Nobody Knows What Lee Sun-bin’s Face Looks Like, and She Calls It the Best Compliment

Featured photo: Lee Sun-bin at the open talk for “The Secrets of the CSAT” at the 31st Busan International Film Festival, October 2026. Photo: Arielaortizb, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lee Sun-bin is loved for erasing her own face. In the film “The Secrets of the CSAT,” she became Maeng Bo-ram, a country Korean-language teacher, in coffee-colored tights, a baggy suit and hair yanked back into a tie. When she saw a comment that said, “I honestly can’t tell what Lee Sun-bin’s face looks like,” she said, “That feels like such a huge compliment” (MTN). Across the table from her sits Yoo Jae-myung as Moon Ju-yeol, head of the exam-writing committee.

I’ll be honest: as a fan, I laughed for a long time after reading this interview. An actress who saw her own face on the big screen at the premiere and thought, “Wow, who’s that?” Is there a more lovable confession? The CSAT, or suneung, is Korea’s college entrance exam, taken by hundreds of thousands of students on the same day; this year it falls on November 19. The film follows the 40 days of the people who write it.

Maeng Bo-ram, built from coffee-colored tights and a puffy face

Maeng Bo-ram is a Korean-language teacher from a small provincial town who gets picked for the exam committee by mistake, confused with someone who has the same name (NewsQ). Lee decided that the veteran teachers had to take one look at her and think, “Ah, a rookie.” So instead of skin-tone tights she wore attention-grabbing coffee-colored ones, with a suit too big for her and an awkward skirt length. She tied her hair like someone who couldn’t even be bothered to tie it. She had come straight from shooting her previous project in Jeju with a tan, and the makeup artist said that was even better; no contouring to sharpen her features. “If my face was puffy, we shot it puffy.” (MTN)

Her close friends couldn’t hold back their laughter the moment that face appeared on screen. She also heard the words she wanted most: “There was no Lee Sun-bin, only Maeng Bo-ram.” (NewsQ) She used to have a lot of insecurities about her looks, she said, but working seems to make them disappear. Then she added, “I can show the pretty side when I go to events or post on social media.” (MTN)

She borrowed the way Bo-ram talks from herself. She’s someone who says so when she doesn’t know something. She played Maeng Bo-ram thinking of how she usually asks her elders, “Sorry, but what’s that?” (MTN). That’s why it’s impossible to dislike the moment Maeng Bo-ram raises her hand in a committee meeting and says, “This won’t work, it’s a 7-point question” (NewsQ).

Also read: The Novelist Who Quit Being a Minister to Make Movies: Lee Chang-dong

A comedy about being locked away for 40 days to write the CSAT

“The Secrets of the CSAT” (directed by Lee Yong-jae) is a comedy about Maeng Bo-ram, who stumbles into the exam headquarters, cut off from the outside world for 40 days because the CSAT is a “Class 2 state secret,” and scrambles to write a “problem-free problem” with no typos and no disputes (MTN). When Lee first read the script, she asked whether any of it was real. The answer: “The conflicts are a problem every year, and they’re real.” She was even told that the hard-to-believe scenes are worse in reality (NewsQ).

The film opened on October 28 and drew 87,318 moviegoers by November 4 (IZE). In its second week, high schools across the country preparing for the CSAT kept calling about group screenings (Maxmovie). It became the last laugh before the exam hall.

Where to watch: In theaters in Korea (checked November 6, 2026). Overseas release and streaming haven’t been announced; international sales are underway (News1; not yet on JustWatch U.S. as of November 6, 2026).

Yoo Jae-myung wanted to hear “Don’t fall!”

Moon Ju-yeol, the Korean-language committee head played by Yoo Jae-myung, is greedy and selfish, yet somehow impossible to hate. Worried about playing one villain after another, he found his answer in being cute. “My goal was that if I fell off a ladder, the person next to me would shout, ‘Don’t fall!'” (BizEnter)

Lee Sun-bin pleasantly surprised him when they first met. He expected a tough, sharp actor, and instead found a pure-hearted person who asked nervously before shooting, “Sunbae, do you think I can do this well?” (BizEnter). Lee remembers what he told her when, on only the third or fourth day of shooting, she had to film a head-on clash with Moon Ju-yeol: “Just carry Maeng Bo-ram’s heart and her goal.” (MTN)

He also left a message for the real exam writers, who are probably locked away right now. “The committee members must be in lockdown even as we speak. When they come out and see the film, I hope they’ll enjoy it as fiction. I trust they’ll write a ‘problem-free problem.’ You’re working so hard.” (BizEnter)

Fans abroad first met Yoo Jae-myung as Lee Chang-joon in tvN’s “Stranger” (2017) and Chairman Jang Dae-hee in “Itaewon Class” (2020). Where to watch: “Stranger” on Netflix, “Itaewon Class” on Netflix (JustWatch U.S., checked November 6, 2026).

Both trailers are official: tvN’s long trailer for “Stranger” above, Netflix’s English-subtitled trailer for “Itaewon Class” below.

Lee Sun-bin, a new face in every show

Maeng Bo-ram isn’t the first time. In “Work Later, Drink Now” (2021–2022) she was office worker Ahn So-hee with a frizzy perm, and in “Boyhood” (2023) she became Kang Seon-hwa of 1980s Chungcheong Province, with freckles and a period hairstyle (MTN). Even an old friend says they never know what her face looks like, so this actress’s filmography reads like a record of changing faces.

Where to watch: “Work Later, Drink Now” on Prime Video, Tubi and OnDemandKorea in the U.S. (JustWatch, checked November 6, 2026).

Where to watch: “Boyhood” on Rakuten Viki, OnDemandKorea and Tubi in the U.S. (JustWatch, checked November 6, 2026).

Of this role she said, “I wonder if I’ll ever meet such a pure, passionate character again” (MTN). On the morning of November 19, when students open their test booklets, it feels like Maeng Bo-ram will be sitting somewhere among the people who wrote those questions. And in her next project, Lee Sun-bin will show up once again with a face we don’t recognize.

Sources

• Lee Sun-bin interviews: MTN, November 4, NewsQ
• Yoo Jae-myung interview: BizEnter (Etoday)
• Admissions: IZE, November 5 / Group screenings: Maxmovie / International sales: News1
• Where to watch: JustWatch U.S. (checked November 6, 2026)