Kim Hyun-joo's Sniper Fires on Her Husband, Then Breaks Fans With One Birthday Soup

Kim Hyun-joo's sniper Yoo So-ran raises her gun at Geum Seok-jung, the husband she has not heard from in 13 years, and pulls the trigger in the first two episodes of tvN's weekend drama 100 Days of Lies. The moment sets up a performance that moves between icy composure and quiet, aching grief.

The episodes aired on the 10th and 11th. Kim plays So-ran, a sniper for the anti-Japanese resistance group Gukgudan, who has entered Gyeongseong (now Seoul) disguised as the wife of Korean-American correspondent Yoo Philip (Lee Moo-saeng). Her real target is Sato Shinichi (Jin Seon-kyu), the Japanese colonial government's chief of political affairs, whom she plans to assassinate.

A cold entrance, a plan that falls apart

So-ran first appears in a qipao and a wide-brimmed hat. Her refined look contrasts with a chilly presence, and she says little: restrained expressions and an unreadable gaze are enough to hint that there is a story behind her.

The plan fails anyway. Lee Ga-kyung (Kim You-jung) steals the bag holding the bullets the operation needs, and then Seok-jung (Kim Woo-sung) bursts in on the dinner with Shinichi. A complicated emotion crosses So-ran's eyes when she sees him, and then she aims and fires. The scene is built on tension, and Kim keeps it taut with very little movement.

The name she could not say

Her past surfaces in pieces. She tells Philip, who is worried about her, that Seok-jung is the husband who vanished for 13 years, and that she wanted to kill him with her own hands if they ever met again. She also reveals that Seo-hee, the name she had called out to Ga-kyung earlier, belonged to her daughter, who has died.

A flashback of her screaming as she loses her young daughter before her eyes is the heaviest scene of the two episodes. Then comes the line that, by the source's account, hits hardest because of how plainly it is delivered: for years she could not speak the girl's name aloud, yet every birthday she made seaweed soup, the traditional Korean birthday dish. Kim plays it flat and quiet, and that restraint is what makes it land.

Two faces, one performance

The sniper's side comes through a steady gaze and a controlled face. When her suppressed sorrow breaks open, Kim switches to an explosive outpouring that conveys the pain without softening it. Even small shifts in expression carry mixed feelings, which helps keep the episodes absorbing.

It is a notable pairing, a hardened marksman and a mother who never stopped grieving, and Kim makes both believable. Expectations are now high for what she does next in 100 Days of Lies.