Park Eun-bin charms fans in Singapore with singing and drawing whales
At her first fan meeting in Singapore, South Korean actress Park Eun-bin sang, revisited some of her most iconic acting moments and made fans here feel her overwhelming love.
The 30-year-old actress, whose biggest role thus far is the genius lawyer Woo Young-woo in Extraordinary Attorney Woo (2022), appeared at the Capitol Theatre on Friday night to meet her fans here.
She opened the show with a rendition of Hello originally sung by Park Hye-kyung, which was also covered by Joy of girl group Red Velvet. Her handwritten words of “hello” in different languages floated past a large screen behind her, greeting her fans as she sang, before she said in English to the crowd: “Nice to meet you today lah.”
Content creator Syafiqa Noor, 25, who got to know the actress through Extraordinary Attorney Woo, was immediately charmed.
She said: “When she came out and said ‘Annyeong!’ (hello in Korean) to us, my heart just melted. And she was so cute, she kept using Singlish words like ‘lah’ and ‘leh’ throughout – you can tell she was trying to connect with us and how genuine she was being.”
Park’s sincerity shone through in the two-hour fan meeting, where she showed off a variety of skills.
As a special gift for Singaporean fans, she got them to sing along with her to the familiar tune of Singapura, Sunny Island and performed theme songs to two of her dramas, Extraordinary Attorney Woo’s The Blue Night Of Jeju Island and If I from The King’s Affection (2021).
She also drew, although it did not go as well as she planned. When asked to draw designs for three tote bags for the lucky fans in the audience who won a quiz on how well they know her, Park started with a drawing of a bunny and then one of two ducklings – both of which drew adoring “awws” from fans.
For her last bag, Park tried to draw whales – Woo Young-woo’s favourite creature – but quickly realised she had drawn the mammals much too slim. “Oh my god,” she exclaimed as she hastily added hearts and colours to salvage the bag. “I’ll try to edit it.”
But the focus of the night was still very much on her acting.
Together with her fans, Park revisited some of her most famous scenes and lines in her career and showed a little of how cheeky she can be as well.
As she watched a tense, climactic scene from period series The King’s Affection, where her character spits blood after confronting her grandfather, she chirped: “It’s so sweet.”
She explained: “The blood that I spat out was actually very sweet. It’s a mixture of black coffee, syrup and red colouring.”
And when faced with a popular scene from Extraordinary Attorney Woo in which her autistic character, who struggled with passing through a set of revolving doors, finally accomplishes the feat, she yelled: “Congratulations!”
Her charm was unparalleled in the eyes of her fans, including those from overseas.
Ms Mae Ignacio, 35, manager of an IT firm, who is from the Philippines, took time off work to fly to Singapore to catch Park. She turned up at the fan meeting in the uniform of the baseball team that Park’s character manages in the sports drama Hot Stove League (2019 to 2020).
“I like how she studies the character and commits herself to understanding the role. For Do You Like Brahms? (2020), she learnt the violin – she really gives her time to her characters,” said Ms Ignacio, who first took notice of Park through the classical music-themed drama.
She is heartened by the star’s recent success. “It was hard to find other fans online when I first got to know her through Brahms. Even if you post on Twitter, you might get maybe five likes? But now, everything about her goes viral and I’m very happy to see it.”
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now
