Special Focus: Youn Yuh-jung

The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences added the categories of best supporting actors, male and female, to the Oscar awards in 1937. One of the several thousand gold-plated statuettes presented since the event began was awarded to the much-loved Korean actor Youn Yuh-jung at the last Oscar ceremony in April 2021. It was in recognition of her powerful and deeply humorous supporting role as halmoni/ grandma Sunja in Lee Issac Chung’s remarkable film Minari. Youn not only won that Best Supporting Actress Oscar but the Screen Actors’ Guild and BAFTA versions as well, among many other accolades. In Korea the reaction was overwhelming.

Woman of Fire
화녀

Fri 05 Nov, 6:30pm

ICA

Presented here is a special restored version of Youn Yuh-jung’s film debut, seen on the big screen for the first time in 50 years. Directed by master-auteur Kim Ki-young, Woman of Fire has lost none of its original power to captivate audiences. Myungja (Youn Yuh-jung) has come to the big city looking for work and, just maybe, a husband. When a well-dressed lady seems to offer the possibility of...

Canola
계춘할망

Sat 06 Nov, 6:45pm

ICA

Hong Gyechoon (Youn Yuh-jung) is getting on yet still working as a diver along the black rocky coast of Jeju Island. She dotes upon her grand-daughter Hyeji, left behind by an absconding daughter. Then one day as the two of them walk through the town’s central market, little Hyeji (Lee Seul-bi) disappears. We shift to the story of an 18-something woman fallen in with a bad crowd in the big city...

The Bacchus Lady
죽여주는 여자

Sat 06 Nov, 9:00pm

Picturehouse Central

Seoul’s main east-west avenue Jongno goes past the parklands around the Jongmyo Shrine, one devoted to the country’s past kings. In the park old men gather to chat and play paduk, and some poor old women troll for customers. So-young (Youn Yuh-jung) is one of them. She totes a bag with Marlboros and the energy drink Bacchus, camouflage for the trade in sex she offers to her elderly patrons. Des...

Documentary Youn Yuh-Jung
다큐멘터리 윤여정

Mon 08 Nov, 7:00pm

KCCUK

In the wake of Youn Yuh-jung’s Academy Award, national broadcaster KBS put together this stylish tribute. It opens with a series of brief statements from acting and other colleagues present and past. Viewers of the film Canola (2016) may be surprised to see Kim Go-eun, the film’s older Hyeji, looking positively radiant; fans of Minari will meet a very different Han Ye-ri than the exhausted youn...

A Good Lawyer’s Wife + Q&A with director Im Sang-soo

Tue 16 Nov, 8:30pm

Ciné Lumière

Ho-jeong (Moon So-ri) gave up a career in dance to be a good wife to lawyer husband Yeong-jak (Hwang Jung-min) and good mother to their adopted son. She does part-time teaching at a nearby dance studio but otherwise her life seems on hold, and sex with her handsome husband leaves her needing to finish things solo. Yeong-jak’s mother Byeong-han (Youn Yuh-jung) is stuck tending to a dying alcoho...

The Housemaid + Q&A with director Im Sang-soo

Wed 17 Nov, 6:10pm

Genesis Cinema

Byeong-sik (Youn Yuh-jung) is the calm, controlled centre within a family of self-indulgent chaebol billionaires. Formerly a nanny, she maintains her role as veteran housemaid and cook with stealthy politeness. She hires in extra help in the form of young, pretty Eun-yi (Jeon Do-youn); she will double as nanny to little girl Nami. While the husband of the family awaits his very pregnant wife’s ...