1. Choi Min-sik's performance was critically acclaimed and won him Best Actor at the Baeksang Arts Awards, the Blue Dragon Film Awards, and the Grand Bell Awards.
36 Facts About Choi Min-sik
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In 2014, Choi Min-sik came to prominence in Hollywood with his role in Lucy.
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Choi Min-sik was listed as Gallup Korea's Film Actor of the Year.
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Choi Min-sik made his return to television with Big Bet, his first drama series in over two decades.
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Choi Min-sik was born on May 30,1962, in Ihwa-dong, Jongno District, Seoul, South Korea.
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The young Choi Min-sik was deeply moved by Ha Gil-jong's films and initially aspired to become a director.
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Choi Min-sik eventually changed his career path to become an actor while studying under Professor Ahn Min-soo, whom he had long admired.
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Choi Min-sik began his professional career as a theatre actor by joining a theater company named 'Ppuri' in 1982.
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Choi Min-sik was so engrossed in theater that he spent nearly every day in the small theater.
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In 1988, while Choi Min-sik was in his fourth year at the university, his college senior Park Jae-ho invited him to audition for Park Jong-won's early film Kuro Arirang.
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Writer Na Yeon-suk saw his play, fell in love with Choi Min-sik, and insisted on giving him a role in her next drama The Years of Ambition.
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Choi Min-sik quickly vaulted from a career as an unknown actor who was lucky to receive 500,000 won a month for a play to a talent who received 7 million won per advertisement.
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In 1994, Choi Min-sik starred alongside Han Suk-kyu in MBC television dramas titled The Moon of Seoul.
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Choi Min-sik portrayed Chun-seop, a single man who moves from the countryside to Seoul with dreams of success.
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Choi Min-sik falls in love at first sight with Chae Shi-ra, his fellow tenant in a boarding house.
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In 1996, while filming the MBC drama Their Embrace, Choi Min-sik suffered an achilles tendon injury.
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In 1997, Choi Min-sik returned to the stage after a seven-year hiatus in Jang Jin's play Taxi Driver.
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Choi Min-sik stated his reason to comeback to theater as follows.
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Han Suk-kyu called Choi Min-sik and asked if he would be interested in doing another movie.
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Additionally, Choi Min-sik acted in the MBC morning drama Love and Separation, consisting of 122 episodes that aired from August 4,1997, to January 3,1998.
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In 1998, Choi Min-sik was honored with the DongA Theater Award for his performance in Taxi Driver.
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Choi Min-sik's portrayal earned him the Best Actor award at the Grand Bell Awards.
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In Springtime, Choi Min-sik takes on a role Hyon-woo, a dissatisfied classically trained trumpet player, who fails to achieve his desired career path and settles for part-time teaching at an academy.
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Choi Min-sik starred in the 2003 London production of Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman, his first play in seven years.
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Choi Min-sik made his comeback in Jeon Soo-il's 2009 art film Himalaya, Where the Wind Dwells, in which he was the only South Korean actor working with locally cast Tibetan actors.
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Choi Min-sik did voice acting for Leafie, A Hen into the Wild, which in 2011 became the highest grossing South Korean animated film in history.
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Director Luc Besson praised Choi Min-sik's performance, stating that he was the "best villain" Besson had scripted since Gary Oldman's character Norman Stansfield.
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Choi Min-sik then played Yi Sun-sin in the blockbuster period epic The Admiral: Roaring Currents about the Battle of Myeongnyang, regarded as one of the admiral's most remarkable naval victories.
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Choi Min-sik next starred in the period film The Tiger: An Old Hunter's Tale, where he played a hunter.
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Choi Min-sik had two films in 2017; he played an unscrupulous mayor in the political film The Mayor, and headlined the remake crime thriller Heart Blackened.
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In 2022, Choi Min-sik starred in the Disney+ series Big Bet, marking his first drama series appearance in 26 years since Love and Separation in 1997.
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Choi Min-sik earned nominations for best actor in 59th Baeksang Arts Awards and 2nd Blue Dragon Series Award for his role as Cha Mu-sik.
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The exhibition showcased the acting career of Choi Min-sik spanning over 30 years.
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Ten feature films personally selected by Choi Min-sik were screened, including films Our Twisted Hero, Shiri, Happy End, Failan, Oldboy, Springtime, I Saw the Devil, Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time, Forbidden Dream, and In Our Prime.
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In 1999, Choi Min-sik married for the second time, this time with Kim Hwal-ran.
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Choi Min-sik was introduced to Kim by his alum at Dongguk University and Jeon Young-min, the representative of his agency.