Youn Yuh-jung

Acting

Youn Yuh-jung

Born 1947-06-19 · Gaeseong, Gyeonggi, Korea

Youn Yuh-jung (Korean: 윤여정; pronounced [junjʌdʑʌŋ]; born June 19, 1947) is a South Korean actress. Youn gained attention on Korean television in the late 1960s and rose to prominence with the film Woman of Fire (1971). She retired in the mid-1970s after marrying and immigrating to the United States. However, she returned to acting in the late 1980s following her divorce. Known as the "Godmother of Chungmu-ro," Youn's notable films include The Housemaid (2010), The Taste of Money (2012), The Bacchus Lady (2016) and Canola (2016), as well as a series of matriarch roles in television dramas such as Men of the Bath House (1995), Be Strong, Geum-soon! (2005), Daughters-in-Law (2007), My Husband Got a Family (2012) and Dear My Friends (2016). She gained international recognition for her role in Minari (2020), becoming the first Korean actress to win a Screen Actors Guild Award, an Independent Spirit Award, a British Academy Film Award, and an Academy Award, all for Best Supporting Actress. Description above from the Wikipedia article Youn Yuh-jung, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Minari poster
7.3

A Korean American family moves to an Arkansas farm in search of its own American dream. Amidst the challenges of this new life in the strange and rugged Ozarks, they discover the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home.

Minari

2021

A Tale of Legendary Libido poster
5.7

A monk gives an impaired man the secret to a strong arousal. The man had been teased and tortured until the travelling man decides to help him out.

A Tale of Legendary Libido

2008

The Housemaid poster
6.3

Eun-yi is hired as a maid in a mansion owned by a wealthy businessman. He quickly starts seducing his employee who seemingly has little choice but to comply with his sexual advances. Soon the women of the family plot against Eun-yi who must fight an equally devious battle to protect herself.

The Housemaid

2010

A Good Lawyer's Wife poster
5.7

A woman, married and with a child but becoming increasingly distant from her husband who is already cheating on her, reluctantly enters a secret relationship with her neighbor, a teenage boy.

A Good Lawyer's Wife

2003

The Wedding Banquet poster
6.7

Frustrated with his commitment-phobic boyfriend Chris and running out of time, Min makes a proposal: a green-card marriage with their friend Angela in exchange for her partner Lee's expensive IVF. Elopement plans are upended, however, when Min's grandmother surprises them with an extravagant Korean wedding banquet.

The Wedding Banquet

2025

Beasts Clawing at Straws poster
7.1

A struggling restaurant owner, caring for his sick mom, finds a bag of cash in a sauna locker, while a customs officer gets into trouble when his girlfriend runs off with money he borrowed from a loan shark.

Beasts Clawing at Straws

2020

Right Now, Wrong Then poster
7.0

By mistake, film director Ham Chunsu arrives in Suwon a day early. With time to kill before his lecture the next day, Chunsu stops by a restored, old palace and meets an artist named Yoon Heejung. Together, they go to Heejung's workshop to look at her paintings, have Sushi with Soju for dinner, and get close. Later, they go to another café and have more drinks with Heejung's acquaintances. When asked if he is married, Chunsu is forced to reveal the fact that he is, and Heejung gets deeply disappointed...

Right Now, Wrong Then

2015

The Taste of Money poster
5.5

The assistant of a wealthy socialite reveals her husband's salacious affair. The fallout entangles him in a web of sex, love and deceit that could threaten his life and career.

The Taste of Money

2012

Keys to the Heart poster
8.0

An older brother is a washed-up boxer. His younger brother is a genius pianist with physical disability. The brothers make up through their mother who is full of stories of her past.

Keys to the Heart

2018

Dog Days poster
7.6

In a neighborhood of dog lovers, a pooch-hating landlord tries to befriend an architect for personal gain as she searches for her missing pup.

Dog Days

2024

The President's Last Bang poster
6.5

On October 26, 1979, President Park Chung-hee, who had ruled South Korea since 1961, was assassinated by his director of intelligence. The film depicts the events of that night.

The President's Last Bang

2005

Canola poster
7.9

A girl who went missing after an accident returns 10 years later and reunites with her grandmother.

Canola

2016

Salut d'Amour poster
7.9

Sung-chil works at the Jang-soo Store which is owned by Jang-soo. Sung-chil is stubborn and has a bad temper, but he changes after meeting Geum-nim. Geun-nim runs a flower shop and her daughter Min-jung does not like her meeting Sung-chil.

Salut d'Amour

2015

Boomerang Family poster
6.8

Based on an original written by Cheon Myeong-gwan, a 48 year-old movie director moves into the house where his mother and 50 year-old brother lives until his sister moves in with her niece.

Boomerang Family

2013

In Another Country poster
6.1

A young woman and her mother run away to the seaside town of Mohang to escape their mounting debt. The young woman begins writing a script for a short film in order to calm her nerves: There are three women named Anne, and each woman consecutively visits the seaside town of Mohang. A young woman tends to the small hotel by the Mohang foreshore owned by her parents. A certain lifeguard can be seen restlessly wandering up and down the beach that lies nearby. Each Anne stays at this small hotel, receives some assistance from the owner's daughter, and ventures onto the beach where they meet the lifeguard.

In Another Country

2012

Hindsight poster
6.5

A young assassin is sent to kill a retired mob boss. But things get complicated when she begins to like him.

Hindsight

2011

Intimate Enemies poster
5.2

Four strangers discover a bag full of money which belongs to a corrupt politician. Instead of using the money for themselves, they decide to join forces to take down corrupt conglomerates.

Intimate Enemies

2015

Maundy Thursday poster
7.0

Yu-jeong is suicidal, yet she reluctantly goes to prison for volunteer work. There, she meets a prisoner who is waiting for death penalty. The two quickly fall in love despite their differences, yet they do not have much time.

Maundy Thursday

2006

Hwang Jin Yi poster
6.5

Although born a daughter of an aristocratic family, Jin-yi discovers the secret behind her birth and enters into a life in a brothel as a gisaeng.

Hwang Jin Yi

2007

The Bacchus Lady poster
6.7

So-young, an elderly prostitute working in Seoul, tries to take care of a young Korean-Filipino child she meets in a hospital and make ends meet. So-young's life takes a dark turn when several of her old clients try to reconnect with her.

The Bacchus Lady

2016

The Actresses poster
6.9

When six famous Korean actresses gather for a Vogue fashion photo shoot, egos collide in funny and touching ways in this ingenious mockumentary, where all actresses involved play (not so) fictional versions of themselves.

The Actresses

2009

Earl. poster
NR

Earl. profiles the inspiring and complex life of an unknown, brilliant American composer. Earl's story crosses boundaries from classical music to politics, education, cultural self-awareness, war, human rights, and even weapons of mass destruction. Most of all, it is a story of the profound power of music to change lives.

Earl.

2024

Hill of Freedom poster
6.7

Kwon returns to Seoul from a restorative stay in the mountains. She is given a packet of letters left by Mori, who has come back from Japan to propose to her. Kwon drops and scatters the letters, all of which are undated. When she reads them, she has to make sense of the chronology.

Hill of Freedom

2014

Be a Wicked Woman poster
3.0

Two housewives, wounded by their husbands' betrayals, meet by chance. They decide to carry out "exchange murders" and work towards the perfect alibis. Under what they know to be perfect plans, they kill each other's husbands. Although the police are able to prove that they're guilty, these two women are found innocent by the court of law.

Be a Wicked Woman

2021