In the fall of 1997, several years before South Korean cinema began its modern-day resurgence, the production company Myung Films released a sophisticated, somewhat dark urban melodrama titled The Contact. It featured one of the most popular male leads of the time in Han Seok-gyu, but the film’s revelation was a young TV actress making her film debut. The role itself was not one that most aspiring young actresses would hope for: Su-hyun is an ordinary woman with an ordinary life, who seeks an outlet for her loneliness in online chatting. But the subtle, masterful performance by Jeon Do-yeon imbued the character with such warmth and life that young Korean viewers – who in general showed very little interest in local cinema at that time – were captivated. The film became one of the year’s biggest hits, Jeon was suddenly the center of attention. Even at the time, it was clear what was happening: a star had been born.
In the coming years, during which time Korean cinema would transform itself, Jeon would prove the depth of her talent in a truly dazzling range of performances that would earn her a reputation as an acting chameleon, able to take on any role. In 1998 she played a doctor who falls in love with a gangster in the hugely popular melodrama A Promise. But then she abruptly reversed course, shattering the screen image she had carried so far with a mesmerizing performance as a philandering housewife in Happy End (1999), an unforgettable portrayal of a schoolgirl from the countryside in Harmonium in My Memory (1999), and a gritty turn as the tough talking “Sunglasses” in director Ryoo Seung-wan’s first commercial feature No Blood No Tears (2002).
In between occasional TV work like the wildly popular TV dramas Shooting the Star (2002) and Lovers in Prague (2005), Jeon continued to make unconventional choices in her film career. Untold Scandal (2003), director E J-yong’s Joseon Dynasty-set adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos’ 1782 novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, produced another outstanding performance for Jeon in the Madame Marie de Tourvel role. My Mother the Mermaid (2004) saw her take on a challenging double role as a contemporary travel agent from the present and her own mother in the past, a shellfish diver who lives by the sea. Kyu Hyun Kim wrote of her performance: “Jeon resists all the easy choices and paints her characters in layers and layers of shadings, so much so that the range of her performance is difficult to appreciate in just one viewing.” Then in 2005, she played a prostitute who contracts AIDS in the highly unconventional but heart-stopping melodrama You Are My Sunshine, which turned into an unexpected smash hit.
At this point in her career, Jeon Do-yeon had long enjoyed recognition in Korea as the industry’s most prodigious talent. But she had yet to appear in a film that travelled widely overseas, to the extent of Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy or Bong Joon-ho’s The Host. Therefore when news broke that she would take the leading role in Secret Sunshine by leading auteur Lee Chang-dong, known for his emotionally intense dramas, anticipation shot through the roof. Secret Sunshine was invited to the competition section at Cannes, and so ten years after making her film debut Jeon walked the red carpet. Outside of those who follow Korean cinema, few people in Cannes would have recognized her as she entered the theater. But as soon as her emotionally devastating portrayal of a woman dealing with a string of personal tragedies was screened, she became the talk of the festival. Sure enough, at the awards ceremony, Jeon Do-yeon became only the second Asian woman after Maggie Cheung to take home the Best Actress award at Cannes.
The news of Jeon’s award broke like a sensation in Korea, cementing her reputation and her place in Korean film history. It was an eventful year for her in other respects as well, given her marriage to businessman Kang Shi-kyu. Two years later, the couple gave birth to a daughter.
Jeon’s career also continued with more successes. In the low-budget drama My Dear Enemy (2008) she co-starred with Ha Jung-woo in a poignant character-driven story that is well remembered as a gem of its time. And with The Housemaid, director Im Sang-soo’s lavish re-imagining of the 1960 classic by Kim Ki-young, Jeon returned to the Cannes competition and walked the red carpet for a second time. She also returned to genre filmmaking in the caper movie Countdown (2011).
Some of Jeon’s highlights in recent years include Way Back Home (2013), director Pang Eun-jin’s harrowing adaptation of a real-life story about a Korean woman jailed in Martinique after unknowingly transporting drugs through an airport; and The Shameless (2015), an atmospheric crime noir that premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. Also appearing in martial arts epic Memories of the Sword (2015) and the intimate infidelity drama A Man and a Woman (2016), Jeon returned to television for an acclaimed turn in the popular drama remake The Good Wife.
However we are particularly thrilled to be welcoming Jeon Do-yeon to Udine and presenting her with this much-deserved Golden Mulberry Award for Lifetime Achievement on the occasion of her new film Birthday. It is no ordinary drama, given that its subject matter – the tragic sinking of the Sewol Ferry in 2014 – left such deep scars on Korean society. In truth, only an actress of Jeon Do-yeon’s stature could have taken on this role, which serves as a kind of collective coming-to-terms for all the Korean population. Reuniting with actor Sul Kyung-gu 18 years after their touching romantic drama I Wish I Had a Wife (2001), she gives a performance that will be long remembered.
Jeon Do-yeon has accomplished so much in such a short space of time that there is much to celebrate in looking back over her career to date. But we expect much more from her in the coming decades as well. Next in line later this year is mystery thriller Beasts Clawing at Straws, an adaptation of a Japanese novel in which she co-stars with fellow FEFF guest of honor Jung Woo-sung. So although this year marks Jeon’s first trip to Udine, we hope to welcome her back many times in the future as well.
Darcy Paquet