[Limelight] From a Timid Loner to a Confident 'Sabaeja'...

Movie 'The Mathematician in the Strange Land' Han Ji-woo role Kim Dong-hwi

The purpose of the Socially Considerate Candidates (Sabaeja) system is to realize equality in education. Autonomous private high schools (Jasago) and special-purpose high schools (Teukmokgo), often criticized as "elite schools," operate admissions processes to provide equal educational opportunities to students who cannot afford private tutoring. If poor students are selected for consideration, meticulous management appropriate to this purpose is also necessary. Recklessly selecting students and then neglecting them is merely a token effort to shed the stigma of being an elite school.

In the movie Miracle: Letters to the President (literal translation: The Mathematician in a Strange Land), Han Ji-woo, who entered an autonomous private high school through the Sabaeja admissions, is ostracized. It's not because his friends are particularly mean or bad. He becomes isolated because he cannot adapt to school life. Above all, he struggles to keep up academically. Without the option of private tutoring, his ranking continues to fall. His homeroom teacher (Park Byung-eun) advises him to transfer schools. "Isn't it better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a dragon?"

This is fiction based on facts. Many students who entered autonomous private high schools through the Sabaeja system and later gave up cite "maladaptation" as the reason. Kim Dong-hwi, who portrayed Han Ji-woo, said, "I researched a lot about the Sabaeja admissions while preparing for the role," and added, "There were quite a few cases that went against the purpose of considering socially disadvantaged students."

"Although I didn't attend an autonomous private high school, in the regular high school I went to, there was no friend who didn't attend private academies. Everyone accepted it as a perfectly natural process. Within that, I experienced another kind of difference. I could easily understand the feelings of Han Ji-woo, who couldn't even join such groups."

Kim Dong-hwi expressed this not as rebellion or venting but as dejection. Initially, he imagined a cynical character, but director Park Dong-hoon wanted him to appear as a passive figure. In reality, socially disadvantaged students from poor families are known to adopt defensive mechanisms as academic gaps widen. They engage in involuntary behaviors to protect themselves in stressful situations.

Miracle: Letters to the President begins its main story as Han Ji-woo takes his first intentional action. He persistently asks Lee Hak-sung (Choi Min-sik), a cold and taciturn school security guard whom students avoid, to teach him math. Lee Hak-sung is a genius mathematician who defected from North Korea, yearning for academic freedom. Living quietly while hiding his identity and past, he is eventually discovered by Han Ji-woo.

Kim Dong-hwi said, "This scene shows Ji-woo's desperation," and added, "He must have thought he was holding onto his last lifeline as the only hope for his single mother." He even improvised lines in the script to express his frustration.

"Do you think you're the most unfortunate person in the world? Self-pity is a very bad disease. Even when happiness comes, you only dig into misfortune. It's very comfortable that way."

"I'm angry. When all the other kids go to academies, I'm the only one who doesn't... I kept telling myself it was okay not to go. But no matter how hard I try, it’s really useless."

Kim Dong-hwi understood Ji-woo's feelings well because he went through a similar process. After retaking the college entrance exam, he was admitted to the Theater Department at Seoul Institute of the Arts. Although he was told it might be better to quit the prep academy, he persevered and took a step closer to his dream. However, after graduation, he struggled to get opportunities on stage and considered quitting acting. He said, "Once I stepped outside the school fence, I realized there were so many talented and charming actors."

"I filmed monologue videos and took profile photos to send to auditions and agencies, but I never got any calls. It felt like pouring water into a bottomless bucket. I thought about trying something else, but even that was not easy. Acting was the only thing I could do."

Miracle: Letters to the President is a film that values the process over the correct answer. It defines Korean society, which forces people to give up through extreme competition, as a "strange land," and comforts viewers by saying that a correct answer cannot come from a wrong question. Kim Dong-hwi, who overcame a 250-to-1 competition ratio to play Han Ji-woo, wants to be proof of this.

"There is no correct answer in acting. Everyone thinks differently, so the ways of expression vary greatly. Ultimately, I think the important process is to listen carefully to the opinions of many people, including the director, and enrich the role. If you avoid wrong answers like that, maybe someday you'll get closer to the correct one."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.