Career
Cha Seung-won dropped out of Sungkyunkwan University and began a successful career as a fashion model in 1988. He was cast in the TV sitcom New York Story, which would eventually pave the way for his debut in film.
Although his debut film Holiday In Seoul (1997) and many of his subsequent roles did not establish him as a major star, he attracted attention in 2000 for his performance as an arsonist in the firefighting film Libera Me. The following summer, the runaway success of Kim Sang-jin's comedy Kick the Moon (over 4.3 million tickets sold) secured his place in the industry as a leading actor with strong star appeal. Since then, Cha has become one of the few surefire box office draws in the country. In a 2005 survey of influential movie producers, he was ranked among the top ten most bankable stars.
In early 2003, Cha took on a slightly more serious role as a corrupt schoolteacher who is transferred to a country school in the film My Teacher, Mr. Kim. The film grossed over 2.4 million admissions and drew Cha additional praise for his acting abilities (he would later team up again with the director for 2007 comedy Small Town Rivals). His next role, in Ghost House, reunited him with director Kim Sang-jin in a successful comedy about a man who buys a dream home, only to discover it is haunted by a young female ghost.
In 2005 Cha put aside the comic roles he had become known for and appeared in the grisly period thriller Blood Rain. The film's unexpectedly robust commercial success confirmed Cha's popularity among Korean audiences. Cha went on to appear in two films by renowned comedy director Jang Jin -- Murder, Take One and My Son. Cha said his experience as a father helped a lot in learning the character.
He starred in his first melodrama Over the Border, about a North Korean defector. Stylish crime thrillers Eye for an Eye and Secret followed.
2010 was a busy year for Cha, acting in the Lee Jun-ik-helmed period actioner Blades of Blood and Korean War film 71: Into the Fire.
Cha returned to television in 2009, in the political fairytale City Hall, followed by spy series Athena: Goddess of War in 2010. In 2011 his character in the hit romantic comedy The Greatest Love, arrogant top star "Dokko Jin" became a mini pop culture phenomenon, giving rise to numerous commercial deals and parodies, as well as awards for Cha.
In 2012 Cha made his stage debut in the play Bring Me My Chariot Fire alongside Japanese actors Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Ryoko Hirosue, Teruyuki Kagawa, and Korean veteran actor Kim Eung-soo. Set in the historically turbulent early 1900s, the plot focuses on the friendship of artists from Korea and Japan who work together to preserve traditional Korean arts.
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Famous quotes containing the word career:
““Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“Whether lawyer, politician or executive, the American who knows what’s good for his career seeks an institutional rather than an individual identity. He becomes the man from NBC or IBM. The institutional imprint furnishes him with pension, meaning, proofs of existence. A man without a company name is a man without a country.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“The 19-year-old Diana ... decided to make her career that of wife. Today that can be a very, very iffy line of work.... And what sometimes happens to the women who pursue it is the best argument imaginable for teaching girls that they should always be able to take care of themselves.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)