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Youn Yuh-jung
Youn Yuh-jung (Korean: 윤여정; pronounced [jun jʌdʑʌŋ]; born June 19, 1947) is a South Korean actress. Youn gained attention on Korean television in the late 1960s and rose to prominence with the film Woman of Fire (1971). She retired in the mid-1970s after marrying and immigrating to the United States, but returned to acting in the late 1980s following her divorce. Known as the “Godmother of Chungmu-ro,” Youn's notable films include The Housemaid (2010), The Taste of Money (2012), The Bacchus Lady (2016), Canola (2016), as well as a series of matriarch roles in TV dramas Men of the Bath House (1995), Be Strong, Geum-soon! (2005), Daughters-in-Law (2007), My Husband Got a Family (2012), and Dear My Friends (2016). She gained international recognition for her role in Minari (2020), becoming the first Korean actress to win a Screen Actors Guild Award, an Independent Spirit Award, a British Academy Film Award, and an Academy Award, all for Best Supporting Actress.
Youn Yuh-jung was born on June 19, 1947, in Kaesong, southern Korea. She is the eldest daughter of a family with three daughters. Her father died when she was young. The family fled the city during the first and fourth retreat of the Korean War. She attended Changsin Elementary School and later Ewha Girls' High School in Seoul, South Korea.[unreliable source?] She graduated from high school in 1966. Afterwards, she enrolled at Hanyang University, with a major in Korean Language and Literature. When she passed open acting auditions held by TBC in 1966, she dropped out of college.
After dropping out of college, Youn made her acting debut in the television drama Mister Gom in 1967. Youn shot to stardom in 1971 with two memorable portrayals of femme fatales. Her first film, Kim Ki-young's Woman of Fire, became a critical and commercial hit, for which she won Best Actress at the Sitges Film Festival. This was followed by the MBC historical drama Jang Hui-bin where she played the titular infamous royal concubine. Kim was considered Korea's first style-conscious, experimental director, and Youn did not balk in playing risque, provocative characters that explore the grotesque in the female psyche in collaborations with him such as The Insect Woman (1972) and Be a Wicked Woman (1990). Audiences found Youn's fast way of speaking and atypical appearance refreshing and she frequently took roles in TV dramas depicting a modern woman of the new generation, notably in Stepmother (1972) written by Kim Soo-hyun.
At the peak of her career, Youn retired after she married singer Jo Young-nam in 1974, then immigrated to the United States. In 1984, she returned to Korea and permanently resumed her acting career. She and Jo divorced in 1987 and struggled to resume her acting career due to the stigma of divorce in South Korea.
Making a comeback after taking a long break was an unusual feat for a Korean middle-aged actress. Although most actresses her age played clichéd self-sacrificing mothers or coarse ajummas, Youn's acting range led to her being cast in more complex, stylish, and independent roles. In A Good Lawyer's Wife (2003), she drew critical acclaim for her nonchalant acting as a mother-in-law who neglected her husband dying of liver cancer and enjoyed extramarital affairs. Her frank and confident persona again manifested itself in E J-yong's mockumentary Actresses (2009).
Youn continued playing supporting roles in film and television, such as in The Housemaid (2010). She reunited with director Im Sang-soo for the fourth time in The Taste of Money (2012), as a cruel chaebol heiress at the center of the drama that unfolds and touches upon the themes of corruption, greed and sex. Youn said "I don't mind being called an old actress, but I do worry about how to carry on my acting career without looking like an old fool."
In 2013, she was cast as a loving mother to three loser children in Song Hae-sung's Boomerang Family. Later in the year, Youn appeared in her first reality show Sisters Over Flowers, a travel show shot in Croatia. After appearing on Sisters Over Flowers, Youn has stated that her public image became more positive.
Youn starred in two leading roles in 2015: Kang Je-gyu's Salut d'Amour about the romance between an elderly supermarket employee and a flower shop owner, and Canola about a Jeju Island female diver who reunites with her long-lost granddaughter. Salut d'Amour was Youn's first collaboration with actor Park Geun-hyung since 1971.
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Youn Yuh-jung
Youn Yuh-jung (Korean: 윤여정; pronounced [jun jʌdʑʌŋ]; born June 19, 1947) is a South Korean actress. Youn gained attention on Korean television in the late 1960s and rose to prominence with the film Woman of Fire (1971). She retired in the mid-1970s after marrying and immigrating to the United States, but returned to acting in the late 1980s following her divorce. Known as the “Godmother of Chungmu-ro,” Youn's notable films include The Housemaid (2010), The Taste of Money (2012), The Bacchus Lady (2016), Canola (2016), as well as a series of matriarch roles in TV dramas Men of the Bath House (1995), Be Strong, Geum-soon! (2005), Daughters-in-Law (2007), My Husband Got a Family (2012), and Dear My Friends (2016). She gained international recognition for her role in Minari (2020), becoming the first Korean actress to win a Screen Actors Guild Award, an Independent Spirit Award, a British Academy Film Award, and an Academy Award, all for Best Supporting Actress.
Youn Yuh-jung was born on June 19, 1947, in Kaesong, southern Korea. She is the eldest daughter of a family with three daughters. Her father died when she was young. The family fled the city during the first and fourth retreat of the Korean War. She attended Changsin Elementary School and later Ewha Girls' High School in Seoul, South Korea.[unreliable source?] She graduated from high school in 1966. Afterwards, she enrolled at Hanyang University, with a major in Korean Language and Literature. When she passed open acting auditions held by TBC in 1966, she dropped out of college.
After dropping out of college, Youn made her acting debut in the television drama Mister Gom in 1967. Youn shot to stardom in 1971 with two memorable portrayals of femme fatales. Her first film, Kim Ki-young's Woman of Fire, became a critical and commercial hit, for which she won Best Actress at the Sitges Film Festival. This was followed by the MBC historical drama Jang Hui-bin where she played the titular infamous royal concubine. Kim was considered Korea's first style-conscious, experimental director, and Youn did not balk in playing risque, provocative characters that explore the grotesque in the female psyche in collaborations with him such as The Insect Woman (1972) and Be a Wicked Woman (1990). Audiences found Youn's fast way of speaking and atypical appearance refreshing and she frequently took roles in TV dramas depicting a modern woman of the new generation, notably in Stepmother (1972) written by Kim Soo-hyun.
At the peak of her career, Youn retired after she married singer Jo Young-nam in 1974, then immigrated to the United States. In 1984, she returned to Korea and permanently resumed her acting career. She and Jo divorced in 1987 and struggled to resume her acting career due to the stigma of divorce in South Korea.
Making a comeback after taking a long break was an unusual feat for a Korean middle-aged actress. Although most actresses her age played clichéd self-sacrificing mothers or coarse ajummas, Youn's acting range led to her being cast in more complex, stylish, and independent roles. In A Good Lawyer's Wife (2003), she drew critical acclaim for her nonchalant acting as a mother-in-law who neglected her husband dying of liver cancer and enjoyed extramarital affairs. Her frank and confident persona again manifested itself in E J-yong's mockumentary Actresses (2009).
Youn continued playing supporting roles in film and television, such as in The Housemaid (2010). She reunited with director Im Sang-soo for the fourth time in The Taste of Money (2012), as a cruel chaebol heiress at the center of the drama that unfolds and touches upon the themes of corruption, greed and sex. Youn said "I don't mind being called an old actress, but I do worry about how to carry on my acting career without looking like an old fool."
In 2013, she was cast as a loving mother to three loser children in Song Hae-sung's Boomerang Family. Later in the year, Youn appeared in her first reality show Sisters Over Flowers, a travel show shot in Croatia. After appearing on Sisters Over Flowers, Youn has stated that her public image became more positive.
Youn starred in two leading roles in 2015: Kang Je-gyu's Salut d'Amour about the romance between an elderly supermarket employee and a flower shop owner, and Canola about a Jeju Island female diver who reunites with her long-lost granddaughter. Salut d'Amour was Youn's first collaboration with actor Park Geun-hyung since 1971.
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