Actor Choi Min-soo apologized today for punching an elderly (in his 70s) Itaewon restaurant owner in the face and then trying to flee with the victim still on the hood of his car.
At a press conference yesterday, Choi said that no matter what he said, it wouldn’t be an excuse.
The incident took place on April 21, and Choi was booked — but not detained — for assault on April 23.
Choi also noted that he’d apologized to the old man when he was booked, and that reports that he’d also threatened the man with a weapon were mistaken.
Here’s how it went down (according to the Kookmin Ilbo) — Choi was driving his open-top jeep from the health club at the Hyatt Hotel, but traffic was bad, so the actor starting swearing. Loudly. The owner of a nearby galbi restaurant heard him, and admonished the young man for his behavior. Angry, Choi got out of his car and repeatedly punched the poor guy. In the middle of the day. In front of a lot of witnesses.
Using his cellphone, the victim called the cops. Choi then got back into his car and tried to flee. The restaurant owner, however, tried to stop him by climbing onto the hood of his car. DEATHPROOF! With the man still hanging on the hood, Choi took off, driving some 200—300 meters. The tough old bastard wouldn’t fall off, however, so Choi reportedly pointed a knife at the guy, threatening to kill him (reports Choi denies, see above).
Police finally arrived, but they let Choi go when the victim said he didn’t want him punished. A couple of days later, however, Choi was called into Yongsan Police Station. The old man, meanwhile, was not seriously hurt.
Oh, and Choi will be costaring with Robert De Niro and Andy Garcia in the upcoming film “Street of Dreams.”
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26 Comments
My guess is that he’ll just pay the old guy off and walk away from this. (When, it should go without saying, he should do time.)
This guy’s a wanker. Always has been.
sounds like he’ll fit right into hollyweird. insurance premium just went up, though.
i’m guessing getting punched by this guy really isn’t all that bad.
Rad! I missed all that up by the Hyatt? Damn!
By the looks of him, I don’t think it was ‘roid rage.
Yeah, he’s a tool. I know and have ridden bikes with him and I remember once he had a camcorder video taping himself while riding. My friends and I still laugh about that.
I would normally consider myself the last person to comment on fashion but what’s with the biker getup? He looks like hes trying to be tough guy but that is ridiculous or disgusting while apologizing for beating up a 70-year old.
He might not need a hanbok, but come on.
From the looks of this picture, I’d say he was just acting out his Mel Gibson-Road Warrior persona. But you’d think the hippie in him that bought that bandanna would have tried to exert at least SOME restraint.
Look at that asshole.
Really intelligent. Beating up a 70 year old and then showing up to an ‘apology” press conference dreesed as a try hard biker.
What an idiot.
Was that really from the press conference about his arrest? He was wearing a suit when I saw him on the news yesterday.
Looks like someone started their drunk ajosshi training early.
I had not watched any of the press conferences/apologies but if he did indeed show up to one looking like one of the Village People, I would not be surprised. In my eyes, he’s THE poster child for “hookkashi-ness” as far back as I can remember.
That fruity get up is his how he normally dresses himself.
Was this guy on drugs? His crazy violent behavior, especially to an old man in a society which reveres the elderly, seems so bizarre. Seriously, it sounds like he has anger management or psychiatric issues.
Wouldn’t be surprised at all if he was on drugs. Too odd!
i now have the same feeling for choi min su as i do for russel crowe. great actors but assholes in real life.
btw, you folks looking for a fantastic movie starring choi, should look no further than the a movie called ‘달콤한 인생’. excellent flick!
No disrespect to your opinion Pawi, but I just couldn’t get into ‘달콤한 인생.’ Visually it looked good, but it felt just like another bloody, violent action movie with no real story to me. I get a little tired of the one-guy-takes-on-50-gangsters-thing movies do a lot of nowadays (unless it’s Oldboy…of course).
Choi Min-soo is not gay. He’s married to a former Miss Korea, guys, and they’ve got kids. They live on the mean streets of my ‘hood, Ichon-dong.
#19 - Kids and a hot wife don’t actually prove that someone isn’t gay. Even in this day and age, it’s not entirely unheard-of for a homosexual person to have “normal” marriage for show, even while putting in hours at the sausage factory, so to speak. ‘Course, being that these people are generally extremely closeted, I doubt one would dress or act anywhere near as flamboyantly as Mr. Choi here.
Well, I don’t know about any of that, but truth-in-posting laws dictate that I correct my earlier statement: Choi and family have moved out of the ‘hood, and now live in Bundang. I don’t know why, but they still come in for cups at the Ichon-Dong Coffee Bean (which is why I thought they still lived here), but my wife says they’ve moved.
I feel better now.
Damn, Wrenchbender beat me to it. Choi Min Soo is a complete and total ass that has a disturbingly inflated sense of his own coolness and toughness. But,every foreign biker that I know (including myself) who has met him has come away hating him. A great many of the Korean bikers hate him and are tired of his act too.
Unfortunately, because he rides a Harley, the Korean Harley Owners Group treats him like royalty. So, at every rally, his is fawned over and given special attention, and is ALWAYS asked to sing (he fancies himself to be a singer too).
If you click here and go to :39 seconds remaining, you can see him at a HOG rally last spring completely murdering Pink Floyd’S Another Brick in the Wall.
Yes. He does dress like that every day. You will notice that he is wearing virtually the same clothes in the above video as he is wearing in the photo.
For what it’s worth, he did wear a suit during the press conference, but he didn’t bother shaving.
He IS a tool.
#13 “Hookkashiness”lol to rich word for this asshole!
#13 “Hookkashiness”lol too rich word for this asshole!
I believe there is a Korean word for this kind of behavior; “또라이”
As for his wardrobe, I think he started biking and donning that kind of clothes, when his career slowly started to hit the skids. I guess this is his way of dealing with a mid-life crisis.
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[...] Min Soo is in the news for punching an old man. He had a press conference today and asked for an apology. News reports said that his victim is [...]