Lee Hye Young Is Kim Hee Sun's Mystery Novel-Writing Mother-In-Law In "Bitter Sweet Hell"

May 01, 2024

Lee Hye Young has shared her thoughts on her upcoming MBC drama “Bitter Sweet Hell”!

“Bitter Sweet Hell” is a new black comedy starring Kim Hee Sun as Noh Young Won, the top family psychiatrist in all of Korea. When an anonymous blackmailer puts her career and family at risk, Noh Young Won teams up with her mother-in-law Hong Sa Gang (Lee Hye Young), a mystery novelist, to protect their family.

The youngest daughter of a wealthy family, Hong Sa Gang burst onto the Korean literary scene like a comet in the 1970s, when she emerged as a controversial rising author. After a failed romance with a penniless poet, she wound up marrying her current husband, and she has since devoted her entire life to her son Choi Jae Jin (Kim Nam Hee).

Despite various rough patches, Hong Sa Gang prides herself on having built a perfect family through her sacrifices—and when her daughter-in-law unexpectedly becomes more famous than she could have imagined, Hong Sa Gang tries to keep her in check.

Lee Hye Young commented, “The main character’s job is a psychiatrist, and I think I looked forward to how much comfort that character would give us. Each person has their own story and problems, and there’s a limit to how successful treatment can be if it uses the same old formula or is measured by the same yardstick. I had the thought that people need custom-tailored treatment.”

As for how she made up her mind to star in “Bitter Sweet Hell,” the veteran actress recalled, “Knowing the directing skills of director Lee Dong Hyun, whose humor has depth while also understanding the power of empty spaces, I had faith that he would not only give us comfort and laughter but also touch our hearts. That’s why I made the decision [to appear in the drama].”

Describing her own character, Lee Hye Young remarked, “I think [Hong Sa Gang] is a strong woman who tried to heal and overcome the wounds she received from her family through the idea of ‘family.’”

“I think Hong Sa Gang’s charm is that she knows how to read and notice things that don’t appear on the surface,” she continued, “and that she has a strange and eccentric side as an author. I think those charms wound up determining her attitude towards life.”