You can only pick one: Lee Dong-wook drama
by DB Staff
It’s been a while since we left you, but we’re back! You can only pick one, and boy the pressure is on. The DB team will answer a new prompt in each post, and you’re invited to do the same in the comments. Ready to play?
You can only pick one Lee Dong-wook drama
stroopwafel: Grime reaper or gumiho? That was my dilemma as I asked myself which Lee Dong-wook drama was Thee Drama. Lee is one of those actors I’ve watched in so many projects that it feels like he’s just always existed in dramaland. And even when I don’t necessarily love the drama itself, he has always managed to bring something to each of his roles that make his performance enjoyable in some way. Enjoyable isn’t enough to describe how I feel about Tale of the Nine-Tailed 1938 though, I absolutely adored it. From start to finish, it was a high-energy, wild adventure into the past, and the chemistry Lee had with Kim So-yeon and Kim Bum was off the charts. Yet, something kept me from making it my final choice. Maybe it’s the nostalgia talking, but you can’t talk about Lee Dong-wook without bringing up Goblin. Even 10 years on, it still feels relevant. The huge red scarf, the buckwheat field, the bromance symbolized by slo-mo walks in impeccable coats–iconic (and still meta-referenced and memed). You know there’s something special about a character when the fact he needs to reap the leading lady’s soul is more a technicality you overlook than something you hold against him. Lee’s performance stood apart, and for that Goblin is my one and only Lee Dong-wook drama.
missvictrix: Ah, Lee Dong-wook of the broad filmography and beautiful hands. There are so many great dramas to pick here but no, I’m not choosing Goblin. My favorite Lee Dong-wook is OG Lee Dong-wook in My Girl. This was one of the first dramas I ever watched and to say I was enchanted would be an understatement. The drama is from a time when early Hallyu was exploding, character archetypes were being formed, and the tropes we (still) love today were being engineered during the super tight broadcasting turnarounds and week-to-week script changes. Anyway, enough with the reminiscing. My Girl is a gem of an early drama, where a Candy heroine (Lee Da-hae) gets entangled with the Cold Chaebol (Lee Dong-wook) — and there’s also a beautiful early Lee Jun-ki as our fated Sensitive Second Male Lead. You will cringe. You will squee. And you will cackle. My favorite scene — recalling it can still make me laugh out loud — is when Lee Da-hae falls in the bathroom about to take a bath, and Lee Dong-wook rushes in to save her with a giant floofy comforter so he doesn’t accidentally see her naked. It’s stuff like this that made me fall in love with dramas.
mistyisles: I’ve enjoyed Lee Dong-wook in every role I’ve seen him take on, but hands-down my favorite is gumiho Lee Yeon from both seasons of Tale of the Nine-Tailed! There’s just something electric about the way he slipped into that character, and even more so about the magnetic chemistry he shared with pretty much everyone else in the show — especially Kim Bum. The original season probably had the more coherent plot, but if pressed to choose between the two, I’m more likely to re-watch 1938, because it was off-the-walls crazy in the best kind of way. I remember being worried it might sour his character for me, but instead it just made me love him even more.
DaebakGrits: If I had to pick just one Lee Dong-wook drama, it would be Tale of the Nine-Tailed 1938. In my opinion, the first season took itself a little too seriously, so this sequel/spinoff was a delightful surprise with its wonderfully over-the-top sense of fun. It’s the kind of drama where you can tell the cast had an absolute blast during filming, and that infectious energy makes it easy to overlook the occasional plot hole or lapse in logic. The cast’s chemistry is especially evident in Dong-wook’s scenes with his on-screen brother, Kim Bum. Having already established their dynamic in the first season, the two share an effortless rapport that makes their bickering sibling relationship feel both natural and endlessly entertaining. And, unlike the bittersweet ending of the original season, this time their farewell leaves viewers with a much happier conclusion.
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