As soon as she debuted through a TV drama in 2001, Son Yejin stood out as a youth star, and her position as a star has never been threatened for 20 years since her debut. She dominated TV dramas, movies, and commercials. The beginning was with melodramas. When she smiled with a graceful face, the audience smiled together, and when she cried, the audience also cried. Even within the realm of melodrama, Son began to diversify little by little, sometimes adding comedy to her acting or jumping into tragedy. She even subverted the marriage system in My Wife Got Married (2008). Armed with loveliness, she let out her desire to have two husbands. This movie, which could be seen as provocative to be called a romantic comedy, was a big hit thanks to Son’s balanced performance.

Alternating between thriller, disaster blockbuster, and comic action, Son Yejin reaffirmed her box-office power as ‘the queen of genre films’ and finally revealed a completely new face that she has never shown before in The Truth Beneath (2016). Her housewife character, who diligently supported her husband, a leading politician, becomes out of control after her daughter died. Every moment in the film is the rediscovery of the actor, when she was overwhelmed with indescribable anger, collapsed pitifully, got her face covered with blood, and finally burst into wailing. Soon after, in The Last Princess (2016), Son became a princess of misfortune who bore the perilous era alone, showing the box-office power of an all-time actor.

Then in a completely different tone, Son Yejin appeared in the TV drama Crash Landing on You (2019). In the romantic comedy series, she played the character from a chaebol family who accidentally crossed the border to land on North Korea while paragliding and fell in love with a North Korean soldier. The character was perfect for Son, and Netflix put wings on it. The series reached the global audience through Netflix, ranking No. 6 on Netflix TV shows in the United States.

Son Yejin’s next film is Cross, her first Hollywood film. It is a sci-fi film directed by Andrew Niccol and tells the story of people on the border between the poor part and the rich part in a fictional multi-ethnic divided country in the future. Son Yejin will work with Sam Worthington in the film. She will surely keep her throne in the next decade, with her realm continuing to expand. Park Hyeeun