6 Korean Dramas to Watch Starring Pachinko's Lee Min-ho

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This ambitious 2020 production alternates between parallel universes. In one, Lee is Lee Gon, ruler of a modern-day Kingdom of Korea. In the other, the empire is replaced by the Republic of Korea, in which a young detective named Tae-eul (Kim Go-eun) works in the Violent Crimes squad. In pursuit of a treasonous uncle who escapes into this reality, Lee Gon also steps through the portal and crosses paths with Tae-eul, who he recognizes as someone who might have saved his life many years ago—in his world.

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Inspired by a 17th-century Joseon dynasty legend about a fisherman who catches and frees a mermaid, The Legend of the Blue Sea also takes place in parallel eras. First there is a doomed love story between a mermaid (Jun Ji-hyun) and a nobleman (Lee) during the Joseon period. Then in the modern-day reincarnation of the couple, she is still a mermaid and he is now a con-artist. Their fates may be inextricably bound but will it be a happily ever after?

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Reminiscent of a Korean version of The O.C., The Heirs (known alternatively as Inheritors) centers on Cha Eun-sang (Park Shin-hye), who takes on part-time jobs to support herself and lives in the home of the wealthy Kim family, where her mother is a housekeeper. A scholarship enables her to enroll in a high school for Korea's richest kids, where she soon finds herself in the middle of a love triangle involving the Kim family scion Kim Tan (Lee) and his nemesis Choi Young-do (Kim Woo-bin).

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In this time-traveling epic, Lee is Choi Young, the Captain of the Royal Guard to King Gongmin of the Goryeo dynasty. In modern-day Seoul, Eun-soo (played by '90s icon Kim Hee-sun) is a plastic surgeon. When the royal family is attacked and the queen gravely injured, Choi Young is instructed to go through a mysterious portal to find the "heaven's doctor." He ends up 700 years in the future and kidnaps Eun-soo back to 1352. She is promised a safe return once her job is complete but political machinations keep her in the 14th century, which conveniently gives these two plenty of time to fall in love.

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In this 2010 rom-com series, Crash Landing on You's Son Ye-jin plays an aspiring furniture designer, Kae-in, who lives in a modern hanok (a traditional Korean house) designed by her famous architect father. Lee is Jin-ho, the head of a fledgling architecture firm who is vying to win the project bid for a new art center that will be inspired by Kae-in's hanok, which has never before been seen by the public. To gain an edge, he asks to rent a room in the house, to which Kae-in only agrees because she thinks he's gay (he's not).

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In the viral sensation that officially cemented his star status—and a predecessor of sorts to The Heirs—Lee plays the leader of the F4, a clique of the most powerful, popular and prettiest boys at an elite high school reserved for children of the one percent. Through a series of events, a scrappy dry cleaner's daughter ends up at the school on a scholarship: cue the love triangles and adolescent class warfare.