IU Palace: Character posters for The Face Reader

Saturday, 6 July 2013

Character posters for The Face Reader

What cool posters. Here's another peek at the quirky and mysterious sageuk The Face Reader's cast, featured in mesmerizing (and slightly jarring) close-up. I can't stop staring at them, even though they're kind of unnerving. Or is that why I can't look away? Of course the extreme focus on faces is thematically relevant to the movie, but with mugs like these, why wouldn't you? Between the meta teasers and the character posters, I love whoever's in the promo department of this production company.

The movie features a great ensemble cast led by Song Kang-ho (Snowpiercer), who plays a gifted face reader who tells fortunes based on facial features using the practice of physiognomy. He has an assistant (Jo Jung-seok, You're the Best, Lee Soon-shin) and a son who's learning the craft in his father's footsteps (Lee Jong-seok, I Hear Your Voice).

The three of them get caught up in a political whirlpool of drama when Grand Prince Suyang (Lee Jung-jae, New World), uncle to a twelve-year old king, vies for the throne himself. He's opposed by General Kim Jong-seo (Baek Yoon-shik, Gu Am Heo Joon) who had gained a tight grip on the court during the child king's reign.

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The face reader attempts to change the fate of Joseon when he's called in (along with an entire country's worth of fortunetellers) to tell Suyang whether or not he'll be king. Kim Hye-soo (God of the Workplace) plays Joseon's top gisaeng, whose role remains a mystery.

The character posters feature readings of facial types based on animals, and I swear, it's uncanny. From top to bottom:

Lee Jong-seok – stork
Lee Jung-jae – wolf
Song Kang-ho – snake
Kim Hye-soo – cat
Jo Jung-seok – raccoon
Baek Yoon-shik – tiger

Is it just the power of suggestion, or do they really look like their animals? And also, how did they get Song Kang-ho's beard to do that? I especially can't get over how much Jo Jung-seok looks like a raccoon. That image is just going to linger in my head every time I see him now.

The Face Reader premieres in September.