Burdened with Good Looks

Korea's No. 1 heartthrob doesn't date. It's not that Jang Dong Gun, 29, lacks opportunities to meet women. Lunching recently at a noodle shop in a trendy part of Seoul, Jang, by his mere presence, sent the women at a nearby table into paroxysms of girlish twittering. Soon, a crowd of girls gathered outside the restaurant window. By the end of the meal there were dozens of women jostling for position outside — his manager had to help him push his way through the throng. This kind of thing sometimes follows Jang when he leaves South Korea. In Vietnam last year, thousands of women packed Ho Chi Minh City's stadium for his concert, crying hysterically and screaming "I love you." It seems all Jang would need to do to find a girlfriend is just point. But he is plagued with a conscience. "I would love to go out with a normal girl, holding hands or whatever," he says. "But it is a delicate matter here. Once she goes out with me, the whole country will know." And if they break up? "She will be remembered as Jang Dong Gun's ex. She will be a 'woman with a past.'"

In any case, Jang is becoming uncomfortable with his drop-dead good looks. With his role in the megahit Friends, he is finally shedding his pretty-boy image, playing a gang boss in a tough port town. But it was the face that got him into acting, of course. On his way to and from school, reps for advertising and modeling agencies, who scour the streets for fresh faces, repeatedly handed him their business cards. His parents disapproved, urging him to concentrate on his studies. But he phoned one of the agencies and ended up doing a soap commercial. "Only my body was shown," he says. An agent later suggested he try movies, so he went for an audition. He got the part and has climbed the ladder to stardom, usually playing handsome teenyboppers. "That good-looking face," he says, "can become a handicap, at least in acting."

To build up credit as an actor, he works hard and shuns the party scene. For Friends, he spent four months in Pusan learning the rough local accent. Before each shoot, he smoked heavily (even more than his usual two to three packs a day) and avoided water—to give his voice a raspy edge. When he's not filming, he spends time at his parents' or goes out with friends. "I prefer to live a quiet life," he says. If only those women would let him eat his noodles in peace.