'10 million fairy' actor admits romance
Oh Dal-su from movie "Veteran" (2015) / Courtesy of Naver
Chae Gook-hee / Korea Times file
Actor Oh Dal-su, one of the silver screen’s most popular actors, has admitted he is dating actress Chae Gook-hee.
Oh’s management company, Star Village Entertainment, confirmed on its homepage Tuesday Monday’s report of the romance.
“Oh and Chae have been fellow actors who cared for each other by giving feedback on their work,” the company said.
“After working together on the movie ‘The Thieves’ in 2012, the two started to date. They told us they have been going out since.
“The couple’s news making headlines nationwide confounded us. We decided to wait a little and confirm the news instead of promptly responding to the report.”
Kim Tae-wook, a former singer married to Chae’s older sister, actress Chae Shi-ra, appeared on a radio program as a guest on Tuesday and said he had no idea until Monday the two were dating.
He congratulated the couple on the program, “Lee Sook-young’s Love FM,” on SBS. He denied a report that the couple might get married.
Media reports Monday said Oh, 47, whose nickname is “10 million fairy,” because his past seven movies each sold more than 10 million tickets, was dating Chae, 46.
The reports said the two met in 2008 while starring in a play.
Oh debuted in 1990 as a stage actor and has been in movies since 2002. His seven movies, including blockbusters from 2015 -- “Assassination,” “Veteran” and “Ode to My Father” -- each attracted over 10 million theatergoers. In “Host” (2006), one of the seven movies, he was the voice of a monster that mutated from a fish and wreaks havoc in Seoul.
Chae debuted in 1994, in a musical, and broadened her career to TV and movies.
Meanwhile, another bachelor actor, Kim Ha-gyun, 57, will marry in Seoul in mid-January. He met his fiancee on a blind date.