Busan Film Festival To Present Special Program Remembering Late ‘Parasite’ Actor Lee Sun-Kyun

Busan International Film Festival has announced a Special Program in Focus, ‘In Memory of Lee Sun-kyun’, honoring the Korean actor who died in December 2023.

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The program will screen six of the actor’s works including Parasite , four other films and an episode of TV series My Mister , as well as feature Special Talk events.

The late actor has also been selected to receive this year’s Korea Cinema Award, given to filmmakers who have contributed to promoting Korean cinema globally.

“Through the program, the festival aims to reflect on and commemorate the achievements of the late actor, whose diversified and profound performances have represented the Korean film scene,” the festival said.

Lee died in December 2023 in an apparent suicide at the age of 48, after which industry figures, including Parasite director Bong Joon Ho, called for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death.

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Three of the films in the Busan program are early works that brought Lee to public attention as an actor to watch out for – Park Chan-ok’s Paju (2009), which earned him best actor at Las Palmas International Film Festival 2010; Hong Sangsoo’s Our Sunhi (2013), which won best director at Locarno; and Kim Seong-hun’s A Hard Day (2014), which played in Cannes Directors Fortnight.

Also selected for the program is Lee’s posthumous film, Land Of Happiness , directed by Choo Chang-min, which was recently released in Korea and in which he plays a soldier embroiled in a presidential assassination.

Busan also recently announced that exiled Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof will head the jury for this year’s New Currents competition. He will be joined by fellow jurors Korean director Lee Myung Se, Chinese actress Zhou Dongyu, Indian actress Kani Kusruti, and Rotterdam festival director Vanja Kaludjercic.

Busan International Film Festival will take place at the Busan Cinema Center and other venues from October 2-11.

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