South Korean actress (born 1960)
Im Ye-jin (born Im Ki-hee on January 24, 1960) is a South Korean actress. Affectionately called the original "Nation's Little Sister", Im debuted as a teenage actress taking on roles of the “pretty teenaged student” in several movies and TV series – helping her win the title of everyone’s favorite “dongseng (동생, younger sibling)” in her time.[1] She reached the peak of her popularity in the 1970s with the "Really Really" film trilogy, which includes Never Forget Me, I Am Really Sorry, and I Really Really Like You. She is currently active in television. Due to her popularity, she is also the subject of an urban legend that the song Imagine by John Lennon is allegedly about her.
Career
Im Ki-hee began modeling in popular teen magazines when she was in junior high school. Using the stage name Im Ye-jin, she made her acting debut in Kim Ki-young's Transgression in 1974.
In 1975, Im played a high schooler in love with her teacher in Graduating School Girls, for which she won Best New Actress at the Grand Bell Awards. But it was a year later when she would be catapulted to stardom. Im headlined Never Forget Me (also known as Really Really Don't Forget, 1976) and its sequels I Am Really Sorry (also known as I'm Really Really Sorry, 1976) and Crazy For You (also known as I Really Really Like You, 1977) -- movies about teenage friendship, romance, and aspirations that became massive box office hits, screening to sold-out theaters. In an era when Korean cinema was in a dark period resulting from severe censorship by an authoritarian government, this led to the emergence of the teenage demographic as a major consumer of pop culture. Im had an innocent, girlish image, whose acting was charming and sweet without being saccharine, and she became hugely popular among middle school and high school students; girls wanted to be like her, and boys had her picture in their pockets.[2] The "Really Really" series established Im as the most popular young actress of that period, and for the next several years, youth melodramas starring her dominated the theaters in quick succession, often with Lee Deok-hwa as her leading man: Prayer of a Girl (1976), Ever So Much Good! (1976), I Really Have a Dream (1976), I've Never Felt Like This Before (1976), and Nobody Knows (1977).
Im entered college in 1979, studying Theater and Film at Dongguk University. By this time, she wanted to transition out of teen movies, and into more adult roles. She starred opposite Shin Seong-il in Love Song in a Peanut Shell, but it was poorly received, with audiences not prepared to see her break out of her "pure" image. Despite a supporting role in A Fine, Windy Day, Im's film career was in a slump, so she shifted her focus to television and radio in the 1980s.
After a few years of forgettable television dramas, Im's career was revitalized by Kim Soo-hyun, one of the most famous TV writers in Korea. Among Kim's dramas that Im starred in were 사랑합시다 (1981), Yesterday and Tomorrow (1982), Love and Truth (1984), Love and Ambition (1987), Farewell (1994), and Childless Comfort (2012). In Farewell, she shocked audiences by playing a Fatal Attraction-esque villain for the first time. Im also played the character Dal-soo in a series of one-act dramas for MBC Best Theater from 1995 to 2005.
As Im grew older, she remained active on television and the occasional film, in supporting roles as ajummas, aunts or mothers. As if coming full circle, she played one of the adult characters in a 2010 musical theatre adaptation of her early hit I Really Really Like You.[3][4]
From 2008 to 2010, Im was a popular panelist on the variety show Quiz to Change the World, for which she was recognized at the MBC Entertainment Awards.
In 2014, Im signed with the talent agency YG Entertainment.[5] In December 2019, it was confirmed that her contract with YG Entertainment has expired and decided not to renew.[6]
Personal life
In 1989, Im married Choi Chang-wook, a TV director and producer at MBC.[citation needed]
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