Lee Min-ho

In the summer of 2006, Lee Min-ho was stuck in a hospital bed after a car accident that nearly derailed his career before it began. He was 19 years old, with a metal pin lodged in his thigh. But that forced break only fueled an ambition that would spread well beyond South Korea's borders in less than five years.

Korean television gave him the role of Gu Jun-pyo in Boys Over Flowers during 2009. It was a ratings phenomenon that sparked collective hysteria across Asia. Within weeks, the actor went from unknown to being unable to walk down the street without a security escort.

And the gamble paid off.

The stigma of the handsome guy

For a long time, the press typecast him in roles as a rich, rebellious heir. Productions like The Heirs in 2013 reinforced that image of an unattainable leading man who sold millions of cosmetic products. But behind the commercial facade was an actor obsessed with control over his own craft in front of the camera.

In 2011, he decided to switch genres with City Hunter. There he had to learn martial arts and weapons handling to play a vigilante seeking revenge. That series sold its broadcast rights to more than twenty countries even before the final episodes had finished filming.

Many believed that his mandatory military service between 2017 and 2019 would erase his international relevance. But he came back with The King: Eternal Monarch in 2020 under a global distribution deal. The series didn't win over all domestic critics because of its convoluted plot, a writing problem more than an acting one.

It was the end of an era.

The breakup of 2022

The real turning point came when he decided to audition for the first time in thirteen years. He wanted the role of Koh Hansu in Pachinko, the 2022 blockbuster shot in three languages. The production team required on-camera auditions from all candidates, regardless of their celebrity status in Seoul.

He played a dark, morally ambiguous character, a departure from his earlier roles as a romantic hero. Filming was split between Canada and South Korea, with an estimated budget of 100 million dollars for the first batch of episodes. International critics began to take him seriously beyond the teen fan circuit.

In 2024, he returned to the role for the show's second season. But his sights were already set on large-scale science fiction projects. So he accepted the lead role in Ask the Stars, a production set on a space station that wrapped principal photography in 2023.

The budget for this last one exceeded 35 million euros in direct filming costs alone.