Song Kang-Ho is ready for his extreme close-up, Mr. deMille!

It'll always be a mystery what makes some people beautiful and others less so, but the fact is that the first time I saw Song Kang-Ho on the big screen I thought damn, that guy is not exactly blessed with that face...

Shows what I know of course: before the film was over I was completely enthralled by the performance of what is undoubtedly one of the best actors working today. And the same thing happened with the next film I saw him star in. And the next.

And, as a face is one of the tools an actor has at his disposal, I was obviously wrong for Song Kang-Ho is certainly blessed with his. It's a remarkable mug he's got, instantly recognizable yet plain enough to enable him to play anything, from commoner to boss, from lovable simpleton to devious psycho.
It's no surprise directors love showing that face in close-up, milking Mr. Song's talent (he can do both subtle nuance and over-the-top theatrics and make it look easy) for all its worth.


So instead of the usual list I'd like to do something different for a change: a gallery of 5 extreme close-ups of one of my favorite thespians.
Guess which 5 movies they're from and I'll post the answers Tuesday (earlier if someone has all 5 right).
No competition, no prizes, just for fun, try to see how far you get without using IMDB.

I'll give away the sixth picture, at the top of this article: that is of course from "The Show Must Go On", and doesn't count because it's not a shot from the movie but from the poster. Good luck with the others!