Kang Won-rae: 'People with Painful Experiences Gather to Have New Hope'

Kang Won-rae, who will appear in the year-end special drama entitled "Thank You for Making Me Smile", said, "People who have had painful experiences made this drama, so it was much more meaningful. And I felt really good because those people were dreaming of a new hope together". The drama "Thank You for Making Me Smile", which will air on December 25 at 11:15pm, is about the real story of a disabled people's performing troupe led by Kang Won-rae named "Kkoongddari Troupe". Kang Won-rae had a motorcycle accident on November, 2000 when he had enjoyed huge popularity while performing as a member of the duo group "Clon". He was paralyzed in the lower half of his body from the accident and underwent a painful time. But after he overcame those times of sufferings, he formed the troupe with disabled people a few years ago, and began to present performances in front of people in prison, youth detention centers, and orphanages.

At the production presentation of the drama "Thank You for Making Me Smile" held at KBS on December 22, Kang Won-rae said, "We performed at a youth detention center in Pusan yesterday. At first, they looked down on our performances because we were disabled people, but they actually cheered for us and gave loud applause with bright smiles after the performance, so we felt really rewarded. I have a dream to make our troupe's performance a popular performance worldwide like the musical 'Mamma Mia'. By appearing in this drama, I also want to inform many people about our performance and let them know that our performance is really great".

The drama, in which Kang Won-rae and nine other disabled people appear, became a hot topic because the production director Kim Yeong-jin-I, whose whole body had been paralyzed from a car accident on July, 2000, would appear in the drama after a ten-year break. He successfully finished his rehabilitation treatment. Kang Won-rae said, "At first, I had to persuade the director make our own stories. Later when the drama's production had been decided, he actually insisted that we had to appear in the drama. I wanted to inform people of how interesting our performance was. I want people to abandon any bias toward disabled people after watching our drama. We are not just poor people. We are also members of a family and we could have been their own family members. From this point of view, I want this drama to make people change their thoughts. I made a comeback with Joon-yeob after five years since the accident, and I really congratulate the director Kim Yeong-jin-I for his comeback after ten years. I also want many disabled people to have hope through this drama".

Kang Won-rae's best friend and former member of the group "Clon", Koo Joon-yeob, will also appear in this drama as a friend of Kang Won-rae. Koo Joon-yeob said, "All cast members did not act in the drama because they all expressed their own real stories in the drama, so I think that this drama will be really touching. I did not feel any pressure because I would play a friend of Won Rae just like in real life, but I did my best not to cause any problems in the drama production".