Best Kim Go-eun Dramas & Movies
When it comes to acting talent, there is no lie that Kim Go-eun is slowly making her way to being called one of the ‘best of the best’ actresses in the Korean Entertainment Industry. On the one hand, fans love the different intensities she easily moulds herself into from being the goofy girlfriend in Yumi’s Cells 1 and 2 to the badass cop in The King Eternal Monarch while also being the young naive lover of an ancient goblin.
Aside from her K-drama appearances, Kim Go-eun is also known for her award-winning movie roles and this list is a breakdown of the best of the best acting projects the actress has starred in.
Here are our recommendations for some of her dramas and movies to watch. Have any of your favourites made the list?
The Advocate: A Missing Body (Movie)
The 2015 movie, The Advocate: A Missing Body stars Go-eun as Prosector Jin Sun-mi who is a public prosecutor on a case against her ex, Byeon, a hotshot defence attorney. Byeon defends a large company and is tasked to represent his chauffeur who is charged with a murder of a female student.
However, the catch here is that the body of the female student is missing. The clash between Sun-mi and Byeon is what has the audience on the edge of their seats as both lawyers are doing their duty despite their past romance.
Sunset in my Hometown (Movie)
Sunset in my Hometown is a 2018 movie that narrates the story of an underground rapper Hak-soo who has never seen success despite being on a TV audition program for 6 years. After receiving a distress call from his father, Hak-soo rushes back to his hometown which he had left after his high school. After learning that his father was only lying to bring him back to his hometown, Hak-soo tries to move back to Seoul. Fate binds him to the rural town and Hak-soo makes do with living in a small town. Kim Go-eun plays Sun-mi, Sun-mi, Hak-soo’s childhood classmate.
Canola (Movie)
The 2016 Korean movie, Canola narrates the story of a high school student Hye-ji (played by Kim Go-eun). Hye-ji is a troubled teen with a scarred mind and a secret. She is dramatically reunited with her grandmother, Gye-choon, who is a female driver on Jeju Island.
Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (K-drama)
Making her first K-drama main lead appearance, Kim Go-eun plays Ji Eun-tak in the 2016 K-drama, Guardian: The Lonely and Great God also known as Goblin. The plot of the K-drama revolves around Kim Shin, a man who was once an unbeatable general in Goryeo’s military.
Kim Shin died a tragic death and now possesses immortality. He is tired of living for as long as 900 years and now is looking for his reincarnated bride who is the only person that can see the sword in his chest. Ji Eun-tak is her and she is a positive, upbeat high school student who can see the dead after having gone through tragic events in her life. With the task of pulling the sword out of Kim Shin’s chest, all hell breaks loose as Eun-tak falls in love with the lonely god instead.
The King: Eternal Monarch (K-drama)
Kim Go-eun’s most loved K-drama appearance is the 2020 show, The King: Eternal Monarch which tells the story of Lee Gon, a king of the Kingdom of Corea (a parallel universe). In the Republic of Korea, (the universe parallel to the Kingdom of Corea), Jung Tae-eul (played by Kim Go-eun) is a just police officer. When a magical flute is sliced in half, Lee Gon’s world turns upside down as he finds himself in a completely different world. The show follows epic moments of romance, time travel, fantasy, magic and brotherhood as the two different worlds of Jung Tae-eul and Lee Gon are intertwined.
Yumi’s Cells (K-drama)
With Kim Go-eun playing the titular character of Kim Yu-mi throughout the two seasons of Yumi’s Cells, the 2021-2022 K-drama follows the romantic life of a young woman. Yumi may appear to be just like every other single working woman but she is facing a love drought after suffering a painful breakup.
The romantic cells in her body have fallen into a deep coma. Throughout the two seasons of. the show, Yumi tries to find love first with Goo Woong, a game developer who has just as complex emotions as herself. She also finds herself weirdly attracted to her colleague, Yoo Ba-bi whose personality brings calm to the storm of emotions in Yumi’s life.
A Muse (Movie)
Lee Jeok Yo is a highly respected national poet in his 70’s. His thirty-something assistant Seo Ji Woo has recently published his first book, described as a genre novel with psychological insight, and it has shot to the top of the bestseller lists. Only later will it be clear how great his debt is to the poet laureate. On finding a young high school girl, Eun Gyo, asleep on a chair on his porch, Jeok Yo is instantly enamored.
Rather than chastising her for breaking into his property, he subsequently agrees to give her a part-time job cleaning his home. As Jeok Yo spends more time in Eun Gyo’s company, long-lost feelings are awakened within him, and her exuberance, lust for life, sense of fun and genuine warmth towards him quickly strip the years away in his mind.
Monster (Movie)
The 2014 Korean movie Monster stars Kim Go-eun as Bok-soon, a girl who runs a street stall while taking care of her younger sister. Bok-soon is naive and full of rage, so much so that her neighbours have dubbed her as the ‘psycho b*tch’. Bok-soon’s relatively peaceful life is disrupted when running afoul of a serial killer, Tae-soo. Tae-soo has killed Bok-soon’s sister which has enraged her so much that she wants to exact her revenge upon Tae-soo.
Coin Locker Girl (Movie)
Before appearing opposite Wi Ha-joon in the 2022 K-drama Little Women, Kim Go-eun co-starred in the 2015 movie with him. The Korean movie, Coin Locker Girl follows the story of a baby being thrown into a coin locker in 1996. After she is picked up by a beggar, she is named Il-yeong who grows up and is eventually sold to a woman called “Mother” at the age of 10. Il-yeong is raised by remorseless loan sharks until she turns 18. She has now become Mother’s right hand and faces a dilemma when she is tasked to kill Suk-hyun, the son of a debtor named Woo Gon. Here Go-eun plays Il-yeong.
Tune in for Love (Movie)
The 2019 movie, Tune in for Love is a love story set in the ’90s with a DJ, Yoo-yeol on the radio show called, Music Album. As the show runs in the background, a college girl named Mi-soo (played by Kim Go-eun) works at a bakery. She meets Hyun-woo there and their frequencies slowly come in sync through the medium of the radio show. The show brings them together through ebbs and flows of events arising from both pure coincidence and inevitability until the bitter reality drives them apart. The movie follows the Asian IMF crisis of the 1990s and it is a romantic melodrama that will tell the love story of the optimistic Hyun-woo and the hard-working Mi-soo.
And there we have it, our list of the best Kim Go-eun K-dramas and movies of all time!
What do you think of our list? Have we included your favourites? Or have we missed any must-watch dramas? We love to hear from you so do feel free to let us know in the comments below.