Sol Kyung-gu is an absolute powerhouse of an actor who has a career that spans both serious minded art house and festival fare, as well as more mainstream films. He has consistently embodied some of the most memorable roles in Korean film on the screen for the last 18 years. After graduating from Hanyang University in 1994 he starred in several hit stage shows including Sam Shepard's True West and the Korean adaptation of German rock musical Line 1. First appearing on film in Jang Sun-woo's classic A Petal in 1996, Sol quickly went from small roles to breakout ones in Rainbow Trout and more notably, in Lee Chang-dong's Peppermint Candy in 2000. His career-defining role in that film earned him all the major South Korean cinema prizes from Baeksang Arts Awards, Grand Bell Awards, and the Blue Dragon Film Awards.

Sol began to appear in a mixture of more serious features and genre pictures, and cemented himself as one of the most sought after actors in South Korea. In 2002 alone he starred in Public Enemy (a brutal cop thriller), Jail Breakers (a prison comedy), Oasis (another Lee Chang-dong film that won Sol even more awards), and The Bird Who Stops in the Air (an art house drama). Like some of the best actors, Sol often finds himself gaining and losing weight to embody his roles, and goes from growling animalistic intensity to delicate vulnerability.

This year we're showing two new films that show this dynamic range, Cold Eyes and Hope, as well as the modern classic Public Enemy. The range that Sol shows in these films going from the brutal and driven Kang Chul-joong in Public Enemy, to the calculating Detective Hwang in Cold Eyes, and finally to the devastated father desperately trying to make ends meet and reconnect with his daughter after a brutal assault in Hope, underscores why we are presenting Sol Kyung-gu with the Star Asia Award.