Kang Ha Neul, an Actor of Infinite Possibilities

[imienazwisko.livejournal.com]

Actor Kang Ha Neul displayed the term ‘youth’ with his blood. He depicted two different characters: poet Yoon Dong Ju and Lee Suho from Like for Likes in two different films perfectly.

Recently, bntnews met Kang Ha Neul at a cafe in Samcheong-dong, Seoul due to his movies Dong Ju and Like for Likes.

Dong Ju depicted a story of two friends or rivals poet Yoon Dong Ju and fighter for independence Song Mong Kyu (Park Jung Min) during the Japanese colonial era when names, languages and dreams were not allowed.




Previously, Kang Ha Neul took a role of Yoon Hyung Ju who is a cousin of Yoon Jong Ju from his movie C’est Si Bon and made a relationship with the poet. However, he couldn’t let down the burdens from the beginning to the end while filming the movie as he had to play the role of Yoon Dong Ju.

“I’m a big fan of Yoon Dong Ju, so I was excited about a film about him. I thought it would be good if I take a role in it. However, once I got chosen, it drove me crazy. My expectations and excitement changed into overwhelming and worries.”

“I was thinking to run away or disappear, so I didn’t say ‘I put down my burdens’ until the end of filming it. No matter what crazy things I did, the burdens never went away, so I thought about what would be the wisest thing to do, which was just to hold it.”

Dong Ju treated Yoon Dong Ju’s life story as well as it was focused on his lifetime friend, family, rival and stimulator Song Mong Kyu. While Yoon Dong Ju had outstanding outcomes, Song Mong Kyu had outstanding processes. The two people’s story goes on in black and white film strongly, but calmly.




He kept trying new challenges for the film as he shaved his head, learned Japanese and dialect. He had many conversations with Lee Joon Ik and tried his best to drag out his similar sides with Yoon Dong Ju.

“When I act, I try my best to find a side similar to my role. I thought of self-reflection, shy and looking at myself as a third person when I played Yoon Dong Ju and that was the point of contact. I don’t do it as much as the poet did, but I tend to look back at myself and think.”

“The best lesson that I learned from the director was ‘When you put an intention, it is a different way of violence’. Same goes to when acting. The mass public sees Yoon Dong Ju as a resistant poet or fighter for independence. I tried my best not to contain the intention of acting and I thought not to throw away Yoon Dong Ju’s straight side.”




Dong Ju is a low budget movie that filmed for 19 times (days?). However, just like what Kang Ha Neul said during the press conference session “The movie is valuable as much as 500 million dollars”, he poured his everything during the short period of time. As much as this, the actors and staffs put their efforts to focus on it.

“Some pieces cost much, but no hearts are in them. Some people expressed that we were stranded, but all the staffs and casts hugged each other. Although the budget was low, our affection to it was over any other Hollywood films. I was so happy.”




Kang Ha Neul will meet the audiences through Like for Likes as well as Dong Ju. Kang Ha Neul plays the role of genius composer Lee Suho who is a deaf. Although the character isn’t energetic as much as he is, senses of the first love come charmingly. Moreover, Kang Ha Neul also joined in drama Scarlet Heart. His youth is shining since he visits the mass public along his way without a break, and the process of his youth seems even more outstanding as his efforts are proven.
source: mwave

Comments

[hearttaek.livejournal.com]

I'm loving all this promo he is doing

Surprised he's even doing radio but I'm so happy. Listening to radio podcast is a fave pasttime and listening to kang haneul's voice is just.... Ahhhhhhhhhh

HE really did well in his radiostar ep

[leighbee333.livejournal.com]

Ah, do you have a link to that radiostar episode? (It's too much to hope for that it's subbed, I know)

And is he doing other radio appearances? (radiostar's just television, right?)

[hearttaek.livejournal.com]

I watched here http://www.ondemandkorea.com/radio-star-e464.html
But that site only works in US/CAN

For radio shows, he appeared in kim shinyoung's and Park Kyunglim's radio show in the recent weeks. If you have an iOS device, you can just go to podcasts, search 강하늘 and it's the first two results 2/12 and 2/17

[winegums.livejournal.com]

I find his project choices really interesting, he's actually trying to switch it up and not just play the same thing over and over. I'm really praying that BBJX remake isn't a mess bc I would like him to be in a GOOD drama on the Big 3 for once.

Also idk Dongju was so low-budget (sub-$1million) but that prob means it's going to make a decent amount of money back.

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

I feel like until the heirs, he didn't really have much choice since he was relatively unknown and he was trying out for auditions until like, misaeng. he also talked about how he gets cast often as the nerdy one with no dating skills, and thinks it's really because of his looks. his theater works are much more varied in roles, though.
let's face it, bbjx remake will be a big mess, the writer's past works aren't promising. everyone will be super pretty though.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

but he really has had a lot of variety in film/tv roles even post-Heirs - from the sweet high school boy in Mourning Grave/Angel Eyes, to the grounded bro he was in Twenty and nerdy/arrogant Baek-gi in Misaeng to his villain role in Empire of Lust, psycho in Missing Noir M cameo, and now Dongju and whatever is going on in BBJX (I haven't seen the original tbh)....it's way more variety than most actors in that age group.

I hope BBJX doesn't waste a capable/talented cast (barring Hong Jonghyun lol) the way LJK's last drama did, but like you said, the writer doesn't inspire much confidence and Korean remakes of cdramas have never turned out well.

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

oh i misinterpreted your comment, i thought you were saying he was playing the same role over and over again until recently. yeah, i agree that his roles are pretty varied, it's just that i've also seen complaints that his character is essentially all very nerdy and is shit at dating or has never dated (mourning grave, twenty, misaeng, dongju, etc). i'm personally less impressed with the quality of his filmography in that his characters are good and his interpretation and acting are great, but the overall work is shit. i'm hoping it gets better after bbjx, but it looks like he's thinking of enlistment next year so who knows :/

[winegums.livejournal.com]

I've seen three out of the four projects you mentioned, but even if his characters were the nerdy type there, they were totally different types of nerd, like idk how anyone can say him in Twenty is anything at all like Misaeng or Mourning Grave unless they haven't actually seen those movies/dramas. I mean, he was borderline arrogant antagonist material in Misaeng at first, that's nothing at all like in Twenty (I almost died when Lee Yubi was grilling him about masturbation techniques lol)

I definitely agree that his filmography has the occasional dud, but at least most of them are watchable and more importantly, like you said his performances have always been strong. I think he wants a certain degree of public recognition so he can do stage work more easily, but he's not chasing leading man status nearly as hard as I want him to. And enlistment next year? /sigh

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

yeah, i agree - i feel similarly about kim woo bin too, people shit on him saying that he always plays the rebellious bad boy but heungsoo and youngdo and chiho are nothing like each other.

he has this big fantasy about the age thirty and doesn't want to spend it while he's in the military, so he says he wants to get over with it next year. and here i am thinking dude you're still in your second year of college, when are you planning to graduate lulz

[winegums.livejournal.com]

tbh i hear it about Woobin, he does seem to play variations on one 'type' but at least he does it well. Same with Jung Eunji.... people don't give them enough credit for what they actually do.

ofc in an ideal world everyone would be super versatile and talented but I have more respect for an actor who does one thing really well, than one who takes multiple role types and sucks at all of them (while people go 'at least they're trying different things!') As an actor, I'll rate Haneul over Woobin but that doesn't mean KWB isn't really good at the stuff he can do, and I'll be interested i seeing whether he breaks his typecasting in the future a la Kang Dong Won etc. Tho ofc he has no incentive to do so, since it's his image.

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

idk man, haneul and woobin both have a certain image attached to them based on looks, haneul as a nerd and woobin as a bad boy, and haneul just had more chance to be in more films with smaller roles, hence the variation. i'm hoping woobin's new drama does well and i'm already rolling my eyes at people who are saying this role will be the same as youngdo. i mean, i feel like woobin's looks has its limits and he's not gonna be casted in a sweetheart type of main lead anytime soon haha.
with kang dong won... i don't know if he was ever typecasted. then again i didn't really pay much attention to him recently and i really appreciate how he's working with all these rookie directors with various genres since korean film scene has stopped growing for awhile now, same old directors over and over again.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

Woobin is p much going to have to carry that drama, Lee Kyung-hee dramas tend to be pretty demanding for lead roles even if she's good at writing for rookie leads, and tbqh Suzy won't have to do more than a very bare minimum to get a pass since expectations are pretty lowered when it comes to her acting anyway. He's the one who's going to have to show he can be a melo lead, and lbr Song Joong-ki left some huge shoes to fill.

But even if it doesn't become a smash hit (it has enough buzz thanks to LKH) he won't take any major blows. He had 3 successful movies in a span of what, 18 months? There aren't too many actors his age who have that kind of leverage in the movies, he'll be fine.

[hearttaek.livejournal.com]

Isn't his character in the recent film Likes for Likes someone who has never dated before?

He talked about why he gets casted for all these roles in radio, and he was asked if he thinks he matches these type of roles better than those that are expert at dating... But alas, it was radio and i spaced out so i missed what he said entirely. But it was something along the lines of he thinks for each role he plays, there's always something in him that he can relate the character to. And that it's not necessarily that he matches this type of character more than the other, and that if he gets cast for the playboy type, he hopes to do well in that kind of role too.

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

yeah i was referring to that interview - his character in likes for likes is straight out "a single who's never dated," but he was talking about how his other roles were all really shy or terrible with interacting with women - he was saying how he's not like that in real life, is aware that he keeps getting casted for these roles but admit it's more fitting than a womanizer type of roles, yup.

[hearttaek.livejournal.com]

Which radio was this from? Kyunglim's? Or shinyoung's?

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

oh i don't remember for sure, i wouldn't be surprised if it was both. haneul recycles his schtick for interviews so much that i definitely know it was mentioned more than once in interviews with reporters and he definitely talked about how he's not like suho, and that he's definitely dated before.

[keki7.livejournal.com]

Get those varied and diverse roles, son! Love how seriously he takes his art.

[mercury-sound.livejournal.com]

I adore Kang Ha-neul, and this also sounds like a really interesting movie. Hope it's gonna be successful!!