Moon Chae-won

Moon Chae-won
Born	(1986-11-13) November 13, 1986 Daegu, South Korea
Education	Bong-eun Elementary School Cheongdam Middle School Sunhwa Arts School (High School) Chugye University for the Arts Western Painting
Occupation	Actress, Model
Years active	2007–present
Agent	Korea: MSTeam Entertainment Japan: IMX Inc.
Korean name
Hangul	문채원
Hanja	文彩元
Revised Romanization	Moon Chae-won
McCune–Reischauer	Moon Ch'aewŏn
Website
http://www.msteam.co.kr/moonchaewon/ http://moonchaewon.net/

Moon Chae-won (born November 13, 1986) is a South Korean actress. Her historical war movie War of the Arrows was the highest grossing Korean film in 2011. She won Best New Actress in both the Grand Bell Awards and the Blue Dragon Film Awards in 2011. She also won the Top Excellence Actress Award (Best Actress Award) in 2011 KBS Drama Awards. Moon Chae Won also received Best Dressed of The Year from Korea's Lifestyle Awards 2011.^[1] In 2012, she was appointed as an honorary prosecutor representing prosecutors in South Korea. Moon won her second Top Excellence Actress Awards in 2012 KBS Drama Awards for her role in The Innocent Man. Moon will be acting alongside actor Go Soo in acclaimed director Kang Je Gyu’s new short film The Day Min Woo Comes, which is part of a project supported by the Hong Kong International Film Festival in January 2014.

Career

2007-2010: Career beginnings

Moon Chae-won at the Golden Disk Awards 2008

Moon studied Western painting at the Chugye University for the Arts.^[2] She debuted in the teen drama "Mackerel Run" as key actress with Lee Min Ho in 2007. Moon then made her first movie debut in supporting role as Lee Eun Shil in teen movie "My School's E.T", starring Lee Min Ho. Although Moon successfully portrayed both teen characters, she only received attention when she acted in Painter of the Wind. There, Moon played a beautiful gisaeng Jeong Hyang who falls for Moon Geun-young's character Shin Yoon Bok, who passes herself of as a man. Moon's partnership with Moon Geun-young as screen lover was so appealing that they both won the SBS 2008 Best Screen Couple Awards by receiving the highest popular vote. For the first time in Korean drama history, two actresses for their seemingly lesbian love became the Best Screen Couple.

In 2009, Moon played a privileged Yoo Seung Mi in a popular Korean drama Brilliant Legacy^[3] and the bright and energetic girl-next-door Yeo Ui Joo in My Fair Lady.^[4] Moon also made a cameo appearance in the last episode of “Road Number One” as an army medical doctor Min Young Jin. September 2010 marks the turning point of Moon's career. In an International internet voting that lasted more than 2 months, Moon won the highest popular vote of 71,294 among all nominated actresses in Asia for her supporting role in Brilliant Legacy. Her majority vote doubled that of Han Hyo-joo, the lead actress in Brilliant Legacy. It was the first time a supporting actress won such an honor in the film industry.

Moon was then invited to join a famous film agency Barunson Entertainment in October 2010. Immediately, Moon was given the lead role in It's Okay, Daddy's Girl, where Moon played the character of Eun Chae-ryung, an immature girl with her father wrapped around her finger, who later transforms into a mature professional woman after her family faced tragedy. Moon received a nomination for the Best Actress in the SBS Drama Awards for the role.

2011: Career breakthrough

Moon Chae-won at a photoshoot for The Princess' Man

In February 2011, Moon cancelled her vacation trip to Spain after she was offered a role in the movie War of the Arrows, as sole lead female character Ja-In. Moon took up serious archery and horse riding lessons with all the lead male actors in the movie. Moon received positive reviews from Western viewers when the movie was shown at the London Korean Film Festival and US cinemas. Right after Moon finished filming War of the Arrows in June, she started filming the KBS drama The Princess' Man, in which Moon played Lee Se-ryung. At the beginning of the drama, Moon received some negative critiques on her speech in the period drama. To Moon, it was the hardest blow in her acting career. Yet, with Moon's strong will, along with the support from her best friends, Moon Geun-young, Han Hyo-joo and her senior, Son Ye-jin, she was determined to do her best to turn around the critics' views. At the same time, War of the Arrows started screening with huge success. Within three days, it reached over one million viewers. The media was subsequently desperate to interview the lead actress, but Moon turned down all interview requests to focus on The Princess' Man. She did not rest for days to draw herself into the sad stage of Se-Ryung. Moon's improved acting won her applause from critics, and outstanding viewership to place The Princess' Man among one of the dramas with the highest rating in 2011. Two documentary films appeared to study the success and history of this drama.

With outstanding performances in both works in 2011, Moon received special attention from the public. She posed as a beautiful yet strong woman in War of the Arrows and brought out a different character in The Princess' Man Her charm earned her popularity among viewers, especially the male audiences, the public, media and film critics.

Moon then won Best New Actress awards in both the prestigious 48th Daejong Film Awards/Grand Bell Awards and 32nd Blue Dragon Film Awards for her performance in War of the Arrows. Another notable award that Moon won in 2011 was the Top Excellence Actress Award in KBS Drama Awards 2011 for her performance in The Princess' Man.

On December 5, 2011, Moon won the most prominent 9th Korean LifeStyle Awards as "2011 Best Dress Awards". Korean Lifestyle Awards is an annual award which aims to honor groups and individuals that lead Korea’s contemporary lifestyle trend. The winners of this awards were selected after a three-step screening process ― an online survey on the Donga TV website; a second evaluation by professionals from the related industries; and a final screening. Moon's both movie War of the Arrows and TV drama The Princess' Man had given a boost to Korean traditional dress Hanbok industry in 2011, which made her a trend setter in Korea fashion industry. On the same day, Korean fashion brand SI Clothing announced that the corporate had signed a 2-year contract with Moon to be the exclusive spokesperson from 2012 to 2013, enhancing the prominent status of Moon in Korean fashion industry.

On December 6, 2011, Moon won the Diamond category for Actress in 3rd Asian Jewelry Awards, which is the top honor for Korean popular entertainers. Fame and success continue to flow onto this young talented actress.

However, Moon remains modest and alert with all the success. She emphasizes her love for films and desire to continue to act as long as she could "It will take a long time to make people feel affection towards the actress Moon Chae Woon, but I feel very good as the characters whom I played in the previous works were greatly loved. I will appear in many other good works in the future to become an actress who deserves people's positive evaluation saying, 'It is good to see her often on TV' rather the evaluation saying, 'Here she is again.'".^[5] Off work, Moon often leaves messages on her DC and Daum internet cafe to interact and keep a close contact with her fans.

2012-present

After the success of War of Arrows and The Princess' Man, Moon was afraid that she would be stereotyped as historical actress. Therefore, she's determined to challenge herself in modern genre for her comeback project.^[6] Six months after Moon completed The Princess' Man, she picked a melodrama, The Innocent Man^[7] as her comeback project in April 2012, starring opposite Song Joong-ki. According to Moon, she chose The Innocent Man because "When choosing projects, there are two things that I look at. The first is that the melodramatic parts should be distinct and the second is that I have a preference for deep things, so a melodrama with love-hate relationships is good. If not, the character can’t be passive and if it’s the first time I’m acting as a certain type of character, it shouldn’t overlap with other characters I’ve done before. If there’s only one thing I’m satisfied with, I regard it as a ‘choice’ and if I’m satisfied with both things, I regard it as an ‘opportunity’. I chose Nice Guy because I liked the melodramatic parts, but I also liked the character, so I decided in a short amount of time. Since it was a work from Lee Kyung Hee-nim, I had a lot of faith in the project. In that situation, I decided within a few minutes."^[8] The drama received high ratings and critical acclaim through which her acting skills were much appreciated for its layered performance. Moon proved herself to able to carry both historical and modern genre equally well and win KBS Top Excellence Awards two years in a row.^[9][10]

In late May 2013, Moon picked a new drama role in Good Doctor as Cha Yoon Seo alongside Joo Won. The reason why Moon picked this drama is because she always been interested to appear in a medical project and she felt how the writer wanted to convey a kind of humane warmth and hope.^[11][12] It is known that Moon often undertake extensive research before going into a shoot. Moon prepares not only to act her own character, but also watches the other piece previously worked on by her new partner, director and writer,^[13] Moon had been busy meeting with the doctors in the hospital to study the normal circumstances/activities of physicians and the explanation of medical terms and had first-hand experience/monitoring of the surgery to carefully prepare to transform into a pediatric surgeon.^[14] Good Doctor ended its run on KBS with a ratings high of 21.5%, making it another hit for Moon. When asked about the drama, she mentions, "Thank you for watching and loving Good Doctor. I am grateful that I was able to deliver the first feelings I felt when I looked at the synopsis till the end. I wanted to make a happy-virus and healthy drama. I hope Good Doctor was a drama that woke up your purity and innocence as well as your warmth. I hope our characters did that to you."

Moon will be returning to the big screen through short film The Day That Min Woo Comes which is directed by director Kang Je Gyu in 2014. The Day That Min Woo Comes is one of the four short films produced by four Asia representative directors respectively under a project supported by the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

Filmography

Television drama

Film

Music video appearance

Endorsements

Awards and recognition

Awards

Social contribution

• Honorary prosecutor, a PR ambassador for Korean prosecutors (2012)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Moon Chae-won.

• Moon Chae-won at MSteam
• Moon Chae-won at Moon Chae Won International Fansite
• Moon Chae-won at Baidu