Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#8199
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Lee Dong-yong works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Lee Dong-yong appears in 14 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Lee. Parasite is the clearest case: a film rated 9.4 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for romance, comedy, mystery. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Kim Gok, Lee Jang-hoon, Bong Joon-ho and others, Lee Dong-yong helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Parasite (2019) as Drunk 2 · Parasite (2019) as Drunk 2 · Memories of Murder (2003) as Suspect
Career snapshot
Ranked #8199 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
14
2003–2023
Career length
20 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.4
Parasite
Average Nutevio score
7.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.5
Parasite
Most frequent director
Bong Joon Ho
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Bong Joon Ho
Most common genre
Drama
9 titles
Average runtime
2h 6m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.3
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.2
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
2000s
8.0 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Memories of Murder — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
8.0
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
8.1
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2010s
4 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Parasite, Parasite, Extreme Job.
Most productive era
2020s
7 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 8.01 film | 8.34 films | 7.34 films |
| Action | — | 7.42 films | 7.23 films |
| Thriller | 8.01 film | 9.12 films | — |
| Comedy | — | 8.34 films | 6.42 films |
| Crime | 8.01 film | 7.21 film | 7.71 film |
| Romance | — | — | 5.81 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Suspect.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2019Parasite
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.4 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2023Honeysweet
The current state of the argument, as Director Lee.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
14 of 14 films
as Drunk 2
Directed by Bong Joon-ho
as Drunk 2
Directed by Bong Joon Ho
as Suspect
Directed by Bong Joon Ho
as Worker
Directed by Kim Gok
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 25 titles · 25 total credits · active 2003–2026
If Wishes Could Kill
2026 · TV · Taxi driver
Last Summer
2025 · TV · Village Chief Jeon
Dongjae, the Good or the Bastard
2024 · TV · Supervisor
Honeysweet
2023 · Director Lee
Moving
2023 · TV · Bus Driver
The Good Bad Mother
2023 · TV · Police officer
Duty After School
2023 · TV · Commander
The Girl on a Bulldozer
2022 · Chinesse Restaurant Customer
Alienoid
2022 · Broker
Confidential Assignment 2: International
2022 · Apartment security guard
Kingmaker
2022 · Drunken
Once Upon a Small Town
2022 · TV · Mr. Cho
On the Line
2021 · Worker
Miracle: Letters to the President
2021 · Village Head
Hellbound
2021 · TV · Team leader
My Roommate Is a Gumiho
2021 · TV · Hardware Shop Owner
Navillera
2021 · TV · Chinese restaurant owner
Parasite
2019 · Drunk 2
Extreme Job
2019 · Mahjong Man
MAL·MO·E: The Secret Mission
2019 · Teacher
Forbidden Dream
2019 · Yun Jung-bu
The Battle: Roar to Victory
2019 · General
My Mister
2018 · TV · Recruitment agency manager
Suspicious Partner
2017 · TV · Banner worker
The defining work
#1
Drunk 2
Parasite (2019)
Performance score9.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Drunk 2 gives Lee Dong-yong a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Drunk 2
Parasite (2019)
Performance score8.4
Parasite asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Drunk 2 is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Suspect
Memories of Murder (2003)
Performance score7.8
Memories of Murder asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Suspect is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Teacher
MAL·MO·E: The Secret Mission (2019)
Performance score7.6
MAL·MO·E: The Secret Mission asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Teacher is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Drunk 2
Start here. Parasite is the clearest statement of what Lee Dong-yong does — accessible, 132 minutes, and rated 9.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Lee at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Memories of Murder (2003)
Same director as Parasite, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Parasite (2019)
Same director as Memories of Murder, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
MAL·MO·E: The Secret Mission (2019)
Keeps the comedy register of Parasite but asks for a colder reading of it.
On the Line (2021)
Keeps the drama register of MAL·MO·E: The Secret Mission but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Bong Joon Ho
Director
2 films together
Notably Parasite
Hur Jin-ho
Director
1 film together
Notably Forbidden Dream
Eom Yu-na
Director
1 film together
Notably MAL·MO·E: The Secret Mission
Lee Byeong-heon
Director
1 film together
Notably Extreme Job
Bong Joon-ho
Director
1 film together
Notably Parasite
Lee Jang-hoon
Director
1 film together
Notably Miracle: Letters to the President
Kim Gok
Director
1 film together
Notably On the Line
Song Kang-ho
Actor
1 film together
Notably Parasite
Lee Sun-kyun
Actor
1 film together
Notably Parasite
Cho Yeo-jeong
Actor
1 film together
Notably Parasite
Choi Woo-shik
Actor
1 film together
Notably Parasite
Park So-dam
Actor
1 film together
Notably Parasite
Lee Jung-eun
Actor
1 film together
Notably Parasite
Jang Hye-jin
Actor
1 film together
Notably Parasite
Park Myung-hoon
Actor
1 film together
Notably Parasite
Jung Zi-so
Actor
1 film together
Notably Parasite
Jung Hyeon-jun
Actor
1 film together
Notably Parasite
Park Keun-rok
Actor
1 film together
Notably Parasite
Jung Yi-seo
Actor
1 film together
Notably Parasite
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Bong Joon-ho
Director
3 films together · 8.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
ParasiteEom Yu-na
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MAL·MO·E: The Secret MissionKim Gok
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
On the LineLee Jang-hoon
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Miracle: Letters to the PresidentLee Byeong-heon
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Extreme JobHur Jin-ho
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Forbidden DreamSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
1 win
1 win · latest 2020
Parasite
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Parasite
as Drunk 2
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Kingmaker
as Drunken
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Parasite
as Drunk 2
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Alienoid
as Broker
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Parasite
as Drunk 2
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Lee Dong-yong has known it for a long time.”
“You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan at all.”
“She's rich, but still nice.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.3 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #128 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.4 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Thriller, Drama, Comedy | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Bong Joon-ho | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Quiet performance, Rewatchability, Screen presence | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 2019–2019 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Drunk 2 — Parasite | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | Parasite | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared collections
Best Movies of the 2010s, Thriller Movies, Top 250 Movies of All Time, Drama Movies
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
20 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
9 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Parasite
as Drunk 2
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Parasite
as Drunk 2
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Kingmaker
as Drunken
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Girl on a Bulldozer
as Chinesse Restaurant Customer
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Parasite
as Drunk 2
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Alienoid
as Broker
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
MAL·MO·E: The Secret Mission
as Teacher
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Parasite
as Drunk 2
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 8 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
era
Best Movies of the 2010s
Features Parasite at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Comedy Movies
Features Parasite at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Thriller Movies
Features Parasite at #1
Read the collectiontheme
Movies With Incredible Endings
Features Parasite at #2
Read the collectiongenre
Best Comedies
Features Parasite at #2
Read the collectiongenre
Best Psychological Thrillers
Features Parasite at #3
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Robert Downey Jr.
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
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