Lie To Me

Lie To Me

4/10

Lie To Me 

Genre:                                   Episodes: 16                                   Year: 2011

Romance

Comedy

Synopsis:

Tired of friends and family nagging her to get married, Kong Ah Jong, lies that she is already married. After an encounter with Yoo So Ran, a former friend who stole her first love, Ah Jung’s lies become more tangled as she tries to impress her ‘friend’, and unwittingly points out Hyun Ki Joon, president of a hotel chain, as her husband. Due to Ah Jong’s mistake, rumours start to spread about Hyun Ki Joon’s secret marriage. Once Ki Joon finds Ah Jong, he plans to take legal action against her. However, after Ah Jong impresses the wife of a business man Ki Joon is in negotiations with, the two decide to continue their fake marriage for a short time, before continuing with the lawsuit.

Cast:

Yoon Eun Hye (Gong Ah Jong)

Kang Ji Hwan (Hyun Ki Joon)

Sung Joon (Hyun Sang Hee)

Jo Yoon Hee (Oh Yoon Joo)

Hong Soo Hyun (Yoo So Ran)

Ryu Seung Soo (Chun Jae Bum)

General Thoughts:

Nothing reeeeeaallyy happens. It’s fluffy and kind of cute, but that’s all. Dramas centred on misconception are usually full of pretty funny hijinks, but unfortunately, they’re rather easy to read.

No alarms and no surprises

It’s all pretty stock-standard: enjoyable enough, but no real surprises. It follows the general plotline pretty spot on- the initial lie, general dislike, dislike turns to like, family opposition, heroine has unexplained crisis, happy resolution. The casting was done fairly well- Yoon

Commonly quirky character

Eun Hye returns once again as a slightly whacky heroine, who unsurprisingly turns into a bit of a weepy mess at the end (and at points throughout), and Kang Ji Hwan is an acceptable arrogant chaebol with a soft(ish) heart once you reach it. The real star of the cast is probably Sung Joon as the cute, constantly over-looked younger brother, destined to be heartbroken. The characters don’t really change through the course of the drama either. The only ones that get a little bit of development are Hyun Ki Joon- who gradually becomes less of an ass, and Hyun Sang Hee- who gradually becomes more of a depressive drunk. As usual, our main female lead is constructed as cutely flawed, but not flawed enough that she should really bother doing anything about it. Obviously the male lead needs to learn to accept and live with those flaws, while correcting his own.

The plot more or less tromps along at a mild pace. There aren’t really a lot of great developments plot-wise- it’s basically just waiting for the interjections of cute and funny moments.

Basically just every K-Drama ever

What Was Great:

Cute and Funny:

While there’s really not a lot going on, the moments that are cute and funny are done pretty well. The karaoke kiss and the cola kiss are both adorable and memorable. Gong Ah Jong’s desperation and incoordination lead to some pretty laughable scenes, and paired with Hyun Ki Joon’s proper, straight-faced demeanor, we get a few solid funny moments.

Acceptably humorous

The drama manages to sprinkle these scenes fairly consistently throughout the drama, but they do (understandably) become less as the drama progresses and the plot becomes mildly more ‘serious’.

Sung Joon:

How I felt when I knew he wouldn't get the girl

I’m a sucker for good second male leads. While Sung Joon’s character wasn’t exactly phenomenal, he played up the innocence and pitifulness well. Hyun Sang Hee makes a good opposite to our main male lead: he’s warm, encouraging, selfless, and cute, while Hyun Ki Joon is…rich? Sang Hee’s constant actions of reassuring our heroine and being a consistent, steady shoulder to cry on do a great job of earning him the sympathy card, without becoming too ‘oh poor Sang Hee’s life really blows’. Throw in that this is not the first, but second, time the girl he fancies has overlooked him for his older brother and our poor little viewer hearts go to goo. The writers manage to make him subtle enough that he isn’t dislikeable for trying to nab his brother’s girl, but honest enough that it’s hard to criticise him for being too much in the backseat. However, he does lose the plot a bit when he becomes a weepy, drunken hermit in his art studio. Oh well, he had a good, long run, and I was cheering for him most of the way.

Friendship:

The rivalry between Ah Jong and So Ran is written well. It’s obvious why the friendship falls through in the first place, and why Ah Jong would want to lie to impress this woman. So Ran is also a nice consistent force that pushes our leads together and creates a lot of our cute, funny moments. Whenever it seemed to be getting a bit stale: oh look, So Ran- quick, let’s be adorable! Originally, So Ran was constructed as the arrogant friend with the superiority complex, but her gradual restoration was executed well.

Thank goodness for Yoo So Ran: the only reason anything ever happened

While her underlying character never changes, and she always has the desire to one-up everybody, the writers do a great job of creating pity for her. The gradual unveiling her husband’s unfaithfulness paired with her dedication to him do wonders for her redemption arch.

What Wasn’t:

Forgettable:

While there were a few moments that stood out- namely our two main kisses, the rest of the drama was overwhelmingly forgettable. Even our two main leads weren’t especially unique. While Gong Ah Jong is presented as rather ‘whacky’, I can’t help feeling that I’ve seen this sort of character before. The quirkiness presented in Ah Jong boarders on identical to characters Yoon Eun Hye has played in ‘Princess Hours’ and ‘Coffee Prince’. And what can I say, Hyun Ki Joon is the rich president of a large corporation.

I dare you to find me a K-Drama that doesn't have at least one of these scenes

Most of the cute scenes, while very sweet, were normal K-Drama rom-com scenes, just with new(ish) characters. We have our cherry-blossom kiss/almost kiss, cooking porridge for the sick, fall down a ditch/mountain/hole, sauna, hospital, etc. While enjoyable to watch at the time, not a lot sticks in your brain.

Get Your Sh*t Together, Woman:

Whine on, whine on

Okay. Okay. Okay. Literally the whooooooooole drama is about how this girl wants to get married. No exaggeration. That’s the whole point. She lies about being married to a great guy because that’s what she wants her life to be like. She goes through all the lies, hard work and heartbreak of getting this completely out-of-her-league dude to love her, and then- get this- THEN SHE WON’T MARRY HIM. Huh? Girl, what drugs are you on? She loves this man: she knows it, he knows it, we all bloody know it. And she doesn’t want to marry him because she’s ‘lost something important’ to her. Yeah, your god-damn mind, you psycho. Ugh- it was so frustrating! She just asses about for a couple of episodes, leaving this poor, confused man (and us poor confused viewers) out in the dark. It makes less than no sense. Then she finds a pot and marries him. Go figure.

Literally no one knows what you want.

Gradual Disintegration of Secondary Male:

They killed poor Sung Joon’s character. Sang Hee becomes a weepy, drunken mess. While it is a nice change to have someone other than our female lead become a useless crybaby, it was still annoying. I’ll admit, it’s understandable why Sang Hee acts the way he does, but it’s irritating, and he was so delightful before. I could have lived with one, maybe two, of these scenes, but it was just dragged out too long.

Sad, yet annoying

Re-watch?

Nah. It’s easily forgettable, and the plot is nothing special. It’s not a great drama, but it’s not flat out awful either. It might be worth a first watch, but nothing in it compels me to want to see it again.

Memorable kiss in a forgettable drama