Biography

Choi Min-sik

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Choi Min-shik first made a name for himself in theater before breaking into the film world with a role in Park Chong-won's acclaimed film 'Our Twisted Hero' (1992). In the mid-nineties he continued to act in theater productions as well as in several TV dramas, including Moon Over Seoul with Han Seok-gyu. 1997 marked his return to motion pictures, with a role as a tough-talking police investigator in Song Neung-han's No. 3 (1997). His biggest role came in 1999, when he was cast in Korea's most successful film ever, Shiri (1999). His portrayal of a North Korean agent garnered him much praise and a Best Actor Award from the 1999 domestic Grand Bell Awards.

After starring in a theater production of Hamlet in spring of 1999, Choi took on the role of a husband who discovers his wife's infidelity in Happy End (1999), and in early 2001 starred as a third-rate gangster opposite Hong Kong actress Cecilia Cheung in the acclaimed Failan (2001). In 2003 he starred in the now classic Oldboy (2003).
- IMDb mini biography by: Witrack

Names Han Suk-kyu and Song Kang-ho as his close friends from the entertainment industry. Choi and Han are both graduates of Drama & Film department of Dongguk University, from class of '89. Before entering film, Choi and Song crossed paths many times in theater. Now that all three are successful leading men on their own, Choi has fond memories of working with them, in Shiri '99, No. 3 '97, and The Quiet Family '98. [Source: May 2001 interview with Chosun.].
Has starred in two of Park Chan Wook's Vengenace Trilogy films - 2003's Oldboy and 2005's Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.
His exceptional, nuanced performance in Oldboy (2003) propelled his fame in Korea to great heights and introduced him to international audiences.
In the 2008 art film ,With a Girl of Himalaya (2008) he was the only South Korean actor working with locally cast Tibetan actors.
His first marriage, to Lee Hwa-young, ended in 1993. In 1999, he married again, to Kim Hwang-ran. They are still a couple.

Western ghosts are evil, but Korean ghosts are about making peace. That is part of our Korean psyche.
[on working with Luc Besson] I was on vacation and I suddenly receive a call saying Luc Besson was looking for me. When I was a young actor, I was watching some Luc Besson movies and they were always a great inspiration for me, and so I thought, OK, so now that I'm an actor for so many years, finally I meet this great director.
I don't know about other people but I've never been concerned about what I would seem like to the public. I just go with whatever suits my taste. If that's what I'd been worried about, how could I have taken on I Saw the Devil (2010) in the first place? My criterion for choosing a project is whether the world inside the project is interesting to me.
I really like epics although not a lot of them are made these days. Movies that you can just sit through instead of having to lean your body forward and tense up for. Movies that you can put food next to you to eat while watching and go back to after a phone call. Actors don't feel any pressure from the fact that those movies are long and have long-standing stories. It rather makes us want to go for them.
When I did I Saw the Devil (2010), I gagged over fake blood although I knew it was fake because it felt like it smelled real. I was extremely stressed from the pressure from the situation, pressure from the story's setup, pressure from the character, and pressure from what he does.

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