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!
