Best supporting acting performances of 2021
These actors weren't the leads, but they were outstanding when they had their moments.
Note - no separate categories by gender.
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Jung Moon Sung
South Korean
"Hospital Playlist 2" - his character, Je Hak hit all kinds of highs and lows from the playful work bromance with Jung Kyung Ho's Jun Wan to his wife's myriad of medical issues from pregnancy to cancer diagnosis to treatment. Jung Moon Sung's portrayal was comedic and tragic and touching throughout.
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Nam Gyu Ri
South Korean
"You Are My Spring" - I'll admit that I'm fighting the consensus opinion that this show was not a very good show. One of the reasons why the popular opinion is wrong is Nam Gyu Ri's scintillating performance as Ga Young, a bubbly starlet on the exterior with both a painful personal history, a deft touch for manipulation and a scalpel-sharp intuition for seeing hidden motives in others. There isn't a second of her performance that isn't a delight.
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Kwak Dong Yeon
South Korean
"Vincenzo" - SPOILER ALERT - among the vast roster of characters in this blockbuster, none had the depth and arc of Han Seo who began as the privately abused younger brother and fake CEO of the Babel conglomerate and then became a mentee figure for the title character before a tragic end. Kwak Dong Yeon nailed Han Seo's naivety and awkward attempts to reconcile his family obligations against his own growing sense of right and wrong.
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Bae Hae Seon
South Korean
"Happiness" - if real life in the past two years has taught us anything, it's that people will rarely recalibrate their priorities even when it is clearly contrary to their health, safety and welfare to do so. Bae Hae Seon's Yeon Ok is on a mission to be the resident representative of her apartment building whether there's a deadly zombie outbreak or not. As the situation in the building grows more desperate, her pitbull-like grip on her goal never wavers despite her mental and emotional state otherwise faltering badly. Is she sympathetic? No. Comedic? Not even in a deeply dark way. But compelling? Very much so.
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Son Na Eun
South Korean
"Lost" - one of the least conventional shows of 2021 sported some pretty big names among the cast. It would be easy to overlook Son Na Eun as just the pretty, young face but damn if she didn't go beyond merely holding her own but actually outshone all of them. Her idol dropout Min Jung tightroped between scheming in her own self-interest and a relationship with Yoo Soo Bin's insecure Sun Joo. Is she playing him? She doesn't actually have an interest in him, does she? She's a magically ambiguous creature that dazzled opposite the latest scene-stealing work by Yoo Soo Bin.
