Son Ye-Jin 손예진 [Drama “Thirty-Nine” (JTBC/NETFLIX)]

[Guest Syjfan]

My reviews of April Snow - spoilers galore!!!!

First of all, this is an art film. What is the difference? Ye jin the celebrity looks

glamorous like this:

In an art film, Ye jin looks like a commoner:

Many scenes in AS were greyish in their tone. Less lights were used so that the actor/actress don't look perfect and glowing like celebrities. In fact, in many scenes, one can see the scars on Ye jin's face. (She has some scars diagonally above her right eyes and they have been there for the longest time.) To Ye jin's credit, she has managed to look like Seo Young.

It is good that Ye jin can stop looking like a celebrity in this movie because people can finally see her acting skill without getting distracted by her beauty.

Character of Seo Young

Seo young is spontaneous, emotional and lacking in confidence. Because Seo young is spontaneous and emotional, the audience got to see the many emotions of Seo Young in the movie as the story developed and this allowed Ye jin to show her acting abilities.

Seo Young was brought up in a conservative family and she was taught that a woman should get married upon graduation and should be a homemaker looking after her husband. Upon her graduation, her father set her up to meet her current husband and she has been a homemaker since.

In some scenes which were deleted from the movie but were captured in the AS making DVD, Seo young asked In su questions like "Do men find career women more attractive?" reflecting her own insecurity. And when In su commented that doing house chores was not easy, she replied "Thanks for saying that".

Character of In su

In su is a successful career man. He has a strong sense of duty and is strong deep inside.

He felt deeply attracted to Seo Young but at no time, he showed any desire to leave his wife unattended. His strong feeling for Seo Young was revealed when he cried his heart out after Seo Young left him.

Story and character development of Seo Young and In Su

Stage 1: Anger of betrayal and losing confidence

Both of them were infuriated after learning of their spouses' affairs. Both could not understand what went wrong and suffered lost in confidence in themselves. Both were drowning in their own sorrows and swearing at their spouses.

Stage 2: Getting to know each other and feeling the attraction

As it was not clear whose spouse was driving, both Seo Young and In su were asked to visit the victims of the car accident (passengers in the truck involved in the accident) to assist in settlements and this provided the opportunity for Seo young and In su to get to know each other.

After this, the movie showed the two of them meeting up and calling each other. Although the movie didn't show many scenes of them spending time together, there was a scene where In su was back in Seoul for work and Seo young called him because she was also back in Seoul. This scene told the audience that they were confiding in each other regularly and that they were already like closed friends.

Audience also witnessed Seo young looking happier and less gloomy about her situation.

She seems to be moving out of her grief because she was falling in love with In su. One scene showed Seo young bought a pot of plants and gifted it to In su saying "Please do not let the plant die".

One scene showed Seo young looking blankly at her unconscious husband and feeling detached.

Stage 3: Emotionally attached and getting in bed

By now, Seo young and In su have no doubt of their affection for each other. The transition from stage 2 to stage 3 was a bit abrupt in my opinion. There were supposed to be some scenes showing them getting intimate. One was about watching a movie and they started to kiss and another scene showing them strolling in the park and started to hold hands but those were deleted.

Rather, the movie jumped straight into a usual outing for the two of them and they ended up in a hotel because they could no longer hold back their feeling for each other.

Other than a scene showing Seo young deep in thoughts and removing her stockings just before they explored each other’s bodies, Seo young embraced her new love readily.

Her sense of love was much stronger than her sense of guilt. After the first time they bedded, Seo young waited by the bed and rushed into the bosom of In su when he woke up and they hugged each other tightly.

There were more scenes in the movie depicting Seo Young's handling of her new feeling compared

to In su. There was a scene showing Seo young peeling the skin of an apple for In su as if he was her husband. There was a scene showing Seo young coming out of her bathroom only in bra and in a translucent body hugging pants. (I have a hard time trying to focus my attention on her acting in this scene but I managed ...). In this scene, the audience could feel the excitement and joy inside her. She was in love and her confidence had returned. She stared at her body (as did the audience) and looked confidently at herself; probably recalling how in su loved her and recognizing that she was still attractive as a woman.

There was no hint of any sense of guilt.

In another scene, Seo young was waiting for In su and she took out her mirror to check her make-ups; once again portraying the excitement and joy of her new found love.

In su didn't have many scenes to show if there was any struggle or any joy at this stage.

Stage 4: Reality sets in

In another typical outing of the two, In su got a call from the hospital that his wife has regained consciousness. He rushed back to the hospital and Seo young was left wondering alone, eating ice cream, strolling along the beach and looking dejected.

When she returned to hospital later that day, she passed by a corridor and saw In su feeding his wife via the window. Seo young was devastated and it just dawned upon her that she has fallen in love with a man who could not continue to be with her. Feeling lost and desperate, she drifted back to her husband's room, and like a lost ship looking for a harbour, she leaned her head on her unconscious husband's chest and fell asleep there. Note that this scene showed how much despair and how lost Seo young was because this was a man whom she no longer loved and no longer felt emotionally attached and yet, she didn't know where to turn to.

As In su's wife was making good progress in her recovery, Seo young's husband was deteriorating. Even then, once again we witnessed Seo young showing little concerns over her husband's worsening conditions and was more concerned if In su would be re-locating his wife to a hospital in Seoul. At this point, the spontaneity of Seo young was evident again in a scene whereby Seo young showed her jealously and anger at In su after learning that In su would be moving back to Seoul with his wife. They bumped into each other at a corridor and Seo young said sarcastically and angrily "Congratulations, now that you will be re-united with your wife in Seoul" and walked away.

By now, In su was struggling with his sense of duty and his desire for Seo young. He went to Seo young’s room and asked her out for dinner. Seo young, still jealous, rejected his dinner request half-heartedly. With a little persuasion, they went out, have a good time (as did the audience watching them) and didn’t return to the hospital that night.

The following day while they were together, Seo young’s husband died in hospital. Once again, the audience could feel that Seo young was not overwhelmed by her husband’s death. After the funeral of her husband, she went back to her hotel and packed up her stuff. Instead of griefing over her husband, Seo young was struggling to leave Samcheok because she could not bear to leave In su. In one of the highlights of the movie, Seo young sat in a café across her hotel room and witnessed In su going into her room and she smsed him telling him that she was leaving.

In su cried violently on the realization that he has lost Seo young. But his sense of duty for his wife was much stronger than Seo young for her husband. In this scene, the audience witnessed one of the most emotional performance given by BYJ in all his works. He broke down uncontrollably and cried his heart out.

Concluding remarks

I could not help but feel that the script was disadvantageous to BYJ because In su was too much like BYJ in real life. Both were successful career men and men of duty and with strong character. This left him with a mountain to climb to please his critics.

BYJ no longer needs to prove that he is a good actor. Rather, many people are looking for him to show some breakthroughs and this becomes very difficult when he is supposed to portray a man very much like himself in real life. To be fair to BYJ, he didn’t choose the script. He chose the director and the project even before the script was ready.

Fans of BYJ and BYJ himself will recognize the breakthrough on his spontaneous acting in AS but unfortunately for the neutral third parties and movie critics, they will merely feel that BYJ is acting himself in AS (because of the similarities between In su and BYJ) since they were not familiar with BYJ's past works in the first place.

On the other hand, the script gives Ye jin lots of room for expression on the character Seo young. Ye jin could convince the audience of Seo young's insecurity. The audience then witnessed :

(1) The joy and excitement of falling in love again – this was well done in the scene with Ye jin showing off her beautiful body and looking at the mirror with an innocent and uncontrollable grin.

(2) Feeling lost and desperate after seeing In su tending to his wife – this was shown in the scene where she drifted to her husband whom she no longer cared for.

(3) Getting jealous and angry at In su for planning to re-locate to Seoul.

(4) Seo young’s reluctance of leaving In su. Seo young was waiting at the bus stop and didn’t board the last bus to Seoul. Instead, she went back to the hotel and sat in a café facing her hotel room and hoping to see In su again. In this scene, Ye jin’s portrayal of Seo young’s emotion received many praises.

Compared to BYJ, many people have little expectations on Ye jin. Many just knew Ye jin as a young actress. Even the director said during an interview that the Seo young character was intended to be a passive character in the movie. This movie was originally intended to be the story of In su. Strange enough, the final version of April Snow contained many scenes with Ye jin portraying strong emotions of Seo young and thereby enabling the audience to feel the movie from Seo young’s perspective and this allowed Ye jin to shine.

Teruoka Socho, the organizer of Tokyo International Film Festival and a movie critic, wrote in his review “BYJ acted well above expectations and Son Ye jin’s performance was shocking”

Thanks to BYJ and Director Hur, Ye jin now has a stage to show her talents and the Japanese obviously love her. A big money CF in the form of Georgia coffee brand followed soon after and news of movie projects from Japanese companies are surfacing.

As a ye jin fan, I do not think AS is my favourite movie because A Moment To Remember moved me much more at the emotional level. Just like many audience, art movie is not for me. But AS will always be a milestone for Ye jin and for many male fans, the movie that makes us realized Ye jin is not all angelic. She has the face of an angel but the body of the devil ~smile~.

[Guest Hae_Won]

Wisey where art thou?? Am pretty sure he'z busy watchin da AoS premiere ayt?!

Got loadz to share wit us real soon... I much envy ye really mate..

Hey hi jhing! where are ye from da Phil? No one knowz ye juz might be livin da next door wit me. He! he! he! he!

Hi, quteacho! Remember me? Don't forget our secret.

[Guest chiligoyo]

Concluding remarks

I could not help but feel that the script was disadvantageous to BYJ because In su was too much like BYJ in real life. Both were successful career men and men of duty and with strong character. This left him with a mountain to climb to please his critics.

BYJ no longer needs to prove that he is a good actor. Rather, many people are looking for him to show some breakthroughs and this becomes very difficult when he is supposed to portray a man very much like himself in real life. To be fair to BYJ, he didn’t choose the script. He chose the director and the project even before the script was ready.

Fans of BYJ and BYJ himself will recognize the breakthrough on his spontaneous acting in AS but unfortunately for the neutral third parties and movie critics, they will merely feel that BYJ is acting himself in AS (because of the similarities between In su and BYJ) since they were not familiar with BYJ's past works in the first place.

Hi syjfan,

As a fan of BYJ, I'm really thankful for what you have wrote on the above. Had been reading some reviews on April Snow and sadly, many didn't give thumbs up and was quite against BYJ and being fans of his, we are really feeling sad for him. Thank you for standing up for him..

[quteacho]

Good newz!!! April Snow in Manila!

I heard from an ABS-CBN (one uv da largest TV network in Phil) insider tat they are da one who luckily got da rightz to locally release AS here in Manila.

Tentatively da unveilin' full trailer will embark on October 25 `en showin on theaterz da mid uv November.

Isnt tat a great gift on Christmas??.... Callin' ma sis... jhing, hazel_witch, Hae-won, ems, hallen, liezle, frances `en otherz... Lez rejoice!!!

Hi, quteacho! Remember me? Don't forget our secret.

Hae_Won heloOoO0!! Uv course I did. Wuz da reason behind yer secret huh sis, BTW? Ha ha ha ha!!

[Guest hazel_witch]

really?!?!?! wow! april snow here!!! ahhhhhhh!!!

[Guest jhing]

Waahhhhh quteacho! you guys will get to watch AS?!! That is so not fair! hahaha *Uwi kaya ako.

Thanks for the spoilers and your views on AS syjfan!

[quteacho]

from sokorean

[Guest hazel_witch]

Waahhhhh quteacho! you guys will get to watch AS?!! That is so not fair! hahaha *Uwi kaya ako.

Thanks for the spoilers and your views on AS syjfan!

yah... you should... hehehe... ahhhh!!!! it will be shown here!

[quteacho]

from sokorean

[Guest hazel_witch]

from sokorean

this one is cute!!! i love her in Summer Scent!!!

[Guest Syjfan]

did anyone read the news reports on s'pore zbnow?

gosh, they were gushing over syj's figure and to quote literally, they actually described her boobs?!

i think s'porean reporters were a little over top, even though they were 'praising' her?

Hi yellow roses,

Thanks for offering to translate chinese into English. I will mail you some chinese interviews when good ones surfaced. (Unless you wanna translate really old ones in 2004).

Since you can read Chinese, have you visited www.sonyejin.org/bbs/leoboard.cgi ?

This is the chinese offical website of Ye jin and it has tonnes of info and is updated regularly. You may want to take a peek.

And glad to find another SG fan for Ye jin. She is still unknown in Singapore.

New image of Ye jin from her next movie "Arts of Seduction"

Reposted from www.sonyejin.org

RUN RUN!!! THAT KILLER SMILE AGAIN!!

Reposted from www.iyejin.com

[Guest kalsue]

thanx ^^

[Guest Syjfan]

Images from AMTR japanese offical movie website

I believe AMTR will be hugely popular in Japan and JWS and Ye jin will also be well-received. AMTR is still my no.1 favourite movie of all time!!!

Reposted from www.sonyejin.org/bbs/leoboard.cgi

[Guest Syjfan]

Video of cute Ye jin at the filming set of Arts of Seduction

http://www.sonyejin.org/members/yejinnewsmbc1012.rm

Reposted from www.sonyejin.org

This movie is looking like a very good comedy. Definitely better than Crazy First Love judging from some of the scenes in this video.

And it is so nice to keep seeing our angel smiling all the time.

~hi, can I be your secretary?~

(I must confess...after watching April Snow, looking at innocent pictures of Ye jin will never be the same again..)

[Guest Syjfan]

Stupid Singapore newspaper reporter kept asking BYJ and SYJ about her breasts...Don't they know it's rude to be asking questions like this???

Sigh...lack of class and bad taste would be the impression of BYJ and SYJ.

新聞 : 裴勇俊 孫藝珍 外出親熱 (新加坡聯合早報 10/13/2005)

裴勇俊 孫藝珍 外出親熱

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

● 李亦筠

　　韓國知名女星孫藝珍一直以來都將自己包得密密實實，《外出》讓大家驚艷她那夠大、結實與外型柔媚的雙峰。不過孫藝珍與裴勇俊在接受本報的電郵訪問時，都避談這叫女人羨慕、男人噴鼻血的雙峰。

　　記者在電郵中問裴哥哥，以男人的觀點，是《丑聞》女主角全度妍，還是《外出》女搭檔孫藝珍的胸部讓他心動，裴哥哥就是不回答。問孫藝珍如何保養她的雙峰時，她也避開話題。

　　裴哥哥前陣子推出攝影寫真集時，大家驚覺他的胸肌練得六大塊之余，也懷疑是否靠電腦修飾。不過《外出》與孫藝珍的親熱戲，讓觀眾見識到他結實具男人味的胸肌。《外出》的親熱戲一直是媒體的焦點，記者問孫藝珍碰到裴勇俊六塊健碩胸肌的感覺時，她又避開話題。

裴勇俊：愛可以以不同的方式存在

　　攝影寫真集里的六大塊胸肌，是靠電腦修飾？

　　裴勇俊對于六大塊胸肌引起的諸多猜測一點也不放在心上，對于自己如何保持健美腹肌倒是大方回答。裴哥哥坦承拍攝影寫真集時經過魔鬼訓練，才有一塊塊的腹肌：“是很難維持。不過經過那些體能訓練，我注重健康身體，現在就做些較輕松的運動來維持體格。”

　　因“整容”與韓國女性息息相關，問裴勇俊如果他深愛的女人從頭到腳，包括胸部都是整出來的，他發現后會不會繼續愛她。裴勇俊先說，也許是韓國女性太注重美貌，造成整容課題格外矚目，而媒體對韓國女性的整容報道又太煽情與夸張。他說：“如果我的女友有過度的整容，我會問她追求這樣的美有帶給她快樂嗎，她為此付出什么代價？”裴勇俊說如果一個女人因自己的外表更迷人而克服了自卑感，他不能怪她。他說：“不過任何東西‘過度’是不利健康與安全的。”

　　與處女電影《丑聞》比較，《外出》的床戲只不過隔靴搔痒。裴勇俊解釋：“《外出》兩個角色在情感上是互相吸引，但因環境因素而有所遲疑，他不敢輕易對她表露愛意，所以刻畫兩個主角的感覺，比拍床戲還重要。”

心不在，婚姻一定艱難

　　《外出》刻畫裴勇俊飾演的舞台燈光師與孫藝珍飾演的家庭主婦，在各自的配偶遭遇車禍后，才驚覺彼此的伴侶偏離了婚姻軌道，兩人有染。燈光師與家庭主婦在同一家醫院照顧對婚姻不忠的配偶，兩人朝夕相處，最后也步上伴侶的后塵，發展了婚外情。

　　雖然未婚，但裴勇俊深信“出軌”的事將來不會發生在他的身上。他說：“若彼此不信任，婚姻一定艱難。”

　　自己的另一半在婚后發現了她更愛的對象，怎么辦？裴哥哥說：“我會讓她走。若把她留在身邊，她的心不在，這段婚姻也不會有意義。”

　　問裴勇俊如何看待出軌的男女，他沒正面回答，只說：“我拍攝《外出》時，深深了解到生活會帶來很多沖突，而愛可以以不同的方式存在。”

想像燈光師怎樣出軌

　　裴勇俊在古裝劇《丑聞》中演繹的花花公子與《外出》中的舞台燈光師，角色有很大的不同，他認為每個角色都有不同的挑戰：“《丑聞》的角色跟我本身，甚至是我周邊的人的性格都很不同。我在《外出》則采取不同的方式去演繹，剛開始時是很困難。不過，我相信（演繹不同角色）對演員來說是個磨煉的機會。”

　　因未婚更無“出軌”紀錄，裴哥哥只能想像處于燈光師的生活環境中，會有什么感覺，他說：“在鏡頭前，我像是個迷路的小孩﹔我在困難中不斷學習，最后投入演繹這個角色。”

　　《丑聞》是古裝劇，《外出》是時裝劇，裴勇俊說無偏好哪一種劇種：“我只在乎我是不是有進步。”

　　裴哥哥處女電影《丑聞》本地推出時，年輕的影迷几乎哭喪著臉，因為影片列入限制級。這回影迷可以露出笑容了，因為《外出》的分級是NC-16。《外出》已在本地上映。

孫藝珍：

出軌就是背叛了彼此的信任

　　玉女孫藝珍在現實生活中是未婚小姐，她說如果將來的老公出軌，她會離開他。她說：“出軌就背叛了彼此原來的信任。一對夫婦沒有愛還可以在一起，是因為他們還有心，但信任受到威脅，就無法在一起了！”

床戲是有必要的

　　孫藝珍雖然早在和車太鉉合作的喜劇電影《瘋狂初戀》（Crazy First Love）中就有三點式泳裝的鏡頭，可是這回的《外出》，才讓觀眾真正看到她戴著胸罩的“特寫”胸部。

　　問及那么有本錢，今后的劇本若需要她裸露，她能否接受。她對這個問題采取回避的態度。倒是談到《外出》中的床戲時，她有話說：“要演繹劇中那家庭主婦難以捉摸的感覺是很復雜的不間斷嘗試。她內心其實同情自己覓得新愛。”

　　孫藝珍力挺床戲：“《外出》是關系到已婚的男女，所以床戲是有必要的。我很信任導演許秦豪，我相信他會把床戲處理得很好。”

現在懂得流眼淚

　　孫藝珍在《外出》中演家庭主婦，在知道因車禍昏迷不醒的丈夫對自己不忠后，完全沒有把悲傷寄托在工作上的機會﹔她除了喝酒麻醉自己，也常以淚洗臉。她說：“我是不必仰賴眼藥水來催淚的。以前拍流淚的戲時，我會回想過去的悲傷事，但我現在發覺這樣的淚水，無法感動人。快樂的眼淚，痛苦的眼淚，悲傷的眼淚或同情的眼淚等等都具有不同意義，我現在會依據角色的性格與處境而落下有關聯的眼淚。”

　　喜歡情節劇的孫藝珍說：“《外出》是有關于受傷、印象、愛和歸屬感的電影。我每拍一部情節劇，就感覺自己成長了不少，這也是為什么我喜歡演情節劇的原因。接下來若還有很多情節劇讓我演，我是不會推辭的。”

　　雖然避而不愿談裴哥哥的六塊腹肌，孫藝珍倒是不忘贊美：“裴勇俊對工作充滿熱忱。如果他不滿意某一部分的演出，他在重拍時，還是充滿活力。他的工作態度很正確，對旁邊的人，包括小他很多歲的我，也很照顧。”

與大牌導演合作

　　孫藝珍主演過的電影雖不多，但與大牌導演合作的機會可不少﹔《外出》是和憑《八月照相館》崛起的許秦豪合作，《不可不信緣》（The Classic）是和執導《我的野蠻女友》的郭在容合作，《醉畫仙》（Chihwaseon）則與韓國殿堂級導演林權澤合作。

　　對于合作過的導演有何印象，孫藝珍分析：“林權澤看到我時，就知道我在想什么，他不愧是個大師級導演。郭在容可以捕捉到演員的感覺，他覺得真實的表現出演員的情感很重要。許秦豪認為演員的想法與感覺很重要，所以他在片場是與我們一起演出﹔他也喜歡即興演出，他認為即興演出比事先計算精准的演出好。”

http://www.zaobao.com/cgi-bin/asianet/gb2b...051013_501.html

[ginagan]

Syjfan i totally agree with u... how do u expect someone to answer a question like that!! I mean someone who is conservative to answer them... i guess the hollywood stars will maybe answer them but not the koreans...

[DarlingOTPsLoVe]

Can't believe the S'pore press actually asked about YJ's boobs, how superficial and shallow of them. And loving all the latest pics of YJ in her new movie AOS.

And I'll try to be here more often now, just got carried away elsewhere.

[DarlingOTPsLoVe]

Btw thanks Syjfan for your review and I can't believe they cut the stroll in the park scene after seeing all those media coverage on those. Now I'm really thinking of getting the dvd, but just wondering is there a lot more YJ's coverage in the dvd or at least I was wondering if BYJ's footage in the dvd is not overwhelmingly more?

[Guest Syjfan]

Syjfan i totally agree with u... how do u expect someone to answer a question like that!! I mean someone who is conservative to answer them... i guess the hollywood stars will maybe answer them but not the koreans...

Worst of all, they asked stupid questions about boobs. The first question they posed to BYJ was to ask him whose boobs were better - that of Ye jin or the female char in Untold Scandal. How can BYJ answer this question without sounding condescending to woman and bad to one of the actresses?

Then they asked Ye jin how do she take care of her boobs....must have hit Ye jin as a kind of culture shock. You only asked such questions to certain female celebrities who are famous because of how they flaunt their boobs...you don't pose such question to any actress...

[Guest vic_taebin]

i watched A Moment To Remember a while ago and i cried so much at that one scene where she was playing baseball after she found out she had alzheimer's disease. omg....that was soo sad. She's like one of my favorite actresses of all time now.