The last three films that Hwang Jung Min starred in have been a hit.
According to the American entertainment publication Variety, "The Himalayas" earned $8.55 million over the three-day New Year's holiday weekend, drawing 1.24 million moviegoers. "Ode To MY Father" topped the box office in its first five days selling 1.5 million tickets. 'Veteran" topped the box office for four consecutive weeks.
And yet Hwang Jung Min is an actor who people once said "did not have the face for film work."
That face is smiling now.
Here are a few more facts you may not know about this very successful actor.
1. He may be as successful as he is because he does not like to take a break. He films three to four movies a year. People are always telling him to slow down but it is not in his nature.
"Even when I do take a break I can't sit still," Hwang told the Korean media outlet Newsen. "I am an actor so I have to work as long as this is my job."
He does not even wait for big roles.
'It's not important to me whether the role offered is small or not."
2. He began his career as a musical actor, appearing in such musicals as "Cats," "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Assassins." The transition to films was not easy as he was told he did not look like a film actor. It was so hard for him to break into film he more than once considered giving up on his dream.
His breakout hit was the 2005 melodrama "You Are My Sunshine," in which he played a farmer in love with a prostitute who had AIDS. He took the role because he was moved by the genuine tale of two people in love. And when he won the Best Actor award for that role at the Blue Dragon Film Awards he was modest.
"All I did was add a spoon to a dinner table that had already been prepared by others," he said.
3. Not only can he sing and act but he does some of his own stunts. He did all the fight scenes in "Fist of Legend." In that film, he played a single dad who enters a mixed martial arts competition.
"I couldn't rely on a stunt double to express the detailed emotions in the fight scenes. "For me, attacking was much harder than defending and the director stressed adding drama to the action. Before entering the ring, I felt as if I had become a gladiator."
4. He chooses his scripts in an interesting way. He imagines they are books. Would he want to lend them to his friends?
"There are books that are interesting enough to make me want to give them to my friends as a present. I choose screenplays just like that," he said during an interview with Yonhap News.
5. He worked with Uhm Jung Hwa on three films and she said he was her ideal type of man. He complimented her in return saying that she was the actress he best liked working with.
The harmony you see in the movies is real," he said when he appeared on the KBS program "Win Win." It′s a feeling that can't really be explained. Don't you think that's a big deal?It′s like when you play tennis: if the opponent plays well, you can play well too. Our teamwork was like that."
The actors appeared together in "Dancing Queen," "Your End Is My Beginning" and "Five Senses of Eros."
