‘Herstory’ actress Kim Hee-ae was fearful of ruining war movie
SEOUL: Actress Kim Hee-ae, the lead actress for a movie on sex slavery during World War II, was afraid she’d make a fool of herself and not do justice to the victims.
Herstory is a courtroom drama about Korean women forced into sex slavery.
“I have built up my own career, but I was afraid and scared that I might make a fool of myself ( by not acting well) and cause some trouble to the elderly women (depicted in the film),” the 51year- old actress said during an interview with Yonhap News Agency.
The 35-year showbiz veteran admitted being nervous about doing the role.
Directed by Min Kyu- dong, best known for All About My Wife ( 2012) and All for Love ( 2005), the new film is based on a reparation trial filed in Shimonoseki, Japan, by a group of 10 former Korean sex slaves in the 1990s against the Japanese government.
The trial that lasted six years is not well known to the public even though it produced a meaningful ruling that ordered the Japanese government to compensate the plaintiffs, the first of its kind in the history of court trials related to the victims, also known as “comfort women.”
Kim plays the role of Moon Jeong- suk, head of a Busan- based tour agency who volunteers to help the victims. Learning that Bae Jeong- gil ( played by Kim Hae- sook), who worked for her about 16 years as a housemaid, was one of the victims, Moon supports the trial with her private money and in the Japanese court interprets the testimony of the women in Japanese.
“There are not many movies featuring actresses these days, you know,” Kim said. “I had no reason to decline the offer to be in the film. Most of all, I was touched by the dignified lives of the grannies and Moon.”
However, speaking Busan dialect and Japanese were the most difficult parts of filming the movie, she said.
“I practised Japanese so hard that I still remember the Japanese lines. I think it is now stored in the long-term memory bank,” she said. “At first, I was unable to properly read Japanese words written in Korean. I had to learn the rhythm and accent like music to memorise, and it was not easy to memorise even one sentence.”
She said she always slept while listening to the Japanese dialogues and was sometimes haunted by nightmares.
“In my dreams, my acquaintances spoke to me in Japanese, and I couldn’t answer. Even though they were dreams, how envious the people were ...”