Fourteen Years to Become “Lee Moo-Saint Laurent”: Lee Moo-saeng

Featured photo: Lee Moo-saeng in May 2020. Photo: Story J Company, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.

Lee Moo-saeng’s charm is a kind of class that makes any role he puts on hang like couture. Korean fans call him “Lee Moo-Saint Laurent.” The nickname tacks the fashion house Yves Saint Laurent onto his name, and it means he delivers luxury-grade acting in every project (TenAsia). It took him 14 years after his 2006 film debut to earn it, and right now, in tvN’s “100 Days of Deception,” streaming worldwide on Netflix, he stands in 1932 Gyeongseong as Philip Yu, an American foreign correspondent.

Asked how he endured those long years in obscurity, he answered, “Rather than saying I endured, I think time just passed,” and “I kept doing projects, big and small, without a break. I stayed busy.” (Media SR) Reading that answer, I fell for him even harder as a fan. He remembers those 14 years not as time he survived but as time he was busy, and that’s why his characters feel solid from the moment they appear, like people who have lived a long life.

Fall 2026: Philip Yu in “100 Days of Deception”

“100 Days of Deception” is a spy romance between an undercover agent and an interpreter who slip into the Japanese Government-General of Korea in 1932 Gyeongseong, colonial-era Seoul, where Japanese, English and Chinese mixed in the streets. The 16-episode series is tvN’s 20th-anniversary special, co-starring Kim You-jung, Park Jinyoung, Kim Hyun-joo and Jin Seon-kyu, and it passed its halfway mark with ratings peaking at 11.6% in the Seoul metropolitan area (MHN). Its leading lady had already made headlines abroad: Kim You-jung cracked Japan’s Netflix Top 10 despite the “anti-Japan drama” label.

• A Korean American reporter. Lee plays Philip Yu, the Gyeongseong correspondent for the American wire service WWP. He lives in a cover marriage with Yu So-ran (Kim Hyun-joo), leader of the Guguk-dan resistance, and uses his reporting to tell the world about life under Japanese rule and the atrocities of the colonial government (JTBC).
• Even the speech is 1930s. He practiced the Japanese a foreigner would speak and built the character from the speech and gestures of 1930s films (Geumgang Ilbo).
• What the name means. “Philip” sounds Western, but one reviewer read it through two Chinese characters, pil (必, “surely”) and rip (立, “to stand”): a man who stands firm and gets it done whatever happens. The same piece called his performance “classy acting worthy of the nickname ‘Lee Moo-Saint Laurent.'” (Ilgan Sports)
• Last weekend’s scene. In episode 10 on November 8, after the resistance’s bombing plot fell apart, Philip held Yu So-ran tight as she tried to run out with a knife, and barely stopped her (TV Report). It was the first time the heart he’d kept hidden under the cool-headed correspondent’s face came through.
• What’s left. Saturdays and Sundays at 9:10 p.m. Korea time, 7:10 a.m. the same day on the U.S. East Coast. The finale, episodes 15 and 16, airs November 28 and 29.

Where to watch: Netflix (U.S. and Korea; also TVING in Korea; JustWatch, checked November 9, 2026). Co-star Park Jinyoung has his own comeback story: the “0% actor” label on Park Jinyoung was fake from the start.

Filmography: from 14 busy years to “Lee Moo-Saint Laurent”

• 2020, “The World of the Married.” The role of his life came in his 14th year as an actor. As Dr. Kim Yun-ki, who quietly waited two years at Ji Sun-woo’s (Kim Hee-ae) side, he was adored as “Dr. Yun-ki, the Daddy-Long-Legs.” He laughed that “Kim Yun-ki is a more rational man than I am, a man who knows how to wait.” (Media SR)

Where to watch: Netflix Korea and TVING (also wavve and Watcha in Korea; no U.S. streaming listed; JustWatch, checked November 9, 2026).

• 2022, “Thirty-Nine.” Alongside Son Ye-jin and Jeon Mi-do, he played Kim Jin-seok, head of an entertainment agency, a calm, serious man with a tender side too (Joy News 24).

Where to watch: Netflix (U.S., JustWatch, checked November 9, 2026).

• 2023, “The Glory” Part 2. The same year, he walked the opposite way. In a brief appearance as psychopathic killer Kang Young-cheon, he changed the whole mood of the show (TenAsia). The series’ star has her own story on Seol Notes: Song Hye-kyo’s road from “The Glory” to Netflix’s “Tantara”.

Where to watch: Netflix (U.S., JustWatch, checked November 9, 2026).

• 2023, “Noryang: Deadly Sea.” In Kim Han-min’s film about Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s final naval battle, he played Japanese commander Konishi Yukinaga (Wikipedia).

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video and Tubi (free with ads) in the U.S. (JustWatch, checked November 9, 2026).

• 2025, “As You Stood By.” In the Netflix series he played Jin So-baek, owner of the Jingang food-supply shop. He described Jin So-baek as “a man whose time stopped in the trauma of losing his son, like a wall clock that has stopped.” (Maxmovie)

Where to watch: Netflix (U.S., JustWatch, checked November 9, 2026).

He is an actor who once said, “I want to be seen only as the role in the work, more than as Lee Moo-saeng the person.” (Media SR) So on the last weekend of November, as I wait to see whether Philip Yu holds on to Yu So-ran’s hand to the very end, I’m waiting for Philip Yu, not for Lee Moo-saeng.