| Actress Kim Min-hee poses with her Silver Bear trophy for Best Actress for the movie 'On the Beach at Night Alone'during the 67th Berlin Film Festival, Saturday (local time) / Yonhap |
By Kang Hyun-kyung
There is no doubt actress Kim Min-hee, 34, is in her heyday. She became the first Korean to win the Silver Bear for Best Actress for director Hong Sang-soo's "On the Beach at Night Alone" at the 67th Berlin Film Festival on Saturday.
The movie describes the struggles of actress Young-hee after she falls in love with a married filmmaker — a plot similar to what she is going through following the revelation last year of her inappropriate relationship with married director Hong.
For the parallel between the movie and real life, some sarcastically call it a documentary, not a romance movie.
Kim was honored in Berlin, months after she won the best actress award at the nation's top-tired Blue Dragon Film Festival in November. The film that lifted her to stardom was "The Handmaiden" directed by renowned filmmaker Park Chan-wook. Kim drew critical acclaim for her performance in the award-winning film, ending decades of criticism about her acting after she debuted as a model before becoming an actress in her teenage years.
Considering the Berlin festival is regarded as one of the world's top three film fests, along with Cannes and Venice, what she achieved in Germany deserves admiration back home. There was sweeping accolades for two starlets — Kang Soo-yeon and Jeon Do-yeon— when they won the best actress awards at the 1987 Venice Film Festival for "Surrogate Woman" and the 2007 Cannes Film Festival for "Secret Sunshine," respectively.
The public's reactions to Kim, who finish-touched Korean actresses' conquering of the world's top three film festivals, are far from the warm welcome the public showed her two predecessors.
Kim received the cold shoulder from the Korean public.
She became a subject of gossip as her winning the prestigious award dragged her private life into the spotlight again. Kim fell in love with 55-year-old Hong, who filed for divorce after their inappropriate relationship was made public.
News articles about Kim's winning the best actress award at Berlin have generated a slew of scathing comments about the actress and the unfaithful Hong.
"It's like they live in a drama and never know what they're doing. They hurt the people around them. I hope there's no one around me who is like them. They are disgusting," internet user with ID Ibu40kr wrote in response to online news about Kim's winning the award.
Kim's involvement in an extramarital affair with Hong is something akin to a scarlet letter for her, and their controversial relationship undercuts her hard-won international fame and glory.
Experts say Koreans are still conservative when it comes to marriage, although divorce rates are on the rise.
Jun Gil-yang, a senior fellow at the Korean Institute for Gender Equality Promotion and Education, observed that Korea is transitioning from a traditional to a modern society in terms of marriage and family values.
"Extramarital affairs can be a source of criticism or public debate if those who are involved in the affairs are public figures such as actors and actresses," she said. "People use different criteria when judging people. The public use stricter ethics criteria for public figures. This is natural because they can affect the way of life of others one way or the other because of their media exposure."
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has awarded medals to the figures who helped raise the nation's profile through their cultural activities. Upon the recommendations from the culture ministry, actresses Kang and Jeon won the medals in 1989 and 2007, respectively, after they won the best actress awards from the Venice and Cannes.
It remains uncertain whether Kim will also receive such recognition from the government. The guidelines for the selection of winners of cultural medals stipulate that those who caused a stir for their unethical acts or behavior or those who evaded taxes or are under criminal investigations will be disqualified. A culture ministry official said at the moment the ministry has no plan to recommend Kim for the medal.
Her winning the best actress award at Berlin has stirred a serious pros-and-cons debate online about whether her affairs with the married director can be justified or not.
Internet user Jung Hye-sook said the Kim-Hong relationship doesn't deserve respect.
"They insist they are in love. But I think they are in a nasty relationship in the name of love because what they do hurts Hong's wife and daughter," she wrote. "If there's anybody who is suffering because of others' love, this is not love. Do not try to justify your nasty extramarital affairs in the name of love."
Their love affair came at the expense of enormous pain and distress which Hong's wife and their daughter are now going through. Hong's wife, whose name was not made public to protect her privacy, wants to make her marriage work despite the scandal and refuses her unfaithful husband's request for divorce. Hong filed for divorce last year after he and his wife failed to agree to end their decade-long marriage.
Internet user Shim Jin-man derided the actress and her lover Hong. "Congratulations on your winning the award," he wrote. "You won the award because of your extramarital relationship with another woman's husband. Once you return to Korea, I hope you can lecture about your extramarital affair to other women to see how they react."
Some internet users, however, called for caution when speaking of others, especially their relationships. They encouraged people to refrain from commenting on others' private lives. "Kim and Hong are adults and they can make their own decisions. Let them decide on their future," wrote Han Byung-yeol.
In the past, extramarital affairs were subject to legal punishment if evidence is presented. But the anti-adultery measure was lifted after the Constitutional Court ruled against it in February 2015. The court said punishing adultery went against individual citizens' free will to make their own sexual decisions and also violated their right to privacy.
The ruling, however, has not immediately changed the Korean public's perceptions about marriage and family values.
Kang Hak-joong, president of the private think tank The Korean Institute of Family Studies, said public figures live in the public eye.
"It'll be best if the actress and the director in question act in accordance with socially acceptable norms and values and the public lets them decide on matters affecting themselves," he said.
Hong's movie "On the Beach at Night Alone" will be showcased in Korea next month.