SINGAPORE — Local actor Jeremy Chan revealed his friendship with South Korean movie star Gang Dong-won for the first time, when he recently posted on social media a photo of them together.
Chan, 44, told Chinese-language daily Lianhe Zaobao in a Feb 4 report that they have known each other for more than five years. However, Chan had never publicly shared their pictures to protect Gang’s privacy.
Chan said he gifted Gang, 45, with his self-designed doll XaDiDi during the recent meet-up, and sought Gang’s approval before posting the image on Jan 26. He wrote in the caption: “Grateful for new journeys, old friendships and memories I’ll carry for a long time.”
Chan said he was filming Singaporean fantasy drama Crouching Tiger Hidden Ghost (2021) in late 2020 when he and his Malaysian actress-wife Jesseca Liu got to know Gang — who was in Singapore then on a private trip — through a mutual friend.
“I felt then that this guy was exceptionally tall, very handsome and had a very gentle personality,” Chan said, while recalling their first meeting. “His English was excellent, so I didn’t need to learn Korean specifically. We had no communication barriers at all.”
Gang is 1.86m tall while Chan stands at 1.68m.
As actors, they instantly clicked over shared interests, and their conversations included the differences between the entertainment industries and cultures of Singapore and South Korea. They even have a special nickname for each other.
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“I always joke that I’m half his height, and since we get along very well, I call him ‘half a brother’,” Chan said. “We love talking about movies and creative work, and we click, so we call each other ‘ban-ban’ (the Korean pronunciation for ‘half’) brother.”
From knowing little about Gang’s filmography to following all his projects fervently now, Chan has become a devoted fan of the leading man of movies like A Violent Prosecutor (2016) and Train To Busan: Peninsula (2020).
He said he had heard of South Korean celebrities imposing many restrictions and making demands in private, creating a sense of distance, but found Gang to be a “very humble” artiste after getting to know him.
“He doesn’t act differently from others just because he’s a big star — that’s admirable. He’s truly different, and despite his fame, he’s low-key, down to earth and doesn’t like living in the spotlight. I think he’s already on another level as an artiste.”
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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
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