“Life Would Be Much Easier if I Were Like Choi Min-su”
I don’t know actress Lee Mi-yeon (이미연) personally, so I can’t say this with 100 percent certainty, but if this interview with the Chosun Ilbo is any indication, Ms. Lee may not be the nicest person in the world. Some quotes from the article left me shaking my head. For starters:
“Acting has produced the biggest energy and the greatest pain in my life. I can’t promise you that I’m going to be an actress for the rest of my life. When I fall out of love with acting, I’ll quit immediately.”
Oh please promise, Mi-yeon, that you’ll be an actress for the rest of your life. Pretty please! We need you. At least promise that you’ll continue to appear in commercials at least three times a year.
“It is dangerous for an actor to feature in too many TV commercials.”
Of course, this doesn’t apply to her,
“People seem to have been looking out for me even during my break because of my healthy image.”
Whew! That’s a relief. Now that that’s settled, let’s move on to her latest television drama, “Crazy Over Love”. The premise seems a stretch; she plays a woman who falls in love with the man who killed her fiance in an accident the day before the wedding. Wow! That must have taken some serious acting to pull that off. I mean, even Ms. Lee admits,
“I still think nothing is more difficult than love.”
Damn straight! Making love work is hard enough in the most ideal of circumstances, let alone when it involves exchanging sweet nothings with the person who is responsible for KILLING YOUR FIANCE. Personally, I’d have trouble putting that out of my mind whenever the time came to drop my drawers to the floor, but Ms. Lee disagrees,
“Well, love isn’t rational. I don’t think such things are impossible.”
Suhweet! There is a Korean proverb that says, “Just because there is a goalkeeper doesn’t mean you can’t score a goal.” Add Ms. Lee’s philosophy to the equation and you can take it a step further: Rub out the goalkeeper and you can score as many goals as you damn well please.
(Thank you, God, for replacing the love of my life with the man responsible for his death.)
But I digress. Confronted with such a difficult role, isn’t it important to develop on-screen chemistry with the male lead? Umm, maybe not. Here are Ms. Lee’s thoughts on singer-turned-actor co-star Yun Gye-sang,
“It’s more difficult to partner with Yun than with more experienced actors such as Han Seok-gyu or Park Shin-yang. I have to think more this time.”
Ouch! Take that, Mr. Yun! Don’t quit your day job. Hehehe.
(For you doubters out there, I’ve provided a couple of photos of Ms. Lee thinking more on the set of her new drama.)
Difficult as it may be to believe, Ms. Lee was not always the quality actress that she is today,
“I still feel sorry that I started my career when I was completely unprepared.”
Indeed, she was so unprepared that she was duped into becoming the Korean Demi Moore™ (”St. Elmo’s Fire” version).
But she persevered, and by combining self-confidence and a positive attitude…
“I picked out a movie based on a novel by the famous writer Gong Ji-young and made a fresh start. I think it was at that time that my performance improved. I received a lot of praise. In ‘Number 3′ (1997) and ‘Whispering Corridors’ (1998), people thought I was in a supporting role, but I felt I played the lead.”
with hard work…
“I still can’t forget how hard it was when I did interviews with young girls eight times a day for ‘Whispering Corridors.’”
she became the woman whom today we all beg to promise us she will never give up acting.
Alas, life is not perfect for Ms. Lee. When one is as beloved as she is, nasty rumors borne of jealousy are naturally unavoidable. Whenever Ms. Lee is confronted with such rumors, she no doubt looks and feels something like this…
One such evil, nasty, and entirely whacked rumor is that she berates younger colleagues if they don’t give her enough respect. Ms. Lee says that couldn’t be further from the truth,
“People who really know me say I’m really a gentle woman. - (Refer to previous photo…See?) - But since an actor called me the female Choi Min-su, things have got quite nasty. I’ve never scolded young actors. If I were really like Choi Min-su, going my own way without minding how others view me, life would be much easier.”
Exactly! However, a word of advice to all of you young punks out there. Mind your “nays” and “yos”, lest you be gettin’ the look that goes a little somethin’ like this…
As I mentioned at the start of this post, I don’t know Lee Mi-yeon personally, so my evaluation of her character could be completely off base. So, Mi-yeon, if you read this, I’d be happy to get to know you over dinner and (many) drinks…all in the name of truth and accuracy.
Sorry…Mi-yeon “Ssi”…
January 21st, 2007 at 9:28 am
Classic Corean conceit.
January 21st, 2007 at 4:23 pm
the world tolerates bitchy men better than bitchy women, it seems. after all, sweet, demure, submissive soft and cushy space-between-the-legs is ALL they need to be, right?
January 22nd, 2007 at 7:04 am
Yuni ist tot.
January 23rd, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Self-pity is a common attribute among Korean celebs. I think their management encourages that kind of talk because it encourages the fans to feel sympathy for their idols and this feel a stornger bond with them.
I remember a piece about Lee Jun-ki I saw on TV that went on and on abotu how he had to work outside in the cold weather for a couple of hours as part of a movie. I thought ot the little old lady who spends 8 hours a day bent over an open fire cooking meat for customers at one fo my favorite restaurants in Seoul.
It really put Lee Jun-ki’s hard work and sacrifice in perspective.
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:24 pm
I’d pay to see Lee Joon-gi arm-wrestle one of the Namdaemun ajummas.
March 23rd, 2007 at 6:02 pm
Hi, I’m a big fan of Mi-yeon. Your blog really has a good sense of humor and I love it. So I try to translate it into Chinese:
我和演员李美妍毫无私交, 因此不能打包票说自己的看法一定对。单从朝鲜日报刊登的这篇访谈来看, 李JJ真有些不地道。文中引述的一些原话让我看了失望。各位请看：
“演戏给我的生活注入了最大的活力, 但同时也是痛苦的源头。我没法向你保证会一辈子做演员。一旦我不再爱演戏，我会立刻退出。”
哦, 美妍,请你保证会一辈子演戏。求你了! 我们需要你。至少请你保证会继续接拍广告，一年起码要演三个吧。
“拍太多广告对演员来说是很危险的。”
当然，这个道理不适用她：
“由于我的形象健康，大家似乎在我歇演的时候也会对我倍加关注。”
哇塞！终于让人松了口气。这个问题解决了，接下来让我们来瞧瞧她的最新连续剧《为爱疯狂》。剧情令人难以置信：她在剧中与婚礼前夜撞死自己未婚夫的仇人相恋。哇! 要成功演绎这样一个角色，真得花些功夫呢。李JJ自己都承认道：
“我还是认为世上没有比爱更难的东西了。”
真是快人快语! 即便在最理想的环境下, 要产生爱的火花也是相当困难的, 更别说和造成自己未婚夫之死的人坠入爱河了。如果是我的话, 我很难像一切都没发生过似得和仇人亲热。但李JJ有不同意见：
“爱情是非理性的。我认为这种事情有可能发生。”
朝鲜有句俗话, “守门员在不等于你没机会进球。” 把李JJ的哲学加到这个方程式中，可引申出另一个版本: 杀掉守门员, 你想进多少球就进多少。
回到正题。面对这么一个难演的角色，难道不需要和男主演在银幕上有一些搭调吗？唔, 可能不需要。下面是李JJ对男一号尹继尚（此君是歌手出生）的看法。
“和尹演对手戏比和老演员（例如韩石奎，朴信阳）难。这次我要考虑更多东西。”
哎唷！撑住，尹老兄！不要放弃你的主业啊。呵呵。
尽管这令人难以置信, 李JJ以前并非以演技著称。
“我是在毫无准备的情况下开始演艺生涯的，至今我仍为此感到遗憾。”
事实上，她一点都没有准备，在不知情的情况下成为了韩国版的黛米·摩尔（好莱坞女星，19岁出道，以《圣艾莫之火》一片出名）。
但她凭借自信和乐观的态度坚持了下去。
“我接拍了一部根据著名作家Gong Ji-young小说改编的电影，演艺生涯因此有了一个新的开始。就是从那时候起我的演技有了提高，得到很多好评。在《黑帮3号再上位》(1997) 和 《死亡教室3》 (1998)中, 人们眼中我是配角，但我觉得自己是在演主角。
她的成功还离不开勤奋：
“在拍摄《死亡教室3》时，有一个采访女学生的镜头，我一共拍了八次。我仍能记得当时的拍摄是多么艰难。”
她终于有了今天的成就。现在，我们所有人都恳求她不要放弃表演（或译为：我们所有的人都在祈祷她将终身献身于演艺事业）。
唉，可惜李JJ的生活并不是一帆风顺。当达到像她那样受人喜爱的程度时，自然难免被人嫉妒，被讨厌的流言蜚语纠缠。
其中有一个恶毒讨厌而且非常离奇的谣言称, 如果年轻同事不对李JJ表示恭敬的话，她就会破口大骂。李JJ说这纯粹是子虚乌有。
“真正了解我的人会说我是个温和的人。但自从有个演员说我是女崔民秀（韩国男演员）后，事情就变得很糟。 我从没责骂过年轻演员。如果我确实像崔民秀的话，我会不管别人怎么说去走自己的路，那样生活会变得容易多了。”
我在帖子开头说过我不认识李JJ，因此我对她的性格评价可能是完全错的。美妍, 如果你读到这个帖子的话, 我很乐意与你一起吃个饭，喝喝酒，认识一下–当然是以发掘真相和把文章写得准确的名义。