Raaaaaaiiiinnnnnnnn!!!!

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with the short chat I had with South Korean pop sensation Rain about his starring role in James McTeigue’s V FOR VENDETTA follow-up NINJA ASSASSIN. The footage they showed at the con was bloody and fun, so I was more than happy to chat with McTeigue (coming soon), Naomi Harris (coming soon) and Rain (here now!) about the flick. You’ll notice that he speaks some English, but has to speak through a translator sometimes and… well, I think a little was lost in the translation, but you’ll see. Rain came across as a very gracious guy, even if the publicist pulled him away before I could ask my killer final closing question… but then again, it was a visual question anyway. I wanted him to teach me a Colbert-busting dance move. Oh well, next time. Enjoy… RAAAAAIIIINNNNNNNN!!!!!

Quint: Is this your first COMIC CON?

Rain: Yeah, it’s my first time. I am so excited!

Quint: How is it for your? Is it crazy?

Rain: Yeah. I am so happy to be here, but so crowded.

Quint: It’s great. I love that you have such a huge fan base here already from…

Rain: They are my family!

Quint: Strangely enough, it’s like I know you from COLBERT REPORT.

Rain: Oh yeah!

Quint: COLBERT is like where I first heard about you.

Rain: It’s very funny, you know one day he asked me to attend his show. I said “Of course, why not?” I went to his show and it was very funny. Did you see that?

Quint: The dance off?

Rain: It’s really funny, you know.

Quint: I loved it there. I hope that continues. I hope there is still the rivalry.

Rain: He’s my brother now.

Quint: I like that onscreen though there is still the rivalry. It’s very tongue in cheek, but I loved that. Your dance off with him was probably one of the funniest things I have seen on the show and his show is damn funny anyway…

Rain: Oh yeah!

Quint: I saw the footage for NINJA ASSASSIN. It looked great.

Rain: Thank you so much.

Quint: It’s playing to me. I love bloody ninjas jumping around movies, so…

Rain: You know, I love blood…. So sticky.

Quint: I bet it’s not fun to work with, but it reminded me a lot of like SHOGUN ASSASSIN in terms of using the blood as part of the action and kind of painting the picture. Do you think that was intentional?

[Rain and his translator talk.]

Rain: Since it is a ninja movie, there has got to be a lot of blood and then for this movie, we tried to make everything real, so there was a lot of actual hitting and then when you are at the cutting scene, we actually tried to make it very real and there was a lot of influence from James. The movie was trying to stay very realistic in many ways.

Quint: Had you seen V FOR VENDETTA when you were approached for the film?

Rain: Yeah. I watched it before and it was fantastic. I like it.

Quint: It’s great isn’t it? James just seems to really have a good instinct for how to tell an interesting story and in that case a very political story, but kind of hide it in the subtext of a very entertaining action movie. Do you think he is doing something similar with NINJA ASSASSIN? Is he hiding something in the subtext?

[Rain and his translator talk.]

Rain: I feel that it’s quite different from V FOR VENDETTA, because the action has been upgraded and with them there is a love story, so the romance story makes it quite different from V FOR VENDETTA keeping the underlying text out there, so a little different.

Quint: I could tell that visually it’s a little bit of a different approach. What I liked about it was how he played with the imagery of a ninja, which we really haven’t had in US cinema in a very long time. How did you enjoy being an ultimate badasses?

[Rain and his translator talk.]

Rain: I was very satisfied with my role, playing a ninja in such a highly expected movie and since the action is very upgraded, it’s not going to disappoint you.

Quint: Was it you in the bathroom sequence? I couldn’t tell because it was cut so quickly in the trailer.

[Rain and his translator talk and I get a nod.]

Quint: What was that like, because that was my favorite stuff in the footage.

Rain: It is my favorite scene.

[Rain and his translator talk.]

Rain: It was a very interesting scene, because I was actually holding a doll to slam it into the toilet and there was like blood all over me, slimy and slippery, but it was so very fun, because I was actually hitting it.

Quint: You were hitting it, just using a dummy.

Rain: Right, but I did all of the action sequences myself.

[Rain and his translator talk.]

Rain: I actually had to be a crazy person in this scene, so for that little moment I was really actually out of my mind.

Quint: Nice!

Rain: It was a very interesting scene.

Quint: Very cool, that seems like a really cool scene. I think they are pulling you away, but thank you so much. It was good meeting you.

Rain: Thank you so much.

Thanks for reading along! Still got a lot of interviews from the Con still to go! Keep ‘em peeled, squirts! -Quint quint@aintitcool.com