A general thread about Korean dramas

[jian]

This one is probably not as good as the ones I’ve covered so far, but at least it’s short.

Remarriage and Desires (Netflix, 2022)

Another rather odd translation, since the original title means "Bride of Black", but honestly that would be awkward and confusing - it's about an elite (black as in Amex Black or similar) marriage agency.

Our protagonist (there's really only one) in this 8-episode (shortest yet!) series is Seo Hye-Seung, a Gangnam (as in richest area of Seoul) homemaker whose life is destroyed when her husband kills himself after an affair with a colleague goes very badly wrong. Her mother pays for her to attend a party for Rex, an elite marriage agency which arranges ideal marriages for very rich Korean people, and there she finds the woman who destroyed her life* and plots revenge.

*Didn't her husband have any agency in cheating on her and embezzling money from the company? No, apparently not.

So, Remarriage and Desires does the Sky Castle thing except for Korean hypocrisy around marriage, virginity, divorce, remarriage etc. and honestly it doesn't do it very well (because it doesn't challenge much of any of the rampant sexism and heteronormative assumptions around that whole culture) but it's an interesting watch nonetheless to see how these things might work. Our villainess, Jin Yoo-Hee, is pretty compelling as a total sociopath who nonetheless has understandable motivations.

 

[jian]

The next one is the first one we watched in the last few years - we took a bit of a break after 2015 or so.

Mine (Netflix, 2021)

This is one of those shows that feels like the writers decided to do a Korean version of a popular Western series (Succession, in this case) but with the serial numbers filed off. There are of course versions where they do actually license the original show - Designated Survivor, for instance.

Mine is basically a chaebol family drama. The ruling family of the Hyowon Group is thrown into chaos when Han Suk-Chul, its domineering patriarch and CEO, has a stroke and lapses into a coma. As you'd expect, the family immediately feud about what happens next.

The two protagonists are the two daughters-in-law, Jung Seo-Hyun and Seo Hi-Soo. Seo-Hyun (played by the wonderfully glacial Kim Seo-Hyung, last seen as the brilliant Coach Kim in Sky Castle) is married to the elder son, who's a wastrel, and has ambitions to run the company herself; Hi-Soo, a former film star, is married to the younger son and heir apparent.

As you'd expect the story is complicated and actually quite tightly plotted. Mine was notable for me for mentioning and dealing with homosexuality - more or less the first Korean drama I'd seen that did so. It poked fun at the Korean male habit of bathing together while reassuring each other that they aren't gay ("not that there's anything wrong with that!") and one of our protagonists is a closeted lesbian who grows to accept herself and her sexuality, and by the end doesn't care who knows it.

Mine definitely has its faults but it's a good drama and a good introduction to chaebol stuff. Yes, it's basically Dynasty in 15 episodes, but if you're OK with that, I'd go for it.