Who is Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae? A K-drama fan’s appreciation of his roles in City of the Rising Sun, Il Mare and The Housemaid, and his hot-bod look in Typhoon

Lee Jung-jae starred alongside Jun Ji-hyun in Il Mare, and in the erotic thriller The Housemaid, which also starred the brilliant Jeon Do-yeon and Youn Yuh-jung

The actor remains by and large unknown to international audiences, and Squid Game viewers may be more familiar with actors like Gong Yoo, of Train to Busan fame

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Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae has been around for a lot longer than you think – here’s where else you might have seen the Korean actor and why he has been surprised by the surge in his popularity on social media. Photo: Netflix

Published: 4:15pm, 30 Sep 2021Updated: 2:28am, 9 Oct 2021

Back in the early 2000s, when I binged so hard on Korean dramas and films on VCDs (video compact discs) that my television set literally went up in smoke, Lee Jung-jae was already a familiar name to me and other hallyu (or Korean Wave) fans.

Like his contemporaries Lee Byung-hun, Jung Woo-sung, Bae Yong-joon and Jang Dong-gun, the now 48-year-old actor was a much sought after leading man, especially after his award-winning turn in City of the Rising Sun (1999).

He went on to star alongside Jun Ji-hyun in Il Mare (2000), which I enjoyed but which did quite poorly at the box office; he then fell off my radar until 2010 when he resurfaced in the erotic thriller The Housemaid, which also starred the brilliant Jeon Do-yeon and Youn Yuh-jung (who won best supporting actress at this year’s Academy Awards for her role in Minari).

I didn’t find this film particularly memorable, but Lee’s performance as the scheming husband was solid.

Lee (left) and Jun Ji-hyun in a still from Il Mare (2000). Photo: Blue Cinema

He then dropped off my radar again. Granted, these days I have not been following the K-drama/K-movie scene as closely and avidly as I used to.

I was, therefore, quite pleasantly surprised to see Lee – now a veteran actor – in the latest Netflix smash hit, Squid Game. Even more surprising is that he has completely shed his typical leading character look to play Seong Gi-hun, a middle-aged, debt-ridden gambling addict. And he is pretty good in this role – a tad over the top at times perhaps but, hey, this is a survival-themed, Battle Royale-type show, so caricature is allowed.

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