Bae Yong-joon

Bae Yong-joon
Born	August 29, 1972 Mapo District, Seoul, South Korea
Occupation	Actor, Businessman
Years active	1994–present
Agent	KeyEast
Religion	Roman Catholic[1]
Spouse(s)	Park Soo-jin (m. 2015)
Website	http://www.byj.co.kr/
Korean name
Hangul	배용준
Hanja	裵勇浚
Revised Romanization	Bae Yong-jun
McCune–Reischauer	Pae Yongjun

Bae Yong-joon (born August 29, 1972) is a South Korean actor and businessman. He starred in numerous television dramas, notably Winter Sonata which became one of the major proponents of the Korean Wave. Bae retired from acting after 2007, but remains active as the chairman of management agency KeyEast.

Early life

Bae Yong-joon was born in Mapo District, Seoul. He entered Sungkyunkwan University in 2000 as a Film Studies major, but later dropped out.^[1]

Career

Bae made his acting debut in 1994 in the Korean drama Salut D'Amour (lit. "Love Greeting").^[2] The rookie actor quickly gained popularity, and a year later he won Best New Actor at the 1995 KBS Drama Awards for Our Sunny Days of Youth. Throughout the 1990s, Bae continued playing leading roles on television, in Papa (1996), First Love (1996) which reached a peak viewership rating of 65.8%, The Barefooted Youth (1998), and the Noh Hee-kyung-penned Did We Really Love? (1999). In Hotelier (2001), he played a mergers and acquisitions specialist about to takeover a hotel, but has a change of heart after falling in love with one of its employees (Bae would later reprise his role in a cameo in the 2007 Japanese remake of Hotelier).^[3]

But it was Yoon Seok-ho's Winter Sonata in 2002 that would transform Bae's career, and consequently the face of Korean dramas abroad. A melodrama about first love, lost memory and unknown family ties, Winter Sonata became an unprecedented success in Asia and more than 20 countries, particularly in Japan. Bae gained a tremendous fan base among Japanese middle-aged women, who dubbed him with the honorific nickname Yon-sama (ヨン様; cf. "Emperor Yon") and brought in US$2.3 billion in tourism and Winter Sonata merchandise sales.^{[4][5][6][7][8]}

In 2003, Bae was cast in his first major big-screen role in Untold Scandal (he had previously appeared in bit parts in two films in the 1990s).^[2] In contrast to his gentle, intellectual image, Bae played a conniving, sexually predatory nobleman in E J-yong's adaptation of Les Liaisons dangereuses set in 18th century Joseon.^[9] His performance received Best New Actor accolades from the Blue Dragon Film Awards and the Baeksang Arts Awards. He next published a photo book The Image: Volume 1 in 2004, which sold 100,00 copies.

Afterwards he worked with director Hur Jin-ho in April Snow (2005), about a stage lighting director who discovers his wife's infidelity when she becomes comatose after a near-fatal car accident with her lover.^[10][11] The film had a weak domestic run but due to Bae's star power, it set a new box office record for a Korean film in Japan with ¥2.72 billion.^{[12][13][14][15]}

Bae then entered the restaurant business, by establishing restaurants and cafes that capitalize on the well-being trend. He owns health food restaurant Gorilla in the Kitchen and high-end traditional Korean restaurant Gosire.^{[16][17][18][19]} As the most famous Korean actor in Japan, he became a proponent for Korean cuisine, and his Gosire lunchboxes (or bento) are sold in Japanese convenience stores and supermarkets.^[20] In 2006, Bae became one of Korea's wealthiest celebrities as the majority shareholder (34.6%) of management agency KeyEast (his stocks are valued at US$128 million as of May 2015).^{[21][22][23][24]} Most of the KeyEast executives, including president Bae Sung-woong, are Bae's former managers and have worked with him for more than ten years.^[16]

Bae made his much-anticipated return to television in 2007 in The Legend (also known as Taewangsasingi, lit. "The Four Guardian Gods of the King"). The big-budget period-fantasy epic was written by Song Ji-na and directed by Kim Jong-hak, and Bae played dual roles: Gwanggaeto, 19th ruler of the Goguryeo kingdom; and Hwanung, believed to be the son of God and founder of Gojoseon.^[25][26][3] He was paid ₩250 million (US$217,000) per episode, making him the highest paid Korean television actor of all time.^[27]

In 2009, Bae and Winter Sonata co-star Choi Ji-woo reunited as voice actors for the animated series Winter Sonata Anime, which aired in Japan.^[28][29][30] He also wrote a book of photo-essays A Journey in Search of Korea's Beauty, which promoted Korean traditional culture such as ceramics, liquor, hanbok, pansori, hanok, Hangul, kimchi-making, temple stays, museums and historical sites.^[31][32] It became a bestseller, and has been translated to Japanese, Taiwanese, Chinese and English.^{[33][34][35][36]} A Journey in Search of Korea's Beauty was later turned into an eight-episode TV documentary that aired on MBC Life in 2011.^[37][38]

Bae and KeyEast entered into a joint partnership with Park Jin-young and JYP Entertainment in 2009, which eventually produced Dream High (2011), a teen musical series that revolved around the lives of students attending a high school for the performing arts.^[39][40][41] As creative producer, Bae supervised the screenplay and production; he also appeared in a four-episode guest arc.^[42][43][44] The collaboration between KeyEast and JYPE, named Holyim, lasted until 2013.

Personal life

Bae previously dated commercial/music video director Lee Sa-kang in 2004, and chaebol heiress Koo So-hee from September 2013 to February 2015 (Koo is the daughter of LS Industrial Systems vice chairman Koo Ja-kyun).^[45][46]

He and actress Park Soo-jin announced their engagement in May 2015 and married on July 27, 2015 at the Sheraton Grande Walkerhill Hotel. The couple only invited friends and relatives to the wedding and forbade attendance of the press media.^{[47][48][49][50] [51][52][53][54][55][56]}

Filmography

Television series

Year	Title	Role	Network
1994	Salut D'Amour	Kim Young-min	KBS2
1995	Our Sunny Days of Youth	Ha Seok-joo	KBS2
	Drama Game "Six Steps to Separation"	Kyung-min	KBS2
	Sea Breeze	Jang Moon-young	PSB
1996	Papa	Choi Hyun-joon	KBS2
	Colors "Blue"		KBS2
	First Love	Sung Chan-woo	KBS2
1997	The Angel Within	Man in cafe (cameo)	KBS2
1998	The Barefooted Youth	Han Yo-seok/Jang Yo-seok	KBS2
1999	Did We Really Love?	Kang Jae-ho	MBC
2001	Hotelier	Shin Dong-hyuk/Frank Shin	MBC
2002	Winter Sonata	Kang Joon-sang/Lee Min-hyeong	KBS2
2007	Hotelier	Shin Dong-hyuk (cameo, episode 1)	TV Asahi
	The Legend	Damdeok/Hwan-woong	MBC
2009	Winter Sonata Anime	Kang Joon-sang/Lee Min-hyeong (voice)	SKY PerfecTV!
2011	Dream High	Jung Ha-myung (guest, episodes 1-4)	KBS2

Films

Year	Title	Role	Director
1994	The Young Man	(bit part)	Bae Chang-ho
1997	PpilKu	Shock member (bit part)	You Jin-sun
2003	Untold Scandal	Jo-won	E J-yong
2005	April Snow	In-su	Hur Jin-ho

Music videos

Year	Song Title	Artist
2001	"Goodbye, My Love"	Jo Sung-mo
2002	"Ditto and Sympathy 2"

Books

Year	Title	Notes
2004	The Image: Volume 1
2005	100 Days of Bae Yong-joon
2007	BYJ Family Book
2009	Journey in Search of Korea's Beauty
2012	Visit to Kyoto

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
1995	KBS Drama Awards	Best New Actor	Our Sunny Days of Youth	Won
		Photogenic Award		Won
1996	KBS Drama Awards	Excellence Award, Actor	First Love	Won
		Popularity Award		Won
		Photogenic Award		Won
	Korean Model Center Best Dressed Awards	Recipient	N/A	Won
1997	33rd Baeksang Arts Awards	Most Popular Actor (TV)	First Love	Won
	Kyunghyang Shinmun Readers' Choice Special Advertisement Awards	Readers' Favorite Advertisement Model	N/A	Won
2002	38th Baeksang Arts Awards	Most Popular Actor (TV)	Winter Sonata	Won
	10th Korean Most Popular Entertainment Awards	Best Actor (TV)		Won
	KBS Drama Awards	Top Excellence Award, Actor		Won
		Popularity Award		Won
2003	24th Blue Dragon Film Awards	Best New Actor	Untold Scandal	Won
		Popular Star Award		Won
2004	40th Baeksang Arts Awards	Best New Actor (Film)		Won
	41st Grand Bell Awards	Best New Actor		Nominated
	33rd Japan Men's Fashion Association	Best Dressed of the Year, International category	N/A	Won
	4th Proud Korean Awards (Journalists Federation of Korea)	Recipient, Public Art category	N/A	Won
2007	MBC Drama Awards	Grand Prize (Daesang)	The Legend	Won
		Top Excellence Award, Actor		Nominated
		Popularity Award		Won
		Best Couple Award with Lee Ji-ah		Won
2008	44th Baeksang Arts Awards	Best Actor (TV)		Nominated
	2nd Korea Drama Awards	Hallyu Achievement Award		Won
	Order of Cultural Merit[57] (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism)	Recipient, Hwagam Medal	N/A	Won
2009	1st Korea Brand Image Awards	Recipient, Broadcasting category	N/A	Won
2010	1st Stars of Korean Tourism Awards (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism)	Achievement Award	N/A	Won
2013	10th Anniversary of Korean Entertainment in Japan Awards[58][59][60]	Grand Prize (Daesang)	Winter Sonata	Won
		Best Actor		Won

See also

• Contemporary culture of South Korea
• Korean Wave

References

1. "Bae Yong-joon (배용준) Profile". Korea Tourism Organization. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
2. "Actors and Actresses of Korean Cinema: Bae Yong-joon". Koreanfilm.org. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
3. Brasor, Philip (27 January 2008). "Bae Yong Joon, superstar, how many hits have you had so far?". The Japan Times. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
4. "Celebrity: A Hunk O' Love". Newsweek. 2 May 2004. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
5. Norimitsu, Onishi (23 November 2004). "What's Korean for 'Real Man?' Ask a Japanese Woman". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
6. Sohn, Jie-ae (16 March 2005). "S. Korean star sparks tourist boom". CNN. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
7. "Bae Yong-joon Laments the Price of Fame". The Chosun Ilbo. 24 May 2006. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
8. Salmon, Andrew (30 May 2012). "Yonsama: Korean love god captures Japanese hearts". The Korea Times. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
9. Kim, Soo-kyung (16 March 2003). "Bae Yong-joon's Screen Debut - Notorious Playboy from Chosun Dynasty". The Dong-a Ilbo. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
10. "April Snow no Walk in The Park for Bae Yong-joon". The Chosun Ilbo. 26 August 2005. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
11. Lee, Seung-jae (25 August 2005). "I, Myself Am in Forbidden Love". The Dong-a Ilbo. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
12. "Yonsama Fever Rages On Amid Korea-Japan Chill". The Chosun Ilbo. 17 March 2005. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
13. Lee, Min-a (24 August 2005). "Romantic tale appeals, particularly to Japanese". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
14. "Yonsama Proves Japan's Biggest Crowd-Puller". The Chosun Ilbo. 2 September 2005. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
15. "Yon-sama Fever Revived by Release of April Snow". The Chosun Ilbo. 21 September 2005. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
16. "Bae Yong-joon, Businessman Extraordinaire". The Chosun Ilbo. 24 July 2006. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
17. Lee, Hyo-won (25 November 2009). "Bae's Food Chain in Japan". The Korea Times. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
18. Eun, Elizabeth (21 April 2011). "Seoul's celebrity-owned restaurants". CNN. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
19. Genegabus, Jason (24 January 2012). "Bae Yong Joon to open Waikiki cafe". Honolulu Pulse. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
20. "Yonsama Lunchbox on Sale in Japan". The Korea Times. 16 June 2009. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
21. "Yonsama Effect Sends Firm's Share Price Soaring". The Chosun Ilbo. 4 April 2006. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
22. "Top 10 stock billionaire celebrities". The Korea Herald. 4 January 2015. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
23. "YG Entertainment head tops list of stock-rich celebrities". The Korea Times. 5 May 2015. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
24. "Bae Yong-joon becomes the stock-richest celebrity". The Dong-a Ilbo. 6 May 2015. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
25. Sa, Eun-young (11 September 2007). "Yonsamas Drama Hits TV Screens". The Korea Times. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
26. Lee, Hyo-won (4 December 2007). "TV Drama Taewangsasingi Goes to Japan". The Korea Times. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
27. Park, Si-soo (26 June 2013). "Who is the highest paid actor?". The Korea Times. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
28. "A reunion in 7 years: Yonsama and Jiwoohime". 10Asia. 29 September 2009. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
29. "Stars reprise Winter Sonata roles for anime". The Japan Times. 30 September 2009. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
30. "Bae Yong-joon, Choi Ji-woo reunite for Winter Sonata anime". 10Asia. 2 February 2010. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
31. "Bae Yong-joon promotes book on Korean culture". 10Asia. 22 September 2009. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
32. "Bae Yong-joon Dreams of Simple Farming Life". The Chosun Ilbo. 23 September 2009. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
33. Park, So-young; Seo, Ji-eun (1 October 2009). "Bae Yong-joon wows them in Japan". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
34. "Bae Yong-joon Garners More Laurels with Book About Korea". The Chosun Ilbo. 9 September 2010. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
35. "Bae Yong-joon's Book About Korea Published in English". The Chosun Ilbo. 4 December 2010. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
36. "Bae Yong-joon's Photo Essay Nominated for Book of the Year in China". The Chosun Ilbo. 11 January 2011. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
37. "Bae Yong-joon's Book to Be Filmed for Asia-Wide Distribution". The Chosun Ilbo. 28 October 2010. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
38. Park, Uliana (7 January 2011). "Baes documentary on Korea eyes bigger audience". The Korea Times. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
39. "Bae Yong-joon & Park Jin-Young in Lucrative World Project". The Chosun Ilbo. 2 January 2009. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
40. Song, Woong-ki (8 January 2009). "JYP, Bae looking further ahead". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
41. Oh, Jean (28 December 2010). "Dream High: Just a JYPE vehicle, or something more?". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
42. Han, Sang-hee (23 February 2009). "Actor Bae May Appear in His Own Drama". The Korea Times. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
43. Hong, Lucia (8 December 2010). "Bae Yong-joon takes part in shoot for Dream High". 10Asia. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
44. Seo, Ji-eun (6 September 2011). "Bae Yong-joon fuels Dream in Japan". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
45. "Bae Yong-joon's Girlfriend Is LS Group Scion". The Chosun Ilbo. 26 December 2013. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
46. Yoon, Sarah (17 February 2015). "Bae Yong-joon splits with chaebol girlfriend, 14 years his junior". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
47. Lim, Jeong-yeo (27 July 2015). "Bae Yong-joon is no longer a bachelor". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
48. "Actor Bae Yong-joon to marry Park Soo-jin". Yonhap. 27 July 2015. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
49. "Hallyu star Bae Yong-joon marries Park Soo-jin". The Korea Times. 27 July 2015. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
50. "Bae Yong-joon Weds Actress in Private Ceremony". The Chosun Ilbo. 28 July 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
51. Kim, Jae-won (14 May 2015). "Bae Yong-joon to tie knot actress Park". The Korea Times. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
52. "Bae Yong-joon to Tie the Knot at Last". The Chosun Ilbo. 15 May 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
53. "Actor Bae Yong-joon to marry actress, 13 years his junior". The Korea Herald. 15 May 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
54. "Bae Yong-joon's Engagement Dominates Headlines". The Chosun Ilbo. 18 May 2015. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
55. "Bae Yong-joon, Park Soo-jin to wed July 27". The Korea Times. 14 July 2015. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
56. "Bae Yong-joon, Park Soo-jin to Wed on July 27". The Chosun Ilbo. 15 July 2015. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
57. Han, Sang-hee (19 October 2008). "Bae Receives National Order of Culture Merit". The Korea Times. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
58. Bae, Ji-sook (20 October 2013). "Bae Yong-joon wins grand prize at Japan's hallyu awards". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
59. "Bae Yong-joon Still Adored by Japanese for Winter Sonata". The Chosun Ilbo. 21 October 2013. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
60. Kim, Peter (21 October 2013). "Actor Bae wins top prize at Japan hallyu awards". The Korea Observer. Retrieved 14 May 2015.

External links

• Official website (Korean)
• Bae Yong-joon on Instagram (Korean)
• Bae Yong-joon at KeyEast (Korean)
• Bae Yong-joon at HanCinema
• Bae Yong-joon at the Internet Movie Database
• Bae Yong-joon at the Korean Movie Database