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Jin-Soo Kwon is a fictional character on the television series Lost, played by Daniel Dae Kim. The character is notable in that he is the one survivor (that we know of) who is entirely unable to speak English (although since arriving on the island he has learned some basic phrases). By contrast, Korean-born actor Daniel Dae Kim was raised in Pennsylvania, and thus speaks American English with an American accent in real life. Template:Spoiler

Basic facts

• Played by: Daniel Dae Kim
• Flashback episodes: appears in Sun's flashback in "House of the Rising Sun", "...In Translation", "Exodus: Part 1", "Exodus: Part 2", "...And Found"
• Reason for trip: Secret mission to deliver watches for his employer
• Profession: Businessman/enforcer for Mr. Paik

Biography

Prior to the crash of Oceanic Flight 815

Jin-Soo Kwon is a Korean man under the employ of Sun's father, the wealthy industrialist Mr. Paik. However, he was born into relatively poor circumstances and, as a child, worked with his father on a fishing boat in a rural village in Pusan. One of his first jobs in the city was at a hotel managed by a Mr. Kim, where he worked briefly as a doorman until he quit, refusing to obey Mr. Kim's intolerant policies. Shortly thereafter, he met his future wife, Sun; he denounced and left behind his peasant background upon coming to work for Mr. Paik.

Jin's strained relationship with Sun stems from his employment to her unscrupulous father, who is not above using bribery, blackmail and extortion to succeed. When Jin came home one night with blood on his hands, Sun grew afraid of him and what kind of work he was doing for Mr. Paik. Jin had been assigned to intimidate a government official into overlooking environmental regulation violated by one of Paik's factories; rather than allow one of Paik's cruelly efficient hit men to simply kill the official, Jin violently beat the man in order to save his life. Jin, however, was unable to bring himself to tell Sun about her father's shady dealings and disillusion her about the source of her wealth.

Jin was assigned a secret mission to deliver watches to Mr. Paik's associates in Sydney and then Los Angeles; Sun assumed that it was a vacation. Before leaving South Korea for Sydney, Jin visited his father. Jin told his father about the turmoil that has plagued his life since being employed by Mr. Paik. Jin's father advised that he and Sun should stay in the United States once they got there and never return to Korea. This became Jin's initial plan until he was confronted by an associate of Mr. Paik in an airport washroom before boarding the doomed flight. The spy informed Jin that his plan to flee with Sun had been found out and he threatened to take Sun away from him should they run away.

Note: A largely ignored facet of Jin's personal history involves the mandatory military service (conscription) required of all native born South Korean males from the age of 19 for a minimum period of 24 months.

On the island

Jin's inability to communicate sets him apart from the other castaways and he usually stays away from the others, who think of him as violent and abusive to his wife. Jin and Michael shared an often violent adversarial relationship which started by Jin attacking Michael to retrieve his father-in-law's watch and culminated in Michael attacking Jin for the alleged destruction of the raft he was building. Having eventually set aside their issues, Jin aided Michael in constructing a new raft. Jin has a gift for working harder than most people without tiring and is the best fisher in the group, a skill which he acquired perhaps from his father.

Jin has a single handcuff on his left wrist; this dates from his assault on Michael, after which Jin was handcuffed to some wreckage using handcuffs previously owned by the U.S. Marshal (and presumably worn by Kate Austen during the flight and discarded by her in the jungle after the crash, where Walt Lloyd found them). Michael freed Jin by cutting the chain with an axe, but the key is lost, so Jin still had the handcuff on one wrist.

The discovery that Sun speaks English only further widened the gap between them, and they separated. The separation seemed serious as Jin became part of the raft party that would soon be leaving the island. Before Jin left on the raft, he and Sun reconciled. She gave him a book that she wrote containing phonetic spellings, in Korean, of common English words.

When Sawyer was shot by the men who kidnapped Walt and fell into the water, Jin jumped into the ocean to rescue him. He ended up washing ashore and was captured by the tail-end survivors until he escaped, only to find the other survivors of the raft. The tail-end survivors held Jin, Sawyer and Michael in a makeshift prison until they found out they were also the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815. In one episode, Jin is shown speaking perfect English in Hurley's dream sequence.

Jin has become better friends with Michael as they built the second raft together. He also befriended Sawyer following the destruction of the raft, and he has looked out for both them during their journey with the tail-section survivors.

While searching for Michael in the jungle Jin got a close up view of the mysterious "Others"...but only their feet.

Jin was reunited with Sun and the other fuselage survivors when the tail-section survivors joined that camp. Using machinery found in the hatch, Locke was able to remove the remaining handcuff from Jin's wrist.

• Lost characters
• Fictional businesspeople