Cho Yeo-jeong on Her Filmmaker Role in Ganeunghan Sarang

Cho Yeo-jeong had already read about the casting of Jeon Do-yeon, Sol Kyung-gu and Zo In-sung in Lee Chang-dong’s film Ganeunghan Sarang when the director contacted her about joining them. She told TV Report that she was surprised by his call. 1 2

After reading the screenplay, Cho said she needed about three days to absorb it before contacting Lee to say she wanted to take part. 1 2 The role would put her on the other side of a camera: she plays Yeji, a documentary filmmaker whose work brings her and her husband Sangwoo, played by Zo, into contact with dismissed worker Hoseok and his wife Miok, played by Sol and Jeon. 2

The film follows the two couples as they encounter different lives and hidden desires through the documentary’s production. 2 For Cho, finding Yeji meant thinking about both the woman doing the observing and the life she brings to that work. 1

Building Yeji’s life

Cho told KBS that Lee had connected Yeji to his own identity as a director before filming began. She understood that connection in terms of a documentary filmmaker’s professional perspective, but she also wanted the character to have a life of her own. 1

The screenplay gave Cho a starting point in Yeji’s upbringing, circumstances and marriage. 1 In her interpretation, Yeji has never felt she fully belonged, including after marrying the wealthy Sangwoo. Cho saw Yeji’s work as a way for her to find an identity and maintain a sense of her own life. 1

That distinction gives her approach an interesting focus: Yeji’s job shapes how she looks at other people, while her own history shapes the person behind that gaze. 1

Learning to look through the camera

To get closer to Yeji’s way of seeing, Cho said she carried a camera on set and kept taking pictures throughout the day, sometimes using her phone. She photographed Jeon, Sol and crew members as she tried to develop a feel for looking through a viewfinder and deciding what she wanted to capture. 1

Lee also assembled Yeji’s fictional documentary team with a working cinematographer and film producers. Cho saw that choice as a way to help her perform naturally with a team that felt like Yeji’s own. 1

Her connection with Jeon mattered to the performance, too. Cho told TV Report that her admiration for Jeon overlapped with Yeji’s sincere desire to approach Miok. She also recalled moments when watching Jeon and Sol inhabit their characters helped her respond naturally as Yeji. 2

Ganeunghan Sarang opened in theaters on September 23, 2026, and was released on Netflix on November 6. 2 Looking back on the work, Cho told AtStyle that making the film had made her love acting and her job more. 3