Kang Soo-yeon
Kang in 2009
Born	(1966-08-18)August 18, 1966 Seoul, South Korea
Died	May 7, 2022(2022-05-07) (aged 55) Seoul, South Korea
Other names	Kang Su-yeon, Kang Soo-youn
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1969–2022
Korean name
Hangul	강수연
Hanja	姜受延
RR	Gang Suyeon
MR	Kang Suyŏn

Kang Soo-yeon (Korean: 강수연; August 18, 1966 – May 7, 2022) was a South Korean actress. An internationally acclaimed star from the mid-1980s to the end of the 1990s, she is often honorifically nicknamed Korea's "firstworld star".^[1][2][3][4]

Kang began her acting career as a child and gained national recognition withA High School Student's Diary on KBS 1TV (1983–1984), and the comedy filmsWhale Hunting 2 (1985) andMimi and Cheolsu's Youth Sketch (1987). However, she would remain unknown outside her country until her breakout role inIm Kwon-taek'sThe Surrogate Woman (1987).^[A] She won theVolpi Cup for Best Actress at the44th Venice International Film Festival for this role, making her the first Korean actor to receive an award at a major international film festival. In 1989, she received the Bronze St. George at the16th Moscow International Film Festival forCome Come Come Upward (1989), which further established her "world star" title.

From the early 2000s and onwards however, her output slowed significantly. Kang took years off between film appearances and switched to acting on the small screen, where she achieved moderate success for starring inLadies of the Palace (2001–02) onSBS TV. Her last film that was released during her lifetime wasJuri (2013). After a nine-year gap, she was set to return to film with the Netflix originalJung_E, directed byYeon Sang-ho. The production, which finished filming in January 2022, was released after Kang died, in January 2023.

After collapsing fromcerebral hemorrhage at her home in southern Seoul on May 5, 2022, Kang was transported to hospital and stayed in the ICU for recovery. She never awoke from the coma and died on May 7, 2022.

Kang began professionally acting as a child in 1969.^[5]

As a child actress, Kang appeared in a number of low-profile movies and TV shows in the 1970s and 1980s.^{[citation needed]}

Her career breakthrough happened when she took on a lead role as the vulnerable teenager Ok-nyo in theIm Kwon-taek-directed movieThe Surrogate Woman.^[A] For the film, she was honored with theVolpi Cup for Best Actress award at the 1987Venice International Film Festival as well as the Best Actress Award at the Nantes International Film Festival. The former achievement marked the first time a Korean actor, female or male, had been given an award at the major film festival. At the time, it was still considered shocking to many that South Korea even had a film industry.^[6][7]

Two years later,Come Come Come Upward, aBuddhist-themed movie also directed by Im, was released. In the film, Kang played the role of Sun-nyeo, a young student who seeks refuge in a monastery to escape from her troubled home; she studies to become a nun and later falls in love.^[8] Kang did, in fact, get her head shaved onscreen in the scene when Sun-nyeo becomes a nun.^[3][9] She personally felt proud of her performance—later stating she felt her ego was insignificant to her portrayal and that it was "natural for [Sun-nyeo] to shave her head", due to the character's wish to be a nun.^[3] Kang won the Bronze St. George at the16th Moscow International Film Festival for her role inCome Come Come Upward,^[10] establishing further credit as Korea's "world star".^[11]

In the same year, she was invited to serve as a juror in theTokyo International Film Festival. In addition, she later became a member of the jury for the17th Moscow International Film Festival, in 1991.^[12]

In the 1990s, Kang appeared in a number of movies, the most notable of which areJang Sun-woo'sRoad to the Racetrack (1991),That Woman, That Man (1993) byKim Ui-seok,Lee Myung-se'sTheir Last Love Affair (1996), andIm Sang-soo's debut,Girls' Night Out (1998).Road to the Racetrack won her several accolades for best actress at award ceremonies, including theBaeksang Arts Awards,Chunsa Film Art Awards, and theBlue Dragon Film Awards.That Woman, That Man was a commercial success at thebox office, and she earned anotherBaeksang Arts Award for Most Popular Actress (her first being in 1990 for her performance inAll That Falls Has Wings).^[6]

By the end of the decade, Kang had acted in 32 movies. AfterRainbow Trout was released in 1999, she cut down her work in film and took to acting on television.^[13][14] The actress was invited to be a juror in the 5thBusan International Film Festival, in 2000.^[15]

After a fifteen-year gap, Kang returned to television in 2001. She was given a starring role inLadies of the Palace (여인 천하;Yeo-in cheon-ha), a historical drama that aired onSBS TV. The 150-episode series was successful, and it managed to garner her renewed visibility among mainstream audiences.^[6] Her performance asJeong Nan-jeong enabled her to win adaesang, awarded by the channel.^[16]

After a hiatus from the movie scene, Kang made her comeback by playing the role of an attorney inThe Circle. She then appeared in two more movies,Hanbando in 2006 andWith a Girl of Black Soil in 2007.Hanbando received largely negative reviews.^{[citation needed]} In 2007, she continued her foray into mainstream TV by acting in the drama miniseriesMoonhee onMBC TV. On the show, she played the role of a woman who is forced to leave her child she had when she was only eighteen.^[17][18][19]

Throughout the 2010s, Kang only appeared in two films, one of which was Im Kwon-taek'sHanji (2011).^[20]

In 2015, she became the co-director for the Busan International Film Festival,^[21] but left the board two years later.^[22]

In 2022, Kang was given a starring role inYeon Sang-ho's sci-fi action filmJung_E, set in the 22nd century.^[23] Filming began in November 2021 and concluded in January 2022.^[24] Kang played the role of a researcher at an AI lab who clones the brain of an elite soldier—her mother. The film was released globally on Netflix in January 2023, after Kang's death.^[25]

At 5:48 p.m. (KST) on May 5, 2022, Kang was found unconscious at her home in southern Seoul byfirst responders. They reported that she had suffered acardiac arrest^[26] after collapsing from acerebral hemorrhage.^[27] Immediately, she was transported to the local Gangnam Severance Hospital, where she was admitted to theICU and became comatose.^[27]

After receiving two days of medical treatment at the hospital, Kang died at 3 p.m. on May 7, 2022.^[22][28][29] She was cremated at Seoul Memorial Park (Korean: 서울추모공원) and her ashes were buried at the Honor Stone (Korean: 용인공원) on May 11, 2022.

Jeonju International Film Festival, which incidentally concluded on May 7, 2022, commemorated Kang's legacy through social media, writing: "The Jeonju International Film Festival commemorates the passing of the late actress Kang Soo-yeon, who was a shining star of Korean cinema. I will not forget the legacy she left in the Korean film industry."^[30]

Source:^[31][32]

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• Best Actress Blue Dragon Film Awards winners
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