Edited by Hwang Hong Sun
Translated by Kim Hoyeun
Kim Woo Bin, who entered the entertainment industry as a model, started his acting career by appearing on KBS’s White Christmas in 2011. Later, he gained popularity by showing bromance with Lee Jong Suk in School 2013, and led SBS’s The Heirs to success the following year by performing a memorable villain role. With the back-to-back hits of two school dramas, the myth of “If Kim Woo Bin wears a school uniform, the project is a success” surfaced.
In 2013, Kim Woo Bin made his debut in the big screen with movie Friend: The Great Legacy, and performed his first comic acting through Twenty. Extreme Job director Lee Byung Heon’s directorial debut film Twenty is a pleasant film that depicts the daily lives of three friends who just graduated from high school.
Kim Woo Bin played the role of Cha Chi Ho, who voluntarily became jobless to search what he wants to do. For him, who mostly played charismatic roles, playful and goofy Chi Ho was a challenge. When he first read the script, he was worried about how to perform all the “R-rated” lines, but gradually melted into the scene thanks to the laugh-filled filming site and eventually showed perfect harmony with Kang Ha Neul and Lee Joon Ho, who starred in the movie together.
As a result, Twenty became a box office hit by drawing 3.04 million moviegoers, even though it was released during the off-season. In particular, Kim Woo Bin’s comic acting that added to the fun of the movie received favorable reviews. Since then, Kim Woo Bin established himself as a “trusted” actor, making another hit with movie Master, in which he worked with Lee Byung Heon and Kang Dong Won.
In 2017, when everyone was paying keen attention to his next movie, the shocking news of him being diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer came out. Fortunately, the treatment was a success, and in 2019, Kim Woo Bin expressed his gratitude when he appeared as a presenter at the Blue Dragon Film Awards. Kim Woo Bin is now filming director Choi Dong Hoon’s new film Extraterrestrial (literal translation). We are already looking forward to seeing him return to the screen looking healthy.
