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The Korea Times

By Lee Kyung-hwa
In May, a retrospective on Youn Yuh-jung opened at the Academy Museum of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles. The exhibition showed her films which explore Korean women and families. Youn won the Oscar for best supporting actress for her role in Minari in 2021.
I interviewed Youn to find out why Hollywood suddenly turned its attention to her.
I feel close to you because I’ve seen you in the media so much.
So … this old lady I met, she slapped me really hard on my back and asked me why I didn’t know her. And how surprised I was to be slapped! She was just so used to me … I realised later.

The film screening today is Minari, which attracted international attention, not only towards the film, but also the Korean vegetable [of the same name, also known as water celery, which chefs call namul]. I really admire this plant, which can grow almost anywhere. I heard that it originally grows in dirty water.
Well, it purifies that dirty water, and I know that because the director [Lee Isaac Chung] told me about it while we were making the film.
I didn’t know that before. And it doesn’t grow the first year you sow it, then it just takes off the next year.
You are a displaced person from Kaesong, North Korea, and have long been perceived as a maverick actress, one who does not conform to the universal concept of beauty in Korean society. Many of your roles have been sexualised and subversive.
I didn’t really plan to be an actress from the beginning. And when I think about how I made my debut, I think I started because I had to work part-time to help my mom and pay for my tuition when I was in college, so I didn’t have that much pride in being an actress, so I probably just worked hard, and it’s not like I majored in theatre or film or anything like that.

In The Bacchus Lady, you play an old prostitute who spent her youth as a maid. At a time when elderly poverty has become a serious social problem, you appear as a “killer woman” who helps an old, sick grandfather end his life at his request. What are your thoughts on this movie, which deals with the lives and suffering of marginalised people?
That was a very painful piece for me, because in a way, acting is like heavy labour, but it’s not like the old lady who sells sex that we imagine … I mean, we only do it in our imagination … I had talked to the director [Je-yong] Lee about how it would be great to make a story like that for the underprivileged, and how it would be a dream to do that, but when it came down to it, it was so hard.
Like the grandmother in Minari, you’re always humorous. With such a personal and professional trajectory, you have developed a remarkable ability to turn feelings of inferiority into humour. . How can you always be funny with such a sense of inferiority?
That’s because I’ve seen a lot. It depends on how you interpret it. Some people take it as humour, some people say it’s too sarcastic, but as I get older, I think it’s OK to talk about my life, because it might be rude if I laugh at someone else’s life, but I’m doing it to myself [laughs].

Your unique sense of humour seems to have germinated naturally in your language. Like K-culture itself, you transform suffering, a specifically diasporic feeling of sorrow and pain from loss which is likely felt by all ethnic minorities around the world. However, your characters do not remain in sorrow or pain. Like a Greek comedy, your acting sublimates tragedy into joy and excitement.
Well, sublimation is a little too much [laughs].


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Fame and celebrity

Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung on being Korean, fame and her sense of humour

Youn Yuh-jung backstage at the 2021 Oscars ceremony, where she won for  best actress in a supporting role for Minari. Photo: AFP

From left, Steven Yeun, Alan Kim, Youn Yuh-jung, Yeri Han and Noel Cho in a still from Minari, inspired by writer-director Lee Isaac Chung’s own life. Photo: TNS

Alan Kim and Youn Yuh-jung in a still from Minari. Photo: Plan B

Youn Yuh-jung is known for her sense of humour. Photo: EPA-EFE

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Kim Tae-ri in a still from Jeongnyeon: A Star Is Born.

Korean actress Kim Tae-ri, currently on screen in the K-drama series Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born, burst onto the scene in acclaimed 2016 erotic thriller The Handmaiden. Photo: Instagram/kimtaeri_official

Kim Tae-ri in a still from Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born.

Kim Tae-ri (front) and Kim Min-hee in a still from The Handmaiden (2016).

Kim Tae-ri in a still from 1987: When the Day Comes (2017).

Lee Byung-hun (left) and Kim Tae-ri in a still from Mr. Sunshine (2018). Photo: Hwa&Dam/Netflix

Kim Tae-ri in a still from Revenant (2023). Photo: Disney+

Kim Tae-ri in a still from Alienoid (2022).

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MINARI_01270&#xA;Alan S. Kim, Yuh-Jung Youn&#xA;Director Lee Isaac Chung

Youn Yuh-jung and Alan S. Kim in Minari.

Young Yuh-jung and Alan S. Kim in Minari.

Yuh-Jung Youn and Alan S. Kim in Minari (2020)

Alan S. Kim (left) and Youn in a scene from Minari.

Youn and Alan S. Kim in a scene from Minari.

Yoon in a scene from The Housemaid (1960). Photo: IFC Films/Courtesy Everett Collection

Kim Ki-young directed Youn in Woman of Fire. 

Youn reacts after winning best supporting actress for Minari at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards. Photo: EPA-EFE/BAFTA

Lee Isaac Chung, the director of Minari. Photo: EPA-EFE/Chris Pizzello

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A still from The Land of Morning Calm, which premiered at the 2024 Busan International Film Festival.

Gang Dong-won as Cheon-yeong in a still from Uprising, which premiered at the 2024 Busan International Film Festival. Photo: Lee Jae-hyuk/Netflix

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Lee You-mi (left) and Woo Do-hwan in a still from Mr Plankton, one of our top Korean drama picks for November 2024. Photo: Jiyeon Kim/Netflix

Yoo Yeon-seok (left) and Chae Soo-bin in a still from When the Phone Rings.

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Film & TV

Youn Yuh-jung, who won an Oscar for her role in Minari, shares her views on celebrity, and what makes her laugh


Youn Yuh-jung, who won an Oscar for her role in Minari, shares her views on celebrity, and what makes her laugh.


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