Late “Parasite” Actor Lee Sun Kyun To Be Honored At Busan International Film Festival
On August 23, 2024 (KST), the 29th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) announced that it will honor the late actor Lee Sun Kyun with a special screening and a dedicated award.
The special screening, announced to have been titled “Beautiful Person, Lee Sun Kyun,” will feature six of Lee’s most remarkable works—including the 2018 K-Drama My Mister and the 2019 Oscar-winner Parasite—all aimed at “reflecting on his acting career and achievements made while creating a meaningful memorial space.”
Lee will also be awarded 2024’s “Korea Cinema Award” at the opening ceremony. The award is generally given to film industry professionals who have elevated the status of Korean cinema and contributed to its global growth.
Following BIFF’s announcement, backlash out of Korea has grown fierce. While some agreed that Lee’s contribution to Korean cinema was monumental, others were taken aback by the title referring to him as a “Beautiful Person,” given the scandalous nature of his investigation and eventual suicide death.
- “…? Beautiful? Has ‘beautiful’ come to mean something else? I’m baffled.”
- “?”
- “The title of the screening is hilarious. He pretended to be a loving husband on camera, but went off to have an extramarital affair with a prostitute. He was investigated for drug use.”
- “Insane.”
- “But he did, in fact, contribute a lot to the Korean cinema and helped its growth. That’s a fact. Stop disrespecting the deceased. Like, let him rest in peace now.”
- “I don’t know about beautiful, though…”
- “Yes, the title is sh*t. But let’s admit that he did have a huge impact in elevating Korean cinema. I wish BIFF would have gone with something like ‘Genuine Talent’ or ‘Passionate Acting’ instead. What were the organizers thinking?”
- “I will never agree with that title, but I do admit that he deserves the award for his achievements.”
- “What the hell…? I don’t understand how he could not have known what the woman from the adult establishment was giving him. Like, that doesn’t undo the wrong. Both G-Dragon and he used that excuse and… IDK. Perhaps don’t accept things without checking, then?”
- “Giving him an award for what, though…? Just fascinating. These people are all in it with him, huh?”
- “The exact reason Korean cinema is deteriorating right now, LOL.”
- “Haha. I find it humorous, I guess. Based on how people are mourning him, we might as well believe that he was killed in an accident or something.”
- “Geez… It’s not that outlandish that Korean cinema is honoring him.”
Amid the backlash, many of Lee’s international fans and movie critics remain grieving the loss of a talented actor because the police and the press are cornering him and turning him into a villain over an active investigation.
That Lee would presumably take such a drastic measure in response to alleged marijuana and ketamine usage (as well as marital infidelity) may be hard to comprehend for people from a country where the former substance (although still disproportionately prosecuted among Black and brown Americans) is legal in many states and even made light of as part of “stoner culture,” and where celebrity affairs are generally treated as garden variety scandovals. But Korea has the highest per-capita suicide rate among developed countries (24.6 per 100,000 people), and its public figures are not immune: Former President Roh Moo-hyun killed himself in 2009 after accusations of bribery threatened to tarnish his legacy, while a number of K-pop artists have taken their own lives after public and private battles with depression, harassment and living under a high-pressure spotlight.
— Rebecca Sun for The Hollywood Reporter
Read more about the latest developments in the ongoing court cases that Lee left behind.
Actor Lee Sun Kyun’s Blackmailer Shockingly Brings Baby To Court Every Trial
