Korean Multi-Hyphenate Lee Ji-eun Gets First Trip Down Cannes’ Red Carpet With ‘Broker’ — Deadline Disruptors

deadline.com:

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 songwriter—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 first commercial film.The first film from Kore-eda since the Palme d’Or winning Shoplifters in 2018 is also his first 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-off points where people who are unable to raise children can deposit their babies anonymously.Lee started out as a recording artist, releasing her first album in 2008, and by 2019 she had three songs on Billboard’s list of the 100 Greatest K-Pop Songs of the 2010s.