Han Ji-hye’s Movie Picks

For an actor, making an improvement is similar to learning how to swim. No matter how scared you are, you have to jump into the water to learn how to move in the water. For actress Han Ji-hye, it was a similar process when she was adding on her acting work to fill in the label as an actor. She, who made a successful landing on network television by portraying the adorable, immature high-schooler Jung-sook in KBS TV series “Sweet 18”, showed her limit by replaying the same image in the film “My Boyfriend is Type B”. She showed more potential when she was improved on her acting in daily drama “Likeable or Not” or when she was playing complex characters like Ji-hyun in MBC’s “East of Eden”. In particular, she effectively acted out her transformation from an innocent girl from a coal town into an ambitious character, whose charisma matches that of Chairman Shin Tae-hwan (played by Jo Min-ki) in “Eden”. “I look forward to meeting new characters,” says Han. “I think I’ve obtained a tiny bit of confidence as an actor.”

It is with such newfound confidence and her sense of achievement that she took on the challenging role in director Lee Jun-ik’s new film “"Like the Moon Escaping from Clouds”. She plays the giseng Baek-ji, a strong, proud character who “does not show her vulnerable side in front of a man and even overpowers a man who is about to rape her.” Han says about the role, “She has no laughing scenes and not even that many lines. But when she says something, it’s quite a statement. It’s hard to know what she’s really feeling inside, so she’s a little different from the charismatic Ji-hyun in ‘East of Eden’”. She admits that she had a difficult time in the beginning, adjusting to the role of Baek-ji both physically and emotionally, but says it’s interesting to take on a challenging role that she hadn’t tried before. Han, who asks “Taking the difficult road of playing a tough role.. isn’t that the short cut to becoming a good actor in the end?”, is an ambitious person who simply wants to be a good actor. Here she recommends movies starring actresses that she looks up to.

1. Keira Knightley in “Pride & Prejudice” (2005, directed by Joe Wright)
“If I had to pick just one favorite actress, I would pick Keira Knightley. When I first saw the movie “Love Actually”, I just thought she was a pretty and lovely young actress. But I was blown away when I saw her portraying both the noble aristocratic lady and the tough warrior in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series. She is a great actress who can pull of any role, but in “Pride & Prejudice” she portrayed her character Elizabeth so well that it seemed like she had just jumped out of the novel. She is poor and proud, but it’s real pride, not some cheap insecurity.”

Perhaps British romantic comedies, best represented by movies produced by Working Title Films, originated from writer Jane Austen. The romantic process between the characters Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy (played by Matthew Macfadyen) -- their attraction, pride, and misunderstanding -- is so relatable that even modern day viewers and even viewers in Korea can empathize with the story. There is no line that better expresses the contradictory emotions of a relationship between a man and a woman than the one spoken by Elizabeth, “you were the last man in the world I could ever be prevailed upon to marry.”

2. Cate Blanchett in “The Aviator” (2004, directed by Martin Scorsese)
“Truthfully, Cate Blanchett is not a classic beauty even though she appeared as a goddess in “The Lord of the Rings”. Even her figure is more skinny than it is womanly. But she really shines on those rare occasions when she shows her masculine side along with her attractive voice. When you watch “The Aviator”, Cate’s portrayal of Katharine Hepburn really stands out among all the women that Howard Hughes (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) has dated. I think that only Cate Blanchett could have played Hepburn, who is intelligent and as equally charismatic as Hughes.

It seems only natural that the glamorous life of Howard Hughes was made into a movie. He made a blockbuster movie, became rich and famous at a young age and seduced the most successful actresses of the time, like Katharine Hepburn and Ava Gardner, with his charms. But it was no feat to make such a blockbuster life into a blockbuster movie and it took tremendous efforts by the actors to get the movie made. Leonardo DiCaprio invested more than ten years on the project and Cate Blanchett collected all of Hepburn’s interviews and studied them to play the part.

3. Scarlett Johansson in “Match Point” (2004, directed by Woody Allen)
“Scarlett Johansson is someone who exudes an innocent but dangerous attraction just by her presence. In the film “Girl With a Pearl Earring”, she looks very innocent and men are just drawn to her. I think her sex appeal is maximized in the movie “Match Point”. A man who wants to be accepted into the high society has to be satisfied with the rich girl from a good family background, but with a woman like Scarlett Johansson in his life, of course, he is going to be conflicted. In that sense, I don’t think this movie could have been made without her.”

Viewers who expected to see Woody Allen’s cynical yet insightful comedy will be unfamiliar with the anxiety and darkness underlying the film “Match Point”. Just like Chris (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a tennis instructor who wants to enter the high society world and gets his golden opportunity but, unable to repress his other desire, falls into a clandestine affair with Nola (played by Scarlett Johansson), humans often make wrong choices. But the film does not stop there and goes on to show that the wrong choice can turn out to be a lucky result, leading to the insight that fate is incomprehensible.

4. Jodie Foster in “The Silence Of The Lambs” (1991, directed by Jonathan Demme)
“'The Silence of the Lambs' came out when I was in fourth grade. I saw it when I was in middle school and I was very impressed by Jodie Foster, who looked so intelligent and determined in the movie. A lot of people remember this movie for Anthony Hopkins’ acting, who played Hannibal Lecter, but I personally think that Jodie Foster was just as great. Julianne Moore is a good actress too, but when she played agent Sterling in “Hannibal” after Jodie Foster, it felt like something was a little lacking.

In brief, “The Silence of the Lambs” is a story about catching an evil serial killer with the help of a more evil genius profiler. Murder Buffalo Bill, who peels off the skin of his female victims, is a vicious killer but is considered lightweight compared to Hannibal Lecter, who led his crazy neighbor to suicide and peels off the skin of a policeman. What makes this movie truly scary is that it convincingly showed that humans can be more evil than supernatural freaks like Jason or Freddy.

5. Hilary Swank in “Million Dollar Baby” (2004, directed by Cling Eastwood)
“Her acting was incredible, but she took on a very difficult role for an actress and in that respect, I really admire her passion. She was more manly than a man in “Boys Don’t Cry” and she gained a tremendous amount of muscle for her boxer role in “Million Dollar Baby”. The close relationship between the female character and the trainer is very touching in that movie, but from an actor’s perspective, I couldn’t help but notice all the effort Hilary Swank put into the role. She underwent rigorous training for boxing, which isn’t easy, and showed a perfect boxing match in the film.

Despite the female character who wants to find herself through boxing, this film is not a female version of “Rocky”. If “Rocky” is about a lowly Italian-American Rocky trying to conquer the world through winning boxing matches, “Million Dollar Baby” focuses on the father-daughter-like relationship between Maggie (played by Hilary Swank) and her trainer Frankie (played by Clint Eastwood) and the choices Frankie makes to deal with the misfortunes after the fatal match. The process is far from the glorious journey of Rocky and the unconventional ending is more touching than any other happy ending.

“For “East of Eden”, I read a lot of novels that told about the atmosphere of 1980s and for this film, I’m researching into a lot of books related to gisengs. They weren’t just pretty girls who made people laugh and they were as equally intelligent as the scholars of that time so I need to be that much prepared.” For Han Ji-hye, who, as a giseng, has to chant a chang [Korean traditional narrative song], it is absolutely necessary to study and understand the life of a giseng. To perfectly master the cold personality of her character Baek-ji, she is intentionally talking to her managers and people around her in a cold, stiff demeanor. In other words, she is taking a step closer to becoming the actress that she looks up to. Nobody can predict just how far of a place such efforts will take her. But if she continues to take those steps, one after another, who knows? Maybe someday, there will be other actresses who want to be like the actress Han Ji-hye.

Reporter : Wee Geun-woo eight@10asia.co.kr
Photographer : Lee Won-woo
Editor : Lynn Kim lynn2878@asiae.co.kr