Speaking of South Korea's top powerful actors, what comes to mind is the "troika" headed by Song Kanghao, Choi Min-sik, Hwang Jeong-min, Xue Jingqiu and the follow-up Ha Jeong-woo, Lee Byung-hyun, Hwang Jeong-min, etc., but there is a status that is still above them, whether in terms of seniority, honor, box office are the top, if you want to find a person to represent the history of South Korean post-war cinema, it is this, South Korea's "national film emperor" An Shengji.
Ann Sengki
In terms of seniority, An Shengji was born on New Year's Day in 1952, debuted as a child star in 1957 until he stopped acting in high school, and his entire child star career was afraid of more than 70 movies, and at the age of 7, he won the Special Award of the San Francisco Film Festival with "10 Generations of Resistance". It can be said that his child star career has experienced the entire rise of Korean cinema in the 50s/60s. Then went to high school and college, until the age of 26, he debuted as an adult actor, stood firm in the 80s with "The Good Day of the Wind", won the first movie emperor with "Mandala" in 1981, and then embarked on the fast lane, until now, with the shock of Korean movies in the 80s, the 90s went to the peak, and then collapsed in the late 00s and then rose again in the 10s. Every era has masterpieces. This year is already the 62nd year of his debut.
Stills from Ann Sengki
From the honorary award, the number of movie emperors he received was counted in dozens. Why Liang Jiahui's acting skills are highly affirmed, if only from the perspective of awards, every 10 years since his debut has won the Golden Statue Film Emperor, which is very remarkable, it is a manifestation of acting skills and exuberant artistic vitality. And in this regard, An Shengji is completely worthwhile, after becoming an adult actor, only 3 awards have won 8 times of Baixiang Film Emperor, 5 times of Big Bell Film Emperor and 2 times of Qinglong Film Emperor, and the rest of the other awards of Film Emperor and Best Supporting Actor are many, such as 2 Asia-Pacific Film Festival Film Emperor, etc., the film is also shortlisted for major film festivals internationally for many times. In Korea, there are no ones who have never come after that, at least so far, there is no ancient person. In fact, his exuberant film life of more than 60 years is also very rare in the history of cinema.
In terms of box office, he is not behind people, now Korean movies are like domestic films entering the 1 billion box office, 10 million people seem to be able to have every year, but 10 years ago, whether in terms of the number of screens or movies, it is still relatively few to reach this level. The first to pry open the ceiling of 10 million people is An Shengji, who starred in "Shiwei Island" in 2003 not only exceeded 10 million, but directly reached 11.08 million. And there are many people at the level of about five million. For example, more than 7 million people's "Gorgeous Vacation" and so on.
In addition to his own development, Ahn Seung-ki is also very good at promoting new talents, and many korean directors have cooperated with him in their first works to start their careers, such as the 80s Korean directors Lee Chang-ho, Bae Chang-ho and later Lee Myung-seok. Among the actors, Cui Zhen, Ha JiYuan also developed in the film field with his help, and many of Ha Zhiyuan's works are in collaboration with An Shengji. And the godfather of Korean cinema, Lin Quanze, is also mostly internationally renowned for his works, such as "Mandala" and "Drunken Painting Fairy".
An Shengji and Andy Lau
Of course, making a movie in South Korea will not have the highest reputation without going deep into reality. He is also at the forefront of this. For example, "Southern Army", which was named the best film of the 90s and reflected on the war in South Korea in the 40s and 50s, affirmed communist ideas for the first time in Korean films; "Gorgeous Vacation", which reflected the events in Gwangju, triggered a series of works on the subject; and "Broken Arrow", which reflected real cases and fired at the corrupt judicial system together with "The Defender" and "The Melting Pot".
Liang Chaowei and An Shengji
Combined with the above, this is a film actor with a strong artistic life and achievements. Those who have his acting skills have no luck, and those who have his luck do not have his acting skills. Throughout the past 60 years, the well-deserved "National Film Emperor" of South Korea, a person reflects the history of post-war Korean cinema.