Cannes top prize goes to Korean film actress

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When it was reported last week that Korean actress Jeon Do-yeon might be in the running for the best actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival, a lot of fans held their breath. A household name here, Jeon is not yet an international star, but her portrayal of a grieving widow in "Secret Sunshine", the latest film by Lee Chang-dong, struck a chord with the jury.
The 34-year-old actress beat the odds and became the first Korean and just the second Asian actress to win the prize, after Maggie Cheung in 2004's "Clean".
"I can't believe I'm here", said Jeon, looking elegant in a silver lame evening dress, after being greeted by the French actor Alain Delon with a warm kiss. "I told myself that nothing is going to happen, just to calm myself. I wanted to hide away when I heard people talking about winning the prize. But I am happy that their expectations have now become a message of congratulations".
"Secret Sunshine", which was nominated for official competition, digs into the intense psychological turmoil suffered by a widowed piano teacher as she loses her son to a kidnapper in a brutal murder shortly after moving to her husband's hometown, Milyang, which is also the film's Korean title.
Her success is big news for the local film industry.
Much of the international attention lavished on Korean cinema in recent years has been focused on critically-acclaimed auteur directors, rather than the actors.
Indeed, Jeon is the first Korean performer to win a first prize at a major European film festival since 1987, when Kang Su-yeon won the best actress award in Venice for "The Surrogate Womb".
Other Korean actresses like Moon So-ri ("Oasis") and Lee Young-ae ("Sympathy for Lady Vengeance") were considered for acting prizes at major festivals, but didn't have any luck. Jeon's win was even more of a surprise to local audiences, because she is not known for arty "festival films", but is more of a mass audience star.
After leaving a modelling career and entering cinema, Jeon starred in several box office melodramas like "You are my Sunshine", a story of love between a naive farmer and a prostitute with AIDS, and "Untold Scandal", a remake of "Dangerous Liaisons". Her 1997 debut, "The Contact", made her a star.

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