'Beautiful Days' asks meaning of family

In “Beautiful Days,” actress Lee Na-young, left, plays a North Korean defector who leads a tragic life in Seoul. / Courtesy of Contents Panda

By Park Jin-hai

Veteran actress Lee Na-young makes a welcome return to the big screen, playing a North Korean defector and mother who has lived a tragic life.

“Beautiful Days,” which opened this year's Busan International Film Festival, features a young Korean-Chinese man, Zhen Chen, played by Jang Dong-yoon, who goes to South Korea in search of his mother.

His mother, played by actress Lee, escaped from North Korea and got married in China. But she ran away from their China home when her son was a child. Encountering his mother 14 years later, working at a bar and living with a hoodlum husband, Zhen Chen gets caught up in complex emotions of longing, hatred and resentment.

And after observing his mother's seemingly cold and composed demeanor, he returns to China brokenhearted. But on his way back home, he finds his mother's notebook detailing her tragic past.

Director Yun Jero, who has been telling stories of marginalized people since 2011, including his award-winning documentary 'Mrs. B. A North Korean Woman', questions the meaning of family through the mother's life. The film shows a defined mise-en-scene and the visuals communicate the characters' emotions more than words could.

“Words are sparse in my film. I would say it's a visual language. It allows audiences some leeway to understand the film on their own,” said the director during a press conference in Seoul, Monday.

Actress Lee, who returns after six years following her 2012 film “Howling,” appeared in the low-budget film with no payment.

“This film conveys a lot, yet its storytelling is simple and composed. Without any detailed explanations, I could understand with my heart the feeling and situations my character is faced with,” said Lee.

The mother, whose identity was vague in order to distance herself from who she was in North Korea _ like many other defectors _ was not given a name in the film.

Lee plays the woman's life from her teens to her 30s, speaking various languages through the course of her life from dialects of Yanbian, an ethnic Korean-Chinese area near North Korea, to Chinese and to modern-day Korean.

“Portraying the mother in her 30s was the most challenging part for me, because I had to act out scenes of her reflecting on her life. I acted while trying to hold back the emotions in my heart,” said the actress. Lee said, “This film tells us not to lose hope under any circumstances. By showing a woman who, despite having lived such a difficult life, keeps on living without giving up and even finding happiness in it, this film gives the message of hope.”

The film will hit local theaters on Nov. 21.