[Article] Kim Hyun Joong - If you feel the same (by wonderrgirl)

Credit: http://wonderrrgirl.wordpress.com

As usual, the hellish weeks are still ongoing, and I was just done with a presentation, so I’m giving myself 30 minutes break to write a blog entry before starting to write my last group project essay (Tourism again).

Despite the busy life at the moment, I was still able to find time to listen to Hyun Joong’s new song for the upcoming Drama “Marriage Plot”. This song is called 그대도 나와 같다면 and it seems like it’s being translated to “If you’re like me”. If you ask me, I think “If you feel the same” is a liberal but more accurate translation, which some translators have also used.

Just like the other fans, I was looking forward to this song as well, having heard the one minute trailer and I like it almost immediately. When it finally came out, I was listening to it with my friends before returning back home to read the lyrics while having the song played on my iTunes; that was when I was struck because it brought so many thoughts into my head reading it.

Have you guys checked out the lyrics? Because if you haven’t, you should. Stephanie has done a very good translation of this on her blog, and I will repost it here as well for easier reading:

Source: Bugs Mobile apps (벅스모바일)
Translation: Stephanie (@5StarsAs1/ www.i-kpoplovers.blogspot.com)
Please leave the credits remain intact when repost.
English translation
If you feel the same
If you feel the same
Can’t even make a step, only tears fall within any minutes
If you feel the same
You should be looking at my eyes right now
Love becomes deeper like this, I wanted to stay beside you for a little while more
Wiping away your tears with my hand
Letting the pain slipping away without being noticed on the other hand
(correction thanks to @wonderrrgirl! ^^)
Trying to ignore this weakening self
Can you see I’m running towards you?
If you really feel the same
If you feel the same now
If you can feel my earnest longing
Even if you enter a completely different world
Even if you enter a world without me
We could feel the same
My heart just wanted to stay beside you
Slowing down my pace, to walk beside you
Trying to ignore this weakening self
To tell you that I love you, to tell you that you’re my only one
If you really feel the same
If you feel the same now
If you can feel my earnest longing
Even if you enter the completely different world
Even if you enter a world without me
We could feel the same
If you feel the same
If you feel the same
You should be thinking of me right now
If you feel the same

-

What are your thoughts after listening to and reading the lyrics?

As for me, I couldn’t help but feel that this song uncannily describes a part of life for Hyun Joong, or rather, any celebrity out there whose love lives can never be made public easily (as we already know). But what we also assume all the time is the fact that these very handsome and hot idols can literally get any girl they want out there. With their good looks, charisma, popularity, income level (at least for the successful ones) and other forms of cultural capital, who wouldn’t want to be with a celebrity? I guess it’s just such a given, that life will always be as bright and perfect as it was depicted on any typical idol drama where everyone ends up with a very happy ending. (Either that or they all die and the show ends, but let’s ignore that other extreme. On the whole, many dramas ended happily; the hot main lead gets the guy/girl all the time.)

But if you have watched a lot of what the celebrities are saying, which they reveal occasionally, especially the more senior ones (sunbaes) who reached a stage in their career where revealing this very private aspect of their life will not jeopardize their career in any way; they started revealing how they’ve gone dating and have girlfriends in the past, and what’s striking is how things don’t always work out perfectly, or the way we think they would for these very attractive and seemingly perfect people.

But what I gathered after listening closely to them talk about their love lives is that things are not as good as we think. Perhaps being a fan and how it is probably many fans’ dream to become the girl/boyfriend of their idols, they couldn’t possibly imagine how anyone wouldn’t want to end up with them. But the reality is when it comes to a real relationship with a idol star, the stakes involved are probably beyond what most people will normally think about.

The fact that the whole relationship has to say hidden, and how they couldn’t be like normal people who go on dates in the movie theaters or take romantic walks on the streets, is one factor. Also, the other partner who isn’t a celebrity (or just a commoner) will have to deal with the fact that there are thousands of others out there who’re all ready to grab their celebrity boy/girlfriend away from them.

More importantly, this partner also have to accept the fact that the life and job scope of the idol is to perform, please the fans, and sometimes even having to act out roles as the lover of another person in dramas or MVs. Their celebrity boy/girlfriends are going to be surrounded by very good looking and attractive people, and goodness know what other things they have to go through as a couple.

In view of that, it is very common that they may not always end up with the people that they love, because ultimately, the lack of understanding, or the inability of the other party to understand the circumstances in which celebrities like Hyun Joong has to be in makes it very hard for any relationship to go on.

Not long ago, Hyun Joong mentioned that he has recently met the girl of his destiny in a Japanese magazine interview, and how he is surprised/amazed to be feeling this way. This article was translated into English and Chinese, yet there are so many different variations of it. Some translation said that he appears to be referring to a girl from his past, while some are saying it’s the present girl. I do not understand Japanese unfortunately and different Japanese fans gave me different interpretations of that interview as well. So what exactly is the real thing that he said?

Well, not long ago, some of my friends met Hyun Joong, and this question was actually clarified with the man himself. Hyun Joong has personally clarified that he is indeed, talking about a girl he has met recently. (So this is not about some girl from his past, as I read from many translations) I am afraid this is also a dangerous topic, but just to appease those fans who are really against the idea of Hyun Joong having some girl out there, they are not together (as he also indicated in the interview actually. He just MET a girl whom he sees as the girl of his destiny, but is not together with this girl).

As a result, this song reminded me of this interview again. I always hope that Hyun Joong will get to meet a girl he really loves, and spend the rest of his life happily with someone he loves. But perhaps one of the difficulties of him ever meeting such a girl, despite how near-perfect he is in many of our eyes, is that it will probably not be easy to find a girl who really truly understands the circumstances he is in, and his career as an artiste.

This is why this song has an additional impact when I read the lyrics. It describes pretty accurately the kind of circumstances in which a celebrity-commoner couple is being placed in. A lot of love is required to get through the amount of waiting and pain needed in such a complicated relationship. His heart will no doubt wish very much to be walking beside the girl, because physically, this body is unable to do so 24/7 or even publicly.

“If you really feel the same
If you feel the same now
If you can feel my earnest longing

Even if you enter a completely different world
Even if you enter a world without me
We could feel the same”

I thought this line is painfully well written. At the end of the day, everything lies on whether both parties feel the same about each other. We would all like to believe, that no matter what difficulties, no matter how far apart two very in loved people are placed in, if they truly feel the same, they can still be together eventually.

The challenge of course, is how nobody can ever be 100% sure if the other party feels the same way, and this is the pain and challenge for couples in such a complicated relationship.

I love this song, needless to say. Before I end I should say that this entry should not be used as an interpretation or conclusion about Hyun Joong’s love life, or the mystery destiny girl he mentioned. I have no idea. I am merely listening to a song and trying to put myself in Hyun Joong’s shoes if he were to meet such a situation. Even though the fact is there is indeed such a girl in Hyun Joong’s life, how things end up for Hyun Joong eventually will be up to his own discretion to decide if he wants to reveal it in the end.

Hopefully this end is not too near either, because I still want to enjoy several more years of Hyun Joong as a performer. But I hope that at the end of the day, what we will see is that the fans had loved Hyun Joong enough, so much so that they are willing to accept the fact that Hyun Joong will eventually find his own happiness. I guess if we still want to see him perform for everyone, we got to accept this and love him regardless of who he is with, or who he loves.