What a view | Hymn of Death, the latest period K-drama on Netflix, tells the tragic true story of Korea’s first soprano singer
- Adding to the streaming giant’s roster of Korean content, the three-part miniseries depicts the ill-fated romance between singer Yun Sim-deok and playwright Kim Woo-jin, set against the backdrop of Korea under Japanese occupation
Something cheery sounding is just what’s needed as we slide into another year of global chaos. Hymn of Death is the obvious contender, broaching the topics of freedom versus spirit-crushing oppression and the heartache that comes with the pursuit of proscribed love.
Appalling as it undoubtedly was, if something mildly positive (although admittedly trivial) has been salvaged from Japan’s vicious occupation of Korea in the early 20th century, it’s that it has allowed Seoul’s television creatives to corner the market in fetching period dramas.
Hymn of Death, on Netflix, is the latest meticulously realised example, and thankfully its makers have avoided the temptation to overreach themselves, instead restricting the story to a miniseries of three one-hour episodes.
Korean undergraduates studying in 1920s Tokyo return home for a 10-city tour, staging a play that riles their unwanted guests by lamenting the absence of freedom. Targeted by the snarling Japanese police for daring to speak out, writer and theatre director Kim Woo-jin (starchy, intense, patriotic) falls for stellar soprano Yun Sim-deok (irascible, delicate, determined) despite his best intentions – Kim already being trapped in an arranged marriage.
Lee Jong-suk plays the writer, Shin Hye-sun the singer and together – after an artistic-temperament-fuelled, antagonistic start to their romance – they bring back to life their tragedy-laden historical characters in finely pitched performances of frustration and restraint.