Lee Junho was first introduced to the public in 2008, as a part of 2PM, which became the symbol of the bold, youthful spirit of its era with such hits as My House and Make It. Their songs were full of energy, yet the aspirations of Junho did not stop at performance. His initial acting experience was in 2003, when he was in the crime movie Cold Eyes. Since then he has been playing various roles in television and this shows a maturity and a restraint in his work. He is a handsome actor, and he has his admired energy – the energy that enables one glance or gesture to tell what many can say in words.
Top 10 Lee Junho K-Dramas
Among his many appearances, there are 10 K-dramas that deserve particular attention.
1. King the Land (2023)
Directors: Im Hyun Wook, Choi Sun Min
Cast: Lee Junho, Im Yoon Ah, Go Won Hee
King the Land was one of the most popular series of the year. It is the story of a man who was born into privilege, but he is weighed down by a silent enmity of an inheritance war. Shrewd and brilliant at his job, he is not comfortable with the issue of love. As a good-natured and light-hearted woman comes into his life, the encounters start arousing emotions that he has long repressed. What starts as a coincidence quickly becomes a love affair, which is delicate and uncertain, determined by the conflict between responsibility and passion.
2. The Red Sleeve (2021)
Directors: Jung Ji In, Song Yeon Hwa
Cast: Lee Junho, Lee Se Young, Kang Hoon
The Red Sleeve is a story of the strict glory of the Joseon court. It narrates of King Jeongjo or Yi San and his silent love affair with a court lady Sung Deok Im. In the palace, each movement has its meaning, and each word can change a life. It is not the pompous statements that make the drama so strong, but the nuance of desire within its restraint.
3. Wok of Love (2018)
Directors: Park Seon Ho, Ham Joon Ho
Cast: Lee Junho, Jung Ryeo Won, Jang Hyuk
The setting in Wok of Love is changed to the raucous coziness of a kitchen instead of royal chambers. An experienced cook, who worked in a large hotel, is turned into a loser and starts a new life in a small Chinese restaurant. It is there that he encounters a wealthy woman whose life has also gone astray when her marriage goes wrong without any notice. They find a purpose again through food and collective labour. The cook, cold and unemotional in the beginning, displays with little gestures the humanness behind his professionalism. But misery is not over, as the owner of the restaurant forces him to employ men with a criminal history and this jeopardizes the peace that he has just started to establish.
4. Good Manager (2017)
Directors: Lee Jae Hoon, Choi Yoon Seok
Cast: Namgoong Min, Nam Sang Mi, Lee Junho, Jung Hye Sung
Good Manager is a story of Kim Sung Ryong, a very strange accountant whose intellect is only comparable to his appetite to profit. Fate has had a way with him and he is the head of Business Operations Department of a big company. His initial plan is selfish, to drain the company coffers and disappear. However, with every corruption being unveiled, the instincts of Sung Ryong change to self-preservation and rebellion. His humour is keen and his sense of justice uncompromising, and he turns his wit against the mighty, and challenges greed which has long been unopposed. What started as a game to get something turns out to be a fight of honor, fought not with arms but with brains and courage.
5. Just Between Lovers (2017)
Director: Kim Jin Won
Cast: Lee Junho, Won Jin Ah, Lee Ki Woo, Kang Han Na
Just Between Lovers is about grief and survival. It follows Lee Kang Doo and Ha Moon Soo, two survivors of a devastating building collapse who bear the burden of their memories as wounds without a trace. Years later, they meet each other at a construction site erected on the remains of their common tragedy. They can find in each other the comfort of understanding, which neither words nor time had ever brought them before. They fall in love not because they desire to but because they are recognized: the awareness of what it is like to live on when everything has been taken away. The drama is haunted with the hurt, yet it is hurt cushioned with pity, and by the gradual rekindling of hope.
6. Confession (2019)
Directors: Kim Chul Gyu, Yoon Hyun Gi
Cast: Lee Junho, Shin Hyun Been, Yoo Jae Myung, Nam Ki Ae
Confession follows Choi Do Hyun, a young lawyer who is motivated by the necessity to prove the innocence of his father who was wrongly convicted of murder. The plot is based on the thin line between the truth and the law, and it raises the question of the fairness of the system that does not allow a man to be tried twice on the same crime. As Do Hyun digs deeper into the case he finds out that it is a network of deceit that goes way beyond one courtroom. He digs up the secrets that have been long buried by powerful men under procedure and fear with the help of Detective Ki Choon Ho.
7. Memory (2016)
Director: Park Chan Ho
Cast: Lee Sung Min, Kim Jee Soo, Park Jin Hee, Lee Junho
Memory is a story of a talented yet tough lawyer, Park Tae Suk who starts to lose his life when he is diagnosed with the Alzheimer disease. He decides to reconcile with the world before the light goes out as his own mind is slowly eroded. He accepts one last case not only in the name of justice but also in the name of redemption, trying to restore the harm done by ambition and negligence. In the loss of his memories, he finds it hard to retain the faces and moments that had made him.
8. Typhoon Family (2025)
Director: Lee Na-jeong, Kim Dong-hwi
Cast: Lee Jun-ho, Kim Min-ha, Kim Ji-young, Kim Min-seok
Typhoon Family is set against the backdrop of the chaos of the IMF crisis of 1997, when the burden of the uncertainty of a nation is bearing down on every family and company. Lee Junho plays the role of Kang Tae Poong, a young man who lives an easy life until the death of his father shatters his life. Tae Poong is left to inherit the company that his father made out of nothing and is left in a world of profit, pride and silent despair. The series is gentle and brutal, as it does not only depict the fight to survive but also the gradual, human, process of discovering what is really important.
9. Homme Fatale (2019)
Director: Nam Dae-joong
Cast: Lee Jun-ho, Jung So-min, Choi Gwi-hwa, Ye Ji-won, Gong Myung
In Homme Fatale, Lee Junho plays the role of Heo Saek, a man with charisma and sensitivity that makes him stand out in the rigid world of Joseon society. He is born into a time dominated by tradition and restraint, and he turns out to be the first male gisaeng, an entertainer who has mastered the arts, music, and conversation, which was traditionally the preserve of women.
He is a strange figure to the people around him, revealing the silent hypocrisies of a world based on hierarchy and pretence. Through laughter and scandal, Heo Saek encounters a woman of spirit that looks beyond the surface and they both break the limits set upon them. The drama is light-hearted, but there is a silent uprising in it, a reflection on the freedom, dignity, and the boldness to live their own truth.
10. Rose and Tulip (2019)
Director: Teruo Noguchi
Cast: Lee Jun-ho, Mitsuki Tanimura, Hyunri, Eri Fuse, Hwang Chan-seong
Lee Junho plays a challenging dual role in this Japanese movie as Nero, a renowned modern day painter, and Daewon, a Korean student who is trying to make his living in Japan. The storyline is based on a misunderstanding of identities, as Daewon, who resembles Nero in appearance, is sucked against his will into the troubled world of the artist. A combination of humor, love and the gradual realization of the self, Rose and Tulip has been acclaimed as possessing a quiet intelligence and emotional richness.
Conclusion
With plotted accountants to tragic lawyers, with courtiers and struggling painters, Lee Junho has demonstrated that he is not merely a pretty face, but a master of a good story. A single look can be used by the man to communicate a whole symphony of emotions, and it is either a great skill or a grandiose trick on those actors who have to speak to communicate their feelings. Junho is a quiet sophistication in whatever he does, be it in the inheritance wars of luxury hotels or as a male entertainer in Joseon-era Korea.
His filmography is a master lesson in versatility, addressing such topics as grief and redemption, corporate corruption and identity confusion. To the fans of K-drama, who want to watch something filled with vulnerability and quiet intensity, the catalog of Lee Junho will have something to offer to all. Having seen his emotionally intelligent characters, your expectations of a romantic partner in real life can get perilously unrealistic.
FAQs
Q1: Who is Lee Junho?
Ex-2PM heartbreaker become serious actor who proves that being a K-pop idol does not mean you are doomed to mediocrity. He began appearing in films in 2003, and has been quietly compiling a filmography so impressive that some viewers forget that he used to gyrate onstage. Consider him the idol who had taken the “multi-talented” job description seriously.
Q2: What makes Lee Junho different from other K-drama actors?
He speaks volumes with his face alone – a talent which is either hereditary genius or years of training to conceal feelings. His characters are always rich, vulnerable and have an unaccountable power to make corporate corruption or historical drama really interesting. In addition, he does not use too much dramatic screaming, which, frankly, makes him different.
Q3: Should I start with “King the Land” or “The Red Sleeve”?
Depends on your mood. Desire modern love with privilege and enmity? Go “King the Land.” Like historical moderation and forbidden palace romance? Choose “The Red Sleeve.” Both are the perfect demonstration of his talent, but neither of them will get your heart ready to the emotional whiplash that will come.
Q4: Can I watch “Good Manager” without understanding Korean corporate corruption?
Absolutely. Although the corporate background is an added taste, the main attraction is seeing an accountant with selective morality outwit the mighty by playing wit. It is more of a heist show with the weapon being brains rather than weapons, all covered with jokes and mayhem.
