Han Suk-kyu did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Jung-won in Christmas in August.
Han Suk-kyu plays the man who runs the photo shop and part of this film is working within his state as his job. A performance that reminded more than a little bit of Timothy Spall in Secrets & Lies, who also portrayed a photographer who is good at his job and exudes a pleasant professional demeanor. Han's performance is this presence in part as he makes his Jung-woo likable though certainly very specific in his manner. Han finds the right balance in terms of creating this state of the man while also in a way being a facade of sorts, as obviously someone who is working their job isn't being entirely themselves, if successful, as they must please their customers. However what Han though brings in this performance is the frequent contentment in his manner in his shop that creates an innate affability. Han's performance finds the right balance to express both the state of Jung-won as he is an appealing presence, that is both the man being the best photographer he can be, while also just in part being a strong aspect of himself. An expression where Han brings this innate sort of quiet passion to the character as he prepares any photograph or takes a potential order. There's this calm about him but also this sense of intelligence in the man as he speaks his additional questions to customers to get the best result possible for them.
The theoretical shake up in the film comes from the woman who shakes up his world in Da-rim, who takes time away from giving parking tickets to relax within his shop. This is the first challenge to his specific environment, though initially we Jung-won reacts to her as any customer does. Han is very good in bringing this quiet sense of the attraction to her as not something of an overplay but just a marginal increase in brightness to the already affable way Jung-won presents himself. Her challenge to him though is far more complicated than just being a potential switch up from his specific life already as she asks him questions about his age and his marital status, both which Han initially lies about. A key moment in a way because Han's delivery isn't exactly as the dodge you might think it is, rather he makes it the continuation of the proper customer servicer who rather than care about his own potential concerns of the relationship, gives the answers that are the simplest ways to discourage future questions from being asked that would disrupt this world. When Da-rim very easily breaks them down as obvious lies, though in her own affable way even if quite blunt in her way, Han's wonderful in not showing any defensiveness rather this easy acceptance of her insight, with an easy smile as though the man is accepting she does see him more clearly beyond sort of the presentation.
Han's performance is very much defined by the differences we see in the man depending on where we interact with him as we see the man away from the shop, he is a different person, not completely but fundamentally. Han still has that shy affable demeanor as his core as we see him with his father and sister, we still the man we see in the shop, however there's a greater sense of this innate sadness within the man's shy demeanor. He's a bit more open, if still reserved, and Han rather nicely balances this aspect to show a man who still hides his loneliness though hides it less. Things take a turn for the worse, and the melodramatic when Jung-won also discovers he has a terminal illness to go along with his lonely state. And while we once again see the man try to hide it within himself though in this instance it is a bit harder, as we see when he is with his one friend he shares this information with. Han is quite powerful in the man's change in manner, because Han earns the sudden burst of a kind of rage in the typically so affable man. As Han presents it with this painful sense of the desperation fitting to the man who now sees his life will be far shorter than he expected, and is quite moving in portraying that brief loss of the man's usual calm. Something that he returns to after this point, however Han is terrific by showing the man going back to close to be the affable shy man, but not being only that as the sense of that impending fate is within his eyes, even if it isn't overt.
Theoretically this is where the film is within the very specific melodrama of the romance being thwarted by a terminal disease, although the real trick to all of it is how well done it is, not the fact that it is as such. And in this sense the film works within it, which is of Han separating himself slowly, while still embracing what he can, including briefly more overtly taking part in the romance. Where the chemistry works is not in some intense way, but rather just the pleasant, normalcy of it on their date that you see the future of it in the moment, even as Jung-wong can never be part of the future. And Han's performance works in creating this simple affable embrace of the life he has left, though it is this way of basically preparing others for his death more often than not. Han delivers this convincing calm to the character that is very moving in the way Han always observes in any scene with really two ideas. One being this appreciation of the moments he does have, but subtly within his work is this powerful somberness of the brief time he will have with this experience. The climactic moment of this, being a direct reference to Ikiru, and quite a potent reference as such, as we see Han prepare to take his own photograph. Han's work is incredible in the scene because you see how much the man is going through as he makes the preparations the tragedy flowing through him, not in big weeps but actually in the quietly sad though confident manner he goes about, before the picture, being essentially one last simple smile to please others as the characters as Jung-won always had done.
