Moon So-ri


Moon So-ri is a South Korean actress, film director and screenwriter. She is best known for her acclaimed leading roles in Oasis and A Good Lawyer's Wife.

Career

After graduating with a degree in Education from Sungkyunkwan University, Moon So-ri became part of the theater group Hangang from 1995 to 1997, and debuted in the play Classroom Idea. She appeared in plays and short films such as Black Cut and To the Spring Mountain before finding fame as a leading actress. Her first film role was in Lee Chang-dong's acclaimed Peppermint Candy, however her acting skills were not really showcased until she appeared in her second film Oasis, also by Lee Chang-dong. Her powerful portrayal of a woman with cerebral palsy earned her strong praise as well as the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Emerging Actor or Actress at the 2002 Venice Film Festival. She was also named Best Actress at the 2003 Seattle International Film Festival.
The following year she again found fame in Im Sang-soo's third film A Good Lawyer's Wife. A 180-degree turn from her previous screen image, this film featured her as a free thinking woman in a decaying marriage who starts an affair with the teenage boy next door. This film was also invited to the Venice Film Festival, and she later won the Best Actress award from the Stockholm International Film Festival. Similar to the case with Oasis, Best Actress honors at many domestic awards ceremonies followed.
Moon starred opposite Song Kang-ho in 2004's The President's Barber, a film that illustrates 20 years of modern Korean history through the eyes of president Park Chung-hee's personal barber. She took a more central role in her next feature Sa-kwa, an introspective relationship drama about a woman who embarks on a new relationship after being dumped by her long-time boyfriend. Also from 2005, Bravo, My Life! saw her return to the historical era of the late 70s/early 80s in a family drama set against the political upheaval of those times.
In 2006, she played a sexually promiscuous professor in Bewitching Attraction, then a disapproving sister in Family Ties. Moon starred in her first ever television series in 2007, the big-budget fusion fantasy-period drama The Legend. She then narrated My Heart Is Not Broken Yet, a documentary on Song Sin-do and her decade-long lawsuit against the Japanese government for an official apology towards her fellow comfort women.
She followed that with sports movie Forever the Moment, another TV drama, and the human rights-themed Fly, Penguin in 2009.
To promote the 2009 Green Film Festival in Seoul, Kim Tae-yong directed Moon in the short film Take Action, Now or Never! about power saving, cycling, and handkerchief use. She was also one of the four characters in Baik Hyun-jhin's short film The End.
After appearing in A Little Pond, the 2010 dramatization of the No Gun Ri Massacre, Moon joined the ensemble cast of Hong Sang-soo's Ha Ha Ha. Ha Ha Ha won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
Having always expressed a desire to return to her stage roots, Moon did so in 2006 in Sulpun Yonguk and again in the 2010 Korean production of The Pitmen Painters.
Her voice acting for Leafie, A Hen into the Wild was praised as "superb instantly recognizable and articulating the gumption and touching naivete of the eponymous hen with great conviction," and in 2011 Leafie became the most successful Korean animated film of the modern era, with over 2 million admissions. That same year, Moon joined Konkuk University's Faculty of Arts as a professor of film studies.
In 2012, she worked again with Hong Sang-soo in In Another Country, which was headlined by French actress Isabelle Huppert, of whom Moon is a fan.
Because she found his script "unique and creative," Moon took a risk on newbie director Park Myung-rang and joined the cast of his 2013 crime thriller An Ethics Lesson. She then reunited with Sol Kyung-gu in the spy comedy .
In 2014, Moon starred in Venus Talk, about the romantic and sex lives of three women in their forties. She also appeared in Park Chan-kyong's fantasy/documentary Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits that looked at Korean modern history through the checkered past and exorcism-based imagination of a shaman. Another Hong Sang-soo feature, Hill of Freedom, followed.
On television, she was designated as one of the co-hosts of a new talk show, Magic Eye; this was the first time Moon had been involved in variety programming.
Moon then made her directorial debut with the short film The Actress, in which she played the title character who goes mountain climbing with friends then meets up for drinks with a group of male acquaintances; once alcohol has loosened the tongues of her companions, she learns their prejudices against her. It premiered at the 19th Busan International Film Festival, where she also co-hosted the opening ceremony with Ken Watanabe. Along with two other short films The Running Actress and The Best Director, the feature-length film premiered in 2017. Moon has cited Lee Chang-dong as a key influence on her directorial work, saying that she thought about her experience with Lee a lot while making these three shorts.
In 2015, Moon became the first Korean actor invited as a jury member of the Locarno International Film Festival; festival artistic director Carlo Chatrian lauded her "brave choices " and called Moon "the jewel of the Korean movie industry". The following year, she was invited to the Venice International Film Festival, where she became the first South Korean actor to serve as a juror on the Orizzonti section.
In 2017, Moon featured as a political journalist in the election film The Mayor.
In 2018, Moon starred in the Korean film adaptation of the Japanese manga series Little Forest, playing the main character 's mom.
Among Moon's upcoming films are romance film Good Day by Zhang Lu, legal film Juror 8, and school bullying drama I Want to See Your Parents' Face, Moon also voiced The Underdog, which was directed by Leafie, A Hen into the Wild director.

Personal life

According to Moon, she had a strict upbringing; she was not allowed to go to the theater, and she was also forced to read classical literary works. During her childhood, she had to learn to play the pansori, the violin and the gayageum.
On December 24, 2006 Moon married Jang Joon-hwan, director of cult film Save the Green Planet!. Both Sungkyunkwan University alumni, the two reportedly met when Jang directed her in the 2003 music video for Jung Jae-il's 눈물꽃. After suffering a miscarriage in 2010, Moon gave birth to a daughter on August 4, 2011.

Filmography

Film

As actress

As director and screenwriter

Television series

Talk show host

Theater

Awards and nominations

The list below is sourced.
YearAwardCategoryNominated workResultRef
200259th Venice International Film FestivalMarcello Mastroianni AwardOasis
200223rd Blue Dragon Film AwardsBest New ActressOasis
200210th Chunsa Film Art AwardsBest ActressOasis
200222nd Korean Association of Film Critics AwardsBest ActressOasis
20021st Korean Film AwardsBest ActressOasis
20021st Korean Film AwardsBest New ActressOasis
20025th Director's Cut AwardsBest New ActressOasis
20023rd Women in Film Korea AwardsBest ActressOasis
2002Cine 21 AwardsBest ActressOasis
2002Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism: Okgwan Order of Culture Merit
200329th Seattle International Film FestivalBest ActressOasis
200313th Stockholm International Film FestivalBest ActressA Good Lawyer's Wife
20034th Busan Film Critics AwardsBest ActressA Good Lawyer's Wife
200311th Chunsa Film Art AwardsBest ActressA Good Lawyer's Wife
20032nd Korean Film AwardsBest ActressA Good Lawyer's Wife
20034th Women in Film Korea AwardsBest ActressA Good Lawyer's Wife
20036th Director's Cut AwardsBest ActressA Good Lawyer's Wife
200324th Blue Dragon Film AwardsBest ActressA Good Lawyer's Wife
2003Cine 21 AwardsBest ActressA Good Lawyer's Wife
200441st Grand Bell AwardsBest ActressA Good Lawyer's Wife
20041st Max Movie AwardsBest ActressA Good Lawyer's Wife
20041st University Film Festival of KoreaBest ActressA Good Lawyer's Wife
200647th Thessaloniki Film FestivalBest ActressFamily Ties
20082008 MBC Drama AwardsExcellence Award, ActressAll About My Family
200829th Blue Dragon Film AwardsBest ActressForever the Moment
200816th Chunsa Film Art AwardsBest ActressForever the Moment
201019th Buil Film AwardsBest ActressHa Ha Ha
20108th Korean Film AwardsBest ActressHa Ha Ha
201221st Buil Film AwardsBest Supporting ActressIn Another Country
20152nd Wildflower Film AwardsBest ActressHill of Freedom
2016Venice International Film FestivalStarlight Cinema Award
201711th Asian Film AwardsBest Supporting ActressThe Handmaiden
201754th Grand Bell AwardsBest Supporting ActressThe Mayor
20175th Marie Claire Asia Star AwardsSpecial AwardThe Running Actress
20171st The Seoul AwardsBest ActressThe Running Actress
201738th Blue Dragon Film AwardsBest ActressThe Running Actress
201738th Blue Dragon Film AwardsBest New DirectorThe Running Actress
201827th Buil Film AwardsBest New DirectorThe Running Actress
2018Faro Island Film FestivalBest New DirectorThe Running Actress
2018Faro Island Film FestivalBest ActressThe Running Actress
20185th Wildflower Film AwardsBest DirectorThe Running Actress
201854th Baeksang Arts AwardsBest New DirectorThe Running Actress
201823rd Chunsa Film Art AwardsBest ActressThe Running Actress
201826th Korea Culture and Entertainment AwardsBest ActressThe Running Actress
201838th Golden Cinema AwardsPopularity Award, ActressThe Running Actress
20182nd The Seoul AwardsBest Supporting ActressLife
201838th Hawaii International Film FestivalHalekulani Career Achievement Award
201924th Chunsa Film Art AwardsBest ActressOde to the Goose