Kim Min-jung evokes 'Mr. Sunshine' character on Liberation Day

Actress Kim Min-jung has brought back a character from her most iconic work to commemorate Liberation Day. She reflected on the meaning of liberation by sharing photos of Kudo Hina (whose Joseon name was Lee Yang-hwa), the character she portrayed in the 2018 tvN drama 'Mr. Sunshine'.

Recently, Kim posted several photos from the time of filming on her SNS. She added the caption: “Every time this time of year comes around, I think of Lee Yang-hwa. She is someone I wanted to resemble even while I was creating her. manse, Republic of Korea.”

In the photos, Kim gazes at the camera wearing a black kimono and traditional braided hair (gachae). Unlike her ornate appearance, her expression carries a sense of tension and determination. Rather than being simple period drama character photos, they evoke the portrait of a person enduring the turbulent waves of an era.

In another photo, she is captured sitting at a table, stirring a glass while wearing floral clothing and accessories. In a scene where she matches brown-toned clothing with wavy hair and drop earrings, she exudes an alluring atmosphere; in another scene featuring a wine-colored hat, veil, and fur decorations, she reveals a cold and elegant charisma.

The final photo is particularly intense. Wearing lace-decorated clothing, a wide-brimmed hat, and mesh gloves, Kim aims a pistol from behind a pillar. It is a scene that seems to compress the violence and resistance hidden beneath the surface of a beautifully packaged era into a single shot.

The Lee Yang-hwa that Kim has summoned once again is not merely a character responsible for the aesthetic of a period drama.

In 'Mr. Sunshine', Kudo Hina uses the name she inherited from her Japanese husband, but her original name as a Joseon person is Lee Yang-hwa. She is a character who makes a choice diametrically opposed to her father, who led the pro-Japanese movement, and does not turn away from the tragedy of her era and her motherland.

Because of this, Lee Yang-hwa's narrative transcends a simple good versus evil structure. She constantly struggles between the fate of being born into a pro-Japanese family and the life she chooses for herself. It carries the message that human morality is not determined by lineage or origin, but ultimately by what one chooses and how one acts.

Kim's expression of Lee Yang-hwa as "someone I wanted to resemble" feels even more meaningful in this context. Rather than being a perfect hero, Lee Yang-hwa is a character who endures the contradictions of the era with her whole body while refusing to abandon her choice until the final moment.

Especially in a recent climate where controversies surrounding family history and pro-Japanese activities have been recurring in the entertainment industry, Kim's post provides a peculiar resonance. While the two matters are not directly related, they meet at the question of how to remember the historical past and how to carry that into one's current attitude.

That was ultimately the issue 'Mr. Sunshine' dealt with: that history is not an event that ended in the past, but a memory that constantly asks us in the present what choices we will make.

Broadcast in 2018, 'Mr. Sunshine' depicted the story of Eugene Choi, a boy who left Joseon during the Shinmiyangyo incident and later returned to Joseon as a US military officer, meeting people living through a period of upheaval. Kim left a strong impression by playing Kudo Hina, the owner of Hotel Glory, simultaneously expressing coldness, sensuality, and a tragic inner self.

Born in 1982 and turning 44 this year, Kim has continued her acting career for a long time after starting as a child actress. And Lee Yang-hwa from 'Mr. Sunshine' has remained more than just a character in a single work in her filmography; she is a person the actress herself wants to revisit even as time passes.

Lee Yang-hwa, who comes to mind every Liberation Day.

Kim's recent summoning of memories does not stop at simply rewatching a popular past drama. It is meaningful in that even eight years later, a character from an era lives on in the memories of the actress and the viewers, and the questions that character posed remain in the present tense.

“manse, Republic of Korea.”

Following that short phrase, Kim has once again called forth one of the characters she wishes to remember most for a long time.