From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This is a Korean name; the family name is Kang.
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).
[edit] 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.[1][2] 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.[3] Kang actually got her head shaved on-screen in the scene when Sun Nyog became a nun.[4][5] 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.[1] 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.[6][7] Kang was invited to be a juror in the 5th Pusan International Film Festival in the year 2000.[8]
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.[1] Her performance in the TV Drama as Jung Nan-jung enabled her to win the Performance Award awarded by SBS TV.[9] 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.[10]
[edit] Filmography
| Year |
Film |
| 2007 |
Moonhee TV Series |
| 2006 |
Hanbando |
| 2003 |
The Circle (Seokkeul) |
| 2001 |
Ladies of the Palace (TV Drama) |
| 1999 |
Rainbow Trout |
| 1998 |
Girls' Night Out |
| 1997 |
Deep Sorrow |
| 1997 |
Black Jack |
| 1996 |
Their Last Love Affair |
| 1995 |
Go Alone Life a Rhino's Horn |
| 1994 |
Rosy Days |
| 1993 |
That Woman, That Man |
| 1993 |
Western Avenue |
| 1991 |
Blue in You |
| 1991 |
Road to the Racetrack |
| 1991 |
Berlin Report |
| 1990 |
What Falls Down Has a Wing |
| 1989 |
For Long After That |
| 1989 |
Come, Come, Come Upward |
| 1989 |
Potato |
| 1988 |
Karma |
| 1988 |
Miri, Mari, Uri, Duri |
| 1987 |
King Yonsan |
| 1987 |
Youth Sketch of Mimi and Cheolsu |
| 1987 |
Tohwa |
| 1987 |
The Surrogate Woman (Sibaji) |
| 1987 |
Potatoes |
| 1987 |
Now, We are Going to Geneva |
| 1985 |
Whale Hunting, Part II |
| 1985 |
W's Tragedy |
| 1982 |
The Two Tomboys |
| 1979 |
A Letter from the Heaven |
| 1978 |
Good Bye, Sorrow! |
| 1978 |
Where is My Mother? |
| 1978 |
A Chorus of Pigeons |
| 1977 |
Three Stars |
Source:[11][12]
[edit] Awards
| Year |
|
Awards |
| 1987 |
Venice International Film Festival |
Volpi Cup Best Actress |
| 1987 |
Nantes International Film Festival |
Best Actress |
| 1989 |
Moscow International Film Festival |
Best Actress |
[edit] See also
[edit] References & Notes
- ^ a b c koreanfilm.org Brief profile Retrieved on Nov 9, 2007
- ^ koreanmovie.com Two World Stars Speak About Life, Acting Retrieved on Nov 9, 2007
- ^ cinemaya.net Come, Come, Come Upward summary Retrieved on Nov 9, 2007
- ^ themakeupgallery.info the nuns: Aje aje bara aje Retrieved on Nov 24, 2007
- ^ koreanfilm.org Interview Retrieved on Nov 9, 2007
- ^ koreanfilm.org Awards List in excel spreadsheet Retrieved on Nov 10, 2007
- ^ cinemasie.com Paeksang Arts Awards Retrieved on Nov 10, 2007
- ^ Pusan International Film Festival Archive Retrieved on Nov 10, 2007
- ^ china.tour2korea.com Profile (chinese) Retrieved on Nov 10, 2007
- ^ content.mbc.co.kr MoonHee TV Drama (English) Retrieved on Nov 10, 2007
- ^ Cinespot.com Selected Filmography Retrieved on Nov 9, 2007
- ^ asiandb.com Selected Filmography Retrieved on Nov 9, 2007
[edit] External links
Seoul, South Korea
