The great thing about having a K-pop bias is that one never feels too guilty about making fun of him.
For the past few months, SHINee has been the face of Auction, an online shopping mall. While activities in Japan have kept SHINee from doing constant product endorsements, it seems as if SHINee’s resident black hole of talent Flaming Charisma (what does that even mean, anyway?) Minho has stepped back up to the plate and recently filmed this CF with actress Goo Eun-ae. Check it out below:
Should I be laughing or crying?
A few days ago, Auction revealed several teaser photos from the shoot — and looking back on it, those photos alone should have tipped me off to the fact that this CF was probably going to be the most awkward thing to have burned into my eyeballs for the next six to nine months. Minho’s an awful actor, we get it — but his perpetual awkwardness around females is starting to make me tear my hair out. Metaphorically, of course. Allow me to explain.
Exhibit A: About this time last year, Minho filmed a one-episode ‘Drama Special’ entitled Pianist in which he drove a blue pickup truck and did the best fake-piano playing I have ever seen. Oh, and he also had his first on-screen kiss.
To me, this scene reeked of, “I’ve never actually kissed a girl before, but I just spent the last six hours rewatching K-drama kiss scenes and interrogating my bevy of hyungs for advice, and this is the best I could muster. By the way, why are my hands so gigantic?”
Well, at least he tried.
Exhibit B: Minho used to be a regular on KBS variety program “Oh My School,” but because he’s an absolute deadweight when it comes to variety programs, the producers would constantly pair him up with some random female guest in the hopes of creating a scandal. On one occasion, SNSD’s Yuri guested on the show and the two did a duet of “Summer Nights” from Grease. Match made in heaven, right? Apparently, the producers seemed to agree. At the end of the number, the hosts cheered for the pair to kiss.
(Background music is complimentary of Ashley Tisdale and Walt Disney Productions. You’re welcome.)
Needless to say, it didn’t happen.
To be fair though, it’s not as if Minho’s completely allergic to girls or anything — he’s always had great chemistry with Krystal whenever the two of them were paired up on Dream Team. And let’s not forget that time he subbed in for Amber when Yuri performed “1, 2 Step” during SNSD’s Asia tour. It’s pretty clear that Minho probably isn’t too uncomfortable around girls as a whole — that is, as long as he’s not in a role where he has to act with them. And, at times, make sexyface with them.
Which, for Minho, is a bit of an issue. Minho’s role in SHINee is practically nonexistent — he knows it, SM knows it, even his fans know it. Therefore, he’s venturing into acting…whilst also monopolizing the fact that he has a killer bod and the guts to show it off. (In case you missed it, here’s Minho galavanting all over the stage shirtless during the SHINee concert in Nagoya last weekend. I cringed a little.)
However, if you’re trying to simultaneously make a name for yourself as an actor and as a hottie with a body but you can’t figure out how to interact with a female on screen, then you’re in trouble. Honest to goodness, I don’t like how Minho’s approaching his career one bit. I bag on him for being talentless all the time, but I’d appreciate him a lot more if he’d just take the time to work on his dancing and singing rather than giving up completely and pursuing “acting” that’s more reminiscent of a made-for-TV movie adaptation of some 1950s bodice ripper romance novel. The fact that he acts as if his skin is going to peel every time he attempts on-screen chemistry with a female co-star just adds insult to injury. At the end of the day, Minho can call himself an actor if he wants. But he should also know that the definition of ‘acting’ does not consist of tearing one’s shirt off at any given opportunity…at least, not until one knows and practices the art of on-screen chemistry well enough to do so.
But maybe I’m not being fair enough to Minho by judging him so harshly just on his performance in this CF, especially considering that the premise of the CF itself makes very little sense. In the CF, a glass vase falls to the ground and shatters after being knocked over by Minho and Lady in the most artificial fit of passion ever seen by humanity. Minho then smirks to the camera as a subtitle flashes, “I Don’t Worry.”
Don’t worry about what, Minho? The fact that your career has no foreseeable future beyond the next two years?
But all is made clear through this other CF also released by Auction, this time featuring Sulli from f(x). In it, she is seen pillow fighting with some Boy Who Must Not Be Named, and breaks things in the process. And once again, Sulli “Doesn’t Worry”…because she can buy new things from Auction’s sale! Get it?
