Hymn of Death

November 27, 2018

Korea's first soprano Yun Sim-deok (Shin Hye-sun) meets playwright Kim Woo-jin (Lee Jong-suk) in 1920s colonial Seoul. Her voice and his writing — both forms of resistance under occupation. The Gunsan colonial streets establish the period world.

November 27, 2018

Their love developing under the impossible conditions of colonial Korea — Woo-jin married, Sim-deok's career requiring public compliance with Japanese cultural authority.

November 28, 2018

Sim-deok's performances in the Seoul concert halls — her voice as both personal expression and public spectacle.

November 28, 2018

The social and political impossibility of their relationship — the specific walls of 1920s colonial Korea around a married man and an independent woman.

November 29, 2018

The historical trajectory of their love — both knew how it ended from the beginning. The Gunsan streets at their most elegiac.

November 29, 2018

The finale. Based on a true story. Lee Jong-suk and Shin Hye-sun's chemistry in a devastatingly short drama — three episodes, six parts — that accomplishes what most 16-episode dramas cannot.