Kwak Do-won

Kwak Do-won's filmography is reckoned a golden age of villains. By the KOFIC essay his heavy presence, frightening gaze and sharp tone crushed many male stars on screen over the last decade, and villain parts became his signature; Choi Min-sik, Song Kang-ho, Ha Jung-woo, Jung Woo-sung, So Ji-sub and Yim Si-wan are among the names who came up against him. All six of those names share at least one catalogue film with him, eight films in all, so the co-appearance is verifiable while the crushing is the essay's reading. The heaviest example is The Attorney: he played the torturing inspector Cha Dong-young, and by the essay the Buil Film Award and the Korean Association of Film Critics both gave him their supporting actor prize for it. The Wailing is the first lead to come to him after twenty years. Most of the villains he plays stand for public power: prosecutor, intelligence officer, inspector, intelligence chief.