Do we like Rain?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Nothing harmful turned up in his words or acts and he has put money behind women in need, held back by one lost Hawaii case and an unproven 2023 claim.
Rain is the Korean pop-and-acting powerhouse who went solo in 2002 and became one of the first big Korean exports to the West. In 2006 he walked the red carpet as one of Time's 100 most influential people, reported at the time as the first Korean performer to get that nod. Fair warning, the English-language reporting on his early life is thin, so this column leans on what the news record actually shows.
His biggest blot is a Hawaii stoush. He cancelled the 2007 show meant to open his US tour, with fans having flown in from Japan and Korea. In 2009 a federal jury found he, his then agency and two promoters breached the contract with the Hawaii promoter, ordering them to pay more than US$8 million, and Pollstar reported it later settled, terms secret. Bad look, but it was a business blow-up, not harm to a group of people.
In 2023 a man identified only as “A” was reported to have filed a police complaint alleging Rain misled him over the sale of an Itaewon house, with the claim put at 8.5 billion won. Rain's agency denied it, said the paperwork didn't match the claims, and said it had evidence to refute them. We couldn't find how it ended, so treat it as an unproven claim.
On the harm check, nothing came up. We found no remarks from him against LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet, and no pattern of working with people who do. He also pledged all the earnings from a 2020 denim endorsement to buy sanitary products for women doing it tough in the pandemic. Silence isn't a gold star, but it's a clean sheet.
The most recent stumble was in January 2026 in Taipei, when he singled out a fan for not dancing, then apologised publicly after she said she hadn't understood him. His words were “I wasn't considerate enough and didn't think things through.” Nothing newer has turned up lately. An apology that quick says something about him.
In a 2024 interview he spoke about mellowing out with age and learning to let go of the need to be the best at everything. Put together: a long career, one lost court case that settled, one denied allegation, one cringe moment he fixed fast, and some quiet giving. We'd happily keep him on the playlist.