[Dispatch=Reporter Jung Tae-yun] "I went forward amid fear." (Hereinafter Lee Jung-eun)

For actress Lee Jung-eun, the film "Gyeongju Journey" (directed by Kim Mi-jo) was never an easy project from the start. It tells the story of a mother who has lost her daughter and takes matters into her own hands to punish the perpetrator.

At the end lies not forgiveness but revenge. It was an emotion difficult to approach both as an actor and as a person.

At the same time as being confident it was a good screenplay, there was great concern: could she properly understand and portray a character who must go to such extremes?

"I had great fear about whether I could do it. Still, I thought I had to go since I hadn't been down that path before. It's an actor's task to show different sides."

Dispatch recently met Lee Jung-eun. She spoke about the process of taking each step forward amid fear—from ordinary mother to one consumed by revenge.

◆ Emotions Built Gradually

"Gyeongju Journey" depicts a family that lost their youngest daughter, who after 8 years finds the perpetrator and sets out for revenge. Four daughters and their mother head to Gyeongju under the guise of a trip.

Lee Jung-eun played Oksil, the mother of four daughters. Oksil is someone who stopped after losing her daughter 8 years ago. She lived suppressing her emotions to protect her family, but in that process ended up halting the family's life.

Oksil is the person who mends clothes at home and holds the family's finances. That is why Lee Jung-eun did not allow Oksil to collapse easily. She is someone who must maintain the family's boundaries.

She explained: "I thought of Oksil as someone responsible for the family's collapse. I approached her as someone who restrains emotions more than her husband, and reacts sensitively to her daughters' minor transgressions."

Lee did not explain Oksil's actions through simple maternal love. It stemmed from anxiety. "When I wasn't there, my child died, and the same happened with my husband. So how tightly would this family have bonded in such isolation," she said.

"The police's comment that 'this family has no living radius' was also a hint. From Oksil's perspective, since she had never separated the family once, she would naturally think revenge is something to do together."

◆ The Madness of the Second Half

If early Oksil had a worn and exhausted face, late Oksil was different. She hangs from a car trunk and drags perpetrator Baek Sang-hyun (played by Byun Yo-han) up the mountain with him bound.

Lee Jung-eun said: "The action director helped a lot. It was an ajumma's action rather than flashy action. I used my whole body, grabbing hair and fighting."

The scene where Oksil faces Baek Sang-hyun alone was shot last, after finishing filming with the daughters. Lee Jung-eun revealed: "It wasn't easy physically—I had to go up the mountain before dawn and engage in intense physical combat."

At the end of that scene, Oksil strikes down the perpetrator. But Lee Jung-eun does not interpret this ending as catharsis from private punishment.

"This film absolutely does not endorse or speak of private punishment as a virtue. That mother also receives punishment, and a dead person can never be met again. You can't say that's resolved."

The essence of "Gyeongju Journey" lies in each family member confronting loss in their own way while pursuing revenge. Lee Jung-eun emphasized: "The advantage of this film is that the layers hidden in the journey are revealed."

◆ How to Become Gyeongju's Mother

Lee Jung-eun is actually single. She has no experience raising daughters. One of the relationships she spent the most time thinking about was youngest daughter Gyeongju, played by Hwang Hyun-jung.

Lee Jung-eun said: "On the reading day, actress Hwang Hyun-jung pulled out childhood photos and said 'I grew up like this' and handed them to me. I was so grateful that she thoughtfully gave attention to help with the relationship."

She even visited Hwang Hyun-jung's home directly. There she observed an actual mother-daughter pair. She said: "The mother happened to look similar to me. Watching how Hyun-jung spent time with her mother, I got many hints."

She continued: "She's a daughter who is very affectionate. I thought I should relate to Gyeongju to match that side of Hyun-jung. That temperature became the reference point for Oksil and Gyeongju."

The film's ending leads to parting. The moment of letting go of the daughter she had held onto for 8 years (in her heart). Lee Jung-eun added: "Thanks to what I learned by watching an actual mother-daughter pair, the scenes with Gyeongju were actually not difficult."

◆ "Whether I reached there…"

Lee Jung-eun has watched "Gyeongju Journey" four times. Once before post-production sound recording when music wasn't completed, once at the Hawaii Film Festival, and twice at press screenings.

She said: "It's director Kim Mi-jo's first commercial film, and I was amazed seeing it completed. The results showed as much effort went into post-production."

Yet even after watching four times, there remains a scene where her heart hasn't fully settled. The scene where Oksil faces Baek Sang-hyun and says, "I was afraid I would end up forgiving you."

Lee Jung-eun said: "Will it align with what the director intended to say? Can the audience relate? Did I reach it well? I still have doubts. Regardless of the film's release, it's something I need to think about more."

"I think the effort to reach there is also a good experience. I get to see how to bridge that gap. I think it's all part of growth."

◆ The Face of a Mother

Lee Jung-eun has often been cast as a mother. Sometimes sacrificing for family, sometimes pouring out nagging to her children, sometimes being a cheerful mother bickering with them.

This time, she pushed that face to its most extreme. She densely portrayed how a heart meant to protect family becomes obsession at some point, and how love transforms into a thirst for revenge.

What Lee Jung-eun focuses on when acting as a mother is not "appearing maternal." Rather, she examines how one generation's mother's way of thinking and loving extends to the next generation.

"I approach it from the angle of trying to resolve well the tasks that don't carry over from our generation to the next. 'The old-generation mother thought like this. How should I, as an adult of this era, think and live?' And I come to contemplate."

That is why for her, a mother is not a role completed only through experience. She is someone created in the process of observing, questioning, and understanding.

What Lee Jung-eun examined thoroughly through "Gyeongju Journey" was that very point. Not to say that revenge is necessary to be happy, but that each person endures wounds and lives again in different ways.

"While film as a medium plays a large role in changing social awareness, it can also end up just being subject matter. I hope 'Gyeongju Journey' doesn't stop there but becomes a film that can be viewed with empathetic eyes. I believe that if sincerity reaches, it will be conveyed."

"Gyeongju Journey" opens on the 26th.

<Photo provided by Lotte Entertainment>