But it was Park Chan-wook’s Joint Security Area that really got him noticed. His role as a South Korean soldier on the border with North Korea required him to run the gamut of emotions from comical to intensely dramatic. He followed this up with romantic leads as devoted boyfriends in Bungee Jumping of Their Own (2001) and Addiction (2002), as well as swaggering action turns in A Bittersweet Life (2005) and The Good, the Bad, and the Weird (2008). The following year saw his successful Hollywood debut as Storm Shadow in director Stephen Sommers’ G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, cementing his reputation as one of Asia’s foremost action stars. He also appeared in the sequel, G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation (2012), and is set to co-star in Red 2 (2012), which once again pairs him with Hollywood stars.
Jun Ji-hyun (Gianna Jun) Jun Ji-hyun emerged at a star in her early twenties, when Kwak Jaeyong’s My Sassy Girl (2001) catapulted her to fame not just in Korea but among Chinese audiences and elsewhere in Asia. The role showcased her unique charisma to devastating effect, presenting her as the kind of female lead that had never before been seen in Korean film. Her next few films – Windstruck (2004) and Daisy (2005) – did poorly in Korea, but Jun bounced back to score overseas roles by dint of her name recognition. And with this popularity came a broader range of performances, mainly in international projects (for which she adopted the Italianate name “Gianna Jun”). Perhaps her biggest standout role was her starring turn as in the vampire action fantasy Blood: The Last Vampire (2009), a Japanese-Hong Kong-French-Argentine co-production. Playing the daughter of a human father and vampire mother, Jun skillfully pulled off a demanding action performance. Up next was the title role in the 2011 American-Chinese co60 K-MOVIE The World’s Spotlight on Korean Film
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2012-09-27 오후 3:31:02