85-Year-Old Kim Hye-ja's Wounds – Testimonies from Bong Joon Ho and Lee Byung-hun Reveal the True Face of the 'Nation's Actress'

85-year-old actress Kim Hye-ja brings forth stories buried in the deepest parts of her 65-year acting career. Having long been remembered by the public as the "Nation's Actress," she confesses that while she portrayed the lives of others in front of the camera, she actually had to endure wounds and anxiety in her own life. This confession holds special meaning in that 65 years is not merely a number representing a career, but a period of time through which a human being passed through eras, relationships, loss, and recovery.

The SBS special documentary "Kim Hye-ja's Regards – Don't Die," scheduled to air on the 4th, looks back at the acting career of Kim Hye-ja, who debuted in 1961, while simultaneously illuminating her previously undisclosed inner self and her time spent sharing with others. Kim Hye-ja became an iconic figure in Korean popular culture by playing mothers, commoners, and characters embodying the pain of the era in numerous works. However, the title of "Nation's Actress" also had aspects that masked the pain and anxiety experienced by Kim Hye-ja as a human being.

What this documentary focuses on is exactly that gap. While the Kim Hye-ja remembered by the public was always close to a character who embraces someone, she herself was also a person who needed to be comforted at certain moments in life. In particular, her experience meeting children living in poverty and disease in Africa while passing through difficult times became a turning point that changed the direction of her life. The sharing she started to help others paradoxically gave her the strength to live again.

This shows that in Kim Hye-ja's life, "acting" and "care" were not different domains. An actor is a profession that understands the lives of others and passes those emotions through their own body and language. The process by which Kim Hye-ja has long portrayed the faces of mothers, the weak, and wounded people is also not unrelated to a deep interest in humanity. The fact that she has continued her sharing as an honorary ambassador for the international relief and development NGO World Vision after her experience in Africa can also be read as an extension of this. If she imagined the pain of others through acting, she essentially accepted it as a real-world issue through sharing.

In Korean society, the modifier "Nation's Actress" has long possessed a double-edged nature that erases the individual's human aspects. The public expects stars to show an unwavering image, and for an actress who has been consumed as a symbol of a "mother," like Kim Hye-ja, even stronger morality and stability were required. However, real humans are not such complete beings. The process of being hurt, breaking down, and rising again is part of life itself. This is why this documentary focuses on Kim Hye-ja's wounds rather than her success story.

Testimonies from colleagues who remember Kim Hye-ja's life also follow. Lee Byung-hun takes on the narration, and Lee Jung-eun, Lee Se-young, Go Doo-shim, Han Ji-min, Choi Kang-hee, Ryu Deok-hwan, and Son Ho-jun, including director Bong Joon Ho, appear to talk about the Kim Hye-ja they remember. The fact that these individuals, who have worked in different generations and genres, gather in one place through one actress demonstrates the trajectory that Kim Hye-ja's acting career has left on Korean popular culture.

In particular, the connection between director Bong Joon Ho and Kim Hye-ja remains an important case for understanding his theory of acting. In director Bong's film "Mother," Kim Hye-ja did not simply repeat the existing image of a "Korean mother," but created a complex character possessing both love and obsession for her child, and the sublimity and cruelty of motherhood. This work is also a representative example showing why Kim Hye-ja could be evaluated as one of the most radical actors of her time while being called the "Nation's Actress" for many years.

Ultimately, the words Kim Hye-ja offers in this documentary are unexpectedly simple: "Don't die." However, this short sentence goes beyond personal comfort. It is a message of survival offered to those who want to give up on themselves because life is too overwhelming, and it is also a social language to not turn away from the pain of others. Especially now, as the crises of an aging society, isolation, depression, and care are increasing simultaneously, the words "stay alive" carry a different social weight than in the past.

That Kim Hye-ja is revealing her wounds at the age of 85 is therefore not a simple reminiscence. Instead of organizing the glamorous chronicles of a successful actress, it is closer to a work of revealing the vulnerability that was hidden behind that glamour. It is as if the actress, who has lived her whole life portraying others, is finally speaking about her own life as if acting it out directly. It is the moment when Kim Hye-ja, who has lived the lives of countless people for 65 years, now says "Don't die" to herself and to the viewers.