[Magazine Article]"Forget that I'm Gorgeous"He is a man of fragile eyes, with a sharp chin, a pointed nose and ideal body proportions - a rare find even among male models. But as a serious actor, his physical perfection is sometimes more a curse than a blessing.Not long ago, Michikusa Kyoshitsu, the latest comic book by Japanese cartoonist Mariko Nagahara, became a big hit among Korean Internet users after news spread that the artist had modeled one of the her characters on Kang Dong-won, the Korean actor she saw at the premiere of the film The Duelist, Koreans who read it were curious - how could real man possibly be even more gorgeous than his idealized comic version?Kang's nickname, "flower boy," betrays the reason. The man is a fashion idol as cool as a vintage suit. When he first began modeling when he was an engineering student, Kang was just a good-looking model in a fiercely competitive industry. He may have strutted on the catwalk with legs smooth as the Autobahn and haunted countless girls with his killer smile, but such shallow charms aren't enough to move the heart. The transition from modeling to acting was arduous. Kang debuted as an actor starring in 2003's Fearless Woman, a television series with Bae Du-na, He later earned modest praise in another TV series, All in 1 Percent, and the film Too Beautiful to Lie. His ambiguous acting didn't leave a compelling impression. But Kang is simply too gorgeous to be hated, not to mention humble.At the height of his fame, he said, "I still have a long way to go as an actor." The praise for his talent was gushing at times, but Kang seemed to realize when he was being overestimated. He held a pencil in his lips for months to get over his provincial accent. He built himself up over the years, telling himself "looks aren't everything."In 2004 he made a serious impact with the film Romance of Their Own. During a scene in which Kang runs under the heroine's umbrella to show his face for the first time, female viewers sighed. Kang became an instant star. He cried in the film, leaning against a window with a kitten in his arms. Audiences smiled and cried too, as if hypnotized by a magician. His next film, The Duelist, failed at the box office, but Kang's role as a fragile killer named "Sad Eyes" was compared to famed French actor Alain Delon. Kang's acting greatly matured in Our Happy Time. Japan's Sankei Shimbun recently wrote that Kang is one of the four rising emperors of the Korean Wave, with Lee Dong-gun, Jo In-sung and Ji Seong.Kang no longer takes it for granted when people compliment his looks, because he knows such comments have downsides to overcome. What he really wants to hear is a good word about acting.

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