Best Acting Performances of 2021

"You Are My Spring" - Young Do is a psychiatrist in private practice with a side gig as a profiler. He's also a heart transplant recipient that knows he'll never lead a normal life and almost certainly not a long one. He's walking a tightrope, constantly balancing normal human wants with what is prudent given his medical history. As a psychiatrist, he approaches daily life rationally and carefully while diligently working to help his patients. And then he encounters Seo Hyun Jin's Da Jung. It's how Kim Dong Wook portrays his internal struggle to reconcile his health needs with his new love that sets his work as the best of the year. The ending scene of episode 7 is an excruciating watch as he methodically explains to Da Jung who he is and why he can't be more than friends and Kim Dong Wook is stunningly brilliant here.

"Reflection of You" - Hae Won is a strong candidate for the woman for who inspired the "Hell hath no fury" saying. How she is played by Shin Hyun Bin - quietly desperate, shamelessly vengeful, brilliant manipulator - is engrossing. Although she has been deeply wronged by her best friend and fiancee, she is still not sympathetic. Given the opportunity to run away and start over, she can't give up her anger. Hae Won is an incredibly layered character and Shin Hyun Bin surgically carves out every nuance. 

"Dali and the Cocky Prince" - Da Li is a bookish, quiet art lover that becomes the target of an unsophisticated entrepreneur's passions and a conglomerate CEO's ambitions. Park Gyu Young has brilliantly reinvented herself for multiple supporting roles in her filmography but here she's the centerpiece. She doesn't merely carry the show, she elevates it to heights that it really had no business reaching. It's the moments when Da Li is pushed in to a corner and how her strength and resolve and talent for strategy emerge that makes her a deliciously fun watch. It's a terrifically well conceived character and the hair & wardrobe team did stellar work too, but it's Park Gyu Young's immersion in to Da Li that makes her so unforgettable.

"Yumi's Cells" - unlike the other roles in this list, Yumi is ordinary. Nothing out of the ordinary in her back story. She's just a young woman in an office working at a cubicle by day and living a lonely personal life in a studio apartment. This is not a conducive setup for a groundbreaking acting performance. Really, how does a performer take what seems like a bland character and turn her in to a captivating watch? But Kim Go Eun doesn't merely manage to elevate Yumi, she is sublime. From her initial uncertainty towards Ahn Bo Hyun's Wung to her insecurities, both comic and tragic, to her still raw pain from a previous relationship and her struggle to sort through her feelings for Wung and his personal struggles that disempower him, Kim Go Eun hits every note perfectly. 

"Our Beloved Summer" - Choi Ung is the polar opposite of the stereotypical male lead. He's not a chiseled, tall, stoic conquering type. At first glance, he's a cowardly, antisocial, underachieving slacker. He's also awkward and and innocent and talented and intellectual and ambitious in a way and effortlessly charismatic. Choi Woo Shik dials down his natural coolness to become Ung in a most unexpected portrayal. It's how he can be the sensitive, hurt ex that still cares for Kim Da Mi's Yeon Soo in one scene and then be the driven, focused artist in the next and the exasperated friend/boss to Ahn Dong Goo's Eun Ho moments later that indelibly impresses.