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| ▲ This photo of actress Kim Hyang-gi, who plays young mother A-jin in the film “Hanlan,” is provided by Whenever Studio and Triple Pictures. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
SEOUL,
Nov. 19 (Yonhap) --
Actress Kim Hyang-gi, 26,who plays young mother A-jin in the film “Hanlan,” said she “read books and looked up a lot of information” to understand maternal love.
Speaking at a cafe in Samcheong-dong, central Seoul, on Tuesdsay, Kim said she concluded that parental instincts “naturally emerge, rather than coming from conscious thought or judgment.”
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| ▲ This photo provided by Triple Pictures is a scene from "Hallan" (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
Directed by Ha Myeong-mi, “Hanlan” is set on Mount Halla in 1948 during the Jeju April 3 Incident, and follows A-jin as she fights to find her young daughter, Hae-saeng (Kim Min-chae), from whom she was separated.
Kim said she referenced extensive materials, including the film “Jiseul” (2013) and publications by the Jeju 4·3 Research Institute, to understand the historical context.
“In particular, reading the testimonies of elderly women broke my heart,” she said. “Imagining their stories hit me hard emotionally.”
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| ▲ This photo provided by Triple Pictures is a scene from |
Known for her youthful image in films such as “Along with the Gods” (2017) and “Innocent Witness” (2019), Kim takes on her first mother role in this film.
She said she focused on expressing instinctive maternal love and did not dwell on the fact that she was playing a mother in her 20s.
“Many people were surprised that I was playing a mother, but I personally didn’t think much of it. I simply viewed the character as she exists in the script.”
Child actor Kim Min-chae, who plays Hae-saeng, is six years old — the same age Kim Hyang-gi was when she made her screen debut in “Heart Is…” (2006).
Kim said, “Min-chae and I spent our breaks collecting acorns and observing flowers and mushrooms. We bonded while talking about our favorite foods and cartoons.”
She added, “One of my vivid memories from my childhood filming days is picking berries with my mom on set. I wanted to give Min-chae similarly happy memories.”
As the film is set in Jeju, Kim delivered her lines in the Jeju dialect after extensive one-on-one coaching.
“I had several lessons each week. I recorded the lessons and listened to them repeatedly while traveling,” she said. “At first, approaching it as a dialect felt awkward, but when I started thinking of it like a foreign language, the emotions came more naturally.”
Although most scenes were shot deep in the mountains of Jeju, Kim said the experience felt more healing than physically draining.
“After shooting emotionally heavy scenes, the clean air and greenery helped me recover. I think the grandeur of nature we felt on set is well captured on screen.”
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