She is best known for her leading roles in Korean dramas such as Sons and Daughters (1992), Perfect Love (2003), My Husband's Woman (2007), How Long I've Kissed (2012), Secret Affair (2014), and The World of the Married (2020).

[10] Afterwards, Kim went on a brief hiatus, during which she continued to appear in commercials and magazines, gaining a reputation as a style icon for Korean middle-aged women (called "ajumma") by inspiring them to wear younger and edgier clothes.

[11] Kim returned to acting four years later with Midas, in the role of a wealthy chaebol heiress who fosters greed and ambition in a young lawyer.

[12] She then won Best Actress at the Baeksang Arts Awards for her portrayal of a housewife increasingly stifled by her husband's obsession with status who finds herself falling for her son's dentist in How Long I've Kissed, one of the inaugural dramas in 2012 of new cable channel jTBC.

[18] Kim said she accepted the project because the script was "faultless" and she felt empathy for the characters,[19][20] and one review described her performance as "excellent as the grieving mother [...] understated but somehow believable, touching and honest.

[24] She returned to the small screen with the police procedural drama Mrs. Cop, playing a violent crime detective who struggles to become a good mother.

[27] Kim then returned to the big screen, starring in the psychological thriller The Vanished[28][29] and drama film Herstory, based on the real story of comfort women.