South Korean actor Lee Byung Hun was honored with a Star Award at the New York 15th annual Asian Film Festival, Lincoln Center on July 5, Tuesday, for his acting in "Inside Men." He was with other Star Asia Award recipients, Miriam Yeung (Hong Kong) and John Lloyd Cruz (Philippines).
In the political thriller, Lee acts as Ahn Sang Gu, a thug who wanted to get revenge on a columnist. His acting was commended by many as one of his best performances, making his character outshine the others.
"Inside Men" tells the story of corruption in politics, where a famous journalist (Baek Yoon Sik) abuses his control of the media and works with a tycoon (Kim Hong Pa) so that a congressman (Lee Gyoung Young) would be elected president. When the small-time gangster Ahn was caught in crosshairs, he tried to expose the conspiracy with the help of a mentor played by Cho Seung Woo.
"When I first read the screenplay, I thought Ahn Sang Gu was portrayed as a stereotypical thug, very rough and simplistic," Lee told Forbes in a sit-down interview. "Because [the film] was such a tightly plotted screenplay, I felt there wasn't a lot of room for the audience to breathe."
The 45-year-old actor wanted to add color and injected more humor to his character. In the history of Korea, "Inside Men" was the highest-grossing R-rated film with over 9 million admissions and $63 million gross earnings worldwide.
The film's success is not entirely good news for Lee who pointed out the people's sentiment towards Korea's politicians and chaebols. For him, the movie was just an outlet of the public's frustrations. Transparency International, which publishes annual Corruption Perceptions Index has ranked South Korea, 37 in perceived corruption levels among 168 countries in 2015, NBC News reported.
The hype of Lee's blockbuster movie in Korea could never be timely. Prosecutors raided the country's fifth-biggest conglomerate Lotte Group in Seoul last month to investigate alleged slush funds and the government's lobbying to build a Lotte World Tower.
Watch Lee in the blockbuster film in the clip below.