Starring Song Seung-heon, Song Hye-kyo, and Won Bin, Autumn in My Heart is widely acknowledged as a pioneering Korean melodramatic series. Song Hye-kyo as Choi Eun-suh (left) and Song Seung-heon as Yoon Joon-suh (right) in a scene from 'Autumn in My Heart.' Photo courtesy of KBS.
(2000) is a that tells the tragic tale of two star-crossed lovers. Its usage of phrases like “people are so cruel” and “the world is so unfair” speaks to how follies, failures, and shattered dreams plague them. , is an intense and distinctive portrayal of unrequited love that precisely recalls a quote I saw in a book, .
The author, Elle Newmark, writes, “Unrequited love does not die; it’s only beaten down to a secret place where it hides, curled, and wounded,” and I imagine that secret place is the heart. Starring , , and Won Bin, is widely acknowledged as a pioneering Korean melodramatic series. It’s the first chapter in director Yoon Seok-ho’s season-themed drama series , which puts emotional resonance over characterization.
I like how it harmonizes elements of illness, physical challenges, grief, failed relationships, strained familial ties, and traumatic experiences with the protagonists, who courageously meet hardships and heavy social obligations. The plot opens with a young Jun Seo inadvertently switching his sister and another newborn by dropping the name cards on their cribs in a hospital’s maternity ward and then jumping to the girls growing up in the same hamlet. Eun Se.