Jang Dong-gun

Korean name: 장동건
Born: March 7, 1972
From: Seoul, South Korea
Occupation: Actor
Worked with Ziyi: 1 time

Collaborations

Dangerous Liaisons
2012
Biography

Jang Dong-gun is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his leading roles in the films Friend (2001) and Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War (2004).

After appearing in the low-budget film The Coast Guard by controversial director Kim Ki-duk, Jang then took the lead role in Kang Je-gyu’s Taegukgi, an epic film about two brothers set during the Korean War. The film broke Friend’s record with an astounding 11 million tickets sold. By this time, Jang’s name had become known widely throughout Asia.

Jang followed this up with The Promise, a $30 million pan-Asian production by Chinese director Chen Kaige in which he played opposite Hong Kong star Cecilia Cheung.

For the next four years, Jang kept a low profile in the Korean entertainment sphere as he worked on his Hollywood debut The Warrior’s Way, also starring Kate Bosworth and Geoffrey Rush. The film encountered problems with post-production and distribution, and was only released in 2010.

His 2012 film Dangerous Liaisons was a Chinese adaptation of the French literature classic set in 1930s Shanghai, directed by Hur Jin-ho and co-starring Zhang Ziyi and Cecilia Cheung. Jang next starred in No Tears for the Dead, an action thriller directed by Lee Jeong-beom. He played a Korean-born American hitman who feels conflicted about killing his last target.

Bonus

♦ In 2007, Ziyi signed to play opposite Jang in The Warrior’s Way. She later had to quit the project because of scheduling conflicts.