Seated at the rear garden of a hotel just off Cannes' bustling Rue d'Antibes, two of the stars of Im Sang-soo's The Housemaid - which competed for the Palme d'Or at the French city's film festival this year - is holding court to the international press.
Of the pair, Lee Jung-jae should have shone: the 37-year-old actor is one of South Korea's most well-known stars, starring in many of the country's most popular films and soap operas. In The Housemaid, he is the lone male character, an ominous tycoon whose wayward desires bring tragic consequences for the women around him.
But it's his co-star, Youn Yuh-jung, who takes hold of the conversation: as she casually smokes a cigarette while articulating her thoughts in fluent English, the 63-year-old resembles a benign but daunting monarch.
In contrast to their on-screen relationship - Youn's house servant is always at the beck and call of Lee's master - she's here helping Lee fend off difficult questions, playing protector to the befuddled, tongue-tied screen heartthrob.
Youn has every reason to behave like Korean cinema's elder stateswoman: her career has undergone a resurgence this year. She also impresses in another Cannes entry, Hong Sang-soo's Hahaha, in which she plays the frivolous mother of one of the film's two lovelorn young men.
And earlier this year, she outshone much younger co-stars in E J-yong's Actresses, a mockumentary about six Korean actresses of various ages taking part in a photo shoot for Vogue. Playing a version of herself, her charm and quick wit put the more famous upstarts such as Choi Ji-woo and Kim Ok-vin in the shade.
Youn was one of Korea's most famous television and film stars in the 1960s to the 70s, during which she attained international fame with a startling turn as a beleaguered maid in the 1971 film The Woman of Fire from director Kim Ki-young.
