South Korean Actress Biography
Bae Doona (Korean pronunciation: [pɛduna]; born October 11, 1979) is a South Korean actress and photographer. She first became known outside Korea for her roles as the protagonist's political activist girlfriend Cha Young-mi in Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), as archer Park Nam-ju in Bong Joon-ho's The Host (2006), and as an inflatable sex doll-come-to-life in Hirokazu Koreeda's Air Doll (2009).[1] She then had a starring role as the revolutionary clone Sonmi~451 in the film Cloud Atlas (2012), directed by The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer.[2]Life and career[edit]
Bae Doona was born in Seoul, South Korea. Growing up, Bae would follow her mother, Kim Hwa-young, a famous stage actress in Korea, around the theater and rehearsal halls, learning the lines of dialogue as she went along. This did not initially lead Bae towards acting, saying: "People might say that since my mother is a theater actor, I became an actress. But to me, those experiences probably had the opposite effect. On the contrary, because I saw many great actors working with my mother, I thought this was a job only people with extraordinary talent could do."[3]
A Hanyang University student in 1998, Bae was scouted by a model talent agency while walking in Seoul. This led to modeling clothing for COOLDOG's catalog, amongst others. In 1999 she made the switch to acting, debuting in the TV drama School. Later the same year, she appeared as the ghost Eun-Suh in The Ring Virus, a Korean remake of the Japanese horror film Ring.[4]
In 2000, director Bong Joon-ho cast her as Hyeon-nam in the film Barking Dogs Never Bite for her willingness to do the part without makeup, something other South Korean actresses were unwilling to do.[5] In Kim So-young's documentary Women's History Trilogy (2000–2004), Bae notes her admiration for veteran South Korean actress Yoon Jeong-hee. Yoon returns the compliment saying "Bae Doo-na owns her world." In this same documentary, Bae shares how her own most memorable scene is being chased by the homeless man throughout the apartment in Barking Dogs Never Bite.[6] That same year she gave a risque performance (albeit with a body double for the more intense scenes) in Plum Blossom,[7] and slowly started getting more work on television.
She followed this with two more critical successes, 2001's Take Care of My Cat, directed by Jeong Jae-eun,[8] and 2002's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, directed by Park Chan-wook.[9][10]
2003 was less kind to Bae, as she saw both Tube and Spring Bears Love flop at the box office. After completing principal photography on Spring Bears Love, Bae decided to take time off from film, saying: "I never lived even once without having anything to do. The moment a film was presented to the press, I was almost always already shooting the next one ... I thought by myself: now my first cycle is really over. While I rest a little, I wanted to make a fresh new start."[3]
During her hiatus from the big screen, Bae took up photography, much of which can be seen between her official blog and her published photo books.[11] She also continued to work on TV, starring in Country Princess and Rosemary.[12] Bae finally stepped onto a theater stage in 2004, for a production of Sunday Seoul (not to be confused with the South Korean movie of the same title), a play co-written by Park Chan-wook.[3][13]
In 2005 Bae gave a memorable turn as an exchange student who joins a band in the Japanese film Linda Linda Linda,[7][14][15][16] then played a divorced woman in the experimental omnibus TV series Beating Heart.[17]
She reunited with Bong Joon-ho in 2006's The Host, which became the highest grossing film in South Korean box office history. For her role, she trained in archery for months that she was told if she really wanted, she had enough talent to make it at an amateur level.[18] She then returned to television, through the series Someday and How to Meet a Perfect Neighbor.[19]
After winning accolades for Air Doll, a 2009 film by Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda about an inflatable sex doll that develops a soul and falls in love,[20][21][22][23] Bae made back-to-back TV series in 2010, playing a high school teacher in Master of Study,[24][25] and a night club singer in weekend drama Gloria.[26][27][28]
Her 2012 sports film As One was based on the true story of the world table tennis championship held in Chiba, Japan in 1991 where North Korean player Ri Bun-hui and South Korean player Hyun Jung-hwa overcame their difficulties and came together to defeat the unbeatable Chinese team. Bae and co-star Ha Ji-won were trained by Hyun herself, and Bae learned to play left-handed like Ri.[29][30][31][32][33][34] Afterwards she made a brief appearance in the science fiction film Doomsday Book.[35]
Bae made her English-language, Hollywood debut in Cloud Atlas, as Sonmi~451, a clone in dystopian Korea.[36] She also played the minor roles of Tilda Ewing, the daughter of a slave-holder and wife of an abolitionist in pre-Civil War America, and a Mexican woman who kills an assassin out to murder a journalist and a whistleblower who are trying to expose a nuclear plant safety cover-up. Co-directed by The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer, the $100 million adaptation of David Mitchell's novel premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival to divisive reviews, though Bae's performance was unanimously praised by critics.[37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] The Wachowskis later cast her again in a supporting role in their next science fiction film Jupiter Ascending.[49][50][51][52]
Back in Korea, Bae was cast in the 2014 film Dohee-ya (released internationally as A Girl at My Door), directed by Jung Joo-ri and produced by Lee Chang-dong. She plays a small town police officer who tries to save a mysterious young girl she suspects is a victim of domestic violence.[53]
This article is about the Korean singer. For the British rock band, see Bôa. For other uses, see Boa (disambiguation).
This is a Korean name; the family name is Kwon.
BoA
BoA in March 2013 (from acrofan).jpg
BoA at F&F building, Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, in March 2013
Background information
Native name 권보아
Birth name Kwon Bo Ah
Also known as BoA
Born November 5, 1986 (age 27)
Guri, Gyeonggi, South Korea
Origin Seoul, South Korea
Genres K-pop, J-pop, R&B, dance-pop, electropop[1]
Occupations Singer, songwriter, composer, dancer, model, actress, voice actress, record producer, creative director
Instruments Vocals
Years active 2000–present
Labels SM Entertainment (South Korea)
Avex Trax (Japan)
SM Entertainment USA
United Asia Management
Associated acts SM Town, Anyband, Westlife
Website boa.smtown.com(Korean)
www.avexnet.or.jp/boa(Japanese)
boaamerica.com(US)
This article contains Korean text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Hangul and hanja.
This article contains Japanese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of kanji and kana.
This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.
BoA
Hangul 권보아
Hanja 權寶雅
Revised Romanization Gwon Boa
McCune–Reischauer Kwŏn Poa
Kwon Boa (Korean: 권보아, Chinese: 權寶兒/权宝儿, Japanese: クォン·ボア, born November 5, 1986),[2] commonly stylized and known by her stage name BoA,[3] which is a backronym for Beat of Angel,[citation needed] is a South Korean singer and actress active in South Korea, Japan, and the United States.[4][5][6] She is referred to as the Queen of Korean Pop.[6][7][8]
BoA was born and raised in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. She was discovered by SM Entertainment talent agents when she accompanied her older brother to a talent search.[3] In 2000, after two years of training, she released ID; Peace B, her debut Korean album. Two years later, she released her debut Japanese album, Listen to My Heart, becoming the first Korean pop star to break through in Japan following the fall of barriers that had restricted the import and export of entertainment between the countries since the end of World War II.[3]
On October 14, 2008, BoA debuted in the United States with the single "Eat You Up" and released her debut English-language album, BoA on March 17, 2009.
BoA's multilingual skills (she speaks Japanese and English along with native Korean and has recorded songs in Mandarin Chinese)[9] have contributed to her commercial success throughout East Asia. She is the only foreign artist to have three albums selling more than one million copies in Japan and is one of only two artists to have six consecutive number-one studio albums on the Oricon charts since her debut, the other being Ayumi Hamasaki. BoA has sold over 10 million records throughout her career, including albums, singles, and DVD's.[citation needed]
Career
2000–2002: Debut and Japanese expansion[edit]
At age eleven, BoA accompanied her older brother to an SM Entertainment talent search. Though her brother was the one who auditioned as a break-dancer,[3] SM talent scouts instead took notice of BoA and offered her a contract on the same night as the auditions.[3] Her parents initially opposed the notion of BoA's leaving school to enter the entertainment business but eventually consented at her older brothers' persuasion.[10] She has said that her early influence as a singer was Seo Taiji.[3]
BoA underwent two years of training (involving vocal, dance, English, and Japanese lessons), and at the age of thirteen released her debut album ID; Peace B in South Korea on August 25, 2000. The album was moderately successful; it entered the Top 10 of the South Korean charts and sold around 156,000 units.[11] Meanwhile, her Korean record label, SM Entertainment, made arrangements with Japanese label Avex Trax to launch her music career in Japan. She was forced to quit school to prepare[3] and in early 2001, BoA released her first mini-album, Don't Start Now; it sold around 90,000 units. After its release, she took a hiatus from the Korean music industry to focus on the Japanese market at which time she worked to solidify her skills in Japanese.[10]
BoA began her Japanese music career singing at the Avex-owned club Velfarre.[2] In 2001, she released her debut Japanese single, a Japanese version of the song, "ID; Peace B" (originally from the eponymous album). The single reached #20 on the Oricon chart and was followed by "Amazing Kiss", "Kimochi wa Tsutawaru", and "Listen to My Heart"; the last became the singer's first single to enter the Oricon's Top Five. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, BoA recorded the charity single "The Meaning of Peace" with Kumi Koda as part of Avex's Song Nation project to raise funds for charity.[12][13] From 2001 to 2007, BoA hosted Beat it BoA's World, a radio program on the Japan FM Network.[14]
Her debut Japanese album, Listen to My Heart, was released on March 13, 2002. The album was a breakthrough in BoA's career: it became an RIAJ-certified million-seller and debuted atop the Oricon, the first album by a Korean artist to do so.[11][15] A single, "Every Heart: Minna no Kimochi", was released on the same day as the album. After the release of Listen to My Heart, BoA released her second Korean studio album, No. 1, a month later. The album sold around 544,000 units and became the fourth-best-selling record of the year in South Korea. Jumping into the World (a Japanese re-release of the mini-album Don't Start Now) and the Japanese single "Don't Start Now" were released a month later on the same day.
BoA then released her seventh single "Valenti". It peaked at the number-two position on the Oricon chart.[16] BoA released two more singles "Kiseki / No.1" and "Jewel Song / Beside You: Boku o Yobu Koe", both which also peaked at the number-three position. At the end of the year, BoA released her second Korean mini-album Miracle.
2003–2005: Commercial success[edit]
BoA's second Japanese studio album, Valenti (2003), became her best-selling album, with over 1,249,000 copies sold.[17] In support of the album, BoA launched BoA 1st Live Tour Valenti, her first Japanese concert tour.[18] Later that year, she released two Korean albums, Atlantis Princess and the mini-album Shine We Are!. The former was the fifth-best-selling South Korean record of the year with around 345,000 units sold; the latter sold around 58,000 units.
Her third Japanese studio album, Love & Honesty (2004) was a musical "change in direction": it contained a rock-dance song ("Rock with You") and "harder" R&B.[19][20] Though the album failed to match Valenti in sales, it topped the Oricon chart for two weeks and became RIAJ-certified triple-platinum.[21] In support of the album, BoA held a tour, Live Concert Tour 2004: Love & Honesty.[2] In contrast with 1st Live Tour, which "emphasized exotic Asian design", the Love & Honesty tour had an "outer-space, sci-fi" theme; among the props were a three-story-high space ship and the robot Asimo.[22] The tour, which started in Saitama and ended in Yokohama, spanned nine performances and attracted approximately 105,000 attendants.[23] Her first compilation album, Best of Soul (2005), however, sold over a million copies, making BoA the first non-Japanese Asian singer to have two million-selling albums in Japan.[17]
BoA reinvented her image on her fourth Korean album, My Name (2004); she left the "cute" and "youthful" style that had characterized previous years and presented herself as "sexy" and "sultry".[11][24] The album was the beginning of a foray into the Chinese market and contained two songs sung in Mandarin Chinese.[24] The sales of BoA's Korean albums began to decline: the album sold 191,000 units and became the eleventh-best-selling South Korean album of the year.[25] In September 2004, BoA instigated controversy in Japan when she donated ₩50 million to a memorial project for Korean independence activist and nationalist An Jung-geun.[26][27]
Her fifth Korean album, Girls on Top (2005), continued her image change. The album portrayed the singer as more "mature and self-confident" and was a "declaration of war on male chauvinism"; the "bohemian" look of the cover photograph represented "freedom and depth", while music videos and album photographs that portrayed BoA in traditional Korean dress brought the "idea of Korean womanhood" into her music. The album also continued BoA's foray into the Chinese market and, like the previous album, contained Mandarin Chinese songs.[28] The album sold less than the previous album; it was the fourteenth-best-selling record of the year in South Korea with 113,000 units sold.[29]
2006–2008: Continued success in Japan[edit]
BoA at a DoubleUDot (W.) sign event in September 2006
In 2006, BoA was mostly inactive in South Korea as she focused her attention on Japan. Her fourth Japanese studio album, Outgrow, was released on February 15, 2006. The album reached the number-one spot on the Oricon chart for its first week of release, making it her fourth consecutive original Japanese album to do so. With 220,000 copies sold, it became her lowest-selling first-week debut for a studio album at that point.[note 1] "Do the Motion", the first single from the album, reached the top spot, making her the fourth non-Japanese Asian to have a number-one single on the Oricon charts.[33] "Merry Christmas from BoA" (2005), the album's last single, was the singer's first digital single.
In May, BoA renewed her contract with SM Entertainment until 2012. At the time it was noted that she had a shareholding in the company of 100,000 (Approximately worth $1m USD).[34] She also voiced Heather the possum in the Korean and Japanese version of the animated film Over the Hedge.[35] On September 21, 2006, she released her first digital single in Korea, a Korean version of "Key of Heart". In support of Outgrow, BoA launched a special Zepp tour, B0A The Live, on September 29, 2006. The tour, which lasted until October 29, started from Nagoya and contained twelve shows, two in each of the following cities: Nagoya, Fukuoka, Osaka, Tokyo, Sendai, and Sapporo.[36] She staged her first Christmas concert on December 7, 2006.
BoA's fifth Japanese studio album, Made in Twenty (20) (2007), continued her transition from a "teenage girl" image to a more mature image. The album, which contained R&B and dance songs as well as ballads, debuted at the top of the weekly Oricon charts, making the album her sixth in a row to do so (including one compilation).[37] She began using a personal computer for composing one of the songs ("No More Make Me Sick").[38] On March 31, 2007, she launched a nationwide tour of Japan in support of the album. The tour, which sold about 70,000 tickets, was, according to BoA, "the biggest concert" she had ever given. Two tracks from the singles of Made in Twenty (20) were used as theme songs; "Your Color", from the single "Nanairo no Ashita: Brand New Beat / Your Color" (2006), was used as the ending theme song for the Japanese release of the Xbox 360 game Ninety-Nine Nights. "Key of Heart", from the single "Key of Heart / Dotch" (2006), was the ending theme for the Japanese release of the movie Over the Hedge. She also released an English version of "Key of Heart", which was only available on the first press edition of the single. Later in 2007, Anycall (a Samsung brand) signed BoA, Xiah (of TVXQ), Tablo (of Epik High), and jazz pianist Jin Bora onto "Anyband", a band created specifically to promote Anycall. The band released only one single, "AnyBand".[39][40][41]
With her sixth Japanese album, The Face (2008), BoA took more creative control over her music.[1] At this time, BoA was influenced by electro-pop.[1] Additionally, BoA included "happy spring" songs (the lead single "Sweet Impact" and its B-side, "Bad Drive"), a guitar-driven "groovy dance" song (2007's "Lose Your Mind"), and ballads.[42][43][44] Lyrically, BoA focused mainly on love, though "Be with You." (2008) was about a person's relationship with his dog. The album debuted at the top of the weekly Oricon charts, making BoA one of only two artists in Japan to have six consecutive studio albums top the Oricon weekly charts (the other is Ayumi Hamasaki, who has eight consecutive number-one albums).[45] On June 9, 2008, BoA and nine other artists from around the world recorded an English cover of Wei Wei's "Dedication of Love". Produced by Roald Hoffmann and Brian Alan, the single was used to raise funds for victims of the Sichuan Earthquake.[46][47] But due to a tight schedule, BoA was pulled back from this project. Korean jewelry brand Ramee also released, "Ramee by BoA", a line of jewelry designed by the singer herself.
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