{"id":2234372,"date":"2026-01-14T12:28:53","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T12:28:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2234372"},"modified":"2026-01-14T12:28:53","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T12:28:53","slug":"lee-byung-hun-didnt-plan-for-global-domination-but-it-happened-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/lee-byung-hun-didnt-plan-for-global-domination-but-it-happened-anyway\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee Byung-hun didn\u2019t plan for global domination (but it happened anyway)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:<\/em><\/span>\u00a0 This story is based on an interview Daniel Dae Kim conducted with Lee Byung-hun for K-Everything, a celebrity.land Original Series hosted by Kim exploring the global impact of South Korean culture.\n<\/p>\n

\n Lee Byung-hun\u2019s body was in a hotel in Seoul, but his mind was somewhere over the Pacific.\n <\/p>\n

\n The actor had been hopping around the planet on promotional duties for about a year \u2014 first for \u201cSquid Games,\u201d then global phenomenon \u201cKPop Demon Hunters,\u201d then awards season contender \u201cNo Other Choice\u201d \u2014 bouncing between South Korea, New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, and Venice. He was horribly jetlagged, he confessed to actor Daniel Dae Kim, host of the upcoming celebrity.land Original S\ufefferies \u201cK-Everything,\u201d late one December evening.\n <\/p>\n

\n Lee hadn\u2019t followed the advice of industry friends, who\u2019d told him to rest before the publicity push. \u201cI\u2019m having a hard time now,\u201d he said. \u201cBut mentally, I\u2019m so happy.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n First-time Golden Globe nominee\ufeff Lee has practice running on fumes. As a young actor in 1990s South Korea, he\u2019d sometimes be awake for days on sets with a dim view on fixed working hours. (One time, on his third day without rest, Lee was ready for his close-up. \u201cThe director called action and \u2026 I fell asleep,\u201d he recalled.) The 55-year-old is not about to slow down as he conquers Hollywood for a second time \u2014 this time in his own language and on his own terms.\n <\/p>\n

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\n <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Lee never intended to become an actor. He was a college freshman studying French literature in 1991 when his mother\u2019s friend slipped him an audition flyer as a joke. \u201cPeople were so much more conservative than now,\u201d he said, and acting \u201cwas not a respected profession.\u201d He went and caught the bug.\n <\/p>\n

\n Lee says his parents were open minded as he booked jobs on TV series (notably student drama \u201cTomorrow Love\u201d), before he started taking roles in films. His big break came in 2000 with thriller \u201cJoint Security Area.\u201d Lee played a South Korean soldier accused of gunning down North Korean troops in the Demilitarized Zone. Directed by Park Chan-wook, the massive critical and commercial hit paired knotty morals with operatic violence, offering a blueprint for a generation of Korean filmmakers (including Bong Joon Ho and Kim Jee-woon).\n <\/p>\n

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\n \"Lee<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n In 2005, Lee was at the Cannes Film Festival when an agent offered to crack open the door on Hollywood. He accepted, and four years later Lee made his English-language debut in \u201cG.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.\u201d<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cActing in English,\u201d he recalled, \u201cfelt like I was swimming in the middle of the ocean without knowing the direction.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf someone pointed out to me some pronunciation or intonation (or) accent, then it was in my head,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve gotten a little more comfortable with that. Back then, if someone suddenly pointed something out to me, or if something kept bothering me, I\u2019d be so preoccupied with it that I couldn\u2019t do anything else.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n If he had misgivings, casting directors didn\u2019t. A \u201cG.I. Joe\u201d sequel followed, then roles in \u201cTerminator Genisys\u201d (2015), Antoine Fuqua\u2019s remake of \u201cThe Magnificent Seven\u201d (2016) and more.\n <\/p>\n

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\n \"Lee<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n In the space of a few years, Lee shared the screen with all-time greats Al Pacino, Denzel Washington, Anthony Hopkins, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ethan Hawke. He bought a house in LA and purchased a small winery in Mendoza, Argentina. But Lee never fully committed to Hollywood, continuing to act in Korean hits like \u201cThe Age of Shadows\u201d (2016) and \u201cEmergency Declaration\u201d (2021).\n <\/p>\n

\n He still has his LA home, he said, though \u201cmost of the time it\u2019s empty.\u201d This awards season, it might be a different story.\n <\/p>\n

\n In the past year or so, Lee has experienced a career 180: US audiences came to him.\n <\/p>\n

\n Last year, the actor brutalized contestants as the Front Man in \u201cSquid Game,\u201d terrorized kids as the voice of Gwi-Ma in \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d and was merciless as a hapless killer in Oscar contender \u201cNo Other Choice.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cSquid Game,\u201d Hwang Dong-hyuk<\/a>\u2019s bloody satire of late capitalism, launched in 2021 and quickly became Netflix\u2019s most popular show of all time<\/a>. The streamer logged nearly 600 million views of season one and two ahead of its third and final season last June, which was viewed 60 million times in its first three days<\/a> (another Netflix record).\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt felt very weird,\u201d Lee said, \u201cbecause I made Korean content with Korean actors and Korean staff and a Korean director, and it\u2019s about Korean story based on Korean culture in the Korean language \u2014 and they react like that<\/em>?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n He tips his cap to streaming services as an industry gamechanger: \u201cas long as the content is good, then people all around the world will watch it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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\n \"Lee<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Last June, Netflix also released the animated film \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d (a title that explains the plot). <\/strong>Two months later, it became the streamer\u2019s most popular movie of all time<\/a>, jumping from living rooms into theaters with over 1,000 sold out singalong screenings around the world, and four songs inside the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It\u2019s very likely the pop culture sensation \u2014 which won two awards at the 2026 Golden Globes for best animated film and best original song, \u201cGolden\u201d \u2014 will receive multiple Oscar nominations.\n <\/p>\n

\n A North American production in partnership with Sony Pictures Animation, the film features a voice cast stacked with members of the Korean diaspora (including Daniel Dae Kim). Lee signed on because he wanted to make a film his kids could watch.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI watched it with my 10-year-old boy,\u201d he said. \u201cHe asked me, \u2018Are you the villain?\u2019 I said yes. He said, \u2018Again<\/em>?!\u2019 He was so disappointed.\u201d (His two-year-old daughter hasn\u2019t seen the movie but her favorite song is, of course, \u201cGolden.\u201d)\n <\/p>\n

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\n \"Lee<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n One film his children won\u2019t be watching any time soon is \u201cNo Other Choice.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Lee\u2019s long-waited reunion with Park Chan-wook premiered at the Venice Film Festival in August and has been navigating the festival circuit and award season machine ever since. It debuted in US cinemas on Christmas Day and enters more theaters on January 16.\n <\/p>\n

\n Based on American Donald Westlake\u2019s novel \u201cThe Ax\u201d \u2014 and previously made into French film \u201cLe couperet\u201d by Costas-Gavras in 2005 \u2014 Park updates the story of an unemployed middle manager who hatches a plan to kill his competition as he tries to land a new job.\n <\/p>\n

\n Lee said Park first mentioned the project about 15 years ago. It was planned with an American cast, before Park exported it to Korea and tapped Lee to lead as paper manufacturer Man-su.\n <\/p>\n

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\n \"Lee<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n \u201cHe thought that the story was going to be a very dark and tragic one, because it\u2019s about a man who lost his job, but he found himself bursting out in laughter,\u201d said Park in a recent interview with celebrity.land.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe first question he asked me after reading the screenplay was whether he read it correctly, and my response to him was, \u2018the funnier the better.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Man-su is a hilariously terrible and terribly hilarious serial killer. He second-guesses his methods, fails to execute plans and ends up sympathizing with his victims (naturally, they have a lot in common). And yet, despite himself, he gets the job done. Lee is playing against type; his character is hardly villainous, instead a bumbling victim of a cold, uncaring system.\n <\/p>\n

\n Park insisted to celebrity.land that <\/strong>Man-su is the protagonist and automation is the true villain, dragging Westlake\u2019s story into the present by making AI the ultimate bogeyman.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cKorea is a very competitive society; everyone is trying to survive,\u201d said Lee, though he acknowledged his country\u2019s situation isn\u2019t unique. \u201cWith the advent of AI, people will be thinking more deeply about this issue \u2026 It\u2019s possible it could get even worse in the future.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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\n \"\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n \u201cNo Other Choice\u201d \u2014 ruthlessly incisive, unpredictable and rooted in cultural specificity \u2014 returns to the basic principles underpinning a lot of successful K-content.\n <\/p>\n

\n Both Lee and Park expressed that South Korea\u2019s turbulent modern history \u2014 colonized by Japan from 1910 to 1945, the Korean War and subsequent military dictatorships \u2014 has provided the country with a unique energy that has filtered into the arts.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe great influence that Korean culture has today is truly (a) gain that we\u2019ve gotten through the pain that we\u2019ve experienced in our history. So, I actually feel quite bitter about that,\u201d said the director.\n <\/p>\n

\n Interestingly, Lee suggested the nation nearly fumbled its hard-won cultural cache, in a creative ebb along the K-wave.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cTwenty years ago, when the Korean wave was just starting in Asia \u2026 we started asking ourselves, \u2018What will they<\/em> want next?\u2019\u201d he said of international audiences. \u201cInstead of sticking to what we had always done, we began to think more and more about what they<\/em> want. And as we did that, over time the enthusiasm gradually cooled off.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe\u2019ve already gone through a period of trial and error,\u201d he added, \u201cI think this time we need to create with those lessons in mind.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The unapologetic, undiluted \u2014 and wildly popular \u2014 voice of the K-wave today across film, television and music, speaks to a nation doubling down on itself. In 2020, \u201cParasite\u201d director Bong Joon Ho<\/a> told the world to get over reading subtitles and won Best Picture at the Oscars a month later. \u201c<\/strong>No Other Choice\u201d and its star, both nominated for Golden Globes and in the conversation for others, is further proof that sometimes the best path to tread is an unwavering one.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe should continue to develop that same energy, the same method, the same storytelling,\u201d Lee said. \u201cIf we stubbornly continue to do what we do, we\u2019ll eventually be able to maintain that ongoing interest.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The celebrity.land Original Series, K-Everything, hosted by Kim will release on celebrity.land International this April and stream on HBO MAX in May.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.celebrity.land.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0 This story is based on an interview Daniel Dae Kim conducted with Lee Byung-hun for K-Everything, a celebrity.land Original Series hosted by Kim exploring the global impact of South Korean culture. Lee Byung-hun\u2019s body was in a hotel in Seoul, but his mind was somewhere over the Pacific. The actor had been hopping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2234373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2234372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Lee-Byung-hun-didnt-plan-for-global-domination-but-it-happened.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2234372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2234372"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2234372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2234374,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2234372\/revisions\/2234374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2234373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2234372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2234372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2234372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}