A month ago, "God of Variety" Luo Yingshi's new work "Unexpected Journey" was updated, with a Douban score of 9.6, which is the highest-rated variety show so far this year.
Just like the "accident" in the name, this may be the most whimsical creation of Luo Yingshi's variety show production experience.
Last year, 75-year-old South Korean actress Yoon Woo-jeong won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film Minari, the first time since 1958 that an Asian actress has won an Oscar and the first time in the history of South Korean cinema that an actor has won an Oscar. This year, the Oscars officially invited Yin Ruzhen as the guest of honor. As a good friend of Yin Ruzhen and a friend of the year, Luo Yingshi decided to take actor Lee Rui-jin to Los Angeles with him, and recorded the whole process of the 76-year-old actress's participation in the Oscars.
Why does an elderly actress go to an awards ceremony so beautifully? One viewer's answer was very simple: "Because she is Yin Ruzhen, the great Yin Ruzhen."
Wen | Lingyi
Edited | Golden Stone
"The Camera Grabber"
On April 25, 2021, local time in the United States, at the 93rd Academy Awards, Brad Pitt opened the envelope with the name of the winner of the best supporting actress, and then read "Yoon Ru-jeong" in a jerky tone.
This is the starting point of the story of "Unexpected Journey". But for Yin Ruzhen, who is about to turn 75, this is just an ordinary day in a woman's ups and downs.
It is not surprising that Yin Ruzhen won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, before the Oscars, she had swept the major film festivals with the movie "Minari", winning at least 6 best supporting actresses. But in the Western film world, few people can pronounce her name. Including Brad Pitt.
Walking onto the stage, Yin Ruzhen looked at Brad Pitt on the side, and first said in fluent English: "Finally see you, Mr. Brad Pitt, I am so happy." Then, he teased the pronunciation of his name, "Actually my name is Yin Ruzhen, but some people will call me youn youn, and some people will call me youn zhong, but tonight, I will forgive all of you." 」
A similar scene also appeared at the British Academy Awards ceremony, which was a remote award, and when she learned that she had won the best supporting actress award, Yin Ruzhen in the wired video joked: "To be recognized by a snobbish British shows that I am a good actor."
For her humor and laxity at the Oscars, local critics in the United States directly called her "camera grabber". The English version of VOGUE posted: "Yin Ruzhen's thoughtful style and sense of humor have brought an unexpected freshness to this year's awards ceremony."
Yoon Joo-jeong won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress Photo source Korean Film Promotion Committee
For the first time in history, an actor won an Oscar, and praise for Yoon Ru-jeong was so loud in South Korea that when Yoon Ru-jeong returned to China, he actually saw a banner hanging on the overpass at the entrance of his community, which read, "Thank you to Yoon Ru-jeong, a resident who makes Pyeongchang-dong residents proud."
But in an interview on the day of the Oscars, a reporter asked her if this was the best moment of her life. Yin Ruzhen replied, "There is no best, I don't like this word... Oscars aren't everything."
On the night of the award, Yin Ruzhen did not have the slightest nostalgia for that Vanity Fair and left early because she had worn high heels for a day and her feet were too painful.
After leaving the scene, the elegant actress is about to start enjoying a truly wonderful evening – back at the accommodation, she loosens her hair, changes into her housecoat, opens a bottle of champagne with her friends, and cooks a pot of instant noodles. Other than that, there was nothing on the table. She wanted to say two words of thanks to her friends around her, "Seriously, you have congratulated me so sincerely..." Before she could finish speaking, she looked up and drank the red wine from her glass.
On that very windy night, Yin Ruzhen did not know how many cigarettes she smoked, she called her good friend Shizuko, opened her mouth and shouted, "Ah! I'm dying of exhaustion, and I'm eating instant noodles." The other party just cried in front of the TV for more than an hour for his own award.
A year later, when she recalled her life experience that night again, and saw the overwhelming news about "actor Yoon Ru-jeong", she was silent for a while, saying: "Should I say that this is a calm current?" That's just grains of rice floating on sweet rice dew."
After the Oscars, Yin Ruzhen and her friends enjoyed a screenshot of instant noodles and red wine from the source "Unexpected Journey"
"Appearing Like a Comet"
One day after the Oscars, when Yoon Ru-jeong and his second son, Neo, were sorting through the photos, they found a photo of Yoon Ru-jeong's father. Neul asked who it was, and after learning that it was Grandpa, he joked to his mother in surprise, "This is Ahn Jeong-hwan, so why do you look like this?" (Note: Ahn Jung-hwan is a retired South Korean footballer who was once known as "Beckham of Korea")
This is also the biggest problem that Yoon Ru-jeong faced when she first entered the Korean film and television circle - it was an era when "actresses must be beautiful, heroines must look more beautiful", and Yin Ruzhen's intrusion is abrupt.
In 1966, in order to be able to do some part-time work to supplement the family, no longer asking for tuition from her mother, Yin Ruzhen took the TBC television actor exam in her freshman year of college. Most of the candidates who entered the exam room with her were "good-looking people". But in the exam room, she was the only one among all the test takers who could accurately memorize the entire line.
Subsequently, Yin Ruzhen entered the TV station and began a kind of survival. At the time, the good-looking actress Ahn Eun-sook was TBC's boss, Hua Dan, who had almost monopolized all the heroines, and Yoon Yoo-jeong often played her maid because "I am not a standard Korean beauty".
Yin Ruzhen's Girlhood Image Source Network
One day, director Kim Ki-yong and his wife found Yoon Ru-jeong in a recording studio on TBC and gave her the script of "Fire Girl" and invited her to play the heroine. At that time, Yin Ruzhen was still working as a supporting role, sometimes even responsible for some recording work, and would help her predecessors run errands and buy two packs of cigarettes.
Kim is known in South Korea as the "cult director", and his films deviate from the right and the world, but they are also a box office guarantee. In Korean films at the time, the heroine of "Fire Girl", Mingzi, was an unusual female character — she worked as a cook in a wealthy family and had an affair with her master, Dong Seok. After being forced to have a miscarriage by the hostess and her husband comes to the door, Akiko chooses to avenge herself and eventually leaves.
After two months, in a purely artificial studio, Yin Ruzhen completed the first film work in her life. In the end, "Fire Girl" attracted 250,000 Korean audiences into the cinema and topped the 1971 Korean film box office.
Why Yin Ruzhen? Many reporters have asked director Kim Ki-yong the same question, and Kim's answer is simple: "Actresses are very attractive, faces that cannot be seen on the mainland." The answer given by Zheng Zhenyu, the producer of "Fire Girl", is: "The face that Kim Qi-yong needs is to be able to enter a normal family and have a strange face that blows up this home." And Yin Ruzhen just has a very personal appearance."
One afternoon in March 1971, Yin Ruzhen was watching the biopic "Annie's Thousand Days" with her boyfriend Zhao Yingnan in a movie theater, when an entertainment reporter found her with a flashlight and told her to hurry up and do her hair at a beauty salon and shoot a magazine cover —she won the Blue Dragon Award for Best Actress that year for "Fire Girl".
This is not the only award Yin Ruzhen has won. For "Fire Girl", she also won the Best Actress Award at the 4th Sitges International Film Festival, when the judges of the competition gave a very blunt comment: "There is such a good actress in her debut." Film critic Shen Ying-seop called Yoon Ru-jeong "appearing like a comet".
Newspapers and television programs at the time also referred to Yoon Ru-jeong as the "New Wave of Korea." But this is by no means a positive, sincere compliment, on the contrary, it is extremely ironic — Kim wrote in a women's magazine: "Yoon Joo-jeong gave everyone the courage to become an actor" – the implication is, "Yoon Ru-jeong can be an actor, anyone can."
After the Award Ceremony of the Green Dragon Award, a reporter mentioned the sentence left by Jin Qiyong in the women's magazine, and Yin Ruzhen seemed very calm: "I am by no means a beauty, Jin Qiyong always says that I have a grimace, and I agree." So, the character I can and want to play is a character with feminine charm, a basic personality, and not easily compromised."
Yin Ruzhen's appearance in "Fire Girl" is known as a genius newcomer Screenshot of the source "Fire Girl"
"Neul" does not mean "forever"
After "Fire Girl", Yin Ruzhen was voted by the audience to appear in the historical drama "Zhang Xi Concubine", and her outstanding performance was impressive. This was followed by two TV series "Rainbow" and "Stepmother" by screenwriter Kim So-hyun, which not only established Kim so-hyun's position in the Korean screenwriting industry, but also made Yoon Yoo-jeong a popular youth idol at that time, which was also the beginning of the friendship between the two women.
In December 1972, At the peak of her career, Yoon Joo-jeong made a choice that surprised everyone — she decided to register her marriage with the two-year-old singer Cho Young-nam, and planned to leave South Korea to accompany Cho Young-nam to the United States to study theology and resume her life. That year, Yin Ruzhen was 25 years old.
Zhao Yingnan was the resident singer-songwriter of the famous café Cési Bong. He and Yoon Ru-jeong met at a party in their early years, and when they first saw Cho Young-nam singing, Yoon Ru-jeong sighed, "There used to be people in Korea who sang like this."
At that time, Yin Ruzhen's evaluation of Zhao Yingnan was: "Because I have no talent, I have always envied talented people, and he (Zhao Yingnan) is very talented." According to South Korean music critic Lee Baek-cheon, Cho Young-nam was the first generation of Korean acoustic guitar singers, and on stage, Cho Young-nam wore a messy hair, wore a black school uniform, and personally played the piano and sang. "His singing ability is unusual, unlike the sound on a record or a tape, it's a living voice."
The wedding photo of the two people is based on the source network
Before leaving for the United States, friends held a farewell banquet for Yin Ruzhen.
Everyone had a lot of fun and everyone was drunk. At the time, screenwriter Kim so-hyun tried to get Yoon Joo-jeong out of the marriage. She took advantage of the wine and said to Yin Ruzhen, "Don't go to the United States, don't get married." Ruzhen you are a transparent person, that man (Zhao Yingnan) is opaque, I don't like it." But at that time, Yoon Ru-jeong could not accept Kim So-hyun's advice, "She repeatedly said such a thing to me, which sounds ridiculous to me."
"At that time, I felt that if I got married and went to the United States, I would never come back." In this mood, Yin Ruzhen and Zhao Yingnan began to live in the United States. Cho Makes a living singing in church and juggling her studies, while Yoon Ru-jeong takes care of her family.
At that time, Ms. Yoon lived in a community where there were no other Korean compatriots, and she herself did not speak English at all, and had to go to a church with no Asians, forcing herself to chat and study with her local neighbors every week, and only then did she make some progress.
But her husband, Zhao Yingnan, did not like her to study very much. As soon as he saw Yin Ruzhen reading, he would urge her to do housework; As soon as she was watching TV to learn English, he immediately switched to a sports channel.
However, Zhao Yingnan himself arranged his studies and career properly. According to South Korean media reports at the time, during his life in the United States, Cho not only received a master's degree in divinity from Trinity Theological Seminary in Florida, but also released four records in succession— he used a large part of Yoon's personal savings to accomplish all this.
"[I' finished my theology studies in the United States and wrote a book of goals, and all my own plans were fulfilled." Cho Young-nam said proudly to the South Korean media at the time.
However, behind him, Yoon Yoo-jeong, who once appeared in the Korean film industry like a "comet", no longer even dominates her name, she is called Cho by her Korean compatriots, and she is called Mrs. Cho by her neighbors, and she gives herself the name of "full-time housewife who cooks and washes clothes in a foreign country".
After the birth of her eldest son, she read fairy tale books to her children, took her children to the playground alone, and made curtains to hang in the room. In order to pick up and drop off the family, Yin Ruzhen painstakingly learned to drive, and their neighbor Linda often saw her put two garbage cans in front of the courtyard, studied the reverse into the garage and the side direction parking for more than a month, failed each time, and practiced again.
Mr. and Mrs. Yin Ruzhen and the eldest son picture source network
Zhao Yingnan liked to eat tofu, but at that time, it was almost impossible to buy tofu in the United States. Yin Ruzhen personally grinds soybeans to make tofu, "holding the mood of picking stars and offering them".
Years later, looking back on those days again, Yin Ruzhen said: "I have never felt happiness, as if only after giving birth to the eldest, I hugged him and nursed him, and said things like 'it's really happy.'"
In 1978, Yoon Joo-jeong starred in the American film "The Day and Night of Korean Americans" directed by Hong Yifeng, a director in the United States, which tells the story of the survival of a Korean student couple and Korean overseas Chinese. Unfortunately, the film was not released for various reasons.
In 1982, the tenth year of coming to the United States, Yin Ruzhen became pregnant again. But just when she was 7 months pregnant, Cho Ying-nam suddenly announced that she decided to return to South Korea to continue her singing career, "My voice, popularity, and experience of studying in the United States are very proud things, and now I want to go back to work with a sense of mission." 」
Shortly after Cho Young-nam returned to China, Yoon Ru-jeong gave birth to a second son in the United States, and Cho Young-nam named his son "Neul", which means "forever" in Korean.
But not long after, Zhao Yingnan, who was far away in South Korea, met a young and beautiful female college student, the two people were ambiguous, and the other party even proposed that they wanted three people to live together. This made Yin Ruzhen feel angry and disappointed: "He wanted to name his son Nuel, but the two did not really go forever, it is really tragic." 」
In 1984, Yin Ruzhen filed for divorce and publicly issued a divorce statement. After living in the United States for 12 years, she returned to South Korea with her two children. "It's all over, and I feel like my future is completely lost." It was the deadliest pain of my life."
That year, Yin Ruzhen was 37 years old.
In 1995, Yin Ruzhen exhibited a photograph of her two sons in the program "Night and Music"
"What are you crying?" Raise a glass to the bar everyone."
As for Yin Ruzhen's situation after returning to South Korea, Kim Hyo-sun, publisher of South Korea's "Women's Newspaper", once commented, "When I returned to The entertainment industry in South Korea after the divorce, the prejudice against divorce was very serious. Her age and husky tone did not match the femininity of the time, and in a monolithic collectivist culture, "actress" Yoon Ru-jeong was close to the worst conditions."
Yin Ruzhen was also severely advised — the TV station executives advised her to leave the film and television circle for two or three years, no one would like a divorced woman, and the audience was afraid that she would teach bad children. Coupled with her public divorce statement, there are even fewer directors who look for her to act, and even those who come to the door are "women who go to the United States, women who divorce and celibacy.".
The publisher, with a curious mentality, wanted to publish a memoir to depict Yin Ruzhen's married life, and then sell such "exclusive content" to the audience.
Yin Ruzhen described herself at that time, "If there is a job, it will be like picking beans and eating, no matter what it is, it will be done." She endured grievances and suppressed her temper, as a former film queen, she would be guided by her juniors to act, "At that time, the feeling was not only disgusting, I really wanted to bite my tongue and kill myself." Yin Ruzhen recalled, "So I tried my best to hone my acting skills and gritted my teeth to survive."
Smoking cigarette after cigarette was Yin Ruzhen's "only thing to do except acting" – in an article, wu Zihui, a long-time friend, described Yin Ruzhen at that time.
Once, when filming the divorce scene, Yin Ruzhen heard a staff member arguing that if someone else played, there would be no such heart-wrenching feeling, but if Yin Ruzhen came to act, it would resurrect that feeling, and she felt complicated at the time, "If there is no process, I am afraid that I am still an actor with general acting skills." So everything has both an unfortunate and fortunate side..."
In the field of Korean television dramas in the 1990s, as a good friend of Yoon Yoo-jeong, Kim so-hyun was already a screenwriter with an unshakable status, and actress Kang Fuzi once said of her: "It took a hundred years for a screenwriter to write such a line."
Screenwriter Kim so-hyun Image source network
However, the cooperation between Yoon Ru-jeong and Kim so-hyun is not smooth. In the first few collaborations, the actors in the same crew would regard Yoon Ru-jeong as an actor who would only have a good relationship with the screenwriter, and talked about them, "Kim so-hyun and I desperately want to get rid of our wrongs." But I didn't hear anything nice."
Before filming "The Men of the Bathhouse Boss", director Zheng Yiyong also said to Yin Ruzhen with a hint of contempt and provocation: "Senior Yin, I hate what 'Kim So-hyun's team', I don't have a so-called team." Yin Ruzhen did not swallow his anger this time, and shot back with a straight face: "Amazing, after 10 years of being a director, I didn't even have a team?"
Behind the counterattack is Yin Ruzhen's confidence as an actor. The second sister-in-law huiying she played in the play loved to read poetry, and Yin Ruzhen did not spare no effort, in addition to memorizing lines, she also had to memorize two or three poems a week, which was a chore that had to be done - "I hated all poets at that time." When she arrived at the scene, she did not appear once in so many scenes that needed to memorize poems, and during the filming process, the director who hated "Kim So-hyun's team" gradually became polite and recognized her performance.
In the play, Kim so-hyun also confided those unhappy marriage stories through Hye Young's mouth, "Marrying a man who doesn't love is like going into a tunnel of a black hole without even taking an oil lamp, which is a stupid act." She also set up a special plot for Hui Ying - at the age of 48, Hui Ying became pregnant. As an old friend, Kim so-hyun wants to use this to tell Yoon Ru-jeong: "Life is far from over."
Screenshot of the source "The Men of the Bathhouse Owner's House"
Through the future fire of "The Men of the Bathhouse Boss", Yin Ruzhen's acting skills have once again been recognized, and her career is back on track. But only she knows the bitterness of this, "In short, the bubbles on my feet came out of my own."
After Yin Ruzhen became a "good actor" again, the outside world did not stop discussing her failed marriage, and one media even reported that Yin Ruzhen spat on Zhao Yingnan's face after proposing for divorce. When asked about this, Yin Ruzhen's answer was: "If that is the case, I am really a person who has no success, what will it be like if two divorced people attack each other, and the person who is mature and patient is the adult."
In 2010, Yoon Yoo-jeong, Kim Min-hee, Choi Ji-woo and six other actresses co-starred in lee Jae-yong's semi-documentary "Actresses". At the end of the film, actor Gao Xianzhen cries that he has just divorced, but he has been blinded by many viewers and peers: "Now the world has become better, but many people still think that divorce is a crime." Sometimes it's cruel to think that some of the humiliation of people is cruel."
At this time, Yin Ruzhen raised her wine glass and said to the actresses on the table who were tired of marriage: "What are you crying? Raise a glass to the bar."
In 2021, after Yin Ruzhen won the Oscar, a media interviewed Zhao Yingnan, who told reporters: "This is a very remarkable thing, the best revenge for her husband who divorced due to an affair."
"What are you crying?" Raise a glass to the bar." Screenshot of the source "Actresses"
"Unusual Women"
Although she is now an Oscar winner, when talking about the role played by Yin Ruzhen, countless viewers still think that the second sister-in-law Hui Ying in "The Men of the Bathhouse Boss" is a milestone existence.
In the traditional family that runs the bathhouse, Grandma Li Jizi is the biggest defender of patriarchy, the eldest sister-in-law Hideko is a submissive who works hard and complains, and only Hui Ying is an awakened person - she wears a dress, wears a top hat, watches opera, likes to chant poetry, and takes nobility and elegance as her mission all her life. When her husband threw a tantrum at her and accused her of not being a grandmother, Hui Ying calmly retorted, "Before Grandma, I was first and foremost a woman!"
In a traditional family, the second sister-in-law Hui Ying is an awakened person Screenshot of the source "The Men of the Bathhouse Owner's House"
Some believe that this is a character specially created by Kim so-hyun for Yoon Joo-jeong, "She (Kim So-hyun) gave her meanness, sharpness, and insight into various relationships to Yoon Joo-jeong's role, making Yoon Joo-jeong her best 'spokesperson'". A South Korean netizen once wrote on Kim So-hyun's official website.
From the beginning of this role, Yoon Ru-jeong, who has challenged the traditional aesthetics of the Korean film and television industry since her debut, has created a series of women who challenge tradition and worldliness, free and vivid.
After the divorce, the first major film role she met was the mother-in-law in "The Secret Family". In the film, the 60-year-old mother-in-law and the first love are reunited, the two old people rekindle the old love, and the family and the sick husband do not become her bondage. She also left a dissection of desire: "Man must live honestly, I will live as I please, otherwise I will not live." 」
This is also what director Lin Changshu wants to express, "For anyone, life is very difficult. If love is a force in a difficult life, then there is no reason to escape."
Screenshot of the source "Family of Thieves"
Regarding Yin Ruzhen's performance, Lin Changshu said very frankly, "When choosing a role, I did not first consider Teacher Yin Ruzhen. Because there is often a preconceived view of TV actors, that they are always stuck in the stereotypical roles. However, when working with Teacher Yin, I was touched. She can pull out all the emotional content from the first shot."
Subsequently, Yin Ruzhen also took over the filming of "The Next Girl" and "The Taste of Money" directed by Lin Changshu in 2009 and 2012. These are two equally subversive works, in "The Taste of Money", Yin Ruzhen plays the "desired woman" Bai Jinyu, and has a passionate love affair with the 31-year-old actor who is younger than himself.
In Lin Changshu's view, Yin Ruzhen, as a "real actor", she is very valuable, and she is always determined to "dream of playing a different role and challenging new roles".
Zhihu asked a question: "What is one of Yin Ruzhen's works that most impressed you?" Many viewers have mentioned Lee Jae-yong's "Miss Dionysus".
This movie is equally important to Yin Ruzhen, which gives Yin Ruzhen the courage to identify with herself for the first time after 30 years of joining the film industry.
In the movie, Yoon Ru-jeong plays Su Ying, a 60-year-old sex worker, who makes a living as a prostitute in the park. As she grew older, Su Ying saw that her former patrons began to have dementia, strokes, and diseases, so she was determined to help them pass away and get rid of pain.
In the face of The role of Su Ying, Yin Ruzhen is very uneasy, "Su Ying is a prostitute woman and a 'murderer' who kills the old man. But I don't have that experience, and I don't have the technology." In the end, what helped her into this character was the empathy of the same women: "The grandmothers who were forced into this role are also the precious daughters born of their mothers like me, and they are not born to live like that." 」
Screenshot of the source "Miss Dionysus"
To do this, she found an old motel where Su Ying works in the film. There was a unique smell in the room, the items were moldy, all kinds of bodily fluids, all the breaths mixed together and very unpleasant. After staying in the room for a while, Yin Ruzhen could not eat a mouthful of food, but after staying in that room for two days, Yin Ruzhen slowly felt a little melancholy in Su Ying, the helplessness of being forced by the embarrassing life to lose the ability to fight back.
After the release of Miss Dionysus, Roh Hee-kyung, a new generation screenwriter known as "Kim So-hyun's successor," described it as "a film with more insight than a humanities course."
Yin Ruzhen is happy to challenge all female characters, except for one - the national mother. In a drunken interview, she unabashedly told the host of the show: "I have done enough to play the role of my mother of two children, and the role of national mother should not come to me again, as someone else's mother, I don't have that idea, it is really enough." 」
But a few years later, in the movie "Minari", Yin Ruzhen once again played a traditional East Asian mother.
Minari is an autobiographical work by director Lee Ezak Jeong-han about a Korean immigrant family who carved out a wasteland in the 1980s for the American dream. In the movie, Yin Ruzhen plays her grandmother Junko who has traveled from South Korea to a foreign country, and unlike the sharp female characters in the past, Junko represents an extremely ordinary. She misses her daughter who is far away, her grandson who has been sick since childhood, and when she arrives in the United States, she will feel guilty for breaking into her daughter's home. She is Junko, the mother who traveled to the ocean, and the epitome of many East Asian women.
"Minari" is a plant of water celery, which grows freely and has a strong vitality. Among the native specialties that Junko brought to the United States from Korea, there are the seeds of these water celery. In the film, Junko and her grandson David sow a seed of water celery by a stream in the back mountain. Soon, a fire struck, and all the crops died, and only the water celery survived. Junko took David's hand and smiled, "Minari is wonderfu, wonderful."
Screenshot of the source "Minari"
On the set of "Minari", Yin Ruzhen also incorporated the loneliness and pain of her life in the United States into the performance.
When she first arrived in the United States, Junko also brought a box of dried anchovies and red pepper powder to her daughter Monica. This is the tenderness that Yin Ruzhen has experienced first-hand - when she lived in the United States in her early years, Yin Ruzhen's mother once went to visit her daughter on the other side of the ocean. Opening her mother's suitcase, Yoon Joo-jeong found a pear from South Korea. This is the taste of hometown that Yin Ruzhen has missed for a long time, but the United States has no need to sell it. When my mother learned about it by chance, she ventured to bring it with her while visiting her family. In order to avoid being confiscated by the customs, she also specially wrapped the pears with three outer layers of suzi leaves.
After the filming of "Minari", Yin Ruzhen said in an interview: "I think I have finally become myself. Now that I think about it, when I was younger, I didn't even know how to appreciate acting, so I began to devote myself without thinking. It's a precious job that could become my mission. Now the job has become my best friend, so I want to be with this friend until the day I die."
After finally winning the Oscar with "Minari", Lu Zhengtai, a commentator for "New East Asia", commented on Yin Ruzhen in a commentary: "As an actor and a woman, she (Yin Ruzhen) has walked through a bumpy road of thorns. The name of this thorny road is Korean patriarchy, conservative gender roles, and misogyny. Even if she didn't win the Oscar, Yin Ruzhen was a winner who deserved applause, because she fully accepted and overcame our society's aggression against "unusual women.""
After the Oscar, the New York Times took a picture of Yin Ruzhen
My dear friends
On the set of "Minari", Yin Ruzhen called herself a "no-name pawn from the Far East", which is her sincere humility in her heart, and she never thinks that her success belongs only to herself.
Looking back on her life in the United States, Yoon Joo-jeong will mention Kim so-hyun many times. At that time, in extreme loneliness and bitterness, in order to find someone to talk to, she wrote to Kim So-hyun. In the letters, they talked about everything, often writing three pages full of paper was not enough. At the end of each letter, Kim so-hyun would write "Love Ru Zhen" or "Love Love Love Ru Zhen". Later, in a reply letter, Kim so-hyun saw Yoon Ru-jeong writing in the title: "When I saw the 'Love' that was always written in your letter, it made me really miss my mother's house, so sad."
In the 12 years of living in the United States, Yin Ruzhen spent the whole day in addition to cooking and washing clothes, waiting for the time when the postman delivered the letter, "leaning on the tree so eagerly looking forward to it." When Yin Ruzhen's eldest son was two or three years old, if he were asked, "What do you want to do when you grow up," his answer was "be a postman," because her mother liked to see postmen come to the house to deliver letters.
Later, Yin Ruzhen simply sent a tape to Kim So-hyun, poured out the sorrow that was suppressed in his heart, and then put it in the package to send it away, "We were so stupid at that time, why didn't we consider how expensive the postage was?"
In 1985, When Yoon Joo-jeong, who had just returned to South Korea, struggled and once wanted to return to the United States with her children, it was Kim so-hyun who advised her to stay, and her words were simple, "Acting." You can do it."
Kim so-hyun encourages Yoon Yoo-jeong to stay and continue acting Screenshot from You Quiz
When the rumors of Yoon Ru-jeong's ascension to the throne by "Kim So-hyun's team" were rife, Kim so-hyun still took the initiative to invite Yoon Ru-jeong to play his own play "What is Love". In the middle of the shooting, Yin Ruzhen fell ill and could only drink porridge every day, and even her eyes could not be opened. But Kim so-hyun still treated her equally and wrote more than 100 pages of lines for her. During that time, as soon as Yoon Yoo-jeong returned home, Kim so-hyun would immediately call to inquire about her physical condition. Hearing Yoon Joo-jeong's complaint, Kim so-hyun showed no mercy: "Knowing that you are sick, because of the close relationship with you, I will reduce your lines, and how to do things with other actors." When I write the script, I just write it, nothing else. In my opinion, the lines given to you are not long. Why are you so squeamish! I hate stupid, squeamish, inferior people the most, you have all three."
Upon hearing this, Yin Ruzhen was much more sober, "Although it is such a sharp rebuke, I know that for the sake of work, the person who is selfless to the person he loves to be so complete is Kim So-hyun."
Later, "What Is Love" achieved great success, the ratings reached 7 points, setting a record for MBC TV that year, and then Yoon Joo-jeong won the 1992 Korea Broadcasting Awards Actress Award.
Over the years, Yin Ruzhen has been carrying a notebook with a note on it that Kim So-hyun wrote in his early years: "If I am a very great and precious person, then the other party is the same, no one can sway you at will, no one has this right, this is a sin."
Yoon Joo-jeong and screenwriter Kim So-hyun Image Source Network
Compared with kim so-hyun's support for her life and career, Lo Young-seok created a good opportunity for Yoon Ru-jeong to let a woman with a rich life look back on her life through the jungle in front of the public and get comfort from it.
Before knowing Luo Yingshi, Yin Ruzhen was a big fan of "Two Days and One Night", often leaning on the sofa, watching variety shows while eating kimchi, "On weekends, it is most boring to go out to meet those male friends." Yin Ruzhen's expectations for her life after the age of sixty are, "I decided to live a leisurely and luxurious life. Luxury is the role I should only do with the people I like."
In 2014, Yin Ruzhen completed her first reality show "Flower Sister". In Douban, this variety show scored as high as 8.8 points, and the audience liked that it got rid of the low-level fun of creating contradictions and handling contradictions, but returned to the original meaning of travel.
Before "Sister Fancy," Yin Ruzhen turned down all the offers for reality shows because she didn't know how to behave, "I told them I just wanted to grow old quietly." The exception was Luo Yingshi, who even promised: "I am a fan of Luo Yingshi PD." If he asked me to shoot "We're Married," I would have done it too."
In "Flower Sister", Yin Ruzhen's understanding of life is also widely circulated on the Internet: "I experienced 67 years old for the first time, I couldn't make a plan, life is really worth a good time, really, very interesting." 」 She stressed the matter repeatedly.
Screenshot of the source "Flower Sister"
After "Fancy Sister", Luo Yingshi launched a slow variety show "Yin Canteen" with Yin Ruzhen as the protagonist, and after the second season of "Yin Canteen" was broadcast, the rating was as high as 16%, ranking first in the history of TVN entertainment.
This time filming "Unexpected Journey", because it was a temporary intention, Luo Yingshi could not predict what would be filmed - in those days in Los Angeles, there were constantly old friends to visit Yin Ruzhen, and after recording these precious moments, Luo Yingshi seemed to understand Yin Ruzhen better, "It is these friends who make Up Yin Ruzhen."
Li Renya followed the filming the whole time. At the Oscars a year ago, Yin Ruzhen also specifically mentioned her, "Thanks to my friend Li Renya, she gave me the script of this movie, introduced the director, and has been by my side until today." 」
Renya (second from left) twice accompanied Yin Ruzhen to the Oscars with screenshots of the source "Unexpected Journey"
They met in 2005, and Lee In-ya, who was in her early 30s, had just become a filmmaker and wanted to prepare a movie about a Korean-American who came to South Korea and fell in love. She invited Yoon Yoo-jeong to play the mother of Korean-American actor Wu Sandra. But after coming to South Korea with the production team, the project was yellow. Yin Ruzhen often invited Li Renya to dinner, and reassured her that this is a common occurrence in the entertainment industry. The two have kept in touch ever since.
In 2018, Li Renya recommended the script and director of "Minari" to Yin Ruzhen, and since the film had to be filmed within five weeks, Yin Ruzhen hesitated for a while, but finally heeded Renya's advice and agreed to participate.
When filming, Li Renya was worried that Yin Ruzhen's English was not good enough to be bullied, so she gave up her job and took three months off to accompany Yin Ruzhen throughout the film. In the crew, she always pays attention to Yin Ruzhen's health, takes care of her diet and living, and of course, helps Yin Ruzhen remember her lines together. When Yin Ruzhen was interviewed by foreign media, Renya sat in the place closest to her, and Yin Ruzhen did not understand anything, and she could get an answer when she turned her head.
After the release of "Minari", Yin Ruzhen sometimes had to give eight or nine hours of interviews a day, and Li Renya would sit next to her all the time, and after a day's interview, the two people's shoulders were stiff, their arms were numb, and when they put plasters on each other's backs, both of them cried.
Yin Ruzhen trusted Renya completely, and she completely entrusted herself to the other party without any worries. In "Unexpected Journey", an accompanying screenwriter compares Yin Ruzhen to an idol trainee, and Renya says that if she wants to participate in any trip, the teacher will participate in that trip; Renya said to drink less wine, then Yin Ruzhen would really listen to her and drink less. When Yin Ruzhen learned that Renya was calling her mother, she hurried to ask for a call with the other party, and she sincerely expressed her gratitude: "The Oscar was won by me and Renya."
At the end of "Minari", Yin Ruzhen also asked the filmmakers to add a separate thank-you statement: "Very Special Thanks to In Ah Lee (Li Renya)."
The end of "Minari", subtitles to Xie Renya Screenshot of the source "Unexpected Journey"
"Unexpected Journey" records the visit of many of Yin Ruzhen's old friends, the most impressive of which is the 68-year-old animation designer Kim Jingzi.
At that time, when she was studying at a university in Korea, Shizuko met Yoon Ru-jeong's sister and subsequently became friends with Yoon Ru-jeong. Shizuko came to the United States at the age of 32 and lived here for 36 years. She is a well-known hollywood animation designer, lives in a neighborhood with Quentin Tarantino, and won an Emmy award for "The Incredible Marines" 4 years ago.
She came to Yin Ruzhen wearing the most ordinary T-shirt and a bunch of snacks in her cloth bag, and followed Yin Ruzhen with "Ernie, have you eaten this", "Ernie, I miss you very much, thinking of you coming, my heart beats so fast", "Ernie, you are really amazing, how did you memorize so many lines", "Ernie, do you want to eat ice cream"...
Shizuko is also an Oscar member, but she failed to vote for Yoon Joo-jeong last year because she did not pay her dues in time. She worried about this for a long time, very afraid that because of her lack of her own vote, Yin Ruzhen would lose the election, and when she saw Yin Ruzhen win the award, she cried happily on tv for an hour.
Shizuko gestures behind Yin Ruzhen's body Screenshot of the source "Unexpected Journey"
Knowing that this time there was a variety show shooting team to follow the whole process, and she still had to be interviewed, Shizuko made serious preparations, wrote down what she wanted to say on the paper, and wrote two or three pages. Throughout the interview, there were two memorable episodes.
One of them was Luo Yingshi asking her, why are she still working so hard? Shizuko's answer blurted out, "Because I like it." I really enjoy what I do, making real animated films for kids and giving them great dreams and imaginations."
The other is about Yoon Ru-jeong, and when talking about last year's Oscars, Shizuko suddenly and solemnly asked Luo Yingshi if she could say a paragraph? Then, she picked up the piece of paper full of interview homework and slowly read it in English:
"As we get older, We stop having goals in our life, And Yuh-jung shows us that we are never too old to accomplish big things." )
Yin Ruzhen let the friends around her see: to achieve dreams and realize ideals, it will never be too old The screenshot of the source "Unexpected Journey" is taken
"Got it, the world is like this"
After Yoon Joo-jeong won the Oscar, Bong Joon-ho, a director who also won an Oscar the previous year for "Parasite", was asked in an interview whether Yoon Joo-jeong's award was a feat achieved in the history of Korean cinema in the past century. Bong Joon-ho immediately denied it, saying, "This is Yoon Joo-jeong's personal victory."
Behind this victory, in addition to talent, awe, and rich life experience, some people will mention the influence of the original family on Yin Ruzhen.
When Yin Ruzhen was ten years old, his father died of illness. While caring for her daughters, the mother never gave up her personal development, becoming the first woman in Korea to obtain the nurse teacher certification.
Her younger sister, Yin Rushun, is ten years younger than Yin Ruzhen and has the same dazzling achievements as her sister - she joined LG at the age of 41 and then became the only female representative of LG Art Center. She once said on the show, "I learned this from my mother. There should be a lot of difficult and dangerous things in the world, whether it is a small thing or a big thing, and we have done our best."
Some netizens commented on the women in this family: "In those moments when they are not crushed by reality, they are supported by stubbornness and dignity to support the willfulness that they have retained, so that they can shine."
"Unexpected Journey" also records the self-discipline, toughness and sobriety of 76-year-old Yin Ruzhen.
In life, she is very frugal, and will fold the used paper bags one by one and put them away. Among the luggage she brought to the United States were two dumbbells and a sandbag. Every morning, she does some simple stretching exercises, eats 1/4 apple for breakfast, and drinks a berry shake. The show's comments section was packed with the respects of young people in their 20s: I couldn't squat down and stand up so smoothly when I was less than 25 years old.
Before shooting the covers of pictorials and magazines, she would almost completely fast, only replenishing some water in the middle, hoping to show her most mental state.
During this trip to the United States, when her new drama "Pachinko" (Chinese translates "Pinball Game") was broadcast, before being interviewed by the American media for the new drama, Yin Ruzhen made full preparations, consulted the historical knowledge related to the plot, and the notes were filled with the front and back of five or six A4 pieces of paper, and the announcement would be taken out to look at it, although the other party did not ask relevant questions during the interview.
Yin Ruzhen made sufficient preparations for the interview Screenshot of the source "Unexpected Journey"
Five days before the awards ceremony began, Yoon Ru-jeong, who plans to present the award for Best Supporting Actor, has been watching sign language videos because the nominated actor, Troy Kotsoor, is a hearing impaired person.
According to her stylist Alvin Goh, yin Ruzhen, who was a former winner, received a lot of dresses and jewelry sponsored by top international brands. It also reminded her of some of the past.
In 2012, she starred in "The Taste of Money", which was shortlisted for the cannes film festival. That time, unknown actress Yin Ruzhen did not receive any brand-sponsored dresses. A few hours before the start of the red carpet, the makeup and hair styling were ready, but I found that the clothes I prepared did not match the red carpet on the spot. For the emergency, Ms. Yoon gritted her teeth and bought a dress for 6 million won (more than 30,000 yuan), which she said was her most heart-wrenching purchase to date, a dress she threatened to wear for the rest of her life.
In Cannes, Yin Ruzhen wore a dress she bought on Instagram
At the Academy Awards, only the best actress candidate or previous year's winner received the brand-sponsored "offer your dress". She had long accepted the rules of the world of fame and fortune, "I know, the world is like this."
This also allows Yin Ruzhen to always maintain a kind of self-awareness and sobriety.
Over the years, the praise has been listened to too much, and many times when reporters ask her how she has done a great performance, she will choose to dissolve these praises, "because I want to go home early and lie down." After receiving the Oscar, she was interviewed by Liu Zaishi and asked if the trophies were all on display at home, and she said happily, "They are all in the basement."
This year, of all the sponsoring brands, she finally chose a classic black dress from Chanel because it was "classic, clean and comfortable".
In March this year, Yin Ruzhen came to the Oscars again as an award guest
Walking onto the stage, opening the envelope and seeing that the winner was none other than Troy Kotsoul, Yin Ruzhen chose to convey greetings and congratulations in sign language before pronouncing the other person's name. After Troy took the stage, she also carefully "snatched" the trophy in order to facilitate the other party to give an acceptance speech in sign language.
At the end of the award ceremony, Yin Ruzhen did not attend the banquet as usual, she returned to the residence, and cooked another pot of instant noodles. "After the Oscars, of course, it's instant noodles."
But this time, there was only instant noodles. "I was the winner last year, so I opened champagne." Yin Ruzhen said, "This year I am nothing, so I don't need anything."
"Of course, after the Oscars, it's instant noodles."
Resources:
1. The variety show "Unexpected Journey" | Tvn
2. The variety show "You Quiz" 20220323| Tvn
3. The variety show "Golden Fishery" 20110223 | MBC
4. Documentary "Actresses"
5. The documentary "Best Supporting Actress 41 Champion Yin Ruzhen" | KBS
6、An Interview with 'Minari' Director, Lee Isaac Chung | HYPEBEAST
7、Minari review — flawless acting deserves Oscars buzz | The Times
8、Berlin: Sex and Death for Sale in E J-Yong』s 『Bacchus Lady』| Variety
9、Nonconformist Youn Yuh-jung: S. Korea's first Oscar-winning actress | France 24
10、After a 50-year career, why 『Minari』 star Yuh-Jung Youn finally made a movie in America | Los Angeles Times
11、<액트리스>Interview | 6 movie actresses Vogue Korea
12、Iina PD - Hidden Assistant | of 'Minari' Cine 21
13、Song of the old prostitute and the luger | Vogue Korea
14、The "protagonist" of the movie "Minari" craze The immigrant first-generation mother "Sunja" | SBS Language
15、'Minari' directed by Jung Isaac - <미나리>is a film for all human beings | Cine 21
16、Yoon Lee, the first Korean actor to be nominated for an Academy | Cine 21
17、1970s "Chungmuro Nouvelle Bag" Yoon Journey | shindonga
18、Yun Lee "When I shoot the scene of the 'Chonglai' Egg Candy Orthodoxy..." | Busan Ilbo
19、Twenty years of stars... Or surviving or disappearing| shindonga
20、We don't deserve to be applauded for the award of Yun Journey| shindonga
21、That one voice in the world! Yoon Journey Story | Cine 21
22、In 'A Good Experience to Die: Angel, Be a Wicked Woman', the extreme aspirations of man are revealed| Cine 21
23、Yoon Journey, even as the years go by... He is still a new generation| Sports Dong'a
24、"Bad Woman" in Korean film made by men | Women's Newspapers
25、Like the Yun Journey, the Journey of Nadaum | Women's Newspapers
(Some of the content comes from reports from the Chosun Ilbo, The JoongAng Ilbo, and the Korea Herald.) ）