affectionally introducing bae doo na: she hasn’t played in a movie for over two years. seems like this is the fate of a lot of my favorite actresses, think jacqueline wu qian lian – who disappeared from the movie set in the mid 90s; she made a brief return in Jiang Hu last year.

but this is about bae doo na: the first time i saw her was in one of my alltime favorite movies, Take Care of my Cat. one of a group of friends in high school, now all graduated, and trying to find their own way in life, with mixed success – she is the one who is misunderstood by her family, the illogicality of blood ties surging through (hah) her blood veins (she cuts herself out of the family picture when she decides to leave), and her noble but almost futile attempts to keep the group of friends, the camaraderie going. bravely picking up the bricks, when the house around you, life, friendships, are starting to fall apart, slowly. the start of your own life is rooted in violence, the destruction of family life – like any nation-state, its birth is intrinsically tied to cleansing – the coming-of-age.

my second movie with her was with yin, at the berlinale (what year? .. it was our first time in berlin). in an unknown city, freezing cold (the berlinale is held every year in february – often during snow), we were able to get tickets for this movie because i remembered her fondly in Take Care of my Cat. the movie was called Sympathy for Mr Vengeance: that should ring a bell for you now, for those who are into cinema. Shot by the same director who did Old Boy, it was a brutal movie me and yin  and our virgin eyes were about to witness, on a cold, estranged sunday morning. what still sticks with me was the utter desolateness of the violence, bleak, dry, so natural. bae doo na played in this movie a role never to forget: lovely, idealistic activist youth, singing manifestos and something with electricity and ears. (for those who have seen the movie ..)

oh bae doo na, where are you?