Rain

Jung Ji-hoon records and performs as Rain, and as Bi in Korea. The music came first and remains the spine of the career: seven albums and twenty-eight singles, with the 2004 album It's Raining and its title single the breakthrough that turned a Korean singer into an Asia-wide touring act.

The acting arrived alongside it, and the best of it uses what a dancer's training gives him. Full House, in 2004, made him a romantic lead across the region. I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK put that persona inside an art film as Park Il-soon. Then Hollywood took the physical half of the act: Taejo Togokahn in Speed Racer, and the lead in Ninja Assassin, a film that amounts to a two-hour argument that he can carry an action picture with his body alone. It is not a subtle film, but the argument holds.

Korean television absorbed the following decade, mostly in high-concept dramas: The Fugitive: Plan B, Please Come Back, Mister, Sketch, Welcome 2 Life, Ghost Doctor, the boxer Im Baek-jeong in Bloodhounds and Red Swan. Alongside that he has moved into the elder-statesman roles the industry gives veteran idols, producing on I-LAND and appearing as himself across variety television, including How Do You Play?, You Quiz on the Block and Seoul Check-in. He also appeared in the Beijing 2008 Olympic closing ceremony.