Story-wise, a let-down, saved by the sea and little touches here and there.
First, the things that kept me on the show (I finished it).
The sea and other Jeju scenery.
Ji Chang-wook’s voice and eyes. His Yong-pil is exceptionally kind-hearted, big-hearted and strong-hearted but underuses his ability. Yong-pil is a little layered and he could easily carry off more layers than that! The man is nearly 40, so please don’t have him doing cutesy cringey parts, even if they’re meant to be flashbacks of their 20s.
The sisters’ stories, characters and acting.
Jin-dal (Shin Dong-mi) is the one who makes a firm impression – steadfast and admirably standing up for what is right even if it's at her own expense, and hilariously paired with Jeon Dae-young (Yang Kyung-won), my scene stealer for this show! The poor guy, called ‘that idiot’ by everyone, is one of my favourite characters – helpless, hapless and endearingly loving Jin-dal so much!
Hye-dal (Kang Mi-na) is the dark horse whose story and character development is especially engaging. Her relationship with Ha-yul (Kim Do-eun) is beautiful, and Ha-yul is amazingly thoughtful, selfless and mature. You can see how she gets it all from her mother and I wish we knew more about her father.
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| loved her new hair towards the end of the show! |
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| loved Ha-yul, scene stealer #2 |
Saving graces -- funny/cute people
Cha Eun-woo (Bae Myung-jin) and references to Cha Eun-woo. He is a fantastic friend and I don’t know why we get just a brief glimpse of his wife and baby.
Gyeong-tae (Lee Jae-won – Captain Hong!), fantastic friend #2 – he is suitable for comic roles but can be earnest and emotional as well.
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| their young selves, off to Seoul |
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| the friends were great! |
Jeon Dae-yeong’s assistant, Secretary Ko – what a priceless pair they make.
Samdal’s parents – parent characters are often hysterical, and off the walls and roofs, but Ko Mi-ja (Kim Mi-kyung) is surprisingly and thankfully sane, level-headed and controlled, while dad Pan-sik (Seo Hyun-chul) is alright in his supporting role and occasionally funny. The mum deserves to have Yong-pil and Dae-young secretly looking out for her. Funny to show that the dad likes son-in-law Dae-yeong!
Ji-chan (Kim Min-chul) from the Dolphin Centre – what a pure-hearted guy, and it was lovely how Ha-yul tried to pair him with her mother!
Ex-boyfriend Cheong Chung-ki (Han Eun-sung) – appropriately silly and weak but who at least has the sense to drop Eun-joo and take his work seriously.
Now for the plot
Unfortunate that it had some big holes.
The main arc of Sam-dal’s success in Seoul to fall from grace to finally finding herself turned out to be boring as anything. One major problem was that the fall from grace part was easily fixed but never done. It isn’t that hard to prove that the allegations of ‘staff abuse’ are false. The fall stemmed from just one ‘revelation’ by Bang Eun-joo (Jo Yoon-seo) and it is silly that the reporters don’t bother to verify her claims. How can it be that all media outlets just go with this one-sided account? What kind of journalism is this? And all the editors and models who shunned Sam-dal when they’ve worked with her before and know what she’s like, leaving just her two cute assistants on her side – is this supposed to show that the industry is filled with unprincipled people?
In the first place, it doesn’t make sense for Eun-joo to go to such lengths because she’s unhappy with Sam-dal. If she feels she’s unfairly sidelined, why doesn’t she just leave Sam-dal’s studio and get a job elsewhere? Then, when it is confirmed that she is talent-less, why doesn’t she try to learn and improve in her craft instead of attacking Sam-dal once again?
Since fixing Eun-joo and her lies is a straightforward matter, we don’t need to have her outed for sneakily getting money for product placement. Quite surprising that this is what the journalists jump on rather than her lies about Sam-dal.
Essentially, it felt like there wasn’t a big issue to start with and Sam-dal’s move back to Jeju was just a different phase of her life.
Other weird plot points
Shop helper Man-soo is actually a prince??! Where did that come from, and are his character and ‘character twist’ necessary?
Since the national weather centre keeps getting the Jeju weather forecast wrong, and Yong-pil is always right, surely the solution is to go with Yong-pil’s predictions, no?
Why were the people of Namdal-ri and Samdal-ri fighting for the theme park?
[I would have suggested that AS group invest in a bigger dolphin centre for Samdal-ri.]
Characters who make you want to slap them to their senses
Not exactly characters but the copious amounts of tears and alcohol, plus the millions of wasted minutes crying, yelling and throwing tantrums – very off-putting, along with the multiple and multiply played flashbacks.
Yong-pil’s dad Sang-tae (Yoo Oh-seong)
Man, is he one big party pooper. Certainly, it is extremely painful to have a loved one die suddenly and needlessly but wallowing in self-created pain for 20 years is a sure way to destroy oneself and make life impossible for others. To think that his mother-in-law has been telling him all these years not to hate Ko Mi-ja but he’s been thinking she means his wife! Incredible.
Sang-do (Kang Young-seok)
Very much an unnecessary character. Should have just left him out, as well as the non-love-triangle love triangle, and maybe Gyeong-tae’s family can run the restaurant rather than the shop (since the shop is not critical and why have three of the friends working at the meteorological office?). Eun-woo’s wife could join the friends group.
The biggie – Sam-dal!
Hye-sun’s talent is wasted on this poorly written character. Unlike her whole family, Sam-dal is self-absorbed, arrogant (she does yell at Eun-joo), superficial, childish and whiney. I cannot understand why there are TWO nice guys who love her so much (not to mention however many Seoul boyfriends she had) and friends who would do anything for her. Well done, loyal and supportive friends, but she doesn’t deserve it. Just look at little Ha-yul, who is deep and whose every word is meaningful and/or wise.
Photography is a major theme but it lacked development. Why does Sam-dal love photography? How did she grow from assistantship and slave-ship to successful, sought-after top-tier camerawoman? Who knows!
Hye-sun plays the role she is given but she comes across as an exceedingly irritating version of Hye-jin. After a while, I didn’t care about when or how Sam-dal and Yong-pil would get back together or about how her ‘scandal’ would be resolved (and it wasn’t really resolved, was it, simply with the exposé of Eun-joo’s underhanded product placement?).
On the topic of making better use of talents, why Kim Tae-hee’s sudden appearance (with thick make-up and very black hair!)? That was like Eun-joo’s random product placement! Just have her pretty face in lots of photos in an exhibition, maybe?
Without a central message that stands out, the plot to me played out the parallel between a parent’s experience and his/her child's life. It doesn’t seem like this is what the producers were stressing, though.
Sang-tae refuses to let go of his wife’s memory. His resentment festers, making him even less than a shadow of his youthful lively and fun self.
Yong-pil refuses to let go of his love for Sam-dal. The difference is he is not bitter. He lives life as fully as he can, and is kind and loving towards others.
Ko Mi-ja is misunderstood and spends two decades relentlessly trying to break down Sang-tae’s wall.
Sam-dal is misunderstood and the difference is that she then spends her time hiding and not taking the initiative to clear up anything.
My final complaint is that the weather photography show shouldn't have been cancelled or morphed into an exhibition of people's faces, curated revolving around Sam-dal's life. It should be about Jeju.
JTBC, 16 episdes
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