Kim Soo-hyun (born Kim Soon-ok on January 27, 1943) is a South Korean screenwriter and novelist.
Career
Kim Soon-ok graduated from Korea University in 1965 with a degree in Korean Language and Literature. She was hired at MBC after winning in their radio drama competition in 1968 with her radio play 그 해 겨울의 우화 ("The Fable of That Year's Winter"). Using the pen name Kim Soo-hyun, the first television drama she wrote, Rainbow, went on air in 1972.
Over four decades, Kim became one of the most renowned screenwriters in Korea. Her body of work includes some of the most watched shows in Korean television history, including What is Love (1992), Men of the Bath House (1996), and Trap of Youth (1999). In his book Korea Through TV Drama, author Kim Hwan-pyo describes how the streets became quiet at around the airing time of Kim Soo-hyun's Love and Ambition (1987) as "practically everyone in the country" was at home in front of the TV.
Kim specializes in stories about Korean family life ― how traditional values conflict with the new and how women struggle to adjust to or resist the cultural suppression at home and work. Her work tends to target an older audience, and she is also known for putting a spotlight on social issues rarely discussed by the public, making some of her work controversial.
2007–present: Works
For My Husband's Woman (2007), a drama about a wife (played by Bae Jong-ok) who discovers her husband (Kim Sang-joong) is having an affair with her best friend (Kim Hee-ae), Kim infused her script with realism despite the provocative subject of adultery, saying that it reflects a society in which extra-marital affairs have become commonplace. Normally portrayed as a wicked woman, Kim humanized the mistress, saying, "If I chose between one of the two women and called it a victory, the script would have become didactic and banal. Each of the two take up 50 percent of my heart equally." It was the second highest-rated Korean drama of 2007 (next to Jumong), and won Kim Hee-ae the Grand Prize ("Daesang") at the 2007 SBS Drama Awards. Later, Kim Soo-hyun strongly denied accusations of plagiarism by Ryu Gyeung-ok, who claimed that My Husband's Woman was very similar to her own TV drama That Woman, Ok-hui.
In 2008's Mom's Dead Upset, a middle-aged woman rediscovers herself by taking a one-year break and declaring independence from her family after spending decades as a housewife looking after three children, a husband and a widowed father-in-law. Despite some viewers who called the character "irresponsible" and "self-centered" for deserting her family, the drama attracted record-breaking ratings, and lead actress Kim Hye-ja received the Grand Prize ("Daesang") at the 2008 KBS Drama Awards and the 2009 Baeksang Arts Awards. Kim said she wanted to "give a sabbatical year to all mothers," and wrote the drama to liberate mothers from their stereotypes.
Life Is Beautiful (2010) was the first network drama to feature an openly gay couple. Kim was both praised and panned for her openness in dealing with the subject of same-sex relationships, but she wrote without hesitation, saying, "I approached the issue of homosexuality as though it could have happened to my son." Actors Song Chang-eui and Lee Sang-woo later praised her for giving their characters subtle and detailed development. In emphasizing the love between two handsome and intellectual people, Kim said her goal was to eradicate prejudice toward gay couples and make homosexuality no longer a taboo subject. In a society that is still conservative when it comes to homosexuality, the high ratings showed that viewers were largely supportive of the drama, which was extended for 13 additional episodes. Openly gay actor Hong Seok-cheon recalled that after he came out in 2000, he was fired from all his acting and hosting jobs, until Kim hired him in a supporting role in the 2003 drama Perfect Love.
In A Thousand Days' Promise (2011), Kim explored the social problems associated with Alzheimer's disease, with Soo Ae giving an unsentimental portrait of a young woman slowly losing her memory and independence.