Late South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun will be the subject of a special programme at the upcoming Busan International Film Festival (BIFF, October 2-11), which will also posthumously honour the Parasite star with the Korean Cinema Award.
The festival will present a special focus titled In Memory of Lee Sun-kyun, which will include six of the actor’s most well-known films and TV series: Park Chan-ok’s Paju; Hong Sangsoo’s Our Sunhi; Kim Seong-hun’s A Hard Day; Kim Wonsuk’s TV series My Mister; Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite; and Choo Chang-min’s Land Of Happiness.
Special talk events will be scheduled alongside the films, which have been programmed to reflect on and commemorate the achievements of the late actor.
BIFF will also bestow Lee with this year’s Korea Cinema Award, which is given to those who have contributed to promoting Korean cinema globally. It will be posthumously awarded at the festival’s opening ceremony on October 2.
Lee was found dead on December 27, amid an investigation by the police over allegations of illegal drug use. He was 48. The following month, a group of South Korean culture and entertainment industry leaders including Parasite director Bong called for a probe into police authorities’ handling of the investigation.
Lee was well-known in South Korea for playing a string a on-screen roles over the past 20 years, but was best known to international audiences for playing patriarch Park Dong-ik in Parasite, the 2019 feature that won four Oscars, including best picture, having previously become the first South Korean film to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Lee was included in a Screen Actors Guild award for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture.
Following that success, Lee took the lead in 2021’s Dr. Brain, the first Korean-language original series from Apple TV+, for which he received an international Emmy award nomination, and appeared in two Cannes 2023 titles: Kim Tae-gon’s Project Silence and Jason Yu’s Sleep. His final on-screen role was in historical drama Land Of Happiness, which was released in South Korea on August 14.
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