His Greatest Roles To Watch After Squid Recreation 2
Gong Yoo isn’t any stranger to coach platforms, motion, or style storytelling. He’s additionally a charismatic main man who has enthralled followers of Kdramas since he began his profession. With iconic romantic performances, a movie that jumpstarted a subgenre style renaissance, and a capability to dial into characters which are solely totally different from the subsequent, Gong Yoo is likely one of the most well-known actors. However for lots of Individuals who will not be horror followers, Squid Recreation marked their first time assembly Gong Yoo.
Because the Recruiter, Gong didn’t have a big position. In actual fact, you possibly can say that he was there to make use of his magnificence and allure to recruit you as a lot as his ddakji was there to deliver Gi-Hun into the sport. In Squid Recreation Season 2, Gong Yoo’s Recruiter will get the prospect to peel the curtain again and present you the way damaged individuals who select to work for the sport actually are.
However should you liked his efficiency there, his filmography is nicely price diving into. With movies and Kdrama sequence in equal measure, right here’s what it is best to watch that isn’t Squid Recreation.
The Trunk
Director: Kim Kyu-tae
Writers: Kim Ryeo-ryeong (novel), Park Eun-young
Style: Thriller
Watch Right here: Netflix
The forged retains issues grounded but compelling with their performances, by no means venturing too far off the deep finish into dramatics. Gong Yoo explores the difficult headspace Jeong-Received occupies in The Trunk, suffering from desires and haunted by recollections of his previous.
The hallucinatory cinematography amplifies this actuality, accessorizing Gong Yoo’s efficiency with all the trimmings. Search engine optimisation Hyun-Jin’s In-Ji is quiet and secretive but brimming with power. However when she’s alone, Hyun-Jin is unafraid to indicate the true depths of In-Ji’s vulnerability.
The Trunk by no means lets go, taking viewers on a journey that proves addicting and messy. It offers us characters we’ll like to hate and leaves us questioning what’ll occur subsequent. Followers of mysteries and thrillers ought to add this Ok-drama instantly to their watchlist.
Practice to Busan
Director: Yeon Sang-ho
Writers: Park Joo-suk, Yeon Sang-ho
Style: Horror
Watch Right here: Netflix
Practice to Busan ushered in a brand new wave of zombie movies. It’s a zombie movie with fatherhood at its core and a forged that completely leaps from the display. Gong Yoo’s portrayal of Seok-woo is intimate and dynamic. On this one position, he highlights his skill to seize fast-paced motion sequences and the vulnerability of a father who needs he had at all times put his daughter first. Because of the movie’s ending, it grew to become an on the spot horror traditional.
Coated in blood, Gong Yoo’s talent as a style actor is plain. Practice to Busan is indicative of that. The movie duties passengers on a prepare to outlive a zombie epidemic. With every automotive getting swarmed one after the other, Seok-woo and his daughter band along with different passengers (together with Ma Dong-seok) to succeed in the tip of the road.
Undercut by the enterprise man on the entrance of the prepare, Seok-woo has to mirror on the alternatives he’s made as a father extra considering his profession than his household. It really works on each degree and launched American audiences to Korean zombie tropes, diversifying the style staple.
Guardian: The Lonely and Nice God (aka Goblin)
Director: Lee Eung-bok
Writers: Kim Eun-sook
Style: Romance/Fantasy
Watch Right here: Viki
Seen as one of many gold customary sequence for love and fantasy in Kdrama sequence, Guardian: The Lonely and Nice God (aka Goblin) is one among Gong Yoo’s most iconic roles. Somber at occasions however at all times charming, actor Gong performs Kim Shin, a embellished navy common from the Goryeo Dynasty. When he’s framed as a traitor and killed by the younger king, he’s cursed by the Almighty to remain immortal ceaselessly. The curse for his eternal life is that he has to see everybody he loves die sooner or later.
Having grow to be an immortal goblin, he has taken to serving to folks along with his powers and being a form man despite the immense grief he carries—his resiliency in spirit isn’t simply endearing. It’s immersive. And but, he nonetheless longs for his eternity to finish, and the one method is thru the Goblin’s Bride. He may be at peace as soon as she pulls the sword of immortality from his physique.
As Kim Shin, Gong Yoo’s weak efficiency outlined an period of Korean tv that hasn’t been touched but. However the sequence’ skill to weave collectively the lives of a bigger ensemble forged is basically the place it finds its endurance.
Espresso Prince
Director: Yoon Jeong Lee
Writers: Lee Jung-ah Jang Hyun-joo
Style: Rom-com
Watch Right here: Kockowa (through Prime Video), Viki
The traditional Kdrama sequence Espresso Prince launched Gong Yoo’s profession, so everybody ought to go watch to see the place our main man acquired his foothold within the trade. It’s a must-see for a lot of causes. I’ll provide you with two: Gong Yoo and to look again at how a lot Kdramas have developed in almost twenty years.
As Choi Han-gyeol, Gong Yoo checks all of the bins to painting a frivolous, privileged kind. However every thing modifications when he meets Go Eun-chan (Yoon Eun-hye), a tomboy who’s continuously mistaken for, nicely, a boy.
Except for Eun-chan’s presence bringing to mild how particular Han-gyeol’s life actually is, resulting from confusion surrounding her gender, Han-gyeol undergoes a journey concerning his sexuality when he begins creating emotions for his worker. This improvement isn’t solely new for this explicit subgenre of romance, nevertheless it offers Gong Yoo loads of alternatives to discover Han-gyeol’s emotional journey, right down to the very cringiest components.
Espresso Prince is the lightest of his exhibits, so it might be a good selection for many who want nice distractions.
The Silent Sea
Director: Choi Dangle-Yong
Writers: Eun-kyo Park
Style: Science Fiction
Watch Right here: Netflix
Whereas the plot is extra on the forefront in The Silent Sea fairly than the characters, Gong Yoo’s Captain Han takes the safety of his crew critically. As casualties rise, the inner workings of Han’s confrontation with failure bubble to the floor.
The accountability he carries is a weight, however at first, his confidence retains him regular in pursuit of his mission to guide everybody on a profitable mission. However house supplies many obstacles, and what needs to be a easy sufficient mission to a Lunar Area Station turns into one thing way over he and the crew have deliberate for.
This position is one among Gong Yoo’s extra understated, partially resulting from Bae Doona taking central focus. All the forged makes do with what they’ve been given to work with, however stronger character improvement may need helped all concerned in order that characters might get their very own deserved highlight. Nonetheless, The Silent Sea options Gong Yoo as, arguably, his most rogueish adventurer. And that neck tattoo? A sound visible design selection.
Seobok
Director: Lee Yong-ju
Writers: Lee Yong-ju
Style: Science Fiction
Watch Right here: Netflix, Prime Video
Within the movie, Seobok learns about humanity with each interplay and blood-soaked encounter and finally asks himself what the that means of immortality is. Ought to he permit people to cease demise by researching him? As Seobok ponders on this query, the inhumanity round him grows, and shortly, the true colours of our world clarify that, in the end, solely rich males would be capable to get the ‘advantages’ from immortality.
Gong Yoo and Park Bo-gum’s superbly nuanced performances give energy to those ideas, however they will’t cease the entire street film part from being slowed down by the excessive variety of philosophical queries the movie lays out, none of that are totally explored. Due to this, you’ll end up dropping curiosity within the motivation of the characters much more as a result of uninteresting tempo of the enhancing.
Ultimately, your persistence and funding are rewarded when Ju Lee-yong efficiently transforms these philosophical conundrums into emotional gasoline for a spectacular, action-packed third act, by which every thing comes full circle. Seobok: Mission Clone is a riveting stability of philosophy, sci-fi, and motion with a touch of street film goodness that by no means sacrifices its complicated questions in lieu of low-cost leisure.
That is simply the tip of the Gong Yoo filmography iceberg. With plenty of visitor spots and main roles, that is one actor to meet up with and never restrict your information to simply his one look in Squid Recreation.