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A Friendship Shaped by Korea’s Wartime Trauma
Veteran South Korean actor Kim Hye-ja has returned to the big screen after nine years with “Still Radiant,” a historical drama unveiled at a preview screening in Seoul on the 15th.
Set in a rural mountain village in Korea’s Gyeongsang region in 1942, the film follows best friends Soon-ok and Jeong-im as they cut wood and dig for edible roots while holding on to their dreams and sense of joy. Their lives are upended when colonial Japan, then fighting the Pacific War, begins forcibly mobilizing young Korean men and women.
The story addresses the suffering of victims of Japan’s military “comfort women” system, in which women and girls were forced into sexual servitude. Moving between the characters’ childhood and old age, the film follows Soon-ok as she reunites with Jeong-im after 60 years.
Park Seo-kyung and Choi Joo-eun play the two friends as girls, while Kim and Cha Mi-kyung portray them in old age. The cast also includes Moon Sung-hyun, Cho Seong-ha and Lee Se-young.
Kim Hye-ja’s Return to the Big Screen
Kim, who plays the older Soon-ok, last appeared in a film in 2017’s “The Way.” She had been scheduled to greet the audience at the Megabox COEX theater in Seoul but was unable to attend because of cold symptoms. Instead, she sent a handwritten letter.
“I hope you will not see the two girls you are about to meet merely as part of a painful chapter in history,” Kim wrote. She urged viewers to remember both their suffering and the bright years of their youth.
“I believe that if we do not forget and continue to carry them in our hearts, even a small light from long ago can shine on us again,” she wrote. “I hope this film leaves a small light in your hearts as well.”
Kim had considered stepping away from acting after her most recent television drama, “Heavenly Ever After,” but director Song Il-gon persuaded her to take the role. She said a line from his letter stayed with her: “Soon-ok does not cry. She is someone who believes until the end that the time she spent with her friend remains radiant.”
A Portrait Built Through Close-Ups
Song, whose previous films include “Always” and “Spider Forest,” said Soon-ok’s warm view of humanity was central to the film. He also hoped the character would reflect the many roles Kim has played during her 65-year acting career.
Approaching the film as a portrait, Song used frequent close-ups to capture the characters’ gazes, subtle smiles and small changes in expression, even when they were not speaking. “Still Radiant” was previously shown to audiences at the 31st Busan International Film Festival.
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