Jeon Ji-hyun now Gianna Jun

What's in a name? The news was released earlier this month, but I only managed to stumble upon it today: the Sassy Girl, Jeon Ji-hyun, has adopted a new name for her first excursion into Hollywood filmmaking. She could have chosen worse -- Gianna is a pretty name, and apparently she chose it because it sounds similar to her name being called in Korean ("Jihyun-ah!" -- though in that case the stress would be on the last syllable). I'll try to ignore the fact that it also strongly recalls for me the word "Giordano" (the fashion label that she has modeled for all these years). Certainly Gianna will be easier for most Westerners to remember and pronounce than Ji-hyun.

For those who haven't heard, Jun is taking the lead role of Saya in Blood: The Last Vampire, which is an English-language, live-action adaptation of the popular Japanese anime. The film opens production this month in Argentina, before moving to Los Angeles and China for further shooting. It's scheduled for a release in summer 2008.

As an aside, I'll be really curious to see how much interest the film stirs up in Korea. Korean viewers showed absolutely zero interest in Park Joong-hoon's supporting role in The Truth About Charlie in 2000, and more recently, The Curse of the Golden Flower (no Korean stars) sold considerably more tickets than Battle of Wits (with Ahn Sung-ki) or The Promise (with Jang Dong-gun). But Blood is arguably the highest-profile international casting ever for a Korean star.

I have mixed feelings about referring to our starlet as Gianna. If I were her manager, I would most certainly have encouraged a name change. With the exception of Chow Yun-fat or Zhang Ziyi, who had a $100 million box office hit in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to back them up, most Asian stars find their careers to progress much more smoothly with a new name. I was just listening to a radio broadcast yesterday when Kal Penn ("Kumar" from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle) was saying that the number of scripts he received jumped up immediately after he simplified his name.

On the other hand, one of the biggest reasons Westerners have problems with Asian names is because they aren't sufficiently exposed to them. If she were to become famous in Hollywood with her name still intact, it would represent a minor victory of the sort worth cheering about. Personally I like the fact that I can write about all these Korean stars and directors using their real names.

But admittedly, Hollywood stars all change their names, too. It's not like Winona Ryder was born with that name. And sure enough, Jeon Ji-hyun's real name is Wang Ji-hyun, which in Korean is, well, just not sexy. Maybe I should change my name too? (It sounds pretty hideous in Korean)

:: news info from korenfilm.org ::

Comments

[sangkay]

u are the queen of beauty..
^____^