The World of Korean Film and Drama

Multi-award winning actor Lee Sun-kyun passed away on December 27th. Internationally, Lee Sun-kyun was best known for his role in Bong Joon-ho’s Academy Award-winning film Parasite (2019), for which he won a Screen Actors Guild Award. But he has given many great performances.

Lee left university after one year to become an actor. Starting his career in musical theatre, he played minor roles for many years until he was cast in the series Coffee Prince (2007). He received a Best Actor award at the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival for his role in Paju (2009), and was lauded by the critics for his performances in the mystery thriller Helpless (2012), the romantic comedy All About My Wife (2012), and the black comedy A Hard Day (2014). Lee had a long collaboration with director Hong Sang-soo, including the arthouse films Night and Day (2008), Oki’s Movie (2010), and Nobody’s Daughter Haewon (2013).

Below are a few examples of Lee’s great variety of works, which also include television dramas, such as My Mister (2018) and Dr. Brain (2021).

The Land of Happiness (2021), directed by Choo Chang-min, and Project Silence (2021), directed by Kim Tae-gon, are scheduled to be released in 2024.