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South Korean actor Youn Yuh-jung, winner of the award for best supporting actress for her role as Soon-ja in "Minari," poses with her Oscar in the press room at the Oscars on Sunday, at Union Station in Los Angeles, California. (Reuters/Yonhap News)

Youn Yuh-jung, 74, won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in "Minari" at the 93rd Academy Awards on Sunday. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was held outside of its usual theater venue for the first time, taking place in Los Angeles' Union Station instead.

"I don't believe in competition. [. . .] All the nominees — five nominees — we are the winners for different movies; we play a different role. Maybe I'm luckier than you."

The acceptance speech was humble yet profound. Even after her historic achievement in becoming the first Korean actor to win an Oscar, Youn downplayed herself and showed respect for the other nominees.

It was the first time in the 102 years of Korean cinema history that a Korean actor took home an acting award at the Oscars. Youn was the second Asian actor to win, her honor coming 63 years after Japanese American actor Miyoshi Umeki won the Best Supporting Actress award at the 30th Academy Awards in 1958 for her performance in "Sayonara" (1957).

Youn delighted viewers around the world — and gave them food for thought — with one of her characteristically humorous acceptance speeches. First, she shared a greeting and brief conversation with the presenter, "Minari" producer and world-famous actor Brad Pitt.

"Mr. Pitt, finally, nice to meet you!" she said.

"Where were you while we were filming [in Tulsa, Oklahoma]? It's a great honor to meet you," she continued.

She also introduced herself, making light of the difficulties non-Koreans have had in pronouncing her name correctly.

"As you know, I'm from Korea, and actually my name is Youn Yuh-jung," she said – after Pitt mistakenly called her name as "Yuh Yun-jung."

"In most of Europe, people call me 'Yoh Yun' and some of them call me 'Yuh Yun,' but tonight you are all forgiven," she added, drawing laughs from the audience.

After thanking the members of the Academy who voted for her and expressing gratitude to the members of "Minari" family, she went on to mention two special people: her sons, who she explained had made her "go out and work."

"This is the result, because mommy worked so hard," she continued.

A top-rated performer in the early 1970s, Youn abruptly left for the US when she married. She focused on her home life for some time but eventually returned to acting when she came back to South Korea in the mid-1980s as a way to support her two sons after her divorce.

Her reference to her sons was an indirect allusion to the fact that taking whatever work came her way to make a living was what ultimately paved the way to her honor that evening.

Youn's unaffected speaking style was on full display at a talk with Korean correspondents held at the Los Angeles consul general's residence after the Academy Awards ceremony.

"I hate the word 'best.' They talk about how good it is to be 'number one' and 'the best.' Can't we all just be the 'middlest' and live equally?" she said.

"I don't know if it's the greatest moment. The Academy Awards aren't everything, you know?" she added.

Recalling her more than 50-year career as an actor, she said, "Acting wasn't something I did because it was easy and enjoyable. I've acted out of desperation. I really have acted just to survive."

When asked about her future plans, she said, "I don't have any plans for the future. I'm just living like I always have."

"Just because I won an Oscar, that doesn't mean 'Youn Yuh-jung' is turning into 'Kim Yo-jong,'" she added, in an apparent reference to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's younger sister, whose given name shares the same pronunciation as hers.

Another Asian woman in film who scored a major achievement that day was Chloé Zhao. Her film "Nomadland" was another star of the show, claiming three honors with a Best Picture win, a Best Director award for Zhao and a Best Actress award for Frances McDormand.

Zhao, who is Chinese American, became only the second woman to win an Oscar for Best Director, after Kathryn Bigelow won in 2010 for "The Hurt Locker." She was the first ever Asian female director to win.

Korean director Bong Joon-ho, the winner at last year's ceremony, presented the Best Director award this year. In a clip shot ahead of time at a theater in Seoul, Bong explained in Korean that he had asked the five nominees the question, "What is a director?" and shared the responses he received.

The Best Actor award went to Anthony Hopkins for "The Father." Hopkins turns 84 this year, making him the oldest person yet to win Best Actor.

Best Supporting Actor honors went to Daniel Kaluuya for "Judas and the Black Messiah." Winning for his performance as a real-life Black Panther party figure and advocate for Black rights in the US, Kaluuya said in his acceptance speech that the party had "the power of union, the power of unity."

"There's so much work to do," he added.

Of the four acting awards, half of them went to BIPOC actors – Youn and Kaluuya.

In an online conversation with reporters shortly after the ceremony, Youn said, "It's not good to categorize or divide people according to ethnicity. We need to make things more beautiful by combining all the colors, like a rainbow."

"I don't want to categorize people into men and women, into white, Black and yellow, or into gay and not gay," she added.

"We're all warm-hearted and equal people with the same hearts. We should understand and embrace each other," she said.

By Oh Seung-hun, staff writer

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