Program Note
The Truth Beneath marked a turning point for Son Yejin. Director Lee Kyoungmi, who debuted with Crush and Blush, cast Son Yejin as a strange and unpredictable mother in her second film. The film received enthusiastic reactions for Son Yejin’s unprecedented portrayal of maternal instincts and unsettling energy.
Yeon-hong (Son Yejin), the wife of politician Jong-chan (Kim Joo-hyuk), aiming for the National Assembly, discovers a terrifying secret while searching for their missing daughter Min-jin (Shin Ji-hoon) two weeks before the election. As a Gwangju native from Jeolla Province, Yeon-hong hides her dialect and devotes herself to her husband’s success, but she transforms into a desperate mother with bloodshot eyes in her frantic search for her child. Her bloodshot eyes, which seem to embody tears of blood, wander through the wrong targets but eventually discover the truth. The scene where she mutters her daughter’s grotesque self-composed lyrics, trying not to forget, resembles a witch casting a spell. Son Yejin’s dynamic performance of Yeon-hong’s emotions, ranging from sudden anger to calmness and hysteria, was so intense that she confessed, “At one point, I was so immersed in it that I felt like I was going crazy.” This film presents a successfully redefined variation of “the beautiful actor Son Yejin loved by everyone” under director Lee Kyoungmi’s unique style. Or it could be Son Yejin’s interpretation of director Lee Kyoungmi. (NA Won-jeong)