Kim Min-ha on Hana Korea, a 17 kg weight change, and breaking industry molds

Kim Min-ha has two films coming and plenty to say about the industry expectations she refuses to accept.

She's best known internationally as Seon-ja in Pachinko, a role that finally broke through after 13 years of obscurity. Next up is Hana Korea, where she plays Hye-sun, a North Korean defector in a film based on true events. She's also starring in the Netflix film Let's Shake Our Sun (우리 태양을 흔들자) as a woman facing a terminal uremia diagnosis.

For one of these roles, she lost roughly 17 kg. Not overnight. Over two years, she controlled her portions and exercised, framing it as a deliberate choice to inhabit her character rather than just diet. She's still adjusting her weight depending on what each role demands. On the 22nd she posted a video drinking water—her noticeably thinner frame immediately caught attention. She'd also appeared on JTBC Newsroom on the 12th.

On Hana Korea, she explained that Hye-sun "constantly wonders who she is and where she stands." The identity confusion the character grapples with "is the confusion and emotion that we all experience at some point in our lives"—not unique to a North Korean defector's story.

She hasn't minced words about the pressure. "I have heard many things said about external appearance—that I should look this way, dress this way, have this kind of voice," she said. Her stance: "Acting is not a profession confined to standardized frameworks. I am continuously thinking about how to break those frameworks."

She pointed to Black Swan as the kind of extreme, psychologically demanding role she craves next. Jealousy, desire, humans at their breaking point. (She wants to prove those unfamiliar parts of herself through acting, without flinching.)

What got her through the hardest years? Friends, family, and a companion dog.