A past role of “Big Mouse” Lee Jong-suk that is based on real events, Yoon Shim-duk’s tragic love story “The Hymn of Death”
A cup of fragrant art that we personally taste and recommend! This is “OTT Cafe” where you can find the best OTT content in the world.
K-drama “Big Mouse,” which actor Lee Jong-suk chose as his return work after being discharged from the military, has recently surpassed 10% of rating and is still going strong. Lee Jong-seok has built an unlimited filmography as he has played the role of a high school student (I Can Hear Your Voice), a genius surgeon who was kidnapped and raised in North Korea (Dr. Stranger), and even the main character of a webtoon (W).
In Lee Jong-seok’s 2018 work “The Hymn of Death”, he played the role of playwright Kim Woo-jin, who is a real-life character in history. His acting partner is Shin Hye-sun, who plays the soprano Yoon Shim-deok, who is also a real person. Lee Jong-seok and Shin Hye-sun studied in the same class when they were in high school and the drama “School 2013,” in which Lee Jong-seok played his first lead role, is also Shin Hye-sun’s debut. From classmates to co-lead roles of a drama, the backstory of the two was also eye-catching.
The main story of “The Hymn of Death” is the tragic love between Shim-deok and Woo-jin. Woo-jin is the son of a prestigious businessman family in Mokpo. Although he dreams of becoming a playwright, his father (Kim Myung-soo) says, “I let you go to the English department of Waseda University to learn literature as you want, so when you graduate, live the life that I want you to live.” He even married a woman whose face he didn’t even know for his family. Shim-deok is the oldest sister of her two younger siblings. Just like her, who studied abroad in Japan thanks to the government’s scholarship, her younger brother and sister also dream of studying abroad. However, due to her poor family circumstances, Shim-deok is responsible for not only her younger siblings’ study tuition but also the family’s living expenses.
“The Hymn of Death” convinces the audience by changing the love between the two into the sentiment of “nostalgia” in the background of the Japanese colonial era. Shim-deok and Woo-jin share similar emotions and miss the times when there were both happy.
The drama puts Woo-jin between two opposing sides: restraint and freedom. The restraint connects to his father, his wife, his family business, and his country which is still a Japanese colony at the time. On the other hand, freedom is Shim-deok, literature, and independence of his motherland, and Woo-jin continues to crave freedom.
At the time of their first meeting, Woo-jin was reading the poem of poet Takeo Arishima. At that moment, Shim-deok falls in love with him. After that day, they heard about how Takeo Arishima committed suicide with his lover. Shim-deok wonders why the poet made such an extreme choice, saying, “If you are in a love that you shouldn’t be in, you can just break up.” However, Woo-jin recites a line that penetrates the theme of the drama, saying, “They must have been afraid of the longing they will have to go through for the rest of their life.”
Shim-deok says, “There is no unforgettable longing,” before saying goodbye to Woo-jin, whom she finds out already has a family. But five years later, when Shim-deok sees Woo-jin leaving her singing show, she follows him off the stage. Contrary to her affirmation five years ago, she tells him, “I have never forgotten you,” expressing her longing earnestly.
It was clear that these two people, who missed each other dearly, had no choice but to make the tragic choice of death together. Shim-deok suffers from ugly rumors because she received sponsor money for her younger brother. In addition, when she returns after recording a record in Japan, she must become a consigned singer of the Joseon Governor-General as they use her family as a hostage. At the same time, Woo-jin’s wife (Park Sun-im) visits him in Tokyo. His wife pressures him that his father will regain his health only when Woo-jin returns and resumes his work at the family company. They could not be in Joseon, where their souls died, or in Japan, where they abandoned their principles, and eventually, they decide to throw their tired bodies into the waves of the Korean Strait together.
As Sim Deok is a soprano, the drama expresses emotions through the songs she sings. The song Sim Deok sang in her first appearance was the Italian classical song “Caro Mio Ben”. As the title implies, it seems to be reminiscent of Woo-jin, her “friendly lover”. However, after that, she finds out that he is already married in Mokpo, Woo-jin’s hometown, so she was choked up and unable to sing.
Five years after the first breakup, at the first recital where Sim Deok meets Woo-jin again, she sings Handel’s “Lascia ch’io pianga”. Like the lyrics lamenting a miserable fate and wish for freedom, Sim Deok disappears into the sea to regain the freedom she and Woo-jin have longed for.
The acting performance of Lee Jong-suk and Shin Hye-sun gives this drama justice. Shin Hye-sun had a vivid portrayal of Yoon Sim-deok. She also subtly expressed the feelings of depression when faced with death. As for Lee Jong-suk, he did an excellent job with monologues of Woo-jin, a calm and old-fashioned character of that era.
Source: nate
