Korean actress Kang Soo-youn, who was due to return to film later this year after a decade-long absence, has died at the age of 55
Acclaimed South Korean actress Kang Soo-youn died Saturday at the age of 55 after suffering a medical emergency at home.
The screen star was spotted at home in a state of cardiac arrest on Thursday and died two days later at a nearby hospital, according to Soompi.
Kang, who collected a string of major acting awards at prestigious international film festivals throughout the 1980s, was set to return to acting later that year with the release of the Netflix film Jung_E.
Missing Before Her Comeback: Acclaimed South Korean actress Kang Soo-youn died on Saturday aged 55 after suffering a medical emergency at home, according to Soompi; Seen in Gangneung, South Korea in October
According to the outlet, Kang was found unresponsive around 5 p.m. local time in Apgujeong, Gangnam, Seoul.
CPR was performed and she was then taken to a nearby hospital, but the actress reportedly did not regain consciousness.
She died on Saturday afternoon surrounded by family members.
A funeral is reportedly scheduled for May 11.
Tragic: Kang was found unresponsive at home on Thursday. CPR was performed and she was taken to a hospital, but she never regained consciousness and died on Saturday afternoon; seen in 2016 in Busan, South Korea
Kang was set to make her big comeback with South Korean sci-fi film Jung_E, which has no release date yet but is expected to hit Netflix later this year.
The film is set in a dystopian future where Earth has become uninhabitable while a small group of survivors live in makeshift shelters.
Kang plays a scientist tasked with creating a robotic replica of a legendary mercenary that contains a cloned version of her brain.
Born in 1966, the star rose to fame in her home country in the 1980s with a string of popular film roles.
Over the decade it became a hit at international film festivals. Kang won Best Actress at the Venice International Film Festival for her role in the 1986 film The Surrogate Woman, becoming the first Korean woman to win a major film festival award.
One last time: Kang was set to make her big comeback with South Korean sci-fi film Jung_E, which has no release date yet but is expected to hit Netflix later this year; seen with Darren Aronofsky in 2017 in Busan, South Korea
She also won Best Actress at the Moscow International Film Festival for her film Come Come Come Upward (1989).
However, Kang’s roles became rarer starting in the 2000s, and she mostly testified the last decade.
Her last project before Jung_E was the short film Juri in 2013.