연합뉴스
| yna@yna.co.kr 2022-12-08 15:34:17
SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Yonhap) -- Recently released movie "Birth" sheds light on the life of Korea's first priest.
It highlights the young days of St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon, the period not well known by the public. At the time when Western learning was considered private learning, he left for Macao and came back learning foreign language and new culture. The movie recounts the story of Kim who tried to modernize Joseon Dynasty amid religious oppression.
Yoon Si-yoon, who took the role of St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon, evaluated Kim as "a pioneer who opened the door to new generation."
Yoon, who met up with Yonhap News Agency in a one cafe in Seoul, looked back, saying, "I thought young St.Andrew Kim Tae-gon and I must have some similarities," adding, "I made efforts to express my own version of Kim."
"If I tried to express a great person as a religious person, I shouldn't have taken the role. I also knew if I acted him out as someone just religious, audiences would not take it well. While hiding a lot of myself, I tried to show a lot of young man Kim Dae-gun."
In the movie, scenes of Yoon learning and talking in foreign language are often seen. Him speaking Latin, which is known for its difficulty level, also appears few times.
"I think the proportion of acting in Korean and foreign languages was almost half and half. I often didn't know the meaning of what I said, especially because it's an old language. A month before shooting, I woke up at 7 a.m. every morning and spent 5 to 6 hours a day studying foreign languages, 2 hours in French and 1 hour in Chinese.
To the compliment that he sounded like a native speaker, Yoon said with a smile, "French has lots of parts where you have to bite your tongue," adding, "Because I practiced this every morning, one day, it hurt so much even to eat breakfast. I couldn't eat because my tongue was sore,"
At the climax, Kim is beheaded. Acting as Kim who is surrounded by executioners wielding knives and eventually has his head cut off must have emotional as an actor.
Yoon remembers beheading scene rather special.
"I was extremely nervous. I told my mom to pick me up from the set. Mom who was in Seoul at the time came all the way to Chungcheong province, and our family held hands together and prayed for 30 minutes.
Respected Korean actor Ahn Sung-ki took the role as a chief interpreter in the movie. He shocked the world when the news that he has been treating for blood cancer for more than a year was reported, but he participated in this film before getting regular medical treatment.
Towards Ahn, Yoon said, "He is like a hero to me."
"The reason why I worked so hard for this movie because I thought Ahn is going to watch this and I don't want to be ashamed. He is a role model to me as I live my life as an actor. I want to be a genuine and trustworthy actor like him."
(This article is translated from Korean to English by Jiwon Woo.)
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