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Sandara Park

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Sandara Park (born November 12, 1984 in Busan, South Korea) is a Korean who stars in movies and television shows in the Philippines. Her unusual three-syllable Korean name, as she has said numerous times in interviews, came from a Korean general whose nickname is Sandara.[citation needed]

Early life

Sandara was born to Korean parents during the days when her father's business was doing well. But upon reaching 8, her father's relatives placed him in a financially tight spot which then crippled his business and marred his finances.

In hopes of recovering from this business strain, Sandara's father tried his luck in the Philippines, settling in a small apartment in Pasay City and pursuing his business. Sandara and her family remained in her grandmother's house in South Korea for some time until her father finally had enough luck and money to bring them in the Philippines.

At first, it was a hard adjusting for Sandara and her family. None of them were fluent in English, let alone Tagalog. They were estranged that when Sandara entered school. It was thought to be strange, as she and her family supposedly have been in the country for many years before she came out on TV, that she could not speak any decent English, or even Tagalog, the Filipino language.

Finally feeling a lot more confident and socially adapted, she enrolled in voice lessons at the Center for Pop Music sometime in early 2000s. Unbeknownst to her that one day a room in that school would be named after her.

The catapult to Philippine showbiz

During one of her school functions, Sandara met Pauleen Luna who was then a talent of ABS-CBN Channel 2, one of Philippines's leading network. Luna encouraged the shy Korean to audition for Star Circle Quest, a then-upcoming talent search in her home network. Park tried her luck and was in the same batch with fellow questors, Hero Angeles and Joseph Bitangcol.

Luckily for her, the judges called her in and was able to elude elimination several times, paving way for inclusion in the contestant pool's top ten. Being Korean, she had some trouble with the daily exercises set by the panel of judges. Though she had some comedic ability, time and again she was monotonous, if not dull or lacking in timing. But what she lacked in talent, she made up in charisma. A proof of this was that during the whole run of the show she consistently garnered the Texter's Choice Award, an award given weekly for the contestant who got the most text votes from the viewers, losing the award for only a week. During the last elimination round where the final five contestants were chosen, Sandara made Philippine history by garnering 500,000 more or less text votes, making her the first female to garner that much SMS support. And so she was in until the finals night where she was announced runner-up to Hero Angeles. It is estimated that she got at least 2,000,000 accumulated SMS votes from supporters during the entire run of the contest. She got the runner-up position perhaps because it was absurd for someone who was not even Filipino to win a talent search for Filipino teens.

The media called it magic, for no one was able to explain how a Korean girl who came from nowhere managed to make that much noise and collect public admiration that even after the end of the talent search, she still has that much following, although some say it is because of the Korean in particular and Asian in general, craze that was rising at that time. Indeed, Sandara Park had been catapulted from total anonymity to stardom in a span of three months.

Also, during the run of the contest, she was paired with Hero Angeles. The pair, however, displayed an undeniable sexual relationship, displaying quarrels and alienation towards each other as often as possible. This later ended up in a real fight that broke up their partnership.

Post SCQ Events: Star Status Established

ABS-CBN showered Park with projects after her Star Circle Quest days. She had as much as 6 instant local commercial endorsements, namely Tekki Asian Classic Noodles, Maxi Peel, Konica Cameras, Dong-A pens (which is actually a Korean brand), Confident feminine napkins, and Rejoice shampoo (which she did a jingle for). More so were the TV shows. She starred as Sandara Soh in a Star Circle Quest spin-off SCQ Reload, OK Ako (which translates to SCQ Reload, I'm OK) and had her own afternoon hosting of Sandara's Romance, a show featuring Korean dramas with her commenting from time to time, and a hosting stint on ASAP Fanatic, a Sunday noontime teen variety show. She also appeared in a local daily primetime superhero soap opera, Krystala, as Kim who shares similar personalities with her real-life self, but her tight schedule forced her character to appear less often than expected. In addition, Sandara also embarked on a musical career that eventually led to the release of her self-titled 6-track album which spawned the novelty dance hits "In Or Out", a song that parodied her experiences in Star Circle Quest, and the "Walang Sabit", the jingle for Rejoice Shampoo. To prove Sandara's rapidly rising star status, the album was certified double platinum after 6 months selling 60,000 copies.

As seen often in Philippine showbiz, stars striking the hot iron were subsequently seen in movies. Sandara was no different. She appeared in two movies within separate years. First was a storyline in the three-storied movie Bcuz of U where she co-starred with some of the hottest showbiz teens. Second was her own movie with her loveteam partner, Hero Angeles, Can This Be Love, which actually flopped in the local box-office grossing only P9,310,291 by the end of its run.

Changing partners

After a tumultuous partnership with Hero Angeles, Sandara Park opted to pursue college and workshop lessons in Seoul, South Korea. There were rumors and statements in the Korean press that Sandara had tried to become a singer/actress in South Korea, but due to some series of setbacks, it somehow never materialized.

Soon, local media, playing along the controversy, voiced their unhealthy indifference with Angeles and his brother-turned-manager, Henry Angeles. This even lead to the Angeles brothers suing writer, columnist, and showbiz aficionado, Cristy Fermin, a healthy 16 counts of libel each -- more or less. Nonetheless, the South Korean fled to Korea still, leaving her troubles unfixed and for the public to decide.

During her stay in Korea, her rumored boyfriend, Joseph Bitangcol, openly admitted their relationship on national TV via the showbiz talk show, The Buzz, giving the Hero-Sandara fans a healthy shock.

The Fad Fades

Six months after she first announced her plans of studying in Korea, Sandara came back to the Philippines to continue whatever she left. Her home network has already released Angeles, and with no one currently paired with her, Joseph Bitangcol took the spot Angeles left.

When Sandara came back in December 2005. She found that her schedule was less tight than before. She had very little TV guestings and only has 1 regular Sunday show, which is ASAP Fanatic. Crowd reception also seemed cold for her comeback. This is partly because of the success and attention Pinoy Big Brother Season One housemates were having. During these times, she was almost nowhere to be seen.

In early March 2006, Sandara voiced out on national tv her feelings for the cold reception she has received on her comeback, as well as her envy on the Pinoy Big Brother housemates, commenting on them as colorful, while she is black and white. She has also cried on how empty her schedule had become.

But the real surprise was when she revealed that her father abandoned them and that her father has another family which he is now living with. Tears flowing, Sandara revealed that her father is a wife-beater and has taken all her savings, leaving them hard-put once again.

A Comeback?

About a week after Sandara did the aforementioned interview, Star Cinema revealed its latest movie offering, D'Lucky Ones, starring none other than Sandara Park and her boyfriend, Joseph Bitangcol, coupled with her latest single, Ang Ganda Ko, the movie's official theme song. The movie also stars Pokwang and Eugene Domingo, two comedians who excel at their field.

The movie was directed by Wenn Deramas, director of Marina and Kampanerang Kuba, and it opened in theaters April 16, 2006. Sadly however, the film was a commercial flop grossing only P11,201,018.

Very recently, Park signed up with Regal Films as an actress for its movies as well as one of its managed talents. Dondon Monteverde, Regal's talent manager for Aubrey Miles, is in charge of Park. Rumors state that Park will star in an upcoming horror movie from Regal.

Criticism

Despite being enormously popular with the teen/young-adult market, critics had panned Park for being "all hype, and no substance."

The market seemed to have had enough of Sandara after her break off with Hero Angeles as screen partner which was punctuated with a bitter exchange of words. The latter eventually faded out of memory due to further controversies with ABS CBN and a couple of reporters. When the HeroSan mania that persistently prevented contemporary loveteams (such as Jennylyn Mercado and Mark Herras of GMA7) of their league from soaring high, had fizzled out, so did the career of Sandara whose reel and real partnership with fellow Star Circle Questor Joseph Bitangol could hardly take off as a loveteam.

It is said that Sandara's popularity will further drop with the entry of newer, fresher and younger Pinoy Big Brother Teen celebrities. This early PBB Teen Big Winner Kim Chiu (who speaks Visayan, Waray, Fukien Chinese and Mandarin Chinese), who could also pass for a Chinese/Asian character.

Fortunately, Sandara was tapped to become the voice of Jamie Robinson in the newly-Tagalized Japanese anime classic, Voltes V, which is now airing on Hero TV (a subsidiary of ABS-CBN). She admits that she's pretty bad with her dubbing but as the story of the anime progresses, viewers of the shows may notice her slow but sufficient improvement as a voice actress.

She will also be part of an upcoming soap opera under the working title, Crazy for You (TV series), starring also Toni Gonzaga, Luis Manzano, John Prats, Pokwang, PBB Teen Housemate Aldred Gatchalian and Sandara's loveteamate, Joseph Bitangcol.

Filmography

Television

Film

Discography

Albums

  • Sandara (2004) (2x platinum, 60,000++ copies)

Singles

  • In Or Out
  • Walang Sabit
  • Smile in you heart
  • Ang Ganda Ko
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