Actor Jung Eun-hye shows disability can't stop talent

Television

Published: 27 Jun. 2022, 16:38 Updated: 27 Jun. 2022, 18:06

Actor Jung Eun-hye shows disability can't stop talent

A scene from tvN drama series "Our Blues": Actor Jung Eun-hye, left, appears as Yeong-hee, Yeong-ok's older twin sister, portrayed by Han Ji-min [TVN]

Actor Jung Eun-hye, the star behind tvN drama series “Our Blues,” has a hidden talent: She is also a hit caricature artist.

The series, which wrapped up on June 12 with an impressive viewership rating of 14.6 percent, is a series of omnibus tales revolving around 14 residents of Jeju Island. The series was complimented for spotlighting a variety of social issues through individual tales such as underage parents and social minorities including people with disabilities, while still maintaining warm humanism within each character.

Jung, aged 31, made her small screen debut in the series as the older twin sister named Yeong-hee, who has down syndrome. Actor Han Ji-min, who portrays the younger twin sister Yeong-ok, is first introduced as a free-spirited haenyeo, one of the female divers indigenous to Korea's Jeju island. Having lost both of their parents at a young age, Yeong-ok, although the younger twin, is the sole guardian of Yeong-hee.

Jung appears in Episode 14 and 15 of the series, in a section titled “Yeong-ok, Jeong-jun and …,” in which Yeong-hee departs her facility for people with disabilities to visit Yeong-ok. Jeong-jun, portrayed by Kim Woo-bin, is Yeong-ok’s boyfriend, and as three of them bond, the sincerity of Yeong-hee and the love and concern she feels for her younger sister, who has taken care of her for most of her life, becomes apparent.

From left, artist and actor Jung Eun-hye, producer Jang Che Hyun-sil and director Seo Dong-il behind the documentary "Please Make Me Look Pretty" pose for a photo at a cafe in Sangam-dong, western Seoul, on Wednesday. [JEON TAE-GYU]

Jung, who herself has down syndrome, was cast by writer Noh Hee-kyeong after she came across the actor in the 2006 film “If You Were Me 2,” which, like “Our Blues,” spotlighted people struggling with social discrimination through their individual stories. In 2020, Noh contacted Jung’s family and, after a year of interaction, decided to cast her for the role of Yeong-hee. Noh incorporated personal elements of Jung into the character of Yeong-hee, with scenes showing her crocheting or highlighting her exceptional talent for drawing.

Jung, now a rising star, had the chance to share her own personal story, not as Yeong-hee, but as herself in the documentary “Please Make Me Look Pretty,” which was released in local theaters on Thursday. The film depicts how Jung entered into the art world by participating in the Moonhori river market by selling art, developing into somewhat of an icon in the market with people lining at her venue to receive a drawing from her.

Since she started drawing in 2016, Jung has drawn over 4,000 caricatures.

The director behind the documentary is Seo Dong-il, known for other documentaries such as “Pink Palace” (2005), “Dumulmeori” (2009) and “The Disobeying Teachers” (2015). Seo is Jung’s stepfather. Jung's mother, Jang Che Hyun-sil, participated as a producer of the film.

The film starts off with Jung talking to herself, sitting in her room, or crocheting, but not doing much else.

“When Eun-hye was younger, her mother spent all the money that she earned on Eun-hye’s education,” Seo said at an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily at its office in Sangam-dong in western Seoul on Wednesday.

“[The money went toward] Eun-hye’s treatments, her tuition — everything was done as desperate attempts to change her life, or to mimic the one of a non-disabled person. Although Eun-hye graduated from Hosanna College [an alternative school for people with intellectual disabilities], there was nowhere for a 26-year-old woman with disabilities to go. She had nothing to do, so she was haunting her own room, crocheting, talking to herself and calling up her imaginary friends, fighting with them, crying, staying up late into the night — and this affected the rest of the family too. We saw no future for Eun-hye, everyone was always gloomy and depressed, and I turned away from Eun-hye for a time. However, things began to change when Eun-hye began to draw.”

A scene from the documentary "Please Make Me Look Pretty," which shows how Jung Eun-hye developed as a hit caricature artist. Her stepfather Seo Dong-il directed the film and her mother, Jang Che Hyun-sil, participated in producing. [JIN JIN PICTURES]

It was her mother, Jang Che, who discovered Jung's talent for drawing when she saw a portrait that she drew in 2013 as she was teaching children drawing. From the summer of 2016, the family would go out to the Moonhori river market every third weekend of the month. Situated along the Bukhan River, anyone is allowed to participate as a seller as long as they sell products that are handmade or produced by themselves.

“[As the market took place outdoors,] I saw Eun-hye in a different light as she held her place in the market,” Seo said. “That’s when I realized that she wants to prove her existence and lead her own life, and that she was showing her determination through drawing. That’s when I began to film her, as a father who supports her. I didn’t expect her to hold out that long, but Eun-hye changed as she interacted with other sellers and customers throughout all four seasons. One of some 300 sellers, she didn’t cower or shy away — she would naturally mingle with other sellers and developed as a popular artist.”

“The other caricatures that people are familiar with usually provide the service of emitting the disadvantages of your facial figures,” Jang Che explained when asked what characteristics of Jung’s work drew attraction. “But Eun-hye doesn’t have that. She draws what she sees. I see that her distinctive way of seeing people is what people like about her pictures. She is a presence who breaks apart the stereotypes [of the disabled]. People bring their children out to the market and have them say hello to Eun-hye, which I think is proof that people know that there are a variety of people in this life and every way of life is to be respected, and that influences everyone else. Some customers, when they receive a drawing of themselves, have the queerest expression on their faces — mostly they look surprised, and they hide the drawing in their chest and scurry away as if they’re scared that someone else would see the drawing. I love how Eun-hye’s drawings impacted people.”

Scenes from "Our Blues" [TVN]

Jung’s four-year journey of drawing wrapped up in 2019 with Jung opening her own exhibition titled “Your Face 2000” in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi, with 2,000 caricatures that Jung drew. After signing for distribution with Jinjin Pictures, however, the release of Seo's film was put on hold as Noh contacted Jung in 2020.

“Noh said that she was planning the narrative for ‘Our Blues’ and she had always had a character with a disability prop in her works,” Seo said. “She was planning an omnibus drama series, and she and the production company specifically requested that we don't leak Yeong-hee to the media.”

Seo and Jang Che also expressed their gratitude toward Han and Kim who portrayed Yeong-ok and Jeong-jun. Photos of the trio together uploaded on the celebrities' Instagram accounts went viral on social media. Han also uploaded a video on her account in which Kim and Han celebrate Jung’s birthday on set.

“Although Han and Kim are both older than Jung, the staff wanted Jung to feel comfortable with them, so they requested the actors say that they are younger than Jung, just like their characters,” Seo said. “The trio became a lot closer as they exchanged their numbers and communicated via Kakao.”

Jung singled out a scene by the sea with Han and Kim as her favorite from the series.

“There was a scene where we went to the beach and took photos together,” Jung said. “Woo-bin oppa [older man] held my hand.”

Jung says she wants to continue pursuing her acting career as well, especially in genres about "love, friendship and romance," she said shyly.

Jung opened her own exhibition titled "Your Face 2000" in 2019 in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi, where she revealed 2,000 caricatures she had drawn over the past three years. [JIN JIN PICTURES]

Seo is currently filming another documentary about Jung.

“If ‘Please Make Me Look Pretty’ was about Eun-hye’s personal development from a person who stood on the precipice of nowhere due to her developmental disorders to an artist who used her drawings as a tool to invite people into her realm of art, the next film will center around Jung and other disabled artists' social growth. Jung now works with 12 fellow artists for four hours daily at Seoul Art Space Jamsil, supported by the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture. They receive a monthly wage based on the current minimum hourly wage. I’m shooting a film which will be an office sitcom at their studio.

“The most difficult social issue to resolve regarding peoples' developmental disabilities is how we can protect their labor rights,” Seo said. “We’ve experienced through Eun-hye how art can become a salvation for these people, a gateway for them to communicate with the rest of the world. It provides them an opportunity to develop into a social being as they use their artistic talent as a means to express themselves in a non-linguistic way. We hope to provide such job opportunities to the people, to recognize their creative activities as a type of labor. We hope that the disabled can find a place in society and maintain their lives with stability and security. Such a life is more meaningful and happy.”

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]