MBC’s new Friday-Saturday drama ‘Liar’ premiered on October 30 with a jarring twist: Min Jun-Ho, played by Yoo Yeon-Seok, is urgently arrested at work after Kang Ji-Sun, played by Seo Hyun-Jin, reports him to police. According to Sports Seoul’s recap, the arrest closes a first episode that turns a warm first date into a clash over two conflicting memories of the same night.
The episode builds their connection. Kang Ji-Sun, an elementary school librarian, first meets Min Jun-Ho, a parent at the school, and cautiously declines his dinner invitation, saying she is uncomfortable meeting a parent outside school. Her older sister Kang Ji-Eun, played by Kim Ji-Hyun, recommends him warmly, and Kang Ji-Sun begins to open up.
A chance meeting at the beach brings them together again, and Kang Ji-Sun suggests dinner over coffee. On the date, Min Jun-Ho presents her with a bouquet, and the two share wine and an affectionate evening.
The next morning shatters that mood. While Min Jun-Ho goes to work as usual, Kang Ji-Sun wakes at home in pain with only a partial memory of the night before. His messages thank her for inviting him to her house and say he ordered porridge because she had drunk a lot. She ignores his calls, cries, and throws the bouquet away.
She then tells her sister she believes she said not to go ahead, that she did not want to go that far on a first date — least of all with a parent — and that she cannot remember. After declaring she will report him, police arrest Min Jun-Ho at work, upending the life of a trusted doctor and single father.
The conflicting accounts are the point of the series: ‘Liar’ is a psychological thriller about two people making opposite claims about one memory, and the premiere leaves the truth unresolved. Kang Ji-Sun says something she did not want happened; Min Jun-Ho’s messages read as though she invited him in.
The drama also reunites Yoo Yeon-Seok and Seo Hyun-Jin nearly ten years after SBS’s ‘Dr. Romantic’ in 2016. Yoo plays a cardiothoracic surgeon raising his son alone, Seo a librarian teacher, The 12-episode drama, directed by Jo Young-Min and written by Baek Jae-Young, airs Fridays and Saturdays at 9:50 p.m. KST on MBC.
With an arrest on the books and two irreconcilable stories, the coming episodes will have to answer whose memory holds.
