‘100 Days of Deception’ breathes new life into colonial-era spy drama

“Please don’t cry, Mr. Kim Tae-woong.”

Lee Ga-kyung (Kim You-jung), a spy for an independence movement group, comforts Sato Hideo (Park Jin-young), an interpreter at the Japanese Government-General of Korea who is devastated after learning that his adoptive father took part in a massacre of a Korean village. She calls him by his Korean name, Kim Tae-woong, which he has had to conceal. It is a moment of genuine connection between two people who have spent their lives deceiving each other.

Since Episode 8, tvN’s weekend drama “100 Days of Deception” has been on a steep upward trajectory. Episode 10, which aired Sunday, recorded an average nationwide rating of 10.7 percent, according to Nielsen Korea, more than doubling the 5.3 percent logged by its premiere and taking the series into double digits. While many dramas have explored the independence movement against Japanese colonial rule and the world of spies and informants, the series has been praised for cleverly subverting familiar tropes to deliver a well-crafted drama.

The show’s distinguishing feature is its story, driven not by lofty causes or patriotic ideals but by the choices and transformations of characters caught between opposing worlds.

Ga-kyung is a former pickpocket. Having learned English by working as a maid in an American missionary’s home, all she wants is to save enough money for a ticket to the United States.

The drama follows Ga-kyung as she agrees to work with the independence group Gukgudan if they will send her to the United States. She enters the Japanese Government-General as a trainee interpreter to work as an undercover agent. Even after being drawn into the independence movement, she is motivated not by patriotism or a sense of duty but by an instinct for survival.

Director Yoo In-sik said Ga-kyung is “someone who wants to leave for somewhere else out of despair, convinced that she cannot achieve anything in this land,” adding that this is “a powerful driving force that propels the drama along a different trajectory from conventional period pieces.”

Tae-woong, meanwhile, is a man caught between two identities. A Korean, he was raised as the adopted son of Sato Shinichi (Jin Seon-kyu), a Japanese vice governor-general, and struggles with a confused sense of belonging. On the surface, he is an elite Japanese man desperate for his father’s approval, but inside he is consumed by anguish over the tension with his sense of self as a Korean. As the story unfolds, his character gains depth and his emotional arc develops.

Jang Shin-ae, the chief producer, said the drama appears to have struck a universal chord by weaving together the stories of young people struggling to lead ordinary lives and older generations involved in the independence movement.

The series also takes a different approach to building suspense. Set in Seoul in 1932, the drama uses interpretation as a central narrative device, exploring the meanings hidden between languages.

The actors’ convincing delivery of dialogue in foreign languages has significantly enhanced the drama’s credibility and immersive quality. Jin Seon-kyu, who had no prior knowledge of Japanese, spent two months in Kyoto, Japan, memorizing his scripts to portray Sato Shinichi. He also developed a distinctive way of speaking Korean that reflects the accent of a Japanese speaker. The production paid attention to details such as having Ga-kyung speak American English while Tae-woong uses British English, in keeping with their character backgrounds.

With six episodes remaining in the 16-part series, the drama is now heading toward its climax.

Chief producer Kwon Byung-wook said viewers can look forward to the romance between Ga-kyung and Tae-woong, who begin by concealing their true feelings from each other but gradually break down the barriers between them.

“Please stay with us until the end to find out who will live and who will die, whether Ga-kyung will make it to the United States, and what kind of resonance this story will leave with us as we look back on an era we never experienced firsthand,” he said.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.