Actress Kim to get achievement award

Actress Kim Ji-mee, one of the country’s greatest movie stars, will receive an achievement award at this year’s Women in Film Korea Festival, Thursday. / Korea Times

By Baek Byung-yeul

Veteran actress Kim Ji-mee, 74, will receive an achievement award at this year’s Women in Film Korea Festival, the organizing committee announced Tuesday.

“As a woman and an actress, Kim has been widely admired,” the organizing committee said in a statement.

Ever since she made her big screen debut in 1957 film “The Twilight Train” at the age of 17, Kim has been dubbed as “Korea’s Elizabeth Taylor. She is considered one of the most influential actresses in the 20th century in Korea.”

Her breakthrough came in 1958 when she took a starring role in romance film “The Star in My Heart.” She has appeared in more than 800 films and has won many of Korea’s prestigious awards including “Daejong (Grand Bell) Film Awards” and “Cheongryong (Blue Dragon) Film Awards.” The Korean Film Critics Association gave her a lifetime achievement award in 2000.

Some of her biggest hits include "Why a Cuckoo Cries" (1967) "Kilsodeum"(1985) "Myong-Ja Akiko Sonia" (1992). The movie star has also served as a film studio CEO and a chief director of the Motion Pictures Association of Korea.

She has made headlines with a flamboyant lifestyle, particularly for four marriages that all ended in divorce. Her 1976 marriage to ‘trot’ superstar Na Hoon-a, seven years her junior, was one of the biggest scandals at the time. “Men are like children. I find them restless and incomplete,” Kim said in an interview with JoongAng Ilbo in 2010, recounting her marriages.

Founded in 2000, the Women in Film Korea Festival has recognized notable female film makers and actresses.

The award ceremony will be held at the Cine Code Seonjae in central Seoul, Thursday.