Actor Lee Joo-yeon vividly portrayed the explosive emotions that arose as she faced one shocking truth after another from the family she trusted.
On the broadcasts of KBS 2TV weekend drama Love On The Menu (director Hong Seok-gu, writer Lee Kyung-hee) on the 12th and 13th, in episodes 15 and 16, Jang Seo-hyun (played by Lee Joo-yeon) was thrown into great shock after learning not only her father Jang Hoon-tae (played by Kwon Hae-hyo) had lied but also the secret her mother Go Yoon-hee (played by Yoon Yoo-seon) had been hiding.
That day, when Jang Seo-hyun encountered Jang Hoon-tae leaving the house, she responded coldly, saying, "I thought you had already left." Although she had been the one to send her father out of the house, when confronted with his retreating figure she could not hide her complicated feelings. In Seo-hyun's deliberate averted gaze were resentment, lingering attachment and mixed emotions all at once, and Lee Joo-yeon heightened immersion by portraying the wavering emotions with restrained acting rather than exaggeration.
After returning home, Jang Seo-hyun asked Go Yoon-hee, who could not look at her properly, "Are you mad at me?" and urged her never to forgive Jang Hoon-tae. While firmly drawing a line with "If you just let it go like nothing happened, I won't see you either, Mom," she nonetheless held the hurt mother tightly in an embrace and comforted her. Seo-hyun's emotions, swinging between the daughter's determination to protect her mother and her tenderness, were made even deeper by Lee Joo-yeon's delicate expressiveness.
But a truth that would shake Seo-hyun's trust to its core was waiting. Go Yoon-hee revealed the shocking fact that Han Gyu-rim was her biological daughter. Stunned by the unexpected confession, Seo-hyun gave a hollow laugh as if she could not believe it, and finally exploded with long-suppressed anger, saying, "Get out, Go Yoon-hee."
The moment the mother she trusted most revealed the truth she had hidden from her, the shock and sense of betrayal Seo-hyun felt were conveyed directly to viewers at home. Lee Joo-yeon convincingly portrayed Seo-hyun's despair by meticulously building the emotional shift from a hollow laugh to raging anger.
In this way, Lee Joo-yeon stably handled the emotional line that suddenly rocked from resentment and affection toward her family to the confusion and anger that followed the collapse of trust, raising the drama's tension. After the broadcast, viewers sympathized with Seo-hyun's emotions, responding with comments such as, "Even if Seo-hyun falls in love with another man later, if the truth comes out then won't she feel even more distant?", "Now that we know the reason why they opposed it, she would feel betrayed," "If I were Seo-hyun I would probably tell my mom to leave too," "Right now Seo-hyun can be angry, but she may understand later," and "Lee Joo-yeon's performance, going from a hollow laugh to exploding in anger after hearing the shocking truth, is insanely immersive."
How Jang Seo-hyun, who has faced the family's lies and truths in succession, will accept this entire situation and what choices she will make draws attention for the story ahead.
[Photo] KBS 2TV Love On The Menu broadcast capture
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