365days365films

Profile | プロフィール

Born / 生年月日
April 27, 1962 | Seoul, South Korea

Age / 年齢
63 years old (as of 2025)

Occupation / 職業
Actor, Producer

俳優、プロデューサー

Nationality / 国籍
South Korean (韓国)

Biography | 経歴

[English] Choi Min-sik (born April 27, 1962) is a titan of Korean cinema, renowned for his volcanic physical presence and deep psychological intensity. After a solid foundation in theater, he rose to international fame as Oh Dae-su in Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy (2003), a performance that remains a benchmark for total character inhabitation. His career spans a vast formal range: from the tragic husband in Happy End (1999) and the terrifying serial killer in I Saw the Devil (2010) to the historic leadership of Admiral Yi Sun-sin in The Admiral: Roaring Currents (2014). A practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, Choi brings a disciplined stillness to even his most extreme roles, consistently pushing the boundaries of what a screen performer can achieve.

[日本語] チェ・ミンシク（1962年4月27日生）は、圧倒的な肉体性と内面的な心理描写を兼ね備えた、現代韓国映画界を代表する名優である。舞台演劇で培った確かな技術を土台に、パク・チャヌク監督の『オールドボーイ』（2003年）で世界的な名声を確立。15年間監禁された男オ・デスを演じたその凄まじい没入感は、今なお語り草となっている。

そのキャリアは極めて幅広く、『ハッピーエンド』（1999年）での悲劇的な夫役から、『悪魔を見た』（2010年）の冷酷な殺人鬼、そして韓国史上最大のヒット作『バトル・オーシャン 海上決戦』（2014年）の李舜臣提督まで、多岐にわたる。チベット仏教の信徒でもあり、極限の状態を演じる際にも内面的な規律を失わないその姿勢は、世界の映画人から深い尊敬を集めている。

Filmography | 主要出演作品

Feature Films — Selected (主要出演映画)

Awards & Recognition | 受賞歴

Cannes Film Festival (カンヌ国際映画祭)

Winner: 1 🏆

• Grand Prix – Oldboy (2004) 🏆 (the film; as lead performer)

Screened at Cannes:

• Chunhyang (2000) — Competition
• Oldboy (2003) — Competition → Grand Prix 🏆
• The Wailing (2016) — Special Screening

Grand Bell Awards (대종상 / 韓国映画大賞)

Winner: Multiple 🏆

• Best Actor – Failan (2002) 🏆
• Best Actor – Oldboy (2004) 🏆
• Additional nominations across career

Blue Dragon Film Awards (청룡영화상)

Winner: Multiple 🏆

• Best Actor – Happy End (2000) 🏆
• Best Actor – Oldboy (2004) 🏆
• Additional nominations

Baeksang Arts Awards (백상예술대상)

Winner: 🏆

• Best Actor in Film – Multiple wins across career

Sitges Film Festival (シッチェス映画祭)

• Oldboy — Special jury recognition; recognized at multiple genre film festivals internationally as the most formally significant Korean genre film of its era

International Critics’ Recognition

• Oldboy — named to numerous “best films of the 21st century” lists by international critics’ polls, including Sight and Sound and major film publications worldwide; Choi’s performance recognized across international critical communities as the most formally accomplished single performance in the history of Korean cinema
• I Saw the Devil — recognized at multiple international genre film festivals as the most formally extreme and the most formally accomplished villain performance in Korean genre cinema
• The Wailing — recognized by international critics as one of the finest Korean horror films of its decade

Box Office Achievements | 興行成績

Note: The most significant measure of Choi Min-sik’s cultural achievement is not worldwide box office—which reflects the historically limited international distribution of Korean-language films during the peak of his career—but the critical recognition of the international community, most prominently the Cannes Grand Prix for Oldboy*, and the sustained critical consensus placing his most accomplished performances among the finest in the history of world cinema.*

External Links | 外部リンク

• IMDb
• Wikipedia (English)
• Wikipedia (日本語)