Minha Kim Opens Up on 17kg Weight Loss: "It's 100% for the Work"

"It feels a little strange seeing myself from two years ago. Ha ha."

Actress Minha Kim is finally introducing "Hana Korea" (directed by Fredrik Sjöberg) to audiences about two years after wrapping the shoot. Opening on the 8th, "Hana Korea" tells the story of Hye-seon (played by Minha Kim), a woman who leaves North Korea and begins a new life in the South. The film is based on a true story. "So much has happened in two years. I've completely changed," Minha Kim said with a laugh.

"When I pick a project, scale, money, and fame still aren't really my standards. I think a story itself can carry a lot of power. Big films are wonderful too, and of course I want to do them. But I was drawn to the strength of a quiet, whispered kind of story."

The film follows Hye-seon as she settles into unfamiliar surroundings, from her time at Hanawon, the South Korean government facility that helps North Korean defectors adjust to life in the South, to her independent life in a Seoul apartment. Everything feels foreign and heavy, but Hye-seon holds on by thinking of her dream of becoming a nurse and of the mother she left behind in the North. Her loneliness, guilt, and hope are delivered through voiceover narration. The letters Hye-seon writes to her mother run throughout the film and serve as a key window into her inner life.

"I heard the team drew heavily on real letters the actual person had sent to her mother. When I performed the lines, I tried to press every single word into meaning. I kept turning the letters over in my head as I worked."

Ahead of the film's release, Minha Kim has drawn attention above all for her appearance. She has been showing up at public events looking strikingly thin. Once loved for a fuller, distinctive look, Minha Kim has visibly slimmed down in recent months. In this interview, she said the widely reported "9 kg loss" was off the mark. "I've actually lost about 16 to 17 kilograms," she said. "I've been taking it off gradually for two years, going back to 'Typhoon Company.'"

"If people ask why I've lost so much weight, 90 percent of it is for the role. I was in the middle of thinking, 'How can I show a different side of myself?' I lost the weight slowly, over a long stretch, so I could keep my stamina up too. I'm still taking a little more off. I eat very little, just one small meal a day, and I've been working out hard."

As her much thinner frame draws attention, some have questioned whether her earlier comments, "I love myself as I am. You don't have to be thin," now clash with her current look. Minha Kim said she wants to clear up the misunderstanding.

"This is absolutely, 100 percent for the work. I was happy with how I looked when I was fuller, and I'm happy with how I look now. There are all kinds of people in the world, and my job is to express that. I have to be able to change like a chameleon."

Minha Kim says that once she sets a goal, she runs at it like a racehorse. "If the hard stretch is a year and the time in front of the camera is 30 seconds, I'm happy enough with those 30 seconds to work through the whole year for them," she said. Even someone who runs that hard, she added with a smile, needs the occasional "escape."

"There are moments when I want to escape, but if I rest for even two days, I start itching to work again. Ha ha. When I do rest, I turn on the air conditioner and just lie around at home. I moved out on my own not long ago. I bought a beam projector, and lately my little joy is showering, then watching movies on it. Then I go, 'Oh, I fell asleep,' and head to the bed. Ha ha. Just fully switching off is my escape."