Singer Kim Ji-hyun says she was deceived into making notorious film 'Summertime'

Rula member Kim Ji-hyun has said she was deceived into making "Summertime," the film she considers the darkest chapter of her career.

Kim, 54, appeared Wednesday on "Daktershin," a YouTube channel run by fellow Rula member Shin Jung-hwan, in a video titled "Even the charismatic Kim Ji-hyun can't handle this."

"I've been fooled so many times because I'm too easily swayed," Kim said. "But the biggest con wasn't financial — it was something tied to submitting a film to the Venice Film Festival."

She was referring to "Summertime," released in 2001. The film drew wide attention at the time because Kim — then a top star — chose it as her acting debut and appeared in bold nude scenes, with promotional copy billing it as "more exciting than pornography." It was widely panned for its poor quality and drew only about 80,000 admissions, making it a box-office failure. The controversy damaged Kim's image so severely that she was unable to continue acting. Actors Ryu Su-young and Choi Cheol-ho, who also appeared in the film, have similarly regarded it as an embarrassing footnote in their careers.

When Shin teased her by calling it "a masterpiece," Kim pushed back. "I studied theater and film," she said. "I read the script before agreeing to do it."

Shin noted that "the exposure was intense because you were such a big star back then," to which Kim replied with frustration, "I said yes because of the work itself, but people ignored the work and only looked at my body."

Shin kept up the ribbing, saying friends of his still bring up the film. "They say it straightened out their wayward teenage years and call you their guardian angel," he said.

Kim said she had agreed to the project only because she was told it would be submitted to the Venice Film Festival. "That's the con that makes me the most furious," she said. She added with a tinge of bitterness, "It's a memory of having done a film when I was young, but I never had another notable project after that. I really thought I was going to make it."