Love Conquers All Love Conquers All
Oct
21
2007

Twitch-O-Meter: Song Kang-Ho is ready for his extreme close-up, Mr. deMille!

Posted by Ard Vijn at 9:18am.

Posted in Twitch-O-Meter .

It’ll always be a mystery what makes some people beautiful and others less so, but the fact is that the first time I saw Song Kang-Ho on the big screen I thought damn, that guy is not exactly blessed with that face…

Shows what I know of course: before the film was over I was completely enthralled by the performance of what is undoubtedly one of the best actors working today. And the same thing happened with the next film I saw him star in. And the next.

And, as a face is one of the tools an actor has at his disposal, I was obviously wrong for Song Kang-Ho is certainly blessed with his. It’s a remarkable mug he’s got, instantly recognizable yet plain enough to enable him to play anything, from commoner to boss, from lovable simpleton to devious psycho.
It’s no surprise directors love showing that face in close-up, milking Mr. Song’s talent (he can do both subtle nuance and over-the-top theatrics and make it look easy) for all its worth.


So instead of the usual list I’d like to do something different for a change: a gallery of 5 extreme close-ups of one of my favorite thespians.
Guess which 5 movies they’re from and I’ll post the answers Tuesday (earlier if someone has all 5 right).
No competition, no prizes, just for fun, try to see how far you get without using IMDB.

I’ll give away the sixth picture, at the top of this article: that is of course from “The Show Must Go On”, and doesn’t count because it’s not a shot from the movie but from the poster. Good luck with the others!

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Reader Comments

  1. Raku 10/21/2007 @ 10:52am

    Shall i post here?

    OK mods if i shouldn’t post remove this please

    in order from the View all images… link

    Antarctic Journal
    Swiri
    Memories of Murder
    JSA
    The Host

    I’m not sure about the swiri one so if i am to get any wrong it will be that.

  2. rentzzz 10/21/2007 @ 12:48pm

    let me guess:

    1. antartic journal
    2. dunno, haven’t seen it :S
    3. memories of murder
    4. joint security area
    5. the host

  3. zombeaner 10/21/2007 @ 2:10pm

    I love SKH.  That is all

  4. Ard Vijn 10/21/2007 @ 4:09pm

    That took only about 1.5 hours!

    Raku, you are completely right providing Swiri and Shiri are the same thing (and IMDB says it is, so...). Well done! wink

  5. Raku 10/21/2007 @ 5:33pm

    Hehe that was fun, sorry i busted it so early i’m a big Song Kang-ho fan and i just couldn’t resist.

    If im right what gave it away was the blue background, it’s from a scene in the tropical fish shop right?

    OK i have one for you Ardvark “digs out dvd”

    dunno if this is permitted but here goes

    http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/7417/skhrn1.jpg

  6. Ard Vijn 10/21/2007 @ 11:59pm

    Hi Raku, you should like our quiz-topic in the forum:
    http://twitchfilm.net/site/forums/viewthread/9/

    I’ve put your picture in there, see what happens… (is it “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” by the way?)

    The shot from “Swiri” is not from the pet-shop, but from the police station. He is holding (parts of) a fish though…

  7. Raku 10/22/2007 @ 5:47am

    lol i still got it right, that movie does have some distinct colours in it though.

    nope it’s not Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

  8. That Jason Guy 10/22/2007 @ 9:49pm

    I knew all the screencaps except “Antarctic Journal” (gotta add that to my ever-growing list of purchases!), but I just wanted to say to Ardvark: what a unique and awesome post! I totally agree with you about Song Kang-ho’s facial dexterity and thespian abilities, and in fact I’m tempted to say he surpasses even the vaunted Choi Min-shik in terms of sheer range as an actor. Keep in mind I first saw Song in the over-the-top comedy “The Foul King,” and next in the darker-than-black “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance,” which are just about the most divergent roles you could see any actor in back-to-back, and he frickin’ brought the goods, in both wacky physical comedy as well as gut-wrenching pathos. Song is pretty high on my list of “cereal box” actors--those whom I would watch in any role, even if they were just reading the ingredients panel from a box of breakfast cereal. If you haven’t seen his entire filmography (myself included!), get to it.

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