From the mid-eighties until the end of the nineties, Kang Su Yeon ranked as the best internationally known film star from Korea. After making her debut as a child actor in the 1970s, Kang Su Yeon continued to appear in a variety of low-profile films until her breakthrough with Im Kwon-taek’s Surrogate Mother (1986). Her spirited performance in this film led the jury at the 1987 Venice International Film Festival to honor her with a Best Actress award, the first (and only) time a Korean actor had won such an award at one of the “big three” major international festivals. Two years later she would add to her prestige by also winning Best Actress at the Moscow International Film Festival for Im’s Buddhist-themed feature Come, Come, Come Upward (“Aje Aje Para Aje”).
At the same time, Kang Su Yeon won over younger fans with her appearance in Lee Kyu Hyung’s hit film Mimi and Chul Soo’s Adolescent Sketch, in which she played opposite Park Joong Hoon. Over the coming years she would appear in a mixture of popular features and works by the leading directors of the so-called Korean New Wave. Her best known films from the 1990s were Jang Sun Woo’s acclaimed Road to the Racetrack; box office hit That Woman, That Man by Kim Ui Seok; Lee Myung Se’s intense look at adultery Their Last Love Affair (1996); and Im Sang Soo’s debut film Girls Night Out (1998).
