[Interview] Moon Sori: "I Want to Live Like Spring, Enjoying Summer and Winter Too"

A Bright and Resilient Mother, Aesoon
From the Struggles of Aging Makeup to a Trip to the Emergency Room

Actor Moon So-ri is conducting an interview. Netflix

“I gently put down the script and wiped my tears, thinking ‘I have to do this.’ Even if I had been asked to play the role of the haenyeo auntie, I would have accepted.”

Actress Moon So-ri (50) recalled the moment she first met Netflix’s Pokssak Soksassuda. The story spans four generations of mothers and daughters, using the four seasons as a metaphor for their turbulent lives, offering empathy and comfort. At the center is Aesoon.

When we met on the 2nd at a hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, Moon said, “Watching a play that says humans don’t live alone but must help each other, I felt a different kind of ‘love.’” She continued, “What brought Aesoon to life was the help of the entire neighborhood. The haenyeo aunties and the unwavering love of her father, Gwansik (played by Park Hae-joon), raised her. I liked that it was a work that talks about invisible love and relationships.”

Moon So-ri played Aesoon from middle age to old age, while actress IU portrayed Aesoon in her teens and twenties. She said the process of finding her own version of Aesoon was challenging. “Aesoon is described as ‘a sly girl in our neighborhood, not ordinary,’ but the (middle-aged) Aesoon I played is an ordinary mother with nothing special. My task was to create a mother who calls every night and tells you to wear socks even when it’s not cold?like any mother in any household.”

Reading the script, Moon was reminded of her own mother, Lee Hyang-ran, and shed tears. She said that seeing Aesoon, born in 1951, reminded her of her mother, born in 1952. Her mother ran a street food stall and risked her life raising her daughter. “My mother married early and raised me without lacking anything despite our poor circumstances. As the first daughter in both families, I was raised with a lot of love. Though we weren’t well-off, thanks to my mother, I grew up without want. I thought of my parents who spent their lives working hard to raise their children.”

'Poksak Soksassuda' still photo. Netflix

Aesoon tells her daughter, “Don’t live like me.” Moon said, “Many real mothers say that, but now I understand it’s not because they were lacking or didn’t try hard enough. If I were in their situation, I wouldn’t have been able to do even half of what they did.”

Moon So-ri is also a mother of a daughter. When mentioning her daughter, her face brightened like a field of canola flowers. With affectionate eyes, she smiled shyly and said, “My daughter said she enjoyed watching it. But she also said, ‘I almost cried, but when Mom appeared, I couldn’t cry.’ She cried her heart out after watching the movie Siren, but when Mom appeared, she said that happened.”

Playing the elderly Aesoon felt like seeing her own future in advance. Moon went to the set every day without applying anything to her face for the old-age makeup. She also watched videos of elderly people to realistically portray the character. Since elderly Aesoon is a key figure who appears at the beginning and end of the story, she put a lot of effort into it.

“The last shoot was the nursing home scene. We filmed in Yeosu at the end of January, and it rained that day. I was worried because it was supposed to be warm like spring. But after finishing makeup and going outside, miraculously, the sun came out. There was no wind, and it got warm, so we finished filming well and returned to Seoul. After that, my memory is gone. When I came to, I was lying in the emergency room of a university hospital. I had the flu and was sick, but I’m glad I finished well.”

Actor Moon So-ri is conducting an interview. Netflix

“Looking back, many days were like spring.” Moon said that Aesoon’s line was the most memorable. When asked where she thinks her life’s season is, she laughed heartily and said, “I thought it would be full of fruit, but it’s being gently shaken off. Many people are shaking it off.” Then, recalling a trip to Gangwon-do a few years ago, she hummed singer Lee Jung-seok’s “Memories of a Summer Day” (1989).

“Our short summer has gone, my love has gone, and your figure is also in the waves.”

Moon stopped singing and said, “Summer is gone? I didn’t know it was such a sad song, but after doing this work, I realized I can live as if it’s always spring. Depending on how I live, I think I can enjoy summer and winter too.”