Kim Min's Life as a True Artist on a Different Dimension—'I Live Alone' Explodes with 8.4% Rating

Kim Min's life as a true artist on a different dimension—'I Live Alone' explodes with 8.4% Actor Kim Min has emerged as a new discovery on 'I Live Alone' by revealing a daily life lived in a slightly different way from others. His life, which involves running a generator to create electricity, repairing broken floors with cement, and continuing through woodworking and martial arts training, was far from a daily routine chasing convenience and efficiency. Rather, Kim Min found freedom and romance within that discomfort. In the MBC 'I Live Alone' broadcast on the 2nd, the daily lives of Kim Min, who was familiar as a scene-stealer in dramas, living in Dongducheon, and Yuri, who returned to Jeju after finishing her mainland activities, were revealed. According to Nielsen Korea, a viewership rating company, the broadcast on that day recorded 6.3% in the metropolitan area, taking first place among all programs on Friday. The 2054 viewership rating targeting viewers aged 20–54 was also the highest among all programs on the same day at 3.4%. In particular, the 'Best Minute' of the day was the moment Kim Min transformed into a Hapkido instructor. Unlike his usual free-spirited appearance, he showed the charisma of a strict instructor in front of children, but then showed a reversal by smiling brightly, causing the viewership rating to soar to a peak of 8.4%. The gap between Kim Min's intense impression on screen and his modest and quirky daily life captured the viewers' attention. Kim Min said he has been living alone for 28 years. The space he chose was an old house built over 90 years ago. It was far from a convenient or sophisticated house in the general sense, but Kim Min was filling it in his own way. From the exotic-feeling interior to the various parts of the house he repairs himself, his life, which broke away from standardized residential methods, looked like a single work of creation. This was also the reason why CODE KUNST, watching this, marveled, "I think he is a person too big for us to contain." Kim Min's lifestyle was difficult to explain simply as the eccentricity of a mere oddball. He ran a generator to turn on the electricity, tore into a whole baguette to eat, and personally fixed broken floors with cement. While continuing rough woodworking, he also practiced martial arts. His appearance of solving tasks personally that would be left to experts in modern residential life seemed like a life of enduring discomfort, but Kim Min actually found satisfaction within it. He said, "I think it's more happiness when things are a little lacking," adding, "It's fun to fill in what is lacking." He means that rather than a state where everything is complete, he feels joy in the process of discovering and filling in the lacking parts himself. It is a value system different from the way of increasing the quality of life through consumption and convenience. In that the criteria for happiness can be how one uses their time rather than what one possesses or how much they have, Kim Min's daily life also aligned with the diversity of life shown by recent single-person household culture. The path he has walked was also difficult to explain with a single profession or identity. While working in architecture, he applied to an overseas company and lived in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia for about 8 years to learn languages. In the process of accumulating various experiences, he learned acting and revealed that he received teachings from a mentor famous for French clown theater. Having mastered various martial arts since childhood, he became a holder of a total of 10th-degree black belts and even obtained an instructor's certificate at the Hapkido dojang he visited to properly learn falling techniques. The words Kim Min left on the broadcast condensed the attitude that penetrates his life. He stated, "It's not that I'm cool because I'm handsome, but the time I spent is cool," and cited "a life of performing the things I want to do coolly so that I do not regret it" as his life motto. It is an attitude of placing meaning on the time and experiences he has accumulated rather than success or external conditions defined by the eyes of others. CODE KUNST also said he was deeply impressed, saying, "From the perspective of a creator, since he is a person living life as art, I felt a bit ashamed." If Kim Min's life is a 'daily life being made,' Yuri's life in Jeju was closer to a 'daily life returning.' After finishing her activities as the 6th generation girl group 'Hyori-su,' Yuri returned to her home in Jeju, borrowed books from her regular library, and visited the Sehwa Folk Five-Day Market. At the market, requests for photos from citizens who recognized 'Hyori-su' continued, and Yuri was surprised by the reaction of people who remembered her by a new name rather than Girls' Generation. Yuri did not decorate her time in Jeju grandiosely. She chose Gal-ot, a traditional Jeju workwear, at the market, ate tteokbokki and fried food at her regular snack shop, and walked with her walking mate 'Ddongsul-i.' After returning home, she completed delayed housework such as organizing window frames and dehumidifiers and changing the bedding. She finished the day by preparing a meal of boiled pork with the pork she bought at the market. Yuri's appearance, moving between busy activities in the city and slow life in Jeju, created a strange commonality with Kim Min's daily life. Both spent their days in a way of filling the time necessary for themselves rather than special events for broadcasting. Yuri said, "I worked hard and stayed busy in the city. I wanted to fully enjoy my precious holidays." Ultimately, what 'I Live Alone' showed that day was not the glamorous daily life of a famous person living alone, but a landscape where each person designs their life in a speed and way that suits them. In the next broadcast, Kim Shin-young's challenge for the 'Food Sommelier' exam and the daily life of Lee Joo-seung, who moved to a new house, were previewed. Interest continues to grow regarding what kind of daily life the program, which has continued to expand the meaning of the phrase 'living alone' through the lives of individuals with different professions and lifestyles, will capture next.