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Sul Kyung-gu
South Korean actor (born 1967) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Sul Kyung-gu (Korean: 설경구; born May 14, 1967) is a South Korean actor. Upon his graduation in 1994, he appeared in numerous theatrical productions, such as the hit Korean adaptation of the German rock musical Subway Line 1, and productions of Sam Shepard's True West and A. R. Gurney's Love Letters.[1]
Sul is considered one of the leading actors representing Chungmu-ro in the 2000s, alongside Choi Min-sik and Song Kang-ho. He is best known for his collaborations with director Lee Chang-dong in Peppermint Candy (1999) and Oasis (2002), Public Enemy film series (2002–2008) for which he won the Baeksang Arts Award Grand Prize, and Silmido (2003) which became the highest-grossing film in South Korea at the time of release. He also won Best Actor at the Baeksang Arts Awards for his performances in Hope (2013) and Kingmaker (2022).
His other notable films include Jail Breakers (2002), Voice of a Murderer (2007), Tidal Wave (2009), The Tower (2012), Cold Eyes (2013), The Spy: Undercover Operation (2013), The Merciless (2017), Memoir of a Murderer (2017), and The Book of Fish (2021).
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Early life and education
Sul was born in Seocheon, South Chungcheong Province, on May 1, 1968. He is the second son, with one younger sister. He and his family moved to Dohwa-dong, Mapo District, Seoul when his father, who was a civil servant, transferred to the Mapo District Office. Sul attended Mapo Elementary School and then enrolled in Mapo Middle School and Mapo High School.[2]
Sul's parents wanted him to go to an engineering college, thus guaranteeing him a stable job. However, Sul entered the Department of Theater and Film of Hanyang University with the idea of becoming a film director.[3]
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Career
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1993–1997: Early career
Sul studied theater and film at Hanyang University (Class of '86). In May 1993, When Sul was in his 4th year of college, he directed a play for the 1st Young Theatre Festival, The Moon, Moon, The Bright Moon. At that time, Sul planned to enter the 3rd KBS Talent Recruitment, but he had no choice but to give up the recruitment due to his professor's request.[4] He was also active in Dongsung-dong since the second semester of his senior year, including guest directing play Bison, a performance for the drama class at Deoksung Women's University, as a part-time job.[4] Gradually, he naturally gave up his dream of becoming a film director, and debuted in 1993 with the play Simbasame as Sul joined Hanyang Theater Company, a theater company with alumni of the Department of Theater and Film at Hanyang University as the majority of its members.[4]
When Sul was in his 4th year of college, Sul received a full scholarship with straight-A credits and went up to the department at once. Before graduating from Hanyang University, he received invitations from his advisor to study master at Hanyang University graduate school or Korea National University of Arts, but he refused.[4] Sul continued his theatre activities in Hanyang Theater Company, however Sul didn't want to be under the shadow of his school. After graduating, Sul left the company.[5]
In May 1994, Sul asked a college senior who was the head of the planning department at the theater company Hakjeon for a part-time job. He met Kim Min-ki and was cast in the hit Korean adaptation of the German rock musical Subway Line 1. Sul participated in this production from the premiere in 1994 to 1996, playing all but two of the 80 roles, accumulating various experiences and acting skills and achieving great success.[6] In addition, he has been active as a theater actor and musical actor in Daehakro, appearing in plays such as Korean productions of Sam Shepard's True West and musical Mosquito (Musical).[1]
Since 1988, Sul began taking on minor roles in television. On stage, he was a star actor who played 14 roles, but in television dramas, he was just an aspiring actor.[7] In the mid-1990s, Sul began taking on minor roles in feature films. In 1996, Sul made his screen debut in his first film A Petal, playing the role of Woo-ri, a college student who is chasing the whereabouts of the female lead (Lee Jung-hyun), on the recommendation of director Shim Kwang-jin, a college classmate who was taking directing lessons from director Jang Seon-woo.
1998–2002: Career breakthrough
In 1997, Sul met Cha Seung-jae, the CEO of Sidus FNH, the producer of the film Girls' Night Out, which was released in 1998. Sul had a minor role, and his name was featured in the credits as an actor.[8][9] Sul played a cartoonist who spends a night with Yeon (Jin Hee-kyung), a hotel employee in the play, and his acting was short but impressive. He then signed management contracts with Sidus HQ and made his breakthrough, with major roles in Rainbow Trout, Phantom: The Submarine, and The Bird That Stops in the Air (1999).[10]
In early 1999, Sul was selected for the lead role through an audition for director Lee Chang-dong's film Peppermint Candy. Initially, Sul failed in the first audition, but the director's wife, known as the playwright of the production Confession, saw him in the audition film she saw in the living room by chance, and recommended him, saying, "Here's Kim Young-ho", recognizing him as famous.[11]
In addition, director Lee Chang-dong revealed the reason for casting Sul Kyung-gu:
Unlike other actors, I rather liked that he hesitated and said that he had no confidence. He looked weak in charisma with an ordinary mask, but his face was different every time I saw him, and that seemed to enable him to express various colors as well as good and evil, so he was cast.[12]
In film Peppermint Candy, Sul played Kim Yeong-ho, a suicidal man devastated by the two-decades of historical change his country undergoes.[13] After shooting for six months from mid-May to the end of September, the film debuted on October 14 of that year as the opening film at the 4th Busan International Film Festival. The film was acclaimed and Sul received rave reviews. He swept 10 New Actor Awards and Best Actor Awards at the Korean Film Critics Association Award, Chunsa Film Art Awards, Blue Dragon Film Awards, Daejong Awards, and Baeksang Arts Awards.
Sul next appeared in the romantic comedy I Wish I Had a Wife with Jeon Do-yeon in 2001, playing the role of Bong-su, an ordinary old bachelor bank clerk who yearns for romance. Then acted in a Japanese TV drama produced by NHK.
In 2002, Sul starred in three major films. As a violent and unscrupulous police detective in Public Enemy, he won Best Actor at the Grand Bell Awards and Blue Dragon Film Awards respectively. In August, he starred in Lee Chang-dong's acclaimed third film Oasis, which won the Silver Lion for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival. Sul's portrayal of a mildly mentally disabled outcast with sociopathic inclinations won him Best Actor at the Chunsa Film Art Awards, Korean Association of Film Critics Awards, Korean Film Awards, Director's Cut Awards, and 29th Seattle International Film Festival. In November, he acted together with Cha Seung-won in a box office hit Jail Breakers by director Kim Sang-jin.[14]
2003–2011: Success as a box-office actor
In 2003, Sul starred in Silmido directed by Cinema Service founder Kang Woo-suk, which became the first Korean film in history to gross 10 million admissions.[15][16] His next role was as the title character in Rikidōzan, about the legendary ethnic Korean pro wrestler who became a national hero in Japan in the 1950s. Sul gained 20 kilograms for the role and also delivered 95% of his lines in Japanese. Although his performance was acclaimed, the film vastly underperformed on its local release.[17][18]
In 2005, Sul starred in the sequel Another Public Enemy, which ended up outgrossing the original.[19] This was followed by a second sequel, Public Enemy Returns in 2008. His other films Haeundae (2009), The Tower (2012) and Cold Eyes (2013) have also been box office hits.[20][21][22][23][24][25] For his performance in Haeundae, he won Grand Prize at the 2009 Korean Culture and Entertainment Awards, followed by Best Actor award at the 18th Chunsa Film Art Awards for his performance in 2010 film No Mercy.
In October 2005, Sul Kyung-gu played the role of the male protagonist Andy in A. R. Gurney's Love Letters by the theatre company Hanyang Repertory. It was directed Professor Choi Hyung-in, his acting teacher.[26] It was his comeback onstage for the first time in years since his latest the musical Subway Line 1.[27]
2012–2015: Career resurgence
Sul Kyung-gu returned to the big screen after about a year and a half with the disaster film The Tower in December 2012.[28] In 2013, Sul appeared in three movies, Cold Eyes,[29][30] The Spy: Undercover Operation,[31] and Hope and mobilised a total of 1681 million viewers in 2013. He ranked 2nd after Song Kang-ho in the box office actor.[32] In director Lee Jun-ik's family drama Hope,[33] which is based on the child sexual assault case known as the Cho Doo-soon case, Sul played the role of Dong-hoon, expressing the desperate need of a father to watch his daughter's pain and suffering, and resonating with the audience.[29][34] He received favorable reviews for his excellent acting, and won the Best Actor at the 50th Baeksang Arts Awards.[35][36][37]
In a media interview, director Lee Jun-ik commented on Sul:
He was a very respectable actor. Before filming, he came to the scene with a lot of emotion and only looked at the wall, but when the filming started, he poured out his emotions terribly. Because of Sul Kyung-gu, he was able to complete 'Wish'. He is a great learner.[38]
The following year, Sul starred in My Dictator, as an aspiring actor who is forced to impersonate North Korean leader. For his performance in My Dictator, he won Best Actor at the 35th Golden Cinematography Awards.[39]
Sul began teaching acting in 2014 at his alma mater Hanyang University, as an adjunct professor in the College of Performing Arts.[40][41][42]
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In 2015, Sul starred in the war drama film The Long Way Home alongside Yeo Jin-goo. Sul played the role of Jang Nam-bok, a farmer who is suddenly dragged to the battlefield with a newborn baby in the war film Western Front, the directorial debut of playwright Cheon Seong-il. The film depicts the story of the confrontation between Jang Nam-bok of the South Korean Army and Kim Yeong-gwang (Yeo Jin-goo) of the North Korean Army ahead of the armistice agreement in July 1953. With this film, he took on the role of a soldier for the third time following the previous films Peppermint Candy and Silmido.[43][44][45]
2017–present: Film comeback and other ventures
In 2017, Sul starred opposite Im Si-wan in The Merciless. It was shown out of competition in the Midnight Screenings section at the 70th Cannes Film Festival on May 24, 2017.[46][47] The film brought Sul to win Best Actor awards at the 54th Grand Bell Awards and 37th Korean Association of Film Critics Awards. He next starred in thriller film Memoir of a Murderer, as a retired serial killer with Alzheimer's disease.[48][49] For his performance in Memoir of a Murderer, Sul received Best Actor awards at the 17th Director's Cut Awards in 2017 and the 9th Korea Film Reporters Association Film Awards (KOFRA) in 2018.[50][51] The release of Sul's third film in 2017, I Want to Know Your Parents,[52] has been postponed indefinitely following the scandal of actor Oh Dal-su.[53]
Sul next starred in a 2019 film Idol opposite Han Suk-kyu and Chun Woo-hee, which opened in March.[54] Despite the solid acting by three senior actors, Idol received mix reviews.[55] In April 2019, Sul reunited with Jeon Do-yeon, eighteen years after I Wish I Had a Wife, in the film Birthday.[56] The film, inspired by the Sinking of MV Sewol tragedy, deals with the struggles faced by a couple who lose their son in a tragic accident.[57] The film had its international premiere at the 2019 Far East Film Festival in Udine.[58] The same year, Sul starred in the human comedy film Man to Men with Cho Jin-woong.[59][60]
Sul has reunited with The Merciless director Byun Sung-hyun for the film Kingmaker. It was released in December 2021.[61]
In 2022 Sul was honoured by 26th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival by hosting an actor special exhibition 'The Actor, Sul Kyung-gu' focusing on actor Sul Kyung-gu's 29-year acting career along with various events such as the publication of a commemorative booklet entitled 'Sul Kyung-gu is Snow Gyeong-gu', and mega talk during the festival.[62]
In May 2025, Netflix announced that Sul will be one of the main characters of their new drama The Rat, alongside with Ryu Jun-yeol.[63]
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Other activities
Philanthropy
Sul and his wife Song Yoon-ah supported the entire cost of surgery for Ha-jin, who was suffering from congenital heart disease. In July 2010, they visited Seoul St. Mary's Hospital.[64][65]
In April 2014, Sul Kyung-gu, along with Song Yoon-ah, said through the Korean Committee for UNICEF, "I felt pain that is difficult to express in words while watching the Sewol ferry disaster. I sincerely hope for recovery," and donated ₩100 million to the victims of the sinking of MV Sewol.[66][67]
On February 13, 2023, Sul and Song Yoon-ah donated ₩50 million to assist with recovery efforts for the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, through Korea's UNICEF Committee with participation in the Emergency Relief for Children Victims of the Earthquake in Turkey and Syria programme.[68]
Personal life
Relationships
Sul married the younger sister of actor Ahn Nae-sang in 1996. They have one daughter together. After being separated for four years, Sul and his wife divorced on July 21, 2006.[69]
On May 28, 2009, Sul married actress Song Yoon-ah. They have one son together. Sul and Song previously worked together in the films Jail Breakers (2002) and Lost in Love (2006).[70][71]
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
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Stage credit
Musical
Theater
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Awards and nominations
Listicles
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References
External links
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