Lee Eun-ju (Korean: 이은주; December 22, 1980 – February 22, 2005) was a South Korean actress. She was best known for the films Oh! Su-jeong (2000), Bungee Jumping of Their Own (2001), Lovers' Concerto (2002), and Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War (2004) and for the television series Phoenix (2004). Despite a brief career spanning just eight years, she amassed a filmography of acclaimed performances, becoming widely recognized as a frontrunner among the next generation of Korean actors. Renowned for her emotional depth, versatile acting range and distinctively mysterious aura, she was one of the defining leading ladies of early-to-mid 2000s Korean cinema and television. She died by suicide at age 24.
Contents
Early Life and Beginnings
She was born in Gunsan, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea, as the younger of two children. Raised in relative affluence, Lee engaged in various extracurricular activities from a young age, including dance, violin, swimming, bowling, and piano. Her primary childhood dream was to become a professional pianist, a path she pursued diligently for 14 years. Lee studied music for much of her youth, without giving much thought to becoming an actress. She would later contribute a piano track to the soundtrack of the 2002 film Lovers' Concerto.
In July 1996, while attending Gunsan Yeonggwang Girls' High School, Lee entered the Sunkyung Smart Uniform Model Contest. Her path to the contest was largely accidental; while shopping for school uniforms with her mother, the store owner suggested she enter. According to Lee, she had little interest in modeling and entered only after her mother secretly submitted her application accompanied by a photograph. Lee passed the preliminary rounds and advanced to the finals. Expecting only to attend as a spectator to see invited celebrities, she was surprised to win the Silver Prize. Notable fellow contestants include future actress Song Hye-kyo and Ahn Mi-jung (later of the hop-hop group O-24). Shortly after winning, Lee appeared in her first television commercial for Smart Uniforms in late 1996."I went into the competition with absolutely no expectations and felt completely relaxed. About 2,500 people applied, 50 made it to the finals, and they were choosing seven winners. They asked me to introduce myself, so I did. Then they told me to dance, so I danced. After that, I was backstage watching the singers perform. Thinking it was time to go home, I had already taken off the sash I was wearing when suddenly I heard them call my name. I walked up looking completely bewildered, and received my award. I won the Silver Prize, and the person who won the Gold Prize was Hye-kyo—Song Hye-kyo.
After that, I filmed a school uniform commercial and went back to Gunsan, where I returned to studying and playing the piano. Then I received an offer to appear in a drama. Little by little, I found myself getting deeper into acting, and before I knew it, here I am." (laughs)
Career
1997-1999: Early Television Roles and Breakthrough
After finding work as a model, Lee officially made her debut in January 1997 on the KBS comedy show Comedy Outlook (코미디 전망대). Later that year, she entered standard broadcast drama acting with the KBS2 TV youth series Start, as class president Jeong Nam-young. Unlike her later serious image, her early television appearances featured her playing lively, typical high school characters. In August 1998, she appeared briefly in the SBS horror anthology Horror Special 8-Part Series (납량특선 8부작) in the two episodes of One Day Suddenly (어느날 갑자기), followed by a notable supporting performance in the SBS drama White Nights 3.98 (백야 3.98), playing the younger counterpart of Shim Eun-ha's character.
Her public breakthrough came in 1999 with the hit SBS drama KAIST by famed screenwriter Song Ji-na. The series followed the lives of engineering students at the prestigious university. Lee played Gu Ji-won, a cold, pragmatic student who balances her harsh exterior with deep loyalty to her team. Although it became one of her most recognizable early performances, Lee later admitted in interviews that she initially disliked playing Ji-won due to the sharp contrast between the character's personality and her own. Ji-won's detached demeanor and sharp wit earned her the nickname "Ice Princess" and the image continued to be associated with Lee even after her successful transition to film. The series became a commercial success and her character's immense popularity significantly increased Lee's public profile. Lee was the youngest member of the main cast despite portraying a senior university student. Following KAIST, she was frequently cast in roles depicting women older than her actual age. This trend stemmed from a level of artistic maturity and compelling screen presence rarely seen in peers of her generation. Her nuanced performances at a young age earned her widespread praise and established her public image as a mature, sophisticated talent.
1999–2002: Rise in Korean Cinema and Critical Acclaim
While filming KAIST, Lee transitioned to film. Her film debut was in 1999, when she played the younger sister Se-hwa in Park Jong-won's award-winning feature Rainbow Trout. This proved to be a turning point in her career, ultimately leading her to pursue acting professionally. Until then, Lee had intended to attend a music conservatory and become a concert pianist. After initially rejecting the role six months prior citing difficulties in balancing acting with her studies, Lee finished high school and accepted the second time the role was offered to her. During the early stages of filming, she continued to practice the piano at a music academy after completing her schedule. However, the role prompted her to pivot her academic focus from music to drama. She later enrolled in the Department of Theater and Film at Dankook University. Lee earned praise for holding her own alongside veteran actors Kang Soo-yeon and Sul Kyung-gu.
Her performance in Rainbow Trout caught the attention of acclaimed director Hong Sang-soo, who cast her as the lead in his third feature Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors [Oh! Su-jeong] (2000). Lee delivered one of the most memorable performances in all of Hong's films and in what was South Korea's first black-and-white film in 30 years. In the film, Lee portrayed Su-jeong, a TV screenwriter in her late twenties—significantly older than Lee herself. Caught between two men, Su-jeong presents an image that is at once innocent and subtly calculating, and Lee was praised for capturing the character's emotional ambiguity. Following its release, the film received widespread critical acclaim. It won the Best Film Award at the Busan Film Critics Association, the Special Jury Prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival, was selected for the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival and served as the opening film of the inaugural Jeonju International Film Festival. Lee's performance also earned her the Best New Actress award at the 38th Grand Bell Awards in 2001.
In film, Lee quickly established herself as a leading actress. In late 2000 she was cast in director Kim Dae-sung's directorial debut, the hit film Bungee Jumping of Their Own (2001) where she starred opposite actor Lee Byung-hun. Her portrayal of In Tae-hee—an art student whose tragic destiny spans lifetimes—solidified her as a rising Chungmuro leading lady. Critics regarded her portrayal of the wistful yet poignant first love as central to the emotional impact of the story. The film won the Audience Award at the 10th Hamburg Film Festival in the feature debut competition. Today, it remains one of the defining romantic films in Korean cinema and has spawned multiple adaptations even decades after its release. The sunset waltz scene between Lee and Lee Byung-hun remains one of the most iconic moments in Korean romance film history. Lee later described Tae-hee as the role to which she felt the strongest personal attachment among all of her film performances.
2003–2004: Taegukgi, Phoenix, and The Scarlet Letter
In 2003, Lee was cast in the melodrama film Garden of Heaven alongside Ahn Jae-wook in what would be Ahn's return to the big screen after five years. This also marked Lee's second collaboration with film director and screenwriter Lee Han, after Lovers' Concerto (2002). Later that year, Lee was cast alongside Han Suk-kyu in the thriller film Salt Doll (소금인형). However, internal conflicts between the production crew and director led to severe production delays. In early 2004, investor CJ Entertainment halted production indefinitely after only one-fifth of the movie had been shot, leaving it permanently unreleased. During this period, Lee starred in Au Revoir, UFO (2004) as a visually impaired woman. She reportedly prepared for the role by observing the daily lives of blind individuals and practicing everyday tasks with her eyes closed. Her performance received praise, though the film itself will be overshadowed by her later works.
Despite the setback that was the suspension of Salt Doll, 2004 proved to be a milestone year for Lee. During the same period, Lee was cast as Kim Young-shin, the fiancée of Lee Jin-tae (played by Jang Dong-gun), in Kang Je-gyu's record-breaking Korean War film Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War (2004). Filmed and produced in 2003–50 years since the end of the Korean War—it premiered in February 2004. The blockbuster became the highest-grossing domestic film of its time and the first Korean film to surpass over 10 million admissions at the South Korean box office, making Lee the first South Korean lead actress to achieve this milestone.
The suspension of Salt Doll also unexpectedly opened the opportunity for Lee to return to television in MBC's Phoenix (2004). Initially declining the role due to her film commitments, Lee eventually accepted after finding herself available to film a drama. Returning to television after four years, she starred in her first television lead role. Starring alongside Lee Seo-jin and Eric Mun, she portrayed Lee Ji-eun, a spoiled heiress whose privileged life collapses before she grows into a resilient adult. Phoenix became one of the most successful dramas of the year, reaching a peak nationwide viewership of 31.7% and spawning a dedicated fanbase. Lee delivered arguably her finest performance on television and received universal acclaim in her role. Critics particularly praised Lee's ability to portray the dynamic of youthful impulsiveness and later emotional maturity of her character, navigating a ten-year character arc with profound emotional range. Her performance earned her the Top Excellence Award (Actress) at the 2004 MBC Drama Awards. The drama significantly expanded her popularity throughout East Asia and established her as one of Korea's leading television actresses.
Death and subsequent tributes
On the night of February 22, 2005, days after her graduation from Dankook University, Lee died by suicide at her apartment in Bundang, after slitting her wrists and hanging herself. Investigation ruled severe depression as the cause. She was twenty-four years old. Her family attributed her mental decline and chronic insomnia to the psychological toll of filming explicit scenes for The Scarlet Letter, a role she reportedly had difficulty filming and detaching from."[The most difficult scene] is definitely the trunk scene. It was so difficult that I wondered if it was even okay for a person to suffer this much; I felt exactly like I wanted to die. It will probably remain the most memorable scene out of my entire filmography so far—and likely throughout the rest of my acting career."In January 2004, Lee appeared in KBS2's Vitamin, where polysomnography testing revealed her susceptibility to early-stage depression linked to poor sleep quality. Treated as a standard television health-check segment at the time, the broadcast was later widely revisited by media and fans as an overlooked early indication of her mental health struggles.
By early 2005, Lee's condition had deteriorated. On January 24, 2005, she visited Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, seeking treatment for severe insomnia, loss of appetite, and impaired memory and concentration. Lee was formally diagnosed with depression on February 3 and received psychiatric treatment. Doctors recommended hospitalization for further testing, but Lee declined and missed her follow-up appointment.
She left a suicide note scrawled in blood, in which she wrote, "Mom, I am sorry and I love you." A separate note said, "Even though I live, I'm not really alive. I didn't want to resent anyone. I tried to endure and overcome it on my own, but I can’t… I have no emotions anymore… because I’m not myself anymore. I wanted to go back to a year ago. I prayed for it every day." A notebook found in her room with undated writings further revealed her mental anguish and chronic insomnia: "I no longer want to show myself like this, trapped in a position where I can neither do this nor that. My head feels like it's going to split open too... If only I could sleep deeply..."
The news of her death prompted a massive outpouring of grief from fellow actors, filmmakers, and fans. Analysts attributed the intensity of the public's shock and grief to Lee's professional reputation, noting that she was regarded as a highly promising young talent who had maintained a positive public image devoid of industry controversies. Adding to the shock was its unexpected timing; Lee was reviewing potential domestic and international projects, had recently signed a cosmetics endorsement deal, and was set to begin work on a feature film and a television series later in the year.
Critical Re-evaluation and Legacy
Although initial media reports heavily linked Lee's mental health struggles to the graphic nature of her final role in The Scarlet Letter, subsequent retrospective analyses and members of the South Korean film community have largely rejected the sensationalized framing. Instead, contemporary critics and industry peers view her final performance as testament to her uncompromising artistic dedication. Today, Lee is widely remembered as one of the most gifted and emotionally versatile acting talents of her generation.