Song Kang-ho makes his television debut in “Uncle Samsik”

Philiana Ng: You have had an incredibly successful film career that has spanned over 30 years. How do you feel about what you have achieved so far?
Song Kang-ho: I don’t think I’ve achieved that much. They flatter me. I’ve been very lucky as an actor. I’ve met a lot of great artists in Korea and been able to work with them on many projects. So I just want to say that I’m a very lucky person.

PM: Uncle Samsik marks your television series debut. What appealed to you about the story and your character that made you say yes?
SK: Currently we live in an influx of content available to us through different channels and we have such easy access to a variety of shows right now. I think a lot of the shows we watch now have very provocative themes, a very striking style and they are all very fast-paced. But there are certain things that escape the story because of the fast pace and I think Uncle Samsik does the exact opposite of that. It might not seem very trendy at first, but it really goes deep. And if it can go that dense and deep, unlike other trendy shows, I think that’s a different form of entertainment that we can offer the audience, and that makes it even more creative.

PN: How would you describe Uncle Samsik? Are there any personality traits or characteristics of his that you personally identify with?
SK: I think he’s similar to all of us. He has all of the traits that we carry within us. He’s struggled a lot and really fought his way up to get to the position that he’s in now. He has this ideal society that he dreams of, and that’s why he turns to Kim San (played by Byun Yo-han) and tries to win him over because he’s this ideal person with pure passion that could make his ideal society come true. So, in this process, a lot of things happen, and through these events, Samsik shows us all of these different facets as a person. It could be passion. It could be idealism. It could be empathy. It could be trust, betrayal, selfishness – all of these different emotions that we feel as humans – all of which are embodied in this character of Uncle Samsik. If you watch the whole show, you’ll learn that he has all of these different facets of people within him. So, he’s like any of us.

From left: Byun Yo-han and Song Kang-ho in “Uncle Samsik”.

Still from “Uncle Samsik”

PN: Since the show is set in the ’50s and ’60s, how much research did you do for this role?
SK: I was born in 1967. Since the show is set in the early ’60s, I wasn’t born then. I didn’t experience that era myself. But I learned about that turbulent era in school because it’s such a crucial era in modern Korean history – politics, economy, society, and culture. They were all very turbulent and trying very hard to get their footing. There were also some tragic events, so a lot happened in that very short period of time. And I just want to say that in this show, instead of focusing too much on the background, which is the ’60s, I think it’s really important to talk about the people who lived in that era. We focus on the people. That’s why we can identify with the characters and really immerse ourselves in the show.

PN: Since Uncle Samsik is your first television project? How big was the learning curve? What was the biggest challenge or surprise about working in television?
S.K.: There are definitely advantages to doing a drama rather than a film because a film has a running time of around two hours, which means you have to convey the plot in a very compact way. But when I do a TV series, there is a longer running time, so we can really delve deep into the plot and the characters. Rather than say it was challenging, I would say that for me as an actor doing a TV series, it was important to maintain the rhythm of the narrative, and that required a lot of planning in advance. I was surprised that I had so much screen time!

From left: Byun Yo-han and Song Kang-ho play Kim San and Park Doo-chil in “Uncle Samsik.”

Still from “Uncle Samsik”