Early work Jang Jin-young began her career as a model, and represented the
South Chungcheong Province at the 1992
Miss Korea beauty contest. After making the transition into acting with appearances in a number of
TV dramas, she received her film debut with a supporting role in the 1999
fantasy Ghost in Love. In 2000, she appeared in
Kim Jee-woon's
The Foul King, one of the biggest domestic hits of that year, and Jang's tough image in the film drew attention from critics, with Derek Elley of
Variety saying that she "makes an impression as the lightly romantic, not-so-fragile daughter". Also that year, she had a role in the
fire fighting film
Siren. Both the film and Jang's performance received praise from critics, with Peter Y. Paik of
The Film Journal commenting, "[Jang] Jin-young is utterly convincing in her portrayal of a battered wife, conveying both vulnerability and grit." Jang won Best New Actress at the
Busan Film Critics Awards, Best Actress at the
Blue Dragon Film Awards. In 2002, Jang co-starred with
Lee Jung-jae in
Over the Rainbow, a
romantic comedy film in which her character helps an old college friend to recover his
lost memory, and she was praised in a review at
Korean Film for giving a "lively performance". The following year, Jang appeared alongside
Park Hae-il in the more dramatic
Scent of Love. Her next film, also released in 2003, was the light-hearted comedy
Singles, based on a novel by Japanese writer Kamata Toshio. Jang headed an
ensemble cast as Na-nan, a down on her luck woman on the verge of turning thirty, who she described as being "very close to my actual real-life self" in terms of her personality.
Singles proved to be one of the big hits of that year, and also found favor with critics, with Jang in particular being lauded for her performance. Derek Elley of
Variety wrote, "With her effervescent, ingenuous goofiness, Jang dominates the movie, and twins well with
[Uhm Jung-hwa]". Jang again won Best Actress at the Blue Dragon Film Awards, becoming only the second actress to win the award twice, and also received the Popularity Award. in the 2005 biopic
Blue Swallow. For her next project, Jang was cast as the lead in
Blue Swallow, a ₩9.7 billion
biopic of
aviation pioneer
Park Kyung-won, which reunited her with
Sorum director
Yoon Jong-chan, and
Singles co-star
Kim Joo-hyuk. She worked on the film for some 15 months, during which time she was required to learn
Japanese and overcome her
fear of heights, and later said, "At every moment, I was pushing my limits. My experiences as [Park Kyung-won] taught me a lot and made me work even harder to live my life to the fullest." and it subsequently sold a disappointing 600,000 tickets at the Korean
box office. Nevertheless, Jang received several award nominations for her role in the film, and won Best Actress at the 2006 Critic's Choice Awards. In 2006, Jang appeared in the film
Between Love and Hate, the directorial debut of actor and screenwriter Kim Hae-gon. She played the role of Yeon-ah, a carefree
bargirl who embarks on a tumultuous love-hate relationship with slacker Young-woon (played by
Kim Seung-woo), despite him being engaged to another woman. In order to give a realistic portrayal of a bargirl, Jang spent time touring underground bars and room salons, but had difficulty identifying with her character, saying, "I couldn't easily understand why she had to act that way... I was embarrassed at times to stand in front of the camera and act like that." Her performance won Best Leading Actress at the
Korean Film Awards, Jang made a return to television in 2007, when she was cast as one of the leads in the
SBS drama series
Lobbyist, a ₩12 billion production about
lobbyists and political conspiracies. Filming began in
New York City on April 24, and in the wake of the
Virginia Tech massacre it was reported that the production company had taken out insurance policies on Jang and her co-stars over fears of related incidents. == In the media ==