6 reviews
Lie to Me is Korean TV show that aired in mid 2011 (I think, I can't quite remember a more specific date). It's (spoilers) a melodrama!
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Here's your story: Our main lead stars as a young single civil service worker that's tired of seeing her old school friends getting married, achieve more than her, leaving her behind, etc. She thinks she's becoming one big failure in life, while everyone else she knows has gone on to bigger and better things. There's one particular close girl friend of hers that continually enjoys rubbing salt in our main lead's wounds time and time again. Finally fed up with the increasing peer pressure from her friends, and what she perceives as her own shortcomings, our young heroine eventually cracks and she one day impulsively blurts outs a silly off handed lie to all her friends that she just got married to a rich, handsome, perfect, young, hotel heir (who is the male lead in the show).
Quickly realizing her mistake, and mortified by her momentary act of childish stupidity, our young lead wants to rectify the absurd situation she's created for herself as best she can, but she has her pride at stake, and the damage has already been done anyway. Rumors about the marriage soon start spreading across Korea like wildfire, and she inadvertently impresses a hugely important future business partner as the fake wife of the young hotel heir along the way. As such, the two leads soon find themselves thrust together as a result of the circumstances at hand. Our young heroine wants to impress her friends, and our young hotel heir needs to impress his future business partners, so the two of them agree to pretend to be married to help each other achieve their own goals.
The two leads couldn't be more different from one another. He's polished, well to do, smart, and reserved. She's ordinary, perky, frank, and full of heart. The fake marriage & web of lies they've both agreed to implement becomes increasingly harder to maintain as time goes on, and, they eventually need to find a suitable exit strategy asap. But, of course, they've both now fallen in love with each other during their time together, so parting ways is not that simple or easy when it comes time for the both of them to do so.
Our young male lead is played by Kang Ji-hwan. Gosh he's good looking, and he strikes a real nice balance between what's needed to be the leading man in his role as the young hotel heir and romantic interest. There is little, if anything, to not like about his performance or the character he plays. He does a terrific job all in all, but there's no questioning who the star of this show is; that would be Yoon Eun-hye. I can't stress enough how impressive Eun-hye is in her role here as the earnest hard working normal girl who eventually falls for the male lead. I can't vouch for her acting range outside of this genre, but she's pitch perfect and adorable here, and the performance she gives makes her character, and this story, almost impossible not to like & root for.
The two leads occupy more and more of the main storyline as this series progresses, and they make for a great on screen couple. There's a host of other side characters, some of which you're sure will morph into the main evil bad person sooner or later, but that never really happens! What passes as the antagonists in this story (the Aunt, the brother, the former love interest, the bitchy girlfriend) don't ever get around to being overly unreasonable, or become an overbearing problem that must be dealt with via typical melodramatic methods. In fact, though not without their faults or occasional schemes, you'll likely find yourself hoping these "antagonists" all make out well for themselves when all is said and done.
This show is about as cute as can be. From the story, to the script, to the performances of everybody involved, to the soundtrack, etc. This type of stuff is not really my cup of tea, but, I must confess that I rather liked this show quite a bit more than I thought I would.
If you're a fan of KTV melodramas, you'll probably like this show. If you're unfamiliar with the genre, but are wanting to check out a pretty solid romantic love story, look no further!
Bottom Line: 8 out of 10 stars! Well Recommended!
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Here's your story: Our main lead stars as a young single civil service worker that's tired of seeing her old school friends getting married, achieve more than her, leaving her behind, etc. She thinks she's becoming one big failure in life, while everyone else she knows has gone on to bigger and better things. There's one particular close girl friend of hers that continually enjoys rubbing salt in our main lead's wounds time and time again. Finally fed up with the increasing peer pressure from her friends, and what she perceives as her own shortcomings, our young heroine eventually cracks and she one day impulsively blurts outs a silly off handed lie to all her friends that she just got married to a rich, handsome, perfect, young, hotel heir (who is the male lead in the show).
Quickly realizing her mistake, and mortified by her momentary act of childish stupidity, our young lead wants to rectify the absurd situation she's created for herself as best she can, but she has her pride at stake, and the damage has already been done anyway. Rumors about the marriage soon start spreading across Korea like wildfire, and she inadvertently impresses a hugely important future business partner as the fake wife of the young hotel heir along the way. As such, the two leads soon find themselves thrust together as a result of the circumstances at hand. Our young heroine wants to impress her friends, and our young hotel heir needs to impress his future business partners, so the two of them agree to pretend to be married to help each other achieve their own goals.
The two leads couldn't be more different from one another. He's polished, well to do, smart, and reserved. She's ordinary, perky, frank, and full of heart. The fake marriage & web of lies they've both agreed to implement becomes increasingly harder to maintain as time goes on, and, they eventually need to find a suitable exit strategy asap. But, of course, they've both now fallen in love with each other during their time together, so parting ways is not that simple or easy when it comes time for the both of them to do so.
Our young male lead is played by Kang Ji-hwan. Gosh he's good looking, and he strikes a real nice balance between what's needed to be the leading man in his role as the young hotel heir and romantic interest. There is little, if anything, to not like about his performance or the character he plays. He does a terrific job all in all, but there's no questioning who the star of this show is; that would be Yoon Eun-hye. I can't stress enough how impressive Eun-hye is in her role here as the earnest hard working normal girl who eventually falls for the male lead. I can't vouch for her acting range outside of this genre, but she's pitch perfect and adorable here, and the performance she gives makes her character, and this story, almost impossible not to like & root for.
The two leads occupy more and more of the main storyline as this series progresses, and they make for a great on screen couple. There's a host of other side characters, some of which you're sure will morph into the main evil bad person sooner or later, but that never really happens! What passes as the antagonists in this story (the Aunt, the brother, the former love interest, the bitchy girlfriend) don't ever get around to being overly unreasonable, or become an overbearing problem that must be dealt with via typical melodramatic methods. In fact, though not without their faults or occasional schemes, you'll likely find yourself hoping these "antagonists" all make out well for themselves when all is said and done.
This show is about as cute as can be. From the story, to the script, to the performances of everybody involved, to the soundtrack, etc. This type of stuff is not really my cup of tea, but, I must confess that I rather liked this show quite a bit more than I thought I would.
If you're a fan of KTV melodramas, you'll probably like this show. If you're unfamiliar with the genre, but are wanting to check out a pretty solid romantic love story, look no further!
Bottom Line: 8 out of 10 stars! Well Recommended!
I love a mini-series as a melodrama that tells a story in the long movie format, as opposed to those that tell different stories in the same setting (like Grey's Anatomy, Mad Men and to a lesser extent Damages, Breaking Bad, and Revenge that change the story at times while keeping to a general story). In this regard, I have discovered some gems in the South Korean TV mini-series of recent years.
The basic melodrama is the oft repeated formula: Boy meets Girl, Boy loses Girl, Boy gets Girl Back. This me recur in the same story. Human relations can be complex even if only the boy and girl are involved, but this complexity increases as more people are involved. If personality dynamics are properly depicted in a valid manner, and if the production is skillful, powerful emotions can be evoked in the viewer. In this way we can live many lifetimes through movies, in our one lifetime - greatly enriching our incarnate experience. These South Korean productions (seen on Netflix streaming) are first class with excellent production and direction, some terrific casting and acting (particularly from some of the females who give some matchless world class performances), brilliant musical accompaniment, and staging. What makes these so good is the way they skillfully evoke deep emotion in the viewer. South Korean movie making is superb - world class.
However, the following caveats must be considered by the USA viewer. They are subtitled and some people hate this. The South Korean cultural norms, values and sanctions may sometimes seems silly or old fashioned to the USA viewer. The families are close knit and decisions by an individual may be subject to family approval. Social distance is maintained where formal speech is used, and personal speech forms are reserved for close friends or family. There is a strong work ethic and community cooperation/unity - sometimes reminiscence of a old Frank Capra film.
Most importantly, in order for the sometimes complicated sub-plots to work, people fail to communicate with each other as might be expected, keeping many in the dark as to what others are doing, and this leads to misunderstandings and error judgments of some people, that sometimes seem to be unlikely by USA cultural standards. The viewer may wonder at times why good but trusting people are so easily manipulated and deceived by bad and selfish people, but con artists do often succeed (just look at politicians for example). However this poetic license of improbability is needed to develop the story - just accept it as occurring even though unlikely at times. Taking these factors into account Will help you become involved and emotionally engrossed. It was hard t for me to quit watching at times so I binged watched.
I would rank these as follows but tastes differ and your rankings might not agree: 1 - 4 (hard to say which is best)
Shining Inheritance
When a Man Loves
That Winter, The Wind Blows
Secret garden
5. Five Fingers
6. The Scent of a Woman
7. The Great Queen Seondeok
8. A Hundred Years Inheritance
9. Lie To me
10. Roof Top Prince
11. Dr. Jin
12. The Great Doctor
Lie To Me is a fun romantic story that shows how an innocent lie can get out of control with complicated and wide-ranging effects. This is the premise of Chaos theory - a small and relatively insignificant event can expand into a large complex of effects that are totally unpredictable considering the origin - commonly depicted as a butterfly flaps its wings and the end result is a storm on the other side of the world (a somewhat misleading analogy but it illustrates the idea). Well done as is typical of these South Korean TV mini-series
The basic melodrama is the oft repeated formula: Boy meets Girl, Boy loses Girl, Boy gets Girl Back. This me recur in the same story. Human relations can be complex even if only the boy and girl are involved, but this complexity increases as more people are involved. If personality dynamics are properly depicted in a valid manner, and if the production is skillful, powerful emotions can be evoked in the viewer. In this way we can live many lifetimes through movies, in our one lifetime - greatly enriching our incarnate experience. These South Korean productions (seen on Netflix streaming) are first class with excellent production and direction, some terrific casting and acting (particularly from some of the females who give some matchless world class performances), brilliant musical accompaniment, and staging. What makes these so good is the way they skillfully evoke deep emotion in the viewer. South Korean movie making is superb - world class.
However, the following caveats must be considered by the USA viewer. They are subtitled and some people hate this. The South Korean cultural norms, values and sanctions may sometimes seems silly or old fashioned to the USA viewer. The families are close knit and decisions by an individual may be subject to family approval. Social distance is maintained where formal speech is used, and personal speech forms are reserved for close friends or family. There is a strong work ethic and community cooperation/unity - sometimes reminiscence of a old Frank Capra film.
Most importantly, in order for the sometimes complicated sub-plots to work, people fail to communicate with each other as might be expected, keeping many in the dark as to what others are doing, and this leads to misunderstandings and error judgments of some people, that sometimes seem to be unlikely by USA cultural standards. The viewer may wonder at times why good but trusting people are so easily manipulated and deceived by bad and selfish people, but con artists do often succeed (just look at politicians for example). However this poetic license of improbability is needed to develop the story - just accept it as occurring even though unlikely at times. Taking these factors into account Will help you become involved and emotionally engrossed. It was hard t for me to quit watching at times so I binged watched.
I would rank these as follows but tastes differ and your rankings might not agree: 1 - 4 (hard to say which is best)
Shining Inheritance
When a Man Loves
That Winter, The Wind Blows
Secret garden
5. Five Fingers
6. The Scent of a Woman
7. The Great Queen Seondeok
8. A Hundred Years Inheritance
9. Lie To me
10. Roof Top Prince
11. Dr. Jin
12. The Great Doctor
Lie To Me is a fun romantic story that shows how an innocent lie can get out of control with complicated and wide-ranging effects. This is the premise of Chaos theory - a small and relatively insignificant event can expand into a large complex of effects that are totally unpredictable considering the origin - commonly depicted as a butterfly flaps its wings and the end result is a storm on the other side of the world (a somewhat misleading analogy but it illustrates the idea). Well done as is typical of these South Korean TV mini-series
- drarthurwells
- Feb 19, 2014
- Permalink
- fprefect-685-281084
- Oct 4, 2013
- Permalink
This series is excellent and so funny! So many people love it-including me. I love comedy and watched it when it first came out. Ten years later I still think it's hilarious. The actors were so good and were cast perfectly. It's a must-watch if you love to laugh, with a funny romance on the side. (I added it to my favorites along with funny Billy Crystal, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan shows-and more!) I rate "Lie To Me" at least 8.5. Enjoy! 😃
~~
This series is excellent and so funny! So many people love it-including me. I love comedy and watched it when it first came out. Ten years later I still think it's hilarious. The actors were so good and were cast perfectly. It's a must-watch if you love to laugh, with a funny romance on the side. (I added it to my favorites along with funny Billy Crystal, Sandra Bullock, Tom Ha/nks, Meg Ryan shows-and more!) I rate "Lie To Me" at least 8.5. Enjoy! 😃
***
This series is excellent and so funny! So many people love it-including me. I love comedy and watched it when it first came out. Ten years later I still think it's hilarious. The actors were so good and were cast perfectly. It's a must-watch if you love to laugh, with a funny romance on the side. (I added it to my favorites along with funny Billy Crystal, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan shows-and more!) I rate "Lie To Me" at least 8.5. Enjoy! 😃
_ This series is excellent and so funny! So many people love it-including me. I love comedy and watched it when it first came out. Ten years later I still think it's hilarious. The actors were so good and were cast perfectly. It's a must-watch if you love to laugh, with a funny romance on the side. (I added it to my favorites along with funny Billy Crystal, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan shows-and more!) I rate "Lie To Me" at least 8.5. Enjoy! 😃
- lanaantione
- May 3, 2023
- Permalink
The first half of episodes were really interesting. There were many funny moments and good flow in the story. After the episode 8 the storyline dramatically changed. The lead man started to act awful against both the lead woman and his ex-fiancee. He played with their feelings and he didn't ever even make an apology. Moreover , he always command the woman he supposed to love , to fulfil his desires , without thinking about her life or her wants. In the last episodes , he was overacted in his trying to express his love.... That was totally cringe . Of course , finishing the whole series , I disliked the main lead man.
The worst however was the part of So-ran and her husband. He had affair with other women but she forgive him twice.
"The same mistake two times is not a mistake. Its a choice!"
The whole series creates negative idols both for women and men. The brutal guy is not anymore the right guy. And a woman does not need always to be like a toy in a relationship.
The worst however was the part of So-ran and her husband. He had affair with other women but she forgive him twice.
"The same mistake two times is not a mistake. Its a choice!"
The whole series creates negative idols both for women and men. The brutal guy is not anymore the right guy. And a woman does not need always to be like a toy in a relationship.
- Mr_Avenger
- Feb 11, 2024
- Permalink