Song Kang-ho is a South Korean actor who rose to international prominence for his performances in Snowpiercer and Parasite, the latter of which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Picture. Song made his debut as a movie actor in The Day a Pig Fell into the Well in 1996, and came to national prominence with a series of critically acclaimed performances, including No. 3, Joint Security Area, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Memories of Murder, The Host, A Taxi Driver, and Parasite.
Early life and education
Song Kang-ho was born in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea on January 17, 1967. He had wanted to be an actor since eighth grade. He never professionally trained as an actor, beginning his career in social theater groups after graduating from Gimhae High School. He earned a degree in broadcasting from Busan Kyungsang College.
Career
Early career
Song joined Kee Kuk-seo's theatre company, which emphasized instinctive acting and improvisation. He made his stage premiere in 1991 in a play called Dongseung and spent the next decade as a stage actor. Although he was regularly approached to act in films, he always turned down the opportunity until taking a role as an extra in Hong Sang-soo's 1996 filmThe Day a Pig Fell into the Well at age 30. The following year, after portraying one of the homeless in Jang Sun-woo's documentary-style Bad Movie, he gained cult notoriety for his performance in Song Neung-han's No. 3 as a gangster training a group of young recruits, winning his first acting award at the Blue Dragon Film Awards. Following this, Song was cast in several supporting roles before his high-profile appearance as Han Suk-kyu's secret agent partner in Kang Je-gyu's blockbuster thriller Shiri. In early 2000, Song's popularity increased with his first leading role in the box office smash The Foul King, for which he did most of his own stunts. It was his award-winning 2000 performance in Joint Security Area as a North Korean sergeant that established him as one of South Korea's leading actors. Song also starred in Park Chan-wook's acclaimed followup, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, which centers on a father's pursuit of his daughter's kidnappers. In 2002, Song starred in another major production by Myung Films, YMCA Baseball Team, about Korea's first baseball team which formed in the early 20th century.
Prominence
In 2003, he played a leading role as an incompetent rural detective in another critically acclaimed hit, Memories of Murder, from young director Bong Joon-ho. It was the first of several critically acclaimed movies they would make together, with commentators describing Bong's relationship with Song as a "great actor-director collaboration". In 2004, Song starred in The President's Barber by debut director Im Chan-sang, which imagines the life of South Korean president Park Chung-hee's personal barber. The following year he also took the lead in Antarctic Journal, a big-budget project by debut director Yim Pil-sung about an expedition in Antarctica that performed weakly at the box office. In 2006, Song was thrust back in the spotlight, however, with a leading role in Bong Joon-ho's record-breaking creature movie The Host. The film helped to broaden international awareness of Song's talent, and in March 2007 he was named Best Actor at the inaugural Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong. More high-profile projects followed: The Show Must Go On about an aging gangster, Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine, Kim Jee-woon's western set in ManchuriaThe Good, the Bad, the Weird, Park Chan-wook's vampire film Thirst in which he notably appeared full frontally nude, the North-South spy thriller Secret Reunion, the gangster love storyHindsight, the suspense film Howling, the English-language dystopian blockbuster Snowpiercer, the period drama The Face Reader, and The Attorney which was inspired by Roh Moo-hyun's early days as a human rights lawyer. Song has continued to star in a number of critically acclaimed films, including The Throne, a period film that presents a new spin on the relationship between King Yeongjo and Prince Sado; period action film The Age of Shadows, and A Taxi Driver, a film that depicts the 1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement. More recently, he had a starring role in the critically acclaimed film Parasite, also directed by his frequent collaborator Bong Joon-ho, which became the first South Korean film to win the Palme d'Or, as well as the first to be nominated for and win Best Picture at the 2020 Academy Awards.
Personal life
Song married Hwang Jang-suk in 1995, with whom he has two children. Their son, Song Jun-pyoung, born in 1996, is a football player for Suwon Samsung Bluewings, despite Song's opposition. Their daughter is named Ju-yeon.
