Shim Eun Kyung

Shim Eun-kyung (; born May 31, 1994) is a South Korean actress. She starred in the box office hits Sunny, Miss Granny (2014) and Fabricated City (2017), as well as television series Naeil's Cantabile (2014). She has starred in both Korean and Japanese language entertainment. In 2020, she became the first Korean to win Best Actress at the Japanese Academy Awards (Japan's equivalent of the Oscars).

Career Shim made her acting debut at age 9 in the 2004 TV series The Woman Who Wants to Marry, and subsequently made a career as one of the best child actresses of her generation. She first gained attention for her role as a sexually abused girl in the horror fairytale Hansel and Gretel,

In 2011, she successfully transitioned to a lead actress role in the retro dramedy Sunny, which tells the story of seven women, crosscutting between their lives in the present and the experiences that first brought them together as teenagers in the 1980s. the film shattered the commonly-held belief that women-centric pictures can't be blockbusters. By appealing to a wide range of age groups, Sunny'''s box office total reached more than 7 million admissions by the end of its long run. Director Kang Hyeong-cheol described Shim as someone "who is already complete as an actress." a sister with seemingly supernatural abilities in Possessed, a depressive in The Quiz Show Scandal, and a court taster in Masquerade.

In the 2014 comedy Miss Granny, Shim played a woman in her 70s who miraculously finds herself back in her 20-year-old body. She said, "This film is quite close to my heart as it is the first film for me to star in not as a child actor, but as full-fledged actress." With 8.65 million admissions, its box office success surpassed Sunny's, proving Shim's ability to carry a film. She also won Best Actress at the Chunsa Film Art Awards, the Baeksang Arts Awards, the Director's Cut Awards, and the Buil Film Awards.

Shim next starred as the eccentric savant pianist heroine in Naeil's Cantabile, a Korean drama adaptation of Japanese manga Nodame Cantabile. However, the series was a critical and commercial flop, and Shim took criticism for her acting in the series.

Shim returned to film, starring in Seoul Station directed by Yeon Sang-ho, who also directed Train to Busan (where she also made a cameo appearance), revenge thriller Missing You, and Queen of Walking, which Shim calls a turning point in her career. In 2017, she starred alongside Ji Chang-wook in the action thriller Fabricated City and alongside Choi Min-shik in the election film The Mayor. In 2018, she starred in The Princess and the Matchmaker, the second installment of the "divining art trilogy" after The Face Reader; and black comedy Psychokinesis.

In 2019, Shim made her Japanese film debut in The Journalist and received positive notices for her performance as a Japanese reporter who looks into a government corruption scandal centered on the Abe administration. She won the Best Actress award at the Mainichi Film Awards, She won the Best Actress award at the Takasaki Film Festival for her performance.

In 2020, Shim returned to Korean entertainment with the finance drama Money Game.

In 2022, Shim was invited to sit on the jury bench of the 35th Tokyo International Film Festival.

In May 2023, Shim Eun-kyung signs an exclusive contract with PanPare Inc.

Personal life Shim's hobbies are listening to music, reading science fiction comics, and doing taekwondo. She is the drummer of a band she formed with friends, Chick and Candy.

She shot a commercial with rocker Seo Taiji in 2008 and played the younger version of Lee Ji-ah's character Sujini in The Legend, but she didn't know that Lee and Seo were secretly married until 2011 when Shim was implicated in rumors that she was Seo and Lee's daughter, which she denied.

Originally nominated for the Best Actress award at the 2011 Grand Bell Awards for her role in Sunny, Shim complained publicly through her Twitter account when the awards committee removed her name from the official list of the nominees after she notified them she could not attend the event because she was then studying in the U.S. She was one of four actors and actresses removed from the initial nomination. Shim ended up winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in Romantic Heaven; Chun Woo-hee, her castmate in Sunny'', accepted the honor on Shim's behalf.

Filmography

Film

Television series

Web series Year Title Role Notes 2023One Day OffLee Jin-sol Cameo

Hosting Year Title Notes 2021 44th Japan Academy Film Prize with Shinichi Hatori

Discography Year Song title From the Album Notes 2008 Narration 2010 "Fly High" duet with Kim Dong-wook2014 "If You Go to Los Angeles" "White Butterfly" "Once More" "Raindrop" "If You Go to Los Angeles" with Rose Motel

Accolades Awards and nominations

Listicles

Other In September 2022, she was appointed to the committee at the 35th Tokyo International Film Festival.