Indie film Beautiful Days secures Lee Na-young as its star

by awcoconuts

It feels like a carefully chosen comeback project, and for that I respect Lee Na-young’s genuine appreciation for films and filmmaking. After a five-year hiatus, Lee (Runaway Plan B) is confirmed for the starring role in the indie movie Beautiful Days, which will be directed by up-and-comer Jero Yun (also known as Yoon Jae-ho).

Director Yun screened his last work, a short film called Hitchhiker, at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2016 and received accolades for his documentary Mrs. B., A North Korean Woman that same year. Mrs. B was about a North Korean mother who smuggles between the two Koreas and China and who saves her hard-earned money in order to reunite with her sons after a long separation.

The material may have been the inspiration for Beautiful Days, which will be a film based on a true story of a North Korean refugee who will leave family behind in China and flee to South Korea. Lee will play the mother who reunites with her son 16 years later, and one who has lived in the pain of the past but who has never lost her courage. It sounds like it’ll be an emotional ride, but the movie promises to take the mother’s anguish and to turn it into a message of hope.

Lee is said to have been drawn to the film due to the charm of the screenplay and her confidence in director Yun’s ability, and has accepted the role without a guarantee (which assures a minimum payment to an actor even if the movie doesn’t come to fruition). She’ll speak both Chinese and Korean in the film, and while I’ve enjoyed Lee’s quirky previous choices and liked her best in the zany Please Teach Me English, I’ll bet the real-life experiences of marriage and motherhood in her years away from the screen will add a layer of depth to her comeback performance.

Filming will begin in October and the cast is currently preparing for their roles.

Via MyDaily, Sports Chosun

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