Actor Lee Pil-mo said he has still not been able to tell his father about his mother's death two years later, touching hearts.
On the 15th episode of Channel A's 'Close Friends Tokumentary: Table for Four', Park Kyung-rim and Lee Jong-hyuk and Kim Min-kyo visited the home of Lee Pil-mo and his wife Seo Soo-yeon.
That day Lee Pil-mo and his wife Seo Soo-yeon prepared the meal themselves. Afterwards, Park Kyung-rim and Lee Jong-hyuk, who was a 1993 theater classmate from Seoul Institute of the Arts, and Kim Min-kyo visited the home. Later, as they talked together Seo Soo-yeon stepped away, and Lee Pil-mo ate and talked with Park Kyung-rim, Lee Jong-hyuk and Kim Min-kyo.
Park Kyung-rim said, "Your classmates should come and congratulate you because senior Lee Pil-mo was appointed full-time professor in the Department of Performing Arts, Film and Content at Daejeon University. Isn't that something to celebrate?" and added, "Being a professor is like striking it big in the old days. It's the greatest honor." She asked, "Aside from the three of you, do you have other classmates?" Kim Min-kyo replied, "There are many successful people. Our classmates include Kim Su-ro, Jung Sung-hwa, Ra Mi-ran and Im Hyung-joon. Quite a few," he said.
Park Kyung-rim asked, "That must have been fun when you were in school," and Lee Pil-mo recalled, "When I entered school I felt like I should retake the exam. I saw someone with a ponytail. Someone with six piercings on one ear. I had short hair and had just graduated high school, so the sense of distance was huge. I wondered if I should be attending school with these people. It felt like I didn't belong here. Lee Jong-hyuk felt like a very good, model student. He also had the vibe of a pure romance comic. Min-kyo seemed to get along so well with girlfriends that I thought the current girlfriend might be his 10th. That's how he was back then."
Park Kyung-rim asked, "Did you start theater around the same time?" and Lee Jong-hyuk answered, "Almost the same." Lee Pil-mo said, "We did it with passion because we couldn't make money," and Kim Min-kyo said, "The troupe name was 'Jase Repertoire.' The play's title was 'The Threepenny Opera.'" Lee Jong-hyuk recounted, "We couldn't afford a banner. We told people to come at 5 when the show was at 7, so we performed street acts in costume." Kim Min-kyo said, "We held posters and the thugs appeared in the play. Pil-mo wore the boss's costume and the rest became his henchmen chasing after them. When Pil-mo gestured we plastered up posters. After we put them up we all clapped three times. We kept doing it silently. People were curious, followed and laughed, so audiences lined up to watch." They said they performed for about three years before pursuing separate paths to become known.
Then Park Kyung-rim asked, "Min-kyo oppa actually had a big accident, right?" Kim Min-kyo said, "During a performance my anterior cruciate ligament tore. After the show I went to the hospital and after surgery I could walk but with a limp. They said I wouldn't be able to run and would probably limp even when walking. The hospital said six months, home for a year, so I couldn't do anything for a year and a half. After three, four, six months passed there was nothing to see. People said playing games helps time pass, so I played games at home and created my GTA performances. That opened doors for me and I filmed many commercials because of it. Living through it, the most desperate hardships often pile up and become energy for me," he reflected.
Lee Pil-mo, who was unknown for 10 years, also supported himself with part-time work. He said, "I've really done everything. I worked at a famous company that makes musical sets; I held hammers, built sets, loaded and unloaded them onto trucks and did set-up. That was when 'The Last Empress' had its premiere. During the run there were more than 40 shows and anyone could have had an accident, so I had the script memorized. I thought an opportunity might come."
He continued, "I also appeared in 'Love and War.' The episode was titled 'Sister-in-law and the Young Master.' I was the young master. I approached it seriously, thinking, This is a work. The sister-in-law loved the young master so much but her brother often was away because of work. One day she discovered an affair and slapped him on the ear. I thought it would be acting, but her expression changed and she wanted to go for a real hit. I said okay, and I really got hit hard and turned pale. It hit so hard I went white. I strongly felt I couldn't be hit again. So I controlled my breathing until I remembered the lines, and then I delivered them."
Ten years later 'The Daughter-in-Law's Heyday' scored 35.3%, 'You Are My Destiny' 43.6%, 'Soryakgukjip's Sons' 44.2%, and other shows became huge hits, making him a trusted actor who even landed major commercials. Kim Min-kyo said, "Six months before a commercial shoot, he suddenly said he was having a hard time and asked me to buy him a drink. I worried something was wrong and went to his house to buy him a drink. At that time I was earning money while taking acting lessons, so I bought the drink and gave him some advice: 'Won't there come a time when people like us will get attention? Just hang in there.' Six months later his commercial for a major supermarket company came out. I called him immediately."
Park Kyung-rim asked, "Your mother must have been happy when things went well," and Lee Pil-mo joked, "Later she prepared her own autograph." When she asked, "Did your mother manage money well?" he said, "I can't manage money. I originally had a house in Bangbae-dong, but my mother handled things so well that we moved several times and now things are fine. Our mother raised us, saving and being frugal. My father had three children and lived like a man of leisure for his whole life without earning money. In the past, neighborhood women pooled a few won from their gatherings to live on for a month. I could never dream of a lavish table as a child. I ate salted fish so often. Two mackerel the size of forearms cost 500 won and they were very salty so you could live a week on rice. My mother lived her life saving money," he recalled his impoverished childhood.
He said, "From the point I started earning appearance fees through acting, if it was a few hundred thousand won I kept it, and if it exceeded 1 million won I gave it to my mother. I gave like that for about 20 years. I could meet friends quietly and have a bottle of soju; there was no reason to keep a lot of money. But because my mother never had someone provide income in her life, when I did have money she would say, 'Come quickly' and have me stamp a seal. When I stamped it, the place became a building or something."
He added, "A major crossroads in my life. As in acting, life often brings big decisions. When I didn't understand something or couldn't imagine why a character did something, I would ask my mother and she would clearly say, 'Isn't it this?' That insight guided my path as an actor at every turn. I think about that a lot since my mother passed away," recalling when his mother died of a stroke in March 2023.
Lee Pil-mo said, "I thought I should do the best I could on my mother's final journey. So I rented a large place with a whole floor to myself. No matter the cost, I wanted to do that for my mother, and at the funeral she ordered the table settings. When asked what meat to serve she said to give everything they had there. Two kinds of soup too. You should do that much for someone who is passing. While arranging the table I noticed Jong-hyuk being a bit prickly, but this friend stayed with me until 3 or 4 a.m. the night before my mother passed. He had been drinking heavily but returned in about two hours to attend the procession," he expressed gratitude.
He choked up, saying, "I remember the first time my mother rode a plane to Jeju; as the plane took off she kept saying, 'It's taking off, it's taking off,' like a girl." He added, "Last year on Jeju there is the Olle Trail. It's about 427 km with more than 20 courses, and I walked the southern 11th course in Seogwipo alone. There was no one on the road. I suddenly felt overwhelmed like a madman. I still have the clothes my mother wore to the hospital at the end; they are wrapped in a bag."
Especially, Lee Pil-mo said, "When my mother was hospitalized, four days later my father was admitted too, so they began fighting illnesses in different places. Three months later my mother passed and my father was elsewhere and has poor hearing. His memory isn't entirely intact, so I worried a lot while arranging the funeral. How do I tell my father? Not telling him doesn't seem right, but telling him might not be good either. I thought about it a lot."
Park Kyung-rim asked, "Even now..?" and Lee Pil-mo replied, "I feel he might know. He doesn't ask about my mother. Even after a year he didn't ask, and after two years he still doesn't ask. He doesn't ask where mom is. I sometimes wonder if my father has perhaps forgotten the wife he lived with his whole life."
Hearing this, Lee Jong-hyuk said cautiously, "Maybe being quietly present could be good." Kim Min-kyo also expressed concern, "I think losing a partner is one of the most damaging losses. I've seen many cases where one person dies and the other follows not long after." Lee Pil-mo said, "I think that could happen," and worried about the shock his father would feel, "He keeps crying even when just looking; if I tell him..." Park Kyung-rim comforted him, saying, "I think it's not that he's forgotten; he may dislike having it confirmed when asked. If you don't ask and don't tell, there is hope."
[Photo] Channel A
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