Note To Self

We can say with conviction that we discovered Jinri Park, but it is really only now that we know her in ways we never had before.

- Manila

A few years ago, FHM introduced a sexy Korean model to the mainstream Filipino audience, which jumpstarted her career in the entertainment industry. The Korean aesthetic was all the rage back then with the popularity of K-pop and K-dramas, people were crazy about Koreans and their culture, which made young Jinri Park’s rise to fame a natural outcome of the times.

These days, we’re still quite obsessed with Korean pop culture, but maybe not so much intrigued by its people, having had a sort of “invasion” in our shores in recent years. Yes, we can plainly see now that Koreans are everywhere, in droves. Still, we have not lost sight of the fact that Koreans, when they are at their sexiest and cutest, are top hits, and that is why we are still obsessed with Jinri.

Jinri has been on FHM’s 100 Sexiest list since her 2011 debut on our pages, something she herself might be surprised of because she claims not really knowing what she was getting into the first time. “I was a model back then, not an artist, so I really didn’t think of my image, so I had nothing to lose.”

At first, she wasn’t quite comfortable with the “sexy” tag. “I always thought before that it had a negative effect on my career because I would always be labeled as ‘sexy,’ which meant I could only do certain things that fall under that category. I don’t mind being considered sexy, but I don’t want to be boxed in with that label.”

In her early years in the entertainment industry, Jinri tried out becoming a DJ on RX 93.1 Monster Radio, hosting events like Kpop Republic, and acting in sitcoms like Vampire Ang Daddy Ko and web series like Tanods. But photographers, corporations, and shows kept giving her projects where she could showcase her innate sensuality.