May 13, 2008...2:56 pm

Tomorrow’s Koreanish Stars Today

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People Magazine is catching a certain amount of flack this morning for having published an item that misidentifies a photo of Karl Yune as Rain, in the new Speed Racer film. Speed Racer, it’s worth pointing out, has 3 young attractive men of Korean descent on the cast, setting what might be a record for an American film (there’s no statistics on this).

So that this confusion never, ever happens again, here is a guide to these incredible-looking men who are appearing with increasing frequency on our tv and movie screens here in America.

1. Rain

Rain is arguably the most high-profile, internationally.

Think of him as being a Korean Justin Timberlake, maybe, but mixed with a Korean Jake Gyllenhal. You can check out his Donnie-Darko-esque turn in the as yet untranslated I’m A Cyborg. The below still from that was one of last year’s most popular image headers on this blog.

He’s shown an extraordinary range as a performer, able to dance around in angel wings in a Korean rap video, or appear in art-house Korean indie films. He’s most famous to US audiences for his dance battles with Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report. He is an incredible dancer. In this clip, note the Dance Dance Revolution sudden-death round.

2. Karl Yune

Karl Yune, it should be said, looks nothing like Rain. Karl is the younger Korean American brother of another, earlier Korean American celeb, Rick Yune. Karl is familiar to most of you as an Abercrombie model.

That’s what I’m talking about. As you can see, Rain is more puckish, and more changeable. Rain has so many different looks, it’s a little shocking. That doesn’t really excuse what happened.

3. Rick Yune

Rick Yune, Karl’s older brother, is also a stunningly good-looking man. They look even less alike, though, than Karl Yune and Rain.

Rick is familiar to us from his roles as Johnny Tran in The Fast and the Furious, and as Zao, in the James Bond film Die Another Day.

4. Joon Park Hyung

Joon Park Hyung from the now defunct Korean boy band g.o.d. is in Speed Racer and it’s worth pointing out, he is not Rain, also. In fact, here is a photo of the two of them together, which was actually one of my favorite header images from 2007. All of the men here except the Yune brothers have appeared in my blog header, as I like to think here at Koreanish we’re a little ahead of the curve on these important, world-changing issues. This shot was taken right after Joon was signed to the film:

That’s the gang sign for “Hot Korean Actors Headed To America.” Rain is on the left. Joon is on the right. Joon is on the rise, and is signed up for the new Dragonball Z film.

4. Daniel Henney

Coming up is Daniel Henney. Daniel is in the new X-Men film featuring Wolverine’s origins, as someone called Agent Zero.

Daniel is, quite simply, stunning to look at, and once the X-Men film is out, People Magazine will likely want to tap him for their Most Beautiful issue.

6. Dennis Oh

The next one we should all be looking for is Dennis Oh, who is sometimes confused for Daniel, though, this is perhaps because they are both half Korean, half white soap star heartbreakers. The “they all look the same” thing extends to us half-breeds, it’s worth noting. They are also set in competition against each other–some even asking, which one is hotter?–which is again, only happening because they’re both half white. No one asks that question about Rain and Karl, for example. Anyway, check out Dennis Oh, the future crush object of America and the world, hot in his own right:

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