For a young actor still at the beginning of his career, Kim Eo-jin already seems to understand what great acting is all about. After appearing in the 2021 web drama The Sweet Blood and later taking a leading role in Fragile in 2024, the model makes his feature-film debut in Yoon Dan-bi’s The World Before. As Dujae, a young man who returns to the island he once called home after the death of his grandmother, Kim gives an incredible performance.

Dujae returns to an island that seems almost exactly as he remembers it, but the years he has spent away have changed him, and coming home means facing people who still remember the person he was before he left. Having grown accustomed to being alone, he keeps his distance and seems unsure of where, or even whether, he still belongs there. That distance becomes harder to maintain when he is reunited with Jin, his childhood friend, played by Sim Su-bin, whose presence gradually brings back feelings and memories he has tried to keep to himself. Kim handles that change with great sensitivity, especially in those moments when his loneliness begins to show and the protection he has built around himself slowly starts to fall away.

That understanding of the character also comes through strongly when speaking to Kim himself. He saw parts of his own past in Dujae and initially thought he would have to somehow return to an earlier version of himself to play him.

Following the film’s world premiere in the Platform competition at the Toronto International Film Festival, The World Before now arrives at San Sebastián’s New Directors competition, giving international audiences another chance to discover Kim Eo-jin and his superb portrayal of Dujae. We spoke with the young actor about finding parts of his own past in Dujae, returning with the character to a place that no longer quite feels like home, working closely with Sim Su-bin, and finding the emotions behind some of the film’s most intimate moments.

View of the Arts: Dujae comes back to the island after his grandmother passes away. When you first read the script, what did you think about Dujae, and what helped you understand him?

Kim Eo-jin: When I first met Dujae as a character, so much of him overlapped with my own past that it almost felt like I was looking at myself. I felt that the way he experienced life was very similar to my own. At the same time, I realised that who I am today has already moved a little beyond the point in life that Dujae is going through. So when I first received the script, I thought I needed to go back to my past, and I spent some time wondering how I could return to that version of myself. But as I tried approaching the character in that way, I realised that what really mattered was accepting that this character was already very much like me.

I began to understand that there was a difference between simply playing Dujae and actually living as him. The answer I eventually found was to accept that although Dujae and I are alike, I am now someone who has already lived through that period of my life. Looking back, I think the director gave me a lot of space and asked me many questions that helped me truly live as Dujae.

VOA: Dujae has lived away from the island, while Jin has never left. How do you think coming back changes the way he sees the island and the people he knew there?

KEJ: I think Dujae’s life began to change significantly from the day he left the island. As those changes continued, he became more and more isolated, and by the time he had grown used to being alone and eventually returned to the island, he found it much the same as he had left it. But Dujae himself had changed, and by then, he and the island felt almost separate from one another.

I think that created a certain distance between him and the people there. These are people who know almost everything about him, so perhaps he doesn’t want them to see him struggling or at his worst. At the same time, he doesn’t want to be remembered by them, nor does he necessarily want to remember that part of his life himself. There is simply this distance he wants to keep.

VOA: Dujae and Jin have known each other since childhood, but their relationship slowly begins to change. How did you and Sim Su-bin work together to make that friendship feel natural?

KEJ: We all thought quite carefully about how much distance there should be between the two characters for their relationship to feel natural. After discussing it with the director and the other actors, we felt it would be better for us to become a little closer, so we also started spending time together outside of rehearsals and filming.

Our situation was quite unique because the entire team was staying on the same island, Soando, with our accommodation close to one another. Even on days when we weren’t filming, we would eat together, go for walks and talk about the film. I think I ended up spending most of my time with Subin. Because of that, by the time we started filming, I already trusted Jin (Subin), and I think that trust allowed the chemistry between the two characters to develop very naturally.

VOA: One of your most emotional scenes is by the sea, when Dujae cries. What do you think he is feeling at that moment?

KEJ: At that point, Dujae was struggling with a sense of helplessness. He felt that nothing was really within his control, and he didn’t know which direction to take. Then Jin appeared.

At first, he kept pushing Jin away because being around her seemed to make him even more aware of how powerless he felt. But the moment she reached out and touched him, all the emotions he had been struggling with began to rise to the surface. I think, in that moment, he felt a certain warmth in knowing that, even if it couldn’t last forever, he didn’t have to be alone right then.

VOA: How did you prepare for the scene by the sea? Did you talk about it a lot with director Yoon Dan-bi beforehand, or did you let the emotions come naturally while filming?

KEJ: A lot of the scenes we filmed by the sea changed along the way, and some new scenes were added as well. But on the actual day of filming, the director and I didn’t really talk much about the individual scenes.

I think the reason that never made filming difficult was that we had already spent so much time during the preparation process talking about Dujae and everything he was going through. The director also respected and trusted the way I understood Dujae. Even when scenes were changed or new moments were added, the situation at the heart of them and Dujae’s emotions remained the same. Because of that, I didn’t feel the need to overthink anything. I could simply be Dujae and live through those moments as we filmed them.

VOA: What did you enjoy most about working with Sim Su-bin, and was there a scene the two of you particularly enjoyed filming together?

KEJ: Both during filming and outside of it, Subin put a lot of effort into becoming Jin, and she was very sure of how she wanted to approach the character. Her concentration and confidence in herself had a big influence on me.

Of all the scenes we filmed together, one of the most fun and memorable was when Dujae gave Jin a ride on the front of his bicycle on their way home. I remember it being quite dangerous, and I don’t think we stopped laughing the whole time we were filming.

There was something about that moment – spotting ants on the way home and then riding together on the bicycle – that felt so natural. I remember thinking that it almost felt as though Jin and I really had grown up together and played like this when we were children. It was such a fun and happy scene to film

Written and interviewed by Maggie Gogler

Featured image courtesy of Agency Garten

_{View of the Arts is an online publication dedicated to film, music, and the arts, with a strong focus on the Asian entertainment industry. As we continue to grow, we aim to deepen our coverage of Asian music while remaining committed to exploring and celebrating creativity across the global arts landscape.}