It is always great to watch veterans receiving international acclaim, and the Oscar, cemented a great year for the 73-year old actress, who received recognition for her great performance in “Minari” from a plethora of the most prestigious awards around the world. This success was the best way to celebrate a career that spans for more than 5 decades and includes a number of great performances. Ten of them are included in this list, as our own way to congratulate this great actress.
1. Myeong-ja in Woman of Fire (Kim Ki-young, 1971)
Youn Yuh-jung plays Myeong-ja, a country bumpkin that has been the victim of a rape attack, in a series of events that ended up with her killing one of her attackers, and her subsequent self-exile from the area. Through a job broker, she is hired by Jeong-sook, who runs a poultry farm and is also in charge of her household, which includes her composer husband, Dong-sik, her children and the servants. Myeong-ja even states that she will work for free as long as Jeong-sook finsd her a good husband. Dong-sik is a good man who has never cheated on his wife, but under a lot of pressure due to his lack of success on his profession, and after a series of events that involve Hye-suk, a wannabe singer who does not hide her passion for him, he ends up extremely drunk, raping Myeong-ja in the house, even leaving her pregnant. As a surprisingly understanding Jeong-sook forces her maid to have an abortion, she unleashes a true femme fatale in her household, with terrible consequences for the trio. Young gives one of the greatest performances of her career, as we watch Myeong-ja's sex-driven, downward spiral towards paranoia that seems to draw down both her “masters”, along with her.
2. Old Woman in A Tale of Legendary Libido (Sin Han-sol, 2008)
The comedic aspect is quite good, with the musical sequences, the nudity and the sex working quite well, and the change of the attitude of the women providing a number of hilarious moments. Youn Yuh-jung as the old lady and Jeon Soo-kyung as the bar owner provide the most accomplished female parts, with the former being hilarious in a number of scenes.
3. Herself in Behind the Camera (Lee Je-yong, 2012)
With the cast playing themselves, they hold discussions on set about their careers, heavily referencing previous films in which they have appeared, especially South Korean cinema royalty, Youn Yuh-jung. All players are introduced on screen with their name and their role in the short film. All shots that form part of the short film-within-the-film have the title “How to Fall in Love in Ten Minutes” on screen. This helps un-blur the boundaries between what is supposedly acting and what is supposedly real. (Andrew Thayne)
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4. Mom in Boomerang Family (Song Hae-sung, 2012)
Youn Yuh-jung plays an almost always cheerful mother of three grown up people who refuse to grow up, and return to their mother's house when their lives fail completely. Trying to keep a balance and them from killing each other in their drunken stupors, she emerges as a truly loving matriarch. The scene where she continues to drink her soju while the “kids” are in a fight with a people from the next table and the scene where she starts laughing afterwards commenting them on their dedication to each other are the highlights of her performance
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5. Geum-nim in Salut D'Amour (Kang Je-gyu, 2014)
Both of the elderly protagonists, Park Geun-hyung as Sung-chil and Yoon Yuh-jung as Geum-nim, are great in their respective roles, both in the comedic and the dramatic moments, proving once more that talent and ability do not fade so easily with age. I especially enjoyed Yoon Yuh-jung's distinct voice, that gives her performance an added level.
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6. Gye Choon in Canola (Chang, 2015)
In one of her meatiest parts in the list, Youn Yuh-jung plays a female diver native to Jeju Island, who tries to raise her granddaughter but loses her one fateful day. 12 years later, she is reunited with here, but finds out that she is a delinquent that finds it very hard to adapt. With the help of her grandmother, however, the girl begins to stand on her feet again, while a very tender relationship shapes up, even after a terrible secret is revealed. Youn is excellent in both the comedic and the dramatic aspects of a rather demanding role
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7. So-yeong in The Bacchus Lady (Lee Je-yong, 2016)
It would be quite impossible to review “Bacchus Lady” without dedicating a significant number of words to Youn Yuh-jung's predictably masterful performance as So-young. Yuh-jung brings so many different shades to this role and it's hard to imagine any other actor playing the part of this spirited elder who is coming to terms with her own morality, mortality, and the choices she's made throughout her life. Such heavy themes resting on a character's shoulders might make you think it a mammoth task for the actor portraying them. If it is, we never know, because Yuh-jung makes it look so damn easy, inhabiting complex spaces of emotion with simplicity and deftness. Watching such a great performance makes it even more groan-worthy that Western audiences are condescendingly calling her the “Meryl Streep of Korea” in the wake of her fabulous turn as grandma Soon-ja in “Minari”. There's only one Youn Yuh-jung, and she is irreplaceable in this role. (Luke Georgiades)
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8. Grandmother in Lucky Chan-sil (Kim Cho-hee, 2019)
Youn Yuh-jung plays Chan-sil's rather weird, but also funny landlady, who teaches the protagonist a lesson or two, while her interactions with both the crew and the protagonist are among the most memorable in the film. Particularly after she opens up about her past and current life, her acting is realistic but quirky, in perfect resonance with the film's aesthetics.
9. Soon-ja in Beasts Clawing at Straws (Kim Yong-hoon, 2020)
Youn Yuh-jung plays Joong-man's demented mother, in a relatively small part, but manages to steal the show through her interactions with Bae Sung-woo, which are hilarious on a number of levels
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10. Soon-ja in Minari (Lee Isaac Chung, 2020)
Youn Yuh-jung plays Monica's mother, who is supposed to be a game changer, but the elderly Korean woman hardly fits into the children's vision of what a grandmother is supposed to be like. She and David are the primary source of the film's humour with their banter, while the scene with the piss and its aftermath will definitely stay on mind much after the laughter has stopped.
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