea's succinctly named KBS Channel sport-variety
Nichkhun was so good that Japanese racquet maker Yonex has chosen him to be its brand ambassador in South Korea – its first presenter who’s not an actual badminton pro. Yonex has World men’s No 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia and World ladies’ No 2 Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand on its roster of spokespeople.
Yonex has said in a press release that it fancied Nichkhun’s “bright and healthy image”, which “suits its image” too. “With his entertainment fame, his bonus talents will help us approach customers in their 20s and 30s as a young-lifestyle sports brand.”
Right. Anyway, KBS World Channel carries “Our Neighbourhood Arts and Physical Education” to Thailand and elsewhere under the cheerier title “Cool Kidz on the Block”. So Thais got to see the local-boy-made-good playing badminton against some of his adopted country’s Olympic gold medallists, including Lee Yong-dae and nine-time All England Open champ Park Joo-bong. He did pretty good, too!
The show wants to get kidz active in sports, specifically badminton, basketball and table tennis. Viewers see amateurs competing with professionals and the nation’s top athletes and coaches make regular appearances.
As it turned out, Nichkhun demonstrated skills that no one would call amateurish. Don’t expect him to be carrying the Korean flag at the next Olympics or anything, but he’s certainly way better at badminton than any other K-pop star.
Where did he learn to play like that? In Thailand, of course. Nichkhun and his siblings underwent serious training before he headed overseas to study.
“Pee Mak” with more kids
Few Thai film directors make more than one movie every year or two (and we won’t keep nagging Chatrichalerm Yukol, who’s turning the multi-part “Legend of King Naresuan” into a life’s opus). But Poj Anon somehow manages at least two a year, and this year there might be three – or four!
He’s already given us “Tai Hong Tai Hian”. Coming very soon is “Mor 6/5 Pak Ma Tha Mae Nak”, the sequel to his teen-comedy-horror hit “Mor 6/5 Pak Ma Tha Pee”, which earned more than Bt50 million last year.
In the sequel, nine teenage boys visit a Mae Nak shrine to get her help passing school-entrance exams. One of the kids is foul-mouthed, though, and can’t help but utter an insult to the feared/revered ghost lady of legend. As a result the boys are sucked into a time warp and travel to meet Mae Nak.
Yes, we are on familiar territory here. The location seems to be the same one they used in “Pee Mak Phra Khanong”, right down to the traditional Siamese house in which Mae Nak and Mak lived. It’s been recreated almost exactly for the “Mor 6/5” follow-up.
And while “Pee Mak” had its “gang of four” buddies, Poj has filled out his cast with a gang of nine and dressed all the young lads in similar costumes and hairstyles. They even have their own “theme song”, just like the gang of four.
The spot-the-similarities fun will continue when “Mor 6/5 Pak Ma Tha Mae Nak” hits the cinemas on April 10.
