Kvolution

🌻 Lee Joon Gi

2005: King and the Clownand rising fame

In January 2006

Lee had his first major acting role in the 2005 film The King and the Clown, in which he played the historical figure Gong-gil, an effeminate clown in the Joseon Dynasty. The film, which achieved both critical and commercial success, propelled the then-unknown actor into Asia-wide stardom. Apart from winning numerous Best Newcomer recognition at the Korean Film Awards, Grand Bell Awardsand Baeksang Art Awards, Lee also won the Best Actor Award at the Max Movie Awards.

Producer Lee Joon-ik revealed the story of how he chose Lee for The King and the Clown by just seeing him do handstands, saying, "Just because of handstands, Lee Joon-gi became the person he is today." After the film, Lee became "an icon" of the South Korean "pretty boy" trend.Lee has since tried to downplay this kkonminamimage, saying that his character Gong-gil in the film felt like a foot chain for him so he wanted to escape from it: "After my performance in The King and the Clown, I found myself at the forefront of this ‘pretty boy’ trend, whether or not that was my intention. Suddenly, people were interested in me, and there was all this praise and criticism all at the same time. Everything was just so overwhelming. I felt like I was floating on air."

Lee was against the halving ofscreen quotas in South Korea that allows foreign films to be shown in theaters on certain days, while domestic films are allotted another amount of days. He believed that without the screen quotas, The King and the Clown would not have been as successful in competing against foreign films.

For his follow-up film Fly, Daddy, Fly, directed by Choi Jong-tae and produced by Dyne Film-Guardtec, he was reportedly paid ₩100 million, relatively low given his rising popularity following King and the Clown. This is because the contract was signed in early December before the film's release when Lee was an unknown actor.

2006–2007: Overseas popularity

Lee was then cast in SBS's My Girl alongside Lee Da-hae andLee Dong-wook. The romance comedy series became a hit during its run both domestically and across Asia, further catapulting Lee intoKorean Wave stardom. Later, his movie Fly, Daddy, Flygarnered much attention and media coverage among Chinese viewers. However, there was criticism that both of these productions had "either fallen short of expectations at the box office or cast Lee in minor roles."

In 2007, Lee filmed a jointKorea-Japan movie entitledVirgin Snow with Japaneseactress Aoi Miyazaki, in which he plays a Korean exchange student. Virgin Snow was successful as it placed 9th at the box office chart and set a new ticket admissions record for a Korean film released in Japan. Lee later received the Rising Star Award at the 27th Hawaii International Film Festival. The same year, he participated in the film May 18, which is based on the events surrounding the Gwangju Massacre of 1980. May 18achieved excellent box office results, and was later awarded the Gold Orchid Best Feature Film for the year of 2007.

Lee also took on his first drama leading role in MBCaction drama, Time Between Dog and Wolf, in which he played a violent NIS agent. He won the Excellence Award at the 2007 MBC Drama Awardsfor his performance.

2008–2009: Tourism ambassadorship and contractual dispute

In Shanghai on May 2009

From April to July 2008, Lee played the titular role in SBS'sIljimae, a period-action drama based on Chinese folklore from the Ming dynasty about a masked Robin Hood-esque character during the Joseon era. The final episode achieved a rating of 31.4% viewership. Lee later received the Top Excellence Award at the 2008 SBS Drama Awards. The drama was also aired in Japan on the channel TV Tokyo.