Yoo Ji-Tae as Kim Mun-Ho
Published in
4 min readAug 30, 2020
- Yoo Ji-Tae was born on April 13, 1976. She is a South Korean actor, film director, and screenwriter.
- Yoo was raised by a single parent. He is friends with comedian Kim Joon-ho, having lived together as roommates during college and briefly acting together on stage.
- Currently a student at the Catholic University of Korea Graduate School of Social Work, Yoo is very active in philanthropic efforts.
- He joins charity photoshoots and auctions, has helped set up a kindergarten in Nepal, has donated to Haiti earthquake relief, has donated funds for building schools in Myanmar, has joined a charity photoshoot to benefit victims of facial burns, has volunteered in a campaign to deliver free lunches to underprivileged people, has promoted the adoption of abandoned dogs, and has campaigned against domestic violence towards migrant wives.
- His advocacies are World Vision, Compassion Korea, DAIL Community, Social Welfare Society Inc., YWCA of Korea, Nanum House of Sharing, and Korean Association of Cinematheques.
- In the succeeding years, he gained acting recognition by working with acclaimed directors such as Hur Jin-ho in One Fine Spring Day (2001), Park Chan-wook in Oldboy (2003), and Hong Sang-soo in Woman is the Future of Man (2004). Yoo began directing short films in 2003, which were well received in the film festival circuit. His feature directorial debut Mai Ratima was released in 2013.
- Yoo Ji-Tae began his career as a fashion model, and he walked the runway for the Seoul Fashion Artist Association collections in 1995.
- Then in 2000, with a series of hit films and widely seen TV appearances, Yoo was more constantly in the limelight than any other actor, and in a very short time, rose to become a major actor in Korean film.
- His first brush with fame came in the role of “Paint” in his second feature, 1999 hit Attack the Gas Station. His sensitive and artistic image in this film and the warm character he displayed as a guest on TV talk shows helped to propel him to stardom.
- With the surprise success of his third film Ditto in spring 2000, Yoo’s star status was secured. He also appeared in the successful firefighting film Libera Me. In this early part of his career, he was known particularly for the wild colors that he would dye his hair (white in Attack the Gas Station, blue in Ditto, blonde in Libera Me).
- In 2001, however, he dyed his hair black and took on a more subdued, serious role in Hur Jin-ho’s One Fine Spring Day. Although it wasn’t a big hit with audiences, his performance in this film opened many critics’ eyes and drew widespread praise, while officially launching the second stage of his career.
- As Yoo’s career established itself he began to appear in many high-profile projects, such as in well-known arthouse director Hong Sang-soo’s Woman is the Future of Man (which, like Oldboy, screened at Cannes in 2004)
- Yim Pil-sung’s big-budget Antarctic Journal shot in New Zealand; and the action/noir Running Wild with Kwon Sang-woo.
- He also established his own production company Yoo Movie in 2005.
- In 2009 he lent his voice as the narrator for the track “I’m Sorry” in K-pop singer Jinju’s album Pearlfect.
- Yoo then returned to the melodrama genre, starring in his first TV drama Star’s Lover opposite Choi Ji-woo, as well as a couple of romance-themed films, notably Secret Love which reunited him with Oldboy co-star Yoon Jin-Seo.
- Afterward, he played another villain in the real-time suspense thriller Midnight FM.
- After getting his master’s degree in 2008 from Chung-Ang University’s Graduate School of Advanced Imaging Science, Multimedia & Film, in recent years Yoo has focused more on his passion for directing.
- He has helped a number of award-winning short films that have screened in festivals around the world.
- In addition to directing his fourth short film Invitation, Yoo wrote the script and plays the main character alongside leading lady Uhm Ji-won.
- For the biopic, The Tenor — Lirico Spinto, Yoo practiced singing for four hours every day for more than a year and took private English and Japanese lessons to portray Bae Jae-Chul, an internationally acclaimed tenor who loses his voice to thyroid cancer. Afterward, he starred in another TV series Healer, written by Song Ji-na.
- In 2016, Yoo starred in the bowling-themed film, Split. He returned to television in the South Korean remake of The Good Wife.
- In 2017, Yoo starred in The Swindlers along with Hyun Bin.
- In January 2018, Yoo signed with a new management agency BH Entertainment.
- In 2019, Yoo is set to star in the espionage melodrama Different Dreams.
- In 2020, Yoo starred in the melodrama When My Love Blooms
- Yoo first met actress Kim Hyo-jin in 2003 when they were models for a clothing brand, and the two became friends after continuously meeting in photo shoots. Their romantic relationship began in 2006, and they were among the very few Korean star couples who openly admitted their dating status.
- Their minimalist invitation was made from environmentally friendly paper and had the number 1,825 written on it, the exact number of days the two had spent together as a couple.
- They were married at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul on December 2, 2011.
- Yoo and Kim are the organization’s honorary ambassadors, and they donated a portion of their monetary wedding gifts to World Vision to help build a primary and middle school in Myanmar.
- Their first child, a son, was born on July 5, 2014.
