Ji Chang-wook

There are two Ji Chang-wooks, and he alternates between them on purpose. Born in Anyang in 1987, he started at the bottom: his earliest film credit here, The Weird Missing Case of Mr. J, has him playing an unnamed lighting technician, and The Sons of Sol Pharmacy House was an ensemble sitcom part. The break was the daily drama Smile Again across 2010 and 2011, the sort of relentless everyday-broadcast slot that either burns an actor out or teaches him everything there is to know.

The first version of him is the action lead. Warrior Baek Dong Soo and Empress Ki put him in period costume; The K2 and Fabricated City built entire productions around his ability to take and give a beating on camera; The Worst of Evil sent him undercover into a drug ring and let the performance turn genuinely ugly. He plays these parts with a coiled, low-affect stillness that makes the violence land harder when it finally arrives.

The second version is the romantic comedy lead, and he commits to it just as hard: Suspicious Partner, Backstreet Rookie, Lovestruck in the City, Welcome to Samdal-ri. The tone is soft, the pacing unhurried, and he plays it without a trace of the condescension actors often smuggle into the genre. He is also a singer, which is part of why the lighter material suits him.

Healer is where the two versions meet, and it is why he sits on most people's lists.