Choi Ji-woo - Career

Career

Choi Mi-hyang was first discovered when she won a talent audition organized by MBC in 1994, and made her debut in 1995's War and Love, after which she adopted the stage name "Choi Ji-woo."

She was cast in her first major role in 1996 film The Gate of Destiny, but due to her limited acting skills, she was replaced in the middle of filming. In the next couple of years Choi continued to star in both TV dramas and films, including The Hole (a Korean remake of Hollywood thriller Hush) and the romantic comedies First Kiss with Ahn Jae-wook and The Romantic President with Ahn Sung-ki. But it was her portrayals on TV of tragic heroines with a pure and innocent image -- notably in Truth opposite Ryu Shi-won and Beautiful Days opposite Lee Byung-hun -- that boosted her rising popularity.

It was in 2002 when she reunited onscreen with Bae Yong-joon (she previously had a supporting role in his 1995 drama First Love) that she would star in her most famous, iconic role. Directed by Yoon Seok-ho as the second installment of his "season dramas," Winter Sonata became a phenomenal hit throughout Asia and has been credited as one of the initiators of the Korean wave. As a result Choi gained wide pan-Asian recognition, especially a huge following in Japan where she acquired the nickname Ji-woo Hime ("Princess Ji-woo"). In 2009 she and Bae reprised their roles as voice actors for Winter Sonata Anime. She continues to be a lucrative star and brand in Japan, fetching high licensing/broadcasting rights for her dramas and selling out concerts and merchandise (tvN E News compiled a list of the top Hallyu stars in Japan based on their approximate gross incomes for the first half of 2011, and Choi was #5 with approximately US$ 2 million).

After the success of her 2003 drama Stairway to Heaven with Kwon Sang-woo, Choi again attempted to break into film. She played a familiar role in the melodrama Now and Forever, and a more risque character in sex comedy Everybody Has Secrets (a Korean remake of Irish film About Adam). Both films were poorly received by critics and audiences in South Korea, but performed well at the Japanese box office.

Choi then spent the next few years overseas, shooting the Chinese drama 101st Proposal with Sun Xing, and the Japanese drama RONDO opposite Yutaka Takenouchi. She returned to Korean television in 2007 in Air City alongside Lee Jung-jae; her role was the Chief Operating Officer of Incheon Airport.

In 2009 she starred opposite Yoo Ji-tae in the drama Star's Lover, playing a top actress who falls in love with an ordinary man. Choi received ₩48 million per episode of Star's Lover, the highest salary for a Korean actress at the time (her record has since been broken by Go Hyun-jung's ₩55 million for the 2010 drama Daemul). That same year, she set up her own management company called C,JW Company. She also joined the ensemble cast of semi-improvisational mockumentary Actresses, arguably her most significant film yet.

During the press conference for 2011 series Can't Lose co-starring Yoon Sang-hyun, which features a lawyer couple facing their own divorce suit, she was asked if she worried about shedding her pure and innocent image. Choi said, "I’ve had the same image for 15 years. Isn’t it time for me to break out? I was a melodrama queen and now I want the title of romantic comedy queen." She added that she had gained more fans after showing her cheerful, easygoing side as a guest on the reality show 2 Days & 1 Night.

Choi has been cast in the Chinese drama City Lovers, in which she portrays the CEO at an event management company opposite Qin Hao, a newly employed businessman at her firm.

She is also set to host Choi Ji-woo's Delicious Korea on food lifestyle cable channel O'live TV alongside fashion designer Jung Kuho. The show aims to promote Korean cuisine and culture to the world, and the two hosts will travel through South Korea and introduce little-known regional food to the viewers.