As we all know, Rain made his Hollywood debut in the live-action big-screen adaptation of Speed Racer, which opened over the weekend. The high profile role, along with his recent heralded dance battle on The Colbert Report, has set the stage for his career crossover into the United States. Unfortunately, for some people—including one of America's mostly widely-read celebrity magazines—he's just another random Asian face...
In the latest issue of People, they've got a brief interview and profile of Rain, talking about his role in Speed Racer. Too bad the guy in the accompanying photo is not Rain. Not even close. That's actually Karl Yune (brother of Rick), who also has a small role in the movie... but is clearly not the South Korean supermega pop star in question. Ouch. You gotta love it: Rain, is that really you?
Colossal mistake. Alas, it seems that all Asians do look alike. Or at least, some editorial staffer at People thinks they do. That's racist! This is what happens when there aren't a lot of Asians in media/entertainment—when you actually get one, nobody knows how to handle it. Let's face it, this was probably way less likely to happen with a white celebrity. I expect Rain's publicity people are going nuts over this, and not in a good way.