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

[ILSYJSG]

On 6/22/2020 at 10:48 AM, Intuition1 said:

I have been following SYJ since 2006, and have watched most of her projects. There is no Korean celebrity I have ever followed as much as her. I believe she is the most beautiful Korean actress and it bothers me when I see her make-up artists use make-up that does not suit her like foundations that make her face look oily and I have brought this up. I also noticed her teeth have changed. She is a natural beauty with a naturally beautiful smile.  Noticing the change of her teeth is not wrong. If you have not noticed,  then you are not a  long time  follower.  If you wish the best for someone, does not mean you are a hater. As of Hyun Bin, I watched a few of his projects and do not know him as much as SYJ. I have noticed people cannot ask questions in this website. People here are really super sensitive about everything.

 

This is interesting to me as I admit I have not noticed the change in her teeth. Will you be able to provide some pics as reference pls?

 

Though I have watched SYJ's old movies (AMTR, The Classic, April Snow) and Summer Scent a long time ago, I did not really follow her over the years.... till CLOY happened. Since then, I have watched all her movies and dramas (except those earlier ones which I cannot find), even Yobi (which by the way has an amazing OST! ) 

 

Not forgetting watching her on variety shows, BTSs, award ceremonies and interviews. I particularly love watching her interviews as I find her answers sincere, honest and witty, yet very mature and profound. From there, I really gain a deeper insight into the real SYJ - her depth of character, her charming personality, her passion for acting and her attitude towards life. I believe she is someone with great intellectual and emotional depth. She has a deep understanding of the emotions of others and possesses the ability to respond to those emotions in a truly understanding manner. 

 

She has this aura/energy that radiates such that you are naturally drawn to her. She has tremendous charisma and screen presence - she is able to draw my attention whenever I watch her onscreen. Despite her immense success, she still remains humble, down to earth and as dorky as ever.

 

Nope, she is not just a pretty face, but so much more!

This makes her the SYJ we love. 

 

 

 

[Helena]

https://post.naver.com/viewer/postView.nhn?volumeNo=29855085&memberNo=33531344

Vanav F/W Photoshoot

 

2020.11.02

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[slowpoked]

While looking for articles about MWGM (because I was really curious about how the movie got successful and how she got multiple awards for a role for a performance I wasn't sure about), I came across the article below. You guys know about the saying "some things age well, some don't"? Well, for this writer, he thinks MWGM has aged well and has appreciated it more than when it first came out. Note that this review was done after CLOY. 

 

Source: https://www.themoviebeat.com/my-wife-got-married-2008-korean-movie-review/

My Wife Got Married (아내가 결혼했다) – 2008

Directed by: Jeong Yoon-soo (정윤수)
Starring: Son Ye-jin (손예진), Kim Joo-hyuk (김주혁), Joo Sang-wook (주상욱)
Release Date: October 23rd, 2008

---

Review

Actress Son Ye-jin (The Classic, 2003; The Negotiation, 2018) is one of South Korea’s most popular actresses. Mostly know for her beauty and pure image, she’s been an established movie and drama star for nearly two decades without having any major scandal to her name. Recently, the mega success of her latest drama Crash Landing On You has both fans and critics giving her body of work a second look. Thus, there’s a sense locally that some of her past “misfires” are even being seen in a new light. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to take a second look at one such case with the film with My Wife Got Married (2008). 

 

A chance encounter on a subway train sends Duk-hoon (Kim Joo-hyuck) head over heels in love with his former crush and coworker Ina (Son Ye-Jin). After a few drinks and bonding over their love for soccer (although rival teams), the two hit it off and become lovers. Their relationship progresses without a hitch until one romantic walk takes an awkward turn after Duk-hoon sweetly whispers “you’re mine” in Ina’s ear. Ina makes it clear that she is not so easily locked down, and that she may have more room in her heart for loving more than just one man.

 

Shaken, Duk-hoon learns to see past Ina’s unusual outlook on love until he confirms on night that she casually cheated on him. Unable to stand the perceived betrayal, Duk-hoon breaks off the relationship. Being unable to forget her, Duk-hoon becomes convinced that marriage is the only way to get a woman like Ina to be faithful. With some conditions in place, Ina accepts Duk-hoon’s proposal. And although he is willing to look past her indulgences for late night drinking with other men, Ina takes one step too far when she asks Duk-hoon to allow her to marry another man…

 

This plot summary will most likely sound ludicrous, as it should in theory. Many viewers will be beyond frustrated by Ina’s (Son Ye-Jin) behavior in My Wife Got Married. They will site that a character like Ina deserves zero sympathy or simply just doesn’t exist in the real world. Also, viewers wonder how a sensible and emotional man like Duk-hoon (Kim Joo-hyuck) could put up with her? Well, it may be best to view the film, adapted from the novel by Park Hyun-woo, as more of a thought experiment. The film poses several hypothetical scenarios that question the accepted interpretation of what it means to love someone, as well as human’s capacity to both accept and receive it. So if able to take a big step backwards, one can find a lot to enjoy in My Wife Got Married.

 

Let’s look at how Ina is portrayed in the film. She’s sweet, intelligent, diligent, and loving to Duk-hoon and his family. She’s playful and has career aspirations that she’s willing to sacrifice. Duk-hoon is more than happy for her to be a housewife but she wants more for herself. She does has her vices, too. Ina loves alcohol and spending late nights out socializing with men and women. Oh, and one more thing. Her view on love is so all-encompassing that she can share her heart with more than one man. She knows her idea of love is hard for others to accept, but her intentions are pure in her mind.

 

I found this characterization of Ina to be fascinating. We’re left to judge her solely on the basis that she wants two lovers. Is she a despicable person? Perhaps she is judged unfairly for her alternative perspective on how one can fill their life with love?

 

The couple’s back-and-forth as they argue and compromise about Ina’s desire to maintain two husbands will be either amusing or enraging for viewers. While couples on their periphery fight and divorce over a single incident of emotionless infidelity, Duk-hoon and Ina fight tooth and nail to keep their relationship from falling apart.

 

During these scenes, I couldn’t help but think how interesting human nature is. The urge to possess what we love seems like a built in feature of human psychology. Hard coded into us. When it comes to loving a life-partner, permitting them to maintain another physically loving relationship is unthinkable for most. And what is Ina’s profession in the film? She’s a computer programmer. So as if she’s working within the operating system of the human heart and mind, she’s rewriting the code for love.

 

My Wife Got Married playfully toys with these ideas and is less of an appeal for polygamy or a polyamorus lifestyle. Although if you can stick with the film to the end, you may feel otherwise. The introduction of Ina’s second lover Jae-gyeong (Joo Sang-wook) will test the limits of most viewers sense of realism with his all too accommodating mindset.

 

Set during the 2002 World Cup in Korea, there are a lot of fun soccer analogies in My Wife Got Married and the sport is used as a metaphor for the competing love ideologies presented in the film. Soccer players and the varying dynamics of team formation and positions are discussed at length by the characters. As die-hard fans of rival club teams Real Madrid and Barcelona, Duk-hoon and Ina strategize and analyze their feelings of love as if they were seasoned football managers. So for soccer fans, this dialogue is loads of fun.

 

 

Both actors have a lot of charm as well. Son Ye-jin’s (The Classic, 2003) character Ina may come across as the most selfish and unreasonable character ever, but she brings a convincing amount of sweet innocence and idealism to the role which makes it hard not to find her cute and at least somewhat respectable for having such a strong sense of identity. And once you’re over feeling sorry for Kim Joo-hyuk’s (Believer, 2018) character Duk-hoon, you’re never left feeling like he’s a pathetic loser. The optimism and sense of humor the character develops while trying to learn to cope with Ina’s wishes brings a lot of comedy to the film too. Also, I can’t overstate just how much I miss actor Kim Joo-hyuck after watching this film. What a loss for the industry and movie fans in general after his untimely death. RIP.

 

I consider My Wife Got Married to be an underrated little gem when looking back on it today. It requires some patience and a little forgiveness for its unabashed approach but it is undeniably unique in how it presents the love triangle. The film has a unique energy and sound that it owns. And although more cute and for younger audiences, if you’ve seen the Korean film My Little Bride (2004) which also requires some letting go of reality to enjoy, you’ll know the kind of stepping-back-to-appreciate caution I’m giving My Wife Got Married. Score: 7/10

[SuZy Leoo]

@Helena Many thanks! Wow didn't know they archive each closed thread! OMG, this is so strange, luckily i read the thread, if not i would not have known that the ending of Spotlight was different from the version that i have watched.... imma go do some investigation

 

Yes, i need to rewatch AIL as well! hahaha

 

3 hours ago, Intuition1 said:

Videos of her laughing best illustrates the difference between her original teeth and the current ones.

Think it could be veneers, an artist always needs to have a good smile right? 

[ILSYJSG]

3 hours ago, Intuition1 said:

The current teeth are longer than her original teeth. Her original teeth fit her face much more and make her smile so much more beautiful. I wish she tried to get back to her crowns as close as her original teeth.

 

OK, I see what you mean. She still looks nice though.

I think most of the time, we focus our attention on her beautiful eye smile, rather than her actual smile. 

 

ALONE IN LOVE

Yes I love Alone In Love too!

All the characters are so adorable and well written. The humour is subtle and sometimes interlaced with lots of sarcastic bickering between the 2 leads. Yet their love for each other is palpable and relatable in their everyday acts.

A heartfelt and emotional piece of work!    

 

MWGM

Actually MWGM is a show which goes against the norms of society, hence it can also be considered a work way before its time. 

In Ah's view of love is that it can be multiplied and not halved when shared. 

She can love her two husbands with double the love which she can while loving one.

Similarly, her child can have double the love from two fathers instead of the love from one.

 

Society frowns at a woman with two husbands, but a man can have two or more wives and is viewed as virile.

MWGM pokes fun at the hypocrisy of long held customs and beliefs that only men can have multiple partners.

But with the rise of more and more independent and successful women, I won't be surprised if there are many In Ah's out there now.

 

 

[yejinatic1981]

12 hours ago, slowpoked said:

Minority opinion, but I liked Be With You 2018 more than the original. When i watched the SYJ version, I read stuff about the movie online because I wanted to understand the ending better. I saw people that mentioned while the Korean version is ok, the Japanese original is superior. So I went to watch the Japanese version soon after. 

 

 

People always have the tendency to say that the original version is better because, well, it was the first one to come out. I saw the Japanese version of Be With You before the Korean version and I still like the Korean version better, probably because the three protagonists gave better performances than the Japanese actors and the settings were a little more romantic. The kid in the Korean version was phenomenal, I cried every time he cried and got sad every time he did in the movie. Off the topic, I have been a solid fan of the Taiwanese Meteor Garden series that was shown almost  two decades ago, hence, when the Korean version came out (Boys Over Flowers), I refused to watch it because a lot of my friends who are also fans of Meteor Garden and Taiwanese F4 said that the original Taiwanese version was better (Though the "real original version" is Japan's Hana Yori Dango but it was not as famous as the Taiwanese version ). However, during the Covid-19 home quarantine period, I ran out of the tv show to watch so I watched Boys Over Flowers on Netflix and to my surprise, story-wise, I like the Korean version more than the Taiwanese's. The actors in the Taiwanese version still delivered their roles stronger for me (and they were "hotter" than the BOF F4 lol), I think it BOF was a debut drama of Lee Min Ho and the rest so their acting was still rough around the edges at that time, but for me BOF had done better screenplay, it was more realistic.

 

Anyway, back to Son Ye Jin, I just saw her new posts on Instagram and she's a dork! This is why I love her so much. She is effortlessly funny and sweet!!!!

 

 

[yejinatic1981]

On 6/23/2020 at 4:50 PM, SuZy Leoo said:

 

 

Meanwhile, any idea what did SYJ said in her IG?

 

 

I think she said something like: Am I going to tie my hair? Then the stylist replied: No, no. I am just going to apply hair cream.

[slowpoked]

17 hours ago, SuZy Leoo said:

OMG, this is so strange, luckily i read the thread, if not i would not have known that the ending of Spotlight was different from the version that i have watched...

 

Wait, what?! There is a different ending out there?! The one that I saw was that she finally became the news anchor. Is there a different one?

17 hours ago, ILSYJSG said:

Yes I love Alone In Love too!

All the characters are so adorable and well written. The humour is subtle and sometimes interlaced with lots of sarcastic bickering between the 2 leads. Yet their love for each other is palpable and relatable in their everyday acts.

A heartfelt and emotional piece of work!    

 

I watched AIL after I saw CLOY, SITR, Personal Taste and Shark (in that order) because everyone was raving about it, so I wanted to see what the fuss was all about. While I liked it, I didn't fall in love with it like I was expecting to (CLOY to me is still far and away her best drama). I think the main reason is that, all throughout the series, I was distracted by the real huge age gap between SYJ and the male lead, considering they're supposed to play a young, divorced couple. I think if they had gotten a younger actor, I would have liked it more.

[Helena]

[REVIEW] The Truth Beneath
DIRECTOR(S): Lee Kyoung-mi (2nd feature) // debut: ‘Crush & Blush’ (2008; Gong Hyo-jin), next: drama ‘School Nurse Files’ (2020; Jung Yu-mi)
WRITER(S): Lee Kyoung-mi, Park Chan-wook, Jung Seo-kyung, Kim Da-young, Jung So-young
CAST: Son Ye-jin, Kim Joo-hyuk, Kim So-hee, Shin Ji-hoon, Choi Yu-hwa

 

    The Truth Beneath

Review by: Kyu Hyun  Kim (koreanfilm.org)

 

Yeon-hong (Son Ye-jin, Blood and Ties, The Classic) is a beautiful housewife married to the dashing politician Kim Jong-chan (Kim Joo-hyuk, The Beauty Inside, Singles), a Hanguk Party (an obvious stand-in for the real-life ruling party, Saenuri) rookie facing a tough competition against an unaffiliated veteran, No Jae-soon (Kim Eui-seong, Train to Busan). When her teenage daughter Min-jin (Shin Ji-hoon) disappears on the way to the school, no one takes it seriously, except for Yeon-hong, who, despite working hard to outwardly maintain the image of the Good Wife, becomes increasingly paranoid and furious (the fact that she is constantly reminded of her Jeolla Province background by the opposition and surrounded day and night by the virulently chauvinistic Party operators certainly does not help the matters). When Min-jin refuses to turn up even after three days, she suspects some dirty machinations from the oily No, but the police and her husband are of course not inclined to indulge her "conspiracy theories." As Yeon-hong doggedly investigates the circumstances surrounding her daughter's sudden disappearance, the situation shifts from worrisome to abjectly horrifying, as she finds not only evidence for systematic bullying of her daughter as well as a twisted plot involving Min-jin's pretty teacher Son So-ra (Choi Yu-hwa, Worst Woman), but also the utterly unwelcome, devastating truths about the lives of her daughter, her husband and herself.

 

Tightly plotted as a mystery thriller, The Truth Beneath is a sophomore effort by the Park Chan-wook protégé Lee Kyoung-mi who previously helmed Crush and Blush (2008), a quirky indie vehicle for Gong Hyo-jin depicting an unusual relationship that develops between a socially inept, emotionally unstable schoolteacher and her equally mal-adjusted teenage disciple. Unfortunately, The Truth Beneath did not do well at the box office (250K tickets sold by August 2016) and sharply divided critics as well. The film reminded some viewers of Park Chan-wook's Revenge trilogy in terms of its seemingly incongruous combination of aggressive stylistics and hard-boiled, vicious content, as well as Nakashima Tetsuya's The World of Kanako (2014), another revenge thriller pivoting around the disappearance of a teenager and her parents' desperate search for her, but these resemblances are largely superficial. Lee's direction does evoke her mentor's in his Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) for its almost Old Testament approach to the hypocrisies and sins of the powerful and moneyed (here, parents and adults such as schoolteachers) resulting in the visitation of cruelties and tragedies on the powerless (here, mostly children), but her film is perhaps a truer film noir than Park's masterpiece, devoid of the deliberately symmetrical sense of the absurd permeating the latter, making it less philosophically or ethically challenging, but emotionally just as devastating and mysterious.

 

 

I must warn that The Truth Beneath could be extremely off-putting to some viewers who come for the wrong kind of movie. I would advise you not to expect a more typical kind of Korean thriller aiming to "expose" the conservative politicos, Big Business honchos and the legal-surveillance apparatuses (prosecutors, NIS, police, etc.) under their influence as corrupt, venal and anti-democratic. To be sure, director Lee does present persuasive vistas of Kim Jong-chan's aids, advisers, lawyers and other related parties mulling over Mi-jin's disappearance, trying out a variety of scenarios and coldly engaging in the calculus of positives and negatives of the fallout for their candidate, but her directorial interest does not lie in mining Sidney Lumet or Alan J. Pakula territory. She instead focuses on Yeon-hong's progressively extreme efforts to uncover the truths behind Min-jin's disappearance on her own.

 

The point here is that Yeon-hong does not behave like typical tragic mother-heroines in genre films of this type: she displays neither Sally Field-like righteousness nor Julia Roberts-like vulnerability. Yeon-hong, like the always-blushing schoolteacher in Crush and Blush, turns out to be an almost-scary obsessive, the kind of person who would invite snorting derision from well-connected upper-crust members of society for being reckless and "inconsiderate." Ironically, Lee's dense but clear-eyed screenplay posits that it is her seeming lack of "maturity"-- which, in the context of the film, means knowing when to stop before causing some trouble (what Japanese would call meiwaku) for other proper members of society-- that allows her to see through the pretenses of Min-jin's classmates and penetrate various sub-groups closed to the outsiders. Yeon-hong fights tooth and nail against the police, her husband's aides, uncooperative kids, including Min-jin's erstwhile best friend, Mi-ok (Kim So-hee), who has the expressive capacity of a moon jellyfish, and of course her husband, Jong-chan: we have seldom seen such a determined yet ill-fitting detective figure not just in Korean films, but in contemporary motion pictures, period. Yet Lee and Son Ye-jin together manage to make her character work: Yeon-hong is absolutely compelling, even if she is not always sympathetic, or even accessible.

 

Indeed, the film feels so extreme partly because one keeps waiting for life-affirming, love-conquers-all, forgive-us-we-have-been-bad-parents, wailing confessions or some such reassuringly TV-drama-like, melodramatic moments and they never materialize. Director Lee stages various scenes of emotional display in such ways to blatantly undermine their melodramatic effects, yet to keep their lacerating powers intact: a funeral procession that sonically isolated Yeon-hong from other attendees, or the explosive fight between Yeon-hong and Jong-chan that veers perilously between exchanges of full-frontal violence and moments of acknowledgement of guilt and indifference as raw as exposed knife wounds, and so on.

 

It was a good move on Lee's part to cast Son Ye-jin in Yeon-hong's role. This was obviously a break that the latter was looking for as an actress: Son reigns in tear-jerking emotional outbursts that marred such other substantial roles as the beleaguered daughter of a kidnapper in Blood and Ties (2013), and delivers what is probably the best performance of her career. Son breathlessly but unerringly conveys the spiritual calluses developed from years and years of put-down, the suppressed but active intelligence and the raw empathic capacity of a Korean woman from a disadvantaged background yet cursed with the beauty that make men around her drool over her and at the same time denigrate her intelligence and integrity. Matching her performance blow by blow, Kim Joo-hyuk is equally well cast and excellent as Jong-chan, cool and calculating yet thoroughly human-scaled: as is the case with Yeon-hong, most viewers will find themselves unable to throw stones at the slick politician despite all the terrible plot revelations.

 

Spoiler

 

Is The Truth Beneath more than a just competent thriller? Darn yes. In some ways, I feel that it showcases the inimitable aspects of contemporary Korean genre cinema better than The Wailing (2016). While I feel that director Lee's full command of the film's wildly shifting tones and dazzlingly dense narrative deserves much praise, I also was strangely unmoved by the conclusion of the film. Partly it may be because, unlike the protagonists of Bedevilled (2010) or A Girl at My Door (2014), to cite two recent examples, I found the film's characters more fascinating than sympathetic, including the victimized children. In fact, The Truth Beneath comes across to me as one movie that gets at the rotten core of Korean society, not because it blames corrupt politicians (Donald Trump, anyone?), indifferent police (like all good Korean movies, The Truth Beneath refuses to caricature the police, incompetent or otherwise), or an educational system that reproduces economic and social hierarchies over multiple generations (where are the Whispering Corridors ghosts when we need them?), but because it unflinchingly shows the upper-middle Korean family as they really are: highly sophisticated, media-saturated, smart and pretty predators, insectoid, nest-forming, like gigantic, cannibalistic beetles with jeweled carapaces, that raise their grubs so that they can mature into equally sophisticated, media-saturated, smart and pretty predators.

 

The bottom line is that I could not relate to the children, the ostensible victim figures, in The Truth Beneath. To be blunt, they are monsters, too, all too happy to prey on the vulnerable and the weak, in order to "protect" "their" vulnerable and weak. If Director Lee intended the very last scene of the movie to impart the point to the viewers that the children, at least Mi-ok, retained some "purity" unsullied by the adult-infested jungle around them, as some critics have argued, I must say it strikes me as rather feeble, if not insincere. It is one of the rare moments that felt tacked-on in a film brimming with horrific yet hypnotically compelling imagery and dialogue, those one almost subconsciously feels are getting at the deeper truths that the more critically successful auteurist vehicles and ten-million-tickets-sold blockbusters would rather not touch with a ten-feet pole.      (Kyu Hyun  Kim)

 

—————

 

https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-truth-beneath-busan-review/5110114.article

'The Truth Beneath': Busan Review

BY JASON BECHERVAISE | 6 OCTOBER 2016

 

Dir/scr: Lee Kyoung-mi, South Korea, 2016, 103mins.

In what has been a very strong year for Korean cinema, Lee Kyoung-mi’s (Crush and Blush) daring but accomplished political thriller The Truth Beneath has been somewhat overlooked, especially locally. Re-positioned at Busan and co-written by Park Chan-wook, her second feature - which follows the wife of an aspiring politician in the search for their missing daughter - is likely to stand the test of time. For fans of Korean genre cinema, it’s certainly set to resonate.

 

This is bolder in style than other recent films about the dark side of Korean politics

 

After a low-key June opening in Korea, it is now belatedly beginning its journey on the festival circuit and will open the London Korean Film Festival in November, amongst other dates. 

 

Jong-chan (Kim Joo-hyuk), a former news anchor who is now looking to become a politician, has secured the nomination for the Korea Party in the area of Daeson in what is seen as tight race going up against the lawmaker Noh Jae-soon (Kim Eui-song). However, on the first day of his campaign, Jong-chan’s daughter Min-jin (Shin Ji-hoon) suddenly disappears.

 

Min-jin’s anxious mother Yeon-hong (Son Ye-jin) begins searching for her, but her husband - whose main campaign promise is to “protect our children” - agrees to wait another day before officially reporting her missing, noting the importance of their daughter’s image to his career.

 

Yeon-hong, though, takes matters into her own hands by going to the police, hunting through her emails, sketchbooks, obtaining police records, and talking to her teacher Son So-ra (Choi Yu-hwa) and Min-jin’s closest friend, Mi-ok (Kim So-hee). As she does, she uncovers a web of deceit that turns her life upside down.

 

The dark side of Korean politics has been explored in other recent Korean films such as Inside Men and Asura: The City of Madness (currently on domestic release). Both expose the rampant corruption that remains a fixture in local headlines. The Truth Beneath, however, is bolder in its approach to style through its elaborate mise-en-scene, while its complex storytelling - which oscillates between different spaces, both past and present, in montage fashion - makes it an engrossing viewing experience.  

 

Thematically, rather than paying close attention to relationships within the realm of a political class that is largely dominated by men, The Truth Beneath focuses on a female protagonist, bringing to light the impact political ambition can have on a family, in this case a mother/wife and daughter, making Jong-chan’s pledge not only meaningless but wholly hypocritical. 

 

The film’s camerawork and production design are superb. Although, in some ways the styistic emphasis is reminiscent of Lee Kyoung-mi’s mentor Park Chan-wook’s expressionist sensibilities, she is cautious to not overdo it. In her last film, Crush and Blush, the actor Kong Hyo-jin delivered a career defining performance. Son Ye-jin replicates that here. Starting out as a caring and supporting wife, she impressively embodies Yeon-hong’s complex changes of emotion and personality as she learns more about her husband. Kim Joo-hyuk (Yourself and Yours) and the remainder of the cast all deliver strong performances, but it is Son that shines, and she has never been better. 

 

 

Production companies: Gummy, Film Train
International sales: CJ Entertainment (hawon.kim@cj.net)
Producers: Lee Mi-young, Kim Yoon-ho
Screenplay: Lee Kyoung-mi, Park Chan-wook, Jung Seo-kyung, Kim Da-young, Jung So-young
Cinematography: Ju Sung-lim
Art direction: Hong Ju-hee
Editor: Park Gok-ji
Music: Jang Young-gyu
Main Cast: Son Ye-jin, Kim Joo-hyuk, Kim So-hee, Shin Ji-hoon, Choi Yu-hwa

 

—————

 

https://screenanarchy.com/2016/06/review-the-truth-beneath-unearths-dark-stylish-mysteries.html

Review: THE TRUTH BENEATH Unearths Dark, Stylish Mysteries

 

By Pierce Conran | June 28, 2016

 

 

A great year for Korean genre cinema keeps getting better with the release of Lee Kyoung-mi's long time coming sophomore feature, the riveting The Truth Beneath, a sumptuous and anarchic political thriller, kidnap drama, suspenseful whodunnit and kaleidoscopic descent into delirium. Falling between the stylistic panache of Park Chan-wook's Lady Vengeance (2005), on which she was a scripter and assistant director, and the manic paranoia of Tetsuya Nakashima's Confessions (2010), Lee's latest features a career-best performance by Son Ye-jin in a narrative that occasionally gets mired in tonal vagaries.

 

Son plays Yeon-hong, who stands by her husband's side as he enters a highly contested election for the national assembly. With just 15 days until election day, the couple's daughter disappears and when Yeon-hong delves into the mystery, she begins to uncover some terrible secrets.

 

The Truth Beneath kicks off with a high degree of polish and a picture-perfect political couple sauntering into the spotlight. Yeon-hong prepares delectable local dishes at their home on the eve of a campaign rally but there's also something off about the scene. The dark colors bleeding across the frame hint at something sinister, as does reading between the lines of the pleasantries exchanged between the campaign staffers.

 

Much like recent Korean thrillers such as Veteran and Inside Men, Lee's work paints a casually disquieting picture of politics and the upper class. However, rather than continue to follow along the same tracks, once the couple's daughter disappears, the film quickly turns into an altogether different kind of beast. The mystery surrounding the girl's whereabouts may be the driving point of the plot but the real crux of the story is how all these events add to the deteriorating mental condition of Yeon-hong and her subsequent evolution into a renegade.

 

One of Korea's top stars, Son is known for classic romantic fare like A Moment to Remember (2004) and April Snow (2005). Recently she stepped into action (The Pirates, 2014) and thriller roles (Blood and Ties, 2013), but as Yeon-hong, she has demonstrated the heretofore unknown extent of her talents. Naturally switching between a quintessential political housewife, hollowed-out shell and vengeful force of nature, it's a superb, transformative performance that serves as the beating heart of the film.

 

Of course it isn't the first time that a lead actress has transformed herself under the guidance of director Lee. She performed the same trick with her debut Crush and Blush in 2008, when she coaxed an unforgettable role out of Kong Hyo-jin as an unhinged and perpetually red-checked schoolteacher. Lee's penchant for the off-kilter and bizarre remains on display here, but whereas her debut relied mostly on comedy, her latest work takes bolder strides and presents an altogether darker worldview.

 

With the help of cinematographer Ju Sung-lim, Lee has set her story in a world filled with duplicity. Shadows penetrate the dark while bright colors shimmer through the light in a mise-en-scene that employs crisp and precise framing, as well as complex setups that drag us further into the tale's mysteries.

 

The film's mood swings are at times a little too wide, and its midsection may come off as a touch convoluted, but any minor sidesteps are quickly forgiven in a focused final reel that boils with intensity and dispenses with the usual melodramatic bow-tying that mars so many Korean thrillers. Unfortunately The Truth Beneath hasn't set the local box office alight, but with any luck, we won't have to wait quite so long for Lee's third feature.

 

The Truth Beneath
DIRECTOR(S): Kyoung-mi Lee
WRITER(S): Seo-kyeong Jeong, So-young Jung, Da-Young Kim, Kyoung-mi Lee, Chan-wook Park
CAST: Ye-jin Son, Ju-hyuk Kim, Yu-hwa Choi, Cheol-woo Han
 

[slowpoked]

I see that SYJ won a lot of awards for The Truth Beneath, mostly from film critics associations. Is there a reason why the film didn't break through the more mainstream awards (Baeksang, Blue Dragon, etc)? Is it because of its disappointing box-office numbers?

.

[ILSYJSG]

10 hours ago, slowpoked said:

 

Wait, what?! There is a different ending out there?! The one that I saw was that she finally became the news anchor. Is there a different one?

 

I watched AIL after I saw CLOY, SITR, Personal Taste and Shark (in that order) because everyone was raving about it, so I wanted to see what the fuss was all about. While I liked it, I didn't fall in love with it like I was expecting to (CLOY to me is still far and away her best drama). 

 

The Spotlight I watched also ended with SYJ being the news anchor. 

 

Talking about Shark, I really enjoyed the show and find the sexual chemistry between the SYJ and KNG palpable. I was actually rooting for them, though it was pretty unfair to SYJ's onscreen husband. Shark is an old fashion revenge mystery thriller with some plot twists here and there, making me binge on the 20 episodes in 3 days.

 

I am not sure why Shark is so underrated though. Any thoughts?

[Helena]

4 hours ago, slowpoked said:

I see that SYJ won a lot of awards for The Truth Beneath, mostly from film critics associations. Is there a reason why the film didn't break through the more mainstream awards (Baeksang, Blue Dragon, etc)? Is it because of its disappointing box-office numbers?

‘The Truth Beneath’ and ‘The Last Princess’ were released on June 23, 2016 and August 3, 2016, respectively (less than 2 months apart).  It was Son Ye-jin vs Son Ye-jin on the award circuits.

While ‘The Last Princess’ was more successful commercially (and the cast’s actings received praises), most critics rated her performance in ‘The Truth Beneath’ the best of her career.

Best Actor-Actress 

[2017-05-24] The 22nd Chunsa Film Art Awards: Ha Jung-woo (Tunnel), Son Ye-jin (The Truth Beneath)

[2017-05-03] The 53rd Baeksang Arts Awards: Song Kang-ho (The Age of Shadows), Son Ye-jin (The Last Princess)

[2017-01-18] The 8th KOFRA (Korean Film Reporters Association) Film Awards: Song Kang-ho (The Age of Shadows), Son Ye-jin (The Last Princess)

[2016-12-27] The 53rd Grand Bell Awards: Lee Byung-hun (Inside Men), Son Ye-jin (The Last Princess)
[2016-12-20] The 3rd Film Producers Association Awards: Lee Byung-hun (Inside Men), Son Ye-jin (The Truth Beneath, The Last Princess)

[2016-12-07] The 17th Women in Film Korea Awards: Son Ye-jin (The Truth Beneath)

[2016-12-02] The 17th Busan Film Critics Association (BCFA) Awards: Jung Woo-sung (Asura: The City of Madness), Son Ye-jin (The Truth Beneath)

[2016-11-25] The 37th Blue Dragon Film Awards: Popular Star (The Last Princess) <nominated for Best Actress>

[2016-11-08] The 36th Korean Association of Film Critics (KAFC) Awards: Lee Byung-hun (Inside Men), Son Ye-jin (The Truth Beneath)

[2016-10-07] The 25th Buil Film Awards: Lee Byung-hun (Inside Men), Son Ye-jin (The Truth Beneath)

——didn’t win the following——

[2016-12-20] The 22nd Cine21 (Magazine) Movie Awards: Lee Byung-hun (Inside Men), Kim Min-hee (The Handmaiden)
[2016-11-25] The 37th Blue Dragon Film Awards: Lee Byung-hun (Inside Men), Kim Min-hee (The Handmaiden)

[2016-08-12] The 16th Director’s CUT Awards: Lee Byung-hun (Inside Men), Kim Min-hee (The Handmaiden)

[SuZy Leoo]

On 6/24/2020 at 11:41 AM, Intuition1 said:

But her original teeth were perfect and suited her face so much. Why change perfection?

As time goes by, our teeth will encounter discoloration through the food or drinks that was consume, these are are quite common, but nevertheless i'm loving her smiles ....but her eye smile is the best hehe 

 

13 hours ago, slowpoked said:

 

Wait, what?! There is a different ending out there?! The one that I saw was that she finally became the news anchor. Is there a different one?

The ending i saw was the same as yours, but when i read the Spotlight thread, the ending was somewhat different, so i'm not sure which is which though...

 

48 minutes ago, Helena said:

While ‘The Last Princess’ was more successful commercially (and the cast’s actings received praises), most critics rated her performance in ‘The Truth Beneath’ the best of her career.

I agree, her performance in The truth Beneath was AWWESOME...her emotions played so well thought the movie that i was glued to the screen from the beginning to the end... 

 

3 hours ago, ILSYJSG said:

I am not sure why Shark is so underrated though. Any thoughts?

Agree, i thought the drama was quite good- except the ending which i hate but then again i was conditioned for it as the drama was a revenge drama...

[GogoRoboto]

5 hours ago, slowpoked said:

I see that SYJ won a lot of awards for The Truth Beneath, mostly from film critics associations. Is there a reason why the film didn't break through the more mainstream awards (Baeksang, Blue Dragon, etc)? Is it because of its disappointing box-office numbers?

The big awards almost always seem favor the bigger prestige works. The Truth Beneath was  more of an indie rather than the more obvious chungmuro fare like Inside Men and The Handmaiden or even The Last Princess. As for the acting awards, I agree that SYJ practically cancelled herself out in the nominations. The major awards went with the The Last Princess because it was the more mainstream prestige film. But it was really amazing to see her win award after award in 2016/2017. When I first saw The Truth Beneath, I hadn’t seen SYJ in anything since Spellbound. The movie was not an easy watch but her acting was just out of this world exceptional. She was on another level in that movie.

[ILSYJSG]

52 minutes ago, GogoRoboto said:

The big awards almost always seem favor the bigger prestige works. The Truth Beneath was  more of an indie rather than the more obvious chungmuro fare like Inside Men and The Handmaiden or even The Last Princess. As for the acting awards, I agree that SYJ practically cancelled herself out in the nominations. The major awards went with the The Last Princess because it was the more mainstream prestige film. But it was really amazing to see her win award after award in 2016/2017. When I first saw The Truth Beneath, I hadn’t seen SYJ in anything since Spellbound. The movie was not an easy watch but her acting was just out of this world exceptional. She was on another level in that movie.

 

Totally agree! SUPER proud of her award-winning streak even though her two works cannibalise each other.

 

I was shocked to see a completely different SYJ in The Truth Beneath - I believe this demonstrates that she has far more depth in her acting which she has yet shown to the world.

 

Similarly for the part in The Last Princess where she became mentally ill (at the border) when she was denied entry into South Korea.

Gosh! SYJ's ability to bring all her characters to life and suck the audience into the story is a testament of her acting prowess.

 

[slowpoked]

10 hours ago, Helena said:

‘The Truth Beneath’ and ‘The Last Princess’ were released on June 23, 2016 and August 3, 2016, respectively (less than 2 months apart).  It was Son Ye-jin vs Son Ye-jin on the award circuits.

 

Thanks Helena, that makes sense. 

8 hours ago, GogoRoboto said:

The movie was not an easy watch but her acting was just out of this world exceptional. She was on another level in that movie.

 

I agree, it's a movie that you have to be patient and  stick with. It was furiously edited and not told in a linear fashion. Maybe that's why it didn't click with the more mainstream audience. But I really like her performance there - it was manic, desperate, angry, sullen all at the same time. 

12 hours ago, ILSYJSG said:

Talking about Shark, I really enjoyed the show and find the sexual chemistry between the SYJ and KNG palpable. I was actually rooting for them, though it was pretty unfair to SYJ's onscreen husband. Shark is an old fashion revenge mystery thriller with some plot twists here and there, making me binge on the 20 episodes in 3 days.

 

I am not sure why Shark is so underrated though. Any thoughts?

 

Their chemistry on Shark was on fire. KNG does not have your typical leading man look, but he looked really good with SYJ here. I mean, the push and pull between them knowing how much they wanted each other but they cannot be nor are they allowed to be together was incredible.

 

My thoughts on why it's underrated - the final episodes undid everything the series did good in its first half. The premise itself I really liked - I like a good revenge and unrequited love drama. But the reveal about the grandfather's past didn't seem to land as much as they thought it should have (I don't know much about Korea's history, but I couldn't square the reveal of him being in some armed forces or something enough to take his whole empire and family down). And towards the last episode they suddenly stuck a lot of reveals that was meant more to shock rather than to move the plot along, and because of that, it forgot to resolve the earlier issues of the story. I mean, where did that liver disease thing of the sister come from? I felt cheated of a plot contrivance to make KNG's character be a martyr towards the end. KNG and SYJ's characters never resolved their feelings towards each other and got proper closure. I don't think KNG necessarily had to die towards the end just so there would be no more dilemma on SYJ's feelings towards him and her husband. I would have really loved to have seen their final conversation. Did SYJ's husband eventually forgive her? Whatever happened to their marriage?

 

On a more shallow note - did they film the series in summer? I've never seen SYJ wear so many shorts and skirts in a series, and given that her role is that of a lawyer. She's actually in her office working wearing shorts. 

[Helena]

^ ‘Shark’ was shot in April to July 2013.
It was the final chapter of writer Kim Ji-woo and director Park Chan-hong’s Revenge trilogy, along with ‘Resurrection’ (2005; Uhm Tae-woong) and ‘Devil’ (2007; Uhm Tae-woong, Joo Ji-hoon)

 

Kim Nam-gil and Son Ye-jin’s off-screen chemistry was even better than on-screen.

 

14 hours ago, GogoRoboto said:

When I first saw The Truth Beneath, I hadn’t seen SYJ in anything since Spellbound. The movie was not an easy watch but her acting was just out of this world exceptional. She was on another level in that movie

Her performance in ‘The Truth Beneath’ was shocking to viewers just like what happened during ‘Alone in Love’ days. 

At the beginning of her career, she was more known for her beauty; she was criticized for her actings (Lee Byung-hun & Shim Eun-ha were criticized at the beginning of their careers too). In 2003, she & Han Seok-gyu were chosen as ‘overrated’ stars.

[Namu: 이런 그녀도 데뷔 초엔 연기력 비판이 있었다. 2003년엔 프리미어에서 한석규와 함께 과대평가된 배우로 그녀를 선정하기도. # 이 부분에 추가하자면 연기파로 인정받는 배우들 중에도 처음에는 발연기라고 까였던 배우는 얼마든지 볼 수 있다. 이병헌, 심은하 등도 데뷔 초엔 외모만 뛰어나고 연기력이 형편없다는 비난을 받은 적이 있다. # 이와 관련해 김구라는 썰전에서 "얼굴 잘생긴 사람들은 데뷔 초 연기 논란에 휩싸일 수밖에 없다. 얼굴만 보고 주인공을 맡기기 때문이다"고 했는데 손예진도 이 케이스라고 볼 수 있다.]

Many felt that ‘’April Snow’ (2005) was underwhelming and the lead stars’ actings were weak. The movie was highly anticipated because it was director Hur Jin-ho’s follow-up to ‘Christmas in August’ (1998; Han Seok-gyu, Shim Eun-ha) and ‘One Fine Spring Day’ (2001; Yoo Ji-tae, Lee Young-ae) — these 2 much-loved movies earned him the title ‘melodrama specialist’.

Spoiler

We posted many news articles and reviews in April Snow thread.  Soompi’s servers crashed in 2005, everything posted before the crash was lost.  

 

 

‘Alone in Love’ (2006) was a major turning point for her, she was recognized for her acting.

Spoiler

[10Asia 2010.05.17] Han Ji-seung - The director of SBS TV series "Alone in Love." 
Son Ye-jin, who had been worried she may be "focusing only on one aspect when there is so much more to show," took on "Alone in Love" although she was told by Han that the drama may never become popular enough to breach the 50 percent mark in viewership ratings. But it turned out to be the best choice for her. Through the long takes of the drama, Son was able to show the details of her character with more depth and diversity than she had done through movies, and she had enough time to fully interpret her character since the show was being produced ahead of time. In particular, her character Eun-ho was not a woman who could be described merely by images such as innocent, vivacious and sad. Eun-ho, who lived a normal life as a divorcee who hurts others feelings at times, was the most ordinary character Son had played to date, yet she had the appeal to make viewers understand and support Eun-ho's life. She was a character who was quite realistic yet never before seen through Korean dramas nor movies. In every scene of "Alone in Love," Son showed acting which was good enough to be called excellent acting and such display of talent mowed down all other talk about her.

 

[10Asia 2011.12.23] There are a countless number of beautiful actresses. And a good number of them are good at acting as well. But seldom does an actor who hit stardom for her looks first leave a strong impression in all 16 episodes of a mini-series before her twenties has passed. So that is probably why Son Ye-jin stood out after appearing in SBS' "Alone in Love." It marked the appearance of a beautiful 25-year-old actress who so exquisitely could portray on the emotions of a woman who has experienced divorce and hence can no longer be just excited over love. It was sort of a surprise to all and whether the roles she played thereafter were received well or not, they were at a standard higher than that applied to actresses her age.

http://www.asiae.co.kr/news/view.htm?idxno=2011122317340286147

As mentioned in the above article, her performance in AIL ‘was a surprise to all’. Many viewers (saw her as an actress who could act) started to like her. She admits in a later interview (2008 I think) that she gained the support of female audience with ‘Alone in Love’ (she was asked if she knew that more than 95% of her fans were ‘male’ before).

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Darcy Paquet talked about the different movie awards in Korea.

https://www.koreanfilm.org/awards.html
 

————————————————————

 

http://netizenbuzz.blogspot.com/2020/06/crash-landing-on-you-popularity.html

'Crash Landing on You' popularity continues to skyrocket in Japan

June 25, 2020  

 

Article: 'Crash Landing on You' a craze in Japan... can it become the second 'Winter Sonata'?

Source: Sports Kyunghyang via Nate

 

1. [+1,021, -55] Hyun Bin's handsome, Son Ye Jin's pretty, and the Japanese are always fussing over North Korea so of course the drama is popular over there

2. [+945, -62] Of course they're going to like the drama since Japan doesn't have as many traditionally handsome men like Hyun Bin

3. [+734, -52] I thought it was childish at first but after hearing about how it was all the craze around Asia, I gave it another chance and I really got into it from the middle part on. It's fun ㅋ

4. [+49, -9] Congratulations~ it's popular in the States as well

5. [+43, -5] I live in Japan and it really is popular over here ㅋㅋㅋ Son Ye Jin and Hyun Bin's looks just aren't something realistic over here....

6. [+42, -12] Japan not only doesn't have visuals like Hyun Bin and Son Ye Jin but actors with their skill level as well. They're going crazy for Hyun Bin and Son Ye Jin. She already had a core fanbase in Japan with 'Summer Scent' and 'A Moment to Remember', both of which already hit daebak in Japan prior to this.

7. [+35, -3] With Korean-Japanese relations at an all time worst right now, you know that their interest in the drama isn't fake when it's still being mentioned on broadcast multiple times. I think if Hyun Bin and Son Ye Jin were to ever visit Japan for drama promos, this could surpass 'Winter Sonata' in popularity.

8. [+34, -3] Well you've got handsome and beautiful co-stars with acting skills to back it up, of course the drama's daebak

9. [+29, -6] The drama's not as fun if you're not familiar with North Korean dialects, though...?

10. [+28, -3] It's a good drama. The actors really live up to the plot so it's worth a watch.

[slowpoked]

5 hours ago, Helena said:

Many felt that ‘’April Snow’ (2005) was underwhelming and the lead stars’ actings were weak. The movie was highly anticipated because it was director Hur Jin-ho’s follow-up to ‘Christmas in August’ (1998; Han Seok-gyu, Shim Eun-ha) and ‘One Fine Spring Day’ (2001; Yoo Ji-tae, Lee Young-ae) — these 2 much-loved movies earned him the title ‘melodrama specialist’.

 

I maybe in the minority but I really like April Snow. I like and appreciate slow burn movies, and this is one of those. I like the tone of quiet despair and sadness in the movie. Plus, it also reminded me of another Asian movie that I love, which has a similar theme - In The Mood For Love. 

 

I saw the theatrical version first and then the director's cut soon afterwards. The director's cut is 20 minutes longer so if you're already not a fan of the movie because of its slow pace, you won't want the director's cut either. But I actually prefer it to the theatrical version. The sequences in the director's cut made a lot more sense, the deleted scenes gave a lot more context (especially for SYJ's character, because I felt like the theatrical version treated her as a secondary character to the male lead, instead of his equal) and it helped in understanding the characters and their motivations better.

[ILSYJSG]

13 hours ago, slowpoked said:

Their chemistry on Shark was on fire. KNG does not have your typical leading man look, but he looked really good with SYJ here. I mean, the push and pull between them knowing how much they wanted each other but they cannot be nor are they allowed to be together was incredible.

 

KNG and SYJ's characters never resolved their feelings towards each other and got proper closure. I don't think KNG necessarily had to die towards the end just so there would be no more dilemma on SYJ's feelings towards him and her husband. I would have really loved to have seen their final conversation. Did SYJ's husband eventually forgive her? Whatever happened to their marriage?

 

On a more shallow note - did they film the series in summer? I've never seen SYJ wear so many shorts and skirts in a series, and given that her role is that of a lawyer. She's actually in her office working wearing shorts. 

 

YES!! Every time the scene involves the two of them, my heart pounded faster (literally!) and I feel tense and excited for them. I find the chemistry between SYJ and KNG is the hot, sexual kind; whereas that between SYJ and HB is the comfortable couple kind. 

However on comparing the Shark and CLOY BTSs and interviews which I've watched, I concluded that SYJ has no interest in KNG and definitely has feelings for HB. 

 

SYJ's husband had always known that her heart was with KNG, yet his way of loving her is just to stay by her side and protect her (conversation in the car).  I would think that in the end, either SYJ stayed on with her husband as obliged by her sense of responsibility, OR SYJ left and stayed single for the rest of her life. And yes, it is a pity that we did not get proper closure (in the sense of both SYJ and KNG declaring their undying love for each other FACE TO FACE) except for SYJ declaring her love for KNG and kissing him on his death bed, and letting go of the wooden shark in the sea.

 

I remember reading that SYJ gifted sunscreens to everyone on set at Shark as the filming was done under the hot sun. I presume it was summer then. 

 

 

8 hours ago, Helena said:

Kim Nam-gil and Son Ye-jin’s off-screen chemistry was even better than on-screen.

 

Through the long takes of the drama, Son was able to show the details of her character with more depth and diversity than she had done through movies, and she had enough time to fully interpret her character since the show was being produced ahead of time.

 

Really? I see friendly banter between the two but don't really see how their off-screen chemistry can beat that in Shark. However I can see that KNG is clearly smitten by SYJ and has always been caring and protective during their interactions.

 

SYJ has always been friendly with her co-stars during interviews, but nothing comes close with her off the charts chemistry with HB.

Eg. With SJS, JHI - sibling vibes

 

Alone In Love reminds me of Something In The Rain - where we get to see SYJ in a natural setting, wearing casual clothes and having normal hairstyle - doing mundane stuff in her every day life. I love that.

 

3 hours ago, slowpoked said:

I maybe in the minority but I really like April Snow. I like and appreciate slow burn movies, and this is one of those. I like the tone of quiet despair and sadness in the movie. Plus, it also reminded me of another Asian movie that I love, which has a similar theme - In The Mood For Love. 

 

Being an impatient person, I must confess that I find April Snow and In The Mood For Love too slow and depressing for my liking.

To me, SYJ's acting is far more impressive than BYJ in April Snow. The most memorable BYJ is still in Winter Sonata.

 

 

[yssec]

On 6/25/2020 at 11:46 AM, ILSYJSG said:

 

The Spotlight I watched also ended with SYJ being the news anchor. 

 

Talking about Shark, I really enjoyed the show and find the sexual chemistry between the SYJ and KNG palpable. I was actually rooting for them, though it was pretty unfair to SYJ's onscreen husband. Shark is an old fashion revenge mystery thriller with some plot twists here and there, making me binge on the 20 episodes in 3 days.

 

I am not sure why Shark is so underrated though. Any thoughts?

 

 

Me too... she became an anchor and I didn't know there was a different ending on Spotlight. 

 

I'm rooting for them too... SYJ and KNG! I'm a BinJin shipper but next to HB is KNG for SYJ. They have chemistry too and I was always looking  forward to their next scenes in the Shark series.  I like the humor of KNG,  he always teases SYJ in their interviews. 

 

Maybe Shark was underrated because the story was dragging. Different scenes but same content.. and I don't like the idea of what they did to KNG's character in the ending part.