Song Kang-ho

Acting

Song Kang-ho

Born 1967-01-17 · Gimhae, South Gyeongsang, South Korea

Song Kang-ho (Korean: 송강호; born 17 January 1967) is a South Korean actor. Regarded as one of the most influential actors in Korean cinema, he has appeared in critically acclaimed films across various genres. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a Cannes Film Festival Award, three Baeksang Arts Awards, four Blue Dragon Film Awards, and five Grand Bell Awards. In 2020, The New York Times named him one of the greatest actors of the 21st century. Song first gained recognition with the crime thriller No. 3 (1997), and later rose to prominence with Park Chan-wook's critically acclaimed film Joint Security Area (2000). He is known for his collaborations with filmmaker Bong Joon-ho in Memories of Murder (2003), The Host (2006), Snowpiercer (2013), and Parasite (2019). Song rose to wider international prominence for his performance in Parasite, which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Picture. He has also worked extensively with director Kim Jee-woon, starring in five of his films: The Quiet Family (1998), The Foul King (2000), The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008), The Age of Shadows (2016), and Cobweb (2023). His other notable films include Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Secret Sunshine (2007), Thirst (2009), The Attorney (2013), The Throne (2015), A Taxi Driver (2017), and Broker (2022). Song has been named Gallup Korea's Film Actor of the Year four times (2013, 2017, 2019 and 2020). Description above from the Wikipedia article Song Kang-ho, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Parasite poster
8.5

All unemployed, Ki-taek's family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks for their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.

Parasite

2019

Memories of Murder poster
8.1

A sadistic serial rapist and murderer of young women terrorizes a small province in 1980s South Korea. To prevent further crimes, three increasingly desperate detectives with conflicting methods race against time to unravel the violent mind of the killer in a futile effort to solve the case.

Memories of Murder

2003

Snowpiercer poster
6.9

In a future where a failed global-warming experiment kills off most life on the planet, a class system evolves aboard the Snowpiercer; a train that travels around the globe via a perpetual-motion engine.

Snowpiercer

2013

The Host poster
7.0

A teenage girl is captured by a giant mutated squid-like creature that appears from Seoul's Han River after toxic waste was dumped in it, prompting her family into a frantic search for her.

The Host

2006

The Interview poster
6.2

Dave Skylark and his producer Aaron Rapaport run the celebrity tabloid show "Skylark Tonight". When they land an interview with a surprise fan, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, they are recruited by the CIA to turn their trip to Pyongyang into an assassination mission.

The Interview

2014

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance poster
7.5

A deaf man and his girlfriend resort to desperate measures in order to fund a kidney transplant for his sister. Things go horribly wrong, and the situation spirals rapidly into a cycle of violence and revenge.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

2002

A Taxi Driver poster
8.0

May, 1980. Man-seob is a taxi driver in Seoul who lives from hand to mouth, raising his young daughter alone. One day, he hears that there is a foreigner who will pay big money for a drive down to Gwangju city. Not knowing that he’s a German journalist with a hidden agenda, Man-seob takes the job.

A Taxi Driver

2017

Broker poster
7.2

When a young mother reconsiders abandoning her baby, she discovers a scheme selling foundlings for adoption.

Broker

2022

Joint Security Area poster
7.8

Two North Korean soldiers are killed in the border area between North and South Korea, prompting an investigation by a neutral body. The sergeant is the shooter, but the lead investigator, a Swiss-Korean woman, receives differing accounts from the two sides.

Joint Security Area

2000

Lady Vengeance poster
7.5

Released after being wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for 13 years, a woman begins executing her elaborate plan of retribution.

Lady Vengeance

2005

Emergency Declaration poster
7.4

While investigating a terroristic threat that goes viral online, Korean authorities discover that a suspect has recently boarded an international flight bound for the United States. When a healthy passenger on the same flight suddenly dies a gruesome death of unknown cause, panic erupts both in-flight and on the ground. With steadily decreasing fuel and international refusals to offer aid, the captain and crew will be forced to take unprecedented emergency measures in an attempt to save the lives of their passengers.

Emergency Declaration

2022

Thirst poster
7.1

A respected priest volunteers for an experimental procedure that may lead to a cure for a deadly virus. He gets infected and dies, but a blood transfusion of unknown origin brings him back to life. Now, he’s torn between faith and bloodlust, and has a newfound desire for the wife of a childhood friend.

Thirst

2009

The Good, the Bad, the Weird poster
7.2

The story of three Korean outlaws in 1930s Manchuria and their dealings with the Japanese army and Chinese and Russian bandits. The Good (a bounty hunter), the Bad (a hitman), and the Weird (a thief) battle the army and the bandits in a race to use a treasure map to uncover the riches of legend.

The Good, the Bad, the Weird

2008

Cobweb poster
6.5

In the 1970s, Director Kim is obsessed by the desire to re-shoot the ending of his completed film Cobweb, but chaos and turmoil grip the set with interference from the censorship authorities, and the complaints of actors and producers who can't understand the re-written ending. Will Kim be able to find a way through this chaos to fulfill his artistic ambitions and complete his masterpiece?

Cobweb

2023

The Age of Shadows poster
7.2

Set in the late 1920s, The Age of Shadows follows the cat-and-mouse game that unfolds between a group of resistance fighters trying to bring in explosives from Shanghai to destroy key Japanese facilities in Seoul, and Japanese agents trying to stop them.

The Age of Shadows

2016

The Drug King poster
6.3

Busan, South Korea, 1970s. Lee Doo-sam is a small-time smuggler. After helping a drug gang to smuggle meth, he falls into the dark crime world. Quick-witted and full of ambition, he eventually takes over the drug underworld and starts to lead a double life: a good community leader during the day but an infamous drug lord during the night.

The Drug King

2018

Shiri poster
6.4

North Korea's 8th Special Forces hijack a shipment of CTX, a potent new liquid explosive, and threatens South Korea as part of a plot to re-unify the two countries. Ryu and Lee, special agents of O.P., South Korea's secret intelligence service, attempt to track down the terrorists and find the CTX. Meanwhile Hee, the 8th's ultra-bad female sniper, resurfaces to wreak havoc and haunt Ryu.

Shiri

1999

Secret Sunshine poster
7.2

Shin-ae moves to her recently late husband’s hometown. Despite her efforts to settle in this unfamiliar and too-normal place, she finds that she can’t fit in. After a sudden tragedy, Shin-ae turns to Christianity to relieve her pain, but when even this is not permitted, she wages a war against God.

Secret Sunshine

2007

The Attorney poster
7.8

Song Woo-seok is a lawyer with no clients. When his friend's son is falsely accused of a crime and tortured, he takes up the case and the course of his life changes for good.

The Attorney

2013

The Face Reader poster
7.0

An exceptionally talented face reader becomes entangled in a bloody power struggle between a child king and his uncle who plans to usurp the throne.

The Face Reader

2013

The Throne poster
7.1

Ancient Korea, July 4, 1762. The Crown Prince Hyojang, posthumously named Sado, son of King Yeongjo of Joseon, is accused of treason. Thus, the king asks him to commit suicide, but his closest vassals prevent it, so the king orders the prince to get inside a wooden rice chest, where he suffers deprivation of food and water.

The Throne

2015

The Quiet Family poster
7.0

A family decides to buy a lodge in a remote hiking area. Their first customer commits suicide and the distraught family buries his body to avoid the bad publicity. But their luck gets worse, the bodies start piling up, and the family becomes frantic to rectify the situation.

The Quiet Family

1998

Green Fish poster
6.9

Returning home and finding his town drastically changed, a former soldier falls in with gangsters.

Green Fish

1997

The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well poster
6.4

The lives of 4 interconnected South Koreans – a married couple, a novelist the wife is having an affair with, and a second woman the novelist is simultaneously involved with.

The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well

1996

Behind the camera