Kang Soo-yeon

Infobox actor
name = Kang Soo-yeon


birthname =
birthdate = birth date and age|1966|8|18
location = Flagicon|KOR Seoul, South Korea
deathdate =
deathplace =
othername = Kang Su-yeon
occupation = Actress
yearsactive = 1976 - present
spouse =
homepage = Infobox Korean name
hangul=강수연
hanja=姜受延
rr= Gang Su-yeon
mr=

Kang Soo-yeon (born 18 August 1966) is a Korean actress. She was born in Seoul, South Korea and was one of the best known and internationally acclaimed stars from South Korea from the mid-eighties to the end of the nineties.

The hanja in her first name: 受 meaning "stand" (Mandarin: shòu) and 延 meaning "extend" (Mandarin: yán).

Career

Kang made her acting debut as a child actor in the 1970s. She acted in a number of low profile movies before making a breakthrough performance in the Im Kwon-taek directed 1986 movie, "The Surrogate Woman" for which she was honored with the Volpi Cup Best Actress award at the 1987 Venice International Film Festival and Best Actress Award at the Nantes International Film Festival. This was the first time a Korean actor has been given the award at the major film festival and at the time people did not even know that South Korea has a film industry.koreanfilm.org [http://www.koreanfilm.org/actors.html Brief profile] Retrieved on Nov 9, 2007] [koreanmovie.com [http://www.koreanmovie.com/Two_World_Stars_Speak_About_Life_Acting_news1382/ Two World Stars Speak About Life, Acting] Retrieved on Nov 9, 2007] Two years later, she again took the limelight by winning the Best Actress award at the Moscow International Film Festival for her role in the Im Kwon-taek directed 1989 Buddhist theme movie, "Come, Come, Come Upward". In the movie, Kang played the role of "Sun Nyog", a young student who sought refuge in the monastery to escape from her troubled home and study to become a nun, and later fell in love with the person who tried to take away her modesty. [cinemaya.net [http://www.cinemaya.net/c8-fic.asp?filmid=275&sect1=24 Come, Come, Come Upward summary] Retrieved on Nov 9, 2007] Kang actually got her head shaved on-screen in the scene when Sun Nyog became a nun. [themakeupgallery.info [http://www.themakeupgallery.info/hair/nuns/ajeaje.htm the nuns: Aje aje bara aje] Retrieved on Nov 24, 2007] [koreanfilm.org [http://www.koreanfilm.org/kangsuyoun.html Interview] Retrieved on Nov 9, 2007] In the same year, she was invited to serve as a juror in the Tokyo International Film Festival.

In the 1990s, Kang appeared in a number of movies, the best known of which are Jang Sun-woo's acclaimed "Road to the Racetrack" which won her the Chunsa Film Art Awards and Blue Dragon Film Awards for "Best Actress", the box office hit movie titled "That Woman, That Man" by Kim Ui-seok, Lee Myung-se's film about adultery titled "Their Last Love Affair" and Im Sang-soo's debut film "Girls Night Out". By the end of the 90s, she had acted in 32 movies and after her movie "Rainbow Trout" was released in 1999 winning her the Paeksang Arts Awards for "Best Actress", she cut down her work in movies and took to acting in TV drama.koreanfilm.org [http://koreanfilm.org/awards.html Awards List in excel spreadsheet] Retrieved on Nov 10, 2007] [cinemasie.com [http://www.cinemasie.com/en/fiche/prix/21/?annee=2000 Paeksang Arts Awards] Retrieved on Nov 10, 2007] Kang was invited to be a juror in the 5th Pusan International Film Festival in the year 2000. [Pusan International Film Festival [http://211.234.122.246/eng/html/archive/arc_history05_04.asp Archive] Retrieved on Nov 10, 2007]

In 2001, Kang starred in the popular 150 episodes TV Drama aired on SBS TV titled Ladies of the Palace (Yeo-in Cheon-ha). The TV drama managed to garner her new visibility among mainstream audiences. Her performance in the TV Drama as "Jung Nan-jung" enabled her to win the "Performance Award" awarded by SBS TV.china.tour2korea.com [http://china.tour2korea.com/02Culture/Movies/movie_03_view.asp?cpId=623&konum=3&kosm= Profile (chinese)] Retrieved on Nov 10, 2007] After a brief hiatus from the movie scene, she make her comeback in the movie "The Circle" playing the role of an attorney. Kang has since then appeared in another movie titled "Hanbando" in 2006. In 2007, she make another foray into mainstream TV after a gap of six years by acting in the MBC TV Drama by the name of "Moonhee". In the TV Drama, she played the role of a woman who is forced to leave her child she had when she was only eighteen and thus the TV Drama seeks to portray the travails of the woman's life. [content.mbc.co.kr [http://content.mbc.co.kr/e_mbc/biz_news_read.asp?page=1&idx=83 MoonHee TV Drama (English)] Retrieved on Nov 10, 2007]

Filmography

Source: [Cinespot.com [http://www.cinespot.com/filmpeople/ekrkangsuyeon.html Selected Filmography] Retrieved on Nov 9, 2007] [asiandb.com [http://www.asiandb.com/browse/people_detail.pfm?code=4 Selected Filmography] Retrieved on Nov 9, 2007]

Awards

ee also

*List of Korea-related topics
*List of Koreans
*Contemporary culture of South Korea
*List of South Korean actors

References & Notes

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0437642/ Kang Soo-yeon's IMDb Listing]
* [http://epg.epg.co.kr/Star/Profile/index.asp?actor_id=1340 Kang Soo-yeon's profile (korean)] at epg.epg.co.kr
* [http://movies.nytimes.com/person/142275/Kang-Soo-Yeon/filmography Kang Soo-yeon's filmography] at movies.nytimes.com