South Korean veteran actor Song Kang-ho has much to offer, especially when it comes to
acting, filmography and ticket sales. Last week, this prominent actor has become
Asia’s first winner of the Excellence Award of the prestigious Locarno International Film
Festival. The 52-year-old Korean actor is best known
to the international movie lovers for film “Memories of Murder” and Palme D’Or
winner “Parasite.” Since his silver screen debut in 1996, Song
made so many box-office hits. In 2016, he became Korea’s first actor to surpass a
cumulative total of 100 million admissions – only with the movies that he starred in.
But this record-breaker’s beginning was humble, just like any other ordinary actors.
Song started his entertainment career as a play actor in 1991. In 1996, he debuted with
a small role in film “The Day a Pig Fell into the Well.” The omnibus-style arthouse
film also happened to be the debut work of award-winning film director Hong Sang-soo.
Many of Song’s early roles included a gangster, corrupted investigator and amateur wrestler.
These roles required vulgarity, violence, and sense of humor. His acting in “Green
Fish,” was so real that he was even mistaken for an actual gangster.
Apparently, these minor roles became the building blocks of Song’s present-day trademark image
as the “cunning yet sloppy, hilarious father of a low-income family.” Song’s unique
image of fatherhood earned him many box-office hits, such as “The President’s Barber,”
“The Face Reader,” “The Attorney” and “A Taxi Driver” and “Parasite.”
In 1998, at a stroke of luck, Song was offered a main supporting role in a mega-scale action
film “Swiri.” The role was first offered to other popular actors, such as Cha In-pyo,
who turned down the part. Eventually the inter-Korean action flick turned out hugely successful.
Now historians of Korean cinema call the movie, “The first blockbuster in Korean film history.”
At the time, Song faced strong criticisms that his image does not fit his character
Jang-gil, an intelligent government spy agent. Ironically, 20 years later, Song played one
of the most intelligent man in Korean history – King Sejong, the inventor of Korean alphabet,
Hangeul, in film “The King’s Letters.” Although Song is a bankable actor in the commercial
movie sector, he didn’t shy away from new attempts with artsy filmmakers. In addition
to Hong Sang-soo, he worked with now-globally published Korean filmmakers, such as Lee Chang-dong,
Kim Ji-woon, Park Chan-wook, and most importantly, Bong Joon-ho, the director of “Parasite,”
“Snowpiercer” and “Memories of Murder.” Song and Bong picked each other as the most
inspiring partner of their cinematic life. As seen in film “Parasite,” the two especially
showed outstanding collaboration in portraying the dark side of
our society through black comedy. Social injustice, triggered by class discrimination, dominates
the films “Memories of Murder,” “The Host” and “Snow Piercer,” directed by
Bong and starring Song. Song’s filmography embraces the big questions
of the Korean society from the 90s to present. His films “Swiri” and “Joint Security
Area” depict the sorrow of the nation, torn into the South and the North. Films “The
President’s Barber,” “The Attorney” and “A Taxi Driver” reflect the life of
an ordinary Korean family in the time of heavy political turbulence.
Song played many genres: crime, action noire, drama, historical, comedy to even western.
Throughout more than 3 decades of acting, he tried just one romance: “Hindsight,”
with actress Shin Se-kyung. Apparently the Korean audience didn’t much crave for romance
from Song. Despite such a long filmography under his
belt, Song Kang-ho is spurring to widen Korea’s cinematic scope.
He is a man of many trophies. And yet, his Excellence Award at the Locarno International
Film Festival is a hardly earned proof of his contribution to the growth of the cinema
industry, inside and outside the borders.