Song Jong-hee

1995 to 1999: Beginning as makeup artist

In her mid-twenties, Song left her job and secretly enrolled in an art academy to study for college entrance exams. Her life took an unexpected turn on a day she skipped her classes to visit Sinchon with a friend who was modeling for a single day. Captivated by the makeup artist's technique, she tagged along for the next three sessions, realizing that a human face could truly serve as a canvas.

Diving into the professional makeup world, she trained for three months before entering the field. From video shoots and theater productions to bridal styling, fashion layouts, and print advertising, she experienced every corner of the industry. Even so, she felt disconnected from commercial beauty work focused on producing identical, cookie-cutter looks with heavy eye makeup and flushed cheeks. With so many talented artists already doing that work, she doubted her talent.

Everything changed in 1995 when she stepped onto her first movie set, joining Director Lee Myung-se's team for Affliction of Man. Receiving the storyboard for the first time, she saw every corner densely packed with notes the director had written while agonizing over it all night. It felt like a door opened, as if he was reaching out a hand saying, "Come in here and think it over with me; please help me." Working there, she realized she loved dressing actors as characters and working closely with people, finally experiencing a true sense of accomplishment.

In 1996, she debuted as a lead makeup artist on Lim Jong-jae's Kill the Love. During her next project, the 1997 film The Contact, she spent breaks chatting endlessly with lead actors Han Suk-kyu and Jeon Do-yeon over the script. Brainstorming together before the era of smartphones sparked a constant stream of new ideas. She loved collaborating to analyze character emotions, imagine expressions, and refine the look to help the actors' performances shine.

2000 to 2008: Career breakthrough

Song first work Park Chan-wook in Joint Security Area (2000). She received technical award for her work at 2001 Women Filmmakers' Night - Woman Filmmaker of the Year Awards Ceremony. She subsequently worked with Park's other films. Most notably the neo-noir thrillers of The Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, and Lady Vengeance). Song spent five hours crafting Oh Dae-su's (Choi Min-sik) wild, explosion-surviving hair in Park Chan-wook's Old Boy (2003) to symbolize his pent-up wrath and captivity-driven desire for retribution. Song Jong-hee crafted Geum-ja's (Lee Young-ae) iconic look in Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005) with flowing dark hair and crimson-fading smoky eyes. This striking aesthetic captured her contradictory emotions of vengeance and grief, portraying her complex inner turmoil as she executed her plan.

2009 to present: Career after Vancouver Film School and establishment of Mimos

In 2009, she attended the Vancouver Film School. During her study, she traveled to Seattle, USA, in her spare time, to work on Director Kim Tae-yong's Late Autumn.

After returning from her study in 2011, Song partnered with Jang Ju-eun and Lee Yu-sun to launch the film make-up and hairdressing studio Mimos. Her first major project after that was director Jung Ji-woo's A Muse, for which Jung recruited her while she was still studying special effects makeup at the Vancouver Film School. Although Song initially thought the director's vision of aging the young actor Park Hae-il was a crazy challenge, she was persuaded by his goal to create an intelligent, unconventional elderly character and joined the production.

To prepare, Song spent three weeks studying real elderly individuals at Tapgol Park in Jongno, observing their postures, gaits, and unique facial features to distinguish subtle differences across age groups. Reflecting on her research, she shared a poignant conversation with an elderly acquaintance who revealed that the hardest part of aging is becoming invisible to society. Her source explained that losing the casual attention of others creates a profound sense of isolation, capturing the emotional depth Song aimed to bring to the film's makeup design.

To commemorate her 30th career anniversary, Song and Mimos are hosting an exhibition titled "Song Jong-hee's 30 Years of Film Makeup: A Record of Time Built on Repetition and Restraint" at Yeonhee Gallery, located at 706-5 Yeonhee-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, from June 20, 2026, to August 9, 2026.

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Awards and nominations

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