Career
He became member of the project group ‘Super Junior 05’ among eleven others. The group, formed in 2005 by S.M. Entertainment’s producer Lee Soo-man, made its debut on November 6 that year on SBS aired music program ‘Popular Song’ where the group performed their first single ‘Twins (Knock Out)’.
In December 2005, ‘Super Junior 05’ released their debut album ‘Twins’ that included their debut single ‘Twins (Knock Out)’ as also their first numero uno radio single, ‘Miracle’. The album debuted at #3 in the monthly chart of December that year and recorded a sale of 28,536 copies in its first month of release and over 100,000 till present.
He along with Shindong and Leeteuk became MC of Mnet aired ‘M!Countdown’ after five days of debut performance of ‘Super Junior’. He remained so till mid-2006 before being replaced by Eunhyuk because of his other hosting endeavours in ‘Show! Music Core’, an MBC aired music program; and in EBS ‘Reckless Radio’.
Following his debut in ‘Super Junior’ till February 2006 he remained a regular in ‘Image Survival’, an MBC variety show. ‘Super Junior 05’ was rechristened as just ‘Super Junior’ after addition of its thirteenth member, Kyuhyun that year.
The first musical pursuit of the boy band following its renaming to ‘Super Junior’ was the single ‘U’. The single not only remained at the top of the CD charts for several weeks but also climbed the monthly MIAK K-pop album charts selling 91,416 copies by 2008. It remained the group’s most successful single till the release of another ‘Sorry Sorry’ in March 2009.
He appeared as himself in the MBC aired South Korean television romance comedy drama ‘Rainbow Romance’ in 2006. He also featured in the popular hosting programs ‘Sunday Dong-an Club’ and ‘Nothing is Impossible’ during 2006-2007. However, a conflict between SM Entertainment and MBC over time-slot leading to a temporary ban of the group from performing on MBC resulted in Kangin leaving the two shows.
With so many small-screen endeavours he gradually emerged as the highest paid member of ‘Super Junior’.
In February 2007, the second official sub-group of ‘Super Junior’ called ‘Super Junior-T’ was formed with Kangin, Leeteuk, Eunhyuk, Shindong, Heechul, Sungmin as its members. ‘Super Junior-T’ is regarded as the first idol group to capitalize the oldest form of Korean pop music, trot. In 2007, he also featured as ‘Friend’ in the MBC aired rom-com ‘Billie Jean, Look At Me’.
In June 2007 he left ‘Reckless Radio’ to join ‘Good Friend Radio’ as radio DJ and remained host of the show till sometime in 2009. ‘Good Friend Radio’ fetched him Excellence Award in Radio at the 2008 MBC Drama Awards. In 2008, he also won Best DJ award at the MBC Entertainment Awards.
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He made his debut on big-screen with the July 2007 high school mystery/comedy film ‘Attack on the Pin-Up Boys’. It marked the first film production of ‘SM Pictures’, a subsidiary of ‘SM Entertainment’, and featured all members of ‘Super Junior’ except Kyuhyun as he had suffered a car accident.
In 2008, Kangin became a member of the fourth official sub-group of ‘Super Junior’ called ‘Super Junior-H’. All members of ‘Super Junior-T’ except Heechul are part of this group which was also joined by Yesung. That year he essayed the starring role of Kang Sook in ‘Hello, Schoolgirl’ that garnered US$3,550,487 at the box office.
Meanwhile, he along with Heechul debuted as musical actors with the musical ‘Xanadu’ in September 2008. The two, along with Choi Sungwon, essayed the same role of Sonny according to their time slot. That year he also remained MC for 'Class Up' and one of the four MCs of ‘Change’ apart from starring with Heechul, Jungmo and Jay in Mnet channel’s 'Band of Brothers 2008’.
He featured as one part of a low income college couple along with actress Lee Yoon-ji in the first season of popular South Korean television reality variety show ‘We Got Married’. The reel couple appeared from December 2008 to May 2009 in episodes 39 to 55.
He played the role of a kind hearted bright young intern Na Ho-tae in the drama series ‘Romance Zero’ from February 14, 2009 to May 23, 2009.
On July 5, 2010, he was enlisted for mandatory military service. He had to undergo a basic training period of five weeks at the Nonsan military camp in Chungcheongnam-do Province. Thereafter, he served active duty with the Republic of Korea Army for twenty months. On April 16, 2012 he was discharged from duty from the 56th army division in Namyangju-si in Gyeonggi-do.
The sixth Korean studio album of ‘Super Junior’ titled ‘Sexy, Free & Single’ released on July 4, 2012, and marked Kangin’s return in the group and also his first feature with the group after October 2009.
He played the lead role of Dong-hoon opposite Park Se-young in the 2015 film ‘The Cat Funeral’ that was written, directed and produced by Lee Jong-hoon. The flick that was based on a webtoon by Hong bearing same title grossed US$20,726 at the box office.
Kangin has featured in hosting programs like ‘Unbelievable Outing’ (2008), Idol Show Season 1 (2008) and ‘Global Request Show - A Song For You’ (2014-15); featuring in TV series ‘A Celebrity Lives In My Home’ (2014)’ and contributing to tracks ‘Suddenly’ (2008), ‘Please Call My Name’ (2015) and ‘Don't Cry, Man’ (2016) among others.
