Jeon Do-youn and
Jeon Ji-hyeon, two of Korea's top actresses, will be heating up screens this spring.
Jeon Ji-hyeon will be appearing in "Let Me Introduce My Girlfriend" (Nae Yeoja- chingu-reul Sogae-hamnida) in late April, while Jeon Do-youn will star in "Mermaid Princess" (Ineo Gongju) in late May.
Chosun.com, along with Korean Internet users, will judge their unique charms. Jeon Do-youn made her first "contact" with the film world in 1997 with her film "Contact (Jeobsok)", playing a telemarketer experiencing first love. Her role as an intelligent doctor in love with a mob boss in the 1998 film "Promise (Yaksok)" made her a big name actress.
Afterward, as if to brag of her immense acting ability, she took two roles that were really polar opposites of one another. In "Harmonium in My Memory (Nae Maeum-ui Punggeum)", she played a simple, 17-year-old country girl with a crush on her teacher. Meanwhile, in
"Happy End", she played career woman enjoying a spicy affair behind the back of her husband.
While Jeon Do-youn was busy becoming a star,
Jeon Ji-hyeon jumped on screen a bit later. She splashed onto the movie scene with her performance in the 1999 film "
White Valentine", which earned her a Baeksang Arts Award as "Best New Actress". The next year, she won herself a pure and innocent image through the film "
Il Mare (Siweorae)". At the same time, however, she radiated sexuality through her "techno dance" advertisements on TV.
Jeon Ji-hyeon
Compared to this, Jeon Do-youn played a normal, everyday woman cultivating love in "
I Wish I Had a Wife (Nado Anaega Isseosseumyeon Johgessda)". Yet that image was only temporary. In "
No Blood No Tears (Pido nunmuldo eobshi), she revealed at last that sumptuous, sexy side of her that she'd been hiding.
As Jeon Do-youn was setting the movie world on fire with her acting,
Jeon Ji-hyeon filming the movie version of the Internet novel, "
My Sassy Girl (Yeopgijeogin Keunyeo)". Through her rather wacky yet sensitive performance in that film, she joined the ranks of Korea's big name actresses.
Jeon Ji-hyeon chose the horror film "Uninvited (4 Inyong Shiktak)" as her next movie, in which she discarded her wacky image in a role featuring a woman in pain. The movie bombed at the box office, but when "
My Sassy Girl" went global, her fame started to grow beyond Korea's borders.
Meanwhile, Jeon Do-youn once again put her much admired acting versatility on display, this time choosing for the first time a historical drama, "
Untold Scandal", in which her role of an (initially) faithful widow reaffirmed her as one of Korea's top stars.
Jeon Ji-hyeon, on the other hand, challenges herself once again in her next picture, "Let me Introduce My Girlfriend", in which she transforms herself into a female cop. Jeon Do-youn, meanwhile, further broadens her acting repertoire, this time transforming herself into one of Jeju Island's famed women divers in "Mermaid Princess". Jeon Do-youn and
Jeon Ji-hyeon -- similar, yet different. Into what kinds of actresses will these two develop in the future? We can only wonder.
