Kdrama Review: My Lovely Liar
Main Genres: Mystery, Romance
This was my first mystery kdrama I’ve watched, which is quite surprising since I do love mysteries, but now I will be definitely watching more kdramas in the mystery genre. There were a few things that I thought could be better, but overall, I loved it so much!
Continue reading for more details.
Synopsis: My Lovely Liar is a mystery-romance drama about a woman who can hear lies and a genius music producer who hides his identity. The woman, Mok Sol Hee, has a supernatural ability to detect lies, but she hates it because it makes her unable to trust anyone. The man, Kim Do Ha, is a murder suspect who no one believes in his innocence. However, Mok Sol Hee's power seems to not work when she is near Kim Do Ha.
Mok Sol-hee (Kim So-hyun) is a woman who has a lie-detector in her ear. She can tell whenever anyone’s lying, no matter how big or small the lie is. It’s hard for her to make friends or have a boyfriend as she despises people who lie, and most people do exactly that. That is until she meets Kim Do-ha (Hwang Min-hyun). Kim Do-ha doesn’t lie which allows Mok Sol-he to trust him. The thing is, Kim Do-ha is a murder suspect of a case that happened 5 years ago. He has had a hard past and it affects him currently as he has trouble sleeping and never felt at ease. He hid behind a mask and fake name so people would leave him alone and he wouldn’t be connected with his past self. When he met Mok Sol-hee, things changed, definitely for the better.
Mok Sol-hee is a strong character who had a hard time making friends, even as a child. Her parents would argue a lot of the time as well. As an adult, she sometimes gets involved in some dangerous situations whether it was for her job, which was detecting lies for people, or for someone she loved. Kim Do-ha has gone through so much, my heart goes out to him. He is so innocent and pure; I hate how someone as sweet as him had to deal with so many struggles. Though this is what set up the base for his growth and development that took place throughout the show which was amazing to see.
The relationship between Mok Sol-hee and Kim Do-ha was so adorable. They were both so cute around each other, they definitely make a perfect match. Mok Sol-hee helps Kim Do-ha trust himself once again and become more self-confident while Kim Do-ha is someone Mok Sol-hee has no problem trusting as he never lies on purpose. Mok Sol-hee was surprisingly softer with Kim Do-ha. She generally seemed like a very cold person in the way she acted around people and how she always said her signature line “if I say so, then it is”. Their whole relationship came to be through a series of coincidences, which I don’t love but I don’t necessarily hate either. In the end, these two were like two peas in a pod. They were exactly what the other one needed, and that was my favorite part about their relationship.
This series also portrayed how trauma, ptsd, and healing can look like. Kim Do-ha as a character did a great job portraying how anxiousness and constant fear of something can look like. Especially when at the beginning of the show, Kim Do-ha was terrified of anyone seeing his face so he wouldn’t be recognized as his past constantly haunted him. He always felt guilty for something he didn’t even do. Afterwards, once Mok Sol-hee came into his life, and he started healing, it was so beautiful watching him come out of his shell and live happily. He deserved that after the mess he’s been through.
The plot of the story was pretty good. There was a good mix of mystery, romance, light-heartedness, and tension. The beginning was lighter while towards the end of the show it was more tense. This is because the mystery starts to pick up. There are pieces that are being put together and taken apart and being put back together again. I think, personally, it was pretty well balanced, and I never got too bored of the plot. It always kept me engaged and wasn’t ever too slow for me.
The mystery was a significant part of the plot, which I want to focus a bit more on. A quick reminder: Kim Do-ha was a suspect for a case where a girl may have been murdered, but it was concluded that it was probably suicide. The mystery throughout the series was uncovering who the murderer was, keeping Kim Do-ha in mind. Lee Kang-min, Mok Sol-hee’s ex (I thought this was a pretty relevant point) and a detective, decided to look further into this cold case of the missing girl. Lee Kang-min is really dedicated to the case, and the more he investigates the more is uncovered. There were multiple plot twists in the duration of trying to crack this case, and I had multiple theories, but the final plot twist had me shocked. I did not see that coming at all. Like literally, that wasn’t close to any of my theories, but it made sense. The only problem I had with it was how unpredictable it was. I mean that in the sense that it made no sense. There weren't any signs of it and it seemed totally out of the blue. This probably won’t make sense unless you know what the twist is, but I try to not spoil anything in my reviews, so I won’t say what it was exactly. Just trust me that what I’m saying will make sense once you watch the show. Though, that wasn’t a big deal, and the overall mystery was still splendid.
Another small problem I had with the show was how everything that happened in the last 2 or 3 episodes was so rushed. It felt super rushed like they were trying to shove everything they wanted in those episodes to tie up any loose ends. I was really satisfied with the ending, there were some things I thought that could’ve been executed better because how it happened didn’t make sense. I understood why everything that happened in the end happened, so I didn’t find any of the events useless or meaningless. I think they were all definitely needed as they all relayed a nice message that the viewer could take away. Otherwise, the ending resolved any complaints I thought I would have or any questions that I thought would go unanswered.
If you’re a mystery + romance fan, definitely check this show out because it has the perfect balance of both. Even if you’re not a mystery fan, you should still give it a try because who knows, maybe you’ll find a new love for mystery. This show kept me on my toes and wanting to know what happened next. It was heart-breaking and heart-warming and overall, very charming.
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