News that film director Hong Sang-soo and actress Kim Min-hee have been seeing each other has been widely reported, and attention has once again turned to their decade-long extramarital affair, which even produced an out-of-wedlock child.
On the morning of the 19th, one outlet published photos claiming to show the current situation of Hong Sang-soo and Kim Min-hee. According to the report, Hong Sang-soo and Kim Min-hee enjoyed a walk at Misa Forest Park in Hanam, Gyeonggi Province. In particular, it was reported that Hong Sang-soo himself was pushing the stroller carrying the out-of-wedlock child born to Kim Min-hee. Their appearance enjoying daily life like a close family without concern for onlookers became an even hotter topic.
The affair between Hong Sang-soo and Kim Min-hee was officially disclosed in March 2017. At the time, the two confessed they were "in love" at the press screening for the film Night and Day at the Seaside, sparking social controversy. That was because Hong Sang-soo already had a wife and children. Their brazen confession of an affair while not divorced provoked criticism.
Of course, afterward director Hong Sang-soo filed for divorce mediation against his wife. But because he was the at-fault spouse seeking divorce, it was not accepted. He later filed a divorce suit again in June 2019, but it was also dismissed. After abandoning an appeal, he continued a double life in which his legal family remained separate while he lived with his extramarital partner Kim Min-hee, with legal relationships and reality diverging.
Beyond simply announcing the affair, news of Kim Min-hee's pregnancy surfaced in January last year. In April of the same year, it became known that Kim Min-hee had given birth to a son, and the existence of an "out-of-wedlock child" shocked the public even more. At the time, photos of Hong Sang-soo and Kim Min-hee enjoying a walk with their young son around Misa Lake Park had drawn intense attention. About a year later, seeing Hong Sang-soo and Kim Min-hee with a more grown son again is causing shock.
Separate from public outrage, Hong Sang-soo has continued to work steadily in the film industry. In particular, after publicly acknowledging the affair, he won the Silver Bear for best director at the Berlin Film Festival in 2020 for The Woman Who Ran, as well as the Korean Chapter of the International Federation of Film Critics Award from the Korean Film Critics Association, and the following year he won the Silver Bear for best screenplay at the Berlin Film Festival for Introduction. In 2022 he even won the Silver Bear jury prize at the Berlin Film Festival for The Novelist's Film.
Riding that momentum, last year he even served as a juror in the competition section at the Cannes Film Festival. He became the sixth Korean to be selected as a Cannes juror after director Shin Sang-ok, director Lee Chang-dong, actress Jeon Do-yeon, director Park Chan-wook and actor Song Kang-ho. Since then he has continued working as a film director with titles including Top, Underwater, Our Day, The Traveler's Need, Suyucheon, What Does that Nature Say to You, and The Day She Returned.
However, Kim Min-hee has effectively remained only Hong Sang-soo's muse. Of course, after Night and Day at the Seaside she continued to appear as a lead and supporting actor in Hong Sang-soo's works and even took a credit as production manager while continuing film work. But appearing in commercial films like director Byun Young-joo's The Chaser or director Park Chan-wook's Thirst is impossible. Ten years after the public disclosure of their affair and with an out-of-wedlock child, Hong Sang-soo and Kim Min-hee claim a love of the century while facing contrasting circumstances.
[Photo] OSEN DB, sourced from SNS.
[OSEN]