Lee Sun-kyun’s ‘Project Silence’ and ‘The Land of Happiness’ to Release This Year
‘Project Silence’ could be released in July, while ‘The Land of Happiness’ will hit theaters in August. The former was presented as part of the Midnight Screenings section of the Cannes Film Festival last year
Lee Sun-kyun in a scene from 'Sleep.' Photo courtesy of HanCinema
A posthumous release of Lee Sun-kyun’s two films—Project Silence and The Land of Happiness—is on the horizon this year. The late actor best known for starring in director Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning black comedy Parasite, received the 2021 Screen Actors Guild Award for “cast in a motion picture.”
While Project Silence could be released in July, according to its distributor, CJ ENM, reports The Korea Herald, The Land of Happiness is slated to hit theaters in August.
Directed by Kim Tae-gon Project Silence stars Lee Sun-kyun, sharing screen time with Ju Ji-hoon and Kim Hee-won. Presented as part of the Midnight Screenings section of the 76th Cannes Film Festival 2023, the horror-action thriller movie was one of a select few midnight presentations that the festival reserves for films with intriguing genres or themes.
It’s a dramatic survival story amid an unforeseen chain of events unfolding when disaster and dense fog strike a group of people stuck on an airport bridge. Project Silence features the grandeur of disaster films but with a unique sense of suspense where familiar places and people suddenly become dangerous.
Lee Sun-kyun plays Jung-won, a presidential aide who’s heading to the airport to see off his daughter. Abruptly, a catastrophic chain of accidents stops them midway across the misty bridge, leaving them stranded. Caught up in the same incident are two sisters, an elderly couple, and a tow truck driver and his dog. Moments after the bridge shuts and all contact ceases, tragedy hits, with lethal gas explosions, helicopter crashes, and the collapse of the bridge. Worse, military experimental dogs break out of their confines and start attacking the survivors.
Meanwhile, The Land of Happiness directed by Choo Chang-min is a riveting courtroom drama that centers on a lawyer’s efforts to defend a client who is embroiled in a politically charged case. The events transpire in 1979 in Korea, as a determined attorney, Jung In-hoo (Jo Jung-suk), is advocating for his client, an army soldier, Park Tae-joo (Lee Sun-kyun), charged with killing the president.
In December last year, Lee wrapped up shooting both films, based on sources from Korean media, before his sudden demise. He was tragically found and officially pronounced dead on December 27, 2023, amidst the struggles he was experiencing at the time. The actor had been under police investigation for approximately two months regarding accusations related to marijuana and psychotropic substances under the Narcotics Control Act.
Following allegations that he frequently used marijuana and other illegal substances at the residence of a club hostess, Lee underwent testing for suspected drug consumption and three rounds of interrogation before dying, per Yonhap News. He stated that the woman had been intimidating him and duping him into doing narcotics. While under threat, the episode also conned him out of a large sum of money.
Claiming innocence, Lee petitioned the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency, handling the case, for a polygraph test upon clearing a rapid reagent test and a lab-based drug test conducted by the National Forensic Service. But while the inquiry was underway, he died.
Lee Sun-kyun’s protracted and glorious career includes roles in smashes such as the 2007 rom-com drama Coffee Prince and the medical drama White Tower. He was a recipient of the Best Actor award at the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival for his performance in Paju (2009), which was the inaugural Korean film to open the International Film Festival Rotterdam and compete in the Tribeca Film Festival. Some of his other significant roles include hits like Pasta (2010), Helpless (2012), All About My Wife (2012), Golden Time (2012), A Hard Day (2014), and My Mister (2018).
Lee was highly regarded in the art-house scene for his contributions to the genre with films like Night and Day (2008), Oki’s Movie (2010), and Nobody’s Daughter Haewon (2013) before Parasite happened in 2019.
For his portrayal as a neuroscientist in the series Dr. Brain (2021), Lee was nominated in the Best Actor category of the 50th International Emmy Awards. That same year, he appeared in the political drama Kingmaker, scoring a nomination for Best Actor at the 58th Baeksang Arts Awards.
Lee also featured in Killing Romance (2023), a musical romance comedy film that became a household name in Korea before making its North American debut at the 22nd New York Asian Film Festival in July 2023. The same year, he starred in Sleep, a dark comedy horror mystery thriller that screened at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week segment. Sleep was one of Lee Sun-kyun’s last movies, including the approaching posthumous releases Project Silence and The Land of Happiness.
