[INTERVIEW]

After emerging as a major presence in Japan with “The Journalist” (2019), actor Shim Eun-kyung now anchors Sho Miyake’s “Two Seasons, Two Strangers,” a gentle yet piercing portrait of a writer in crisis.

Set against sweeping landscapes of blue seas, driving rain and alpine snowfields, the film follows a screenwriter named Lee, played by Shim, who flees her creative paralysis by heading for a remote rural town. Miyake, one of Japan’s closely watched young directors, adapts and intertwines two Yoshiharu Tsuge manga — “A View of the Seaside” (1967) and “Mister Ben of the Igloo” (1968) — to chart Lee’s retreat into nature and the unexpected encounters that slowly pull her back to herself.

Miyake structures the film as a story within a story. After Lee screens the movie she has written, the narrative slips into documenting her own journey, culminating in the project’s Golden Leopard win in the Locarno Film Festival's international competition this year.

Casting 31-year-old Shim in a role originally conceived as a middle-aged Japanese man gives the film a different emotional register. Miyake has said he saw a resemblance between Lee and the actor, particularly in the way she avoids trying too hard to impress.

Shim agrees that the character’s uncertainty echoed her own. Speaking to reporters at Art Nine in eastern Seoul’s Dongjak District on Friday, she said she committed to the project the moment she heard Lee’s line: “I don’t think I have much talent.”

“I often feel inadequate too,” Shim said. “When I saw Lee admit that so openly, I wanted to play someone with that kind of honesty.”

“Two Seasons, Two Strangers” is sparse in dialogue and light on plot, relying on atmosphere and Shim’s restrained presence to carry the story.

“Because there is so much empty space, I felt free to express whatever I sensed,” she said. “The movie shows that certain things definitely exist even when you cannot put them into words.”

She stripped down her performance to the point that Miyake joked he felt lucky to film Shim “doing nothing.”

The actor said her experience working in Japan — and confronting the limits of language — made Lee’s doubts feel familiar. “People who fall into a slump and question their own talent will probably see themselves in Lee,” she said.

Lee’s path shifts when she fails to secure a hotel room and ends up at a remote mountain inn run by the enigmatic Benzo, played by Shinichi Tsutsumi. Their tentative bond and the brief disturbances that ripple through the inn amount to a dreamlike interlude that quietly restores Lee’s will to write.

Shim said the wintry setting shaped her performance. “I’ve never stayed at an inn in snowy mountains, so I acted as if I were traveling,” she said. “The inn was really cold, so Lee’s reactions to the cold mix performance and reality,” she recalled with a smile.

Shim’s growing presence in Japan — including her Japan Academy Film Prize for best actress for “The Journalist” and her best actress nomination at this year’s Singapore International Film Festival — has not erased her doubts. She said she still relates to Lee’s struggle to believe in her abilities.

After the runaway success of “Miss Granny” (2014), Shim said she spiraled under the weight of questioning herself: “Do I deserve this?” She said she steadied herself only after deciding she did not need to be “the best” and instead focused on her love of acting, which opened the door to smaller films and her Japan career.

“I realized I had overlooked how to blend into a project,” she said. “I felt endlessly lacking, but now I feel a thrill when I do work I’m satisfied with and see the director look pleased.”

Shim next appears in two dramas, one in Japan and one in Korea. She plays a Martian in NHK’s centennial project “Queen of Mars,” premiering Saturday, and takes on a sharply contrasting role in the black comedy “How to Become a Building Owner in Korea,” (translated) set to air on tvN in the first half of next year.

“Instead of mapping out a grand future, I try to do my best each day because I believe that will eventually lead me where I want to go,” she said. “Working on this film reminded me once again how important everyday life is.”


This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JUNG HYUN-MOK [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]