The day after, MBLAQ made their debut stage at Mnet’s ‘M! Countdown’ with their title song ‘Oh Yeah’. In early December, 2009, they also debuted in Japan and recorded their activities while in Japan, including their performance at Rain’s fan meeting, and made it into a documentary. In 2010, MBLAQ released their second album single, entitled ‘Y’. This song was written, composed, produced, and choreographed by Rain and, finally, MBLAQ got their first win on June 3, 2010, on Mnet’s ‘M! Countdown’. They were voted the best Rookie Group for the first half of 2010 through a poll by the Korean music site Bugs, obtaining 46% of the votes. In the following years many of the songs they released had member participation in the song production, such as the track ‘Can’t Come Back’, which was composed by GO and the lyrics were written by GO and Mir. The song titled ‘You’ was written and composed by Thunder. In 2011, MBLAQ released the mini-album ‘Mona Lisa’, which reached number one on the Hanteo Real-time, Daily, and Weekly Charts. The group’s ‘Mona Lisa’ music video even reached the number one position on the German music website ‘Viva’ by garnering 111,000 views. MBLAQ’s “Mona Lisa” had also topped Bulgaria’s ‘Popcore TV’ chart for sixty-eight consecutive days thus far.
Thunder in Make A Woman Cry
After the news of his departure from MBLAQ, Thunder finally returned to his activities as an actor. He acted in a supporting role of the family drama ‘Make a Woman Cry’, which had a total of 40 episodes and aired on MBC in 2015. His appearance in this drama was warmly welcomed, especially by his fans who were already missing him a lot. Differently than in his previous acting work, in this drama he no longer used his stage name, Thunder, but introduced himself with his real name, Park Sang-hyun. This drama tells about Jung Deok-in (Kim Jung-eun), who was once a homicide detective, but quit her job after the death of her only son. To preserve his memory, she now runs a food stall in front of her son’s school, where she also tries to protect the neighborhood children and her student customers from bullying and other dangers. As Deok-in goes on a journey to discover the truth behind her son’s death, she must go through a staggering process of healing and forgiveness. In this scene, Na Eun-seo (Ha Hee-ra) meets with Park Hyo-jung (Lee Da-in) at a cafe. She tells Hyo-jung to stop meeting her son, Kang Hyun-seo (Park Sang-hyun). She revealed that she knows the type of person Hyo-jung is, that Hyojung is the type of girl that other girls hate, while boys can’t help but fall for her the innocent-looking fox. Hyo-jung than answers Eun-seo by saying that she doesn’t need to worry, she only thinks of Hyun-seo as a friend and a patient. When Eun-seo comes home, she finds Hyun-seo in the yard reading. She runs over to tell him that Hyo-jung is a horrible child. She repeats that Hyo-jung told her that she doesn’t care for him at all, that he is the one who follows her around. Hyun-seo stands up and asks if his mother went to see Hyo-jung, and he continued to say that she is not worried about his life. Rather, he sees his mother as showing jealousy because she thinks of him as not only a son but also a husband. Eun-seo grabs Hyun-seo’s book and throws it to the ground yelling that he is naive because he spends his days reading books like that. It this scene, Hyo-jung comes to visit and checks Hyun-seo’s vitals. Hyun-seo asks her what she did yesterday and Hyo-jung answered that she went to see a movie with a friend. Hyun-seo smiles warmly, saying that he had thought about her all day wondering what she was doing, whether she had eaten, or maybe she also thought about him. Hearing that, Hyo-jung sighs and tells Hyun-seo that this is going to be her last visit. She has asked the director of her department to change the nurse in charge of Hyun-seo. Eyes widening, Hyun-seo asks if this is because of what his mother said to her. Hyo-jung didn’t answer directly but tells him to make sure to continue to stay healthy and keep eating, instead. After that, Hyo-jung leaves, and then Hyun-seo enters the kitchen to announce to Eun-soo that he refuses to go into the company from now on. When Eun-seo asks why, Hyun-seo tells her that he doesn’t want to talk to her. He goes back into his room. Eun-seo follows him up and tearfullytells him that he can decide not to go out to the company if he wants. She asks if he hates her for Hyo-jung’s decision not to be his nurse. She tells him that she understands and bites her lip before saying that she doesn’t want anything badly enough to make him suffer, because she only has him. Hyun-seo looks at her and replies that he hates her tears. Her tears are the reason that he always ends up bending to her will and living as her doll. He also adds that even if he ends up living according to her wishes until she dies, she should know that he’s not doing it because it makes him happy. Then, he throws himself under the covers and ignores his mother’s continued tears.
Thunder’s Cameo with Lee Joon in Woman With A Suitcase
The drama titled ‘Woman with Suitcase’, also known as ‘That Woman with No Career’, is a drama starring MBLAQ’s former colleague, Lee Lee, who is now focused on acting. The drama aired in 2016 on MBC every Monday and Tuesday at 10:00 PM (KST), with a total of 16 episodes. This drama tells about Cha Geum-joo (Choi Ji-woo) was once an office manager with a thriving career, but it takes a major hit when she is penalized for violating the Attorneys-at-Law Act and sent to prison. The drama follows her success story as she comes back as an ex-con, and follows her dream to become an outstanding lawyer. There is something special in this drama, and Thunder makes a special appearance in the drama starring Lee Joon. Many were happy to see this, especially MBLAQ fans, and looked forward to their interactions in this drama. In this drama, Park Sang-hyun, or Thunder, appeared in episode 5. Park Sang-hyun played the role of an attorney being interviewed by Cha Geum-joo (Choi Ji-woo) and Goo Ji-hyun (Jin Kyung) about his involvement in a case they were handling. Cheon Doong’s lawyer in Korean means Thunder. He makes for a terrible interview and keeps showing his carelessness, so Attorney Goo can only ask if there’s anything else he’s good at. Suddenly, Cheon Doong breaks into a rap song as Attorney Goo looks on in disbelief and tells him to get out, and Geum-joo tries to stifle a laugh.
Collaboration with Goo Ha-ra in Single, Sign
On November 23, 2016, Mystic Entertainment, Thunder’s agency at the time, revealed that Thunder would release a new album in December and, on December 6, 2016, Thunder released a new single titled ‘Sign’, featuring KARA’s Goo Ha-ra. Thunder also participated in writing and composing all his five tracks.
The music video, which dropped on December 6, 2016, now has more than 1 million views on YouTube and was a form of support for his sister, Sandara Park’s, solo debut. Sandara Park also appeared in the last few seconds of the music video. Thunder promoted the song on several music shows in South Korea, such as ‘Music Core’ and ‘! Countdown’. He also released the dance version of the music video, entitled ‘Sign’, on December 16, 2016.
Starred in a Korean-Indonesian Movie, Forever Holiday in Bali
On 6 February 2017, it was announced that Thunder would be the first Korean idol to star in a Korean-Indonesian movie, titled ‘Forever-Holidays in Bali’. By the title, we can guess that it was filmed in Bali, Indonesia. The film cast Thunder as the male lead, and Indonesian actress Caitlin Halderman as the female lead. This film was directed by Ody C. Harahap, an Indonesian director who has been working since 2004 and has been very well known in the Indonesian film industry. He is also a director who was previously involved in a collaboration between Indonesia and South Korea for the movie ‘Sweet 20’.
In this movie, Thunder plays Kay, a Korean artist who came to Bali to shoot a video clip. Kay has a good character, is humble, handsome, has very good posture, and also has a pleasant personality. He also is very famous among K-Pop lovers in Indonesia.
