As I write this review, I am listening to “Only My Heart Knows” by Sohyang—the greatest female singer on the planet--which is the most eloquent way and expression that I can think of to captivate what I’m feeling after finishing this extraordinary series. Sohyang does for “Hymn of Death” what Celine Dion did for “Titanic.”

Romeo and Juliet is considered one of the best romances ever written. Of course, it was also a work of fiction. Jack and Rose were also considered a great romance, but they were fictional characters in a historical event. Yun Shim-Deok and Kim Woo Jin is about real people back in the mid-1920s whose lives abruptly ended when they committed suicide together by jumping off a passenger ship. Now, to some, this may seem to be a tragic romance. As with so many things in this world, it really does depend upon your perspective.

What happens when oppression and suffering become so great that they make a person feel trapped? Let me point out that those who commit suicide or consider it an option are feeling trapped. They feel that there is no other way out of whatever situation they are in. Whether or not you agree with the act doesn’t matter. It’s what they are feeling. How do I know? Because it was something I attempted once myself.

Yun Shim-Deok was a woman well ahead of her time. She was outspoken and wasn’t afraid of being bold and going against a system she didn’t agree with. For the 1920s, this was more of a rarity than most people realize. Coming from a poor family, she was essentially the family’s sole means of making money. She was also given the responsibility—albeit unfairly—to also make enough money to pay for the education of her siblings. But, at what price?

Kim Woo Jin is a writer from one of the richest families in Korea. His father expects him to forsake the foolishness of being a writer and run the family business while being married to a woman who is more about duty and doing what his father wants than being a supportive, loving wife.

Both show incredible talent in their respective fields. Kim Woo Jin is a gifted writer of poems, plays, and criticism—not to mention his love letters to Yun Shim-Deok. Yun Shim Deok is able to captivate audiences with her beautiful voice. And yet neither is allowed to pursue their passion. Kim Woo Jin’s father won’t allow his son to write, and the Japanese attempt to use Yun Shim Deok for their own, sick and demented reasons, caring nothing for her singing talent.

It's been said by many that there are few things sadder than wasted talent. What does it do to a person to not pursue the life they want? What does it do to twist someone’s talent to the point where it’s no longer what it is supposed to be?

Whether you are simply using your son or daughter to carry on family obligations, such as running a family business and having them marry whom YOU want them to, or using your son or daughter by holding them hostage under the “family obligation,” for financial reasons, the result is the same: you are using your children. You are treating them as property, and children are not property. And if you are unable to support your children in helping them pursue their own passions, then you are not fit to be a parent. No, it’s worse than that. You have no right to even call yourself a parent, any more than the parent who is indifferent and neglects his/her children.

This series is powerful and eloquent in depicting two souls who loved each other so much that they refused to leave each other. Not even in death, as they left this life together. It’s beautifully done with incredible performances by Lee Jong Suk and Shin Hye Sun. They have incredible chemistry, which is obviously necessary in order to make this series work. My only very small complaint is that I wish a singer had helped Shin Hye Sun train as a singer. Even if it wasn’t actually going to be her singing, she doesn’t open and move her mouth as a singer would.

The series is short at only six episodes (three via Netlfix as they combined each episode into pairs), but it’s not a series that is easily forgotten. It stays with you from the opening moment of the first episode when you see the two pairs of shoes on the deck of the ship to the moment when Kim Woo Jin and Yun Shim Deok are dancing and then slowly begin to walk to the deck’s edge. And I can’t help but think that the real Kim Woo Jin and Yun Shim Deok are smiling somewhere together.

Most people look upon death as horrible and tragic. That isn’t always the case. And I can’t feel that way about Kim Woo Jin and Yun Shim Deok. If nothing else, I hope this series makes people stop and think, especially parents and how they treat their children. No one has the right to take away another person’s passion and happiness. Those who do so—those who attempt to live vicariously through their children—are the vilest and most selfish people I can think of. Therefore, love and support your children in whatever endeavors they choose. Just remember, that their lives are not yours. Their lives are theirs! And for better or worse, they have the same right as you do to live it as they see fit. Every human on earth was given the same, greatest gift: the freedom of choice. The very nature of “Hymn of Death” cries for freedom! Freedom to live and to love.