Surprise, everyone!

If you enjoyed Princess Jasmine’s previous guest post, where she shared her Ji Chang Wook fanmeet adventure with us (here!), you’ll love this one too. 🤩

So recently, Princess Jasmine attended Kim Nam Gil’s fan meeting in Bangkok, and was kind enough to agree to write this piece for us, to share the experience.

Thanks so much to Princess Jasmine, who spent 18 hours working on this post for us, and thanks too, to JJ, for suggesting it!

Please enjoy, everyone.

KFG ❤️

Truly Madly Deeply

In the beginning of April this year, if anyone had told me that I will be doing the following:

1. Attending Kim Nam Gil (KNG) fan concert in Bangkok in July.

2. Watching in June a drama starring both KNG and Kim Jae-Uck (I have a basic crush on him from mid-2021 onwards mostly because of his “Ryan Gold” character and his musical talent) but that I will have eyes only for KNG.

3. Skipping a Ji Chang Wook (JCW) brand appearance event in my city in July (I am an ardent JCW fan from 2020 onwards) and instead be using that time to do a write-up on KNG fan concert.

I honestly would have thought that the person is playing an April Fool joke on me because I didn’t have much idea of KNG’s work by then let alone go for his fan concert.

And this is despite me being a reasonably informed K-drama fan for 4 years now yet I haven’t heard his name sufficient enough to take notice.

But here I am in mid-July of 2023 with all of the above points coming true and truly madly deeply appreciating KNG for all his works, his persona, his laugher, his singing, and everything in between🌟❤️😇.

Life really unfolds in mysterious ways at times and for me these past few months have been just that with respect to my liking for KNG.

Having watched most of his dramas, many movies, 2 travel shows, 1 reality show appearance, many interviews, and listened to countless cover version songs (and some original songs) sung by KNG in these last few months, I can safely say that he is one of the Best Korean Actors out there (or for that matter any Actor globally).

Any genre you name it and he has excelled in it. I am genuinely happy I found him and it’s a shame that his works are so under-appreciated by the global K-drama community.

Thus, this write-up becomes even more important for me to help people know more about him.

Also I just got lucky that his Bangkok concert was announced right in the middle of my “intense KNG phase” and hence I decided to make the most out of it by flying all the way to Bangkok just to meet him.

Just that I had to make my husband watch the drama “Through the Darkness” to convince him of the greatness of KNG’s acting and why it was so worthwhile to attend KNG’s Bangkok concert.

(Single ladies reading this – please kindly make the most out of your single life as a fangirl before you get tied down with family responsibilities and I say this with all honesty really 🙏)

Summary of the Fan Concert: Pre-Concert Activities

On the D-Day, I promptly got ready and reached the venue by 11.30 am only to be greeted by his huge poster at the venue entrance (there is something oddly striking about this pic and I am glad that I got a photo of myself with other lovely fans next to this pic).

After the customary glancing around and introducing myself amongst the other fans, I made the most out of my early arrival by writing heartfelt messages on the two T-shirts kept for fans to write their messages.

I also got a lovely photo of myself holding on to his signed poster (yay I was one of the lucky ones to get this 🙌).

Between now and 4 pm I met fans from Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, USA who all have made that trip to Bangkok just for his concert.

I noticed that all of them seem to have a deeper connection with him and have been his fan for a very long time. And some of them are even traveling to all his concerts happening in Asia this year.

I really want to Thank many of them for accepting me with such warmth and happiness as honestly I am a novice comparatively in terms of our appreciation for KNG.

And I Thank them once again for all the lovely gifts they gave me (these gifts have some very attractive pictures of KNG but I think it will be too distracting/scandalising for me to display them in my house 😜).

Promptly by 4 pm, we all stood in the queue to get our most-cherished group photo (for the VIP ticket holders) with KNG himself.

I really got lucky again as I happen to sit right in front of him for the group photo and I got to see him very closely. TBH it didn’t strike me as much at that time compared to some of them who got very excited seeing him so close.

But once I was in Singapore I realised the magnitude of that moment and it all hit me so emotionally and I am yet to recover from it 😭.

Note here that I haven’t seen Queen Seondeok yet.

Actually this is the must-see drama of KNG that came out in 2009 and instantly catapulted him to super-stardom. Most of his fans are with him from those days and he is still fondly called as “Bidam” the character that he played in that drama.

So for me to get this close (within a few months and not yet watching his iconic work), I consider myself lucky indeed 🙏❤️🧿.

(For anyone attending a K-Artist fan meet in S.E Asia – looks like the VIP ticket has this photo opportunity with the Artist and you kindly get this ticket as for some of us this would be once in a lifetime opportunity; I really didn’t know this photo possibility when I attended the JCW Jakarta fan concert in Dec 2022 and I missed out on it sorely; also I prefer this organised method for photo with the Artist compared to the random selfies with the Artist at airports, other places etc).

Summary of the Fan Concert: The First Act

Promptly by 6 pm, KNG himself appeared on stage dressed up in his favourite black colour singing the very soulful Reverberation (original song by Kim Dong-ryul).

This was followed by a beautiful rendition of Last Love (original song by Park Ki Young).

In the following 20 minutes or so: he talked about the Thai food he liked/had, spoke on the four hand-picked dramas (“Island”, “Through the Darkness”, “Fiery Priest” and “Bad Guy”), and talked about the characters he played in those dramas including his most iconic character Bidam.

I was personally happy that “Bad Guy” was included in this list as it’s an older drama (with many controversies surrounding that drama’s abrupt ending because of his imminent military enlistment back then in 2010) and the character he plays in that drama is very close to my heart.

There is a heart-breaking 5-minute scene in episode 10 of “Bad Guy” (the scene wherein the female lead discovers his house and comes to confront him of his real identity) wherein he conveys the varied emotions: shock, anger, revenge, happiness, love, longing, mistrust within that short time-span with such conviction and brilliance that my entire Bangkok trip is so worth it to just see him in real standing next to the poster of that drama 😇.

And its a shame that the drama “Live up to Your Name” was not included in any list as this drama is another brilliant/meaningful work of his and could probably be the only drama wherein he gets to play a reasonable romantic role. So at least for that reason they could have included it 😢.

Next up was a section called “Gilstagram” wherein he talked about three hand-picked Instagram posts of his: the first pic was on his upcoming MBC road documentary show, the next pic was on his NGO that promotes arts and culture, and the third pic was on his pet cat named TamTam.

He was so excited to see his cat on screen and talked very fondly of him (looks like the cat is an important member of the family and has a special place in his life).

Let me genuinely pause here and ask what it is with these Korean actors and pets (more specifically cats) because Kim Jae-uck also posts on his cat. I mean there are real women liking these guys from all across the world (and more specifically in Asia) whereas these guys seem to have eyes only for cats.

Now don’t tell me that I need to be re-born as a cat to enjoy any bit of this affection. (To clarify, I am a lay Buddhist and a vegetarian and I love animals yet I confess that I am unable to fathom this cat-love)

Summary of the Fan Concert: The Second Act

The second Act had him dressed up very stylishly and he performed a very affecting rendition of Hug Me (original song by Jung Joon-ll).

Honestly his vocals are amazing for an untrained singer (there is this video of him singing karaoke with Lee Seung-gi who is a naturally gifted amazing singer and KNG’s singing compliments that of LSG so aptly).

In fact given his incredible acting skills, he need not even venture into singing and will have acting work until he wants.

Yet the fact that he really makes that effort to sing so beautifully in fan concerts makes him and the concerts so very special. This guy is seriously such a hard worker and handles varied skills competently 👍✌️🧿.

There was a “Game Section” wherein three teams of three people each were chosen randomly from the audience and each of them had to play some game with KNG.

Ideally, they could have saved these 25 minutes and instead made KNG sing a few more songs.

There was another section wherein he had to draw a picture and use it to make a DIY coffee mug to be gifted to a fan. Again these 15 minutes could have been used better (and for all of KNG’s talents – drawing is definitely not his forte and Woo Do-hwan will easily beat him in drawing 🙃).

Actually he suffered from Bronchitis just before the Seoul concert in June yet he went ahead and managed to sing some 18 songs amazingly well in that concert. He has been advised to rest henceforth and thus the reduced number of songs in this concert.

Tough luck for those fans attending only this concert but totally understandable that his health takes priority. We need him for a very long time and we are ok to make smaller sacrifices now 🙏.

The best part of the second Act was three silly games played by KNG and irrespective of whether he won those games or not, he was made to perform for the fans 😃.

The first note-worthy performance was the super-cute “Candy” dance (see it to believe it).

To give some context, he performed for this “Candy” song (original song performance by NCT Dream) in the recent Seoul concert for a full 3-minutes and it was an instant hit amongst fans.

Apparently he seems super-shy about it now but fans love it and there were some fans who even wore that same “candy shirt” he wore for the Seoul performance.

The other performance that I personally loved was when he was asked to re-create the “wink scene” that he did in the Seoul International Drama Awards 2019.

Actually the original video is Pure Gold at least for me because it has two of my favourite actors (KNG and JCW) sharing the stage with JCW handing in the Outstanding Korean Actor award to KNG for his brilliant work in the drama “Fiery Priest”.

In that video KNG is super-handsome/adorably cute and easily towers over JCW and I had eyes only for KNG in that video (and this is no mean feat by any standards because I personally know how incredibly handsome JCW can be in real). Thus to see KNG perform this scene in real time was delightful.

Summary of the Fan Concert: A New Beginning

For the final Act, KNG re-appeared on stage wearing the T-shirt that had many fan messages along with mine written on it and he started performing everyone’s favourite song Can’t I Love You (OST sung by KNG himself in Queen Seondeok).

Now I got all emotional because here he is singing Can’t I Love You with my name on both the left and right side of his heart (at least symbolically through my messages on the T-shirt) and I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

Personally for me this in itself is a big deal because I as a woman have come a long way (especially growing up in a developing country where women in general till date are treated miserably and frowned upon) in terms of being able to pursue my hobbies/interests with my own resources.

With all emotions running high, I remember only two things from here on: one was the beautiful concert poster displayed on the big screen after the concert ended; two was the “Hi-Bye” session wherein KNG gets to greet fans individually for a few seconds as we exit the venue (all I remember in this session was that I made a heart pose and he reciprocated that gesture with a similar heart pose).

Now as a lay Buddhist I aim to have no-more births/no-mind state. But if by any chance there is some future life left of me, I hope wish and pray that I get to build upon this “heart connection with KNG” into a more meaningful relationship with him in that life.

(This reminds me of that scene in the drama Goblin wherein the Grim Reaper hands out queue numbers to those people in their afterlife as they ask to be re-born as a particular Korean actress in their next life 🙃)

As for this life I am just happy being his fan and being able to enjoy all his works and getting to write about him.

Thank You Note

In summary, I had a really good time in the fan concert and made memories that is going to be with me forever.

And this was only possible with loads of help and support from many people starting with: Kim Nam Gil Thailand FC (especially Nalibe and Noot who patiently answered many of my questions and helped co-ordinate many things for me); kngstory_idn (the person who runs the KNG Indonesia FC and she gave me timely info that helped me decide to go to Bangkok instead of waiting out on Jakarta/Singapore concert dates); many fans that I met at the concert (with whom I am now all connected and chat up on our shared KNG love).

Special Thanks to Ain (super-fan from Singapore who was kind enough to proof-read this write-up and gave many valuable info on KNG that I have used in this write-up), Jennifer (one of the first person that I spoke to on all things KNG), J (super-fan from South Korea who was kind enough to pass on my request for English subtitles to KNG’s team), Jac (the Thai fan seated next to me who was kind enough to do English translation as and when required).

And finally Huge Thanks to KFG for agreeing to publish this write-up in her blog (at such a short notice) and allowing me to express myself freely both in her blog and Patreon account.

~Princess Jasmine

P.S – 1 – For all the general people reading this, kindly have a look out for his upcoming works in the second half of 2023: Netflix series – Song of the Bandits, MBC road documentary show – Leave Anything Behind, Movie – A Man of Reason (premiered at TIFF). And hope you all get to enjoy and appreciate his work as much as we do 🙏.

P.S – 2 – I decided to watch Queen Seondeok after the fan concert as then I will have something to look forward to post-concert and I am very sure I am going to cry buckets for KNG in that drama.

P.S – 3 – I am increasingly finding myself to be the only woman of Indian origin (especially originating from a country of a billion plus people) in these K-Actors fan concerts and amongst their ardent fan-group and maybe even in this blog/Patreon. At times it does feel a bit odd and I don’t know what to make out of this observation but then it is what it is and I am going to enjoy what I like even if I am in the minority out there.