She first received recognition for her leading roles in television series such as Heaven & Earth (2007), Iljimae (2008), Brilliant Legacy (2009), Dong Yi (2010), the latter of which earned her the Baeksang Arts Award for Best Actress.

[4][5] Han later raised her profile by starring in Spring Waltz, the fourth and final installment of TV director Yoon Seok-ho's "season drama" series.

[6] In 2006, director Lee Yoon-ki cast Han in the starring role in his low-budget independent film Ad-lib Night, which follows a young woman who rediscovers herself through an eerie overnight encounter with strangers.

Han then starred in two highly successful TV projects and rose to fame - KBS daily drama Heaven & Earth with Park Hae-jin in 2007,[8] and SBS masked-adventurer series Iljimae with Lee Joon-gi in 2008.

[12][13][14] It catapulted Han to stardom, and after the drama's conclusion, she experienced a sharp rise in endorsement deals and media requests for interviews, as well as increased pan-Asian popularity.

[25][26][27] Han later contributed voice narration to the "barrier-free" version of Japanese film My Back Page, which features descriptive audio and subtitles for people with hearing or visual impairments.

The short film is a collaboration by contemporary artists Moon Kyung-won and Jeon Joon-ho, and combined a theatrical plot, experimental imagery, dance and performance art.

Set during the Christmas season, the film is a love story about a kind bookstore employee (played by Masaki Aiba from J-pop boyband Arashi) who meets three women.

Famous for its live performances, C'est Si Bon was the name of a popular music lounge located in Mugyo-dong in the 1970s, where Twin Folio got its start; Han played the group's muse.

[44][45] Later that year, Han got together with Yoo Yeon-seok and Chun Woo-hee, both of her co-stars in The Beauty Inside, again for Love, Lies, a movie which depicts the last story of gisaeng during the Japanese occupation in the 1940s.

[48] Helmed by director Jung Dae-yoon who directed She Was Pretty and writer Song Jae-jung whose previous works include Nine: Nine Time Travels and Queen In-hyun's Man, expectations were high as this marked Han's return to the small screen after 6 years.

[51] The same year, she reunited with Kang as the female lead in sci-fi action thriller Illang: The Wolf Brigade, based on the Japanese animated flick of the same name.

Directed by Ahn Gil-ho, the drama depicted class discrimination, conflicting human desires and the struggle for survival amongst a group of house-owners in an apartment in Korea due to a mysterious virus outbreak that threatens the livelihood of the inhabitants in a city.

In a press release, Han's agency BH Entertainment said the actress did not engage in any activities that deserve public criticism and threatened "strong measures" to deal with blackmail.