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SASSY GIRL IS HAUNTING AS EVER
By Joon Soh
Jeon Ji Hyun began her career in the late 1990's as a television actress and a sensual dancing queen in a popular television commercial.
She also made a modestly successful leap into feature films, appearing as the female lead in two romances: 'White Valentine' in 1998 and 'Il Mare' in 2000.
Then, of course, came the phenomenon called 'My Sassy Girl'. The 2001 comedy blockbuster in which she plays a quirky but irrepressible
college student catapulted her into celebrity status throughout Asia.
But fans of the 21-year-old actress might be in for a shock when they go to see her new film 'The Uninvited', a horror/psychological thriller that opens
Friday. In it, the actress, famous for her boundless energy and beauty, wears no makeup, constantly broods, seems barely alive in some scenes and repeatedly
faints in others.
After the incredible domestic and international popularity of 'My Sassy Girl', Jeon admitted she had her pick of scripts. But she decided to take on a
character she knew was "for someone older with more life experience".
"It was a difficult role to absorb for a person my age," Jeon said during a news conference Thursday. "It really tested my imagination."
Jeon plays a young married woman with an unwanted ability to see into other people’s pasts. At the same time, she herself is haunted by her own traumas
involving the death of a loved one.
"The character I play is one where you can’t be very obvious," Jeon said. "I had to hide a lot of myself, show very little of my emotions. The experiences that
my character has are also not those that you’d be able to find in daily life. I had to think hard and imagine what kind of world she would have lived in.’’
But taking on such an enigmatic part, one where she wouldn’t know what to expect, is part of acting, she said.
"As an actress I should be able to try and take on any kind of role," Jeon said. "I’m just going to keep choosing films that I want to make." Enigmatic is a word that
could also be used to describe 'The Uninvited'. With its talk of ghosts and murders, the melancholy and often grisly film, also starring Park Shin Yang, has the look
of an urban horror story. But, underneath the surface, the movie is a dark meditation on guilt and faith, according to director Lee Su Yeon.
"The movie is about how far someone can believe in someone else, or when you find out you’re not the person you thought you were, how you respond to that," Lee said.
As suggested by the film’s Korean title, which translates as "a table for four," the film is also about family - "the first thing that influences you and that also can hurt you the most,"
the director said.
As for choosing Jeon for the female lead, Lee said she knew the actress might be a little young for the part, "but she’s charismatic enough and is able to take on a range of
characteristics.’’
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