Won Bin
Korean Actor

WON BIN

Won Bin started his career as an actor in a KBS Mini-series, Propose in 1997. And it was through KBSs popular drama, Kok-Ggi, which ended 10th of last month that he roses as a promising actor who will lead the screen.

A lot of people think that Won Bin is a rich snob. But in reality, Won Bin is from Jungsun, which is far away in Kangwon-do. His city life started only when he began going to ChoonchunTechnicalHigh School. But because of his hobby of riding motorcycles, and his great singing voice and dreamy looks, Won Bin quickly became a star in Choonchun. And he hadn't ever been on TV yet.
Won Bin is actually a little shy. And because his eyesight isn't so good, he can't recognize people from far away. That's why some people mistake him for having a bad personality. But Won Bin says he's afraid to act too friendly since he's only been living in the city for a very short time. Anyway, he admits that he might have made some people angry. But inside, Won Bin thinks he's still just a country boy from Kangwon-do even though he is said to be so good-looking.

According to Won Bin, he asked for roles like a brainless gangster or a dumb jock from the very beginning. But who would have given him roles like that with his handsome face! So in the end, he only got roles like cine-artist wanna-bes and troubled artists. The dramas flopped, and so did Won Bin. He says that the role of Myung-tae is what he really wanted. When I asked if the role resembles his own high school days, Won Bin just said, Well, maybe..." Could it be true?

For the longest time now, Won Bin has had no interest in women. His main interests are working out, sleeping, and dreaming. He has a black belt in Taekwondo, and everyone knows what an excellent snow-boarder he is. In fact, he's the star of the SNOW-J team on which Jung Joon and Yoon Son-ha are also members.
Won Bin received the most votes for MostBeautifulMan of April 2002 garnering a whopping 29,856 votes (the highest votes ever received by an MBM finalist), proving that he is indeed one face to watch out for.

Won Bin’s Profile

real name : Kim Do-Jin
birthday : 1977/9/29
family : youngest among 2bro 3sis
height : 178 cm
weight: 62kg
blood : Type O
religion : christian
personality : introvert
good point : have a clear objective in whatever he does
bad point : a little stubborn
hobby : basketball, computer game
talent : taekwundo, motorcycle, snowboard, car racing
fav animal : puppy
fav word : freedom
fav flower : cosmos
fav actor : Jang Dong Gun
girl type : looks pure and innocent without makeup. has a good heart
motto : never make a girl cry
movie in memory : brave heart, chunjangjigoo
favorite song : kim jungmin's majimak yaksok (the last promise)

A Stars Confession
Won Bin started his career as an actor in a KBS Mini-series, Propose in 1997. And it was through KBSs popular drama, Kok-Ggi, which ended 10th of last month that he roses as a promising actor who will lead the screen.
From a sensitive gloominess modern character to a rural scamp, Won Bin is widening his performance day by day. In A Stars Confession we like to reveal everything about Won Bin, his past and future.
I feel fatigue. I can't remember how I went thought my life past 6 months. It's like the feeling of emptiness that you feel after you accomplish something very big. Maybe it might be a little too much to say if I say like I just went through the hardest time of my life.
Oops, sorry. I just enumerated my feelings from the beginning. You might have thought what is he talking about? However, if you know my present feelings, you might have understood why I enumerated my feelings.
Now it's 4:00 P.M and I am sitting in front of a journalist. I just got back from recording last scene of Kok-Ggi. Just a moment ago, Sung Hyo Sung, the director of Kok-Ggi came down to the studio and said, everyone did a great job!? With his thundering voice. As I heard his saying, tears stood in my eyes. You know, well ... I can't think of a right word to describe the feeling of that right, the mixed feeling of joy and sorrow. That's right! The phrase mixed feeling of joy and sorrow just passed my mind.
From the face of Park, Kun Hyung, yelling me, come on, that's how you act? Do it again in front of me!? to the scenes of fighting with Lee, Jung Won, the sweet kiss with Park, Jee Young (I was absolutely absent minded then ~), those drama scenes started to come into my heart just like seeing faded old black and white pictures.

Confession 2 :
Last January, when cold winter wind hit our faces, I spoke lightly to Lee, Ho Yul, who was working at the managementcompany I belonged.
I want to play a role as a real scamp. Ho Yul stared at my face for a while and instead of giving me an answer, he asked me seriously, Do you think you can really play such a role? At that moment, I regretted that what I just said to him without thinking. However, I had to answer if they give me such a role. You know, I like to play a kind of scamp who has warm-heart.
After listening my answer, Ho Yul seemed kind of surprised. I felt that he thought of me as a guy who cannot walk is trying to fly... I was ashamed.
However, unexpectedly, Ho Yul said, If you are willing to throw out everything, I will try. Do you know what I mean? I had a vague idea of what he meant but I did not talk about it anymore. I just nodded in assent.
One day, after having such conversation, Ho Yul brought a script. On the top page, it was titled, Kok-Ggi. As soon as I got the script I read the script through at a sitting. A character named Song, Myung Tae caught my attention. After finishing reading the script, I said to Ho Yul, I want to be Myung Tae. Ho Yul smiled and said, Potato-Rock can see script, wait. And he left.
Since coming to Seoul, my nickname, Potato-Rock never sounded so good as the time. By the way, why am I a Potato-Rock? Lets step aside from my story, and lets rewind my tape. Do you know about the legend of the Potato-Rock?

Confession 3 :
Because of my appearance, many people think that I am an only child of a well-off family in Kang-Nam (a district in Seoul, which represents Beverly Hills in Korea). In other words, people misunderstood that my life was easygoing, become an actor by chance, and got popularity easily.
However, here, I am breaking those people’s preconception. I was born and raised in a hamlet in Jung-Sun, Kang-Won-Do, where snows piles up to waist in wintertime. I mean, I am an original bumpkin!!!
Therefore, I am far beyond Beverly Hills culture (Kang-Nam culture) and can’t deal with those stuffs. Moreover, I am not an only child. I have a big brother and three older sisters. I am the last one among five. My parents were usually busy so did not care much about me.
Now, I will start my story slowly just like dusting those old albums. Before I start my story, I like to make it clear that since I have such a bad memory despite of my young age, my story might be sometimes wrong. If you want to correct it right, please e-mail to the journalist who is writing my story of Won-Bin’s Confession.
My birthday is September 29, 1977 (according to the lunar calendar). I was born in Book-Myun, Yuh-Ryang 1 Ri, 2-Ban, Jung-SunCity, Gang-WonState. People usually call this place Nearby Ah-U-Ra-Gi. I don’t know the detailed story of my birth. I don’t know what kind of dream my mom or dad or anyone had when my mom got pregnant. I don’t know at what place I was born at all. Well, I better say that I never tried to know such things. When people made a joke on me that my parents found me under some bridge and raised me, I just ignored them and thought. It doesn’t matter if I was born under a bridge, all it matters is that my parents raised me with love and I really appreciate it. Right, I truly think I am weirdo.

Confession 4 :
I often have loneliness in my face. It's because during my childhood, I was alone most of times. You can ask me in return what kind of loneliness you would have, who has brothers and sisters? I didn't mean that I was alone because I did not have any family but what I meant by 'I was alone' was because my parents were busy working and my siblings were busy playing so they did not have time to take care of me.

Like most other peasants, my parents went out right after breakfast to work at mountains and farm lands When my parents were out, my brother and sisters went to school and I was all by myself. It was just like the movie 'Home Alone.'
I was so boring playing with puppies and drawing pictures on the ground. Time passed so slowly. One good thing was the night came early in the mountain range. On sunset, my family members came home one by one and with joy. I started to cry.
I had to go out! I couldn't just stay at home and play by myself all the time. As I grew up I dreamed of outside world. I wanted to get away from home. To me, outside world was nothing but only outside of home.
When it was about the time to go to elementary school, I started a life of wild-forest-living. You might wonder that how I could, who was not a savage, live a life of wild-forest-living. However, it was a true wild-forest life.
Digging medical plants, river fishing, and even catching and eating snakes, etc, I came up with every method of playing with the nature. I even sold some of those medical plants I dig and earned some money. After selling the medical plants for two or three hours. I was able to earn about 5000 - 6000 won (about $5-6) and worried because I didn't know what to do with the money. Oh, my beautiful, simple past!!!

Confession 5 :
In the year of 1984, when I was enjoying 'wild forest life' with my friends, I finally started my elementary school life, which I was longed for a long time. I don't mean that I longed to get into elementary school because I was eager to study, but what I meant was because of my lonely life, I thought it would be much fun to play with more friends in elementary school.
The elementary school, Yuh-RyangElementary School, was near the village. Yuh-Ryang elementary school was familiar place for me because I used to visit there often because my brother and sisters went there. Especially teachers at Yuh-Ryang knew me very well because I often hid my self outside of the classroom where my brother and sisters were in and shot pebbles with a wooden toy rifle and sprinkled water into the classroom. They remembered all those evil (?) deeds I did. At that time, I was chubby and such a mischief although I am very slim and introvert person now.
Even when I was only an elementary school kid, I valued friendship between guy friends. I did not have any interest on girls at all. I did not show any interest to many girls who were hitting on me, because I had more fun with my guy friends. About 360 days out of 365 days, I went out to mountains, fields, and rivers with my friends and played until sunset, came back home with black and dusty face.
One day, I experienced an accident. When I was in a second grade, I was watching a cartoon and suddenly wanted to play fighting game with my brother. You know, when you watch pro-wrestling game or a cartoon, you want to do just like they are doing. I jumped myself up and attacked my brother. My brother, who was best among the best troublemakers and best in athletics, stroke me back. At that moment, I heard some kind of breaking sound with great pain on my right shoulder…

Confession 6 :
I did not want to be defeated, so I tried to attack my brother again. However, I felt so much pain on my arm and couldn’t even to move right arm. I had no choice but accept my defeat.

Few hours later, when my parents got back from work, we had a family dinner together. I tried hard to overcome the pain and tried to hold sthingy with my right hand. Without my will, I could not hold the sthingy. As I expressed my pain, my mother asked me what was wrong. My brother was sitting next to me, glancing my parents and me alternately with fear, and my sisters seemed confused.
I told my mom that nothing was wrong and went to my room. I tried to sleep. The pain got worse and worse and I groaned more and more as time goes by. My parents heard my groan and came to my room, started to ask me what happened during the day. I was afraid of telling them the truth, but I couldn’t endure the pain anymore.
I told them the truth. I lowered my head and waited for some kind of punishment. But...unexpectedly, my parents did not say anything. They put some clothes on me and took me out. It was very weird. They should’ve scolded me because I made another trouble by playing fighting game with my brother. However, my parents did not scold me nor showed any reaction. I was very curious about their action.
At midnight, I went to Emergency Room of the biggest hospital in my village and found out that my right arm was cracked. When my dad heard that my right arm was cracked, he told me quietly. "You cannot use your right hand for a while, ok?" At that time, I could not understand my father. My parents usually scolded me on small things, but did not say anything on a big accident. Although I could not understand the reason at the time, I think I can understand them now. It was my parent’s true love.

Confession 7 :
In the year of 1990, my troublesome times the elementary school have passed and I entered 'Yuh-Rang' middle school.
There wasn't much difference in the middle school than the elementary school. Since 'Yuh-Rang' middle school was a small sized co-education middle school, everyone was familiar to each other. As for me, who did not care much about studying and school work, even after I entered middle school, I continued concentrate on my after school activities and life. However, I continued participating in the track team, which I was in since I was in elementary school. Like many other children in mountain village, I've always run through mountains and hills like a wild sheep, thus I was so confident in running that I was second to none. Also, there is no need of any kind of expensive, fancy equipment for running, what we all need is just a running shirt, shorts and a pair of running shoes. I liked running because it did not give any economic burden to my family.
I ran and ran, both long and short distance. Was I a famous super-star-runner? No. Then, why should I even bother to think about anything? So, I did not. I just ran and ran. Regardless of ranking and record, whenever coach asked me to run, I ran like a wild bull.
Although, I occasionally went through hard times, when I think back now, the back time exercises and running help me a lot my present life as an actor and entertainer. From running, I learned endurance and patience. Moreover, from my friends, who practiced more than I did and ranked higher than me. I learned the precious value of sweat. Because their higher ranking and records were earned by the sweat of their brow. In this reason, I like kinds of sports, which are soaked with sweat, such as soccer, basketball, and running. On the other hand, I do not like kinds of sports with selfish wiles and pretty guile.
Along with running, something else also captivated me during my middle school. It was a girl with a long hair, who was beautiful in jeans. She sprinkled sweet dews to my hardened heart the girl ... ah ... I miss her!

Confession 8 :
The kind of girl I like is still the same as before. My ideal girl must have a long hair and jeans must fit well on her.
The girl (from now on, I will just call her 'K', because I don’t think it is a good idea to reveal her real name since she has her own privacy) was the one. She was my ideal girl, who perfectly had those two conditions of a long hair and handsomeness in jeans. Furthermore, she was even cute and bright, so whenever I looked at her, I was unconscious of the passage of time.
However, I never spoke to her. I could have treated her comfortably as a little sister since she was a year younger than me, but I was not even able to open my mouth in front of her. Since I have several older sisters, it shouldn't be hard for me to feel comfortable with girl, but strangely, I became a speechless in front of her.
Though, I could not just seat, stay, and do nothing. I did some 'action' in my own way, without giving any kind of burden to "K". I started to care and protect her at a distance. This was mainly my "action". Although I might seem a little bit passive, what else could I have done? It was the only way I could think of. If you associate this with me in my recent CF, you will get better idea of this. You know, the scene in the CF with me yelling out "I am your guardian angel~"
However, every time "K" looked at me, whether she knew I liked her or not, she had such a clam expression of her eyes. You know, those meaningless eyes expression, which makes you feel suffocation.
Finally, I had a chance to talk to her. Well, It will be better to say that I made a chance to talk to her. It was the snowy graduation day. I gave her a letter full of my love to her. Her eyes became like a rabbit's big eyes. She seemed very surprised but soon smiled. As I saw her smiling, I felt like I was going to fly to the sky. To me, her smile seemed like an approval.
Thereafter, I entered "Choon-Chun Mechanical Engineering High School" and we exchanged letters for a year.