Oscar-nominee Youn Yuh-jung, down-to-earth actor with self-deprecating humor

Youn Yuh-jung / Courtesy of Hook Entertainment

Youn's nomination for Best Supporting Actress is one of the six Oscar nominations “Minari” received at the 93rd Academy Awards.

By Kwak Yeon-soo

Starting last year, actor Youn Yuh-jung's lucky break has shown no signs of ending. As of February, she has bagged 26 prizes from film festivals held around the world for her role as the eccentric grandmother Soon-ja in the critically-acclaimed film, “Minari.”

On Monday, she earned one more honor, the odds of which she had said earlier were slim, considering the fact that her life has been one far from glitz and glamour: she was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category at the 93rd Academy Awards. Yoon, 74, is the first Korean to achieve this feat.

“I didn't imagine anything like this would happen to me at my age. To be honest, I felt grateful, but at the same time, it was burdensome. Although I'm not an athlete, I can understand the psychological distress of Olympic athletes. I hate competition. I feel honored to be nominated and I feel like I'm already a winner,” said the 73-year-old actress about her history-making Oscar nomination.

Youn, an expressive actor with a self-deprecating sense of humor, said she was quarantining at home after arriving from Vancouver, Canada, when she heard the news.

“We (Film producer Lee In-ah and I) were unpacking… All of the sudden she said, 'Wow, you're nominated!' She was crying. I didn't cry. She got more emotional than me. I felt numb so I just hugged her in my living room. Everybody wished to come here, but there's no way to come here because I'm in quarantine. So In-ah and I were celebrating together. But the problem is that In-ah cannot drink alcohol, so I had to drink by myself,” she told AP of her reaction to the nomination.

Her frank reaction reflects her down-to-earth personality. In her talk with “Parasite” director Bong Joon-ho, Youn revealed that she has deliberately avoided people who bring up the word, “Oscars.” On winning numerous awards for her role in “Minari,” she said, “I presume there are so many awards in the U.S. because the country is so big.”

As of March 16, Youn has won 32 awards from film critic circles and festivals worldwide. Earlier this month, she was nominated for best supporting actress at the British Academy Film Awards.

“I think Youn perfectly fits into today's society, which demands diversity. She has pure passion and never loses her senses of wit and honesty, which make her likeable across generations and borders. Even in the film, she never loses that humor, strength and warmth,” culture critic Jung Duk-hyun said.

Director Lee Isaac Chung, left, and the cast of “Minari” / Courtesy of Pancinema

Spanning her acting career of 55 years, Youn has never been hesitant to go after unconventional roles. Her early iconic works include late director Kim Ki-young's “Women of Fire” (1971) and “Insect Women” (1972), in which she starred both as a woman who is expressive about her sexual desire and who takes revenge on her male counterpart. Youn recalled that she was considered an “unlikeable” actress in the past, with many viewers calling her a “woman with a strange face and voice.”

At the peak of her career in 1972, Youn married popular singer Cho Young-nam, retired and moved to the U.S. However, she returned to the entertainment industry in 1985 and later divorced her husband in 1987. Since then, she has worked hard to support herself and her two sons. She accepted nearly all the roles that were offered to her and interpreted them in her own way.

Her later works, include director Im Sang-soo's “A Good Lawyer's Wife” (2003), “The Housemaid” (2010) and “The Taste of Money” (2012), in which she displays desires for sex and power, as well as director E J-yong's “The Bacchus Lady” (2016).

The Oscars made history this year by nominating nine non-white performers across the four acting categories.

Film critics said the latest nominations reflect the increasing pressure on both the Academy and Hollywood to better represent culturally diverse America.

“While Steven Yeun becomes the first Korean-American to land an acting nomination, Youn is the first Korean actor to secure a nomination. It's concerning that it has taken this long to get this far, but it is progress. Youn's nomination will go down in the history books, as it marks a significant moment for acting talent working in and outside the Korean film industry,” said Jason Bechervaise, a professor who lectures on Korean cinema at Korea Soongsil Cyber University.

“The Academy, therefore, has increased its membership to include talent from across the world, including Korea, with the total number of members now hitting close to 10,000. Older white male voters still form a large part of the academy, but the fruits of this expansion were evident last year with the success of 'Parasite,'” he added.

Director Lee Isaac Chung's “Minari,” is up for a total of six Oscars in 2021: Best Picture, Best Actor for Steven Yeun, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director and Best Original Score.

Other nominees in the category included Maria Bakalova from “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” Glenn Close from “Hillbilly Elegy,” Olivia Colman from “The Father” and Amanda Seyfried from “Mank.”

This occasion is the fourth time that an Asian actress has been nominated in the category, following Miyoshi Umeki in “Sayonara” (1957), Shohreh Aghdashloo in “House of Sand and Fog” (2003) and Rinko Kikuchi in “Babel” (2006). If Youn wins, she will be the second Asian actress to win the best supporting actress following Umeki.

As the semi-autobiographical story of Chung's life, “Minari” tells the story of a Korean immigrant family that moves to rural Arkansas to start a farm in the 1980s. It has topped the local box office for about two weeks, attracting over 500,000 attendees since its March 3 release.

The winners of the 93rd Academy Awards will be announced April 25.