When people think of award-winning actors from South Korea with countless accolades, one of the first actors that comes to mind is Song Kang-ho. Despite his many achievements and years of experience in the entertainment industry, Song maintains a humble and laidback personality. After strolling into the room, Song offered a wide-grinned greeting before settling into his seat, taking a sip of hot coffee, and letting out a throaty sigh of satisfaction. During his first ever retrospective program in the US presented by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Asia Blooming sat down with the actor for a conversation about his career, motivation, perspective on the evolution of the Korean film industry, and more.
Song Kang-ho began his acting career in 1991, when he made his theater stage debut in the play, A Little Monk. “My acting experience at the theater wasn’t that long. I only did it for around seven years, but I do believe that theater was a great foundation for my film acting career,” Song shared. “I can’t really pinpoint what exactly it was [that helped], but the overall experience at the theater was just a central part of beginning my acting.” From there, Song took his first film acting role in 1996, with a role in Hong Sang-soo’s The Day a Pig Fell into the Well. “I want to point out that I wasn’t an extra, but just had a very very small role,” he remarked with a laugh.
Within the next year, Song was casted in numerous films and quickly gained recognition for his work, winning two Best New Actor awards. In fact, his performance as Jopil, a stuttering gangster in Song Neung-han’s No. 3, was one of his first big successes, achieving cult notoriety. In February 2000, Director Kim Jee-woon offered Song a role that would change the trajectory of his career. In The Foul King, Song played Lim Dae-ho, a bank clerk turned professional wrestler, and his comedic acting showed a completely different side to him, proving his versatility to the industry and audience. “[Filming The Foul King] was one of the most memorable experiences. It was a very new experience, and I even had to prepare all the stunts as a pro wrestler myself,” he said. “I was 33 years old at the time, so my bones were already kind of stiff, so it was quite physically challenging too. I had to really exercise and get physically fit to play a pro wrestler.”
After The Foul King, Song went on to star in two Park Chan-wook films: Joint Security Area, earning him the Best Actor award at the 38th Grand Bell Awards, and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, a violent revenge film centered around a father’s pursuit of the individuals who kidnapped his daughter. Continuing to share small anecdotes about his past projects, Song even shared that he originally did not intend to take on the role in Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance: “It’s a very strange film, and I rejected it three times because I thought it was weird.” All of these projects led him to the director that would become one of his greatest colleagues, Bong Joon-ho. In 2003, Song Kang Ho starred as detective Park Doo-man in Bong’s critically acclaimed Memories of Murder. The two had an immediate chemistry that shined through in every project, even the first. “A lot of famous scenes in my films are not entirely scripted. In Memories of Murder, there’s a line where I ask the criminal if they’ve eaten. This wasn’t actually in the script, but Director Bong casually said there has to be something for the scene and left that for the actors to contemplate. I thought about it for three or four days, on how I would speak to a criminal for the first time, and that’s how that line came to be.”
Song Kang-ho Retrospective Presents a Screening and Talk of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance with Special Guest Song Kang-ho, at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Friday December 8, 2023 in Los Angeles, California
Song went on to star in several more successful films, including Bong Joon-ho’s The Host, Lee Chang-dong’s Secret Sunshine, and Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, the Bad, the Weird between 2006 and 2008, with the latter film bringing up more humorous memories. “Filming took place in China, and I hadn’t really ever imagined the Wild West or cowboys as a kid because it’s not that familiar in Eastern culture. I think it was difficult to film because of that, but it was a very fun experience,” Song began. “I told the director I would try really hard to learn how to ride a horse, but I didn’t have the time. I was filming another project during the schedule, so the next day I went on set, the director had changed the original scenes with horses to motorbikes.”
In 2012, the actor faced his first “box office slump” with the films, Hindsight and Howling. To Song, however, there are no regrets with any projects he’s taken before, even if they did not do well commercially. “I select my films by fate (인연). There isn’t any specific criteria when it comes to selecting my next film project, rather, I just read through the script and see if it matches with my emotions,” he said. “Acting is like a marathon – it’s a long process, and winning awards are just a few stops along the way. Awards aren’t an end goal for me, just something that comes or doesn’t along the process.” Not wanting to become too serious, Song ended the thought by sharing his true aim in terms of his acting career: “My goal was actually to be able to host a memoir at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.” His box office slump didn’t last long, though. Bouncing back in 2013 with a slew of commercially successful movies, Song starred in The Face Reader, The Attorney, and Snowpiercer, the latter being his first international project. “When I was first shooting for Snowpiercer, I was surprised that the Hollywood actors had actually memorized the entire script,” Song shared. “The passion that Hollywood actors and Korean actors carry are very much the same, but the preparation process is simply different. Chris Evans was so prepared with memorizing the script!”
“[…] one of the greatest factors as to why Korean content is receiving a lot of love is because the society, culture, and history of Korea are so dynamic. We as a people always strive to move forward and be more experimental. We are always experiencing change, and Korean content reflects that reality.”
Song Kang-ho
In 2016, Song had yet another Korean box office hit with A Taxi Driver, but it was not until 2019 that he gained significant international recognition for his role as Kim Ki-taek in Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite. It quickly became one of the hottest films of the year globally, earning several accolades including the Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2022, Song starred in Japanese director Kore-eda Hirokazu’s debut Korean-language film Broker, reuniting with Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance co-star Bae Doona. Song commented, “There was a Japanese feeling to the film because of the director, but it was actually Korean made.”
Even with countless films under his belt that have won awards and received critical acclaim, Song still finds it hard to watch his own works: “[When I watch my own films], I keep thinking of the moments that I may regret, and how I wish I had done this or that differently.” Most recently, the actor has announced that he will be taking part in an upcoming TV series, Uncle Sam Shik, which will be yet another new adventure for him as he takes on his first small screen role. “Filming recently completed for the show, and they are in the post production stage now,” Song began. “It’s like a historical and modern contemporary drama, so I think it has that certain freshness of emotion and moods that OG Korean drama fans might have been looking forward to.”
Thinking back on his own career and how the Korean film industry has evolved, Song believes the industry can only grow bigger from here. “It’s been around 30 years since my debut in the film industry, and I feel that the industry overall has developed, both in terms of industrial development and quality. Most importantly, I think the Korean film industry has become more diverse and intense, and that there are now more new genres and trend waves catching attention,” he shared. “I don’t think there’s much different between Korean and non-Korean content, but one of the greatest factors as to why Korean content is receiving a lot of love is because the society, culture, and history of Korea are so dynamic. We as a people always strive to move forward and be more experimental. We are always experiencing change, and Korean content reflects that reality.” When looking at the next generation of directors and actors, Song has high hopes: “I’ve worked with new up-and-coming actors and film directors, and I’m sure these up-and-coming actors will become global actors that will represent Korea. They are well prepared and more than ready to communicate and connect with the global audience and film industry.”
With a decorated career spanning thirty years and counting, the veteran actor remains committed to his craft. “Whether on the small screen or silver screen, I want to be a relatable actor, and an actor with empathy,” he started. “I believe that while we are all working hard in our daily lives, we actually have a hidden face within. Inside of us is our real face and emotions that we forget, and we go on with our lives. However, people can see their hidden face through an actor’s performance on the screen. I think that’s why we cry, laugh, feel moved, and empathize with each other [when we see films]. I think an actor is someone who searches for and expresses the real face that is within our hearts. Moving forward, it is my goal to continue this kind of work.”
