Second
20s and Familiar Wife are,
on the surface, two very different series – one deals with a middle-aged woman
who, after being housewife for the entirety of her adult life, decides to
attend to college and, through the support of old and friends, moves onto the
next stage of her life. Familiar Wife is about an immature male who is
stuck in an unhappy marriage and is given the chance to travel back in time and
change the present – he is now respected by his co-workers at the bank and is
married to his first love, who comes from a wealthy family. Both shows are
about a second chance in life and the responsibilities that come with it.
Second
20s stars Choi
Ji-woo as Ha No-ra, a middle-aged housewife who enrolls in college in a desperate attempt to save her crumbling marriage to Kim Woo-chul (Choi
Won-young). The two of them have already signed the divorce papers but have
decided to wait until their son, Kim Min-su, has started college to finalize
the process. No-ra’s logic is that by attending college she will be able to
communicate with Woo-chul (who is a professor of Psychology) at his level, and
he will be so moved by her effort that he will cancel the divorce.
She is
unaware that the main reason Woo-chul wants a divorce is that he has already
found another lover, Park Yi Jin, who is in an instructor at the university
No-ra is attending. No-ra does this all in secret – she wants to surprise both
her husband and son. However, it proves to be difficult to keep the secret,
because her son is a student and her husband is an instructor at the same
university she is attending. To further complicate matters, her friend from
high school, Cha Hyun-seok, is also an instructor at the university.
I will
admit it was difficult for me to get past the first episode, because of the
amount of disrespect that is shown Ha No-ra – Woo chul looks down on her;
Min-su is an ungrateful little shit; Hyun-seok acts cold towards her; and the
student body ridicule her because of her age. There is also a tragic quality to
Ha No-ra – she studied dance in high school but got pregnant at a young age
(18) and was forced to give it all up to raise Min-su. We also later learn that
Woo-chul was very controlling of her – she was forced to travel with him to
Germany, for his Psychology degree, and was alone in a foreign land, and
was rarely allowed to leave the house. On her first day of college, she is a
fish out of the water. The show effectively puts us on No-ra’s side, so that
when she finally makes a new friend at the university, we are genuinely happy
for her. When her dumbass son finally realizes that his mother is pretty awesome,
we shout at the screen, “It is about time you figured that out, you
moron!” This all aided by Choi Ji-woo’s
first-rate performance – she starts off the series uncertain about herself and
often makes mistakes but slowly finds her confidence. It is hard to imagine
another actress in the role, because Choi Ji-woo’s performance is perfection.
Cha
Hyun-seok is a famous stage director, who also teaches an acting class at the university.
When No-ra bumps into him, she is elated (it has nearly twenty years since she has last seen him) but he acts very cold towards her. She can’t figure why he gives her the cold
shoulder, considering how close they were in high school. Their relationship
doesn’t get any better after he publicly scolds her for being late to his
class. It is revealed the reason he initially acted so hostile towards No-ra is
that he never forgave her for missing her grandmother’s funeral. No-ra was
raised by her grandmother and after she moved Germany, Hyun-seok would often
stop by her grandmother’s tteok-bokki stand to keep her company. He became very
close with No-ra’s grandmother and was devastated after she passed away. When
No-ra failed to show up, he became disenchanted with her. However, despite his
disagreeable demeanor, he still has feelings for No-ra; she was his high school
crush, after all.
No-ra’s
motivation for attending colleges changes after she is diagnosed with cancer
and told that she only has six months to live – initially she was hoping to
save her marriage, but after the diagnosis, college life is something she would
like to experience before she passes away. She carries a planner with her and makes a
bucket list. Her list isn’t anything ambitious, she just wants to experience
the things she missed out in her youth, like seeing a midnight movie and going
to a club with friends. The point of emphasis on her list is mending her
relationship with Min-su. She accidentally leaves her planner in Hyun-seok’s
classroom, and he reads through it. He is shocked to learn about No-ra’s cancer
diagnosis and when he comes across her bucket list, he is determined to help
her experience all of these things. Unbeknownst to Hyun-seok, it turns out that
No-ra has been misdiagnosed (they mixed her up with another No-ra) and has a
long life ahead of her.
On her
first day of college, it isn’t just Hyun-seok that gives her the cold
treatment, but most of the student body as well. They are shocked to see a
middle-aged woman attending a college (it must be a Korean thing, because it is
fairly common in the United States). One of her classes is a Marriage &
Dating course, which is coincidentally taught by her husband’s mistress, Park
Yi Jin. Part of the class requires a female student to pair up with a male
student and one of their assignments is to go on dates and post pictures on their social media accounts throughout the semester. No-ra is paired up with Na Soon-nam,
who is initially annoyed being partnered with an older woman. He,
understandably, was hoping to be paired up with one of the young hotties in his
class. While walking through the hallways, No-ra notices a sign for a dance
club and decides to join, only to discover the president of the club is none
other than Na Soon-nam. He is apprehensive about letting her join, but
eventually gives in, especially when he learns she was the woman who was recorded
dancing with a flash mob at the Freshman orientation. His attitude begins to
change towards No-ra and the two of them become very close friends. It is also
a nice touch that he is the first person to publicly stand up for No-ra after
he overhears his classmates saying derogatory things about her – the two of
them haven’t officially become friends at that point, but he is beginning to
understand her.
The other
new friend that No-ra makes is Park Seung-hyun, who is also a student in
Hyun-seok’s acting class. She is, at first, indifferent towards No-ra – she
doesn’t give No-ra the cold shoulder, but she doesn’t exactly embrace her
senior, either. The two of them become friends after they join forces to take
down a lecherous college professor. The college seniors (in the Humanities
Department) throw a party for the freshmen in their department, and a middle-aged
professor shows up and starts getting handsy with all the female freshmen. The seniors are uncomfortable with this and
try to diffuse the situation by asking the professor if he would like to go bar hopping with them. He declines the invitation and continues to grope the females. No-ra has
seen enough and calls him out on his boorish behavior. He gets offended and stomps out of the restaurant. At first, the freshman girls view No-ra as their savior, but once they fear the
potential repercussions that might come with being No-ra’s friend, they give
her the cold treatment. The seniors are also angry at No-ra – they are worried about the retaliatory actions the professor might take and demand No-ra
apologize. The only person who defends No-ra at this point is Na Soon-nam, who
is disgusted by the cowardly behavior of the seniors. They want No-ra to apologize for being in the
right. However, it turns out that
Seung-hyun recorded the entire incident on her phone but doesn’t know what to
do with the damning video. Hyun-seok noticed that she was recording on her
phone and persuades her to share the video with No-ra. After discussing it, the
two of them decide to use the video to blackmail the professor into resigning.
No-ra emails the video the professor and gives the ultimatum: quit or the video
gets leaked online. The professor acquiesces and announces his retirement, to
the bewilderment of the student body. After he has officially stepped down,
No-ra’s peers start to acknowledge her again. Personally, I think No-ra and
Seung-hyun should have leaked the video online and used it to smear the
professor’s reputation – forcing him to resign doesn’t prevent him from going
to another university and doing the same thing over again. This cements
Seung-hyun’s friendship with No-ra and, along with Soon-nam, the three of them
become inseparable.
The most
commendable aspect of No-ra is that she refuses to play the victim – even
though she is initially met with hostility from the student body (with calls
for her to drop out) she sticks to her principles and weathers the storm. It
would have been easy for her to throw in the towel, but she is determined to
see it out. She even manages to fix her relationship with Min-su – when she
learns that he has a girlfriend, Oh Hye-mi (played by Apink member, Son Na-eun), she is elated. However, Min-su also
broke the agreement he made with his father – he signed a document that said he
would focus solely on his studies and if he broke this promise, like getting a
girlfriend, he would have to join the army. So, he is forced to date Hye-mi in
secret – it proves to be difficult considering his father is a professor on the
campus. Min-su and Hye-mi meet at an isolated spot on the campus and No-ra sees
them together. She also spots Woo-chul heading in their direction (he is
secretly meeting his mistress) and gives Min-su a head’s up – she spirits him
away before Woo-chul arrives. Once Min-su realizes his mother is on his side,
he begins to open up to her. By the end of the series, the two of them become extremely close while Min-su and Woo-chul drift apart.
One of Second
20s most impressive feats is that it doesn’t depict Woo-chul as a total
villain. In fact, Choi Won-young manages to humanize the character by spicing
up his performance with humor. He is not a bad guy, just incredibly arrogant –
he is incapable of putting himself in another person’s shoes. His marriage to
No-ra was done more out of convenience than actual love – he got her pregnant
at a young age and figured he had no choice but to marry her. Their loveless
marriage turned him into a resentful person, but he believed he was doing No-ra
a service by keeping her around. However,
once No-ra becomes popular on campus (and regains her confidence) he begins to
have second thoughts about their divorce and is determined to win her back. At
this point No-ra wants to go through with the divorce, but he keeps coming up
with excuses for not finalizing the procedure.
This also
leads to a misunderstanding between No-ra and Hyun-seok – after he learns that
No-ra has been misdiagnosed, he once gain pushes her away. He learned from
No-ra’s best friend, Ra Yoon-young, that No-ra’s reason for attending college
is to win back Woo-chul and decides that he should step aside so the two of
them can work out their differences. He even tries to help Woo-chul get back
together with No-ra – often by arranging for the two of them to meet in the
same place. Hyun-seok is working on a play and has hired No-ra as his assistant –
they two of them meet as his studio, and on multiple occasions he invites
Woo-chul over. He is oblivious to the fact that No-ra no longer wants to
reconcile with Woo-chul and genuinely believes he is doing her favor. When he sees Woo-chul putting forth an effort
to win back No-ra, he is convinced that they have gotten back together.
Hyun-seok was
a victim of bad timing – No-ra befriended him (and Ra
Yoon-young) in high school. She was a dance major while his dream was to be a stage
director. They form a dance troupe with Hyun-seok acting as the director. When
Hyun-seok learns about a competition that is being held by the lakefront, he
persuades No-ra and company to enter it. They spend months rehearsing the dance number and, on the day of the competition, while the troupe is walking onstage to perform the number, Hyun-seok gets a call from his mother, who tells him that his father has suffered a stroke, and he is forced to go home. He was going to reveal his true feelings to No-ra
after the performance, but his father’s stroke prevents that from happening.
Coincidentally, the same time Hyun-seok left the talent show, Woo-chul and his
buddies showed up, and he was immediately smitten with No-ra. The rest is
history – No-ra got pregnant and spent the next four years of her life in
Germany. She lost all
contact with Hyun-seok, and it would be twenty years before they bumped into
each other again.
The real
turning point in No-ra’s life is when she is forced to perform in the dance
number at a college festival. Na Soon-nam’s dance club is set to perform at the
festival, but one of the female dancers sprains her ankle. No-ra is hesitant to
get on the stage and dance – she was content with being a part of the dance
club and helping them set up. After
receiving encouragement from Hyun-seok and Soon-nam, she finally agrees to
perform. The audience is initially skeptical towards her, but she absolutely slays
it on stage and them over. Min-su happens to be watching her and
can’t believe his eyes – he had no idea his mother was this awesome! No-ra also
she puts the skills she learned as a housewife (yes, it does require skill to
be a housewife) to good use – when a group of college students running a food booth are having a hard time making pancakes, No-ra steps in and gives them
pointers on how to make the proper pancake. She often makes lunch boxes for the
dance group and her friends, as well. While she does find a new life, she also doesn’t
reject her past entirely. She is grateful that her marriage to Woo-chul gave her a son.
Min-su’s
relationship with Hye-mi comes with its own set of problems – not only does he
have to keep their romance a secret from his father, but from his fraternity,
as well (one of the conditions of joining the fraternity is that Min-su can’t
have a girlfriend). This because increasingly difficult, because Hye-mi
constantly wants to go out and party. The
two of them have a different philosophy when it comes to college – Min-su is
there to study while Hye-mi is there for the social aspect. As a result, Min-su
is a position where he needs to serve two masters at once – his father (who
demands good grades) and Hye-mi (who, to quote Eddie Murphy, wants to “party
all the time”). Hye-mi persuades Min-su
to go to a dance club and he is a total stick in the mud – he sulks at
the bar while Hye-mi and friends are cutting it up on the dance floor. It’s only after another male makes a move on
his woman that Min-su gets off his ass and begins to bust a move on the dance
floor. Much to his (and everyone’s) surprise, he is quite good at dancing (must
have inherited from his mother). I
initially believed this would set up a subplot where Min-su decides to follow
in his mother’s footsteps and major in dance, but nothing really comes of this
scene. In fact, my biggest criticism of Second 20s is that Min-su’s
storyline is underdeveloped – the resolution to his romance with Hye-mi is
rather disappointing and is left ambiguous. He also never formally introduces
his girlfriend to his mother – she watches their relationship from afar, but
the show desperately needs that scene where Min-su confesses to Hye-mi that
No-ra is his mother.
One of the
flaws of most K-dramas, is how quickly the protagonist gets into a new
relationship after breaking up with their former partner – very little time
passes between the old one ending and the new one beginning. One of the
strengths of Second 20s is that after No-ra’s divorce from Woo-chul is
finalized, she doesn’t immediately run into Hyun-seok’s arms. This probably
frustrated many viewers who wanted to see Hyun-seok and No-ra become a couple,
but from a character perspective it makes sense. No-ra has spent the entirety
of her adult life being completely dependent on other people and, while she
likes Hyun-seok, she also wants to take some off and figure out what she wants
to do with her life. Does she really want to get into another relationship? After
the divorce, she moves into an apartment and cuts off all contact from
Hyun-seok. Though, she asks their mutual friends, Ra Yoon-young and Seo
Dong-chul, to keep an eye on him (he also them to keep an eye on No-ra). She
goes four months without seeing Hyun-seok and during that time she has
strengthened her bond with Min-su, Soon-nam, and Seung-hyun. She also works
part-time at the Tteok-bokki stand that Dong-chul inherited from her
grandmother. She happens to bump into Hyun-seok at a bookstore and is about to
say hello, but he walks right past her. She is taken aback by this – though,
I’m not sure why given Hyun-seok’s behavior in the past. She is supposed to
visit her grandma’s grave with Ra Yoon-young and Seo Dong-chul, but they both
end up cancelling on her. She is waiting at the bus stop when Hyun-seok pulls
up and offers her a ride. She grudgingly accepts his ride. The two of them
arrive in her grandma’s hometown and, while walking around by the lakefront,
No-ra remembers that Hyun-seok and she buried a time capsule (when they were
18) that was supposed to be opened twenty years later. They both wrote down
predictions for each other and they were going to check to see if they came
true. Hyun-seok points out the location to No-ra, and she digs it up. She gets
teary eyed after reading the predictions and, finally, realizes that she loves
Hyun-seok. The two of them kiss, and they are finally a couple.
If there
is one word that describes Second 20s, it is PLEASANT! It’s a pleasant
experience that cheers you up. It is a well-written series with a first-rate
cast and direction. There are even a few surprises thrown into the mix, which I
dare not spoil here.
Familiar
Wife
Familiar
Wife, much like Second
20s, is a show that gets a huge boost by its two likable leads, Han Ji-min
and Ji Sung. There have been multiple K-dramas that deal with time travel – Nine,
Tunnel, Tomorrow, With You, Marry My Husband, Signal – to name a few, but Familiar
Wife is the only one that comes up with a pseudo-scientific explanation for
the time travel. The explanation is that a neutron star has an effect on
earth’s gravity, which results in gateways to the past being opened up. The
other dramas didn’t bother with an explanation, it was implied that the time
travel was either supernatural in nature (mystical incense sticks in Nine) or
it was divine intervention at work (in Marry My Husband, it is implied
the female protagonist’s deceased father was the one pulling the strings). I
wish Familiar Wife would have dropped the pseudo-scientific rationale,
because it is irrelevant to the proceedings. Not to mention that in order to
travel back to the past, Cha Joo-hyuk must throw money into a magical tollbooth
– it will only accept coins from the year he wishes to travel to (2006). Before
Joo-hyuk travels back in time, he meets a stranger who gives him coins minted
in 2006.
Joo-hyuk
is in an unhappy marriage with Seo Woo-jin – they have two children and, in
order to get by, they both must work unsatisfying jobs. Joo-hyuk works at a
bank while Woo-jin works part-time at a massage parlor. However, Joo-hyuk often
shirks his responsibilities as a father and often leaves Woo-jin holding the
bag. He has worked at the bank for some time but always gets passed over for a
promotion, because his work ethic kind of sucks. He also constantly does things
behind his wife’s back – when his old game video game system breaks down, he
searches for a replacement online and finds a seller who is willing to sell a brand-new
unit for a reasonable price. He makes this purchase behind Woo-jin’s back,
because he knows she will scold him, and even hides the system from her. Though, he
chooses the worst hiding spot imagine – he hides it in the closet behind a stack
of diapers. When Woo-jin grabs a diaper, she notices there is something behind
it and finds the video game system. She throws a fit and even injures Joo-hyuk
when she throws a lobster claw at him.
The two of
them met by pure chance in 2006 – Joo-hyuk was on his way to meet the pretty
Lee Hye-won (the most popular girl on campus) for a date, but got sidetracked
when, while on the bus, he noticed a stranger groping Woo-jin’s rear. She
confronted the pervert, but he denied her accusation. When she asked if anyone
else saw the man groping her, Joo-hyuk verified her story. The two of them
went to the police station to file a report against the sleazebag. By the time
Joo-hyuk finished giving his testimony, he was late for his date with Hye-won,
and she held it against him. In the present, he happened to run into Hye-won
and she admitted that she had a crush on him. He often imagines what might have
been if he had not met Woo-jin on that fateful day. Joo-hyuk is incapable
of seeing things from Woo-jin’s perspective and is legitimately afraid of her
because of her short temper. However, when Joo-hyuk first met Woo-jin, she was
a very positive and upbeat individual. After he vouched for her on the bus, Woo-jin
kept following him around – she asked him to tutor her for the college entrance
exam. Joo-hyuk eventually fell in love with her and the two of them got married.
He is baffled by how much her personality has changed.
On a
fateful night, he goes for a drive, comes across the magical tollbooth, and
then wakes up in 2006. The time travel in Familiar Wife is more
metaphysical in nature – he doesn't physically travel back to 2006, but rather
astrally projects to the past. This isn’t the normal time travel paradox where
there are two of him in the past, and he needs to avoid his past self. The
first time he travels back into the past, he is overwhelmed by the experience
and doesn’t know what to do. The other rule that the show establishes is that
he can only stay in the past for a limited amount of time – after his time has
run out, he wakes up in the present. The second time he travels in the past, he
knows the rules and makes the most of his opportunity. This time when he takes
the bus, rather than speak up for Woo-jin, he ignores her pleas for help. A
woman ends up verifying Woo-jin’s story and the bus pulls over. Joo-hyuk
catches a taxi and arrives in time to meet Hye-won.
The next morning,
he wakes up in the present and finds that he is married to Hye-won. On top of that, Hye-won’s
father is incredibly wealthy and the two of them live in a spacious house. Best
of all, Hye-won is okay with Joo-hyuk playing video games. It seems he has hit
the jackpot. At his bank, because of his father-in-law, the management kisses
his ass, while the rest of the staff look up to him. It also turns out that not
only did he change his present but that of his best friend, and co-worker, Yoon
Joong-hoo. In the original timeline, Joong-hoo was married with two children,
but in this new timeline he is single and desperately looking for his
significant other. In the past, when Joong-hoo was dating his wife, he nearly
lost her after the two of them had an argument and she was about to leave South
Korea on an airplane. Joong-hoo waved down a taxi, headed to the airport, and
stopped her from leaving. In the new timeline, Joong-hoo was about to enter the
taxi when Joo-hyuk cut in front of him and took the taxi to meet Hye-won.
At first,
Joo-hyuk enjoys his new life and then he realizes that he has willed his two
sons out of existence. Joo-hyuk focused solely on the bad memories of Woo-jin
that he forgot about all the good ones. Still, he realizes that there is a
little he can do about and presses on.
Meanwhile, Woo-jin’s life has also radically changed – she is also a
single but has found a successful career working at the headquarters of the
bank chain Joo-hyuk works for. When Joo-hyuk’s bank needs another person to work
in the transfer department, headquarters sends Woo-jin to fill that spot. It
would be an understatement to say that Joo-hyuk is surprised – he is, in fact,
mortified by the sight of his former wife standing in front of him. Joong-hoo,
on the other hand, is charmed by the newcomer and starts to believe that she
might be “the one” he has waited for. Despite Joo-hyuk’s initial cold demeanor
towards her, Woo-jin is drawn towards him – there is something familiar about
him, but she can’t figure out what it is. Despite being attracted to Joo-hyuk,
she agrees to date Joong-hoo – she is hesitant to do so, but he convinces her to
give it a trial run for one month. If she doesn’t feel anything, then she will
be free to call it off and there will be no hard feelings.
On the
surface, Joong-hoo is the ideal man for Woo-jin – he is a genuinely good guy
and handsome, on top of that. She genuinely enjoys his company but there just
isn’t any spark there – there is no fluttering of the heart with Joong-ho, like
there is when she is around Joo-hyuk. She is also baffled by how Joo-hyuk seems to
know so much about her – when their co-workers go out for coffee, Joo-hyuk
informs them that she doesn’t drink coffee. When Woo-jin gets sick, Joo-hyuk
knows which medication to buy for her. It becomes increasingly difficult for
him to explain how he knows so much about her, but his co-workers buy his
explanations. The two of them are often on the same wavelength - they both
thwart a bank robbery just by giving each other a series of signals. Woo-jin distracts
the man long enough for Joo-hyuk to disarm him.
At first,
Joo-hyuk is elated that Woo-jin and Joong-hoo are dating – it means that she
will leave him alone. However, the more he sees the two together, the more
jealous he gets. He doesn’t even understand why he is acting this way. After
all, he is already married to an ideal wife and in their former lives, he was
afraid of Woo-jin. However, in this new
timeline, Woo-jin is back to her old cheerful self – she is very personable and
adapts well to her new work environment. When Woo-jin and Joong-hoo are sent
out of town to attend a training seminar, Joo-hyuk can’t help himself and shows
up to thwart Joong-hoo from putting the moves on Woo-jin. After making a fool
out of himself, he realizes that his behavior is irrational – he had his chance
with Woo-jin and he blew it. After a moment of self-reflection, he decides to
be supportive of Joong-hoo’s relationship with Woo-jin – when the manager asks
Joong-hoo to stay late, Joo-hyuk volunteers to take over so Joong-hoo can go on
a date with Woo-jin.
To further
complicate matters, Woo-jin’s mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, remembers
Joo-hyuk being her son-in-law. Whenever she sees him, she greets him as her son-in-law
and even makes him a few dishes to take home. Woo-jin chalks this up to her
mother’s senility, but Joo-hyuk knows differently. Woo-jin’s mother is more relaxed when
Joo-hyuk is around – she often wanders out of the house and gets lost, and on
multiple occasions it is Joo-hyuk who finds her and persuades her to come home.
The other hitch is that Woo-jin begins to have dreams of her previous life with
Joo-hyuk. When her month’s trial with
Joong-hoo is over, she has no choice but to break up with him. She feels terrible for her decision, but she
can’t help that she isn’t attracted to him. He tries to put on a brave face,
but it is clear that he is heartbroken by her decision. This is understandable
– women like Woo-jin don’t come around too often.
The deciding factor in her decision to break it off with Joong-hoo is when she
got drunk and ended up kissing Joo-hyuk. How can she be in a relationship with
Joong-hoo when her heart belongs to Joo-hyuk?
It is also
not surprising that Joo-hyuk’s marriage to Hye-won disintegrates – it was never
that great to begin with. You can describe Hye-won in two words: superficial
and vindictive. Even before Joo-hyuk begins to rekindle his feelings for
Woo-jin, she finds herself attracted to the younger, Jeong Hyeon-su, and the
only thing the prevents her from having an affair with him is that he is
exposed as a hustler – he poses as a college student when it in reality he is a
parking garage attendant. She is also doesn’t like Joo-hyuk’s family and avoids
them at any cost – when Joo-hyuk insists that they visit his parents, she comes
up with a bogus excuse why that is impossible. When Joo-hyuk’s father is hospitalized,
his younger sister, Joo-eun, asks him if he can watch over their dad, because
she has to take care of her son. This enrages Hye-won, who is upset that
Joo-hyuk would rather stay with his father rather than support her father at a
business conference. The final straw for Hye-won is when Joo-hyuk spends the
entire night helping Woo-jin find her mother, who has once again wandered off.
This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that Joo-hyuk lied about his
whereabouts by claiming he was attending a work-related funeral. It is only a
matter before Hye-won finds out truth – Joo-hyuk overlooked the fact she knows
his co-workers – and without a moment’s hesitation she demands a divorce and
Joo-hyuk, realizing that their marriage is over, obliges.
Woo-jin
breaking up with Joong-hoo, and Joo-hyuk’s divorce from Hye-won, leads to all
sorts of gossip, and their friends/co-workers begin to suspect that Joo-hyuk
stole her away from Joong-hoo. Oh Sang-sik, Joo-hyuk’s brother-in-law and
friend from college, also blames Joo-hyuk for the breakup and punches him in
the face, before telling Joo-hyuk he never wants to see him again. Joo-hyuk
feels guilty over his failed marriage to Hye-won and Woo-jin naturally can’t
help to feel bad for Joong-hoo, but neither of them can deny their feelings for
one another and begin to date. While Joong-hoo is angry at both of them, he
still remains Joo-hyuk’s friend – after the divorce, Joo-hyuk is forced to move
out of his house and Joong-hoo offers Joo-hyuk shelter at his apartment. After
Woo-jin breaks up with him, Joong-hoo blames Joo-hyuk, but he also doesn’t have
the heart to throw his best friend out into the streets. He also realizes that
Woo-jin and him were never meant to be together.
However,
Woo-jin’s and Joo-hyuk’s happiness is short-lived after their bank is scammed
out of millions of dollars by Joo-hyuk’s father-in-law. His father-in-law requests
a loan from Joo-hyuk’s bank to help start up a business he is investing in –
Joo-hyuk gets the okay from his superior and authorizes the loan – but it turns
out the business is a shell company, and his father-in-law has laundered the
money overseas. Joo-hyuk notifies the police about the embezzlement, but they
suspect he was an accomplice in the scam. In the end, he clears his name and gets
the money back, but that doesn’t stop headquarters from firing him. He
concludes that Woo-jin would be better off without him and starts to distance
himself from her. Woo-jin disagrees and tries to convince him they are destined
to be together. Joo-hyuk confesses to her about traveling in the past to alter
the present and that he was the reason for their failed marriage in the
original timeline. Once Woo-jin learns about the mechanism for time travel (it
can only be done on a specific date and she must need a coin from 2006 in order
get past the tollbooth), she decides to travel back in time and set thing back
to the way they originally were. Joo-hyuk is determined to stop her and follows
her in his car – they both end up in 2006. While in 2006, Joo-hyuk can predict
her next move and avoids her at all cost. She does manage to set a few things
back to the original settings – Joong-hoo is, once again, happily married with
two children, but Joo-hyuk has dropped off the face of the map. He has gone on
an extended vacation from the bank, but he also can’t stay away forever. Woo-jin
works at the bank headquarters and is determined to transfer to Joo-hyuk’s
branch. Despite Joo-hyuk’s best efforts, she manages to get the transfer, and
he is put in the awkward spot of working with the woman he wishes to avoid.
Normally,
the “noble sacrifice” is something that gets on my nerves in K-dramas but in
the case of Familiar Wife, it feels organic to the storyline – more
importantly, the writers give Joo-hyuk the proper motivation for pushing
Woo-jin away. Bad luck just seems to follow him around wherever he goes – his
father-in-law scamming the bank out of millions of dollars, is just one example
of this happening. In the original timeline, he was in such a hurry to meet the
seller of a game console that he approved a loan without proper identification.
He asked the woman to bring her ID the next day before his superiors found out,
only to discover, after waking up, that the bank was being audited. This got
him into trouble with his superiors, and rightfully so. Amazingly, he didn’t
lose his job. He also feels guilty about being responsible for not one, but two
failed marriages, and believes he doesn’t deserve a second chance with Woo-jin.
After multiple rejections, Woo-jin decides to honor Joo-hyuk’s wishes and go
her own way. The next day, Joo-hyuk sees her get on the bus to work and then a
memory from the previous timeline pops in his head – it was on this date that a bus got into an accident with a truck, killing many of the passengers onboard,
and Joo-hyuk realizes that Woo-jin is a passenger on that ill-fated bus. He chases
after the bus in his car and is determined to prevent the accident. He is able
to prevent the accident by cutting in front of the bus with his car (acting as
a buffer between the truck and bus) and the truck driver slams on the brakes,
avoiding a major accident in the process. Woo-jin wonders what the commotion is
all about and sees Joo-hyuk sitting in his car. She gets off the bus and the
two of them reconcile – they get married and have two children. This time
around their marriage is a happy one.
The reason
why Familiar Wife works so well is that time travel is the McGuffin –
it’s what sets the plot in motion, but it’s not what the story is actually
about. The main theme of the story is second chances – Joo-hyuk believes he has
been given a second chance at life, but in reality, he has been given a second
chance with Woo-jin. More importantly,
it assures the viewers that people can change for the better – Joo-hyuk goes
from being an irresponsible manchild (who blames others for his misfortunes) to
a responsible adult, who takes responsibility for his actions. The alternative
timeline he created allows him to see things from Woo-jin’s perspective and he
realizes that it was his immature actions that led to their marriage
failing. He also takes responsibility
for his failed marriage to Hye-won – he later approaches her and offers her a
sincere apology for failing her. Woo-jin
herself changes – in the original timeline, she had a short temper and was
verbally, and physically, abusive towards Joo-hyuk. She never listened to what
he had to say and, in the process, made him feel small. The fact that he had to
sneak away at night to play video games is a good indicator of their marriage.
In the new timeline, she is a better listener and occasionally indulges his
childish whims – she buys him a new video game console but also gives him a thirty-minute
time limit. When it looks like Woo-jin might be late in picking their children
up from school, there is no panic, instead they are able to coordinate with
each other, so that Joo-hyuk picks them up on his way to work and then pick a meeting spot so that the children can be transferred to Woo-jin’s car. The
better time travel stories use it as a springboard to explore deeper themes,
and Familiar Wife falls into that category – the science fiction
elements take a backseat to the characters.
I would also like to single out Han Ji-min’s performance as Woo-jin –
she plays three different versions of the character (teenager Woo-jin, bitter
housewife Woojin, and the new, confident Woo-jin) and doesn’t miss a beat.
Credits
Second 20s
Cast: Choi Ji-woo (Ha No-ra), Lee Sang-yoon (Cha Hyun-seok), Choi Won-young (Kim Woo-chul), Kim Min-jae (Kim Min-su), Son Na-eun (Oh Hye-mi), Ha Seung-ri (young Ha No-ra), Kim Hee-chan (young Cha Hyun-seok), Han Sung-yun (Hyun-Jung), Jung Soo-young (Ra Yoon-young), Im Ji-hyun (young Yoon-young), Kang Tae-ah (young Woo-chul), Noh Young-hak (Na Soon-nam), Woo Ki-hoon (Woo-hun), Park Hyo-joo (Kim Yi Jin), Choi Yoon-so (Shin Sang-ye), Ji Ha-yoon (Min-ae), Jin Ki-joo (Park Seung-hyun), Kim Kang-hyun (Seo Dong-chul), Ban Hyo-jung (Seo Woon-hae, No-ra’s grandmother).
Director: Kim Hyung-shik
Writer: So Hyun-kyung
16 episodes ~ 60 minutes
Familiar Wife
Cast: Han Ji-min (Seo Woo-jin), Ji Sung (Cha Joo-hyuk), Jang Seung-jo (Yoon Joong-ho), Kang Han-na (Lee Hye-won), Park Hee-von (Cha Joo-eun), Oh Eui-shik (Oh Sang-sik), Lee Jung-eun (Woojin’s mother), Son Jang-hak (Cha Bong-hee), Park Won-sang (Byeon Sung-woo), Cha Hak-yeon (Kim Hwan), Kim Soo-jin (Jang Man-ok), Kim So-ra (Joo Hyang-sook), Gong Min-jeung (Choi Hye-jung), Kang Hui (Jung Min-soo).
Director: Lee Sang-yeob
Writer: Yang Hee-sung
16 episodes ~ 60 minutes.
