Publisher Description
Lee Byung-hun G.I.Joe youtube collectionLee auditioned in the 1991 KBS Super Talent Audition and was accepted, making his debut in the television drama Asphalt My Hometown. His breakthrough role was in the 2000 film Joint Security Area directed by Park Chan-wook. He played a border-guard soldier who crossed to North Korea nightly and forged a friendship with a soldier on the opposing side. The film was a critical and commercial success and broke records as the highest grossing film in Korean history. His performance earned him Best Actor jointly with Song Kang-ho at the Pusan Film Critics Awards. He also starred in the film Bungee Jumping of Their Own, about a man whose girlfriend dies and is later reincarnated as a man.In 2001 he played Lee Min-chul in Beautiful Days, a drama about an arrogant businessman who falls for an innocent orphan, played by Choi Ji-woo. He also starred in the film Addicted as a man who falls into a coma and wakes up believing he is his dead brother. In 2003 he took the leading role in the poker drama All In opposite Song Hye-kyo. For his performance, he won the Grand Prize at the SBS Drama Awards and Best Actor at the Baeksang Arts Awards. In 2004, Lee appeared in the romantic comedy Everybody Has Secrets.In 2005 he earned critical acclaim for his performance in A Bittersweet Life which was screened out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Lee was nominated for Best Actor at the Blue Dragon Film Awards and Grand Bell Awards, and won at the Chunsa Film Art Awards, Baeksang Arts Awards and the Critics Choice Awards. He also appeared in the romance film Once in a Summer opposite Soo Ae.His first villain role was as "The Bad" in The Good, the Bad, the Weird, a Korean western directed by Kim Ji-woon and also starring Song Kang-ho and Jung Woo-sung. The film revolves around three men in a race to acquire a treasure map. The film was also a major success and was screened out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2009 he co-starred with Josh Hartnett and Takuya Kimura in the film I Come with the Rain. He also appeared as Storm Shadow in the American film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.