Park Hae-il

Park Hae-il (; born 26 January 1977) is a South Korean actor. He began his acting career in theater, but soon gained the film industry's attention in 2003 with Scent of Love, Jealousy Is My Middle Name and Memories of Murder. Park's film career took off, with leading roles in notable films, including Rules of Dating (2005), The Host (2006), Paradise Murdered (2007), Moss (2010), War of the Arrows (2011), Whistle Blower (2014), Decision to Leave (2022) and Hansan: Rising Dragon (2022). Park received multiple Best Actor honors for his performances in War of the Arrows (2011) and Decision to Leave (2022). Career Park Hae-il began appearing in theatre productions ever since childhood, and he first established himself on stage rather than on the screen. In 2000 he was awarded the Best New Actor award in the theatre category of the Baeksang Arts Awards for his role in the play Cheongchun-yechan ("Ode to Youth"). His film debut was in a minor role of Yim Soon-rye's Waikiki Brothers, however he left a major impression in his second film Jealousy Is My Middle Name, in which he played a conflicted young man who develops a fascination/hatred for his boss, who has stolen two women from him. The film won the top prize at the Busan International Film Festival in 2002, and was released commercially the following spring. Throughout his career, Park has been cast in two different types of roles: innocent-looking, boyish characters, or else men who hide a dark streak under a nice-looking exterior. After Jealousy, Park would take on his darkest role of all in the acclaimed smash hit Memories of Murder, where he portrayed a man suspected of committing serial murder. Yet the following year he was just as effective appearing in a romantic role opposite Jeon Do-yeon in time-travel drama My Mother, the Mermaid. In 2005, he once again played characters of completely opposite temperament. In Rules of Dating, he plays a dirty-minded, scheming high school instructor who sets his mind on a pretty student teacher played by Kang Hye-jung, while in Boy Goes to Heaven he plays a young boy who suddenly finds himself an adult one day, ala Tom Hanks in Big.