[HanCinema's News] Kim Nam-gil Emerges as Surprise Winner of the SBS Drama Awards Grand Prize

"Through the Darkness" is a crime mystery thriller that aired in the first quarter of 2022. Ending with relatively modest ratings of 7.0%, "Through the Darkness" had largely been forgotten, but lead actor Kim Nam-gil emerged as the surprise winner of the Grand Prize at this year's SBS Drama Awards on the strength of his performance as a criminal profiler. Kim Nam-gil expressed surprise that he would win such an award in the presence of veteran actor Huh Joon-ho.

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Earlier in the evening, Huh Joon-ho and Seo Hyun-jin had won top prizes for their work in "Why Her?" where he played the chairman of a law firm and she played a top attorney. Namkoong Min had also won the Director's Prize for "One Dollar Lawyer" which left few obvious candidates for the Grand Prize. Kim Nam-gil even acknowledged in his acceptance speech that he never expected awards for "Through the Darkness" simply because its release was poorly timed for awards season.

Kim Nam-gil thanked viewers for not forgetting "Through the Darkness" despite his own hesitations regarding the drama's flaws. Kim Nam-gil claimed to have thought of crime victims and their families while filming, as "Through the Darkness" is based on the experiences of a real-life criminal profiler. Kim Nam-gil also thanked the cast and crew for working hard to obtain a positive outcome. He went on to thank the director, the screenwriter, and the original web novel for inspiration.

Kim Nam-gil also took time to thank all of the actors who played criminals. Kim Nam-gil said that playing criminals isn't easy, and can often be risky to an actor's image, but the actors who took on that role in "Through the Darkness" did so without hesitation and put in excellent work. Kim Nam-gil mentioned that these actors tend not to be famous, but considers South Korea to have many high quality performers for such roles, and that he's always thinking in gratitude on this while filming.

Lastly, Kim Nam-gil thanked the criminal profiler on whose experiences the drama is based for his field experience and work in understanding criminal psychology, teaching Kim Nam-gil and others much on the subject despite the hardship and trauma of such work. Kim Nam-gil stated that he respected the men who helped to bring more of the scientific method to crime scene investigation. Lastly, he asked all people to keep such thoughts in mind when helping the police to identify criminals.

Written by William Schwartz