Alternate Best Actor 2013: Sol Kyung-gu in Hope

Sol Kyung-gu did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Im Dong-hoon in Hope.

Hope tells the harrowing story of an 8-year-old and her family trying to recover from her brutal rape. 

Now with that description I suppose it may seem obvious why this film might not have been the easiest to take in. Of course, I'm not really one who is too shy to more extreme subject matter. I will say though the film itself rubbed me the wrong way, and it was not the subject matter itself that did. This was rather than matter in which it was realized with, what I felt to be, an unfortunate blend of the most unsettling blended together with the style of a more cloying light hearted feel good feel, where even the characters dress up in outrageous costumes. Although I will say the film's heart does seem to be in the right place. I'll admit there is a purpose for that here, this was an instance where this approach didn't blend appropriately, for my own view anyways, and made the experience of watching the film especially unpleasant, while not in the fashion as intended by the filmmakers. What I'm here for though is to look at Sol Kyung-gu's performance, which in a certain sense is separate from the overarching narrative of the film. This is as Sol's performance very much stays within the reality of the situation and at least in terms of his own work avoids the sort of tonal tricks the film uses to try to alleviate the intensity of the central horror.

  

Sol's performance is a consistency of reality within the film and provides this truth from the outset of the film. This is where we just see Dong-hoon as the working dad. Sol doesn’t have a great deal of focus in these scenes however Sol's performance is consistently effective in these moments, by essentially not exactly standing out. He just exudes the right naturalism as this workaday father. Sol does something well in these early scenes in suggesting sort of an assumed love for his daughter, even when portraying the early moments with almost a casual distance. This is not Sol portraying an actual coldness or anything, but rather just the state of measured affection of a family just living their life without a thing to worry about. That is instantly thrown out of the window most horribly though when Hope is raped and brutally beaten leaving her in a hospital. Sol's performance matches this trauma in conveying the sheer devastation of the act, in his often silent face, that nonetheless exudes the sheer anguish in the man. Sol's work is powerful in itself as he is able to realizes the severity of the terrible act without becoming overwrought.

The film then breaks into its separate stories one of the recovery of Hope, and the other the attempt to get justice for her by arresting the horrible man. Sol is great in realizing the weight of the situation within his performance essentially for the rest of the film. Rightfully, Sol shows that this is a changed man who likely will never be able to achieve that blissful indifference ever again when it comes to his family. Every moment he is onscreen Sol reveals at least some level of the strain of the knowledge of what happened to his daughter and keeps it as this consistent element as this hole in the man's soul. Sol's work though carefully does find the nuance within this and does not portray a single note even with being the focus of the character. There are of course the most extreme moments where we see the vicious hate, that Sol wraps within this always palatable grief, at the man who has committed this crime that also transfers against the police who do not instantly arrest the man. Sol brings the right intensity in these moments by in his face creating it always as being inspired by his sorrow.

Sol provides the right contrast then in his scenes with his family and his daughter. Here to he finds the right difference depending on the moment, the grief a constant. In this we see the moments just in proximity of his daughter, where Sol shows the man as essentially this shell of a person much of the time with his anger as one of his few outlets of existence. The moments directly with his daughter Sol is terrific in bringing this desperate warmth as he tries to show his love to daughter. He captures a very real sense of affection though even this is portraying it as this distraught act as it is still intertwined with his personal anguish. The film then takes its approach which often leaves Sol as adjacent to what is going as people try to help Hope to recover from all over the community. This technically includes Dong-hoon as he even dresses up as one of her favorite children's show characters. The man though is essentially petrified within his state and Sol is very moving in the moment of the still grieving father, even within his suit, as a man in this endless suffering. The only real change, which Sol does gradually realize effectively, is the internalization of grief as the man says less and less, though the heartbreak is always evident in his defeated physicality of depression along with the eyes filled with the endless tragedy. This is a very good performance even as it is often pushed to the side within the narrative. Although I do wish there had been time to grant more within Dong-hoon's personal story, what we do see is well realized by Sol's work. This is as even though I felt at times a dishonesty within the overall choices within the film, Sol’s performance consistently offered a strict honesty within his powerful portrayal of the man’s painful journey.