Actor Jang Hye-jin, who plays the mother Eun-sil in director Kim Tae-yong’s film ‘Number One’. Photo By4M Studio
During the interview, actor Jang Hye-jin took out her phone, saying she would show a photo of her ‘late-born’ son. In the image, his bright smile against what seemed to be an outdoor backdrop evoked actor Choi Woo-shik. Jang’s son is a ‘late-born’ child, 12 years younger than his older sister. Choi Woo-shik is also a ‘late-born,’ seven years younger than his older brother. Choi told Jang, “You look like my mother.” Their meeting might well have been fate.
Jang and Choi appeared as mother Chung-sook and son Ki-woo in Bong Joon-ho’s 2019 film ‘Parasite.’ Seven years later, the two reunited as mother Eun-sil and son Ha-min in Kim Tae-yong’s ‘Number One.’ The setting changed from ‘Parasite’’s semi-basement to an apartment in Busan, and both speak in a thick Gyeongsang dialect, but their tender feelings for each other did not change.
Actor Jang Hye-jin, who plays the mother Eun-sil in director Kim Tae-yong’s film ‘Number One’. Photo By4M Studio
“‘Parasite’ goes its own way, and ‘Number One’ goes its own way. Back then we were getting to know each other, so you find yourself thinking, ‘What kind of temperament does he have?’ Like the early days of dating. But we have now skipped that stage. We feel we know each other well.”
Since then, Jang has done seven films and twenty dramas, and Choi has done four films and five dramas. The Choi Woo-shik Jang sees has grown deeper and more fluid. She felt both admiration and motivation. Back then, Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Jo Yeo-jeong, Park So-dam, Lee Jung-eun, and many others formed an ensemble, but this film was designed squarely for the two of them. Feeling a greater responsibility to carry the set, she found that, before she knew it, Choi was gently taking the lead on set.
A scene featuring actor Jang Hye-jin as the mother Eun-sil in director Kim Tae-yong’s film ‘Number One’. Photo By4M Studio
“Woo-shik looks like my son. Would you like to see the photo here? There is even one where the clothes are similar, a blue T-shirt. There was also a scene where Woo-shik wore blue during the shoot. They really looked alike then. According to Woo-shik, I resemble his mother. He is also a ‘late-born’….”
In ‘Number One,’ Eun-sil’s husband died on the day her second son Ha-min was born, and her beloved first son also died in a traffic accident on the day of the college entrance exam. Having lost two members of her family, she endures as if half her body had been torn away, yet outwardly she is a lively, cheerful Busan ajumma. Her playful expressions and buoyant energy hold the tone of the drama in check, which could otherwise tip into melodrama. As a mother, Jang understood the mother.
A scene featuring actor Jang Hye-jin (left) as the mother Eun-sil in director Kim Tae-yong’s film ‘Number One’. Photo By4M Studio
“For Eun-sil, it was important to live today with all she had. It even felt as if she were making a vow to herself. I thought it was key that she speaks in a candid, offhand way and conveys her feelings. I am from Busan, and in real life it is like that. We are direct, but we are not good at cheesy expressions. It is like a mother who has just argued asking her child to go see a movie as a way to make peace. She does not explain at length.”
Director Kim Tae-yong is also from Busan, so although Jang’s performance may look like ad-libs, she followed the script rigorously. She studied acting intensely as part of the first cohort at the Korea National University of Arts, but as her happiness waned, she quit acting nine years after her debut. She moved back to Busan and worked at a supermarket and as a department store sales clerk. Bong Joon-ho even offered to cast her in ‘Memories of Murder,’ but she declined.
A scene featuring actor Jang Hye-jin as the mother Eun-sil in director Kim Tae-yong’s film ‘Number One’. Photo By4M Studio
“I decided I wanted to act after watching the film ‘Ben-Hur’ on the big screen. I thought it was wonderful how acting could soothe so many emotions. I entered K-Arts and worked hard, but I saw myself acting far too mechanically. One day, riding the subway home to Noryangjin, it felt as if the Hangang Bridge were calling me. I thought, ‘This is really a problem.’ So I stepped away from acting.”
Eventually, while Lee Chang-dong was working on ‘Secret Sunshine,’ he called her back, and though it was a small role, acting again made her feel as if her blood were circulating. So, thinking of Eun-sil left alone in Busan after sending off her son Ha-min for this project, she also recalled her so-called ‘seclusion’ years. There is a scene where Eun-sil, on her own, works even harder as a housekeeper, and she says her own past came back to her in that moment.
Actor Jang Hye-jin, who plays the mother Eun-sil in director Kim Tae-yong’s film ‘Number One’. Photo By4M Studio
“That is how I started acting again and met ‘Parasite.’ While doing it, I did not have the Academy Awards and such in mind; I just acted. I took that as a gift in its own right, and after that I think I did my best because I did not want to hear, ‘You are acting thanks to Parasite.’ I kept thinking that if I continued to work hard, things would broaden and multiply. Trying to pick and choose does not seem to suit me. Maybe I am someone who just follows my feelings and does what I want to do.”
Although Jang Hye-jin plays diverse roles on screen, in person she was exceedingly lively and cheerful. Watching her, during the interview, draw the room’s attention with her play of expressions and quick wit, you wonder how someone with that temperament could have stepped away from acting for nine years. Even when she sits still, Jang’s acting seems to shine on its own; even among people in everyday life, it resembles the way the real Jang glitters.
