JIN-SOO KWON

'Jin-Soo Kwon' (Korean name Hangul: 권진수, RR: ''Gwon Jin-su'', M-R: ''Kwŏn Chin-su''), better known as "'Jin'," is a fictional character on the ABC television series ''Lost'' played by Daniel Dae Kim.

Contents

Fictional character biography

Prior to the crash

After the crash

Season One

Season Two

Season Three

References to Korean Culture and Language

Filming and other behind the scenes notes

Star Wars References

Fictional character biography

Prior to the crash

Jin-Soo Kwon is a South Korean man under the employ of his father-in-law, the wealthy industrialist Mr. Paik. He was born into modest circumstances, in the rural Namhae area. He is the son of a fisherman and a prostitute, the latter abandoning Jin and his father during his infancy. Jin grew up being told that his mother died when he was young. Uncertain as to whether Jin was actually his son, Jin's father raised him regardless, simply because no one else would. Jin's dream was to have his own restaurant and then a hotel, prompting him to seek and acquire his first job in the city at the luxurious Seoul Gateway Hotel, managed by the intolerant Mr. Kim. Kim, who detects Jin's meager origins during the interview, hires Jin as a doorman with specific orders to bar "people like him" from entering the hotel. Jin works in this position briefly, quitting after Mr. Kim rebukes him for allowing a slightly disheveled man into the hotel so the man's young son could use the hotel lobby's bathroom. Leaving the hotel after his resignation, Jin runs into a beautiful woman, Sun, who eventually becomes his wife. Upon coming to work for Mr. Paik, Jin disavows his modest background to curry favor with Mr. Paik and obtain Sun's hand in marriage.
After the wedding, Jin is given a job as a floor manager in one of Mr. Paik's factories, but is suddenly given a new job as an "enforcer" for the unscrupulous Mr. Paik, a man not above utilizing bribery, blackmail, extortion and murder to succeed. Jin is unaware of the motives behind his promotion, which involves Sun borrowing $100,000 from her father to pay off Jin's mother, who recently emerged and blackmailed the Paik family by threatening to publicly reveal that Sun married the son of a fishmerman and a prostitute (Jin claimed both his parents were dead). Thinking that it was Jin who needed the money, Mr. Paik vowed to make him pay off the debt by working as an enforcer for him.
The new job puts strain on Jin's relationship with Sun. When Jin comes home one night with blood on his hands, Sun grows afraid of him and the kind of work she fears he is doing for her father. Jin has been assigned to intimidate a government official into overlooking environmental regulation violated by one of Paik's factories; rather than allow one of Paik's cruelly efficient hit men to simply kill the official, Jin violently beats the man in order to save his life. Jin, however, is unable to bring himself to tell Sun about her father's shady dealings and disillusion her about the source of her wealth and replies, "I do what your father tells me."
Despite the growing problems in their relationship, Jin and Sun still want to have children together. However, Sun is unable to become pregnant, which frustrates Jin because he hopes giving Sun's father a grandchild will please him to the point of giving Jin a safer and more legitimate job. When Jin finds out from a doctor that Sun will never be able to become pregnant, he grows angry and yells at Sun, believing that she knew about her condition all along and hid it from him. Though later, the doctor tells Sun he made this up, and it is really Jin who could not, but he did not say as Mr. Paik would not be happy.
Mr. Paik assigns Jin another mission in which he has to kill Jae Lee, the son of one of Mr. Paik's business associates. Although Jin is not told why he must kill Jae, it is because Mr. Paik discovered that he and Sun were having an affair. Jin refuses the mission, but Mr. Paik flatters him by calling him his son. A torn Jin ultimately decides to go through with it so he can continue to be married to Sun. Jin ambushes Jae outside of his hotel room, violently beating him. Once again, however, Jin finds himself unable to kill. He instead tells Jae to leave the country and never return. As Jin gets back into his car, Jae's body crashes into the car from above - an apparent suicide.
Jin is soon assigned a secret mission to deliver watches to Mr. Paik's associates in Sydney and then Los Angeles; Sun assumes that it was a vacation. Before leaving South Korea for Sydney, Jin visits his estranged father who is on the job and grateful for his son's return. Jin assists him and tells his father about the turmoil that has plagued his life since being employed by Mr. Paik. Jin's father advises that he and Sun should stay in the United States once they get there and never return to Korea. This becomes Jin's initial plan until he is confronted by an American associate of Mr. Paik in an airport washroom before boarding the doomed flight. The spy informs Jin that his plan to flee with Sun has been found out and he threatens to take Sun away from him should they run away.

After the crash

Season One

Jin's inability to communicate sets him apart from the other castaways and he usually stays away from the others, who initially think of him as violent and abusive to his wife. Despite this, he provides a useful function on the island as a fisherman, providing a substantial food source. Jin and Michael share an adversarial relationship for most of the first season, which twice explodes into physical violence. Their initial enmity begins in "House of the Rising Sun" when Jin attacks Michael to retrieve his father-in-law's watch, which Michael has found. As a result, Jin is handcuffed to the wreckage, later to be released by Michael after Sun explains his motive. Their tension later erupts in "...In Translation", in which Michael attacks Jin for the alleged destruction of the raft he is building, not knowing that the raft was actually burned by Michael's son Walt. Having eventually set aside their issues, Jin aids Michael in constructing a new raft. The two set off on the raft together, along with Walt and fellow castaway Sawyer, and although their attempt to find shipping lanes fails, Michael and Jin have become good friends, with Jin looking after both him and Sawyer.
The public revelation in "...In Translation" that Sun speaks English only further widens the gap between Jin and Sun, and they separate. The separation seems serious when Jin becomes part of the raft party that intends to leave the island, but before Jin leaves on the raft, he and Sun reconcile. She gives him a notebook that she has written, containing phonetic spellings, in Korean, of common English nautical words and phrases. For example, the first word that Jin comes across in the notebook is 'Starboard'.

Season Two

After Sawyer is shot by the men who kidnapped Walt and falls into the water, Jin jumps into the ocean to rescue him. He ends up washing ashore and is captured by the tail-end survivors, or "Tailies", until he escapes, only to find Michael and Sawyer, who have drifted back to the island on the raft’s remnants. The Tailies, who themselves have been attacked by the Others, hold Jin, Sawyer and Michael in a makeshift prison, thinking them to be members of the Others, until Michael convinces them that they are also the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815. In "Everybody Hates Hugo", Jin is shown speaking perfect English in Hurley's dream sequence.
While searching for Michael in the jungle, Jin gets a close up view of the mysterious "Others" - but only their feet. In "Collision", Jin is reunited with Sun and the other fuselage survivors when the tail-section survivors join that camp. Using a bolt-cutter found in the hatch, Locke is able to remove the remaining handcuff from Jin's wrist.
In "The Hunting Party", Hurley tells Sun and Jin that Michael went to go look for Walt again. Jin hears the word "Walt" and suddenly begins packing to go find Michael. Sun asks why he is packing, and he tells her that Michael is his friend, but Sun reminds him that she is his wife. Sun tells Jin that she did not like being told what to do for the past four years of their marriage and was very worried when Jin was on the raft, and Jin decides to stay with her instead of risking danger.
Sun is assaulted by an unseen assailant (later revealed to be Charlie) in "The Long Con", which causes Jin to become very protective of her. Sun chafes against Jin's protectiveness, which causes a huge fight between them in "The Whole Truth", and Jin ends up tearing apart Sun's garden. He later feels guilty for what he did, and tells Sun that he is sorry and that he needs her because he does not understand what anyone is saying on the island. Sun reveals to Jin that she is pregnant, and that their doctor told her in private that Jin is actually the one who is sterile (he was afraid to tell this to Jin in person because he was an enforcer for Sun's father). Sun then promises Jin that she was never with another man, confirming that the baby is in fact Jin's. Jin believes that the pregnancy is a miracle.
Sayid recruits Jin to steer Desmond's sailboat in "Live Together, Die Alone", but tells him (through Sun) they are using it to help Michael, not revealing that Jin's friend Michael is a traitor. Jin refuses to leave Sun behind, but Sun decides she will go with him and Sayid on the boat. Jin and Sun remained on the boat when Sayid went into the Others' camp, and all three are on the boat as the white light caused by the activation of the fail-safe mechanism in the hatch engulfs the island.

Season Three

Jin is still sailing with Sun and Sayid, and suggests that they return home, knowing that something happened to Jack and the others. However, Sun and Sayid disagree, and Jin feels a sense of betrayal. However, shortly before Sayid executes his plan, Jin reveals that he understands English better than they think, and knows of his intentions. Sayid and Jin prepare to ambush the Others that night, only to find that they were already on their boat. Jin immediately goes to Sun's rescue, and they reunite after the Others sail away. Sun and Sayid apologise to him separately and respectively before returning home ("The Glass Ballerina"). Upon their return, Sun begins speaking to Jin in English, which upsets him a little. However, when Hurley seeks help turning over the van found in the jungle, Jin is left to volunteer. They are soon joined by Sawyer, and the three of them manage to overturn the van back onto its wheels. Jin is then taught some "useful" English phrases. He and Sawyer then push it down a hill, in order for Hurley to get it working, and the three of them, along with Charlie enjoy a brief joyriding session before returning to the beach ("Tricia Tanaka Is Dead").
Jin and Sun are approached by Claire, and help her to catch a bird in order to send a message. However, their efforts are thwarted by Desmond ("Par Avion"). Jin later helps with the investigation regarding the mysterious "deaths" of Nikki and Paulo. He, Sawyer and Hurley discover Paulo in the jungle, and suggests that the "Monster" had killed him. Jin attends the funeral, but is unaware that Nikki and Paulo were merely paralyzed ("Exposé"). Jin is happy to witness Jack's return to the camp, along with Kate and Sayid, but he gives Juliet the cold shoulder ("One of Us"). He is later approached by Hurley, who proposes a camping trip with Desmond and Charlie, to which he accepts, unaware of Desmond's vision. That night, they hear a helicopter crashing in the distance, and learn of a parachutist landing on the island. The next morning, the four of them trek inland, discovering various luggage strewn across the jungle. The four of them split up, and Jin and Hurley discover the parachutist suspended from the trees ("Catch-22").
After freeing her, Mikhail arrives on the scene after being alerted, but is chased by Jin, who catches him. After treating Naomi, Mikhail attempts to flee with her satellite phone, but is once again caught by Jin. The four of them bring her back to the camp, and hide her in Hurley's tent, where she recovers ("The Brig"). Jin is present when Naomi speaks to the camp regarding the discovered plane wreckage. Jin grows concerned after Sawyer plays Juliet's recorder, revealed the Others' plan to abduct all pregnant women at the camp ("The Man Behind the Curtain"). Jack and Juliet lead Jin and the rest of the camp into the jungle, where they reveal their destructive plan to rid them of the Others. Back at camp, Jin learns that he is the father of Sun's baby, to which he is delighted. However, Jin volunteers to stay behind and detonate the dynamite, while Sun travels to the radio tower with everyone else "(Greatest Hits").
That night, Jin hides in the bushes, along with Sayid and Bernard. When the Others arrive on the beach, Sayid and Bernard shoot their designated dynamite, but Jin misses his target, and thus gives away their position, resulting in their kidnapping. Ben plays a con on Jack, causing him to believe that Jin had been shot and killed, along with Sayid and Bernard. However, Hurley arrives on the beach in the van, killing one of the Others and allowing Sawyer and Sayid to kill the remaining two. Jin is safe, and remains on the beach until the rest of the group return ("Through the Looking Glass").

References to Korean Culture and Language

Jin is notable in that he is the only major character who was purportedly unable to speak English before arriving on the island (he does, however, speak English in one of Hurley's dream sequences). By contrast, Korean-born actor Daniel Dae Kim was raised in Pennsylvania, and thus in reality speaks American English fluently and Korean with an American accent. He is coached on set by a dialect coach and co-star Yunjin Kim to speak Korean without the American accent. Despite Jin's inability to speak English, six years of training in the English language is a compulsory subject in Korean schools. He is able to figure out that Sun and Sayid are lying to him in "The Glass Ballerina" however, and tells them he can understand English better than they think.
Similarly to the Chinese and Japanese naming system, the convention in the Korean naming system is to put the family name first in the person's name. Therefore, Jin's name should technically be Kwon Jin-Soo, rather than Jin-Soo Kwon.
Military service for a minimum of twenty-six months is compulsory in South Korea.^[1] This, in addition to Jin's mob experience, may explain his familiarity with handguns as seen in "The Glass Ballerina" and "Through the Looking Glass."

Filming and other behind the scenes notes

★ Jin is notable for having the longest absence of any main character that has not been kidnapped from the camp (not appearing between Further Instructions and Tricia Tanaka Is Dead, a total of six episodes). The only main character with a longer absence was Michael, but he was not residing in the camp at the time.

★ Two of his flashback episodes' titles are actually plays on the show's title: "[Lost]...In Translation" and "[Lost]...And Found".

★ The role of Jin was created to be Sun's husband. The reason for this is because Yunjin Kim originally tried out for the role of Kate, but the producers wrote the role of Sun specifically for her.

Star Wars References

★ During the building of the second Raft there are some scenes alluding to Michael as Han Solo and Jin-Soo Kwon as Chewbacca trying to fix the Millennium Falcon. Sawyer even dubs him "Chewie" starting Season 2.
1. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ks.html