Cosmetics: No longer a woman's domain
What do Korean heartthrobs Won Bin, Kwon Sang-woo and Jang Dong-gun, Filipino actor John Lloyd Cruz, Japanese pop singer Takuya Kimura and former F4 member Vanness Wu have in common?
These men, at certain points of their careers, have endorsed beauty products and the reason they were chosen is not only because of their popularity but also because of their "beautiful" faces.
Let's face it: The Asian showbusiness culture is very different from the Hollywood one. John Wayne, Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson will never be leading men material in Taiwan, Korea or the Philippines. In most parts of the region, the norm is a pretty face, a nice smile, and fantastic hair and that's for the men. Having a moderately masculine body also does not hurt.
Jang endorses a men's makeup line called Vonin and the company's ad shows the handsome dramatic actor kissing an image of himself while the soulful Won puts on lipstick on his date's lips in the ad for Missha, also a cosmetics brand.
(Paragraph on John Lloyd Cruz deleted...)
Korean actor Kwon Sang-woo (Cholo in Stairway to Heaven) is the endorser of The Face Shop, a chain of cosmetics stores, and in the ad, the buff heartthrob nuzzles a berry tree and wears a crown of leaves.
(Paragraphs on Vanness Wu and Jay Chou deleted...)
But today's Asian pretty boys should all thank Japanese singer Takuya Kimura, who, in 1996, appeared in a Kanebo commercial which showed him putting on pink lipstick.
Kimura is said to be the model for all pretty boys being churned out by the Asian showbusiness industry. At the height of Jerry Yan's popularity three years ago, he was being called the "new Takuya."
Few people in Asia think of ads featuring men endorsing cosmetics as gay. In a strange way, despite the conservative culture in the region, Asians are more accepting of androgynous people and are not quick to put labels. They do not assume that a man with feminine qualities is gay.
Asian actors are not ashamed to dye their hair, wear lipstick, or go to a dermatologist and this was way, way before the term metrosexual was even invented.
Asian men also cry, cook for women, and do the housework. There's no all-afternoon football match to watch while the wife cooks dinner and does the laundry. Asian men are not so predictable and are enigmatic.
A recent survey conducted in South Korea showed more than 66 percent of men were living "androgynous" lifestyles. This means that the respondents agreed that they had traditionally female traits. In that country, they call these men "flower men," or gentle men. What a coincidence, F4 means "Flower 4." ---Dinna Chan Vasquez
Source: MANILA STANDARD TODAY
The Good Life, B4
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Transcribed by: Da A of starkoreans
I'm so sorry! Enweiz, 
He's so real!! 
)
ive only seen i think like maybe one picture of them together, even that was a bit blurry! they dont really take very many pictures together do they? how long have they been together already, minus the breakup/reunion?
