Snow White's Revenge/Scandal (2024)

 

It is difficult to write about Snow White’s Revenge without bringing up the ending, so readers beware, this review will contain spoilers. Without mincing words, the ending is awful and even manages to negate the entire series, but I will get to that later.

Snow White’s Revenge is your standard revenge melodrama – a young woman, Baek Seol-ah, seeks revenge on two people responsible for her father’s death, Moon Gyeong-sook and her husband, Min Tae-chang. It should be noted the very episode begins with the death of Gyeong-sook. The cast and crew are holding the wrap party for the hit TV show, Poker Face, and throughout the course of the episode, Gyeon-sook has all sorts of unpleasant encounters with various characters (Seol-ah, Min Tae-chang, Joo-ryun, and a women she fired) and she goes up to the rooftop to get some air. She decides to reenact Leonardo DiCaprio’s “I’m the King of the World” moment from Titanic and stands on the ledge of the building. It seems someone has followed her up the rooftop, because she looks behind her and then falls to her death. This shocking opening has the audience asking all sorts of questions: Who killed this woman? What was the motive? What are the relationships between the characters? It’s an interesting way to begin a series, but it so gives the series an anti-climactic feel, because we already know Gyeon-sook’s fate before the story begins.  

When Seol-ah was eight years-old, Gyeong-sook married Seol-ah’s father, a kindly doctor named Baek Dong-ho. At first, the young Seol-ah was elated to have a stepmother – she has no memories of her biological mother, who died when she was a toddler. As the series’ title suggests, Gyeong-sook turned out to be a wicked stepmother.  Her marriage to Dong-ho was a sham, arranged by Min Tae-chang (who was then a police office) to fleece the good doctor out of his fortune. When Dong-ho spotted the two of them walking out of a hotel together, it led to a confrontation. Gyeong-sook drugged the doctor with a sleeping pill and he was then suffocated to death in his sleep (the show is ambiguous as to who carried out the murder).  They then threatened Dong-ho’s colleague, Kwon Young-seok, to write that Dong-ho died of heart failure on the death certificate. Unbeknownst to them, Seol-ah witnessed her father’s murder. Fearing for her own life, Seol-ah ran away from home and wound up at an orphanage, where she befriended Seo Jin-ho (who would become her lover) and Go Eun-byeol. She eventually contacted her father’s maid, Choi Mi-sun, who would take in Seol-ah and raise her as her own daughter. This is a simple set up (most K-dramas are very convoluted in their set ups) and the early episodes are effective in establishing tone and character relationships.

Flash forward to twenty-two years later – Seol-ah and Jin-ho are still in love. Seol-ah is pregnant with his child and two of them become engaged. Seol-ah is an aspiring screenwriter (who writes under the pen name, Park Jin-gyung) who just submitted her script called Poker Face to a screenwriting competition.  Jin-ho is an aspiring actor, who can’t catch his break (his short temper often prevents him from getting gigs). Meanwhile, with the money she stole from Dong-ho (including Seol-ah’s inheritance), Gyeon-sook (who now uses the name Moon Jeong-in) has started Jeongin Entertainment, and hopes to become a major player in the industry. Her husband, Min Tae-chang, is the chairman of Jeongin’s parent company, Mind Trading Company. Their daughter, Min Joo-ryun, is the head of Jeongin Entertainment. Gyeon-sook scores a major coup when she signs well-renowned filmmaker, Na Hyun-woo, to direct her first TV drama. Hyun-woo has read Seol-ah’s script and decides he wants to direct it. Meanwhile, Min Joo-ryun takes an interest in Jin-ho and wants to groom him into a famous actor. It turns out that Jin-ho greatly resembles Gyeon-sook’s first love, Woo-jin, and she wonders if he could potentially be her long-lost son (who she believed died during childbirth). Despite the strong resemblance, Gyeon-sook doesn’t like Jin-ho and initially rejects her daughter’s plan to groom him into a star. 

She changes her mind after she accidentally hits Jin-ho with her car and he loses his memories – realizing she has a blank slate to work with, she decides to help Joo-ryun groom Jin-ho into a star. She gives him the name of her first love, Joo Woo-jin, and then shops him around the industry. Her persistence pays off when Jin-ho/Woo-jin lands a gig for an ice cream company. His ad is a huge success and Gyeon-sook uses this momentum to get him the lead role in Poker Face, the same drama that is written by his fiancée, Baek Seol-ah. Joo-ryun, who is infatuated with Jin-ho, lies by telling him that before he lost his memory, they were engaged to one another. Jin-ho can only take her word for it.

 

Meanwhile, after Jin-ho failed to show up for their wedding, Seol-ah begins to assume the worse.  She becomes so distraught that she suffers a miscarriage. After not hearing from Jin-ho for weeks, she is shocked to see him on television shilling for an ice cream company. She initially believes Jin-ho has betrayed her but after she meets him in person, she realizes that he is suffering from amnesia and decides she will support him through this ordeal. Her script for Poker Face has become a hot property, with various studios interested in producing. When she meets with Director Na to discuss her contract, she makes three demands: it must be produced by Jeongin Entertainment; Jin-ho/Woo-jin must be the lead actor; and she is to have complete control over the script. Director Na is so eager to direct Poker Face that he agrees to the demands. Gyeon-sook can’t believe that Director Na would give so much leverage to a rookie writer but also can’t argue with the hype surrounding the series. She is also oblivious to the true identity of the writer, because of Seol-ah’s pen name, Park Jin-gyung.

In one of Snow White’s Revenge more interesting twists, Jin-ho, the lead male, does a full heal turn. He regains his memory, but decides to abandon Seol-ah, and stay with Joo-ryun and Jeong-in/Gyeong-sook. In most K-dramas when the lead male pushes away the lead female, it is usually for selfless reasons; he is either trying to protect her, or he believes that he is a burden on her life and that she would be better off without him. Jin-ho, on the other hand, is motivated by pure selfishness. This is his chance to achieve his dream at stardom, and he straight up tells Seol-ah that she is a hindrance to his success, and that he wants to forget about his past.  When she throws an insult his way, he gets enraged and slaps her. I want you to remember this part, because it makes the ending even more baffling. It is established that Jin-ho has a short temper and it is one of the reasons why he has struggled to find a job. The entire second half completely forgets about this character trait and he turns into Gyeon-sook’s bitch. It also wasn’t a particularly smart move to insult the writer of the drama he stars in, because he later finds out that Seol-ah is free to do whatever she wants with his character.

When I say that Jin-ho becomes Gyeon-sook’s bitch, I’m not exaggerating – to court potential investors, Gyeon-sook pimps Jin-ho out to wealthy, older women. The show tries to downplay this by having Jin-ho work as “an escort,” but he is essentially a male prostitute. Jin-ho begins to realize that he was happier when he was a “nobody” than when he was the star of a soap opera, because Gyeon-sook and Joo-ryun control every aspect of his life. When he is offered a role in a soft-core porn, Gyeon-sook tries to sell it as an “art film.” It is, ironically, Seol-ah who points out that him appearing in a soft-core would ruin whatever credibility he as an actor. This is one of the few times Gyeon-sook relents. When Jin-ho becomes engaged to Joo-ryun, it is purely for publicity purposes (though, Joo-ryun does legitimately love him).  There is even point that Gyeon-sook endangers Jin-ho’s life to get headlines: she devises a scheme where a stage light above Jin-ho comes loose and Joo-ryun pushes him out of the way at the last second to make it look like she saved his life.  Joo-ryun is on the scheme, and it is reluctant to do it, but she also doesn’t want to disobey her mother. Even though neither are killed, they both get injured thanks to this reckless stunt. 

Snow White’s Revenge is a heavily flawed series, but its biggest flaw is that its two female villains, Gyeon-sook and Joo-ryun, are more interesting and, unintentionally, more sympathetic than the female lead. The is largely because the actresses who play the female antagonists, Han Chae-young and Kim Gyu-seon, are superior to performers to Han Bo-reum, and the fact that Seol-ah is one of the weakest heroines in all of K-dramas. The biggest problem is that, despite being the title character, she plays very little role in bringing down Gyeon-sook and Tae-chang. Most of the heavy lifting is down by Lee Sun-ae, a wealthy stockholder and investor, who also happens to be the adopted mother of director Na and the ex-wife of Tae-chang. The saying “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” applies to her – Tae-chang left Sun-ae to be with Gyeon-sook and allowed their sick son to die in the process. When Sun-ae begged him for money to pay for a potential lifesaving operation, he brushed her off. She was also pregnant with their second child at the time and the trauma of losing her older son resulted in her having a miscarriage. She later remarried a wealthy businessman and after he passed away, he left his business to her, and she grew it into a huge cash cow. She has a close relationship with her two adopted sons, Na Hyun-woo and his younger brother, Na Seung-woo. When she learns about Seol-ah’s revenge, Sun-ae offers her assistance.

Seol-ah’s revenge is more of the petty kind – when the cast is doing script reading, she constantly interrupts Jin-ho and nitpicks every aspect of his performance (granted, he is a crappy actor). She later tells Jin-ho that she wants to get back together with him and even convinces him to move out of Gyeon-sook’s house and get an apartment, but when he tells her he is ready to start over, she laughs at him and tells him that she has changed her mind. The irony is that Tae-chang and Gyeon-sook leave behind so much incriminating evidence, but she never uses any of it to her advantage.  Her rationale is that she will wait until Poker Face is over to bring down Tae-chang and Gyeon-sook. She is so short-sighted that even after Tae-chang threatens her life and the lives of her family, she still stubbornly sticks to her plan. The dirt that she has on Gyeon-sook includes: a video of Gyeon-sook and her goon forcing themselves into Seol-ah’s apartment and assaulting her; a video that Tae-chang sent to Seol-ah’s adopted father of her being bound and gagged, and him threatening kill her if he contacts the police; a video of Jin-ho “escorting” a wealthy female investor, and a folder of NDAs that she snatched from Gyeon-sook’s office. Not only does she have video evidence of her kidnapping, but a few eyes witnesses who could validate her story; Director Na, Kim Seok-ki (director of planning and Jeongin Entertainment), and even Joo-ryun, who intervenes on Seol-ah’s behalf.  Yet, she doesn’t do anything with any of this evidence (I also suspect the scriptwriter forgot about the incriminating videos). In fact, it is Sun-ae who leaks the video of Jin-ho escorting the older woman to the press.

Her short sightedness also extends to her handling of Joo-ryun. Initially her grudge towards Joo-ryun makes sense; when Woo-jin lost his memory, Joo-ryun fed him all sorts of lies that prevented him from learning the truth. She blames Joo-ryun for “stealing her man,” but also conveniently forgets that after Woo-jin regained his memories, he still (of his own free will) opted to stay with Joo-ryun and Gyeon-sook. More importantly, after Joo-ryun learns that her parents murdered Seol-ah’s father, she feels genuine remorse. She even tells Seol-ah that she understands why Seol-ah wants revenge.  However, instead of viewing Joo-ryun as a potentially ally, Seol-ah continues to antagonize her. She ignores the multiple times Joo-ryun intervened on her behalf: first, was the kidnapping. Later, Seol-ah’s adopted mother and her annoying aunt-in-law barge into Tae-chang’s house and demand compensation. He responds by beating them with a golf club, tying them up, and putting them in the laundry room. It is Joo-ryun who sneaks into the laundry room and releases them after talking to Seol-ah on the phone. It is apparent that Joo-ryun wants to bury the hatchet, but Seol-ah refuses to let go of her petty grudge.

The most childish example is when Seol-ah obtains Joo-ryun’s expensive engagement ring from Kwon Young-seok. This was a ring that Gyeon-sook bought for Joo-yru, so she could flaunt it to the press whenever she out in public with Jin-ho. Young-seok was Dong-ho’s medical peer and after he was murdered by Gyeon-sook and Tae-chang, they approached Young-seok and forced him to lie about the cause of Dong-ho’s death – he wrote that it was due to heart failure. He then fled to the United States. Years later, he comes back to South Korea and blackmails Tae-chang, or at least tries do, but Tae-chang has no intention of paying up. Joo-ryun, being the dutiful daughter (a virtue that our heroine lacks), learns about the blackmail and offers to buy Young-seok’s silence by offering up her engagement ring. He accepts, but due to the overwhelming guilt he feels about covering up Dong-ho’s murder, he gives it to Seol-ah. She then rubs it in Joo-ryun’s face by wearing it to work; instead of, I don’t know, selling it and using the money to help her struggling surrogate family. Even worse is that this childish behavior ends up putting her family in danger; Gyeon-sook learns that Seol-ah has the ring and wants it back. After her search of Seol-ah’s apartment comes up empty, she deduces that it must be at the home of Seol-ah’s family and sends a couple of goons to find it. It just so happens that Seol-ah’s adopted father, Park Il-Joong, happens to home and gets attacked while trying to stop the burglary and gets badly injured. The fact that this possibility never occurred to Seol-ah goes to show how short sighted she is. Gyeon-sook and Tae-chang have showed multiple times that they have zero regard for human life, so it shouldn’t be surprising that they would be willing to kill over a ring.

Seol-ah’s most obnoxious trait is her tendency to sulk for a long period of time. She nearly derails her plan for revenge before it even it gets off the ground; after Jin-ho leaves her for Joo-ryun, she spends the next few days just sulking in her apartment. She fails to meet her deadline and Gyeon-sook threatens to replace her with another writer (an assistant writer who is desperate for the opportunity to be given a chance to make her mark). The only reason Seol-ah doesn’t lose her job is because Director Na has her back. Sure, she is holding up the production by failing to meet deadlines, but we’re supposed to sympathize with unfortunate circumstances. We’re supposed to view Gyeon-sook as evil for wanting to bring in a different writer, even though her position is a reasonable one. Even though Seol-ah acts coldly towards Jin-ho, she still has feelings for him.  This results in Seol-ah consistently second guessing herself and many scenes of the characters talking in circles (Seol-ah and Jin-ho have the same conversation multiple times throughout the series). There have been criticisms of Choi Woong’s wooden acting as Jinho, but I think his bland acting perfectly suits an empty suit like Jin-ho. He is a character devoid of any principles and he constantly shifts loyalty, depending on which side is more beneficial to him in the moment (Joo-ryun calls him out on this and it is impossible to disagree with her). She is so infatuated with that loser Jin-ho that she fails to notice that Director Na (a self-made man) has feelings for her. He always has her back, despite being under constant pressure by Gyeon-sook to have Seol-ah replaced. 

Seol-ah’s goal isn’t to just take down Gyeon-seok and Tae-chang but to dissolve Jeongin Entertainment; it doesn’t occur to her that by dissolving Jeongin Entertainment she will be throwing hundreds, if not thousands of people out of work. When the various scandals surrounding Jin-ho and Gyeon-sook get leaked to the press, this results in investors in pulling their funds and creating panic among the employees. The irony is Seol-ah could have done nothing, and the result would have been the same: Gyeon-sook and Tae-chang are horrible at business and are in constant debt. They are so in the red that they can’t pay back their investors, which means they would have inevitably been forced to sell their companies. It is a weird decision to have such an inconsequential heroine.

Joo-ryun is a more interesting character; to the point where she often takes center stage while Seol-ah gets pushed to the sidelines. The writing for the character is frustrating; the writers want to give her redemption arc, but they also want to keep her in an antagonistic role, as a result she spends most of the second half stuck in limbo. Every time, it feels like her character might turn the corner, she will immediately revert to her old self in the next scene. When she learns that her parents murdered Seol-ah’s father, she is genuinely mortified by their behavior and tells her parents (and Seol-ah) that she can understand why Seol-ah wants revenge.  As mentioned before, she twice intervenes on Seol-ah’s behalf, but she can’t over her obsession with Jin-ho and frequently allows her jealously to get the better of her. She is torn over her parents; she is horrified by their behavior but at the same time they did raise her in a loving home and helped make her the success she is today. Seol-ah, out of pity, returns Joo-ryun’s engagement ring to her; when she learns that her father is in debt, she sells the ring (and her car) and gives the money to Tae-chang. Again, Tae-chang is a horrible person but he did raise Joo-ryun in a loving manner. This is also what makes Joo-ryun more interesting than Seol-ah; she often behaves in an appalling manner, but she is also capable of expressing warmth and loyalty to the people around her. A trait that is curiously lacking in our heroine. I almost admit that I found myself crushing big time on Joo-ryun’s actress, Kim Gyu-seon, despite her sporting one of the most unfortunate bangs in television history. I suspect someone in the hair department recently watched the drama, Doona (starring the angelic Bae Suzy) and decided they want to give Kim Gyu-seon the same Betty Page haircut that Suzy had in that drama. Suzy pulled it off, but it looks all wrong on Gyu-seon (though, she is still incredibly cute. Sorry, ladies).  While watching Snow White’s Revenge, I began to have delusions of grandeur, “I’m going to meet Kim Gyu-seon and marry her. She would have taken one look at my pasty, overweight, middle-aged ass and proclaimed, ‘SWOON! You are the man for me!’” I crashed down to harsh reality when I learned she is married. DAMN!!! If not for that, we would totally have ended up together. Right?

Joo-ryun is so infatuated with Jin-ho that she brushes off the feelings Kim Seok-ki has for her (even though he is a way better catch than Jin-ho). When Kim Seok-ki announces that he is resigning from the company, Joo-ryun realizes just how important he is to her and begs him to stay. I initially believed this would be start of Joo-ryun’s long overdue romance with Seok-ki; she would finally realize that he genuinely loves her and makes her happy (the only time she seems comfortable is when she is with him) that she would kick the no-good bum to Jin-ho to the curb.  Instead, her obsession with Jin-ho goes on for another forty plus episodes. The writers really do a huge disservice to both the character and actor (Kim Gyu-seon). My personal theory is that the showrunners were worried that Kim Gyu-seon was threatening to upstage Han Bo-reum’s performance, so they did everything that could to sabotage her character.  “We can’t have our secondary villain be more sympathetic than the heroine. Quick, write a scene where Joo-ryun kidnaps Seol-ah.” I am no feminist, but it is depressing to see a drama produced in 2024 where two successful, attractive females spend an entire series pining for a total sponge of a man; especially when they both have better options standing right in front of them. Hell, it might have made for an interesting twist to have them fall in love with each other and then go full scorched earth on everybody. Anything would have been better than the ending we were given.

The highlight of the series is Han Chae-young as the bitchy CEO, Moon Gyeon-sook/ Moon Jeong-in. Han Chae-young has been in the industry for nearly three decades and is no stranger to K-drama and gives an appropriate scene chewing performance. One of her first acting credits, at the age of twenty, was the tragic melodrama Autumn in my Heart, where she played the bitchy younger sister of the male protagonist. Her characterization of Moon Gyeon-sook is less villain and more of a flawed protagonist. There is a hint that if she never met Min Tae-chang, she might have led a happy life. When she was a teenager, she got pregnant by her first love, Joo Woo-jin, who died under tragic circumstances and was determined to have his child. Tragically, she lost the child while giving birth. It was shorty after this she met Min Tae-chang, who was a police officer at the time and significantly older than her. Tae-chang took her under his wing, groomed her into being a gold digger, and then used her to scam wealthy men out of their men. It was Tae-chang that set up Seol-ah’s father, Baek Dong-ho, with Gyeon-sook. The tragic of losses of her first love and child made her numb to the world and she rarely shows any remorse for any of her actions. Tae-chang also had her raise his daughter, Joo-ryun. He told Gyeon-sook that he found Joo-ryun resting on their footstep with a note but, in truth, she was the result of an affair he had with a tea house waitress. Even though Joo-ryun wasn’t her biological daughter, she still raises Joo-ryun as her own.

The irony is that if Gyeon-sook hadn’t been so blinded by her greed, she could have lived a happy life with Dong-ho. He was a kind, and successful, man who probably would have supported her endeavors. Not to mention that Seol-ah was initially elated that Gyeon-sook was going to be her stepmother. One of the main reason Dong-ho agreed to meet Gyeon-sook as to find a potential mother for Seol-ah. This would have been an ideal time for her to kick Tae-chang to the curb and move onto someone much better, but she could only see dollar signs. The show is ambiguous as to who murdered Dong-ho in his sleep, but it was Gyeon-sook who drugged him with sleeping powdered, and she did go along with cover up; meaning in the best-case scenario she is an accessory to murder. 

After the murder of Dong-ho and the disappearance of Seol-ah, Tae-chang and Gyeon-sook used Dong-ho’s money to start up their businesses. It is Gyeon-sook’s goal to turn Jeongin Entertainment into one of the top television producers in not just South Korea, but the world.  She generates buzz by signing well respected film director, Na Hyun-woo, to a hefty contract. He reads Seol-ah’s script to Poker Face and chooses it as the first project he will work on for Jeongin. Initially, Gyeon-sook is excited by the buzz surrounding Poker Face in the press. The public is curious about Seol-ah/Jin-gyung, who is a first-time writer; the fresh-faced young actor Woo-jin (Jin-ho); and what Director Na can do with this raw talent. Then Gyeon-sook reads the script and realizes that it hits too close to home. The result is a battle of wills between Gyeon-sook and Seol-ah, with Director Na trapped in the middle. He usually sides with Seol-ah, but there are even a few times where she tries his patience; most notably when she fails to meet the deadlines because she is too busy sulking over Jin-ho and when she makes the controversial decision to kill of Jin-ho’s character midway through the show. Director Na wants to help Seol-ah get her revenge, but he also wants to finish Poker Face, and such a hasty decision on Seol-ah’s part, done for pure petty reasons, threatens to upend the entire show. He manages to talk her out of the decision, but this petty act does result in Gyeon-sook framing Seol-ah for plagiarism. She bribes an assistant writer (whose desperately needs to pay for her mother’s hospital bills) to the claim that Seol-ah stole her idea and then leaks the story to press (even though it is bad press for Jeongin Entertainment). Though, Seol-ah can easily disprove this plagiarism charge and threatens to counter sue. Director Na convinces the staff writer to come clean and is even sympathetic to the woman’s story. In short, Director Na is the voice of reason throughout the series – he doesn’t like Gyeon-sook and Tae-chang, but he also can’t allow Seol-ah’s emotions get the better of her.  Jin-ho, meanwhile, main job is to do Gyeon-sook’s bidding and make stupid faces.  Yet, Seol-ah decides that he is the better option of the two.

This is when I’ll get into spoilers, because it is nearly impossible to write about Snow White’s Revenge without talking about the terrible ending. Was the show originally supposed to be 102 episodes long? It feels like the show was initially supposed to be longer but then was shortened due to poor ratings. It would explain why the ending feels so rushed. There are episodes worth of character development that are shoehorned into the show’s final minutes. It relies on the annoying K-drama trope of the time jump to resolve all its plot threads.

First, there is the unsatisfying conclusion to the mystery surrounding Gyeon-sook’s death. Her death was already revealed in the first episode, so the question becomes who murdered? There is a whole gallery of suspects who had their own reasons for wanting Gyeon-sook dead; including Joo-ryun. In a twist that is surprising to no one, it turns out that Jin-ho is Gyeon-sook’s long-lost son (who she believed died during childbirth). After this reveal, Gyeon-sook’s attitude toward Jin-ho changes; she decides she is going to manage every aspect of his career. She sits in on the table reads and objects to dialogue that she finds offensive; she doesn’t want Jin-ho’s character to speak any vulgar lines or be shown in a bad light. She proves to be a huge disruption that Director Na (with the blessings of the cast) kicks her out of the table read. Her micromanaging of Jin-ho’s career leads to everyone suspecting that the two of them are having an affair, despite the huge age gap between the two of them. The funny thing is in the context of the show there is supposed to be a twenty plus age gape between Gyeon-sook and Jin-ho while in real-life Han Chae-young is Choi Woong’s senior by six years. Even Joo-ryun believes these rumors and is appalled by her mother “lusting” after a much younger man (who also happens to be her fiancé). 

The big question surrounding the series is: Who murdered Gyeon-sook? Practically every character had a reason to kill her. The answer: NO ONE! She slipped on a patch of ice and fell to her death. The mystery that opened the series turned out not to be a mystery at all, but sheer carelessness on Gyeon-sook’s part. Again, was this the original plan? Or was it just a convenient way to end the series? Surprisingly, this is the least annoying part of the episode.

 Shortly after, Gyeon-sook’s death, Tae-chang’s crimes have been exposed to the world and he is apprehended by the police. However, he manages to escape from the police and is determined to get revenge.  How did he manage to escape custody? It’s never explained. The point is he is on the loose and has sights sets on Seol-ah and Jin-ho. He also has the amazing foresight to predict that Seol-ah and Jin-ho will be doing volunteer work at the orphanage they grew up in. It is also annoying how throughout the series Seol-ah will whine about how she was raised in an orphanage after her father’s murder, when she was only there for a few months. Jin-ho and her best friend, Go Eun-byeol, were there significantly longer and rarely do they bring it up. While Seol-ah and Jin-ho are sitting on a bench, attempting to bury the hatchet, Tae-chang emerges from the pushes, clutching a rifle in his hands. He has Seol-ah in his sight but just as he pulls the trigger, Seol-ah bends over and Jin-ho gets shot instead. Tae-chang then fires another bullet into Jin-ho and then runs away. Seol-ah cries over Jin-ho’s unconscious body; the screen fades to black and then fades into an exterior shot of a penitentiary and the caption “a few years later” flashes across the screen. Yes, it’s the good old time jump gimmick that desperate K-drama writers resort to when they have written themselves into a corner. 

Joo-ryun and Kim Seok-ki are visiting Tae-chang in prison, and we learn the following things: Joo-ryun and Kim Seok-ki are engaged and that Seol-ah has forgiven Tae-chang (to the point where she sends him money every month). The time in prison has transformed Tae-chang for the better and he spends most of his time begging forgiveness from all the people he has wronged. We then cut to Director Na visiting Seol-ah and Jin-ho at the orphanage; Jin-ho has survived the assassination attempt, but it has put him in a wheelchair. Seol-ah has forgiven Jin-ho and taken him back. The two of them have retired from the television industry and work full-time at the orphanage. We also learn that Joo-ryun and Seol-ah are now on friendly terms; they have finally buried the hatchet (something that should have happened like thirty episodes earlier). Joo-ryun also looked after her biological mother for the last few years until cancer claimed her life. Director Na is disappointed that Seol-ah has given up writing, but he is happy that she has found peace. We also are given a shoehorned message: Seol-ah tells Director Na that should could never write Poker Face 2 because, when she was writing the first one, she only had revenge on her mind, but she has since learned that “the best revenge is forgiveness.” UGH!

Where do I even begin with this ending? Once I start the “A few years later” caption flash across the screen, I knew it was going to be bad but, HOLY CRAP, I didn’t think it would be this awful. I would normally say that Seol-ah getting back together with Jin-ho is the worst thing but since neither character was especially interesting, I think the most egregious error is that Joo-ryun’s character arc happens entirely offscreen.  It would been nice to include the scene where she reciprocates Seok-ki’s feelings, or her reaching out to her biological mother (after having coldly rejected her before), or, at the very least, gives us the scene where Seol-ah and her finally make peace with one another. At least the writers set up the Joo-ryun/Seok-ki romance early on, but there the entire second half of the series should have been Joo-ryun’s gradual realization that she loves Seok-ki and not that bore, Jin-ho. The writers are so hell bent to keep her in a “villain” role that they stunt her character growth.

The amount of screentime that is wasted on comedy relief (provided by Seol-ah’s adopted family) could have easily been given to Joo-ryun and Seok-ki. The comedy relief is especially annoying in this drama and often creates a tonal whiplash: one moment, Seol-ah’s life will be in danger, and it is immediately followed by her family mugging for the camera and stumbling through the scenery. Plus, her adopted family continually makes the dumbest decisions ever¸ like Min-sun and her aunt charging into Tae-chang’s house and demanding compensation. They know what Tae-chang is capable of, yet they decide to kick the hornet’s nest anyway. He then proceeds to beat them with a golf club, ties them up, and throws them in the laundry room.

It feels like the writers were oblivious to the shooting schedule and thought they would be given more time to develop the character. “Well, we will eventually get to her character arc. This show is slated for 140 episodes and we’re only on episode 98, we have got plenty of time. Wait, what do you mean it is only 102 episodes long? We still haven’t figured out who murdered Gyeon-sook. SHIT!” It is also hard to figure out what Seol-ah is after; she wants Gyeon-sook and Tae-chang to pay for their crimes, but it is also insistent to wait until Poker Face has ended to make her move. Her plan should have changed once she realized how dangerous Gyeon-sook and Tae-chang are, and once she got her hands on incriminating evidence that would easily put them away. Gyeon-sook and Tae-chang are so incompetent that they consistently leave behind a trail of evidence, but Seol-ah just sits on it, because it is important she finishes her script. Her hesitancy puts many people at risk, and it is ultimately Lee Sun-ae who is responsible for the downfalls of Gyeon-sook and Tae-chang.

What is even more incredible is that Jin-ho is deprived of a “hero moment” – in most K-dramas the male lead would sacrifice himself to save the female lead, and this would lead to their reconciliation. In normal a K-drama, Jin-ho would see Tae-chang in the bushes, pointing his rifle at Seol-ah, and then at the last moment, take the bullet for Seol-ah.  Instead, he gets shot multiple times, and, out of pity, Seol-ah decides to she is going to spend the rest of her life looking after him. The is my main issue with Snow White’s Revenge, neither its female lead nor male lead have any real agency.  They react to the events around them, but they rarely dictate them. The show’s alternate title, Scandal, is more fitting because the Snow White in this tale is putz.

 

Credits:

Cast: Han Chae-young (Moon Jeong-in/Moon Gyeong-sook), Han Bo-reum (Baek Seol-ah/Park Jin-gyung), Choi Woong (Seo Jin-ho/Joo Woo-jin), Kim Gyu-seon (Min Joo-ryun), Lee Byung-joon (Min Tae-chang), Jeon Seung-bin (Na Hyun-woo), Jin Ju-hyung (Kim Seok-ki), Oh Young-joo (Go Eun-byeol), Jo Hyang-gi (Choi Mi-sun), Hwang Dong-joo (Park Il-joong), Lee Si-eun (Lee Sun-ae), Kim Yui (Park Ji-yeon), Kim Jin-woo (Na Seung-woo), Lee Sook (Nanda Park), Lee Ha-rang (Jung Joon-kyeong), Kim  Hong-pyo (Kwon Young-seok), Choi Ryung (Baek Dong-ho).

Director: Choi Ji-young
Writer: Hwang Soon-young.

102 episodes ~ 35 minutes

House of Spirits (2016)

A theme that has eluded Hollywood for the last decade is forgiveness. Hollywood prefers the strawman approach to villainy – they will often create one-dimensional baddies who solely exist to debunk a talking point the creators disagree with. If their villain is making a pro-capitalist argument, you are supposed to dismiss solely because the villain is the one making the argument. It doesn’t matter if he (and it is usually a HE) makes some valid talking points, you must disagree with him or else you are part of the problem. Nuance has become a lost art.  If a character is deemed to be on “the wrong side of history,” they are irredeemable. Therefore, it was a bit surprising to see nuance in the Hong Kong comedy series, House of Spirits. On the surface, it is a silly comedy – after their father, Po Fuk, has passed away, four estranged siblings are forced to move into his flat in order to receive their inheritance. The provision of his will is that they must live together for nine months before selling the flat (which has a market value of twelve million dollars). Also, the flat is haunted by the ghosts of Bak Wah and his wife, Yi Lan, two movie stars from the 1950s.  The only two people who can see Bah Wan and Yi Lin are Po Foon, the oldest sibling, and his niece, Mui Siu-fei (Fei-fei). If this show were made in the States, the focus would be on slapstick comedy and there would have to be a main baddie who threatens to upend our protagonist’s peaceful co-existence. There is such a baddie in House of Spirits, the real estate developer, Kam Cha-lei, but he is more of minor subplot and is given surprising depth. 

Before I can dive into the plot, it is important to do a brief summary of the main characters, because they are all well-defined individuals, who are given their own unique character arc.

Po Foon (Bobby Au-yeung)

Po Foon is the oldest of the siblings. He left the family at an early age to pursue his dreams and to escape his father’s abuse. After he left, his younger siblings (especially his sister, Po Yan) view him with disdain. He rarely shows up at family functions and when he does, he usually arrives late and only stays for a few minutes. After their father Po Fuk passes away alone, Po Foon starts to have dreams of his late father, who urges him to bring the family back together again. Po Foon is convinced this is his father’s final wish and is determined to mend his broken family. He initially resorts to an underhanded tactic to get his siblings to agree to move into his father’s flat with him, he forges his father’s will that states the siblings must live together for nine months before they can sell it. His younger brother, Po Yue, figures out the ruse earlier but agrees to remain silent after Po Foon bribes him with a portion of his share after they sell the flat (two million dollars to be exact).

In his youth, he (along with his friend, Kwai Si-fuk) starred in a children’s show where he played the superhero, Captain Po, who always fought the Monster (Si-fuk in a shoddy dinosaur costume). After the television series ended, the two of the opened up an education center for children (Space Shuttle), with Po acting as the Principal and Si-fuk the CEO. After offending a prominent mother, whose son attends Space Shuttle, Po Foon is forced to resign. It turns out her husband is a prominent investor in Space Shuttle and, in order to avoid a lawsuit, Po Foon agrees to not only resign from the school but also not to work in the education field for a year. With his limited options, he agrees to work the late shift at his friend’s (Bak-chun) eatery. Bak-chun’s eatery is short-staffed after his wife gives birth, so Po Foon agrees to help out. The eatery also happens to be across the hall from a multi-purpose shop owned by Chu Chan-chan, who is a jack of all trades (electrician, plumber, and carpenter) and also happens to be a high school friend of Po Yan. In fact, it is Po Yan who put up the money that allowed Chan-chan to go into business for herself.

Po Foon uses this opportunity to perfect his father’s rice noodle roll recipe. When Po Foon was a kid, his father often forced him to slave away in the kitchen for hours until he perfected the rice noodle roll. His father was so determined to make Foon learn the recipe that he often kept him out of school.  This was one of the reasons Foon grew to resent his father.  Now that he has time on his hands, he decides to honor his late father’s wishes and perfect the rice noodle roll recipe. After a few failed attempts, he learns that the secret to rice noodle rolls is a specific brand of flour.  The biggest fan of his rolls turns out to be Chan-chan – they are a cure for her insomnia. After she finishes a plate of Po Foon’s rice noodle rolls, she immediately falls asleep. They are also a hit among the customers – Po Foon initially isn’t interested in selling them, but they demand for the rice noodle rolls becomes so great that he eventually gives in.

Po Foon tries to see the best in people, often to his detriment. When he runs into his ex-girlfriend, Joanne, he is still haunted with guilt over being partially responsible for ending her dancing career – when they were still dating, Po Foon got into a car accident which Joanne’s legs. He paid for her surgery and medical treatments, but they couldn’t overcome the awkwardness and broke up. Joanne initially puts on the mask of friendship when she approaches Po Foon, but her true intention is to swindle him of 300,000 dollars to pay for plastic surgery. She lays the guilt trip on thick – she constantly complains about the pain in her legs. She tells Po Foon she needs the money to get an experimental surgery in the U.K. that, if successful, will allow her to dance again. Po Foon is almost fooled – he just can’t believe that beautiful creature standing in front of him is capable of lying. It is Po Yue who exposes Joanne’s dishonesty, this sparing his older brother more heartbreak and bankruptcy. Yet, despite her deception, Po Foon does bear Joanne any ill well – he is not that type of a guy who holds grudges.

Po Yan (Joyce Tang)

Po Yan is Foon’s younger sister (and second oldest sibling in the Po family). Like Foon, she grew up resenting their father but for a much different reason. After their mother passed away, it was Po Yan who raised her two younger siblings, Yue and Yi. Her ambition was to attend a university in the United Kingdom, but her father shot that idea down and forced her to play mother to her younger brothers. When Po Foon left the family (she was oblivious to the abuse he suffered at the hands of their father) she, naturally, resented him for leaving her to hold the bag. She views Foon with apprehension – she, understandably, can’t believe that he is a changed man. The best way to describe the two – Foon is the heart of the family; Yan is the brains. There is a constant butting of heads between the two, but once the two of them get in sync with each other, the family begins to thrive.

She never stopped acting like a mother to her younger siblings; she constantly scolds Po Yue and Po Yi (often her anger is justified). She loves her husband, Mui Chiu, but wishes he was more of a go getter (he is a manager at a factory). She is not a greedy person – it’s just the thought of living in poverty scares her. She wants their daughter, Fei fei, to have the opportunities that she didn’t when she was younger; as a result, she is raises her daughter in a strict manner. Her marriage with Mui Chiu becomes strained – when Fei fei and her moved into her father’s flat, Mui Chiu stay behind because of his work. He tries to make it up to his wife and daughter by visiting every weekend, but his not being around often leaves him out of the loop. The other thorn in their marriage is Mui Chiu’s overbearing mother, Sik Giu, who makes all sorts of passive aggressive remarks to her daughter-in-law and often undermines Po Yan in front of Fei fei. When she suspects that Po Yan is having an affair, she visits the flat to keep an eye on her daughter-in-law. Sik Giu puts on angelic act when the rest of the family is around – to the point that Yan’s siblings can’t believe she doesn’t like her mother-in-law. To make matters worse, Mui Chiu usually sides with his mother. However, eventually Sik Giu’s true character is exposed, and this is also the moment that endears Po Foon to Po Yan, because when Sik Giu is hurling criticisms at her, it is Po Foon who defends his sister. He is especially offended when Sik Giu calls Po Yan a loser. The other surprising moments is when Po Yan’s sister-in-law, Fiona, also comes to her defense – this is surprising as the two of them have been at each other’s throats the entire series.

She also has a chip on her shoulder – she wants to prove to her husband, and to herself, that she a excel at business.  When she learns that Chan-chan wants to open up her own repair/design business, Po Yan invests money in it to help out her high school friend. They divide their duties – Po Yan is responsible for the business/financial end which allows Chan-chan to focus on the labor aspect. This first order of business is to find clients. Po Yan meets with various companies (hotels, schools, etc) about allowing Chan-chan to renovate their buildings, but they turn her down because Chan-chan’s business is new and they are skeptical about a woman’s ability to do a “man’s job.” When the Space Shuttle education center is need of repairs, Po Foon persuades Si-fuk (whose nickname is “Seafood”) to give Chan-chan and his sister a chance. He also tells Si-fuk to keep this a secret; his sister is a proud woman, and he worries that Po Yan will not take the job if she finds that he is behind it. Si-fuk is not good at keeping secrets and he immediately tells Chan-chan, who in turn tells Po Yan. She is slightly annoyed that Po Foon is responsible for their first gig, but she also realizes that a job is a job, and it would be foolish to pass on this opportunity. Miu Chiu initially objects to Po Yan (he is actually more annoyed that she kept it a secret from him that actually starting one up) but Foon is able to convince him how important this is to Yan.

Anthony Po Yue (Jonathan Cheung)

Po Yue is the second youngest of the siblings. He has held a grudge against Po Foon for most of his life; when he was in elementary school he bragged to his classmates that his older brother was Captain Po and they didn’t believe them. He was hoping to put all doubts to rest by asking his brother to take part in a leg race at the school. Foon agreed and Po Yue then bragged to his classmates that his older brother would be making an appearance. They were excited over the prospect of meeting their idol, Captain Po. However, on the day of the race, Po Foon, due to his hectic schedule at the television studio, missed the race and this resulted in Yue’s classmates labelling him a “liar” and bullying him. Despite Foon’s best efforts to make it up to his younger brother, Yue never forgave Foon for letting him down.

As an adult, Yue seems to have it made – he was a well-paying job at an investment firm; she is married to a popular runway model, Fiona, and the two of them just put a down payment on a posh apartment. They agree to move into his father’s flat because the apartment is still being renovated and they need a place to live (the three million dollars they will inherit after selling his father’s flat doesn’t hurt either).  By all metrics, Po Yue is living the dream, yet he suffers from a huge inferiority complex – he loves Fiona, but he also believes that only way to keep her by his side is by showering her with nice things. In fact, that main reason he put a down payment on the posh apartment was to appease her. In the past, Fiona dated an investor by the name of Dickson, and he worries that she still has feelings for him. Fiona’s mother keeps pressuring her to divorce Po Yue and get back together with Dickson.

When the investment firm he works at is caught up in a scandal, Po Yue is made the scapegoat and is fired from his job. Po Yue becomes so desperate for money that he contemplates selling the flat to one of his former clients, below the market value. Po Foon finds out about this but agrees not to tell the rest of the family about it. The only thing that prevents him from signing it is the contract is the timely intervention of a stray cat, Fei Jai, that hangs around the flat and is used by Po Luk as a conduit into the world of the living. 

David Po Yi (Bob Cheung)

David Po Yi (a play on David Bowie) is the youngest of the Po siblings. He is unemployed and spends most of his time listening to music and playing video games in his bedroom. He was still living at home when his father passed away. He never had a real relationship with Po Foon – he was still a toddler when his oldest brother left home. It is largely because of this that Po Foon decides to take Po Yi under his wing; much to his little brother’s annoyance.  When Po Foon starts working at the eatery, he makes Po Yi work the late shift with him.  He develops a close relationship with Foon and Fei-fei; he is often given the job of picking Fei-fei up from school and then looking after her until Po Yan comes home. He also is the only sibling who is willing to give Foon the benefit of the doubt – he doesn’t have a preconceived idea about Foon, like Yan and Yue, so he has no reason to doubt his older brother’s sincerity. 

Po Yi’s real aspiration in life is to be a musician, but he also suffers from stage fright. When he was younger, he froze up at his piano recital and, after this embarrassing incident, his father forbade him from playing any instruments. He still composes music, but he keeps it to himself.
He develops on a crush on Fei-fei’s piano teacher, Liu Sing-san, who is also an aspiring musician.  It also turns out that she is the ex-girlfriend of a famous singer that Po Yi admires, Jay Fung.  When Sing-san and Yi accidentally mix up each other’s iPods, Liu Sing-san hears one of the Po Yi’s musical compositions and is impressed. She suggests that the two of them should enter a talent show together. This puts Po Yi in quite the pickle – he still suffers from stage fright, but he also doesn’t want to let down his crush. When he tries to perform at a live mic event, that Sing-san invited him to, he freezes up onstage and runs away. This is witnessed by Po Foon, Fei-fei, and Chan-chan. He is convinced that he won’t be able to perform at the talent show and initially turns down Sing-san. 

Chu Chan-chan (Nancy Wu)

Chan-chan is Po Yan’s high school friend/ business partner and Foon’s eventual love interest. She initially dislikes Foon – the only thing she knows about him is what Yan told her in high school. The first meet by chance; when the fuse box in the building overheats and burns out, she offers to fix it.  Foon is initially skeptical of her ability, even though she is willing to fix it for a reasonable price and looks for other electricians.  However, their prices are way too high, so he inevitably chooses Chan-chan. This is when she is reunited with Po Yan and the two of them decide to go into business together (after Yan loses her job at the company she works at).

Her shop happens to be located right next to the eatery that Foon works at and the two of them eventually become close to one another.  Po Yan suffers from insomnia, which is why she is on call 24/7, because she needs something to kill the time. After Foon perfects his father’s ride noodle recipe, he gives her a plate on the house, and she falls asleep. Convinced she has found the cure for her insomnia; she keeps demanding Foon make more for her. She eventually realizes it isn’t the rice noodles that is responsible for her night’s sleep but Foon himself. At first, she is in denial about her feelings and then when she finally admits them, she can never bring herself to tell Foon how she feels, because it doesn’t appear to return her feelings. In fact, he seems determined to set her up with Si-fuk. In truth, Foon does love her, but he doesn’t believe he stands a chance with her – he is not what you would call handsome, and he is significantly older than her. Plus, Chan-chan initially shows interest in Si-fuk, so Foon believes is doing both of them a solid by setting them up. Chan-chan is a fan of Si-fuk – when she was a child, she religiously watched the TV show that Foon and Si-fuk starred, but he completely emphasized with the Monster.  In her childhood, she lived in an orphanage and one day the Monster showed up and performed all sorts of tricks for the children. Afterwards, he saw Chan-chan sitting by herself and cheered up with a pep talk. She assumed it was Si-fuk in the costume, but it was actually Foon who was covering for Si-fuk on that day. She credited this pep talk with help turning around her life. She goes on a few dates with Si-fuk but often finds herself talking about Foon: much to Si-fuk’s annoyance. What is impressive is that the relationship between Foon and Chan-chan is totally believable, despite the twenty-year gap between the actors; Bobby Au-yeung was 56 when this drama was made and Nancy Wu was 35. There is also the fact that Nancy Wu is gorgeous while Bobby Au-yeung is an ordinary looking dude; but none of that matters because the two of them have terrific screen chemistry. Also, because Foon is well-written character, it is easy to understand why Chan-chan would fall in love with him.

Chan-chan is a tomboy – she often dresses in flannels and blue jeans. Most of her colleagues often refer to her as “Brother Chan” because of her more masculine tendencies. She shares an apartment with her two male co-workers, Cheung Tsan and Ling Bo.  Cheung Tsan has a crush on Chan-chan and becomes insanely jealous when he sees her with Foon. Ling Bo has a crush on Cheng Tsan, but he is an unrequited love.  There is the inevitable scene where Chan-chan wears a dress and naturally turns everyone’s head. Again, Nancy Wu is gorgeous no matter what outfit she is wearing, so it is silly that it’s only after she puts on a dress that people would notice this; I refer to this as the “She’s All That” logic.  I should also point this is second drama I have seen Nancy Wu in; she was in the series, “Ghost of Relativity,” where she played the role of a ghost that lives in a cellphone. Here, she gets to play the romantic interest. 

Bak Wah and Yi Lan (Bowie Wu, Helena Law)

Bak Wah and Yi Lan are the two spirits that reside in the flat. In the 1950s, they were famous movie stars that starred in a series of Canto dramas.  Even though, Yi Lan loves Bak Wah, their marriage was less than ideal – Bak Wah was addicted to gambling and lost most of their fortune due to his addiction. The reason they still haunt the apartment, and haven’t moved on, is that they want to find out what happened to their long-lost daughter, Bak Wai, who ran away from home when she was seventeen years old. Bak Wah was a stern daughter and when he disapproved of that outfit she was wearing, she mouthed off to him, he slapped her, and she ran away from home, never to return.

The only two that can see them are Foon and Fe-fei; they both opened the umbrella that two spirits attached themselves to and breathed in the dust that allows them to see the ghosts. When Foon first realizes that the elderly couple, he was talking to are ghosts, he freaks out and tries to exorcise them from the premises. All attempts at exorcism are a failure and he eventually gets used to living with ghosts. Fei-fei, on the other hand, immediately takes a liking to Bak Wahn and Yi Lan (especially the latter) and often refers to them as her grandparents. 

There are often a few times throughout the series where the possess other family members (Yi Lan possesses Po Yan and Bak Wah possesses Po Yi and Miu Chiu) to either diffuse a situation or push a character in the right direction.  When Liu Sing-san walks in on Po Yi playing the piano, she asks him to play her another song. He freezes up and comes up with different excuses why he can’t play for; Bak Wah loses his patience, possesses Po Yi, and then serenades Sing-san with a love song. Sing-san is touched by this and asks Po Yi to play at an event that she is organizing. The problem is that Po Yi has no memory of serenading Sing-san and when he goes to the event, he has no idea that she wants him to play.  When Po Yan and Miu Chiu are having a heated argument over the business she started with Chan-chan, Bak Wah possesses Miu Chiu to ease the tensions. This does backfire later on; Po Yan wants to get intimate with Miu Chiu and Bak Wah (still inside Miu Chiu’s body) freaks out and pushes Po Yan off the bed and then leaves Miu Chiu’s body. When Miu Chiu comes back to his senses, he finds that Po Yan is angry with him but doesn’t understand why.

The interesting thing about House of Spirits is that drama would still work without the spirits. The characterizations are strong that the show could have easily made for a compelling family drama.  If you cut out the ghost subplot, you would have a solid family drama about loving, healing, forgiveness, and redemption. However, the writers to an excellent job of tying in the Bak Wah/ Yi Lan with the rest of the drama. At first, it feels disconnected with the main drama at hand, but it does have both a thematic and narrative link (if I were to say how, I would be given away spoilers).

Fiona Yue Fa (Koni Lui)

Fiona is Po Yue’s ditzy newlywed wife. She is an aging, part-time show model, who finds that she is now in competition with younger models. When she breaches her contract by gaining weight, she is fired. In attempt to upstage her younger counterparts, Fiona’s dons a revealing outfit that exposes her midriff, which gets the attention of the paparazzi but for all the wrong reasons – as it the outfit reveals that she has a beer belly. She becomes the subject of ridicule online; the only company that is willing to hire her is one that specializes in liposuction. When her former modeling agency threatens to sue her for breach of contract, she lies and tells the CEO that she is pregnant, then she, along with CEO’s sympathetic wife, lays the guilt trip on thick and he agrees to sign her to a new contract. She also uses her “pregnancy” to make her in laws wait on her hand and foot. 

Fiona could have easily been written as a one-dimensional character – in a lesser hand, Po Yue’s character arc would be dumping his bitchy, overbearing wife – but there is something endearing about Koni Lui’s performance. Fiona puts on a confident front, but she, just like her husband, is very insecure person.  Before she met Po Yue, she dated different types of men and, by her admission, lived a very loose life. She is worried that if Po Yue finds out about her past, he will dump on her on the spot. Her initially motive for approaching Po Yue was to make her ex-boyfriend, Dickson, jealous; Po Yue tried to break the ice with earlier and she flat out rejected him, but when she saw Dickson sitting a table with other women, she walked up to Po Yue and kissed him passionately on the lips, to show Dickson that she still had it. Despite her bitchy demeanor, she does legitimately Po Yue. It also turns out that Po Yue knew about her past and it didn't bother him in the slightest - he just wants to focus on the present. 

Foon and Yi don't have any issues with her; Foon often gives her the benefit of the doubt while Yi keeps to himself. It is Po Yan who acts antagonistically towards Fiona; she suspects that Fiona is a gold digger and always view her with suspicion.  The turning point in this relationship occurs when Fiona tells off Yan's overbearing mother-in-law; she may take issue with how Yan runs things, but she has a far bigger issue with overbearing mothers-in-law. She also later proves to be a good aunt to Fei-fei. 

Bianca Mui Siu-fei/Fei-fei (Bianca Chan)

The eight-year-old daughter of Po Yan and Miu Chiu, Fei-fei is the often the glue that holds things together. After moving into her grandfather's flat, she becomes extremely close to Po Foon, Po Yi, Bak Wah, and Yi Lan. When her mother says negative things about her uncle Foon, she is the first to defend him. She often worries about her parents' marriage - they are separated for most of the week and when Mui Chiu comes to visit, they often get into heated arguments with one another. She is often her uncle Foon's co-conspirator in various schemes to bring the family together; they devise a plot to cure Po Yi of his stage fright. Po Foon has arranged a huge get together for all the tenant on the rooftop and has Fei-fei play a few songs on a keyboard. Fei-fei then pretends to have a stage fright and starts to cry; Po Yi can't stand seeing his niece struggle and helps her with her song. Po Yi sees through the ruse but is genuinely touched that Po Foon and Po Yi staged this scene for his benefit.  Fei-fei later uses this stagecraft to manipulate her parents into stop bickering - she draws "disturbing" pictures at school (of her parents fighting and her crying) and this catches the attention of her teacher, who calls in both of her parents and tells them that they need to work out their differences for their daughter's benefit.  It turns out Fei-fei faked all of this to force her parents to stop their endless bickering. 

Miu Chiu (Tsui Wing)

Po Yan's husband and Fei-fei's father. Despite his turbulent relationship with his wife, Miu Chiu genuinely loves Po Yan and Fei-fei. When Po Yan starts up a business with Chan-chan, his initial objection isn't that she started a business but rather that she did it behind his back. His biggest flaw is that he always sides with his mother. He is unaware of his mother's passive aggressive behavior towards Po Yan, so when he sees that the two of them are not getting along, he asks Po Yan to try harder. However, even in their lowest moments, there is no doubt that he still loves his wife. It's just a matter of getting on the same page with her.

Kwai Si-fuk (Max Cheung)

Si-fuk (who is given the nickname "Seafood" by Foon) is the CEO of the Space Shuttle learning center and has been Po Foon's best friend since they were teenagers. He was also Foon's co-star on a children's role - he played the role of The Monster, where he was forced to wear a chintzy dinosaur costume.  He was overweight in his youth but grew into a handsome man.  While Foon is more focused on education, Si-fuk worries more about the financial aspect of Space Shuttle learning center, which means he often takes in the children of wealthy parents, even though many of them fall short of Space Shuttle's standards. Foon is worried that bringing in so many unqualified students will force him to water down the curriculum, but Si-fuk tells him that they desperately need the money to keep afloat.  The neat thing about this scene is that doesn't strawman Si-fuk - he is genuinely concerned about Space Shuttle's future and realizes that he has to shake hands with the devil to keep it going.  

After Chan-chan is hired to renovate Space Shuttle, Si-fuk is instantly smitten with her. He wants to pursue a relationship with her and asks her to go out on multiple dates. Foon, believing he doesn't stand a chance with Chan-chan, gives Si-fuk his blessing to ask her out. Chan-chan is flattered and even star struck- she was a huge fan of Si-fuk growing up and has posters of The Monster hanging on her walls. However, whenever Chan-chan and Si-fuk are on a date, she spends most of the time talking about Po Foon. When Si-fuk makes his move on her, she rejects his advances. It is at this point in the series that she realizes she has feelings for Foon.  

Even though Po Foon is his best friend, Si-fuk begins resenting being in Foon's shadow. He was Foon's co-star on television, but it was Foon who got all the fan mail. When they opened Space Shuttle, it was Foon who was the face of the school. Now, the woman he has the hots for can't ever shut up about Foon. Foon feels awful about it, but there is very little he can do to appease his friend.  

The biggest character arc in the series is Po Foon's emergence of the family patriarch - he begins the series as being an estranged member of the family to being the guy that everyone can rely on. However, his role of patriarch isn't just limited to his family but eventually extends to the other tenants living in the apartment building: it is Foon who helps Po Yan find a nice, affordable school for his niece; it is Foon who helps cure Po Yi of his stage fright; it is Po Foon who places his entire trust in Po Yue after the latter contemplates selling that flat behind his family back; and it is Po Foon who looks in on his neighbors, most notably the senile, Ho Gwai. He desperately wants to atone for his mistakes of the past and win the trust of his siblings in the process.  Hell, he is also the guy spirits turn to when they need to help.  

One of the ghosts is Chiu Fong-fong, who was a girl who grew up in the same orphanage as Chan-chan. When Foon sees her lingering around Chan-chan, he fears the worst. It initially looks like his worst fears our confirmed, when it seems that the ghost pushes Chan-chan into oncoming traffic, but Foon is able to pull her out of the way in the nick of time. However, it turns out this was an accident and Fong-fong's ghost has no malicious intent; instead, the reason she hangs out Chan-chan is that she has unfinished business she needs to attend. When the two of them were living at the same orphanage, Chan-chan's mother visited and dropped off a present; Chan-chan was busy at the time and didn't get to see her mother. Fong-fong was already jealous of Chan-chan because was popular with the other children and seeing Chan-chan's mother drop off a present drove Fong-fong over the edge. She grabbed the present and buried it under a tree.  She later regretted her decision but before she could make amends, she passed away. As a spirit, she now asks Foon to lead Chan-chan to the tree and dig up the present. After Foon digs up the present and gives it to Chan-chan, Fong-fong can pass on to the afterlife. This is the common thread among all the ghosts in House of Spirits; the reason they hang around the living is that they have unfinished business they must resolve before moving on. 

This also applies to the Po Family, before they can become a functional family, they must first exorcise all the ghosts in their closet. Once they have resolved all their petty differences and forgiven each other for their past transgressions, they become an unstoppable unit. This is also a stark contrast to the content made in the United States - if House of Spirits was made by Netflix, Amazon, or any other streaming service, Po Foon would be a bumbling, irredeemable idiot while the female characters would always be in the right. Therefore, it was refreshing to see a series where each character (including the ditzy Fiona) is given a satisfying character arc.  

Cast: Bobby Au-yeung (Po Foon), Joyce Tang (Po Yan), Jonathan Cheung (Anthony Po Yue), Bob Cheung (David Po Yi), Nancy Wu (Chu Chan-chan), Bowie Wu (Bak Wah), Helena Law (Mrs. Bak – Yi Lan), Koni Lui (Fiona Yue Fa, Po Yue’s wife), Tsui Wing (Mui Chiu, Po Yan’s husband), Bianca Chan (Bianca Mui Siu-fei, Po Yan’s daughter), Lau Kong (Po Luk), Max Cheung (Kwai Si-fuk), Moon Lau (Liu Sing-san), Willie Wai (Wong Bak-chun), Jay Fung (himself), Joe Tay (Kam Cha-lei), Angelina Lo (Sik Giu, Mui Chiu’s mother), Calvin Chan (Cheung Tsan), Kelvin Yuen (Ling Bo), Chow Chung (himself), Suet Nei (Kam Siu Mo-ching, Cha-lei’s mother), Fanny Lee (Au Yuk-han, Bak-chun’s wife), Yu Chi-ming (Ho Gwai), Alex Yung (Yin, Ho Gwai’s grandson), Carat Cheung (Joanne Chin Cho-kwan), Aliya Fan (Mrs. Tou), Willie Lau (Mr. Tau), Joey Mak (Chiu Fong-fong), Raymond Chiu (Dickson), Andy Lau Tin-ling (Jason).

Director: Not Available
Writers: Ma Chun-wing, Au Yuk-han, Ho Ching-yi, Yeung Seut-Yee, Wong Sau-ching, Ma Ching-man.
31 episodes ~ 45 minutes.

Korean Daily Dramas (Part I)

 

 

I have spent the last few months watching Korean Daily Dramas (in the States we call them “Soap Operas”) and they tend to consume a lot of your time. I have watched eight in total: Suji & Uri; Vengeance of the Bride; The Second Husband; Smile Again; The Brave Yong Su-jeong; Queen’s House; The Third Marriage; and Love Twist. I decided to do a general overview of these series instead of an in-depth review, because it would require a huge epic undertaking – each of these dramas is over 100 episodes long (Queen’s House is the shortest at 100 episodes), which means there a lot of filler episodes where nothing happens. The Second Husband is the biggest offender when it comes to this – there is a love triangle subplot involving three supporting characters that has no relevance to the main storyline; it is there purely for comedy relief and is completely discarded in the shows third act. These three characters disappear from the narrative, and everyone forgets all about them. 
Editor’s note: Even a general overview of these series is much longer than I expected. I was initially hoping to do it all in one post, but that is proving to impractical; I already have written 11 plus pages and I’m not even halfway through the analysis. I plan on breaking up the analysis I three parts. 

The Korean Daily Dramas can be separate into two distinct categories: Revenge Melodramas and Redemption Melodramas. The first one speaks for itself: the main character (usually a working-class female) is wrong by the main antagonist and then vows revenge on that individual. In the Redemption Melodramas – the main character is wronged by the antagonist, and their entire life gets derailed in the process. However, rather seeking revenge, they are determined to get their life back on track and, thanks to sheer willpower and hard work, are able to reclaim their lives. The antagonists often believe that the protagonists are plotting elaborate revenge, but in reality, they are just trying to make a living. Even the antagonists of the series are given a redemption arc – after eating humble pie, they reflect on their lives and are determined to make amends for their wrongdoing. Suji & Uri and Smile Again fall under the Redemption Melodrama category, while the other three are Revenge Melodramas (though, The Brave Yong Su-jeong is a hybrid, because it allows for one the main antagonists to redeem himself in the end). Love Twist follows a similar route – there is a revenge element to the storyline but it only accounts for a few episodes of the drama and most of the antagonists, with the exception of one, are given a redemption arc. It is a show that is less about vengeance and more about forgiveness. Love Twist is also interesting because its two protagonists, Oh So-ri and Park Ha-ru, are largely responsible for the hell they create for themselves. There is more nuance in the characterizations.

All seven melodramas are variations of the same plot – they all offer up similar protagonists, antagonists, tropes, themes and often feature the same actors; Vengeance of the Bride and The Second Husband are so similar to the point they are almost indistinguishable. Smile Again offers an interesting variation on the formula in that the lead protagonist is a male (Dong-hae) instead of the usual female. They are a modern retelling of Cinderella (instead of the heroine being saved by a fairy godmother, they often find a wealthy benefactor who helps them enact their revenge).

This would be the perfect time to explore all the tropes these melodramas have in common:

 

1.     The Wronged Protagonist

The one common trope most melodramas (women’s weepies) have in common is that they really like to pile the misery on the lead protagonist. The lead protagonist in each of these shows often starts off the series living an ideal life – in Suji & Uri, Suji is a well-respected psychiatrist; in The Second Husband, Seon-hwa is in a common-low marriage with Mun Sang-hyeok and has just given birth to the first son; and in Queen’s House, Kang Jae-in is married to Hwang Ki-chan. They have a son, Eun-ho, and are expecting a second child.

When Vengeance of the Bride and The Brave Yong Su-jeong begin, both of their lead females, Su-jeong and Seo-yeon, are children. The opening scene of The Brave Young Su-jeong is of Su-jeong’s mother getting killed in a fire while trying to rescue her daughter while in Vengeance of the Bride, Seo-yeon is the favorite daughter of the prominent Kang family (the father Baek-san is the chairman of a cosmetics company). However, Seo-yeon’s world comes crashing down when it is revealed that she is not their biological daughter (when she was infant, her father was murdered by Baek-san and her birth mother disappeared – simultaneously, Baek-san’s wife, Nam In-soon, gave birth to twin girls, but one of them died. So, her mother-in-law, who just happened to be at the scene of the crime, took the infant Seo-yeon and swapped her with the deceased baby – this all happens while Su-rin was unconscious. For ten years, Baek-san and In-soon raised Seo-yeon as their own daughter (for the first ten years of her life she went by the name Kang Ba-ram), oblivious to the fact that she was the offspring of his former rival. When In-soon finds out that Seo-yeon is not her biological daughter, she gives Seo-yeon the cold treatment and eventually kicks her out of the house – they send the family servant, Choi Yeong-wan, to look after the young girl. Unfortunately, Yeong-wan gets attacked by a bunch of Baek-san’s goons and ends up losing track of the child – Seo-yeon ends up being raised in an orphanage. 
Flash forwards a couple of decades later and Seo-yeon is now a stylist at a salon and is looking to start up her own cosmetic business and ends up running afoul of Baek-san.

The protagonists in each of these series initially possess two distinct qualities: empathy and naiveté. They are all warm individuals (with the exception of Dong-hae) who give everyone the benefit of the doubt, which also makes them an easy target for bad faith actors. In Queen’s House, Kang Jae-in  (Hahm Eun-jung) is a chaebol, who is seemingly in an ideal marriage with Hwang Ki-chan (they have a son named Hwang Eun-ho and another child is on the way) but her entire world comes crashing down when she discovers her husband is having an affair with her best friend, Kang Se-ri (played to perfection by Lee Ga-ryeong). However, it isn’t just her husband and best friend that betrays her, but her extended family as well. When Jae-in and Ki-chan are competing for chairperson of YL Group (her father’s company), her aunt, Kang Mi-ran, and brother Kang Seung-woo side with Ki-chan. Her other best friend, Do Yoo-kyeong also betrays her by signing to the papers to commit her to a mental hospital. Jae-in never harmed any of these people, they simply resent her for social status – Doo Yoo-kyeong has the habit of blaming others for her misfortunes while Se-ri is a sociopath who never shows any remorse for any of her actions. It turns out that her aunt, Mi-ran, is actually Seung-woo’s biological mother (Jae-in’s father took him in at a young age and, to protect his younger sister, lied to his wife that Seung-woo was the product of an affair). Mi-ran can only think of Seung-woo’s inheritance and sides with Ki-chan, because she believes she can work out a deal Ki-chan (he will be the chairman until Seung-woo is ready to take over the company). It backfires big time against Mi-ran – Ki-chan has no intention of stepping and his new wife, Se-ri, is constantly a source of scandal. 

In Suji and Uri, (also starring Hahm Eun-jung), Su-ji is a famous psychiatrist (who has her own talk show) whose life gets upended by multiple scandals. The first one involves her father, Jin Jang-su, who owns a chain of Bibimbap restaurants and wants to expand his business overseas. He uses his daughter’s name (without her knowledge) to persuade investors to put money into his company. However, his partner embezzles the money and flees the country, leaving Jang-su holding the bill. The investors, naturally, want their money back and when Jang-su fails to cough it up, they show up at the hospital Su-ji works at and demand she pay them back. This confrontation ends up on the news and is the first time the public starts to question her character – guilt by association.  Even Jang-su and Su-ji eventually pay back the investors; there are still people who hold this against her.

The incident that derails her career is when a video of her slapping her younger sister, Na-young gets leaked online. Na-young desperately wants to host a talk show and asks Su-ji to put in a good for her, but despite Su-ji’s best efforts, the producer rejects the idea – instead he offers Su-ji an insane sum of money to host the show herself, she is appalled and turns it down. Na-young only hears about the first part (that the producer wants Su-ji to host the talk show) and assumes that her older sibling stabbed her in the back. She never allows Su-ji to explain her side of the story. Later, Na-young meets with the producer and pleads her case and, sensing her desperation, he begins to put the moves on her.  Su-ji happens to be in the restaurant at the moment, witnesses what is happening, and immediately puts a stop to it. This enrages Na-young, who is convinced that Su-ji is trying to sabotage her career.  The two of them get into a heated argument and Na-young brings up a sensitive topic (Su-ji’s birth mother abandoning her when she was six) and Su-ji slaps her across the face. Now, it just so happens that slap is recorded by Na-young’s cameraman (she hosts a TV show that highlights lesser-known restaurant in South Korea) and he sends her a copy on his phone. She uploads the video (out of context) and then plays the victim.  This video, coupled with the scandal involving her father, is enough to turn the public against her. Her patients (who used to idolize her) cancel their appointments, and the hospital (which used her fame to bring in business) eventually fires her.  The only people who stand by her side are U-ri (a fellow psychiatrist at the hospitals and his sympathetic makeshift family (none of the people in household are related by blood).  He persuades his adopted mother, Oh Seon-young (who owns a prominent restaurant, Madang House) to allow Su-ji to rent the spare room in their house.  At first, she is a recluse – she spends most of her time locked up in her room and only comes out to eat. U-ri urges his family to be patient with her and not to force things; eventually she opens up and with U-ri’s support she gets back on her feet. Also (and this is not a spoiler), it is revealed that Seon-yoong is actually Su-ji’s biological mother (but I will get to that later).

I have to believe that reason Hahm Eun-jung took the role of Su-ji is the autobiographical elements to the role. Like the character of Su-ji, Eun-jung’s life was upended by a bullying scandal (I already wrote about the T-ARA bullying scandal in my review for White, so I won’t repeat her).  She, and her T-ARA members, had to face the harsh judgement of the public, who made up their minds before the facts had come out. She also went through a bout of desperation – she would spend entire days in her bedroom and often go days with out showering.  She was eventually vindicated and went on to have a successful career as an actress. She also won the Excellence Award – Actress in a Daily Drama-at the KBS Drama Awards for her performance as Su-ji (she also won one for Queeen’s House).  She went from being ostracized by her peers to being celebrated (similar to Su-ji).

The Third Marriage, Jung Da-jung (Oh Seung-ah) is betrayed by her best friend, Kang Se-ran (Oh Se-young).  Da-jung was separated from both of her parents when she was kid – her mother left at young age after having an affair with her father’s best friend, and her father was accused of murdering an employee at his factory and spent years trying to clear his name. While her father was in prison, the bitter wife of the deceased employee, Cheon Ae-ja, sold Da-jung to a diner and she spent the next few years slavishly working for her tyrannical adopted mother. She eventually ran away and wound in an orphanage. She is a self-made woman and eventually lands a job at a food company, Dream Foods. Da-jung eventually marries Baek Sang-cheol, who also works at the same food company, Dream Foods, as Da-jung. It turns out that Da-jung’s best friend Se-ran is also Cheon Ae-ja’s daughter – the two of them knew were playmates when they are little and eventually reconnected in high school (though, Se-ran is not aware of this as Da-jung was the name given to her by her stepmother – her birthname was Shin Go-eun). Bear in mind, everything I just described happens in the very first episode of the series.  As a result, the first episode feels a bit disjointed at times – to the point where it is often difficult to understand what is going on.

It is shortly after her marriage to Sang-cheol that Da-jung is reunited with her biological father, Shin Deok-su. The two of them hit it off and form a close bond, but Se-ran remembers that Shin Deok-su was the man who murdered her father (or that it what her mother told her) and she decides the best way to get back at Deok-su is by ruining his daughter’s life. Her request for revenge is motivated by a misunderstanding, something she only realizes all too late. Se-ran is jealous of Da-jung and tries to steal her life – she steals Da-jung’s husband, birth right, and even Da-jung’s daughter. It turns out that Deok-su is the long-lost son of Yoon Bo-bae, the chairwoman of a popular restaurant and when Se-ran finds out about it, she manipulates the DNA results to make it appear that her father is Bo-bae’s long-lost son. As a result, Bo-bae believes that Se-ran is her granddaughter and impulsively gives her the role of CEO. She also gives Ae-ja a managerial position. When Da-jung realizes she has been betrayed and that Se-ran is responsible for her father’s death, she seeks revenge of her own, but since the law has failed her, she decides to marry the chairman of Dream Foods, Wang Jae-guk, and use his connections get back at Se-ran. She also effectively becomes Se-ran’s stepmom – in a business merger, Se-ran ends up marrying Jae-guk’s son, Wang Ji-hoon.  However, the ultimately proves to be a huge mistake on Da-jung’s part.

In Love Twist, the romance between Oh So-ri (also played by Hahm Eun-jung) and Park Ha-ru gets derailed by a white lie told by their parents. So-ri’s father, Oh Gwangnam, is having an affair with Ha-ru’s estranged mother, Park Hee-ok. To further complicate issues – Park Hee-ok is also best friends with Gwangnam’s wife, Maeng Ok-hee. When So-ri’s biological father, Park Ki-tae, appears out of nowhere and wants to claim Ha-ru as his own, Hee-ok, at Gwangnam’s urging, claims that Gwangnam is Ha-ru’s biological son. She even creates a fake DNA test so that Ki-tae will get off her back. Her intention was to protect her son from Ki-tae, who is a genuinely evil man (he raped Hee-ok when she was a young and Ha-ru was conceived as a result). She puts on an indifferent front when she is around Ha-ru, but despite her cold exterior she does care for her son. However, Ok-hee, while visiting Hee-ok finds the DNA test, believes that it is genuine, refuses to listen Hee-ok’s explanation, and eventually tells Ha-ru about it. As a result, Ha-ru believes So-ri is his biological sister and breaks it off with her. Instead of telling her the truth, he coldly pushes her away and hooks up with So-ri’s one-time best friend, Kang Yoo-nah, who is pregnant after a one-night stand, and Ha-ru tells So-ri the child is his. It turns out that So-ri is pregnant with Ha-ru’s child but believing she has been abandoned decides to marry Kyungjun, who currently works for her father’s company and intends to use So-ri to fulfill his own ambitions. Kyungjun also helped fake the results of the DNA test; he visited Ki-tae, took a sample of his hair, and claimed it belonged to Gwangnam. Both him and Yoo-nah know the truth about So-ri and Ha-ru but choose to remain silent because it gets in the way of their own plans. Hee-ok and Gwangnam also keep silent because they don’t approve of So-ri and Ha-ru being a couple.

Dong-hae (Carl Laker is his American name), in Smiling Again, is the only protagonist who is kind of unlikable when we first meet him. He is an impulsive individual, with anger issues, and often jumps to the wrong conclusions. He is extremely sensitive when it comes to his mother, Anna, who in her youth got into an accident in typhoon, which caused her to be intellectually challenged – she has the mindset of a seven-year-old. He also never knew his father, “James” who abandoned his mother before Dong-hae was born, which means he has spent most of his life raising himself and his mother.  At the beginning of the series, Dong-hae (Ji Chang-wook) is a member of a short distance speed skating team and is currently in South Korea to compete in a competition; he also has come to visit his girlfriend of six years, Yoon Sae-hwa (played by Park Jung-ah, former member of the girl group, Jewelry), whose aspiration is to anchor the nine o clock news, but currently does a five minute segment for the news station. She is giving a chance to prove her chops when she is given the job of hosting a TV show that reunites people with long lost family members.  When Dong-hae and Anna arrive in South Korea, Sae-hwa is supposed to pick Anna up at the airport (Dong-hae has to go to the hotel with his team) but an opportunity arises and she asks her school friend, Lee Bong-yi, to pick up Anna for her.  Dong-hae begins to worry about Anna and goes back to the airport to get her, when he sees getting on the bus with a strange woman. He immediately assumes the worst, waves down the bus, and confronts Bong-yi inside the bus. He never allows her to explain herself and gets violent with her – he pushes her aside and she ends up injuring her arm in the process. When he has finally calmed down, she explains herself and he feels like a horses’ ass. Bong-yi is such a sweet natured girl that we immediately resent Dong-hae for his ill treatment of her – it takes quite some time before he is able to get on our good side (this is after he has been incredibly humbled by circumstances).

 

This brings me another trope of these Soap Operas……

2.     The Two-Timing Spouse/Lover

In Smiling Again, Sae-hwa breaks up with Dong-hae to chase after Kim Do-jin. She initially isn’t interested in Do-jin until she learns his father is Kim Joon, the newly appointed executive director of the TV station she works at. His mother is Hong Hye-sook, the CEO of the Camelia hotel. Sae-hwa see this as an opportunity to advance her career – if she marries Sae-hwa and gets on Kim Joon’s good side, it is a given that she will get that anchor job on the nine of clock news. She coldly breaks it off with Dong-hae and then tries to pressure him to leave South Korea, out of fear that he will reveal their relationship. Their relationship was already strained after Sae-hwa asked Dong-hae to appear on her show and talk about his long-lost father, but he flat out refuses. However, Dong-hae’s mother, Anna, is desperate to find her former lover, James, and asks Sae-hwa if she can appear on her shoe. Sae-hwa knows that Dong-hae will not like this, but she decides to go through with it any ways – she wants to impress her bosses and will gladly use Anna to achieve this goal. Dong-hae learns about this, rushes to the television studio, and tells Sae-hwa that he will appear in Anna’s place.  He then makes a huge scene and tells Sae-hwa (and her audience) that he has no interested in finding his father – he then grabs his mother and storms out of this studio. Dong-hae’s live outburst gets Sae-hwa in trouble and she is demoted back to the five-minute news segment. Dong-hae does apologize for his behavior, but Sae-hwa uses it as an excuse to distance herself from him, so she can pursue Do-jin. This moment also demonstrates the differences in culture – in the United States, there is no way Sae-hwa would lose her job for a guest’s outburst, in fact, she would rewarded because this kind of outburst would have boosted ratings numbers and gone viral on the internet. Dong-hae’s outburst is pretty minor when you compare it to the things that are allowed on American television.

Dong-hae’s dreams of being short distance speed racer are dashed when he sacrifices himself to save Sae-hwa from an oncoming truck (this is another trope that pops up in these dramas – females walking into oncoming traffic only to push out of the way at the last second by the male protagonist. This is even more comical because often the female in question has more than enough time to get out of the way but chooses to stand still like a deer caught in headlights). Dong-hae is hospitalized and told by the doctor that he will never be able to ice skate again. At first, Sae-hwa is remorseful and gives him money to return to the states with, but when Dong-hae gets a job at the Camelia Hotel, as a chef, Sae-hwa’s paranoid gets the better of her and she keeps pressuring him to leave South Korea. She is responsible for her own undoing, because she constantly harasses Dong-hae that people, most notably Kim Joon, noticed the two of them together and begins to wonder what their relationship is.

The biggest lie that Sae-hwa told Do-jin is that he is her first romantic partner. She paints herself her as a virgin – this is after Do-jin tells her that he could never stand the thought of her being in a previous relationship with another man. However, it proves difficult to cover up the six years she shared with Dong-hae and eventually the truth comes out. Again, this is brought on by her constantly badgering Dong-hae in public places. Revenge was never part of Dong-hae’s plan – he just wanted to get back on his feet and working in the kitchen of the Carmelia offered up such an opportunity. He is even on good terms with Hye-sook – he saved her from a disgruntled ex-employee who confronted her in the elevator. She is also impressed by his devotion to his mother and strong work ethic. Their relationship becomes strained later on, but I will get to that later.

Since Smiling Again is not a revenge melodrama this allows for Sae-hwa a chance at redemption. She does a lot of despicable things throughout the series but eventually all her lies catch up with her, and she is left with nothing. It is a humbling experience and gives her a moment of self-reflection – she has no one to blame but herself. She does atone for her sins and even helps Dong-hae win control of the Carmelia (she has a lot of dirt on Do-jin). It is a nice variation on this character – it also fits well within the theme of the show that everyone is deserving of forgiveness (all they had to do is seek it).

In The Third Marriage, Baek Sang-cheol is a total flake – it doesn’t take much for Se-ran to seduce him. He also can’t make up his mind who is he is in love with, when he is with Se-ran expresses his love for her and tells her he will divorce Da-jung, but he loses his nerve when he is with Da-jung. It’s only after Se-ran is given the CEO title that Sang-cheol is determined to divorce Da-jung. However, the only reason Se-ran is interested in Sang-cheol is because he is Da-jung’s husband, once he finalizes his divorce from Da-jung, she loses all interest in him and moves on to Ji-hoon. She also frames Sang-cheol for assault and he spends the next few years in prison. Like most of the two-timing husbands, Sang-cheol is truly a pathetic figure. When he finds that Da-jung is the true heiress to Bo-bae’s fortune, he tries to get back on her good side. 

In The Second Husband, Seon-hwa’s partner, Moon Sang-hyeok has an affair with Yoon Jae-kyeong, his boss (and whose father is the chairman of confectionary company) and sees this as golden opportunity to further his career.  He abandons Seon-hwa, and their son, and begins a torrid romance with Jae-kyeong (played by Oh Seung-ah, my favorite actress in this genre but more on that later). The interesting thing about The Second Husband is that Seon-hwa and Jae-kyeong initially hit it off with each other – Jae-kyeong is oblivious to the fact that Sang-hyeok is in a relationship with Seon-hwa (and vice versa). The two of them meet up and often talk about their significant other (unaware they are talking about the same guy) but once Jae-kyeong finds out that Sang-hyeok is Seon-hwa’s significant other (and has a son to boot), she doubles down on her affair and rationalizes Sang-hyeok’s infidelity. She now views Seon-hwa as an enemy she must destroy. 

The running gag throughout the series is the physical abuse Sang-hyeok endures at the hands of others – he constantly gets either slapped or punched in the face. He wants to win the approval of Jae-kyeong’s wealthy parents, but they always view him with suspicion. Even though he betrayed Seon-hwa, he still has feelings for her and when she drops hints that she would like to get back together with him (as part of her revenge plot) he is very receptive to the idea. He is constantly weighing his options: Sang-hyeok can give him anything he wants but he was significantly happier when he was with Seon-hwa and she is better “wife material.”  When he sees Seon-hwa with his brother-in-law, Jae-min, he gets insanely jealous. It is actually an entertaining performance from Han Ki-woong, who constantly does his best Rodney Dangerfield “I get no respect” impersonation. Sang-hyeok is so pathetic that he becomes somewhat endearing. He acts like he is in control of the situation, but you can see the constant panic in his eyes.

Queen’s House is interesting because, like Smiling Again, there is an attempt at giving the cheating spouse Ki-chan, an actual character arc. There is a tragic element about his character – the one person who genuinely cared about him, his ex-wife Jae-in, is the same one he pushed away. He comes to this realization fairly late in the series – Ki-chan gets diagnosed with cancer and only has a short time to live. He tells Jae-in about this and, rather than being elated by the news, she tells him he must live because he needs to atone for his sins. Later, he walks in his mother and Se-ri arguing over who will get his life insurance. Neither of them shed a tear over the fact that he has cancer and will die in a few months, they can only think of the money they will inherit.

The second half of the show is when we see a gradual shift in the character – his attitude towards Jae-in begins to slowly change. Ki-chan does a lot of terrible things – he murders an employee (Kim Do-hee) to cover up his corruption and then lets Jae-in’s mother, Choi Ja-young, take the blame; he also is responsible for the death of Jae-in’s father, Kang Kyu-cheol; and commits Jae-in to a mental hospital after gaslighting her into believing she is insane.  He resorts to the dirtiest tricks to cover up the many scandals that involve him and Se-ri. Redeeming a character like this is a tall order, but damn, the series somehow pulls it off (this is largely due to the sincerity of Park Yoon-jae’s performance). Ki-chan realizes that Jae-in will never be able to forgive him for his terrible deeds but he is determined to make amends.  He fadlls back in love with Jae-in after she suffers from amnesia in a car accident (arranged by Se-ri) and lost her memory of the last eight years. She still thinks she is married to Ki-chan and also believes that she has miscarried their son, Eun-ho. Ki-chan decides to take her back into his house (much to the displeasure of Se-ri) and soon finds himself falling back in love with her. He realizes how badly he messed things up – he had the ideal wife and replaced her with a sociopath, who is constantly getting in trouble.  It is revealed  that Jae-in faked her memory in order to get close to Ki-chan to find evidence that will bring him down, and get back at the people who wronged her (most notably her awful mother-in-law).  Hahm Eun-jung’s acting is especially enjoyable in this section of the series – when Jae-in is around Ki-chan she puts on a “helpless babe in the woods” act, but when he is alone with her mother-in-law, she reveals her more ruthless side. It is quite the contrast. 

3.     The Wicked Step-sister

Since most of these series are essentially a retelling of Cinderella, there are often characters who function in the roles of the wicked Step-mother and Step-sisters. They can be literal step-sisters (like Jin Na-young in Suji & Uri) or symbolic (like Yoon Jae-kyeong in The Second Husband and Kang Ba-da in Vengeance of the Bride – both played by Oh Seung-ah). The all share a same common trait – they all are deeply insecure; suffer from a victim mindset; blame the lead character for all of their misfortunes; are habitual liars; rarely show remorse for the actions; and will resort to all sorts of dirty tricks to bring down the protagonist. 

In Suji & Uri, Na-young is Su-ji’s younger step-sister who resents her older sibling. She hosts the Korean version of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives – where she eats at the more out the way restaurants. While this program pays the bills, her real ambition is to be the MC of a talk show. She lives in the shadow of her more famous sibling and resents Su-ji’s success. Though, despite talking behind her older sibling’s back, Na-young’s face lights up when she finds out that Su-ji knows the producer of the talk show she is auditioning for and pleads with her sister to put in a good word for her. Su-ji actually does this, but the producer is not interested in Na-young, instead he wants Su-ji to host the show. Su-ji declines the offer.  However, when Na-young finds out about this, she believes Su-ji has stabbed her in the back.
The two of them get into a heated argument outside, which ends with Su-ji slapping Na-young (after Na-young makes a comment about Su-ji being abandoned by her birth mother). It turns out that Na-young’s cameraman on the Food show witnessed this exchanged and recorded it on his cellphone. He shows Na-young this footage and she leaks it online, which results in a backlash towards Su-ji. This, coupled with the fact that Su-ji’s father was accused of fraud by angry investors (the way he got them to invest in his product was by dropping his famous daughter’s name -without Su-ji’s permission), tarnishes her image and the public turns against her. She was once the face of the hospital and now, after the scandal, they try to distance themselves from her. Na-young believes this newfound sympathy from the public will translate into a successful career but the opposite proves to be true – the TV stations further distances themselves from her because she was involved in the scandal. She eventually hooks up with Su-ji’s well-meaning but dense ex-boyfriend, Han Hyeong-seong, gets pregnant, and uses the baby as leverage to move in with Hyeong-seong’s wealthy family – his mother is a chaebol and his father is a prominent surgeon at the hospital Su-ji and U-ri work at. If there is a flaw with the series is that this character is so loathsome in the early going that it’s hard to sympathize with her later on, especially when she tries to atone for all her mistakes – she is given an ambiguous ending.

In The Second Husband and Vengeance of the Bride the wicked stepsister is played by Oh Seung-ah, who is easily the best part of both of these dramas. In fact, her performance in both of these dramas is hard to top – to the point than when I watched other Soap Operas, I kept thinking to myself, “This would be so much more entertaining if Oh Seung-ah played the villain.” There a few similarities between her and Hahm Eun-jung: they were both idols (Eun-jung was a member of the girl group, T-ARA, while Oh Seung-ah was part of RAINBOW, and the sub-units Rainbow Blaxx and Rainbow Pixie); both of their groups debuted in 2009; both of them were born in 1988; and they both went on to have successful acting careers. I’m surprised the two of them haven’t acted in a drama together – this needs to happen. My ideal scenario - they play squabbling sisters who form an uneasy alliance when the family company is under attack from a sinister third party. The first half would feature lots of hair pulling, face slapping, backstabbing, and a random scene where the two of them have a karaoke face off.   The main difference is that Eun-jung is usually cast in the role of the protagonist while Seung-ah is cast as the antagonist (the sole exception is The Third Marriage, where she is cast against type as the heroine of series).  I should also point another actress who pops up in Smile Again, Lee Joo-yeon was also a member of a group, AFTER SCHOOL, that debuted in 2009 (however she was born in 1987), but more on that later (I’m a big AFTER SCHOOL fan – their Japanese release, “Ssh” is one of the greatest, and most criminally underrated, K-pop tracks ever released).

The best word to describe Oh Seung-ah’s acting in both of these series is frantic – with her quivering voice and bug-eyed expressions, she always looks like she is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Her characters wear a mask of confidence but the fear in their eyes always gives them away. She dominates the proceedings that the lead actresses in both series, Park Ha-na, in Vengeance of the Bride, and Uhm Hyun-kyung, in The Second Husband, often come across as background extras in her presence. Neither actress is bad, but they don’t have the screen presence that Oh Seung-ah brings to her roles (I suspect this is a result of her idol training, which requires its stars to have great stage presence).

In Vengeance of the Bride, she plays Kang Ba-da, who grew up believing that the heroine, Eun Seo-yeon (when Seo-yeon was a child she went by the name Kang Ba-ram), was her biological twin sister. She resented Seo-yeon growing up because her parents favored Seo-yeon (her father, Kang Baek-san viewed Seo-yeon as his potential replacement and her mother, Nam In-soon, smothered Seo-yeon while often ignoring Ba-da). When it is revealed that Seo-yeon isn’t their biological daughter – In-soon kicks her out of the house and it seems that everything has worked out for Ba-da. With her number one rival out of the way, she is given the education and cushy job that would have originally gone to Seo-yeon.  Her father is the chairman of cosmetics company, LeBlanc (it is later revealed th0at he stole it from Seo-yeon’s true biological father), and Ba-da is put in charge of developing new products.  Seo-yeon works at beauty shop and just so happens to run into her former mom, Nam In-soon, who doesn’t recognize her. Also, since Ba-ram changed her name to Eun Seo-yeon (after the parents who adopted her from the orphanage), there is no reason for her to suspect that Seo-yeon is the little girl she raised for ten years as her own. Seo-yeon doesn’t bear any ill will towards In-soon and the two of them actually hit it off.  This is the main difference between Ba-da and Seo-yeon – despite the many hardships she faced, Seo-yeon refused to play the victim and kept a positive attitude towards life while Ba-da is a perpetual victim. In fact, if Hollywood remade this melodrama, the Ba-da character would probably be the protagonist, given how Hollywood aggressively pushes the victim mindset.  One the side, Seo-yeon is trying to start up her own cosmetics business and gives her new face mask to In-soon. Ba-da gets hold of the face mask and attempts to claim it as her own. It’s also this incident that puts Seo-yeon on Kang Baek-san’s radar. Ba-da’s attempt to steal the facemask gets thwarted by the older brother, and his best friend/Seo-yeon’s love interest, San-Deul (who knows Seo-yoen’s true identity).  When Baek-san’s attempts at intimidating Seo-yeon fail, he goes with the “if you can’t beat them join them approach) and offers her a job at LeBlanc. This further annoys Ba-da, who once again is forced to play second fiddle to Ba-ram. Ba-da is also in love with San-Deul but has been in love with Seo-yeon/Ba-ram since childhood and rejects Ba-da’s advances.  San-Deul is also played by a familiar face, Park Yoon-jae, who played the two-timing husband, Ki-chan, in Queen’s House.

In The Second Husband, Seung-ah plays Yoon Jae-kyeong, who not only steals Seon-hwa’s husband, but (accidentally) kills Seon-hwa’s grandmother and then, finally, frames Seon-hwa for murder.  Seon-hwa spends four years in prison, patiently plotting her revenge. Like Ba-da, Jae-kyeong is incapable of admitting any wrongdoing and her non-stop lies eventually catch up with her. Seon-hwa’s revenge is a bit on the ridiculous side, but I will get into that later, because it is so absurd that it needs its own paragraph. It was Seung-ah’s performance as the conniving Jae-kyeong that gave her recognition as an actor. She would usually be cast in villainous roles – though, in The Third Marriage, she was cast against type as the heroine, Jung Da-jung. It’s interesting to contrast this performance with her villain roles, because it requires her to dial down her performance.  She is not bad but, in my opinion, the Seung-ah who chews the scenery in The Second Husband and Vengeance of the Bride is more entertaining than the restrained Seung-ah in The Third Marriage.

 

And this allows me a smooth transition to talk about the evil step-sister in The Third Marriage, Kang Se-ran, who is a complete psychopath (played to perfection by Oh Se-young, who gives Oh Seung-ah a run for her money for the most entertaining villain in a Korean Soap Opera). Se-ran is the type of femme fatale that popped up in a lot of Cecil B. DeMille’s silent melodramas (Oh Se-young would make an excellent silent film actress); she is the ultimate sinner (she breaks all of the ten commandments). She steals Da-jung’s husband, steals Da-jung’s inheritance, kills Da-jung’s father, kidnaps her daughter, and even attempts to murder Da-jung. She fakes being pregnant to prevent her husband Wang Ji-hoon (Wang Jae-guk’s only son) from divorcing her. She burns all bridges with her best friend due to a misunderstanding – she believes that Da-jung’s father murdered her father. The irony is she spends most of the series sucking up to the actual culprit (Jae-guk). She is so blinded by vengeance that she never bothers to ask if it is worth it. She is enabled by her greedy mother, Cheon Ae-ja (played by Choi Ji-yeon).

(The end of Part One. INTERMISSION!!! Be sure to pick up some snacks at the Concession Stands. Today we have a two-dollar special on small popcorn and small drinks are dollar. WHAT A DEAL!!!  Part Two will be posted sometime in the next two years.)