Who’s who in the K-drama ‘100 Days of Deception’: get to know the cast and characters

The tvN K-drama boasts a sprawling cast that includes veteran actors such as Kim Hyun-joo (Glass Slippers, Boys Over Flowers, Jung_E and Hellbound), Lee Mu-saeng (The World of the Married, The Silent Sea and Thirty Nine) and Jin Sun-kyu (Confidential Assignment 2: International, The Uncanny Counter 2 and Space Sweepers), alongside bright young talents like Kim You-jung (Love in the Moonlight, My Demon and Dear X) and Jinyoung (The Devil Judge, Yumi’s Cells season two and Our Unwritten Seoul).

Familiar faces include Choi Dae-hoon (The Remarried Empress, Wonderfools and When Life Gives You Tangerines) and Seo Jung-yeon (Our Sticky Love, The Legend of Kitchen Soldier and Castaway Diva), while Song Ji-hyo (Princess Hours, The Witch’s Diner and the long-running variety show Running Man) makes a surprise guest appearance.

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Kim You-jung as Lee Ga-kyung/Keum Seo-hee

Kim You-jung, star of K-drama hits Love in the Moonlight, My Demon and Dear X, is one of today’s most charismatic leading actresses. In 100 Days of Deception, she stars as Lee Ga-kyung, a survivor whose priority is keeping herself and her friends alive, not joining the fight for Korean independence.

A pickpocket by trade, she is single-minded about one thing: earning her passage to the US. But when a grift goes awry, she is roped into the resistance group Gugukdan, whose members promise to help her reach America in exchange for her services as a spy.

Under the name Keum Seo-hee, she gets a job as a junior interpreter at the Government-General, working under the supervision of Hideo Sato, Shinichi Sato’s son. Her mission requires her to use Hideo as a pawn, but the more time they spend together, the harder it becomes to separate her assignment from her growing feelings for him.

Jinyoung as Hideo Sato/Kim Tae-ung

Jinyoung, best known as a member of K-pop boy group Got7, has built a flourishing acting career, with notable performances in K-dramas such as He Is Psychometric, Yumi’s Cells, The Devil Judge and Our Unwritten Seoul. He plays Hideo Sato in 100 Days of Deception, a Joseon-born, Japanese-raised interpreter, who struggles to find his place in an increasingly torn world.

Hideo first encounters Lee Ga-kyung at the train station, where she expertly pilfers his wallet, before bumping into her again at a dinner where an assassination attempt is made on his father. With good reason to be wary of her, Hideo is immediately suspicious when she later takes up a position as an interpreter at the government-general of Joseon.

So when his father asks him to keep a close eye on Ga-kyung, Hideo has little reason to object. However, as they slowly get to know each other, he finds himself falling for a woman whose motives he is not sure he can trust.

Kim Hyun-joo as Yoo So-ran

K-drama fans may remember Kim Hyun-joo from early roles in Boys Over Flowers and What Happens to My Family? or from recent Netflix titles like Hellbound and Jung_E. In tvN’s historical K-drama, 100 Days of Deception, she plays Yoo So-ran, a sharpshooter for, and one of the senior members of, the Gugukdan.

Yoo So-ran’s fight for independence is anchored in vengeance. Years earlier, her first husband was part of the resistance movement against the Japanese. When he refused to name his accomplices, Shinichi Sato, then known as Ishikawa Nobuyuki, ordered their daughter shot and massacred their entire village.

So-ran then spent years underground, training with the Gugukdan. Now she has resurfaced, under an assumed identity, posing as the Chinese wife of Philip Yoo, a US news correspondent. Beyond securing freedom for her people, she has one other objective: to exact her revenge by killing Shinichi Sato.

Lee Mu-saeng as Philip Yoo

Audiences may recognise Lee Mu-saeng, who plays Philip Yoo in 100 Days of Deception, from his supporting turns in the K-dramas The World of the Married, The Silent Sea and Thirty Nine. Philip is a Korean-American journalist whose position as a correspondent for a US news agency affords him a degree of protection under Japanese rule.

Indeed, his press credentials give him leverage over Shinichi Sato, whom he can pressure through the foreign media, making the journalist’s position useful to So-ran. Their marriage may be one of convenience, but Philip’s feelings for her are anything but pretend. If So-ran’s goal is to eliminate Sato at all costs, Philip’s is to keep her safe no matter what.

Jin Sun-kyu as Shinichi Sato

Jin Sun-kyu, known for his roles in Husbands in Action, Confidential Assignment 2: International, Space Sweepers, Kingdom and The Uncanny Counter 2, plays Shinichi Sato, the cruel director-general and second-highest-ranking official in the Japanese colonial administration. He is also the adoptive father of Hideo Sato.

Shinichi’s brutality is matched only by his blind ambition. As the chief architect of the Gyeam-ri Massacre 13 years earlier, he is responsible for the death of Yoo So-ran’s daughter, giving the resistance fighter a deeply personal reason to seek revenge against him.

As he contends with assassination plots orchestrated by the Gugukdan and grows increasingly suspicious of Keum Seo-hee, Yoo So-ran and Philip Yoo, Shinichi must also reckon with his complicated relationship with Hideo, whose loyalties may not be as firmly aligned with his adoptive father’s as he assumes.

Hong Sa-bin as Lee No-ma

Played by Hong Sa-bin, Lee No-ma is Lee Ga-kyung’s closest friend and partner in crime. A rickshaw driver who moonlights as a pickpocket, he shares her knack for getting by through petty schemes and quick fingers. Together, they look after Bang Kkot-nim (Kim Ra-hee), a young orphan girl left disabled by the same disease that killed her parents. The three have formed a makeshift family, sharing a home in a shantytown on the outskirts of the city.

When Lee Ga-kyung later disappears after becoming involved with the Gugukdan, No-ma believes that she has left for the United States. To her horror, he gets involved with Hideo through Kkot-nim, whom the interpreter takes under his wing and teaches to read and write.

Seo Jung-yeon as Ryu Gwan-Sil/Yanagi

As a servant in the Sato household, Ryu Gwan-sil, also known as Yanagi, has watched Hideo and his younger sister, Hanako Sato (Kiko Oi), grow up. Over the years, she has become something of a second mother to the children, most of all Hideo.

But Gwan-sil’s significance goes beyond the comfort and affection she provides. She may also hold crucial clues to the mystery surrounding Hideo's adoptive mother, who disappeared when he was still a boy and whom he is quietly searching for.

Kim Joong-hee as Fukuda

Fukuda, the sadistic director of the Police Bureau, is played by Kim Joong-hee. Slavishly loyal to Shinichi Sato, he is a sycophant whose ambition to climb the ranks of the colonial administration makes him willing to carry out whatever orders the director-general gives him.

An agent of Japanese imperialism, Fukuda looks down on the Joseon people, taking particular pleasure in antagonising Keum Seo-hee and even Hideo Sato whenever he gets the chance. While Shinichi Sato is the calculating mastermind behind the regime’s repression, Fukuda is its especially vicious enforcer and a loathsome adversary for Ga-kyung, Hideo and the anti-Japanese independence group.

Park Jung-yeon as Kim Myun-nam

The Gugukdan brings together freedom fighters from all walks of life, including Kim Myun-nam, played by Park Jung-yeon. The daughter of a wealthy Korean textile magnate, she comes from a family whose fortune is built on her father’s close collaboration with the Japanese.

When Myun-nam discovers that her father’s personal secretary, Lee Young-bok (Lee Seon), is secretly a member of the Gugukdan, she finds herself drawn to the resistance. Her feelings for Young-bok, coupled with guilt over her father’s complicity, lead her to join the group and secretly funnel money from the family business toward its operations. She becomes one of the Gugukdan’s staunchest supporters, even agreeing to an arranged marriage to Hideo when the union is proposed by Shinichi Sato.

Choi Dae-hoon as the pawn shop owner

Choi Dae-hoon turns up in 100 Days of Deception as the pawn shop owner whom Ga-kyung regularly visits to offload items she swiped from unsuspecting victims, including bullets intended for the Gugukdan. His character provides a touch of comic relief in the K-drama’s early episodes, before Ga-kyung’s involvement with the resistance draws her into increasingly dangerous territory.

Kim Do-hyun as Suzuki

Initially introduced as a multilingual official working for the Japanese government-general, Suzuki, played by Kim Do-hyun, is actually a deep-cover agent for the Gugukdan. But that’s not his only secret: he shares a past with Hideo’s adoptive mother, a link that places him at the centre of two intertwined family histories.

Song Ji-hyo as the adoptive mother

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Song Ji-hyo, best known as a regular cast member of the Korean variety show Running Man, makes a surprise cameo in the K-drama’s later episodes as Hideo’s adoptive mother. Long shrouded in mystery, her character’s past finally comes to light, bringing with it a revelation that changes how Ga-kyung and Hideo’s stories intersect. She is, in fact, Ga-kyung’s biological mother, whom Ga-kyung believes abandoned her as a child to marry a Japanese man.

It’s a startling development, even if the drama has been dropping clues about the connection between its main leads. Among them are the matching moon necklaces worn by Hideo and Ga-kyung, a seemingly small detail that now takes on much greater significance.

With its undercover mission, resistance fighters and a budding romance, 100 Days of Deception gives its ensemble plenty of secrets to contend with. Kim You-jung and Jinyoung lead a cast whose characters are bound together by more than their allegiances, as hidden histories and shifting loyalties complicate the fight for freedom. Whether you’re following Ga-kyung’s double life, So-ran’s pursuit of justice or the mystery surrounding Hideo’s family, this guide should help you keep track of who’s who as the K-drama unfolds.

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