Ryu Seung-ryong on 'Bigwang' Return: 'Like Finding Hidden Cash in an Old Book'

"It feels like opening a book and finding hidden cash you forgot about. If someone asked me to shoot it again, I don't think I could. That's how fully I gave myself to it."

Actor Ryu Seung-ryong used those words to describe how it feels to finally bring the film "Portrait of a Family",directed by Lee Ji-won, to audiences after five years. The film opens in Korean theaters on September 2, five years after production wrapped. A long time has passed, but the memories remain vivid. Ryu said that going around to greet audiences at theaters made the emotions from the shoot pop back to life, like kernels of popcorn.

"Portrait of a Family" follows a top-star couple, Joong-gu (played by Ryu Seung-ryong) and Nam-mi (played by Ha Ji-won), whose marriage falls apart after the sudden arrival of Joong-gu's daughter, Dong-ju (played by Kim Si-a). The story picks up eight years later. When Dong-ju gets caught up in a shocking incident, the estranged family comes back together to save her.

Ryu plays Joong-gu, a man whose life is turned upside down by the daughter who suddenly appears. He had already played fathers in several projects, and when he heard this was another father role, he turned it down without fully reading the script. What changed his mind was a letter from director Lee Ji-won herself.

"Director Lee gave me a letter about five pages long. It explained why she wanted to make this film and what the story was really about," Ryu said. "The more I read, the more I realized I had made a big mistake. Joong-gu isn't a typical dad. That's when I started to see things I hadn't seen before. I'm thankful the director held on to me through that letter."

Joong-gu and Dong-ju start off very differently from a normal father and daughter. Joong-gu had not been waiting for Dong-ju before she was born. "The whole process of holding your child after they're born, raising them, feeling that joy as a father, all of that is skipped," Ryu explained. "The child just appears out of nowhere. It's like throwing a stone into a still lake."

"At first, even though she's his child, there's no fatherly love there. But over time, he starts to feel for her. A sense of duty grows, this feeling that he has to protect this child who has no one to lean on," he said. "His love as a father is clumsy and rough, but I wanted to show that it's real."

Ryu also put in real effort to get close to Kim Si-a, who plays Dong-ju, well before cameras started rolling. Kim has said in public appearances that she was able to smile through the shoot thanks to Ryu. "When I was on Jeju Island, director Lee brought Si-a over," Ryu said. "We went kayaking together and ate good food. That relationship built up over time, layer by layer, and now she smiles the moment she sees me."

"Si-a is very much an introvert. Watching a kid like that put out her own kind of energy is really something," he said. "And when a child like her smiles because of the effort I put in, that feels rewarding."

Father roles are nothing new for Ryu, from "Miracle in Cell No. 7" (directed by Lee Hwan-kyung) onward. In "Extreme Job" (directed by Lee Byeong-heon) and the dramas "Moving" and "The Dream Life of Mr. Kim" (Seoul Jaga-e Daegieop Danineun Kim Bujang Iyagi), he has portrayed middle-aged men who feel familiar from everyday life. When it comes to villain roles, Ryu tends to be careful.

"My son tells me I should try a really heavy villain role," he said. "But I want to be happy while I'm making a film, and playing a villain can be hard on the heart. Instead, I like to take bold swings at things that are a bit out there but new for film, like 'Chicken Nugget' (directed by Lee Byeong-heon) and 'Amazon Bullseye' (directed by Kim Chang-ju)."

Ryu described "Portrait of a Family" as a film that shows people at their lowest without losing its warmth. He said the movie is vivid enough that you can almost smell and feel the humidity of the spaces on screen.

"When you look at the house in the film, it feels like it has a sour smell to it. It was shot in 2D, but it feels like 4D," he said. "By the ending, the dampness lifts, and you feel a cool breeze like autumn air. I think the film carries a message, and I want audiences to find some hope for their own lives in it."