Actor You Need to Know: Son Suk-ku

Son Suk-ku is a sleeper hit, I’d say. It took him another four years since his acting career kicked off in 2014 for his big break to arrive. To date, the actor has carved out a variety of roles, proving the extensive performing arsenal that he owns, whether in a starring or supporting role, whether on television or in cinema. He gives all-out portrayals that are spontaneous and precise, which is what I realize lends him such credibility as an actor. He is, to be true, a fine-performing expert in Korean entertainment who can reveal an entirely novel aspect of any given character, regardless of how clichéd they may be.

Son’s first acting stint, encompassing roles in projects namely Scarlet Innocence (2014), Black Stone (2016), Sense8 (2017), and Mother (2018), evolved his way through to his breakthrough role in the romantic-comedy drama Matrimonial Chaos (2018) as Lee Jang-hyun, an enviable man loved by women yet who feels perpetually isolated. Alongside other nuances that drew significant interest, Son’s depiction of the man’s intrinsic melancholy stood out, with much discussion swirling around his pensive romantic looks. Ascending popularity was brought on by his following role as Cha Young-jin, Senior Administrator of the Presidential Office, in the political thriller drama Designated Survivor: 60 Days (2019), a Korean version of the American television series Designated Survivor (2016).

In the first season of the critically acclaimed military drama D.P. (2021), which centers on a group of Korean military police hunting out defectors, the actor portrayed First Lieutenant Lim Ji-Seob. He unleashed a pompous, intolerable officer who is utterly self-absorbed and consumed by success in his role. Son was a dramatic presence in the narrative — the kind of person you’d immediately resent—and it was amazing how well he developed the character. I believe Son grew as a performer thanks to this role. Subsequently, he landed the lead in the romance film Nothing Serious, relating to romance in today’s digital world and melding aspects of the classic rom-com with modern technological advances.

While his filmography is a mix of major roles, cameos, character roles, and so on, Son has championed all to the hilt. Amid a multitude of endeavors he has been a part of, spanning TV dramas, films, shorts, variety shows, and online series, the aforementioned works are among his best-known. The artist’s passion for the camera also stems from his early desire to be a documentary filmmaker. He realized this dream through Unframed (2021), a streaming television omnibus series with four episodes, each written and directed by actors Park Jeong-min, Choi Hee-seo, and Lee Je-hoon, with Son serving as the screenwriter and director of the episode titled Rerun.

He has an uncanny knack for startling you and motivating you to think in directions you hadn’t initially considered. It appeared obvious in 2022 when Son starred in the slice-of-life drama My Liberation Notes. Everyone appreciated what he did as Mr. Gu, an enigmatic, inebriated, more bizarre stranger—the show’s biggest draw the entire time for this reason. Notably impressive was the air of mystique he created around his persona. He did a great job portraying that awfully attractive man you want to know but can’t because he’s so annoyingly evasive. He was also cast in the blockbuster crime action movie The Roundup the same year as the vicious Kang Hae-sung, a felon who kidnaps and kills Koreans in Vietnam. He received a ton more publicity and notoriety as a result of this performance. Son is a surprise package as an actor—in a manner that feels right for the roles he represents on screen, but also in a manner that is unexpected and truly appealing. That is his best asset.