Korea's big, hunky slice of singing, dancing, supercelebrity man meat, RAIN (aka Jung Ji-Hoon) is having a run of bad luck ever since he left the world of pop stars to try to become a movie star. His first film, I'M A CYBORG BUT THAT'S OK, directed by Park Chan-Wook (OLDBOY) wasn't the world's biggest hit, but it was one of the best Korean movies of 2006 and he acquitted himself well in it. Unfortunately, he followed that up with SPEED RACER that just opened this past weekend to become one of Summer 2008's first major disasters. Directed by the Wachowski Brothers, the $100 million film barely made $20 million on its opening weekend and looks to do weak box office globally. And let's not forget that he spent 2007 ditching his management company, JYP, to start his own company, J Tune, that spent the year getting sued and alienating fans during its 2007 World Tour thanks to last minute cancellations, lawsuits over copyright infringement and bad marketing.

To add insult to injury, no one seems to know who RAIN is, all of a sudden. He was one of People magazine's "Most Beautiful People in the World" in 2007, but when they did an interview with RAIN recently they used a photo of Karl Yune to illustrate it.

To add injury to injury, RAIN is also slated to star in the next Wachowski Brothers movie, this time directed by V FOR VENDETTA's James McTeigue. It's called NINJA ASSASSIN, making it sound like something Cannon would have produced for the direct-to-video market in 1983, but RAIN's proud of himself in it and even released pics of himself training for the movie. There are rumors that this is actually a live action version of the famed anime series, NINJA SCROLL, but whatever. RAIN still looks like a manorexic.

Finally, to add insult and injury to injuries and insults, RAIN will be recording a new version of Carl Douglas' horrible and horribly over-exposed "Kung Fu Fighting" for the soundtrack of the upcoming animated film KUNG FU PANDA.

(Thanks to PopSeoul! for that People magazine clipping)