Bae Suzy and While You Were Sleeping — My Wife Was Right 😊
Bae Suzy in While You Were Sleeping
My wife MeiMei recently wrote a review on a K-Drama called While You Were Sleeping.
She'd been telling me for weeks to watch it, and once I finally finished a couple of other shows I was in the middle of — Paradise and The Pitt — I decided to give it a try. And it's a great show. I have to say, my wife was right 😊
Bae Suzy Is a Star for a Reason
I'd never watched a K-Drama with Bae Suzy before. I knew she was a major star in the industry — both as an actress and a singer — but I just don't follow the South Korean entertainment industry closely enough to have a real sense of her. For context, I only know IU is a big star because I recently watched When Life Gives You Tangerines.
Bae Suzy was amazing in her role as Nam Hong-joo. She moves through the full emotional spectrum — charismatic, sad, playfully in love, goofy, fiercely determined — shifting between them naturally as the storyline demands. Like many great actors, she has an energy that a less talented performer simply wouldn't bring to the role.
And importantly, it's not about her looks. The show actually did something really smart early on — they gave her a short haircut and had her wear glasses at the start, deliberately so that viewers would focus on the character rather than on Bae Suzy the celebrity. That's a thoughtful production choice and it works.
The Show Is From 2017 — And It Still Holds Up
One of the concerns with watching older shows — especially with how fast-paced our minds have become — is that the pacing can feel slow by modern standards. I've revisited classics like Star Wars and A Better Tomorrow and found myself noticing how differently they move compared to what I watch now.
2017 is only about eight years ago, so it's not ancient. But if you watch current K-Dramas and then go back to older ones, the evolution is visible. Some of it is the natural progression of an industry that has exploded globally. Some of it is what I'd call the Netflix effect — think Squid Game and the production standards it set. A lot has changed in South Korean entertainment in less than a decade.
A good example: I recently watched a YouTube video of BLACKPINK’s DDU-DU DDU-DUfrom about seven years ago. They look and perform so differently from how they do now. They were already big back then — but watching their current performances, especially from their latest album (see Jump), you can see how much they've levelled up their craft and stage presence.
The same evolution applies to K-Drama. And yet — While You Were Sleeping didn't feel dated to me at all. I attribute a lot of that to the quality of the cast, and to Bae Suzy in particular.
Final Thought
I'll probably explore more of Bae Suzy's work — I want to see whether this performance is the norm for her or something exceptional.
I wrote recently about how we're living in the golden era of TV. What I'm realizing now is that there are likely a lot of hidden gems from the last decade — from countries and industries I haven't paid enough attention to — that I've completely missed. MeiMei will no doubt keep sending K-Drama and C-Drama recommendations my way. But she's not really into Hong Kong movies, which means that side of the search might be on me. There could be some real gems I haven't discovered yet.
