Shin Ha-Kyun
Shin Ha-kyun (b. May 30, 1974) first trained as a stage actor at the Seoul National University of Arts before going on to act in a large number of plays by Jang Jin. When in 1998 Jang Jin directed his first movie, Shin Ha-kyun was cast and he has since appeared in almost all of Jang's feature films. Impressed by his acting abilities, comedy director Kim Jee-woon has also cast him in minor roles in The Foul King and his 30-min internet film Coming Out.
Shin first became a superstar with his role as a young North Korean soldier in Park Chan-wook's smash hit JSA in late 2000. At that time he developed a large fan following which, together that of co-star Won Bin, helped make his next film Guns & Talks a strong commercial hit.
In the next couple years Shin would take on two strong roles that would come to define his career. In Park Chan-wook's acclaimed Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, he played a deaf man with bright green dyed hair who is driven by desperation to kidnap a young girl. Then in Jang Jun-hwan's Save the Green Planet in 2003, he played a mentally unbalanced man who believes that aliens are plotting to invade the earth. Together, these two intense and harrowing performances by Shin were an impressive display of his acting talent.
After appearing in the rural melodrama A Letter From Mars with actress Kim Hee-sun in 2004, Shin returned in Welcome to Dongmakgol, a drama set during the Korean War in a small mountainous village. His next work for 2006 sees him play a rather eccentric hitman.
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