Ha Ji-won

Ha Ji-won (born 28 June 1979 as Jeon Hae-rim), is a Korean actress and singer. She was born in Seoul, South korea.

CareerHa Ji-won in Nightmare(2000).
Ha Ji-won started her career playing supporting roles in TV productions, recognizable for her feminine height and her then chubby cheeks.
In 2002, Ha Ji-won had her breakthrough as the lead in the horror film Phone, a film thematically and stylistically similar to a whole spate of horror films coming out of East Asia at the time. Her performance was good enough to win her a best actress nomination at the Blue Dragon Film Awards. This success secured her many more film offers as well as "big star" status.
Since then she has gone on to make films like the American Pie-clone Sex is Zero and more recently, Reversal of Fortune. She also began an attempt at a recording career in 2002.
Ha Ji-Won has recently starred in the series Something Happened In Bali in early 2004, co-starring Jo Insung and So Jisub. At the said project, she played the hard-put tour guide Lee Soojung, who consequently attracted two guys to her own discomfort. Her performance in that 2004 drama won her a Baek Sang Best Actress Awards. =
ProfileHeight: 168cm
Weight: 48kg
Blood type: A
Education: Dankook University
Film2007 Miracle on 1st Street
2005 My Lovely Week (cameo)
2005 Duelist
2005 Daddy Long-legs
2004 Love, So Divine
2004 100 Days with Mr. Arrogant
2003 Reversal of Fortune
2002 Sex Is Zero
2002 Phone
2000 Truth Game
2000 Ditto
2000 Nightmare
Drama2006 Hwang Jin-i (KBS)
2004 Something Happened in Bali (SBS)
2003 Damo (MBC)
Dragons Tears (KBS)
Love thats bigger than Love (MBC)
Hak Gyo 2 (KBS)
2000 Secret (SBS)
Life is Beautiful (KBS)
Awards2006 KBS Drama Best Actress Award (Hwang Jin-i)
2006 KBS Best Couple Award (with Jang Geun Suk)
2004 Baek Sang Best Actress Award
2000 Blue Dragon Best Supporting Actress Award
2000 Pusan Film Critics Assn. Awards Best New Actress (Truth or Dare)

Latest News:

"Sex is Zero" Sequel Announced (Source)2007/07/23A sequel of the 2002 comedy Sex is Zero" is planned to be released at the end of the year. Im Chang-jeong will return as the male protagonist, but Ha-ji-won won't feature in the follow-up, the female lead will be played by Song Ji-hyo. YOON Tae-yoon will direct. The original followed university students whose hormones interfered with their studies. The sequel will also be situated at a university. Numerous actors from "Sex Is Zero" will be part of the cast again, including Choi Seong-gook and Shin-ee. Filming should start at the end of July. Doosaboo Film is producing and CJ Entertainment will be in charge of distribution. In last year's "Miracle on 1st Street", IM teamed-up again with "Sex Is Zero"'s Ha Ji-won and its director Yoon Je-kyoon. "Sex Is Zero" was a box office success in 2002. The film successfully implemented the formula for the sex comedy in combination with a dramatic act towards the end. The genre's typical likeable but hopelessly clumsy male lead was played by IM. He had a crush on the beautiful girl (HA) on the campus, but he always managed to get into an embarrassing or awkward situation whenever she was around. This set-up and the inclusion of several inexperienced but sex-obsessed friends allowed the film to fire the sex jokes and gross student-life jokes at high speed. Yi Ch'ang-ho (KOFIC)

Source : http://www.hancinema.net/jump.php?id=10315 ( English Korean )
Related movies/dramas

Hwangjin-i Advances to Monte Carlo Festival 2007/05/07

The KBS TV2 miniseries "Hwangjin-i" starring actress Ha Ji-won has advanced to the main competition on the 2007 Monte Carlo TV Festival.The KBS International Cooperation Team said that the series was introduced at the MIPTV in Cannes, France in September last year before it went on the air in Korea, and drew attention from European and Japanese buyers.Previously, KBS' 2005 current-affairs program "Tracking 60 Minutes - A Duet of Hope and Dispair" advanced to the festival's main competition.Meanwhile, KBS TV2's infotainment show "Sponge" is currently competing at the 47th Rose d'Or in Switzerland. Source : english.kbs.co.kr... ( English )
Ha Ji won To Hold Meeting In Japan 2007/04/05

Actress Ha Ji-won, well known for her roles in the movies "Love So Divine" and "Duelist" as well as the TV dramas "Something Happened in Bali" and "Damo", will hold her first meeting with Japanese fans May 26.The meeting will take place at Tokyo's Nakano Sun Plaza Hall, which can accommodate 2,200 people. Ha will shake hands with all of her fans who come to see her on that day.Ha's fan base in Japan has expanded since movies and TV dramas starring the actress opposite such top hallyu stars as kwon Sang-woo, Yeon Jeong-hoon, Kang Dong-won, So Ji-sub, Jo In-Seong and Lee Seo-jin were shown in Japan. The news about her first fan meeting in Japan has drawn significant attention from Ha's fans.Ha has recently drawn the spotlight as another promising hallyu star for her versatile acting in movies and TV dramas of various genres, such as epic dramas and contemporary films.

Source : english.kbs.co.kr... ( English )

Stars are Late Bloomers 2007/02/27

It's graduation season. Students receive a bunch of flowers, take pictures with friends or throw their mortarboards into the air.Many celebrities can also be seen at graduation ceremonies. But one of the major differences between their time in school and that of most students is that they usually need a lot more time to finish their studies.Actress Ha Ji-won recently graduated from Dankook University. It took her 10 years to finish a four-year program. She expressed her joy with big smiles during the Feb. 14 graduation ceremony in which she received a special award."It's more meaningful, as it took me 10 years. Honestly, I thought I would never make it", Ha told reporters after the graduation ceremony ended.Ha entered university in 1997 but had to take time off several times because of her busy acting career. She has starred in many television dramas and movies, including the 2000 KBS drama "School II", the 2003 MBC drama "Damo", the 2005 action film "Duelist" and the romantic comedy "Miracle on 1st Street".Ha is not the only star who took a longer-than-usual time to graduate. Actor Choi Min-soo took 10 years to graduate from a two-year program at Seoul Institute of the Arts.Another star who graduated this February is Han Ga-in.It took her six years to finish a four-year program at Kyung Hee University. While attending university, she appeared in many TV dramas and movies. The 24-year-old also got married in 2005.But her busy life did not even allow her to participate in the graduation ceremony on Feb. 21. She was filming the upcoming SBS drama "Witch Yu-hee" ("A Witch in Love") that day.Other stars who have graduated include actresses Kim Hyo-jin from Hanyang University,Park Si-eun from Dongduk University, actor Lee Joon-ki from Seoul Art College, Jeong Joon-ho and Park Hyo-shin from Kyung Hee University and Kwon O-joong from Seoul Cyber University.But stars' graduations are not always applauded by fans. Celebrities sometimes face criticism for getting poor grades or special treatment.Many news reports have revealed that most celebrity students do not go to school for months at a time, but they graduate from university anyway.An episode of "News After" that aired on MBC in November revealed that only three of 15 celebrity students reporters monitored from September to October attended class regularly."Their classmates called them ghost students as they never showed up", Lee Jae-hun, a reporter from the TV program, said.Despite their poor attendance rate, they got mandatory credits for graduation by participating in their school's promotional events or donating money to the school in the name of "school development funds", Lee said.Then, why do many stars want to enroll in a university, which they hardly go to, and struggle to graduate from?Lee said that they simply want to have an image of being intelligent.After receiving strong criticism, many universities said that they would not give celebrity students any special treatment."As they are at the center of public attention, things look severer. But basically, we have a strong commitment to treat them just like other students", Oh Se-yoon, a staff member of the public relations office at Kyung Hee University, said. Source : http://www.hancinema.net/jump.php?id=8811 ( English Korean )

Old Partners Team Up in New Film 2007/1/28Actress Ha-ji-won, who played Hwang Jin-i, a kisaeng, in a recent hit television drama, is about to show her tough side. In "Miracle in 1st Street", she plays a female boxer."When I shot the last boxing scene in the film, it was so hard that I somehow regretted having taken the role", Ha said half-jokingly last Friday during a news conference following the preview screening of her new film at Yongsan CVG multiplex theater in Seoul."I accidentally dealt my opponents hard blows, and they also did so to me. I once saw one of them bleeding. I was so shocked I couldn't work. It was mentally challenging", Ha said.Directed by Yoon Je-Kyoon, "Miracle in 1st Street" is a melodrama about wacky, boyish female boxer Myong-ran (played by Ha) and gangster Pil-je (Im Chang-jeong).The two meet when Pil-je moves into a poor neighborhood to evict people. The neighborhood will be demolished and redeveloped into a posh new town.It may be hard to imagine Ha wearing gloves in a boxing ring after her role as a kisaeng, a female entertainer similar to Japan's geisha, in the KBS drama "Hwang Jin-i".Actress Ha-Ji-won, left, and Im Chang-jeong team up once again in a new film about boxing and love.In the drama, Ha showed off her talent for dancing and singing, wearing flamboyant and sensual traditional costumes to portray a renowned kisaeng, Hwang Jin-i, from the Choson Kingdom (1392-1910).Through the historical piece, she won the hearts of many viewers and the KBS best acting award last year.But it is not the first time Ha has taken on a role that involves action scenes.In the 2005 action film "Duelist" and 2003 TV drama "Damo", she played a female detective in the Choson Kingdom and demonstrated her martial arts skills.But the major difference between the previous works and the new film is that this time she did not have a double for action scenes, Ha said."I have starred in many films and dramas where I had to shoot action scenes. So I simply thought that I would have a double for action scenes in this film. But I was wrong", Ha said.For the role, she joined a gymnasium where professional boxers are trained three month before the shooting began. She had to train at the gymnasium for six months, until she finished shooting the film."I had my nose injured and even made crooked while I was shooting. But I'm now quite good. Former boxing world champion Byon Jung-il offered me a chance to debut in the real boxing world", Ha said proudly.But most of all, Ha found it meaningful to work with her favorite actor Im and director Yoon.It has been almost five years since the three first worked together, in the 2002 hit adult comedy "Sex is Zero", which sold over 4 million tickets nationwide."Since `Sex is Zero', I hoped to work with them again, making a movie in a different genre. So I'm happy to work with them again and to meet the audience with my new character, different from the one in `Sec is Zero"', Ha said."Miracle in 1st Street" will open nationwide on Feb. 15.