Shin Min-A, The Emotive Heroine

A veteran South Korean actress known for many iconic roles, from the fantastical drama my girlfriend is a gumiho to psycho-thriller film diva, shin min-a is adamant that great acting stems from introspection and emotion

- Chelsea Tang

There are faces, and then there are faces you don’t forget. For the razzle and dazzle that doesn’t necessarily partner her namesake, Shin Min-A makes up for with a quiet, elegant kind of clout: emotion. It’s perhaps the reason why a specific pair of sparkling, smiley eyes emerges in the mind every time My Girlfriend is a Gumiho is brought up — where she played the role of a cherubic, cheeky nine-tailed fox whose goal is to become human. Arguably, it’s the one K-drama series that opened the door of Shin’s presence to the lay television-watching person around the world; a feat in itself, seeing how 2010 (the year when the series was released), the year when the series was released, was when the world was thick in its K-drama binge. Alongside co-star Lee Seung-gi, viewership-rating company TNmS reported that My Girlfriend Is A Gumiho earned itself an average of 15 per cent for its television rating — a considerably favourable score that won Shin four awards from the SBS Drama Awards and Style Icon Asia that same year.