Couple Clinic

“Divorces? I’ve had about 50 of them,” says Lee Si-eun, who appears on the KBS 2TV program ‘Couple Clinic-Love and War’ (airs Fridays at 11:05 p.m.) which shows conflicts and solutions between married couples. Since 1999, when the program started, she has appeared on the show once or twice every two months and has played the role of the divorcee around 50 times in the seven years the show has been running.

“It’s a one-act play, but I’ve gone on the show so much that it seems like a fixed drama. Other then divorcee, I’ve also played a lot of roles, like a woman trying to seduce a rich man.”

When we met Lee in the lobby of KBS headquarters, she recollected that her most bizarre role she played was in a show aired in 2003, where she cheats on her husband. Housewives from the same neighborhood go on a ‘no-conditions tour,’ and cheat on their husbands. They promise to keep this secret forever, but one person’s husband finds out, and they are all divorced. When she played the role of a daughter-in-law abandoning her parents-in-law, she worried that her mother-in-law might misunderstand her.

“When I play the roles, I think, ‘Are there really people living like this,’ and ‘I better be careful not to fall into this situation.’ It’s just surprising these situations are based on true stories.”

She has been a housewife for 11 years, and has a child in elementary school. Her husband supports her acting career, and monitors her work. She laughs, “Sometimes, I practice my acting and lines in our bedroom with my husband, and once my mother-in-law thought we were having a fight.”

“About three years ago, when I played the role of a woman cheating on her husband with a younger man in a host bar, there was a kissing scene with a younger actor. When my husband comes home late and drunk, and I grumble about it, he brings it up to make fun of me.”

Together with Sim Eun-ha and Cha In-pyo, Lee was selected by MBC in 1993. Some of her fellow actors became stars instantly, and Lee got her first lead role in the drama, ‘Challenge.”

“At first, I received some spotlight, but the drama failed, and the lead roles didn’t gain interest either. Thanks to that, I married early (1995), and now housewife roles are comfortable.”

Lee says when they were newlyweds, her husband was distracted because of the business he started. She didn’t feel good about it, and sometimes considered getting a divorce, but she says she has realized a lot after appearing on ‘Couple Clinic.’

“Some try to deter me from going on the show, saying it’s too suggestive, but I think differently. It’s like a vaccination: it shows you miserable and wretched outcomes, and that makes you think about the importance of trust, and the value of family.”

surreal@donga.com