9. Choi Min-sik
Choi Min-sik is a fantastic Korean actor, best known to Western audiences for his turns in Chan Wook-park's searing thriller Oldboy and Kim Ji-woon's superb serial killer flick I Saw the Devil. He always brings a sure physicality to his roles, but none has proven as steadfastly demanding as his work on Oldboy, playing a character who has been confined to a room for about a decade, and now finds himself freed, keen to exact bloody vengeance on his captors. It likely only took one read of the script to realise that a lot was going to be asked of him, but characteristically, Choi rose to the challenge, gaining weight, losing it,
actually having his flesh burned with a hot wire, and perhaps most disturbingly, biting into a live octopod and consuming it on camera, creating one of the film's most iconic and unsettling scenes. Add to this the psychological torment of having to play a deeply troubled character - but to say anymore would be spoilers - and Choi distinguishes himself as a very special acting talent indeed, and one who, with his continued affinity for psychopathic, tortured characters, might just have gone a little wayward himself.