A BALANCING ACT

SOUTH KOREAN SINGER-SONGWRITER AND ACTOR MAY HAVE STARTED HIS CAREER 13 YEARS AGO, BUT HE IS STILL LOOKING FOR GROWTH

- FARISIA THANG

There are actors who bring an identifiable idiosyncrasy to their roles, and there are actors who are decidedly unrecognizable because of the way they blend seamlessly into every character they take on. Seo In Guk belongs to the latter.

So far, the 35-year-old actor has played a brooding teenage heartthrob in Reply 1997 (2012), a sheltered and high-maintenance heir to a rich chairman in Shopping King Louie (2016), a complex man with painful flaws and a forgotten past in The Smile Has Left Your Eyes (2018), an apathetic messenger between gods and humans in Doom at Your Service (2021), and a criminal-profiler-turned-conman who disguises himself as a fortune-teller in Café Minamdang (2022).

If you're looking for a consistent thread in his roles, we'll save you the trouble - there isn't one. He's always trying something different and the only predictable element is that he's always choosing to take on a new challenge. While some of the roles may share certain characteristics, like utilizing the memory loss trope, or displaying rich comedic elements, each character he creates is still individually pronounced. You forget Seo In Guk is playing a role, because of the way he breathes life into these characters: Yoon Yoon Jae, Louis, Kim Moo Young, Myul Mang, and Nam Han Joon - to name a few.