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Yuh-Jung Youn is first Korean actress to win Oscar award. Picture: Instagram
Celebrity
2 min.Read

Minari star first Korean actress to win an Oscar

Lydia Koh
By Lydia Koh

Los Angeles — South Korean actress Yuh-Jung Youn was a crowd favourite during the Academy Awards, thanks to her winning speech. The 73-year-old is the first Korean actress to win an Oscar for her outstanding performance in the critically acclaimed film Minari. Back in 1985, Haing S Ngor was the first Asian  to win Best Supporting Actor in The Killing Fields. 

Yuh-Jung Youn was nominated alongside Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Movie Film), Olivia Colman (The Father), Amanda Seyfried (Mank), and Glenn Close (Hillbilly Elegy).

Before this, Yuh-Jung Youn had won Best Supporting Actress prizes at the BAFTA Film Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, as reported by Hype.my.

It must have been a double win for Yuh-Jung Youn since the presenter was none other than Brad Pitt. “Nice to meet you, Mr Brad Pitt, very honoured to meet you,” the respected thespian was quoted as saying.

“Let me pull myself, together, OK? Thank you to the Academy members who voted for me.” The mother of two went on to thank her Minari family, including “captain and my director” Lee Isaac Chung.

Born on June 19, 1947, Yuh-Jung Youn is a South Korean actress, whose career in film and television spans over five decades. She has starred in many well-known South Korean television series and films, gaining international recognition for her role in Minari (2020). Her critically acclaimed portrayal of Soon-ja in the film made her the first Korean actress to win a Screen Actors Guild Award, British Academy Film Award, Academy Award, as well as a nomination for a Critics’ Choice Movie Award.

By the late 1960s, Youn was a rising star in South Korea. She won several awards for her role in Woman of Fire (1971). She retired from the spotlight for several years before returning to acting in the late 1980s. Besides Woman of Fire and Minari, Youn is known for her work in the South Korean films The Housemaid (2010), The Taste of Money (2012), The Bacchus Lady (2016), and Canola (2016).

She is also known for her matriarch roles in the South Korean family drama series Men of the Bath House (1995), Be Strong Geum Soon (2005), Daughters-in-Law (2007), My Husband Got a Family (2012), and Dear My Friends (2016), all of which are popular across East Asia./TISG

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