SHIN Ha-kyun is director [JANG Jin]’s favorite performer, having starred in a series of his movies such as <The Spy> and <Guns and Talks>. He recast himself as a character actor when he started to work with director [PARK Chan-wook]. The first movie that brought them together was <Joint Security Area>, which took a humane look at the separation between the two Koreas. SHIN played Ryu, a deaf and mute man in <Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance> who planned a...More

SHIN Ha-kyun is director [JANG Jin]’s favorite performer, having starred in a series of his movies such as <The Spy> and <Guns and Talks>. He recast himself as a character actor when he started to work with director [PARK Chan-wook]. The first movie that brought them together was <Joint Security Area>, which took a humane look at the separation between the two Koreas. SHIN played Ryu, a deaf and mute man in <Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance> who planned a kidnapping in order to give a new kidney to his ailing sister. He wowed movie fans with his switch to a dark and sinister character. <Save the Green Planet> is the movie that epitomizes his charm. SHIN, a multifaceted actor with a strange combination of quirkiness, persistence, kindness, and viciousness, spectacularly depicted a hero who kidnapped and tortured [BAEK Yoon-shik]’s character, an allegedly malicious threat to the earth. He played characters mixed with good and evil in <My Brother>, <Welcome to Dongmakgol>, and <Murder, Take One>. He favors movies in which a strong director imposes his own personality, rather than genre movies. In <The Front Line>, a blockbuster set during The Korean War, SHIN starred as an strong character to reaffirm his ability to lead a big-scale production. After that, he appeared in a TV drama <Brain>, captivating viewers with his exceptional performance. Next SHIN next took on the role of a car mechanic and father who goes on the run when he is accused of murder in <Running Man>. SHIN stuck with the action genre for his next film <Big Match>, co-starring LEE Jung-jae. In early 2015, SHIN headlined the large scale steamy period thriller <Empire of Lust>, in which he appeared as a loyal general who falls in love with a woman out for revenge, and finds himself going head to head with the king’s bloodthirsty son.
Less