[BREAKING] 'Parasite' and 'My Mister' actor Lee Sun-kyun found dead amid investigation over drug allegations [TESTED NEGATIVE]
SEOUL 10.10am
With multiple source by Reuters / Thomson Reuters, NAVER, Yonhap, Korea times, we can confirmed that actor Lee Sun-kyun of the Oscar-winning "Parasite" and ‘My Mister’ was found dead in an apparent suicide Wednesday while facing an investigation over suspected drug use.
A man in his 40s was found unconscious in a car at a park in central Seoul at 10:30 a.m., and the police later identified him as Lee. In the passenger seat was a charcoal briquette.
The police earlier received a report that Lee left home after writing a memo akin to a suicide note.
Lee has gone through three rounds of police questioning on suspicions of using marijuana and other illegal drugs at the home of a hostess working at a high-end bar in Seoul's Gangnam district on multiple occasions since early this year, including last Saturday.
The actor claimed he was tricked by the hostess into taking the drugs and that he did not know what he was taking.
Lee tested negative in both the brief reagent test conducted during police investigations and the lab-based drug test by the National Forensic Service last month.
In October 2023, it was revealed that Lee was booked for internal investigation over suspected drug use. As a result, he voluntarily dropped out of No Way Out, an upcoming thriller drama serial which just started its production days before the revelation of his alleged drug use.
On October 24, he was charged on suspicion of using marijuana and psychoactive drugs, according to Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency, and was summoned for questioning on the 28th.
Lee was also given a travel ban to prevent him from leaving the country during the course of investigations.
Initial test results of Lee's hair samples revealed that Lee tested negative for drugs.
Paul Coelho, best known as the author of The Alchemist, recently held an email interview with Yeonhap news to talk about the Korean entertainment including K-Pop and K-dramas.
He revealed that he first gained interest in Korean entertainment after watching the movie Old Boy back in 2016. Since then, he has watched over 100 Korean films and became curious about the country and how it would like like in-person.
He felt that the charm of K-contents was the jam-packed storyline and beauty.
He also shared what drama he watched recently on Netflix.
Before the interview, I watched the entire drama ‘My Mister’ through Netflix. It was a masterpiece. It’s one of the best works I’ve seen recently. It shows the intricacy of human psychology and has a rich story. It also touches on North and South Korean relations, which foreigners like me, are very interested in.
— Paul Coelho
WAW! I thought I would not survive to 16 episodes, but it is a flawless description of the human condition
Congrats to the super screenplay , the fantastic director and the best possible cast pic.twitter.com/NIkNBwhpUT— Paulo Coelho (@paulocoelho) October 18, 2020
Coelho is also known to be a fan of BTS. “BTS is a group that I really admire and I always emphasize that we should always pay attention to them whenever I have the chance.”
His interest and love for all things Korea just keeps on growing. “Korea has a very special place in my heart. So much so that I dream about visiting someday.”
In 2012, Lee Sun-kyun starred in two consecutive well-reviewed big-screen hits—mystery thriller Helpless and romantic comedy All About My Wife.
Reuniting with Pasta director Kwon Seok-jang, Lee played a trauma doctor in Golden Time.
His third collaboration with Kwon was Miss Korea, a drama set amidst the IMF crisis in the 1990s.
Lee returned to the theater opposite wife Jeon Hye-jin in Mike Bartlett's stage play Love, Love, Love in 2013.
The following year, he headlined the film A Hard Day, which screened at the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, and became a critically acclaimed sleeper hit at the box office. In 2015, Lee starred in the courtroom drama film The Advocate: A Missing Body.
Parasite (Korean: 기생충; Hanja: 寄生蟲; RR: Gisaengchung) is a 2019 South Korean black comedy thriller film directed by Bong Joon-ho, who co-wrote the screenplay with Han Jin-won and co-produced. The film, starring Song Kang-ho, the late Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam, Jang Hye-jin, Park Myung-hoon and Lee Jung-eun, follows a poor family who scheme to become employed by a wealthy family, infiltrating their household by posing as unrelated, highly qualified people.
The script is based on Bong's source material from a play written in 2013.
Parasite premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2019, where it became the first Korean film to win its top prize, the Palme d'Or. It was released in South Korea by CJ Entertainment on 30 May, and was praised for Bong's direction and screenplay, and also for its editing and production design. It grossed over $263 million worldwide on a $15.5 million budget.
Among its numerous accolades, Parasite won a leading four Academy Awards at the 92nd Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film, becoming the first non-English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.[note 1] It is the first South Korean film to receive any Academy Award recognition, and one of only three films overall to win both the Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Picture, the first such achievement in over 60 years.
