Actor You Need to Know: Kim Da-mi

In the aesthetically stunning thriller film, The Witch: Subversion (2018), Kim Da-mi—a budding actor at the time—exploded with a breakout performance in a lead role. Her acting talent was reinforced by the killer charisma she exuded. Kim won multiple awards and widespread recognition for playing Koo Ja-yoon, a young woman with a dark past, in the movie. We encounter scientists employing kids in weird experiments at a creepy covert hospital. One day after a disaster leads to multiple fatalities, Ja-yoon flees the place. When she passes out on a farm, a couple rescues her and adopts her.

With no recollections of her past, Ja-yoon is currently leading a regular life but is in financial distress. Her mother has dementia, and she suffers from migraines. For the sake of money, Ja-yoon enters a singing competition, stunning the jury with her rare talent—telekinesis—something that subsequently puts her in jeopardy. As the plot advances, dark secrets come to the fore.

Kim’s dexterous portrayal of her character magnified the suspense and intrigue crammed into the narrative, making for an exhilarating viewing experience.

When it comes to acting, I’ve noticed that Kim’s eyes, even when she isn’t saying a word, reveal the inner thoughts of her character’s mind, giving her on-screen expressions a very genuine quality. So much so that you almost immediately identify with the emotions of the character. She may be communicating any number of emotions, including wrath, resentment, joy, anxiety, conceit, fear, moroseness, or anything in between, but her expressive doe eyes are the best at conveying all of them. Coupled with that, whether providing a naturalistic act or a dramatic one, the Itaewon Class (2020) actress impressively pulls her characters out of clichés in the manner she executes them.

Kim’s depiction of Jo Yi-seo in the drama is a testimony to her skill at vividly evoking the various facets of the character. Although she is simultaneously expressing care for her coworkers at DanBam and harboring feelings for its owner, Park Sae-ro-yi (Park Seo-joon), she strikingly displays Yi-seo’s callousness and lack of empathy, raising suspicions that she may be a sociopath. Itaewon Class is a cathartic K-drama that is inspiring, profound, and chock-full of emotional insights. Additionally, Kim perfectly embodies a woman’s attitude towards the occurrences, further generating a spectrum of sentiments. For the part, she won the Best New Actress (TV) Award at the 56th Baeksang Arts Awards.

Up to this point, Kim has taken major steps toward establishing herself as a proficient artist in Korean entertainment. Before The Witch: Subversion, she appeared in the indie film 2017 Project with the Same Name and then had a role in the suspense movie Marionette (2017). Since that time, Kim has taken on good roles performing them with a characteristic that enabled transform fiction into something that mimics reality. How ingeniously she created the realistic Kook Yeon-soo in Our Beloved Summer (2021-2022), a strong-willed, no-nonsense PR professional caught up in the genesis and growth of a convoluted love story divided over two timelines.

Yeon-soo and her ex-lover, who parted ways with a commitment to never see each other again, are romantically intertwined across several minor, unseen gestures as the documentary they shot 10 years ago becomes famous, and they are forced to confront the camera and each other once more. The angst of Kim’s character in the love story is deftly showcased by her like a virtuoso, well describing how a heart grows fonder and envy finds a way to manifest itself.

Kim’s portrayals have had a significant impact on her evolution, and she is getting better and better while broadening the scope of her acting abilities. As we’ve watched her accomplish in all of her works, she maintains the correct mix of passion and poise in Soulmate (2023), her most recent film that explores the phases of the relationship between two women, Mi-so (Kim) and Ha-eun (Jeon So-nee).