Won Jin

[J.J. Hayden]

Found this very short but interesting clip of Won Jin doing some flips with a pole. The interesting part is that it may be a clip from the demo video that caught the eye of several HK directors, including David Lai and eventually led to his casting as Sonny Wong in The Scorpion King.

 

Edited April 19, 2021 by Dredderick_Tatum

[J.J. Hayden]

I must've missed this shot last time I checked the film (it's very early on, maybe I skipped it) but here's a decent screenshot of Won Jin on the left of frame as one of the female fighters in Dragon Lee's Ways Of Kung Fu.

EDIT: There's a reason I "missed" it, it's on the wrong bloody side, lol. It doesn't help that the DVD seems to be missing half the image, putting Won Jin out of frame.

But it's an easy mistake to make as the person doubling as a woman on the left  is actually Jeong Joo-hyeon who looks a lot like Won Jin in his early career.

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by J.J. Hayden

[One Armed Boxer]

On 12/8/2020 at 9:47 AM, Dredderick_Tatum said:

Won Jin in 1982's Dreadnaught Rivals playing a second character. He's one of the guys at the gambling stall that has a fight with leading man Liu Hsiao Tien. You're not fooling me with that tash.

 

Here's an image of 'Dreadnaught Rivals' playing in a cinema in Korea (the movie on the left) - 

[J.J. Hayden]

11 hours ago, One Armed Boxer said:

Here's an image of 'Dreadnaught Rivals' playing in a cinema in Korea

It's so humble, it looks like the cinema where I live, lol.

[J.J. Hayden]

Won Jin as Brother Of X in 1991's Swodsman San Ji-Ni -Appeared In The City. Again this is only a guest appearance, but even though it's not long he gets a great little fight at the end of the film.

 

Edited April 23, 2021 by Dredderick_Tatum

[J.J. Hayden]

Won Jin in 1992's Swordsman San Ji-Ni 2 - Appeared At The Port. This sequel was most likely filmed at the same time as San Ji-Ni 1, and probably his last Korean movie before going to Hong Kong and here his character has alot more screen time. Although nowhere near as classy as HK action and obviously on a much lower budget, he gets to show a decent amount of his moves, it's worth a watch if you can find it.

 

Edited April 23, 2021 by Dredderick_Tatum

[J.J. Hayden]

I'm afraid that's it for my list of films featuring an acting role for Won Jin. The so-called Vindictive Venom Part 2 still alludes me and I've been unsucessful in finding anyone to help with research or even provide some details, so it seems that's a dead end.

But don't worry, I've still got a few clips, pics and other Won Jin bits of interest that I'll post sometime.

To start with I'll post my own filmography I put together, which'll hopefully make it easier for others to check out his work. I had to hold it back a bit as some entries were inaccurate despite having 3 seperate sources confirmation.

Cheers

Edited May 1, 2021 by Dredderick_Tatum

[J.J. Hayden]

Won Jin 원진 元振 filmography

It took a very long time to do this list, but I'm confident in saying it's the most comprehensive Won Jin filmography to date. Hopefully it can be improved upon, I'm always looking for any new Won Jin material that I'm not yet aware of. I hope people find this useful, I really could've done with this list 20 years ago .

 

There are a couple of films that people claim feature Won Jin but I checked and couldn't confirm them, there are also some movies where I've seen what could be him uncredited, but haven't listed as I wasn't sure. I've only listed ones that I could be sure on, as even corroborating with 3 separate websites proved inaccurate.

 

I've put the movie names that are the most commonly used or easiest to find. If you want further info or clarification about anything I've posted feel free to ask. Also, if you have any info on the things I'm missing, I know there's some (e.g. a movie claimed to be Vindictive Venom Part 2 does exist), please let me know.

 

Notes:

Knowing that Won Jin does basically all his own stunts in The Scorpion King and has done stunts in other films that he action directed or acted in, I'm not going to list stunts on any of the movies though I think it's safe to assume he did stunts in all of them but isn't credited.

 

The dates at the beginning represent the earliest confirmed date of production as I think this is the best way to rank them, the dates in brackets represent earliest release dates whether Korean or HK, when it comes to some of the Korean movies It can be difficult to be sure whether it's the theatrical release date or that of the VHS. The dates for Thunder Ninja Kids - In The Golden Adventure, refer to the original Korean movie The Brave Trio, rather than the spliced-in ninja scenes.

 

Actor

 

1979 - (04 Nov 1979) Dragon Lee's Ways Of Kung Fu --- Green Amazon (and stunt double)

 

1979 – (04 May 1981) Inchon --- Evacuee on bridge

 

1980 - (03 May 1981) Hitman In The Hand Of Buddha --- Pickpocket teen

 

1981 - (10 Dec 1981) Enter The Invincible Hero --- Pang's man in white / Pang's man in black

 

1981 - (01 Jan 1982) The Dragon's Snake Fist --- Blackbelt student

 

1982 - (03 Dec 1982) Dreadnaught Rivals --- Shaolin waiter / Gambling stall fighter (and stunt double)

 

1982 - (10 Mar 1983) Duel Of Ultimate Weapons --- Seub-deuk's buddy

 

1983 - (01 Feb 1984) Eleven Men Playing The Flute --- (???)

 

1983 - (17 Mar 1984) Shaolin - The Blood Mission --- Tai Luk Tong student

 

1987 - (17 Jul 1987) Imbecile 3 --- Waiter in red

 

1987 - (22 Aug 1987) Park Chul-Soo's Hello Im Kook-Jeong --- Escort hit with green bundle

 

1988 - (06 Dec 1988) Thunder Ninja Kids - In The Golden Adventure --- Yong [Tak-shi]

 

1988 - (05 Aug 1989) Super Hong Kil-Dong 3 --- Geung-si / Short kidnapper (and stunt double)

 

1989 - (16 Jan 1990) The Doofus Detective And The Twin Light Brothers --- (Leading Role) (Chinese courier)

 

1990 - (26 Jan 1991) Thunder Ninja Kids - Little Kickboxer --- Chinese fighter

 

1991 - (13 Sep 1991) Swordsman San Ji-Ni : Appeared In The City --- Brother of X

 

1991 - (21 Dec 1991) The Trio Stars --- Sigma

 

1991 - (07 Jul 1992) Swordsman San Ji-Ni 2 : Appeared At The Port --- Brother of X

 

1991 - (12 Jul 1991) To Catch A Thief --- Luk's mute Sifu

 

1991 - (13 Aug 1992) Saviour Of The Soul II --- Kidnapper Goblin

 

1991 - (12 Nov 1992) The Scorpion King --- Sonny Wong

 

1992 - (12 Jun 1993) Hero From Beyond The Boundary Of Time --- Yuen Chun

 

1993 - (04 Nov 1993) Women On The Run --- King Kong

 

1994 - (12 Jan 1995) A Boy & 2 Cops --- Yong-pal

 

1997 - (18 Apr 1998) The Expert --- Kal Koo-ri

 

1998 - (04 Jan 1999) Vindictive Venom --- Ah Chun

 

1999 – (approximate date) - Vindictive Venom Part 2 (name on clip, unlikely to be correct film title) --- (???)

 

2000 - (21 Dec 2000) China Strike Force --- Assassin Lee

 

2001 - (06 Feb 2002) No Problem 2 --- Invincible

 

2005 - (23 Mar 2006) Almost Love --- Maternity Doctor

 

2012 - (24 Dec 2013) The Suspect --- SA1

 

2014 - (09 Jul 2015) Martial Cop : Chinatown --- Kwan Xi-pei

 

2018 - (07 Aug 2019) The Battle : Roar To Victory --- Gil-San

 

2021 - (15 Oct 2021) My Name --- Moo Jin's Driver (Mr. Hwang)

 

2022 (08 Apr 2022) Again My Life --- Rooftop hitman

 

TBA – Tiger's Trigger

 

TBA - Companion

 

 

Live Performance

 

1987 - [KQTV] Show Video Jockey Summer Special (06 Aug 1987) - I Changed The Original Title 'Dragon Fight' (Won Jin 30-38min)

 

 

Director

 

2014 – Dokdo 512

 

 

Action Director

 

1988 - (06 Dec 1988) Thunder Ninja Kids - In The Golden Adventure --- (Uncredited Assistant Action Director)

 

1988 - (05 Aug 1989) Super Hong Kil-Dong 3 --- (Uncredited Assistant Action Director) (and stunt double)

 

1989 - (16 Jan 1990) The Doofus Detective The And Twin Light Brothers --- (Assistant Action Director)

 

1990 - (26 Jan 1991) Thunder Ninja Kids – Little Kickboxer --- (Uncredited Assistant Action Director)

 

1991 - (13 Sep 1991) Swordsman San Ji-Ni : Appeared In The City --- (Uncredited Assistant Action Director)

 

1991 - (21 Dec 1991) The Trio Stars --- (Uncredited Assistant Action Director)

 

1991 - (10 Mar 1992) Yeong-Goo And The Bushman --- (Action Director) (and stunt double)

 

1991 - (07 Jul 1992) Swordsman San Ji-Ni 2 : Appeared At The Port --- (Action Director)

 

1991 - (12 Nov 1992) The Scorpion King --- (Uncredited Assistant Action Director)

 

1993 - (08 Jun 1993) Invincible Fighter Thunderhawk (Thunderhawk From Outer Space 9) --- (Action Director) (and stunt double)

 

1993 - (20 Oct 1993) Boy Wong Fei-Hung --- (Action Director)

 

1994 – (07 Feb 1995) Lynx 2 - Challenger --- (Action Director)

 

1996 - (12 Oct 1996) The Gate Of Destiny --- (Action Director)

 

1997 - (18 Apr 1998) The Expert --- (Uncredited Assistant Action Director)

 

1998 - (04 Jan 1999) Vindictive Venom --- (Assistant Action Director)

 

2000 - (14 Dec 2000) Gen-Y Cops --- (Uncredited Assistant Action Director)

 

2001 - (31 May 2001) Born Wild --- (Uncredited Assistant Action Director)

 

2001 - (27 Sep 2001) My Wife Is A Gangster --- (Action Director) (and stunt double)

 

2001 - (06 Feb 2002) No Problem 2 --- (Uncredited Assistant Action Director)

 

2001 - (30 Apr 2002) 4 Toes --- (Action Director) (and stunt double)

 

2002 - (12 Jul 2002) Emergency Measure No. 19 --- (Action Director) (and stunt double)

 

2002 - (28 Aug 2002) Boss X File --- (Action Director) (and stunt double)

 

2002 - (16 Jul 2003) Sword In The Moon --- (Action Director) (and stunt double)

 

2002 - (15 Aug 2003) Elysium --- (Action Director)

 

2003 - (05 Sep 2003) My Wife Is A Gangster 2 - The Return Of The Legend --- (Action Director) (and stunt double)

 

2003 - (02 Dec 2003) Romantic Assassins --- (Action Director) (and stunt double)

 

2003 - (27 Feb 2004) Who's Got The Tape --- (Action Director) (and stunt double)

 

2003 – (08 Mar 2004 to 11 May 2004) 2004 Human Market (TV Series - SBS Miniseries) --- (Action Director)

 

2004 - (19 Jul 2004) - Flower On The Tip Of A Blade (TV Special KBS) --- (Action Director)

 

2004 - (10 Sep 2004) Thomas Ahn Jung-Geun --- (Action Director)

 

2004 – (15 Oct 2004) The Scarlet Letter --- (Action Director)

 

2004 - (03 Feb 2005) Seoul Raiders --- (Assistant Action Director) (and stunt double)

 

2005 - (09 Jul 2005) A Bold Family --- (Action Director)

 

2005 – (20 Oct 2005) Sad Movie --- (Action Director)

 

2005 - (09 Feb 2006) Sunday Seoul --- (Action Director)

 

2005 - (23 Mar 2006) Almost Love --- (Action Director)

 

2006 – (08 Jul 2006 to 17 Jun 2007) Yeon Gaesomun (TV Series SBS) --- (Action Director)

 

2006 - (14 Dec 2006) My Wife Is A Gangster 3 --- (Action Director) (and stunt double)

 

2006 - (26 Feb 2007) Beautiful Sunday --- (Action Director)

 

2007 - (04 Aug 2007 to 02 Sep 2009) SF Family Musical (Live Theatre) --- (Action Director)

 

2009 - (07 Oct 2009 to 26 Nov 2009) You're Beautiful (TV Series SBS) --- (Action Director)

 

2010 - (17 May 2010 to 27 Jul 2010) Coffee House (TV Series SBS) --- (Action Director)

 

2010 – (06 Nov 2010 to 24 Apr 2011) Smile, Mom (TV Series - SBS Miniseries) ---- (Action Director)

 

2011 - (08 Mar 2012) Choked --- (Action Director)

 

2012 - (14 Mar 2013) When Winter Screams --- (Action Director)

 

2012 - (18 Apr 2013) Azooma --- (Action Director)

 

2012 - (24 Dec 2013) The Suspect --- (Assistant Action Director)

 

2014 - (09 Jul 2015) Martial Cop : Chinatown --- (Uncredited Action Director)

 

2015 - (03 Mar 2016) No Tomorrow --- (Action Director)

 

2015 - (28 Feb 2018) The Princess And The Matchmaker --- (Assistant Action Director)

 

2017 - (17 Jan 2018) Brothers In Heaven --- (Action Director)

 

2019 - (01 Oct 2019) Master Heaven : The Greatest Fighter --- (Action Director)

 

2019 - (01 Nov 2019) Bongcheon Tiger Lee --- (Action Director)

 

2019 – (30 Apr 2021) Lotto Share --- (Action Director)

 

2022 - (14 Feb 2022) Secretly Sweetly --- (Special Thanks)

 

2022 - (01 Jul 2022) Secretly Sweetly Season 2 --- (Special Thanks)

 

2019 - (TBA) – Tiger's Trigger --- ???

 

2022 - (TBA) Senior Bodyguard

 

TBA - Boy Kim Doo-han

 

TBA – The Suspect 2

 

Cheers

J.J. Hayden

Edited January 28, 2023 by J.J. Hayden

[DragonClaws]

On 5/1/2021 at 9:19 AM, Dredderick_Tatum said:

It took a very long time to do this list, but I'm confident in saying it's the most comprehensive Won Jin filmography to date. Hopefully it can be improved upon, I'm always looking for any new Won Jin material that I'm not yet aware of. I hope people find this useful, I really could've done with this list 20 years ago .

 

Fantastic work @Dredderick_Tatum, no easy task trying to work out some Asian actors filmographies. There's just so much mis-information out there.

[J.J. Hayden]

4 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

 

Fantastic work @Dredderick_Tatum, no easy task trying to work out some Asian actors filmographies. There's just so much mis-information out there.

Cheers.

[J.J. Hayden]

Lol, typical. Just after I post the filmography I get confirmation on this one. 2019's Heavenly Power: Extreme Brawler. It looks low budget put sports some pretty flashy action provided by Won Jin. Here's a YT link to a clip.

 

[J.J. Hayden]

For anyone interested, I created a Won Jin page for The Movie Database (TMDb). I've put all his known movies and was working my way through filling out all the movie information down to each stuntman etc. But I was also filling out info on other rare Korean martial arts movies including the Street Fighter movies. I spent a very long time getting as many photos actors as I could, some were not the best quality, but not rubbish and better than nothing. However, the mods at TMDb were more interested in having large, high quality pics of actors (that are impossible to get for most of pre 2010 Asian actors) rather than having a face to put to a name, I thought a databases priority was to provide data but apparently perfect presentation is more important. So they deleted about 100 pics it took a very long time to provide for them and as such I will not be wasting my time again.

 

The Won Jin page may still be useful people to wanting more info on Won Jin's pre-1998 movies as I completed them, 98 and onward have alot of info but are imcomplete and will not be finished by me.

https://www.themoviedb.org/person/3031436-won-jin?language=en-US

[Super Ninja]

Great stuff @Dredderick_Tatum, thanks for sharing! Sorry to hear the mods had no underestanding for the hard work put into creating the most complete Won Jin filmography out there on account of something so unimportant as the pic quality. Have you tried IMDb? 

[J.J. Hayden]

Cheers @Super Ninja  I was going to put it on IMDb but I had the same issue as the HKMDb in that they want access to data that I'm not happy to agree with. At least all his credits (that I know) are there, it'd just have been better for people to have more info, especially with the Korean stuff. The perfect example being Won Jin where the KMDb mixes his credits with others with the name Won Jin including one also called Kim Won-jin who is a martial arts actor too, very frustrating. I actually created profiles for the other Won Jin's and listed their films on TMDb so people don't have to sieve through all the wrong ones like I did

Edited December 1, 2022 by J.J. Hayden

[Super Ninja]

10 hours ago, Dredderick_Tatum said:

Cheers @Super Ninja  I was going to put it on IMDb but I had the same issue as the HKMDb in that they want access to data that I'm not happy to agree with. At least all his credits (that I know) are there, it'd just have been better for people to have more info, especially with the Korean stuff. The perfect example being Won Jin where the KMDb mixes his credits with others with the name Won Jin including one called also kalled Kim Won-Jin who is a martial arts actor too, very frustrating. I actually created profiles for the other Won Jin's and listed their films on TMDb so people don't have to sieve through all the wrong ones like I did

Respect! 

[J.J. Hayden]

This is a credit for Won Jin as action director that I didn't add to my filmography as I couldn't confirm or deny. Although Cine21 is missing a lot of Won Jin's movies they've not put any of the wrong ones. But though my research I've learnt that the only way to be sure is to see the credit myself. I found episodes of this series on YT but none gave an action director credit. If anyone can find it, please let me know.

http://www.cine21.com/db/person/info/?href=filmography&person_id=14457

 

 

[J.J. Hayden]

I also found this, similar to Dokdo 512 I only found confirmation of them starting to make the film but not that they ever finished. It was a China/Korea joint project called Search For The Dead Master and was to star Angela Chen Jia-jia and Kang Kyung-Joon, Won Jin was action director and instructor for the actors, some pages said he was to appear in the film, but I think it was just a mistranslation and that they meant he worked on the movie. This is a photo from an announcement party (yes, that is Dragon Lee, he was a producer) said to be on 03Nov2014 and they were to start shooting next month with plans to release in Aug2015. But I couldn't find any confirmation that it ever did, if anyone knows, please share.

Cheers

 

Edited December 1, 2022 by J.J. Hayden

[J.J. Hayden]

I am no longer using the Firefox browser, the only reason I was still using it was because all my bookmarks for Won Jin pages were there, but today they all just disappeared. So I finally switched to Dissenter and it's going well and there is a plus side that one of my links had clip that I couldn't view in FF, I've been able to screen capture it. It seems it's from the same video from the early 90s that I posted a clip of earlier, though this one is more interesting.

Enjoy

[J.J. Hayden]

Hopefully this time, the link for Heavenly Power clip will work.

 

[One Armed Boxer]

On 5/8/2021 at 3:07 AM, Dredderick_Tatum said:

Hopefully this time, the link for Heavenly Power clip will work.

This movie was horrendous, I'd forgotten about its existence until I saw your youtube link!

Won Jin will next be doing action direction on 'The Boy Kim Doo-han', which we can assume will be focusing on the younger years of the legendary Kim Doo-han, most famously portrayed in 'The General's Son' trilogy during the early 90's.

In the directors chair is another legendary figure of the Korean kung-fu movie scene - Kwon Il-soo! Now 72, he doesn't look all that different from the many kung-fu flicks he appeared in during the 70's and 80's (you can see him sat down in the middle of the last photo).

[J.J. Hayden]

On 5/29/2021 at 8:02 AM, One Armed Boxer said:

This movie was horrendous, I'd forgotten about its existence until I saw your youtube link!

That's a shame. But "The Boy Kim Doo-Han" looks of interest especially as (like you said) Kwon Il-Soo is involved, those two go way back.

Cheers for sharing.

[J.J. Hayden]

Brief 1 on 1 fight scene between Won Jin and Kang Yeong-cheol in 1984's Shaolin - The Blood Mission. He can also be seen in the background of the training scenes at the beginning, showing of some beautiful high kick and some flips, and later using a red pole to fight soldiers attacking the temple.

Edited December 1, 2022 by J.J. Hayden

[J.J. Hayden]

Won Jin with Sammo Hung, Raven Chang (founder of the Magpie Stunt Team) and Chin Ka-lok.

Edited December 1, 2022 by J.J. Hayden

[J.J. Hayden]

Early photo of Won Jin taken around 1981. Seen here with other members of the Ottugi Martial Arts Team, they worked on a couple of Richard Park Woo-sang's films together. (From left to right) Choe Soon-seok / Kim Hoe-moon / Won Jin / Jeong Jin-gwan / Jo Byung-ok.

Edited December 31, 2022 by J.J. Hayden

[J.J. Hayden]

Here's an interesting collage of Won Jin behind the scenes. 1. with Shin Eun-gyung on My Wife Is A Gangster / 2. with Andy Lau on Saviour Of The Soul II / 3. with Sammo Hung, probably for the premier of No Problem 2 / 4. with Shu Qi on My Wife Is A Gangster 3. - The 2nd pic looks like it's from a TV show or behind the scenes documentary, I'd very much like to see that, if it's the case.

Edited December 1, 2022 by J.J. Hayden