K-OST Review: We All Hide with a Mask (We All Lie)

Writer: Sumona Sinha (Assam, India)

Editor: Pooja Vishwanathan (Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, India)

South Korea is not only famous for its culture, tourist places, and trade, but also for its tough competition in education. It is the country where the literacy level is 99%, and it is also one of the top-performing OECD (The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries. The average student score is approximately 519, compared with the OECD average of roughly 493, placing it ninth in the world. The country is also well known for its obsession with education, which has ranked it amongst the top in global education. 

For families in South Korea, education is regarded as the highest priority because it further plays an important role in improving one’s socio-economic position in South Korea. Graduating from a top university is an indication of prestige, pride, and high socio-economic status in families in South Korea.

Many parents hold high expectations for their children, and they also monitor their children academic progress by ensuring that they get top grades in school, which will further help them to enroll in the top prestigious universities in South Korea, and sometimes due to their high expectations it makes the life of a student very much hard and due to this many student sometimes opt for suicide because they can’t stand up to their parents expectations and they considered themselves as a failure in their life. 

Every person is different in this world; just like that, it doesn’t mean that if your parents are good at studies, then you have to also be good at your studies; you may be different from your parents. The main thing is that parents have to understand their kids rather than throwing them into the competition of studies; we must embrace them and make them do what they want in their lives. 

The top three universities in South Korea are collectively known as “SKY,” referring to Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsei University.

Description of the OST

The OST “We All Lie” has been taken from the famous K-drama Sky Castle, which shows how much struggle is needed to get admission to the top universities of South Korea. The drama shows the reality of how much effort people put into getting enrolled in the university, and in that process, how people can become selfish to achieve their needs, and they will also not hesitate to satisfy their selfish desires.

In the first verse of the song, it starts with “We all lie, to tell you the truth,” which means people always tell lies to each other so that they can hide the truth. People, due to their selfish motives, can go to any extent, and they will also not be afraid to tell that lie; they will also tell the lie easily, and everyone will believe that lie because, as humans, we are cunning and, at the same time, we are also easy people who believe others.

Humans always desire money, honour, and beauty, and they always go after them. In the process of attaining these, they can’t even realize how much they hurt others, and their one lie can also change someone’s life. Humans are very good at hiding everything, and in that way, they always put on a mask on their face and show a different face to others; in the process of telling a lie, they also cheat each other.

Humans don’t even realize that one lie can destroy another’s life. There is no doubt that the lie can benefit the person who told the lie, but what about the other person whose life has been put in danger due to one lie? Humans can’t even realize that lying and destroying another’s life has made them like monsters, and they won’t even think twice before doing so.

Overall Impression

This OST became popular along with the drama. This basically shows how a person can easily concoct a lie without thinking about anything. From childhood, we are taught that “Honesty is the best policy,” and we also apply this in our lives, but as we grow older, we forget all about it and start telling lies to satisfy our own selfish desires. 

People don’t know that their one lie will give birth to another lie, and as a result, it will become their habit to tell lies. Being honest in life is somewhat difficult, but it goes a long way, whereas lying is easy, but it lasts for a very small time, and the result of telling a lie is very painful. Telling lies has never been successful, and it has also further made the situation worse. Honesty gives us self-satisfaction, whereas a single lie can ruin our life by ruining relationships

Do you think society’s pressure for success forces people to hide their true selves? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments below.