LEE JI-EUN

KOREAN MULTI-HYPHENATE LANDS HER FIRST TRIP TO CANNES’ RED CARPET IN HIROKAZU KORE-EDA’S BROKER

When the Cannes Film Festival lineup was announced on April 14, Twitter positively exploded with excitement over the news that Lee Ji-eun would make her Riviera debut with Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Broker in Competition. The Korean actress, singer and son writer—popularly known as Iu—has a legion of fans, including 26 million followers on Instagram, and has been described as a national treasure at home. She may now be well poised for crossover success with her rst commercial lm.

The rst lm from Kore-eda since the Palme d’or winning Shoplifters in 2018 is also his rst movie to be made in Korea. Backed by Asian powerhouse CJ ENM and starring Parasite’s Song Kang-ho, Broker concerns the peculiarly Korean phenomenon of “baby boxes”— drop-o points where people who are unable to raise children can deposit their babies anonymously.

Lee started out as a recording artist, releasing her rst album in 2008, and by 2019 she had three songs on Billboard’s list of the 100 Greatest K pop Songs of the 2010s. This included 2010’s holiday single “Good Day” from her album Real, which took the top position.

In 2011, Lee made her acting debut with teen drama series Dream High, followed by family drama You Are The Best! in 2013, 2015 comedy-drama The Producers and 2018 drama My Mister.

In 2019, she made her lm debut in Net ix antholo y Persona, playing four di erent characters for four di erent directors. All the while, Lee has continued to release albums, tour and work in television, including 2019’s Hotel Del Luna which is ranked in the Top 20 of all-time highest-rated Korean cable series. She also made her soundtrack debut with 2020’s “Give You My Heart” for the hit TV series Crash Landing on You.

Her other lm credits include recently wrapped sports drama Dream, costarring Parasite’s Park Seo-joon and directed by Lee Byeong-heon, helmer of Korea’s box o ce smash Extreme Job.—nancy Tartaglione