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James Marsh

One of the most recognisable and successful performers in South Korea, Lee Byung-hun is back on our screens this week in the dramatic conclusion of Netflix’s global K-drama phenomenon, Squid Game.
Since his television debut in 1991, Lee has found sustained critical and commercial acclaim on the big and small screen, overcome tabloid scandals, and even appeared in Hollywood action blockbusters like G.I. Joe, Terminator Genisys and The Magnificent Seven.
Lee will also be the subject of a 10-film retrospective in South Korea later this month at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, where he is this edition’s actor in focus.
Here we rank his 12 finest cinematic performances to date.
12. The Man Standing Next (2020)


The assassination of President Park Chung-hee in 1979 by his own intelligence chief, Kim Jae-gyu, was one of the most shocking incidents in Korea’s history and has been dramatised numerous times, not least in 2005’s darkly comic The President’s Last Bang.
While Woo Min-ho’s thinly fictionalised account might not be the best, it gifts Lee the hugely complex role of Kim, the trigger man for a political coup that would send shock waves through the country for years.
11. The Fortress (2017)


Long before Squid Game, Lee partnered with the show’s eventual creator Hwang Dong-hyuk for this fascinating and surprisingly cerebral war film set during the Qing invasion of Joseon in 1636.
As the kingdom is overrun, King Injo and his court seek refuge in a remote fortress to weigh up their options. Lee is in fine form as Choi Myung-kil, a chief adviser who advocates for peaceful reconciliation against a barrage of dissenting voices in the face of almost certain defeat.
10. Once in a Summer (2006)


A romantic melodrama fraught with political tension and social upheaval, Once in a Summer showcases one of Lee’s most beloved dramatic performances.
When asked who he would most like to be reunited with from his past, ageing professor Yun Suk-young (Lee) is transported back to 1969, when he escaped the turmoil of the city for the countryside. He falls in love with a beautiful young librarian (Soo Ae), only for her own chequered past to tear the couple apart.
9. Inside Men (2015)


With the deluge of boisterous crime flicks emanating from Korea in recent decades, it can be tricky to discern the wheat from the chaff, but Woo Min-ho’s slick political thriller is one of the very best.
Channelling the country’s growing frustrations with corrupt chaebol – family-run conglomerates – and their political cronyism, Lee scored a notable hit playing a low-level gangster who teams up with Cho Seung-woo’s frustrated prosecutor to turn the tables on the shady politician who double-crossed him.
8. The Harmonium in My Memory (1999)


In one of his earliest leading roles, Lee appears alongside another newcomer destined for greatness, Jeon Do-yeon. The actress plays a lovestruck teenager who is instantly smitten by Lee’s newly qualified teacher when he arrives in her village from the big city.
This 1960s-set drama, adapted from Ha Keum-chan’s semi-autobiographical novel, is a romantic delight, as both Jeon and Lee’s characters wrestle with love for the first time, albeit with different people.
7. Bungee Jumping of Their Own (2001)


Lee established himself as a dramatic performer with the courage to tackle controversial material in this inventive romantic fantasy.
He plays teacher Seo In-woo, who feels strangely drawn to one of his male students, despite being in a seemingly happy marriage. Over time, it becomes apparent that the adolescent is the reincarnation of In-woo’s lost love (Lee Eun-ju).
The result was a major hit, despite Korean audiences’ typically frosty reception to queer subject matter.
6. The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008)


Ostensibly the villain of Kim Jee-woon’s sprawling kimchi Western, Lee is also at his most jaw-droppingly handsome playing bandit and hitman Park Chang-yi, on the hunt for a treasure map leading to stolen Qing dynasty gold.
His mission sees him cross paths with Jung Woo-sung’s dashing bounty hunter and Song Kang-ho’s oddball thief as they tear across the vast wilderness of 1930s Manchuria in this loving ode to Sergio Leone’s classic Western.
5. Concrete Utopia (2023)


In the wake of a devastating earthquake, only a single block of flats is left standing, and the survivors scramble to stake their claim to it.
Lee gives his finest performance in recent memory as a mysterious stranger who emerges from the rubble and mayhem to become leader of the residents, only to wield escalating and increasingly terrifying power.
Um Tae-hwa’s effects-laden disaster thriller serves as a scathing takedown of authoritarian rule, xenophobia and South Korea’s aspirational housing obsession.
4. Masquerade (2012)


In a story that has been tackled time and again, from Akira Kurosawa’s Kagemusha to Zhang Yimou’s Shadow, a lowly commoner is recruited to replace a monarch in time of trouble, only to prove more adept at the task than the legitimate ruler.
This lavish Joseon-era drama sees Lee dazzle in a bravura dual performance as the eccentric King Gwang-hae and lookalike Ha-sun, a playful acrobat who is summoned to the court following an assassination attempt on the king.
3. Joint Security Area (2000)


Lee’s breakout role came in this riveting military thriller – also known as JSA – playing a wounded South Korean soldier at the centre of an international investigation into a deadly shooting that occurred in the demilitarised zone separating North and South Korea.
Also starring Song Kang-ho, Shin Ha-kyun and Lee Young-ae, the film became the most successful Korean movie of all time upon release, as well as a potent calling card for its director, Park Chan-wook.
2. I Saw the Devil (2010)


Going toe-to-toe with heavyweight Choi Min-sik might have posed a daunting challenge, but Lee duly upped his game to deliver one of the most morally complex and layered performances of his career.
His by-the-book secret service agent Soo-hyun is sent into a tailspin after his fiancée is brutally murdered by a monstrous serial killer (Choi), and his quest for revenge descends into a horrifying rampage every bit as despicable as that of his quarry.
1. A Bittersweet Life (2005)


Lee cuts an iconic figure as Sun-woo, the immaculately turned-out mob enforcer who wages a one-man war on his former employers after an act of mercy sees him betrayed and left for dead.
Clad in a crisp white shirt and perfectly tailored suit, Lee’s whirling dervish of vengeance remains his signature role in Kim Jee-woon’s ultra-stylish thriller, which set the standard for 100 gangster movie imitators in the two decades since.
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Concrete Utopia, Bittersweet Life, Joint Security Area and more – South Korean actor Lee Byung-hun has lit up the big screen for decades


Concrete Utopia, Bittersweet Life, Joint Security Area and more – South Korean actor Lee Byung-hun has lit up the big screen for decades.
