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- The Secret Ingredients of Korea’s Box Office Titans
- by Pierce Conran / Sep 05, 2017
- Korean Cinema Welcomes a New Wave of Scene-Stealers
In the modern age of fast information, news often gets boiled down to its essentials as information needs to be squeezed into a headline or a tweet. When it comes to analyzing hit films at the box office, that means anything beyond a star actor, a popular theme and occasionally a notable director, tends to fall by the wayside. Yet any film production is an enormous undertaking and the ingredients for its success are manifold.Korean cinema has a wealth of talented actors that stretches far beyond the few dozen names that rotate in and out of marquees any given year. Some faces pop up more often than others, and among them, a few repeatedly find themselves in major hits. So why do some hard-working actors appear in more blockbusters than others? Is it luck, good choices or are they themselves a part of a film’s recipe for success?Some supporting stars are undoubtedly a major draw beyond the leading stars. Top of that list is of course OH Dal-su, who has appeared in six of the top seven Korean films of all time, while others such as LEE Gyoung-young (Assassination, Inside Men), BAE Sung-woo (Veteran, Inside Men) and LA Mi-ran (Ode to My Father, The Himalayas), also boast an impressive number of hits in their filmographies.Looking at the last year or two, what new faces have been stealing the spotlight from their co-stars? KoBiz has put together a brief list of performers who have been making waves in the industry.KIM Min-jae : Veteran in the Shadows
KIM Min-jae debuted a decade ago in LEE Chang-dong’s Secret Sunshine (2007) and his knack for characters that navigate blurry moral territories, are quick to anger and are easily motivated by their own self-interest have made him a go-to performer for several top directors such as LEE (he also appeared in Poetry) and RYOO Seung-wan (The Unjust, Veteran, The Battleship Island).His 33 roles in the last ten years have included smash hits (Ode to My Father, 2014) but also critically acclaimed indies (A Girl at My Door, 2014) and commercial titles (The Truth Beneath) as he takes on roles in a wide range of projects. His amoral performances as people who abuse stations of influence, such as his reporters in The Exclusive: Beat the Devil’s Tattoo (2015) and The King, add texture to films without ever taking attention away from anything else.KIM Hong-pa : New Face Takes on the Corruption of Old
KIM Hong-pa is hardly new to the industry but five years ago he began appearing in around five films a year in roles that kept getting bigger until he found himself in the main cast of both Assassination and Inside Men in 2015. Now he’s one of the go-to faces to play either corrupt or weak-willed characters in senior positions of authority.This year saw him appear in the election tale The Mayor, con artist drama ONE-LINE, period investigation comedy The King’s Case Note, small-town action-comedy The Sheriff in Town, and, perhaps most memorably as a sleazy businessman in the action noir REAL. He is currently shooting the star-studded school mystery I Want to See Your Parents’ Face.UM Tae-goo : A Bright and Deep New Voice
If any name on this list will transition to a career as a leading actor, surely it will be UM Tae-goo, whose haywire and magnetic officer in KIM Jee-woon’s The Age of Shadows (2016) was one of the most memorable supporting roles in several years. He was also impressive alongside GANG Dong-won in VANISHING TIME: A BOY WHO RETURNED (2016, directed by his brother UM Tae-hwa) while his short appearance in JANG Hun’s A Taxi Driver this summer was one of that film’s highlights.UM’s deep, whispery voice is one of the most unique in Korean cinema and he pairs it with his rangy physicality on screen. His roles thus far have been magnetic, almost to the detriment of anyone who shares the screen with him, even the great SONG Kang-ho. He is currently filming the period battle drama Ansi Fortress.KIM In-woo : The Colonial Era Specialist
Anyone who has followed Korean cinema over the last few years will have noticed the current popularity of films set during the Japanese Occupation Era (1910-45). If you’ve seen even a few, chances are you’ve already come across KIM In-woo more than once. A third generation Korean born in Japan, KIM moved from the Japanese to the Korean film industry a little under a decade ago, brushed up on his Korean and made his local debut in JANG Jin’s Good Morning President (2009).Specializing in Japanese-speaking characters possessing keen and calculating intelligence, these days he’s in hot demand for films set in the Colonial Era, often playing military officers or government officials. His recent credits include RYOO Seung-wan’s The Battleship Island, LEE Joon-ik’s Anarchist from Colony and DONGJU: The Portrait of A Poet (2016), HUR Jin-ho’s The Last Princess (2016), PARK Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden (2016) and CHOI Dong-hoon’s Assassination (2015).KIM So-jin : From Stage to Scene-Stealer
Lunar New Year hit The King painted a man’s world of deep-seated corruption and illicit gratification but even among a cast of male, heavy-weight stars, KIM So-jin stood out as a determined prosecutor who never wavers in the face of all their combined bluster. With her forceful and nuanced portrayal of that character as well as some very different recent roles, KIM is showing the industry the extent of her impressive range.A veteran stage actress, KIM debuted on the big screen in Haunters (2010) and after toiling in several small roles, she has finally made her way to the main lineup in 2017. Besides her role in The King, she also featured in New Trial and will be back on screen in the Chuseok comedy I Can Speak. She is currently filming Drug King, in which she plays the wife of SONG Kang-ho’s character.CHOI Gwi-hwa : The Summer’s Top Villain
This year’s summer smash A Taxi Driver awakened memories of the past as it drove all the way to the top ten films of all time. However while the antagonist was a system of corrupt government and cover-ups that led to the Gwangju Uprising, the villain of the piece was brought to life by character actor CHOI Gwi-hwa. Playing an undercover officer who doggedly tracks the protagonists, his gravely timbre and sinister eyes encapsulated the fear and persecution of the era.After making his bones on the stage, CHOI found his way to bit roles in small films in, beginning in 2009. He quickly graduated to major films but it was only recently that his roles got bigger. First in works like LEE Ji-seung’s NO TOMORROW (2016) and KIM Ki-duk’s THE NET (2016) until his gruff mannerisms were picked up for major roles in the mainstream. CHOI will next be seen in the Chuseok thriller Crime City.
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