Parasite’s Housekeeper Is Now Up for Best Actress: Lee Jung-eun, From Moon-gwang to Netflix’s Doctor X

Featured photo: Lee Jung-eun in 2019. Photo: PARKJAEHWAN (kinocine.com) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lee Jung-eun’s charm is that she changes the air of a scene without dropping her smile. In 2019 she won Best Supporting Actress at the Blue Dragon Film Awards as Moon-gwang, the housekeeper in Parasite. In the nominations for the 47th Blue Dragon Film Awards, announced October 28, her name is on the Best Actress list for The Journey to Gyeongju (KBS Entertainment). The same fall, on TV, she stands beside Kim Ji-won as Jang Hee-sook, head of a doctors’ placement agency, in SBS’s Doctor X: Mafia in White.

When I found “Lee Jung-eun (The Journey to Gyeongju)” on that list, I clapped by myself as a fan. For audiences around the world who remember Moon-gwang, the easiest place to find her right now is Doctor X on Netflix, and its final episode airs November 14.

Fall 2026: Jang Hee-sook in Doctor X

Doctor X is a “medical noir” in which genius surgeon Gye Su-jeong (Kim Ji-won), sent to a university hospital by Jang Hee-sook’s placement agency, smashes the hospital’s old ways. It’s the Korean version of a hit Japanese drama that ran for seven seasons starting in 2012 (Ilyo Sisa).

• A seat that was a man’s in the original. In the Japanese original, the agency head was a male character played by a male actor. The Korean version made the role a woman, and Lee gives her the charisma of a seasoned negotiator under a friendly surface, forming a female “two-top” with Kim Ji-won (Wikitree).
• “A hospital that only cares about money is bound to have an accident. That’s why I sent Su-jeong.” Hee-sook looks calculating when money is on the table, but she’s someone who reads the other side’s weak spots and pulls the game her way (same article).
• Ratings and Netflix. It opened at 11.4% and rose to 18.5% by Episode 4 (Nielsen Korea, nationwide households), and it hit No. 1 among Netflix’s global non-English TV shows (MHN).
• The partner Kim Ji-won picked. In a joint interview on SBS’s official YouTube on October 19, Kim Ji-won gave her chemistry with Lee a score well over 100 (Topstar News).

Where to watch: Doctor X: Mafia in White on Netflix (US and Korea, checked October 30, 2026). New episodes air on SBS every Friday and Saturday and then arrive on Netflix; the finale is November 14. More: Kim Ji-won in Doctor X.

Also read: Go Min-si Makes Even Predictable Scenes New. Netflix's Dead-End Job Is Next

The Best Actress nominee: The Journey to Gyeongju

Released August 26, The Journey to Gyeongju is a revenge story about a mother and three daughters who, after waiting eight years, set off on a “killer” trip for Gyeong-ju, the youngest daughter who never came home from a school trip. Lee plays the mother, Ok-sil, with Gong Hyo-jin, Park So-dam and Lee Yeon as the three daughters; it won the Audience Award at the 24th Florence Korea Film Fest (Ilgan Sports). In October it opened the London Korean Film Festival (Newsis).

The film began with a director’s long-held crush. Director Kim Mi-jo said she had “loved actor Lee Jung-eun for a long time, ever since the musical Laundry,” and in 2020, before there was even a script, told her, “Someday I want to bring you a script with you in the lead.” When she actually handed her The Journey to Gyeongju two years later, she said, “I was as happy as if I had the whole world” (Topstar News).

Where to watch: In Korea on IPTV and VOD since October 1; in the US, rent or buy The Journey to Gyeong-ju on Amazon Prime Video (checked October 30, 2026). The Blue Dragon Film Awards ceremony is November 25 at KBS Hall in Yeouido, Seoul.

Filmography: from a Daehangno fairy to Jang Hee-sook

• Daehangno, 20 years on stage. She debuted in her third year of college as a fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Hakchon theater and held the stage for nearly 20 years. Of the musical Laundry, which she did for five years, she said, “Around the last performance, the whole audience stood up and called my name, and I remember bowing all the way to the floor” (NewsQ, Newsen).
• 2018, Mr. Sunshine’s Haman-daek. In writer Kim Eun-sook’s period drama, she played Haman-daek, who stays by Go Ae-shin (Kim Tae-ri) (Wikipedia).

• 2019, Moon-gwang and the Baeksang. As Moon-gwang, the housekeeper who knows the secret of the Park family’s house in Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, she won Best Supporting Actress at the Blue Dragon Film Awards, and the same year won Best Supporting Actress (TV) at the Baeksang Arts Awards for JTBC’s The Light in Your Eyes (Wikipedia).

Next, the official JTBC teaser for The Light in Your Eyes; for an older drama like this, there’s no English-subtitled official trailer.

• 2022, Our Blues’ Jeong Eun-hee. In writer Noh Hee-kyung’s Jeju-set omnibus, she played Jeong Eun-hee, who runs a fish stall at the market (Wikipedia).

• 2024, the lead of Miss Night and Day. As the daytime face of a job seeker suddenly trapped in “senior time,” she led the JTBC weekend drama alongside Jung Eun-ji and Choi Jin-hyuk (bnt News).

• 2025, My Daughter Is a Zombie’s Bam-sun. As grandmother Bam-sun, who takes in her granddaughter turned zombie, she was part of the film becoming the first release that year to pass 5 million admissions (Newscj).

The actress who bowed to the floor before a standing audience at her last Daehangno show is now one of five Best Actress nominees at Blue Dragon. I’ll watch Jang Hee-sook’s final negotiation on Netflix on November 14, and wait for the moment her name is called at KBS Hall on November 25.

Sources

• KBS Entertainment: Blue Dragon nominations
• Ilyo Sisa: Doctor X, Wikitree: Jang Hee-sook, MHN: ratings and Netflix, Topstar News: SBS interview
• Ilgan Sports: The Journey to Gyeongju, Newsis: London Korean Film Festival, Topstar News: director Kim Mi-jo
• NewsQ, Newsen, Wikipedia: Lee Jung-eun, bnt News, Newscj