Lee Ji-an, the Role That Erased IU the Singer

Part 3 of 6 in The Queen Who Said She Didn't Have a Celebrity Face: IU

Featured photo: IU at the Moon Lovers press conference, August 2016. Photo: ymhiu0516 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

Previously: In the fall of 2015 the Nation’s Little Sister wrote every lyric on a seven-track album and named its first song “Twenty-three.”

In drama credits she isn’t “IU.” She is Lee Ji-eun, her real name. 2018 was the year that name beat the singer’s. Lee Ji-an, her character in tvN’s My Mister, was a 21-year-old who didn’t smile, didn’t dress up and didn’t sing, and four years later that face moved one of Japan’s great directors all the way to Cannes. I still can’t forget the night I first met Lee Ji-an. The singer I loved was living on screen as someone else entirely. That night I fell for IU all over again.

2016: Hae-soo in Moon Lovers

In August 2016, in SBS’s Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo, she played Hae-soo, a modern woman who falls back in time into the Goryeo dynasty. Her opposite was Lee Joon-gi as Prince Wang So. Adapted from the Chinese novel Bu Bu Jing Xin, it was her first historical drama.

650,000 views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

Also read: IU and BTS's Suga Both Sang Him. Who Was Kim Kwang-seok?

Spring 2017: Palette at twenty-five

“Through the Night” in March 2017 and her fourth studio album, Palette, in April moved her for good from singer to author. She wrote most of the album’s lyrics and produced it. The title track “Palette,” sung with G-DRAGON, was a 25-year-old’s self-introduction. The album became her first No. 1 on Billboard’s World Albums chart, and Billboard named it the best K-pop album of the year (Wikipedia). “Through the Night” sold more than 7 million copies, the third-best-selling single in South Korean history (Wikipedia).

117.9 million views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

213.3 million views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

Summer 2017: the only employee at Hyori’s Bed and Breakfast

That June, on JTBC’s Hyori’s Bed and Breakfast, she became “Ji-eun,” the only employee at the Jeju Island home of singer Lee Hyori and her husband, musician Lee Sang-soon. Her first job was making coffee; once she had learned how, she served it to the guests herself (episode guide, TheTVDB). In the last episode, on September 24, she handed the couple a handwritten letter — “I wrote it yesterday” — and after she left, Lee Hyori read it with red eyes (Sisa Magazine, Sept. 25, 2017). Five months later a coffee truck from the couple pulled up on the set of My Mister (reported Feb. 22, 2018).

9.52 million views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

300,000 views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

A fan who came to the house burst into tears, and IU comforted her. Watching, Lee Hyori admitted, “So this is where she is now” (title of the official JTBC clip). That year Gallup Korea named IU Singer of the Year (Wikipedia). In September came her second album of remakes, A Flower Bookmark 2.

Spring 2018: Lee Ji-an

My Mister premiered on tvN in March 2018. She played Lee Ji-an, a 21-year-old temp carrying her debts and her grandmother alone; Lee Sun-kyun was Park Dong-hoon, the middle-aged office worker who sees her for who she is. The show peaked at 7.3%, a strong number for cable (Wikipedia), and the role earned her a first Baeksang Arts Awards nomination for Best Actress. Years later director Hirokazu Kore-eda, who said he “fell completely” for the drama while stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, cast her in his film Broker (Etoday, May 2022).

610,000 views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

580,000 views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

Fall 2018: “BBIBBI” on her tenth anniversary

On October 10, 2018, the tenth anniversary of her debut, she released “BBIBBI.” On Melon, 1,462,625 people listened to it in its first 24 hours (Wikipedia). It is a song that asks people to respect the line between them, and the music video has been played 287.7 million times. The Seoul stop of her tenth-anniversary tour was at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena, and she became the first female K-pop soloist to headline it (Wikipedia).

287.7 million views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

A year after Lee Ji-an walked off the screen, in July 2019, she came back as the ghost who had run a hotel for more than a thousand years.

Where to watch (checked Oct. 26, 2026, via JustWatch) – Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo (2016): U.S. Rakuten Viki · Korea Netflix, Watcha – Hyori’s Bed and Breakfast (2017): Korea TVING, Watcha – My Mister (2018): U.S. and Korea Netflix · U.S. Tubi · Korea TVING

Sources

• Wikipedia, “IU (singer)” — Moon Lovers, Palette (Billboard World Albums No. 1, best K-pop album of 2017), “Through the Night” sales, Gallup 2017, A Flower Bookmark 2, My Mister 7.3% and Baeksang nomination, “BBIBBI” Melon 24-hour record, tenth-anniversary tour at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena
• Sisa Magazine, Sept. 25, 2017 — the handwritten letter in the Hyori’s Bed and Breakfast finale, TheTVDB — episode guide (making coffee), twig24, Feb. 22, 2018 — Lee Hyori and Lee Sang-soon’s coffee truck
• Etoday, May 2022 — Cannes interview, Kore-eda on casting IU