‘Drug King’ is a throwback to Song Kang-ho’s dark side

SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Yonhap) — Song Kang-ho is arguably the most successful South Korean movie actor working today, having in 2016 become the first actor to achieve the milestone of playing lead roles in films that sold a cumulative total of more than 100 million tickets.

His recent hit movies, like “A Taxi Driver,” “The Age of Shadows,” “The Attorney” and “Snowpiercer,” established his cinematic image as a man of virtue with a humble demeanor.

Song’s upcoming film, “Drug King,” set for opening on Wednesday, however, is a major turnaround from such images, with him cast in a role that brings out playful and gangsterish elements.

“Over the past ten years, I have often played roles of common people who delve into justice. It wasn’t out of my deliberate intention,” Song said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency and other media outlets on Monday ahead of the new film’s release.

“The latest work will put forth other sides of actor Song Kang-ho,” he said. “They are close to the characters that I played some 20 years ago (at the start of my cinematic career), including ‘Green Fish’ or ‘No. 3.’”

“Audiences may be delighted to see again what I looked like when I debuted … and I myself was very excited while filming it because it had a lot of scenes that I couldn’t act for a long time,” he said.