XO, Kitty’s Minho was just a warm-up, Sang Heon-lee's boldest performance is in Philippine drama Secret Ingredient

Sang Heon-lee’s snarky, sarcastic, and slightly narcissistic Minho in XO, Kitty is one for the books. In the first season, he was one of the leads, bounding around on his own before stepping into the spotlight as his feelings for Anna Cathcart’s Kitty began to emerge. She turns him down, and while he seems to move past the heartbreak in Season 2, it’s clear he hasn’t. The show—one that audiences love to hate, but might secretly enjoy for Lee and Cathcart’s growing chemistry—was Lee’s debut.

 It’s a saccharine, cheery teen romcom-drama with moments of intensity that hint at Lee’s potential, though it occasionally flickers. One thing that definitely shows, is Lee’s ability to communicate with his words and a jaw clench. In one episode, when Kitty realises the extent of how much her rejection hurt him, she asks, “I broke your heart?” In those 2 seconds, Minho’s eyes flicker and he lashes out---even with a rather cheesy dialogue, he still manages to communicate hurt and pain.

Coming from XO, Kitty to the Philippine drama Secret Ingredient, a show he filmed between the two seasons, the shift is striking. It’s not a hardened thriller—Secret Ingredient is a soft, emotional six-episode romantic drama—but it clearly demonstrates what Lee is capable of.

In one particular scene of Secret Ingredient, a teary Ha-joon (Sang Heon-lee) breaks down in front of his hospitalised father. The raging tears burst out of him as he says with all the resentment and hurt that he has carried for years: “You bought my future with money. I needed my home, I needed my mother.”

His voice shakes. Standing in a suit, staring with rage at his father, you see flashes of the real actor that Lee is. It’s sad that Secret Ingredient has slipped quietly through the cracks; it exists quietly on VIU, without much buzz and discussion and only a handful of tweets and Reddit have acknowledged it, enjoyed the story. The story might be straightforward, perhaps a tad pale, but we’ll be honest, the streaming platforms have scores of comparatively lesser and dulling shows.

He might not have had Anna Cathcart-level chemistry with Julia Barrett, but the two have a sweet, wholesome friendship in the show, which later blossoms into a romance that has a little less conviction. Nevertheless, the love confession between the two is still touching between them, and Lee doesn’t delve into the dramatic way of expressing his feelings: He just honestly says what he has to, and that somehow sounds just as raw.

For fans waiting on XO, Kitty Season 3, Secret Ingredient is worth watching. Appreciate Lee’s performance, his dynamic with Julia Barrett, and perhaps catch glimpses of the intensity he could bring to his next chapter with Kitty. You never know—it might just elevate the stakes.