How Running Man’s Song Ji-hyo dove into her toughest challenge – training as a haenyeo for a month

For over a decade, fans have watched Song Ji-hyo brave countless heart-stopping adventures, from leaping off three-storey high buildings to cordless bungee jumping to taking on the world’s largest swing on the hit variety show Running Man.

Now, they are set to watch her take on new depths – literally – as a haenyeo (female Korean free diver) in training.

In Deep Dive Korea: Song Ji-hyo's Haenyeo Adventure, a new three-part BBC Earth documentary that premieres on Sunday (May 11), the 42-year-old actress sets aside flashy stunts and celebrity polish for a far more sobering role: That of an apprentice to Jeju’s iconic sea women.

Across one gruelling month, Song embarked on intensive training to join the ranks of the haenyeos – women who free-dive without oxygen tanks to collect seafood for a living, at depths of up to 20 metres.

During a recent trip to Kuala Lumpur to promote the show, she shared what it was like to cram training that typically takes decades into 30 days and what she hopes viewers will take away from her experience.

PERSONAL MISSION FOR A VANISHING HERITAGE

For Song, whose mother was a competitive swimmer and whose eldest aunt was a haenyeo, the decision to take on the challenge was personal and purposeful. “For me, haenyeo was nothing very special or new at first,” she shared candidly. “But I wanted to let the whole world know the strength and the depth of haenyeos’ lives.”

While the documentary could easily be a vanity project spotlighting her bravery and bravado, she saw it as a way to raise awareness about an under-represented community. “Initially, the reason why I really wanted to do this was because I wanted to show the professional side of being a haenyeo,” she said.

“But then I realised there isn’t really much focus on how hard they work to become haenyeos, so I wanted the show to emphasise more on the progression and effort they put in throughout their lives to become who they are.”

Through the show, she also hopes to showcase facets of these women’s lives beyond their unique career path. “They work as haenyeos in the morning, then they work in the farms in the afternoon, and take care of their children in the evening,” she said. "I want people to not only understand what they do for a living, but also their lives as a whole.”

MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY PUSHED TO THE BRINK

Song is no stranger to physical challenges, but even she admitted this experience was unlike anything she’d ever done. “It is my first time doing a documentary,” she said. “I’m a fan of them, but watching one and being a part of it are completely different.”

In her bid to portray the culture truthfully and responsibly, Song wanted to be the best haenyeo she could be, which meant taking a radically different approach from her past work.

“Unlike other projects, I never wanted to look pretty doing this,” she said. “All I wanted to show was my determination and the effort I was putting in.”

Her spirit and physicality were tested daily. “Since young, I have never been scared of water,” she said. “But to become haenyeo, you have to train so much in the water and get used to going into such great depths. While you’re down there, you need to find something to harvest. Going through all these in one go was very, very tough.”

At one point, she thought she had managed to dive five metres deep, only to be told by her trainers that she had reached just one. In another instance, “I thought I held my breath for two minutes – it was actually 20 seconds,” she recalled.

So intense was the training, that Song even caught hypothermia and had to cease diving for a period of time.

Despite the setbacks, she never felt like giving up. “I was stressed over the fact that if I don’t perfect (my skills), everyone will look down on haenyeos because I didn’t show how they are supposed to be,” she said. “I had to keep in mind that through me, people would see what a haenyeo’s life is really like, and what I show is what they will learn.”

BECOMING ONE WITH THE HAENYEOS AND JEJU

The physical challenge was only one part of her transformation. After the month, Song emerged with a renewed outlook on life, a reverence for the sea and its inhabitants, as well as deep bonds with the local community.

When asked about how she bridged the generational differences between her and the 60- to 70-something-year-old haenyeos who trained her, she said: “When there is a common interest, you don’t actually feel the age gap. We shared a motivation. For me, it was to learn how to become a haenyeo, and for them it was to teach me to become one. All I did was try my best to do better all the time. Plus, I was the maknae (youngest) haenyeo, and they actually adored that.”

The moment when Song felt truly accepted into the community came when they began to share their hard-earned wisdom freely. “They were trying to teach me more stuff, instruct me, and share more (knowledge), like ‘you can find this here’ or ‘you can use this one this way’,” she said.

“Haenyeos work on their own, so for them to share their know-hows and the skill sets they have learned over a lifetime to somebody who is trying to become one is such a great way of showing that they accept you, and I felt so grateful.”

Additionally, Jeju itself, which is a UNESCO protected site, made Song feel welcome in quiet yet wondrous ways. On her first and last days on the island, dolphins appeared in the open water. “It was as if they were saying hi and bye,” she reminisced.

And then there was her personal entourage of fish. After she accidentally cracked open a sea urchin underwater once, a school of fish thought she was feeding them and began to swim along with her whenever they saw her.

“You won’t see as many fish around other haenyeos, and now you know why,” she quipped.

A MONTH OF REBIRTH AND RENEWAL

Though the month-long training left her physically exhausted – “I fell sick after finishing the entire journey,” she said – it strengthened her mentally. “I am more confident in taking on more physically challenging projects in the future,” she said. “I enjoyed watching myself being upgraded and developed through this challenge. It was a good refresh for myself.”

Besides physical skills, the haenyeos, whom Song calls samchuns (a term of respect for middle-aged men and women in Jeju) have imparted her with patience and strength. “I became stronger by taking on the attitude they have towards their jobs and lifestyles,” she said. “And I’ve learned how to put others before me and how not to complain about all the small matters (in life).”

With all that she has gone through and learned from her samchuns, it should come as no surprise that Song remains in touch with them to this day. She shared that she visits them whenever she is back on Jeju island, and has even kept key tools from her training in Hado-ri (a village in Jeju) so she can easily resume deep-diving with them.

Ultimately, Song hopes Deep Dive Korea: Song Ji-hyo's Haenyeo Adventure sparks a deeper appreciation for the haenyeos and what they represent. “Haenyeos are not greedy people who will just dive into the water and take as much as they want.”

Revealing this as the reason why haenyeos dive without oxygen tanks, Song went on to explain that this is a “compromise with nature”, as the duration of how long one can hold her breath is nature’s way of dictating how much one is allowed to take from it.

“That determination and appreciation they have of nature is what I want people to really focus on and learn from,” said Song.

While haenyeo numbers are dwindling today, she hopes the show can introduce the job to more people. “Yes, there are some younger generations who want to become haenyeo, but not many,” she said. “(However), it is our national heritage, and it is Jeju’s role to keep this heritage going and to (preserve) haenyeo as a job.”

Still, she maintained that there is one thing that matters more, and that is the preservation of their livelihood – the ocean.

“The sea is getting sick. When I was diving, I saw a lot of trash which was just thrown out of greed. That’s the haenyeos’ (working) environment and playground, so we first have to protect and preserve the quality of the sea before we can worry about preserving haenyeo as a profession,” she said.

“It is not too late for us to start protecting the sea.”

Deep Dive Korea: Song Ji-hyo's Haenyeo Adventure premieres on May 11, airing every Sunday at 9pm on BBC Player. It will also be broadcast at the same time on the BBC Earth channel, as well as StarHub Channel 407 and Singtel Channel 503.