Jung Woo-sung

Biography

Jung Woo-sung (Korean: 정우성; born April 22, 1973) is a South Korean actor. He started his career as a fashion model, rising to stardom with the gangster film Beat (1997). He went on to establish himself as a versatile leading man, with films such as City of the Rising Sun (1999), Musa (2001), Mutt Boy (2003), A Moment to Remember (2004), The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008), Cold Eyes (2013), The Divine Move (2014), Asura: The City of Madness (2016), The King (2017), Steel Rain (2017), Beasts Clawing at Straws (2020), Hunt (2022), and 12.12: The Day (2023). For his role in Innocent Witness (2019), he won the Best Actor at the 55th Baeksang Arts Awards and the 40th Blue Dragon Film Awards. Jung's notable TV credits include Asphalt Man (1995), Padam Padam (2011), and Tell Me That You Love Me (2023–24). Jung served as the first South Korean UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador from 2014 until his resignation in 2024, citing backlash over his advocacy for refugees.

== Early life == Jung was raised in Sadang-dong, then one of the most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in Seoul. Notably tall from a young age, he often hunched to mitigate his height, which drew attention during his elementary school years. He left high school after completing his first year to work and support his family. When trying to break into the film industry, he was told he was too tall to become an actor, leading him to begin his career as a model.

== Career ==

=== Acting ===

==== Film ==== Jung was selected as an actor through street casting by former Sidus CEO Cha Seung-jae, who was the head of the production department at the film company Shin Cine at the time. Jung made his film debut in a leading role in 1994's The Fox with Nine Tails, one of the first Korean fantasy movies and the first to use computer-generated imagery. He debuted with actress Ko So-young, who later co-starred with him twice including in his breakthrough 1997 film Beat. Directed by Kim Sung-su, Beat is about a high school student forced into gang life. The movie brought Jung widespread fame and started his rise to Korea's A-list and made him one of the most sought-after commercial models. In 1999, he starred in City of the Rising Sun, playing an unsuccessful boxer who befriends an unlucky swindler. His co-lead in the movie, actor Lee Jung-jae, became his lifelong friend. Jung later played a naval lieutenant in Phantom: The Submarine and a marathoner in Love. 2001's Musa marked his third collaboration with director Kim Sung-su. In this epic blockbuster, Jung played opposite Chinese star Zhang Ziyi and received wide exposure in Korea and beyond.

After spending time in 2002 directing a series of music videos and appearing in a large number of commercials, Jung took on the eccentric lead role in Mutt Boy, the fifth film by director Kwak Kyung-taek. Jung's next roles were in highly romantic roles that used his established screen image. In the box office hit A Moment to Remember he played an architect whose wife (played by Son Ye-jin) is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease and in the Netherlands-set Daisy, he played a hired assassin who falls in love with a street artist played by Jun Ji-hyun. He portrayed a happily committed fireman in Sad Movie, and a demon hunter seeking his lost love (played by Kim Tae-hee) in The Restless. Kim Jee-woon's "kimchi western" The Good, the Bad, the Weird inspired by Sergio Leone's work, would become one of Jung's most iconic roles. He used his physicality to great effect as the Clint Eastwood counterpart in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The film was screened out of competition at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, which also marked its world premiere. Jung attended the festival with his co-stars. He won Best Supporting Actor at the 3rd Asian Film Awards and Outstanding Achievement in Acting at the 2008 Hawaii International Film Festival for his performance. Shortly afterwards, Jung worked again with Kim Jee-woon on a short film for W Korea.

Jung then starred alongside Chinese actress Gao Yuanyuan in Hur Jin-ho's romance film A Season of Good Rain, and Su Chao-pin's martial arts film Reign of Assassins with Michelle Yeoh. In 2011, Jung was cast in the English-language 3D remake of John Woo's The Killer. The film was to be shot in Los Angeles and reunite him with A Moment to Remember director John H. Lee and Reign of Assassins director John Woo acting also as producer. The project was put on hold while John Woo worked on another film. But the project never progressed.Jung drew praise in his first villain role in Cold Eyes, an action thriller and box office hit in 2013. He portrayed the ruthless head of a criminal organization specializing in bank robbery, eluding detectives chasing him with uncanny dexterity. Jung next played a baduk player seeking revenge in The Divine Move, followed by an adulterous university professor gradually losing his eyesight in Scarlet Innocence. Scarlet Innocence had its world premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, attracting positive reviews from critics. He then took a leading role in the melodrama indie feature Don't Forget Me, also known as Remember You, a remake of the 2010 short film Remember O Goddess, both directed by Lee Yoon-jung. Jung also co-produced this movie, explaining that he wanted to protect the director's original ideas that other producers wanted to modify. In 2016, he starred in the noir crime thriller Asura: The City of Madness, his fourth collaboration with director Kim Sung-su. Jung played a crooked detective who attempts to save his terminally ill wife while arresting a corrupt town mayor. Asura premiered globally at the 41st Toronto Film Festival in September 2016, where it was shown in the Special Presentations section. The actor's second movie shot in 2016 and released in 2017 was Han Jae-rim's political drama The King, whose plot revolves around a senior prosecutor being manipulated by an overambitious younger colleague connected to the mob. In 2017, Jung starred in Steel Rain as a former agent from North Korea's intelligence bureau. In 2018, he played an officer of the elite police unit in the science fiction action thriller Illang: The Wolf Brigade. Based on the Japanese anime Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, the work was his second collaboration with director Kim Jee-woon. In 2019, he starred in the dramatic film Innocent Witness as a lawyer. His performance earned him the Grand Prize in film at the Baeksang Arts Awards. The same year, he starred in the thriller Beasts that Cling to the Straw. In 2020, Jung starred in the sequel to Steel Rain, titled Steel Rain 2: Summit. Jung starred alongside Lee Jung-jae in the latter's directorial debut, the spy action film Hunt, which premiered at 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

==== Television ==== In 1995 Jung appeared in his first major television role in SBS drama series Asphalt Man, playing an aspiring race driver who leaves to United States to realize his dream. The part not only expanded his popularity but also brought him critical acclaim with Best New Actor award at 32nd Baeksang Arts Awards and SBS Drama Awards. In 2010 Jung returned to the small screen after 15 years' absence in the big-budget spy series Athena: Goddess of War, playing an NTS (National Anti-Terror Service) agent. Athena was a spin-off to the 2009 highly successful KBS2 drama IRIS. With a budget of ₩20 billion (US$17 million), the series was shot on location in Italy, New Zealand, Japan and the United States. The aired in SBS channel, and its pilot episodes gathered 22.8% of the audience share. Jung and another actor were injured during filming in January 2011, causing a week's postponement of one of Athena's episodes. The series was also edited into a two-hour movie version, and released in 2011 as Athena: The Movie. Jung made his Japanese drama debut with a guest appearance in episodes 6 and 7 of Good Life ~Arigatou, Papa. Sayonara~. He followed that with another TV series Padam Padam which marked the establishment of new cable broadcasting station JTBC. Jung said he "decided on this drama because (he) was drawn to the way Noh Hee-kyung writes 'family drama.' Whether mother-son or father-son, the love and pain experienced by families is something (he)'d like to try portraying in a realistic way." He played a man who has recently been released from jail after serving a 16-year sentence for a crime he didn't commit. The series premiered on December 5, 2011. In December 2020, he replaced Bae Seung-woo for SBS television series Delayed Justice as leading role. Jung served as an executive producer for Netflix series The Silent Sea in 2021. and in 2022 he will star remake of Japanese drama Say Me to Love Me