Early career and retirement

Go Hyun-jung graduated from Dongguk University with a degree in Performing Arts. She was a runner-up in the Miss Korea pageant in 1989, which launched her acting career.^[2] Her big break came in the 1995 SBS drama Sandglass. The drama dealt with modern Korean history from 1970 to the 1990s and was one of the highest rated dramas in Korean television history, with average ratings of 50.8% and a peak of 64.5%.^[3] People would rush home just to see a new episode, saying “it's time to go home,” which meant they had to go home to watch Sandglass.^[4] However, following her marriage, Go announced her retirement from the industry.

Television comeback and films

She staged a comeback in the 2005 melodrama Spring Day,^[5][6][7] which she followed up with May–December romantic comedy What's Up Fox? and police procedural H.I.T.^[8]

Not content with her small screen success, Go began her late-blooming movie career by going against her image and taking pay cuts to star in non-mainstream films.^[9] She was part of the ensemble cast in arthouse films Woman on the Beach and Like You Know It All by auteur Hong Sang-soo.^{[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]} She then starred in Actresses, a semi-improvisational movie featuring six actresses each playing themselves. Director E J-yong, who was first inspired to make the film after going out for a drink with actresses Youn Yuh-jung and Go in 2007, said he focused on conveying the "reality" of the actresses' lives.^[17][18][19]

Career resurgence

Go in 2006

Go regained her reputation as Korea's top actress in 2009 after playing femme fatale royal concubine Lady Mishil in the hit historical drama Queen Seondeok.^[20][21] She was not the titular lead character, but her interpretation of the power-hungry main rival to the queen was impressive enough to make viewers remember the show as Mishil's story.^[4][22][23] The drama reached ratings of over 40 percent and won her the highest award at the MBC Drama Awards and Baeksang Arts Awards.^[24][25] Go was named Gallup Korea's Television Actor of the Year for two consecutive years (2009–10).^[26]

That same year, Go surprised fans not only by appearing on a TV entertainment show (popular talk show Golden Fishery hosted by comedian Kang Ho-dong) for the first time in 15 years, but also by very frankly addressing rumors surrounding her shrouded personal life. Once notorious for declining to appear on entertainment programs other than dramas or films, she maintained a mysterious image for a long time. Her new easy-going, and down-to-earth attitude seemingly reflected a philosophical view of the many ups and downs in life. In interviews with print and online magazines, Go has even expressed her feelings towards her ex-husband and children.^[21][27][28]

Twenty-one years after making her acting debut, Go held her very first fanmeeting on June 13, 2010—she held a press conference beforehand, sang songs for the 500 fans present, answered questions, and prepared video clips.^[29]

Though plagued with production issues prior to airing,^[30][31] Go returned to television ten months later in Daemul, which means "big shot" or "big thing" in Korean.^[32][33] In the drama, Go plays Seo Hye-rim, an anchorwoman who enters politics after the death of her war correspondent husband and becomes the nation's first female president. The 24-episode series revolves around an ordinary woman in extraordinary circumstances: how and why she became head of state and also the complicated schemes and plots surrounding her, her presidency, allies, and enemies.^[34] Besides its star-studded cast (Go starred opposite Korean Wave star Kwon Sang-woo), the show's ratings was helped by its controversial plot, which included events from Korea's recent past such as a presidential impeachment and the sinking of a Navy warship, and it topped its time slot for 11 consecutive weeks.^[4][35] Go repeated her feat by winning the top prize at the 2010 SBS Drama Awards.^[36] According to industry sources, Go was reportedly paid ₩55 million (US$51,000) per episode, setting a new salary record for a Korean actress.^[37][38]

Go also narrated the SBS documentary The Last Tundra - Movie Edition (also known as The Final Tundra - Cinema Edition) which offered a rare glimpse into the life of the Nenets, the last reindeer herding nomads living in the Siberian tundra.^[39]

2012's Miss Go (international title: Miss Conspirator) was her first commercial film, and the first film she headlined.^[40] The action comedy is about a nerdy, reclusive cartoonist with a severe case of sociophobia who somehow gets mixed up in a drug deal involving one of the biggest organized crime groups in Korea, and is forced to deal with her phobia and interact with others as she runs from the police.^{[41][42][43][44][45]}

Go returned to television in 2013 with The Queen's Classroom, a remake of the 2005 Japanese drama Jyoou no Kyoushitsu. The story depicts the struggle between a ferocious and ruthless elementary school teacher and her class.^{[46][47][48][49]}

In 2016, Go starred in the family melodrama Dear My Friends,^[50] playing a freelance translator, a complex and sometimes abrasive character, who observes the lives of the old people surrounding her.^[51]

In 2017, Go announced her return to the big screen with A Winter Guest Scarier than a Tiger, by acclaimed indie filmmaker Lee Kwang-kuk.^[52]

In 2018, Go starred in the legal thriller drama Return.^[53] The drama revolves around a murder case that involves powerful members of an elite class, with Go playing the role of a rags-to-riches lawyer with secrets.^[54] However halfway through the series, it was announced that she dropped out due to irreconcilable differences with the PD.^[55]

In early 2019, Go starred in the second season of My Lawyer, Mr. Jo, alongside Park Shin-yang.^[56]

In 2021, more than two years after her last project, Go returned to the small-screen with Reflection of You, a JTBC melodrama based on a novel by Jung So-hyeon.^[57]

Television series

Web series

Film

Television show

Listicles