Anna: The Role That Made Korea Stop Talking About Suzy’s Face

Part 4 of 6 in Korea's First Love Who Failed Her Audition: Bae Suzy

Featured photo: Suzy at a Longines product presentation, March 25, 2026. Photo: TV10 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped).

Previously: “Dream” with Baekhyun, a solo chart sweep, and the end of miss A.

July 19, 2023: Best actress, Suzy

On July 19, 2023, at the 2nd Blue Dragon Series Awards, the best actress prize in the drama category went to Suzy for Anna (KBS Entertain broadcast). Former idol, “Nation’s First Love,” “CF queen”: for more than ten years those were the words in front of her name. That night “best actress” joined them. When her name was called, I screamed at my screen. Any fan who knew how long she’d lived with talk about nothing but her face felt exactly the same. The same role brought the Director’s Cut Awards’ best actress in a series, the Seoul International Drama Awards’ best actress in the international category and the Content Asia Awards’ best female lead (Wikipedia).

712,000 views as of Oct. 25, 2026.

The four years leading up to that prize began with a change of agency.

Also read: Hotel del Luna's Boss Walks the Cannes Red Carpet: IU

2019: Management SOOP and Vagabond

When her JYP contract ended in March 2019, Suzy signed with Management SOOP, an agency that represents actors (Wikipedia). That year she did action as intelligence agent Go Hae-ri in SBS’s Vagabond, reuniting with Lee Seung-gi six years after Gu Family Book. She won SBS’s top excellence award for a miniseries actress and a second best-couple award with Lee (Wikipedia). In December she appeared in the disaster film Ashfall as the wife of Ha Jung-woo’s character.

582,000 views as of Oct. 25, 2026.

2020: Her own story, then Start-Up

The short film Live Your Strength, released in September 2020, was based on an original story Suzy wrote; director Kim Jee-woon adapted and directed it (Wikipedia). A month later, in tvN’s Start-Up, she played Seo Dal-mi, who dreams of becoming Korea’s Steve Jobs, caught between Nam Joo-hyuk and Kim Seon-ho. The drama streamed worldwide on Netflix.

2.54 million views as of Oct. 25, 2026.

2.08 million views as of Oct. 25, 2026.

2020–2022: “Human Dior” and Longines

Around this time fans started calling her “Human Dior,” because she wore the label at nearly every public appearance. In April 2022 Dior named her a house ambassador after she attended its Fall 2022 show at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, and a month later the Swiss watchmaker Longines made her its first Korean female “ambassador of elegance” (Wikipedia). In June 2021 she held A Tempo, an online concert for her 10th debut anniversary, and in February 2022 she released “Satellite,” her first new song in four years.

June 2022: Anna, a life built on a lie

Coupang Play’s Anna premiered on June 24, 2022. Suzy played Lee Yu-mi, a woman who tells one small lie and ends up living someone else’s life, and Lee Anna, the name of that borrowed life. Audiences and critics praised how she drew Anna’s emotions (Wikipedia). On screen she is unsmiling, exhausted, caught out, from beginning to end. It was a role the face of “the Nation’s First Love” could never play. She played it with exactly that face. As a fan, I feel proud every time I watch it.

1.67 million views as of Oct. 25, 2026.

October 2023: Retired idol Lee Doona

In 2023 she also worked with six fashion houses to design hanbok, Korea’s traditional dress, for a Ministry of Culture campaign (Wikipedia). In October she starred in Netflix’s Doona! as Lee Doona, a retired idol who ends up sharing a house with college student Won-jun (Yang Se-jong). The youngest member of miss A was now playing an idol who had walked away from the stage. The series is based on Min Song-ah’s Naver webtoon (Wikipedia).

698,000 views as of Oct. 25, 2026.

In June 2024 she returned to theaters with Park Bo-gum in a science-fiction film about meeting the people you have lost, again, in a virtual world.

Where to watch (checked Oct. 25, 2026, via JustWatch) – Vagabond (2019): US — Netflix – Ashfall (2019): US — Prime Video, Pluto TV · Korea — Netflix, TVING – Start-Up (2020): US & Korea — Netflix · Korea — TVING – Anna (2022): Korea — Coupang Play – Doona! (2023): US & Korea — Netflix

Sources

• Wikipedia, “Bae Suzy”; Awards list
• KBS Entertain broadcast of the 2nd Blue Dragon Series Awards, July 19, 2023