Moon So-ri 문소리

Versatile actress

QUOTE

MOON So-ri

The discovery of MOON So-ri was a great fortune to the world of Korean Films.
In <Bravo, My Life>, she is the jewel who helps director PARK realize his long-time dream. Debuting in 1999 with <Peppermint Candy>, she went on to star in acclaimed films such as <Oasis>, <A Good Lawyer's Wife>, and <The President's Barber>. The phenomenal actress who won Best Actress at the 2002 Venice Film Festival and took her name straight to the top of the list of talents in the film world now returns as an uncouth make-up seller in the 80's. She sets out to humorously draw out the life, love, and sacrifice of the average Korean woman of the 80's.

Filmography
Movie :<Peppermint Candy>, <Oasis>, <A Good Lawyer¡¯s Wife>, <Sorry Apple>, <The Attractive Professor>

Awards
Best New Actress at 59th Venice International Film Festival
Best Actress/ Best New Actress at 1st MBC Film Awards
Best New Actress at 23rd Blue Dragon Film Awards
Best Actress at 22nd at Young-Pyung Awards
Best Female Actress at 10th Choon-sa-na-woon-kyu Film Arts Festival
Best New Actress at 2002 Director¡¯s Cut Awards
Best Acting at 3rd Women in Films Annual Awards

from http://www.showeast.co.kr/eng/movie/bravomylife/cast.jsp

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Koreanfilm.org
Moon So-ri (b. July 2, 1974) first appeared in plays and short films such as Black Cut and To the Spring Mountain before finding fame as a leading actress. Her first film role was in Lee Chang-dong's acclaimed Peppermint Candy, however her acting skills were not really showcased until she appeared in her second film Oasis, also by Lee Chang-dong. Her powerful portrayal of a woman with cerebral palsy earned her strong praise as well as the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Actor or Actress at the 2002 Venice International Film Festival. Best Actress honors at many domestic awards ceremonies followed.

The following year she again found fame in Im Sang-soo's third film A Good Lawyer's Wife. A 180-degree turn from her previous screen image, this film featured her as a free thinking woman in a decaying marriage who starts an affair with the teenage boy next door. This film was also invited to the Venice film festival, and she later won a Best Actress award from the Stockholm International Film Festival.

In 2004, Moon played opposite Song Kang-ho in The President's Barber, a film that illustrates 20 years of modern Korean history through the eyes of president Park Chung-hee's personal barber. She took a more central role in her next feature Sa-kwa (2005), about a woman who embarks on a new relationship after being dumped by her long-time boyfriend. Also from 2005, Mommy, Dearest sees her return to the historical era of the late 70s/early 80s in a family drama set against the political upheaval of those times.

QUOTE

Korea Times 2006/03/14
Award-Winning Actress Moon So-ri Thrives on Risks and Versatility

By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter

Actress Moon So-ri plays a temptress in her upcoming film "Bewitching Attraction", a totally different spectrum from that which she showed in the 2002 melodrama "Oasis" in which she played a woman with a cerebral palsy.

A poster for an upcoming movie immediately catches people's attention. A woman wearing a short skirt is bending over revealing her cleavage. Its title reads "Bewitching Attraction (Yogyosu-ui Unmilhan Maeryok)".

It might take you time to recognize the actress and it may take you even more time to recognize her as the woman with cerebral palsy from the 2002 melodrama "Oasis".

A range of spectrums that Moon So-ri, 31, has shown playing all walks of life in her acting career is surely her true "bewitching" attraction.

In the new adult comedy, she plays an attractive professor who has a talent for seducing men, but finds herself in trouble when she encounters a man who knows a naughty secret from her past.

But even for the versatile character actress, this role was challenging because of its sexually explicit nature.

"I think I've done this without thinking of the consequences and I may have to emigrate to another country", Moon said jokingly during a news conference on March 8 after a preview screening of the movie at Daehan Theater in Seoul.

"But I'm happy that I was able to play a unique character. Although this kind of movie is not something that people can easily watch, I hope people will see this as a funny film", Moon said.

She made her debut as a film actress in the 1999 movie "Peppermint Candy", and she left moviegoers with a strong impression in her role in "Oasis". Due to her impressive role in "Oasis", she won a huge reputation as well as awards from renowned local and international film festivals, including MarCello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor or Actress at the 60th Venice Film Festival.

But delving into various roles didn't stop there.

She played a charming married woman who enjoys a relationship with a young boy next door in the 2003 movie "A Good Lawyer's Wife", a mother and wife in the 2004 black comedy "The President's Barber", and a stubborn single mother who takes care of her only son in the 2005 melodrama "Saranghae Malsunssi (I Love Ms. Malsun - Mommy, Dearest)".

Given the various characters she has played, it seems she is very bold and enjoys challenges, but she says it's not true at all.

"The reason I take roles that people try to persuade me not to take is that those roles are not weighty enough", Moon told monthly film magazine Cine 21. "An actress shouldn't avoid a movie because she has to shoot explicit scenes, if they are necessary for the film".

It seems she believes actresses should cope with various characters even if there are risks to their career, and her faith has made her grow into a versatile actress in comparatively few movies.

"When I was first offered a role in `Oasis', director Lee Chang-dong told me that it might be my last movie and I might not get any more roles. But I just said O.K"., Moon recalled.

She has recently finished shooting her next comedy film "Kajokui Tansaeng (Birth of Family)". She plays a single woman who reunites with her long-separated younger brother.

Now she is in a play titled "Sulpun Yonguk (Sad Play)". She debuted as a theatrical actor in 1996 with "Classroom Idea", often saying she wanted to come back to the stage.

"Acting is a job where your ability has to be exhausted. I am often scared when I think about my own strengths. I learn a lot from acting in a play. I think I have to keep performing on stage", Moon said.

"Bewitching Attraction" will be released at local theaters on March 16.