Career
Lee Na-young began her modeling career in a Jambangee Jeans TV commercial in 1998, then made her acting debut that same year. [2] Following supporting roles in 1999 television dramas Did We Really Love? , KAIST, [3] and Queen, [4] Lee starred in the tepidly received 2001 Hong Kong sci-fi action film Dream of A Warrior starring Leon Lai. [5] She also appeared in the 2001 music video for "Catherine's Wheel" by Britpop band Rialto. [6] [7]
But Lee rose to fame in 2002 with the critically acclaimed series Ruler of Your Own World . [8] She played an indie rock musician who unexpectedly falls for a terminally ill grifter, and Lee and her fellow cast members were praised for their realistic, nuanced acting. [9] She later reunited with Ruler of Your Own World screenwriter In Jung-ok for Ireland , a 2004 drama about a Korean adoptee who journeys to her homeland, but its reception was less positive. [10]
During this time, Lee had become one of the top-ranked and highest-paid commercial models, endorsing diverse products such as cosmetics (notably Laneige and Lancôme), electronics, clothing lines, beverages, food, telecommunications, and construction companies. [11] [12] [13] She is considered to have one of the most beautiful and idealized faces in Korea. [14] Lee later became the first Korean to appear on the cover of fashion magazine W Korea , for its November 2009 issue. [15]
But unlike her graceful and glamorous public persona in advertisements, her image in film has been the opposite, with Lee choosing to portray women who are awkward and eccentric. [16] In 2002, she starred in the cyber romance Who R. U.? as an introverted character similar to her role in Ruler of Your Own World. [17] [18] [19] Lee then played a quirky, English-challenged civil servant in Kim Sung-su's comedy film Please Teach Me English (2003) and the harmless stalker of a struggling baseball player in Jang Jin's romantic comedy Someone Special (2004). [20] [21] She won several Best Actress prizes for Someone Special, notably from the prestigious Blue Dragon Film Awards. [22]
Lee again drew praise in 2006, this time for her dramatic chops in Maundy Thursday , Song Hae-sung's film adaptation of Gong Ji-young's novel Our Happy Time about a suicidal rape victim who develops a close bond with a death row inmate. [23] She next played an emotionally tormented sleepwalker in Kim Ki-duk's Dream (2008), and nearly died while filming a scene where her character hangs herself. [24]
In 2010, Lee headlined Lady Daddy , playing a trans woman photographer whose life is disrupted with the sudden arrival of a young boy who claims that she's his biological father. [25] [26] [27] To promote the film, she made a guest appearance in the sitcom High Kick Through the Roof . [28] [29] Lee then returned to television with the big-budget action-mystery series The Fugitive: Plan B , in which she performed her own action scenes without a stunt double. [30] [31]
When Lee's contract with talent agency KeyEast expired in 2011 (she had signed with KeyEast in 2006, and with the William Morris Agency in 2009), she joined Eden 9 Entertainment. [32] [33] [34] In 2012, she starred in Yoo Ha's suspense thriller Howling , about a veteran detective (played by Song Kang-ho) who teams up with a female rookie (Lee) to solve a series of murders involving a mysterious wolfdog. [35] [36] [37]
In 2013, Lee appeared in a minor role in the two-part Japanese film SPEC: Close . She then played an actress having a secret romance with a boom operator in Sad Scene; it was among the three short films in the omnibus Woman, Man commissioned by W Korea for its 10th anniversary in 2015. [38]
In 2018, Lee returned to the silver screen with the North Korean refugee drama Beautiful Days , [39] which premiered at the 23rd Busan International Film Festival. [40] [41] [42]
In 2019, Lee returned to the small screen after nine years by starring in the romance comedy drama Romance Is a Bonus Book alongside Lee Jong-suk. [43] [44] [45] She played a main character named Kang Dan-yi who is a new temporary worker of book publishing company.
