The sexiest thing about a man… is his intelligence. And if it comes dressed in Lee Je-hoon’s intense gaze and softened by his disarming smile, then we’ll take it as a gift from the Hallyu gods.
Read the rest of his profile.
This week, we're featuring a few of his memorable k-dramas!
Signal (2016)
Available on Disney+, iQIYI, Netflix, Prime Video (territories and periods vary)
Lee Je-hoon opts to play less-than-perfect characters struggling with their own humanity but wanting to make a difference. In Signal (2016), he takes on dirty cops in the police force.
In 2015, criminal profiler Park Hae-young (Lee Je-hoon) stumbles upon a walkie-talkie that somehow allows him to speak to a detective in the year 2000. Hae-young quickly realizes that if he helps Detective Lee Jae-han (who lives in the past, played by Cho Jin-woong) solve the killings with the knowledge that DNA testing and forensic science give him now, these cases would finally see justice. However, things are never without consequence, and in solving past crimes, many current people and issues would also never exist as well. So do we trade the lives of people living now to save the people in an unknown past? Or do we let things happen as they were supposed to and live with the knowledge that we allowed a preventable tragedy to happen?
Tomorrow with You (2017)
Available on iQIYI, Netflix, Viki (territories and periods vary)
In the fantasy romance Tomorrow with You, Lee Je-hoon is a time-traveler whose fate always leads him back to amateur photographer Song Ma-rin played by Shin Min-ah. Being able to see the future gives Yoo So-joon (Lee Je-hoon) certain business advantages but it still can’t keep him from escaping his death. Will staying with Ma-rin change the course of events or is he unwittingly playing into destiny’s hands? Watching a besotted Lee Je-hoon fall in love with the adorable Shin Min-ah gives us all the feels.
Where Stars Land / Fox Bride Star (2018)
Available on AppleTV, Netflix, Viki (territories and periods vary)
Who better than Lee Je-hoon to play a tall, handsome, and mysterious stranger who works at Incheon International Airport? As a man with a secret, Lee Soo-yeon likes to keep to himself, but he can’t quite seem to shake off Han Yeo-reum (Chae Soo-bin), who keeps getting in his way and forces him out of his lonely existence. While the romantic drama has a hint of fantasy in its plot, the situations involving security, immigration, sales, and office politics are all too real. It’s an entertaining insider’s look at the lives of people whose stressful job is to make everyone else’s flying experience as uneventful as possible.
Move to Heaven (2021)
Available on Netflix (territories and periods vary)
What happens to people’s apartments and houses when somebody dies in them? Move to Heaven attempts to answer the question in a poignant drama.
Han Geu-ru (Tang Joon-sang) is the lead trauma cleaner—a young man with Asperger’s syndrome who has to run the family trauma cleaning business, Move to Heaven, after his father (Ji Jin-hee) dies. Helping (and annoying) him is Cho Sang-gu, played by Lee Je-hoon, an uncle he didn’t know until after his father's death. An ex-convict and street fighter, Sang-gu has to learn to become a proper guardian to Geu-ru and an employee of Move to Heaven within three months. Keeping a close eye on him is Yoon Na-mu (Hong Seung-hee, Navillera), Geu-ru's neighbor and best friend.
Read the full review here.
Taxi Driver 1 and 2 (2021 and 2023)
Available in Netflix (Season 1 only), Prime Video, Viki (territories and periods vary)
Jang Sung-chul (Kim Eui-sung) is the CEO of Rainbow Taxi, the legal front for a ragtag team of vigilantes who use highly specialized skills to exact vengeance on parties that somehow manage to slip through the law's fingers. On his team are taxi driver Kim Do-gi (Lee Je-hoon), tech expert Ahn Go-eun (Pyo Ye-jin), and mechanics Choi Kyung-goo (Jang Hyuk-jin) and Park Jin-eon (Bae Yoo-ram). Among the five of them, they strategize, execute, finance, and troubleshoot elaborate plots of vengeance.
The central figure of the Rainbow Taxi is Kim Do-gi, played with depth and sensitivity by Lee Je-hoon. One look at his grave and silent demeanor, and audiences can immediately tell that anyone who is determined to mete out punishment surely has some demons to wrestle with. He drives a deluxe taxi and listens to the harrowing experiences of potential clients. These re-telling scenes help the victims process their expertise and offer them some relief at finally being heard.
Chief Detective 1958 (2024)
Available in Disney+ (territories and periods vary)
Chief Detective 1958 is a prequel to the hugely popular classic Korean series Chief Inspector, which ran for 18 years in the 1970s and 80s. Lee Je-hoon plays chief Park Young-han, who in 1958 is still a skillful rookie who makes his mark catching petty thieves.
