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Overview (Wikipedia): “Love, Lies” is 2016 South Korean period drama film directed by Park Heung-sik, reuniting “The Beauty Inside” co-stars Han Hyo-joo, Chun Woo-hee, and Yoo Yeon-seok.
Genre: historical, melodrama, betrayal and revenge.
The story takes place in 1943, during the Imperial Japanese occupation of Korea. In the film, best friends Jung So-yool (Han Hyo-joo) and Seo Yeon-hee (Chun Woo-hee) are two of the last remaining gisaeng. Although they enjoy pop music, they are committed to singing “jeongga,” or classical Korean songs.
The film was released on April 13, 2016. Critics particularly praised the film for its meticulous reconstruction of 1940s Seoul, with period-correct sets, props, costumes and music.
It opened in fifth place at the box office, with 133,563 tickets sold across 572 screens. The film earned US$1.67 million in a five-day period (Wednesday to Sunday).
For her performance, Han Hyo-joo won the “Asia Star Award” from the 2016 4th BIFF with Marie Claire Asia Star Awards.
How to use this spoiler-free synopsis
Based on the story arcs, I divided this movie into four parts, indicating the start and end of each part in minute marks. For each part, I narrated the main actions without revealing the twists and turns.
Part 4 is the movie’s finale (the last 22 minutes or so); you can just read Parts 1 to 2, for example, to know what the movie is all about and then go watch the movie. (The 2nd half of Part 2 and the 1st half of Part 3 are the midway point of the movie.)
Part 1 (from start to 35:42 mark)
Seoul, 1991 ... After being found at a construction site, a 1944 record album titled “Joseon Heart” is restored and scheduled to be broadcast on radio.
Flashback, 1943 Seoul ...
Despite the Japanese occupation of Korea, clubs are doing brisk business, with Daesung Artists Agency and others like it providing the entertainers. At the Daesung training center, Jung So-yool and Seo Yeon-hee met as children and have become best friends. (So-yool’s mother owns Daesung, while Yeon-hee was sold off to Daesung by her debt-ridden father.)
After years of strict training as “gisaengs” who especialize in “jeongga” (classical Korean songs), So-yool and Yeon-hee finally graduate. While preparing for individual portraits and the group picture, So-yool’s mother tells the new graduates: “You are flowers that understand words. You not only understand what people say, but you know literature and the arts. Although you are of lowly status, if you become skilled artists, high officials will open their eyes and ears, and you’ll bloom as flowers that cannot be plucked.”
Despite their strict training as “jeongga” singers, So-yool and Yeon-hee love “pop music,” the new kind of music that’s sweeping Korea as exemplified by the songs of the highly popular Lee Nan-yeong.
After talking with Yeon-hee about what they’ll do with their first salary, So-yool meets her boyfriend Kim Yoon-woo, who has just returned from Japan. As she and Yoon-woo return later to Daesung that night, her mother gives Yoon-woo a cold reception.
Despite her 6 PM appointment to dance and sing for the Japanese Imperial Police Commissioner, So-yool goes with Yoon-woo to the luxurious house of Yoon-woo’s friend. In her excitement, So-yool calls up Yeon-hee and tells her to come to the house.
Note: Part 1 spoilers are posted at the bottom portion of this post.
Part 2 (from 35:43 to 1:10:25 mark)
After confirming with So-yool that Yoon-woo really composed “Spring Dream” and singing for him and his friends at a club, Yeon-hee agrees to make a record album with him. But this creates conflict between her and So-yool. Yoon-woo assures So-yool, however, that he loves her and will also write songs for her.
After leaving Daesung, Yeon-hee begins recording the songs that Yoon-woo wrote for the album. Two months later, after Yoon-woo and his team produce an initial batch of 20 copies of the album for approval of the Japanese colonial authorities, Yeon-hee gives So-yool a copy and invites her to attend her concert at the club.
Note: Part 2 spoilers are posted at the bottom portion of this post.
Part 3 (from 1:10:25 to 1:36:07 mark)
Through Police Commissioner Hirata Kiyoshi’s patronage, So-yool releases a record album titled “A Woman’s Smile” and holds a grand concert.
When the songwriter for her 2nd album quits, So-yool tells her producer to get Yoon-woo as the new songwriter. But Yoon-woo gets into trouble with a group of Japanese soldiers in a bar.
When So-yool continues to visit him in jail, Yoon-woo tells her to stop. But So-yool says that if he easily changed his mind about her and turned his attention towards Yeon-hee, he can again easily change his mind and come back to her.
Yeon-hee visits So-yool at the recording studio and asks for Yoon-woo’s whereabouts. After telling Yeon-hee not to trust Yoon-woo, So-yool helps her get a permit as a “Government General special singer.”
Note: Part 3 spoilers are posted at the bottom portion of this post.
Part 4 (from 1:36:08 to the end)
After being released from prison, Yoon-woo finds out that So-yool wants him to write songs for her and that So-yool is Police Commissioner Hirata Kiyoshi’s mistress. He goes to see So-yool and demands to know where Yeon-hee is. After saying that Yeon-hee is dead, So-yool asks Yoon-woo to fulfill his promise to write a song for her.
As Japanese rule ends in Korea, a mob ransacks Daesung and drags So-yool’s mother out. So-yool tries to get into Daesung but runs away as someone recognizes her.
1991 (47 years later) ...
Yeon-hee’s “Joseon Heart” album has been restored and is set to be broadcast by a radio station. When the station asks for anyone who knows anything about Yeon-hee to come to the station, So-yool goes there.
Note: Part 4 spoilers are posted at the bottom portion of this post.
Historical / cultural backgrounders and other information
1. From (Movie Review) ’Love, Lies’: immaculate period reconstruction of 40s Seoul:
The word “gisaeng” beams mostly negative images as a hostess and prostitute in modern-day Korea.
But it originally referred to female artists who worked to entertain dignitaries and kings with dance and singing, poems, calligraphic works and paintings during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), the last kingdom of Korea.
2. From “Tracing the birth of Korean pop” (Korean JoonAng Daily): “The 1940s was a doomed period for Koreans,” said director Park at a press junket on Monday. “People needed to change their names and had to learn Japanese as their mother language. But it was also a period when Korean pop first emerged and experienced its golden age. It was a perfect time period to tell the story of these two girls who wished to become pop singers.”
3. From Han Hyo-joo: My greed as an actress drove me to choose ’Love, Lies’ (Yonhap Interview, 2016):
The top star, who will turn 30 next year, admitted that after many successful years she was depressed at the thought that she might not be able to continue the job because of her age.
“I cried a lot when I abruptly came to have the thought last year,” she said, adding that this experience drove her to give her best with “Love, Lies” as it might become her last work.
4. At around the 30:29 mark of the movie when Yoon-woo tells So-yool that he wants to write a song that will uplift and comfort the Korean people who are suffering under the Japanese colonial rule, you can hear him say the word “Arirang.”
Starting at around the 1:14:55 mark, Yoon-woo gets into trouble with the Japanese soldiers when he plays “Arirang” on the piano.
From Wikipedia: “Arirang” is the unofficial national anthem of South Korea; it is generally associated with separation and strong feelings of sorrowful longing. It has numerous versions in terms of “lyrics, the timing when the refrain is sung, the nature of the refrain, the overall melody, and so on.” The “standard version” of Arirang is the so-called “Seoul version.”
Experts estimate the total number of folk songs carrying the title ‘Arirang’ at some 3,600 variations belonging to about sixty versions. (UNESCO)
5. Around the 1:04:44 mark, So-yool cuts off her hair, to her mother’s horror. By cutting her hair, she breaks her ties with classical Korean songs (“jeongga”) and embraces not only Western clothes but also "pop music."
Scenes of a woman cutting off her hair can be seen in numerous K-dramas. During the Joseon Dynasty, cutting the hair was forbidden because it meant disrespect to parents or a violation of the Confucian tenet of filial piety.
Lessons in photography from “Love, Lies” with brief analysis of its visuals, cinematography, and editing
1. Did “Love, Lies” influence K-dramas such as “Under the Queen’s Umbrella,” “D.P,” “Vincenzo,” and “The Crowned Clown”?
In the last 18 minutes of the movie, So-yool goes to the radio station after the station invited anyone who knows about Yeon-hee to come. To depict or reinforce So-yool’s emotional or psychological tension as she goes to the station, the director used a series of “fade to black.”
In my analysis of the visuals, cinematography, and editing of “Under The Queen’s Umbrella,” I listed several scenes where a series of “fade to black” is used to depict or reinforce emotional or psychological tension. I pointed out that unlike Western movies and dramas, the “fade to black” is not used to transition from one scene to another; rather, the instances of “fade to black” occur within the same scene. I also pointed out that I’ve seen this “fade to black” technique of depicting or reinforcing emotional or psychological tension in dramas such as “The Crowned Clown” (2019), “Vincenzo” (2021), and “D.P.” (2021).
Example from “Under the Queen’s Umbrella” Ep. 16:
Example from “The Crowned Clown” Ep 8:
Example from “Vincenzo” Ep. 8:
2. As you can see in the GIF below, the director and cinematographer of “Love, Lies” use a lot of sidelighting.
The director who’s most known for using a lot of sidelighted shots is Christopher Nolan, who directed such movies as “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Interstellar.”
From “Industry Insights: How Christopher Nolan Shoots a Scene” (Premium Beat):
Lighting-wise, he likes to keep faces in rich shadows rather than over-illuminate the subject. This mirrors Nolan’s characters, who often have hidden agendas or a dark side.
Rather than light both sides of the face with his keylight, Nolan’s signature style is to have the keylight just catch the near-side eye so that three-fourths of the face is in shadow.
Resources: Christopher Nolan’s Character Side Lighting - Video Essay; The Cinematography Style of Christopher Nolan (1:56 mark)
3. Color palette
“Love, Lies” uses warm colors such as red, orange, brown, and black in a lot of the production design (costumes, etc, etc.) and in the lighting. These colors, plus their harmonious colors, comprise the so-called “revenge color palette.” They heighten the emotional and physical tension in the scenes and underlie the movie’s plot of jealousy, betrayal, and revenge.
Relevant resources on color schemes and uses of colors in K-dramas:
(1) “K-drama color: The power of the palette” from Dramabeans
(2) “The Power of Koreanovela Color Palettes in Storytelling” by Jess Convocar, May 2020; Using examples from K-dramas, the author explains the four uses of color: Color Sets the Atmosphere; Color Shows Time; Color Directs Attention; Color Helps Tell the Story.
Note: You might also be interested in the article "How to Use Color in Film: 50+ Examples of Movie Color Palettes" by Studio Binder; it has two excellent and free downloadable infographics titled "The Psychology of Color in Film."
4. Light and darkness (shadow) as symbolism for the contrast between love and lies
5. My favorite shot from “Love, Lies”
The glass window symbolizes the broken friendship between So-yool and Yeon-hee (caused by Yeon-hee and Yoon-woo’s betrayal), while So-yool’s hand symbolizes her conflicted emotions towards Yeon-hee, her best friend since childhood.
Part 1 spoilers
Yoon-woo promises So-yool that despite the difference in their social status, he will convince his mother to allow them to get married; he asks So-yool to wait for two years before they get married.
Yoon-woo’s friend turns out to be Lee Nan-yeong. Under a pseudonym, Yoon-woo is a famous composer in Japan; he also wrote So-yool’s favorite pop song "Spring Dream." To So-yool’s surprise, Lee Nan-yeong asks her to sing a classical Korean song.
Daesung’s manager angrily fetches So-yool from Lee Nan-yeong’s house. Knowing that So-yool is a big fan of Lee Nan-yeong, So-yool leaves her at the house and asks Yoon-woo to take care of her.
After So-yool dances and sings for him, Police Commissioner Hirata Kiyoshi wants to sleep with her. But So-yool firmly rejects him, appealing to his love for the arts. In Daesung, she calls out her mother’s hypocrisy in saying that a gisaeng is an artist, not a prostitute.
Yoon-woo tells So-yool that he has quit school, despite what his mother will say. He says that he wants to write a song that will bring comfort to the Korean people and that he wants her to sing it. In reply, So-yool says that she wants to be Joseon’s heart.
Unknown to So-yool, Lee Nan-yeong also asked Yeon-hee to sing for her in her house. During Lee Nan-yeong’s concert, So-yool becomes extremely disappointed when Lee Nan-yeong asks Yeon-hee to sing for the audience her famous song "Spring Dream."
Part 2 spoilers:
At the after-concert party, Yeon-hee and So-yool sing a duet for Yoon-woo, his team, and friends. Later, on her way home, So-yool decides to return to the club to give Yeon-hee a bouquet of flowers; peering through a window, she sees Yoon-woo and Yeon-hee kissing.
Devastated by the betrayal, So-yool cuts her hair. Later, dressed up in Western clothes, she visits Police Commissioner Hirata Kiyoshi; pleading that she wants to be a pop music singer, she sleeps with him.
Through Police Commissioner Hirata Kiyoshi’s order, the censors reject the "Joseon Heart" album for "bad singing technique"; soldiers also raid the club and destroy all copies of the album.
Part 3 spoilers:
So-yool’s album sold only around 200 copies with the public, with the other copies having been bought up by Police Commissioner Hirata Kiyoshi. After the songwriter for her 2nd album quits, So-yool’s producer tells her to change her singing style to that of Yeon-hee, whose album has been selling well in the black market.
So-yool finds out that Yoon-woo and Yeon-hee were planning to go to Italy. After Yoon-woo rebuffs her, she asks Police Commissioner Hirata Kiyoshi to make sure that Yoon-woo never gets out of jail.
Dressed in a kimono, Yeon-hee sings in a brothel for Japanese soldiers. After stabbing and killing an officer who tried to rape her, she stumbles towards Daesung. The next day, when Japanese soldiers raid Daesung in search of Yeon-hee, So-yool uses her status as Police Commissioner Hirata Kiyoshi’s woman to stop the soldiers.
The conflict between So-yool and Yeon-hee erupts outside Daesung under the pouring rain. When So-yool says that she stole everything from her — Yoon-woo, her song — Yeon-hee retorts by saying that So-yool is nothing but a filthy whore. When the Japanese soldiers arrive, Yeon-hee tries to run away, but the soldiers shoot her down.
Part 4 spoilers:
Distraught over Yeon-hee’s death, Yoon-woo takes his own life by standing in the path of an oncoming train.
So-yool claims to be Seo Yeon-hee and becomes a minor sensation after the station broadcasts the album. But when she sings "Joseon’s Heart" in a TV program, one of Daesung’s former artists recognizes her.
The radio station officer shows So-yool (aka Seo Yeon-hee) the partially burned copy of the album cover of "Joseon Heart" with the handwritten dedication to "Jung So-yool." The officer then shows her a copy of Jung So-yool’s 2nd album titled "Love, Lies."
To So-yool’s surprise, the officer says that with Jung So-yool’s style of singing the "Love, Lies" title track — traditional singing method in a ballad — "every note and every beat is perfect." The officer adds that the singing is so melancholic because something might have happened to Jung So-yool and that the song is "the best of the best."
As the officer plays the song on a turntable, So-yool remembers the letter that Yoon-woo sent her before he took his own life. On the other side of the letter, he had written the song "Love, Lies" for her.
Outside the station in a park, So-yool lies down on a bench, remembering the happy days that she and Yeon-hee spent together.