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‘My Name’ seeks to take politics out of Jeju uprising — and draws presidential interest

Published: 14 Apr. 2026, 21:21 Updated: 15 Apr. 2026, 18:06

KIM JU-YEON
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Yeom Hye-ran as Choi Jeong-soon in ″My Name″ [WIDE RELEASE/CJ CGV]

“Am I in my prime? I suppose I am. And if this isn’t it, then maybe I’m just too ambitious,” actor Yeom Hye-ran said with a smile when asked if she was at the peak of her career.

After years of standout supporting roles in some of Korea’s biggest recent hits like Park Chan-wook's "No Other Choice" (2025), Yeom, 49, is stepping into a leading role in “My Name,” a film that takes on one of the country’s most politically sensitive historical tragedies.

The film, about the 1948-49 uprising and state-led massacre of civilians on Jeju Island, has already drawn a high-profile endorsement from none other than President Lee Jae Myung, who said on X that he would attend a screening on Wednesday, the day of its premiere.

The Jeju uprising and massacre remain politically charged, rooted in state violence against civilians that was long denied or framed through an anticommunist lens. Under successive authoritarian governments, public discussion was curtailed, and victims were often stigmatized as leftists.

Recognition from the president is both welcome and “overwhelming,” Yeom said in an interview at a cafe in central Seoul on Tuesday, noting that political backing can complicate a film aimed at broad audiences.

Actor Yeom Hye-ran [LET'S FILM/AURA PICTURES]

She said her goal, along with director Chung Ji-young, was to create a film that is as entertaining as it is informative, and that invites reflection on a painful historical event, even as its subject matter remains prone to politicization. But it was also a welcome opportunity to “tell the kind of story she wanted to tell through the tool of acting."

“Why is it still so hard to tell this story? It’s now clearly documented and defined in textbooks," Yeom said. “It feels like an important moment, at the 78th anniversary, to ask what stories we should be telling now."

She asked herself, "For younger people who may not even know what this event is, how can this story still feel alive? It shouldn’t remain something buried in a history book.”

That is central to “My Name”: not just highlighting the atrocities of the Jeju uprising and massacre, known in Korea as the "April 3 incident," but examining how the event is remembered. The film is set primarily in 1998, 50 years after the conflict, and draws parallels to its power struggles and brutality by reflecting them in the dynamics among high school boys.

Yeom plays Choi Jeong-soon, a middle-aged muyong (traditional Korean dance) instructor in her 50s and a widowed parental figure to teenager Lee Young-ok. The film follows Jeong-soon as she recalls the Jeju conflict and other tragedies that shaped her family’s life, as well as Young-ok, who becomes entangled in classroom politics after a bully transfers to his school.

Still from "My Name" [WIDE RELEASE/CJ CGV]

Yeom wants viewers to see the movie as not just a rehashing of the past, but as a way to reflect on how to move forward.

“I thought it would only be compelling if [my character] wasn’t just about someone existing as a historical hero or victim,” she said.

Her character carries grief and trauma from the past, but "she’s still working, still teaching children."

"She’s a single mother, but not the kind who says, ‘You’re my everything,’ and devotes herself entirely [to her son]. She has her own life. She’s lived through those things and sees them as [events that] can just happen as you grow up. She’s a very cool-headed person," Yeom said.

Still from "My Name" [WIDE RELEASE/CJ CGV]

Though "My Name" may be marketed around its weighty subject matter, it is, at heart, “a small, everyday story" that appeals to humanity, Yeom said. She recalled a memorable response after the film’s invitation to the Berlin International Film Festival that, she said, proved the resonance of its message of reflecting on tragedy and loss even without knowledge of the history behind the plot.

"The review was: 'I haven’t forgotten the people who matter to me. I remember all the people I love,'” she said. “In Korea, people tend to view the film through a political lens […] as we all have different beliefs, political views and regional identities, which can make us more sensitive to it. But in Berlin, audiences seemed to see it simply from a human perspective.”

That was part of why she took on the lead role, even as she was wary of being associated with any particular political ideology, concerned it could limit the range of roles available to her.

“If it isn’t compelling — whether as art or as film — it ends up feeling like propaganda. And I didn’t want to be part of that,” Yeom said.

Still from "My Name" [WIDE RELEASE/CJ CGV]

The actor is still hungry for new roles, even as she downplayed her accolades in the Tuesday interview. She has played a domestic violence victim-turned-accomplice in the revenge drama “The Glory” (2022–23); an abusive mother in “Mask Girl” (2023); and a dual role — the protagonist’s haenyeo (female free diver) mother and a chief editor — in “When Life Gives You Tangerines” (2025). Cinephiles may also recognize her as a frustrated and unfaithful wife in "No Other Choice."

She once again plays a parental role in "My Name," but says she's ready to move on from roles that are "symbolic of devotion, love and patience."

"I'm personally very ambitious as an actor," she said. "I don't want to be typecast as the 'nation's mother,'" she said, referring to a nickname that is given to recognizable maternal figures on screen. “I want to be a selfish mom — not just a ‘nation’s mother.’ I want to explore many different kinds of mothers.”

BY KIM JU-YEON [[email protected]]