Courtesy Picture / Hulu
Tune Kang-ho (Parasite) stars within the new TV drama Uncle Samsik.
Thought of among the best actors of his technology in South Korea, Tune Kang-ho is broadly identified for his position within the critically acclaimed 2019 movie Parasite, which gained the Academy Award for Finest Image.
It’s onerous to imagine that after a virtually 30-year profession in movie, Tune is simply now starring in his first TV collection. Within the interval drama Uncle Samsik, Tune performs the title character, a political operative whose mission is to maintain his neighborhood fed at a time in historical past the place everybody resides in poverty. In Korean, “sam-sik” interprets to “three meals.”
Amid South Korea’s main turmoil of the early Sixties, the Uncle Samsik character makes an attempt to maneuver his approach by way of the political course of and information a brand new technology of leaders to steer the nation in the correct course.
Throughout a current interview with the Present, Tune, 57, through an interpreter, talked concerning the South Korean historical past behind Uncle Samsik and why he’s not involved with fame.
Uncle Samsik is at present streaming on Hulu within the U.S. and on Disney+ internationally.
Uncle Samsik is the primary TV collection of your profession. Why do you suppose it took so lengthy to tackle a venture like this?
I did not intentionally not do TV exhibits. I simply occur to do a whole lot of motion pictures. Now, as you most likely know, we’ve got many extra channels by way of which we will talk with the viewers and the followers with totally different content material. So, I feel it was very pure for me to do this new surroundings as nicely.
What did you want about this explicit TV present that made you need to be part of it?
This won’t be a solution that you simply anticipated from me, however I selected it as a result of it is not stylish in any respect. I feel we now stay in an inflow of streaming exhibits, and a whole lot of these exhibits are very stylish. They’ve provocative topic supplies, they usually’re very quick paced. I feel [Uncle Samsik] is a slow-cooking sort of present. That is what actually drew me in.
Was this a part of South Korea’s historical past one thing you realized rising up?
The present is about towards the early ’60s, which was about seven or eight years earlier than I used to be even born. So, I did not expertise it myself. However if you happen to’re raised in Korea, you’re very nicely educated on this turbulent period. It was a really essential period in Korean trendy historical past. It was about seven years after the Korean Warfare, which meant that we needed to construct the whole lot from the underside up: politics, society, economics, tradition. Every part was so turbulent and never nicely rooted. So, that is why we name it a tumultuous interval. As a result of it was such an vital period, all of us knew very a lot about it.
Are you able to clarify the importance of consuming three meals a day within the Korean tradition throughout that point?
The period was simply after the warfare, which signifies that everybody was actually poor. Everybody struggled to outlive actually by consuming. So, having three meals a day was like a blessing. It was the most important hope that individuals may have. It is solely in Korea, the place you [say] “Good day” by asking, “Have you ever eaten?” We have been very nervous that individuals would starve. We might be inquisitive about whether or not you’ve gotten eaten or not. That is how a lot which means “three meals” needed to individuals on the time.
How did your life change after Parasite grew to become a world hit?
I do not suppose my life ought to change due to one occasion. It does not have an effect on me a lot as an actor. I imply, actors are congratulated on what they’ve achieved. However actors and artists, their careers needs to be like an extended marathon. It ought to simply be like our lives. It is a lengthy marathon that should not change course. So, whereas there may have been some change, I do not suppose that change actually impacted me a lot as an actor.
As a Korean actor, is it vital to you that you simply’re identified exterior of Korea and have a world following?
To be sincere, I am undecided if I can say it is vital. It’s positively a blessing that Korean tradition, Korean cinema and Korean content material are gaining extra acknowledgement. Individuals find it irresistible lots. That’s true, for certain. However then an actor’s life or an actor’s profession mustn’t change due to fame. It mustn’t have an effect on the actor. What’s vital is what’s inside them.
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