<b>When it</b> comes to good Korean movies, it must be indispensable to "The Melting Pot" (2011) and "Busan Trip" (2016), the former "changed the world", and in today's frequent child sex crimes, this story should have been seen by more people; and the latter, as the first real zombie blockbuster in South Korea and even Asia, made Korean movies go further to the world stage. Kong You, the male protagonist of these two films, just celebrated his fortieth birthday today (July 10).
From the scumbag male partner in "My Savage Female Teacher" to the male protagonist of "Coffee Prince No. 1 Shop", "The Melting Pot", "Ghost", "Busan Trip" and other blockbuster works, Kong You, who has a keen vision and uniqueness in the selection of films, is most afraid of being solidified by the role, and at the same time, compared to the identity of the actor, he is more concerned about a social responsibility on his own.
Kong You and "Daughter" appeared in Cannes with "Busan Trip"
Born in 1979, Kong You graduated from Kyung Hee University in South Korea with a degree in film acting. In 2001, he debuted as a model. In 2003, he debuted on the big screen and made a deep impression as a "non-good feeling" scum in "My Savage Female Teacher" starring Kwon Sang-woo and Kim Ho-na.
Until 2007, when he starred in the blockbuster Korean drama "Coffee Prince No. 1 Shop", most of the roles he played were supporting roles, and most of them were funny roles. However, the popularity of "Coffee Prince No. 1 Shop" made Kong You become popular overnight as an idol actor loved by koreans and even Asians.
Kong You starred in "Coffee Prince No. 1 Shop"
After that, Kong You was not satisfied with being a popular idol, but boldly chose to star in South Korea's first film based on a popular musical, "Looking for Kim Jong-wook", which finally achieved a double harvest of box office and word-of-mouth, and also let people see Kong You's extraordinary vision of selecting films for the first time.
Stills from "The Melting Pot"
Released in South Korea in 2011, "The Melting Pot" is based on a novel of the same name based on true events, telling the story of a deaf-mute school teacher played by Kong You who tracks down the sexual abuse of children in school. When the film was released in South Korea, it caused a national shock, which in turn led to a retrial of the case and the "Sexual Assault Prevention Amendment" (aka the "Melting Pot Act"), all of which stemmed from Kong You's original obsession. He read the original novel during his military service, and his shock, anger, and disbelief at the "real events" drove him to recommend the story to a producer he knew, and later there was the movie we saw, The Melting Pot.
Stills from "The Suspect"
Poster of "Men and Women"
Secret Agent poster
After "The Melting Pot", Kong You successively starred in the action thriller "Suspect" with "North and South Themes", the literary and artistic romance film "Man and Woman" with Quan Duyan, and the spy war anti-Japanese film "Secret Agent" with Song Kanghao. During this period, he starred in the Korean drama "Lonely and Brilliant God: Ghosts" and made him once again the male god of Korean dramas that swept all over Asia.
Stills from "Busan Trip"
But then, again, he chose to challenge himself. Because of his curiosity, he put aside all kinds of concerns and decided to star in the zombie blockbuster "Busan Trip", working with director Yeon Sang-ho, who directed a live-action feature film for the first time. After the film was released in South Korea, it not only quickly broke through tens of millions of moviegoers, but also marketed in more than 160 countries around the world and earned $140 million at the overseas box office. In a later interview, he confessed that he did not expect the film to be so popular, which is the same as the answer after the big sale of "The Melting Pot" that year.
Kong You, who has entered the age of confusion, now has two new works, one is the film "Kim Ji-young born in 1982" based on the popular novel of the same name, which tells the story of a thirty-year-old woman to reflect the various problems of Korean society; the other is the science fiction film "Xiaobu" directed by Lee Yong-joo, director of "Introduction to Architecture". Both of these works are quite topical, the former has caused a feminist debate in Korean society, and the latter is a science fiction theme that Korean filmmakers are beginning to explore, and it remains to be seen whether Kong You's personal miracle can be continued.