K-Drama Flashback: ‘Autumn in My Heart’

Autumn in My Heart (2000) is a classic K-drama 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.

Autumn in My Heart, is an intense and distinctive portrayal of unrequited love that precisely recalls a quote I saw in a book, The Book of Unholy Mischief. 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 Song Seung-heon, Song Hye-kyo, and Won Bin, Autumn in My Heart is widely acknowledged as a pioneering Korean melodramatic series. It’s the first chapter in director Yoon Seok-ho’s season-themed drama series Endless Love, 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 Seo (Song Hye-kyo) is one of them, with an idyllic family life. Shin Ae (Han Chae-young), on the contrary, is destitute and raised by a single father. One day, after receiving a blood transfusion due to an accident, it turns out that Eun Seo and Shin Ae were exchanged at birth. The girls are then brought back to their respective homes.

Years later, Eun Seo and Shin Ae cross paths at a hotel. Shin Ae is now a hotel manager, while Eun Seo is a telephone receptionist. At the same time, Jun Seo (Song Seung-heon) has established himself as a successful artist. An unexpected meeting with his friend’s girlfriend reveals Eun Seo as his long-lost sister. Progressively, as the threads of relationships start to fray, the siblings fall in love.

Song Hye-kyo’s natural acting style lets her stick out as Eun Seo. Her vivid depictions of suffering and misery, both concerning her immediate circumstances and her growing bond with Jun Seo, bear witness to that. At the age of just 18, Song Hye-kyo played this role, and it paved the way for even more powerful performances that propelled her into the top tier of Asian performers, particularly Korean actresses. In a similar vein, Song Seun-heon is adept at exploiting emotions and bringing a distinct aspect to himself as Jun Seo.

Autumn in My Heart makes extensive use of the concept of pain. It is represented by the deep-rooted, silently accumulated feelings of melancholy, bitterness, or despair that come from pain and build up over time in the heart without being voiced.

The ending brings all of this to life. Eun Seo accepts Jun Seo’s marriage proposal; however, she dies shortly thereafter. He carries her around the beach, where they celebrated her birthday when she was still a teenager. Before Eun Seo dies, she urges him to live a good life, ferrying him to a fleeting memory of the past through the profound pain of the present. At this point, perplexed and heartbroken as he is, a truck hits Jun Seo in the same place as Eun Seo’s previous accident, drawing the story to a close.

Autumn in My Heart is a true tearjerker. That, however, is the essence of this K-drama. Jun Seo and Eun Seo’s love story ends quickly, but the intensity of their love is profound. And that’s what matters—the depth of your love for someone is important, not how long you’ve been together.