In a short article called, “A Face Which Registers His Career: A Comment on Actor Choi Min Sik,” film critic Moon Hak-san celebrates the face of the actor who played Oh Dae-su, the man of ressentiment in Park Chan-wook's Oldboy. Moon begins by referencing gwansang, or the art of face reading, a Korean Buddhist practice that divines the fate of a person through physiognomy: “According to a physiognomist, Joo Seon-hee, the nose is the vault which collects property and symbolizes energy and wealth. A nose in the middle of a face shows his masculinity as well as his current standing as an actor.” Forms and remnants of gwansang belief persist in modern Korean culture, having ramifications, in some cases, for job applicants and marriage prospects. In a survey conducted in 2001, a slight majority of Koreans expressed that “physiognomy is believable to a certain extent.” According to the face reader Joo, Choi's expressive eyes are capable of bringing out the inner drama of a wide range of character types, from a North Korean officer in SHIRI (1999) to a painter born into a family of low standing in CHIHWASEON (2001).

Moon continues by touting Choi's greatness as an actor and the capacity of his face to encompass a character “in the dynamic process of becoming, rather than that in the static state of being.” More specifically, the critic emphasizes the actor's large face, which conveys a unique, powerful presence through the confluence of the individual features that constitute its expressivity. His comments echo those made by Béla Balázs in The Visible Man that compare the combination of eyes, nose, and mouth as expressing “chords of the emotions.” Moon writes: