Lee Byeong Heon 이 병헌

I first saw Lee Byung Hun (Lee Byeong Heon) 이병헌 in The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008) at ActionFest 2010. Talk about wildly entertaining, and wow! did he leave an impression. Such a face.

Rakuten Viki’s bio states Lee Byung Hun is “Arguably South Korea’s biggest international actor.” Nobody’s arguing. K-Drama lovers know him from Our Blues, Squid Game, Mr. Sunshine,  and so many others. His Korean movie debut was in a Romantic Comedy Who Makes Me Crazy/Who Drives Me Mad?  누가  나를 미치게 하는가 Nuga naleul michige haneunga (who me crazy doing).

His Hollywood debut was as “Storm Shadow” in G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra (2009). He reprised the role in G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation (2013). He also appeared in Red 2 (also 2013) and Terminator Genisys (2015).

From his bio on IMDb, I love this quote: “The more I act, the harder it gets, since I feel like I still have so much to learn. Whenever I embark on a new project, it always feels like the first time. If it were easy to me and I felt like I knew everything, my acting might have been different. I think the feeling of ‘newness’ keeps me on my toes and concentrated.”

Lee Byung Hun majored in French Literature at Hanyang University and went to Graduate School at Chung Ang University for Theater and Cinematography. He speaks four languages fluently: Korean, French, English, and Mandarin.