Korean heartthrob Kim Nam-gil remained as hot as ever this year, performing double duty on global streaming platform Netflix as the lead of the topical action-drama Trigger and in a cameo role in the dark thriller Karma.
He appeared in the very first iteration of the show, back in 1999, when he was still a teenager. Among his co-stars that season were other future bright lights such as Bae Doona, Yum Jung-ah, Jang Hyuk, Yang Dong-geun and Choi Gang-hee.
But unlike other School alumni, Kim would not parlay that appearance into a screen career straight away. In fact, it would be five years until he notched another credit.
That next role, which came a year after he passed broadcaster MBC’s talent audition in 2003, was a bit part in his first silver screen project, the gangster saga Low Life. This period-set tale, starring Cho Seung-woo, was one of the latter works of legendary Korean filmmaker Im Kwon-taek.