Formative Performances: Yunjin Kim in “Lost”

[Women’s History Month, Day 7]

The actress I’m honoring today first caught my attention with a single look.

I watched LOST from the very beginning because of one actor (Dominic Monaghan), but was soon swept up in the drama, the mystery, the characters. (I was also soon irritated with the on-the-nose dialogue, but that’s not relevant right now.) I was immediately attached to Charlie because he was played by a hobbit, Claire because she was pretty and Charlie liked her, Damon Boone because he was a little too interested in his sister, Locke because Terry O’Quinn was a master class in acting, and Michael and Walt because of the moving father-son relationship.

But most of those characters grew on me after several episodes. Sun, played by Yunjin Kim, intrigued me from the moment the camera zoomed in on her face, when her husband Gavin Jin was yelling at her in Korean. She looked haunted, remote, scared, and frozen with fear. I immediately cringed in fear for this woman who was a) suffering like all the other stranded passengers, and b) stuck with an abusive husband.

As the season went on, LOST showed us that our first impressions of the characters weren’t necessarily accurate. Her husband Jin was more than an abusive-husband stereotype, and Sun was much more than a battered woman stereotype. She was a woman with secrets, who learned English behind her husband’s back, had an extramarital affair, and sometimes even stood up to her husband, while still loving him and hoping their relationship could improve. On the island, she also proved to be resourceful and brave, and willing to shoot someone who threatened her.

Over six years, Yunjin Kim showed every shade of Sun, every side of this complex woman, and having to speak two languages. It’s a shame she never got an Emmy nomination. Her performance was right up there with O’Quinn’s and Michael Emerson’s as the best the show ever did.