Lies, Lies, Lies: K-Drama’s Hot New Topic

Almost every k-drama plotline seems to involve a lie. It's hard to keep the complications in a plot going for a long time if everyone tells the truth. With "The Liar Game" and "Pinocchio" using lies as a central theme, it may be time to examine the importance of lies versus the truth in k-drama plotlines.

There are different kinds of lies in k-drama plots, but they mostly break down into two categories: the lies made to benefit others and the ones characters make for their own benefit.

There's lying about committing a crime, when really someone else did it. That's what happened to Hwang Jung Eum in "Secrets." She pretended to commit a crime so that the man she loved would not have to go to jail.

There's also lying to protect someone, covering up their birth origins, as happened to Han Ji Min and Jung Yu Mi in "Rooftop Prince."

There's the terrible lie. A character may claim to have seen something that they did not. That happens early in "Pinocchio" when the man responsible for firefighters losing their lives blames Lee Jong Suk's father for the incident.

Then there is the less evil but still self-serving lie. In that case the character lies to advance herself, as So E Hyun did in "Cheomdamdong Alice" or to make herself look good like Yoon Eun Hye did when she lied about her marital status in "Lie To Me."

In "The Liar Game" Kim So Eun's character is not the kind of person who normally lies or cheats anyone but she has to learn to play the game in order to survive. In the twisted world of the game, it's easy to become confused about the truth. Sometimes you have to lie for the greater good. Or at least that's what people are telling her. So far Lee Sang Yoon's character has done most of the actual lying for her. Will she learn to lie?

In "Pinocchio" Park Shin Hye suffers from the imaginary "Pinocchio syndrome." She hiccups every time she lies and the more she lies the more violent those hiccups become. This means she is blunt and not be afraid to speak the truth, except maybe about matters of the heart.

Her best friend, played by Lee Jong Suk, lives a lie in that he is running away from his past. He wants to distance himself from the legacy of his unjustly accused father. Her inability to lie and his inability to tell the truth is the thing that binds them. Hopefully he will become honest about who he is. But should she learn to lie? Stay tuned.

In the end of a k-drama the truth is almost always revealed.