Please notice the spoiler alert. You do not want to read this if you haven't seen this wonderful show.
As I have noticed in other Korean dramas, this one, too, attempts to tackle a social problem that arises in societies where kinship and social status based on family background are important. Here, too, we have fractured families with adopted, abandoned, widowed, or orphaned members. The only intact family is the one of the female lead (Song Eun-Chae, portrayed by the excellent Im Soo Jung), whose father bears the burden of holding the information that would have made the male lead (Cha Moo-Hyuk, played by the incredibly handsome So Ji-seob) stop hating his biological mother, and whose mother is a bitter shrew; so this family is outwardly intact, but inwardly fragmented. The search for family acceptance and love is paramount.
Moo-Hyuk is a lonely and homeless outcast who preys on hapless female Asian tourists in Australia; his only emotional anchor is another Korean who marries a rich Australian for his money. As explained in another review, Moo-Hyuk gets to see Korea to find his mother during his last few months of life. Through a series of rather implausible events, he does find his biological mother, but also finds out -- erroneously -- that she abandoned him and a twin sister at birth. Bent on revenge, he focuses on whom he presumes to be his half-brother, Yune. He insinuates himself into Yune's life, almost lets him drown, watches as Yune's stylist (Eun-Chae) gets beaten up, and seduces Yune's girlfriend, until Yune loses his cool, gets into a car wreck, and is found to have a defective heart.
When both Yune and Moo-Hyuk find out that they love the same girl, Eun-Chae, a terribly destructive struggle ensues that is centered on another Korean social value and thus problem: loyalty. Eun-Chae has grown up with Yune, has always been seen like a little sister by him, and is tied to him through her parents who work for Yune's mother, her own job working for Yune, and her secret crush on him. It is not until Moo-Hyuk intervenes that she realizes that she has choices in her life beyond those dictated by family ties and life history. It takes her a good amount of time, but after much agonizing, she finally chooses to be with Moo-Hyuk. He, however, cannot really set Eun-Chae free because he chooses not to let her come too close to him so that he can protect her from the certain heartbreak she would have to endure upon his impending death. Besides seeing So Ji-seob's and Im Soo Jung's superb acting, I enjoyed watching the character development of Yune (a supremely spoiled pop star), his mother (an egocentric woman clutching success), his former girlfriend (a nympho-manic starlet) and Eun-Chae's father (an unfailingly loyal chauffeur). All of them "grow up" by realizing their short-comings -- and it is through the homeless petty criminal Moo-Hyuk whose heart (!) was larger than theirs. Since Eun-Chae could not consummate her love with Moo-Hyuk, she commits suicide one year after his death, thus fulfilling her prophecy that they were not meant to be together in this life. I, too, grew from watching this story. My husband of two decades is here, not fatally injured, and we have sort of neglected each other's company. I better show him my love before we're in another world...
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