Lee Jung-jae’s 10 Best Movies & TV Shows, Ranked (2024)

Summary

  • Lee Jung-jae's performance in Squid Game anchored the entire series and catapulted him to international fame.
  • Lee has showcased his talent in various genres, playing romantic leads, villains, and morally ambiguous antiheroes.
  • His past works, such as An Affair and The Thieves, demonstrate Lee's ability to elevate the quality of the content with his performances.

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Lee Jung-jae has garnered increased recognition across the globe for his performance in Squid Game, but plenty of other films and TV shows are made excellent by his talent. Season 2 of Squid Game can't come soon enough, but in the meantime, many pieces of media feature the work of Lee, and scratch the same itch as the series. Working across a variety of genres, Lee has been the romantic lead, horrible villain, and morally ambiguous antihero and has elevated the quality of the content by rising to the occasion no matter what the script calls for.

Lee got his start in modeling and K-dramas in the 1990s, and his career has increased since then. For the most part, he has acted in films after his breakout movie role, but for the right part, it's clear that he's willing to re-enter the television sphere. Now that he is gaining prominence in the international sphere, it's safe to say that there will be plenty more to come from Lee in the future, including the Star Wars TV show Acolyte​​​​​​.

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Now that he is gaining prominence in the international sphere, it's safe to say that there will be plenty more to come from Lee.

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10 An Affair (1998)

Woo In

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Though Lee was in several prominent K-dramas up until this point, his role as Woo In in the film An Affair put him on the map and led to his film career. His character, Woo In, has a scandalous affair with his fiancé's older sister, Seo-hyun (Lee Mi-sook). However, the film doesn't dramatize the story and uses a quieter, more contemplative tone to communicate the themes. Despite knowing what they're doing is wrong, neither party can stop the feelings they have for each other, and it's easy to see how Seo-hyun could fall in love with Lee's performance.

9 Hunt (2022)

Park Pyong-ho

Lee Jung-jae’s 10 Best Movies & TV Shows, Ranked (2)

The explosive action film Hunt features Lee Jung-jae as Park Pyong-ho and also was the first film helmed by Lee as the director.Hunt is a precisely choreographed action film that would challenge any director, especially as a debut, but Lee pulls off both his performance and makes smart choices in his direction. A period piece that takes place in the '80s, Hunt draws inspiration from James Bond and other movies in the spy genre but distinguishes itself as a unique offering that explores a period of history that's often overlooked.

8 Il Mare (2000)

Han Sung-hyun

Lee Jung-jae’s 10 Best Movies & TV Shows, Ranked (3)

Il Mare not only solidified Lee's ability to be a romantic lead, but it also inspired the U.S. adaptation, The Lake House, starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. However, before the American twist on the film, Il Mare made a sweet and moving case for Lee as a sensitive leading man, and though it didn't achieve great acclaim, it's increased in popularity since the film's initial release. The fantastical premise doesn't take away from what is essential to the film's success: the empathetic performances by Lee and his costar.

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7 Sandglass (1995)

Baek Jae-hee

Lee Jung-jae’s 10 Best Movies & TV Shows, Ranked (5)

Sandglass was not Lee's first foray into K-dramas, but it was the one that made him a '90s heartthrob in South Korea for his performance of Baek Jae-hee. The series only ran for one season, but the cultural impact it made was astounding. Viewership and critical reception remained high with every episode of the series, and it wasn't only Lee but every actor on the program who was thrust into stardom. What made the show so important was that though a romantic love triangle was a major plot point, so was the political history that unfolded in the setting.

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6 City Of The Rising Sun (1999)

Hong-ki

Lee Jung-jae’s 10 Best Movies & TV Shows, Ranked (6)

Jung Woo-sung teams up with Lee in City of the Rising Sun, a film about the power of friendship. Hong-ki (Lee) and Do-chul (Jung) become best friends from their first meeting, and their relationship is a positive representation of platonic male love. However, their different life philosophies get in the way and threaten to ruin the friendship that has quickly become the highlight of their lives. Lee is not always a sympathetic character in the film, but his charisma jumps through the screen and makes it impossible not to root for him to win over Do-chul once again.

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5 Deliver Us From Evil (2020)

Ray

Lee is at his most fearsome as Ray in Deliver Us From Evil. He is a cruel man on a mission of revenge against the man who killed his brother. Kim In-nam (Hwang Jung-min), the man who killed Ray's brother, spends much of the movie running from Ray's wrath and searching for his daughter, whom Ray is using as a pawn. Seeing Lee in so violent and extreme a role is a divergence from his usual typecast. However, he slips into the character seamlessly, which helped the film achieve its many nominations and wins at the Blue Dragon Film Awards.

4 The Housemaid (2010)

Hoon

Lee Jung-jae’s 10 Best Movies & TV Shows, Ranked (7)

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Lee is the rich and powerful Hoon in The Housemaid, a recent remake of the 1960 film of the same name directed by Kim Ki-young. As with his other roles, Lee is not afraid to show the dangerous effects of sexism and toxic masculinity in his depiction of his character. Though he has wealth and influence, he has an affair with the maid who lives with him and his pregnant wife, which sets him and his family down a terrible and violent past. Eun-yi (Jeon Do-yeon), the maid, is driven to despair by the behavior of Hoon and his wife.

The film attempts to dress down the effects of classism and how the upper class lives in South Korea, as well as the cultural perceptions around mental illness and self-harm. Similar to other sexual thrillers, The Housemaid draws the viewer in with its luxury and charm, but there's an undercurrent of darkness throughout the film that reveals itself through the twist at the end. Lee's choice to be in the movie illustrates his commitment to stories that interact with social and political issues that he has demonstrated throughout his career.

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The film attempts to dress down the effects of classism and how the upper class lives in South Korea, as well as the cultural perceptions around mental illness and self-harm.

3 The Thieves (2012)

Popie

Lee Jung-jae’s 10 Best Movies & TV Shows, Ranked (8)

Lee isn't the protagonist in The Thieves, as his character, Popie, is the leader of the criminal ring but isn't the center of the love triangle. The Thieves is a thrilling joyride that holds its own against some of the great heist films of the twenty-first century. After Popie and his team steal an expensive and well-known item, they go on the run and join up with an even greater criminal mastermind. However, he and two of his allies were involved in a romantic web in the past, which complicates their present ambitions.

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Forming a new group, similar to Ocean's Eleven, the team plans to steal a priceless diamond, but the light-hearted tone of the film soon turns sour as many characters die in the process of getting it. Even though the darkness of the film comes suddenly, it heightens the quality of the movie and allows Lee to show the depth of his character. The fun of the heist and the emotional depth of the loss were all elements that made the film enormously popular in South Korea, breaking several box office records (via Box Office Mojo).

2 Assassination (2015)

Yem Sek-jin

Lee Jung-jae’s 10 Best Movies & TV Shows, Ranked (9)

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As Yem Sek-jin, Lee plays a Korean resistance fighter in a period piece about the Japanese occupation of Korea. The film is a twisting fictionalization of what the work of resistance members might have looked like in the 1930s. Yem is a complex character who has his loyalties split between the country he loves and the power of the Japanese government. Spanning many years and involving a large cast of characters, the film is reminiscent of a sweeping blockbuster, and though the many intersecting plot points can become convoluted, it's still an enjoyable film.

1 Squid Game (2021 - )

Seong Gi-hun

Squid Game

TV-MA

Release Date
September 17, 2021

Seasons
1

Writers
Hwang Dong-hyuk
Streaming Service(s)
Netflix

Showrunner
Hwang Dong-hyuk

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Squid Game became a runaway hit for Netflix after premiering in 2021, and Lee Jung-jae's performance as Gi-hun anchored the entire series. Gi-hun will return in Squid Game season 2, promising a familiar face in the next iteration of the dangerous games. The series is a satirization of class disparity and rose to prominence because of its body-horror elements and the high stakes that the contestants face. Lee's character is one of the few who make it to the end of the games and discover the maniacal truth behind them.

Due to its success, the show has catapulted Lee into fame outside of South Korea and into worldwide markets. Still, this new international fame is merely the latest recognition of his talents. His ability to carry a series as intense and fast-paced as Squid Game came from years of being an icon in South Korean film and television. Throughout this time, he portrayed many complex characters. However, now that wider audiences have an awareness of his talent, they can explore his existing and significant filmography.

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Lee Jung-jae’s 10 Best Movies & TV Shows, Ranked (2024)
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