Song Kang-ho

Some Lesser Known Facts About Song Kang-ho

• Since middle school, Song Kang-ho wanted to become an actor, and joined a social theatre group in his locality, after graduating from Gimhae High School, Gimhae.

• At the time, he had joined the theatre, there were only five theatres in the country.
• He has never taken any formal training in acting. In an interview, Song revealed that he went to an acting school but left it later, and has learned most of the acting from theatres.

• 1n 1990, he joined a theatre group in the company called “Yeonwoo Mudae” in Busan. He performed in many plays with his theatre group like Dongseung,’ ‘Pak Cheom-Ji,’ ‘Gukmul Issajiman,’ ‘Yo-jong Ban-ran,’ and ‘Bionso;’ the first one being ‘Chui Sonsaeng.’

• He worked in theatre for almost a decade. He has also worked with two more theatre companies, ‘Saebyeog’ and ‘Chaimu.’

• While he was working in the theatre, he was offered to work in films many times, but he refused them. Finally, at the age of 30, he made his film debut with the 1996 film “The Day a Pig Fell into the Well” as ‘Dong-suk.’

• He was spotted by Lee Chang-dong when Kang-ho was performing the play ‘Bionso.’ He Chang-dong was impressed by Kang-ho’s performance and cast him in his film “Green Fish” (1997) as ‘Pan-su.’
  

• He played pivotal roles in many films including No. 3 (1997), Bad Movie (1997), The Quiet Family (1998), and Shiri (1999), and finally, bagged a lead role in the 2000 film “The Foul King,” where he played the role of ‘Dae-ho.’
  

• He has acted in many popular films such as Joint Security Area (2000), Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Memories of Murder (2003), The President’s Barber (2004), The Host (2006), The Show Must Go On (2007), Secret Sunshine (2007), The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008), Thirst (2009), Secret Reunion (2010), Snowpiercer (2013), The Throne (2015), A Taxi Driver (2017), The Drug King (2018), and Parasite (2019).

• He won international acclaim for his performance as ‘Kim Ki-taek’ in the film Parasite (2019). The film won Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2019.
  

• In his younger days, Song has also done manual labour in construction sites. According to him, he worked at construction sites, because the pay-per-day for work was very high.

• His film “Parasite” (2019) also became the first Korean film to receive a Golden Globe Award in 2020.
  

• When Bong Joon-ho’s was considered an incompetent director because of his failed efforts in film making earlier, Kang-ho agreed to do a film with him. They both first met when Kang ho was a struggling actor in the industry, and he was giving auditions for a film where Joon ho was working as an assistant director. Kang ho failed at the auditions but he received a message from Joon ho, saying,
  

  I’d like to work on a movie with you one day.

  As a result, when Joon ho offered him a film, Kang ho accepted his offer, and they both worked for the first time in “Memories of Murder.”Since then, they have been very good friends and worked on many projects together.
  

• In 2020, he was enlisted in the top 30 brand reputation rankings for film actors by Korean Business Research Institute.

• One good advice that Song revealed that he follows in acting was given by one of the fellow stage actors, he has worked with earlier. The advice was,
  

  Do not become a technical actor. Do not act in a typical, predictable way.

• Reportedly, Kang-ho’s son, Joon Pyung taught him how to dribble a ball for a scene in the film A Taxi Driver (2017).
  

• According to Song, five of his favourite films are – László Nemes’s “Son of Saul” (2015), Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” (2019), Lee Chang-dong’s “Secret Sunshine” (2010), Park Chan-wook’s “Oldboy” (2003), Franklin J. Schaffner’s “Papillon” (1973). ^[6]Rotten Tomatoes