Min-sik Choi

Choi Min-sik (born April 27, 1962) is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his critically acclaimed role in Oldboy. Together with Song Kang-ho and Sol Kyung-gu, Choi is considered both domestically and on the global scene as among the very top echelon of South Korean actors in terms of presence and talent. Early life and education Choi was born on April 27, 1962 in Seoul, South Korea. When he was in third grade, Choi was diagnosed with tuberculosis and told by his doctor that there was nothing that could be done for him. Refusing to give up, he has eventually restored his health through an extended stay in the mountains. Career Graduating with a degree in Theatre from Dongguk University, Choi first made a name for himself on the stage before breaking into the film world with roles in Park Jong-won's early films Kuro Arirang and the acclaimed Our Twisted Hero. In the mid-nineties he continued to act in theater productions as well as in several TV dramas, including The Moon of Seoul with Han Suk-kyu. 1997 marked his return to motion pictures, with a role as a tough-talking police investigator in Song Neung-han's No. 3. After a turn in Kim Ji-woon's debut film The Quiet Family, Choi's breakthrough would come in 1999, when he was cast in the record-breaking Shiri. 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 the spring of 1999, Choi took on his first lead role as a husband who discovers his wife's infidelity in Happy End, and in early 2001 starred as a third-rate gangster opposite Hong Kong actress Cecilia Cheung in the cult melodrama Failan. In 2002, Choi took on his most high-profile role yet in Im Kwon-taek's Chihwaseon ("Strokes of fire"), where he played the famous nineteenth-century Korean painter Jang Seung-up. The film won a Best Director prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. Two years later, Choi would be back at Cannes with Oldboy, Park Chan-wook's Grand Prix-winning story of a man locked up for 15 years without knowing the reason why. Choi's impassioned and cool acting in Oldboy caused his popularity in South Korea to soar, and made his name known to many overseas viewers. For his English-language debut, Choi appeared in Luc Besson's Lucy (2014), in the role of a gangster who kidnaps a girl and forces her to become a drug mule (Scarlett Johansson), but she inadvertently acquires superhuman powers.