As you may know, Kim Myung-min plays a man suffering from ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, in his latest film, My Love By My Side [내 사랑 내 곁에].
Kim Myung-min is now acting to raise awareness of the illness, and the Naver portal site has set up a corner promoting the “Kim Myung-min’s Happy Energy” campaign. (Happy Energy has a few campaigns in progress featuring celebrities who promote a certain cause.) The campaign allows people to make donations to an organization helping Lou Gehrig’s patients, and in less than a week of its opening, it has raised over 10 million won. (The 10 million figure was as of September 3; the donation number currently stands at 17 million won.)
One campaign administrator said, “We haven’t exposed the campaign through advertising yet, but to have raised 10 million won already in this short time is a shock we’re grateful for. I think Kim Myung-min’s heartfelt performance and his image have made a deep impression on netizens.”
Lou Gehrig’s disease is an illness that attacks the body’s motor cells, leaving intellect and consciousness intact while rendering the muscles paralyzed. As the disease progresses, even the vital organs become paralyzed, which makes eating impossible and requires feeding tubes. After immersing himself in his latest role, Kim Myung-min said, “There is still no cure, and it’s a disease in urgent need of society’s awareness. I hope that with the film, many people will take a warm interest in the patients suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease.”
The movie My Love By My Side opens September 24.
Via OSEN, Happy Energy
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- Kim Myung-min: “In the end I was so exhausted it was difficult to act”
- Posters unveiled for My Love By My Side
- MBC documentary special features Kim Myung-min
- Kim Myung-min loses weight and the Kang-mae image
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Oh, this is going to be a tough movie to watch. Just watching the trailer is devastating.
But what a great cause! Kim Myung-min has certainly gone WAY over and above to bring ALS awareness to the world; first through what looks to be a grim, scarily realistic portrayal of an ALS patient and now through charity work. I hope he wins tons of awards for this role, simply because it’s so obvious that that’s NOT why he took it on.
I am one of those who discovered him only recently and catching up on all his work. After watching Bad Family I went on to Beethoven Virus. It was amazing to to watch him as a maestro conductor after the lovable gangster act in Bad Family. He is a wonderful actor.
He is the BEST! Everything he does I enjoy, but like the other poster said, this is going to be a little hard to watch since he did this so realistically.
Look at his collar bone in that photo…he looks emaciated! I hope he gained the weight back fast and didn’t get too sick.
wow, Happy Energy campaign…that’s sweet of him to do that.
Seriously, if not for KMM, I don’t even know what Lou Gehrig’s disease is. Hope to learn more through the movie.
Hope the movie will have a happy ending… keeping my fingers crossed **
Myung Min ssi is the best! … marvellous person, marvellous actor!
anyone who can help with his campaign, Do it please!
Has anyone seen the trailer for the movie? It looks absolutely heartbreaking. I really want to watch this movie. Hopefully it comes to the US. If not, I’ll get the DVD when it comes out
Java you should post the trailer
Agree with langdon813, this movie is really tough to watch, we have to prepare box(es) of tissue and mental strength… just watching he trailer alone i was sobbing…
i think JB had already put up the trailer, but i can’t seem to find that post… (coz i remember watching the trailer on this site)
i hope this campaign will raise more awareness in Korea… and hopefully the world…
The trailer is truly heartbreaking…my goodness.
I’m actually both dreading and anticipating to watch the movie.
KMM is the best!
Coolness, beans!
THanks for this write-up!
Our KMM is truly the best!
A true gem in the industry!
sorry to be shallow, but kmm looks so good in the second pic. XD
this is definitely on my watch list. I DON’T CARE what anti-melodramas says!
he is a really great person.
Yay for Kim Myung Min! I look up to him.
Actors doing things for a good cause are always very encouraging.
@bbm – are you talking about the embedded trailer with English subs? actually, javabeans did not put it up in this site. perhaps you saw the links to the trailer (and the MBC documentary) in some of the posts/comments in KMM-related articles ^^;
The Making video of “My Love By My Side” is out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jyJToCgz6w
Enjoy!