Feature: Lost

Sun Shines

We know they’re married, we’ve learnt about Jin’s dark past, but what is wife Sun hiding? Lost star Yunjin Kim tells us what she knows

If all those who’ve fetched up on the mysterious island in Lost, few are more tricky to get a read on than Korean couple Jin and Sun. This is partly because without subtitles we’re unable to understand them as they only speak Korean, which their fellow survivors find hard to deal with at times, leading to several misunderstandings. Then Kate learns that Sun can actually speak English, which may have been a shock to the audience but wasn’t to the person who plays her, Yunjin Kim. “Sun’s character did not exist in the pilot, so when JJ [Abrams, co-creator] was explaining to me what Sun’s character was going to be, he had to go through and explain to me in full detail, so I knew she knew how to speak English.

“I knew there was going to be some type of secret between the husband, Jin, and Sun, and there was going to be a lot of trouble in the marriage, that’s the reason why she’s keeping all these secrets from him, and the fact that she is really, really talented in many ways. Obviously she’s a gardener; she’s an expert in Asian medicine. I knew that once the western medicine runs out Sun is going to be much more a part of trying to help people out with Jack; like his nurse almost, that will continue. As far as the second season, I don’t know much in detail, and we haven’t got the script, but I think it’s going to be a lot weirder.”

Kim’s background may not be that similar to Sun’s, but she is a native of Korea, where she’s been acting for the last six years. Despite her lack of US fame, she somehow managed to get the attention of JJ Abrams. “I didn’t have to audition because it was written for me. What a great thing, especially coming from someone like JJ. Poor Daniel [Dae Kim, Jin] did have to audition, because after they decided to write the role Sun for me, three days later they started writing the character Jin, so I met Daniel in Hawaii.

“I didn’t really know him before – I don’t know, like the rest of the cast, we all got along right away. We’re sort of like our characters on the show, since we’re away from our friends and family and our familiar environment, we sort of cling onto each other and we try to find an excuse for all of us to have dinner or lunch. We get together a lot.”

by Judy Sloane & Paul Spragg

Find the full interview in
Cult Times #121

Photo © ABC Inc
Feature © Visual Imagination 2005. Not for reproduction

Taken from

Cult Times #121
October 2005
ships from Sep 22 2005
News-stand Price
UK £3.99 / US $7.99

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