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| Gary Oldman and Hwang Kyo-ahn. Image: Ilbe |
Politician Hwang Kyo-ahn looks like actor Gary Oldman.
This week Hwang, current acting leader of the main opposition party and staunch opponent of President Moon Jae-in, had his head shaved in protest of the current administration (specifically, of the appointment of Cho Kuk).
Apparently the barber shaved the sides first, meaning for a moment there during the public shaving Mr. Hwang had a killer "fuckboy" look that drove netizens to compare him to actor Gary Oldman.
I'll let the Korea Herald tell it:
As soon as the media began running images of Hwang’s very closely shaved head, his name shot to the top of the “trending news” list on Naver, the country’s largest web search engine.
An image of Hwang sporting a buzz cut and an image of the conservative politician posing in front of the National Assembly on a motorcycle are just a couple of photoshopped images that quickly spread through the internet.
People likened Hwang’s new look to the styles of actors Gary Oldman and Ryan Gosling, earning him the epithet “Kimchi Oldman” and catapulting the stiff politician to instant stardom with one swift shave.
Main opposition leader’s bald head leads to unexpected stardom
I can sort of see the resemblance when they stick a pair of Oldman's trademark grandpa glasses on him:
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| Hwang Kyo-ahn with Gary Oldman style glasses. Image: Korea Herald |
Of course the killer hairdo was short lived. Here's what he looks like now, fully shaved:
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| Hwang Kyo-ahn with shaved head. Image: Chosun |
For comparison, this is what he normally looks like:
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| By Korea.net / Korean Culture and Information Service (Photographer name), CC BY-SA 2.0, Link |
This is funny because Hwang is a pretty straight-laced guy. He is an outspoken critic of liberal policies and deeply conservative Christian. He was actually meant to step down from politics last year and become a preacher, but the sudden impeachment of Park Guen-hye and election of Moon prompted him to delay political retirement and stay in the game. Most readers of this blog will probably know him as the interim president of Korea in the time between Park's removal and Moon's installation (a role he ascended to as Park's prime minister).
You can see more examples by searching 김치올드만. The story was even picked up by the BBC.
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