It's Okay To Not Be Okay

 It’s Okay To Not Be Okay

9/10

It's Okay To Not Be Okay

Genre: Episodes: 16 Year: 2020

Romance

Melodrama 

Synopsis:

Kang Tae is a man with an autistic brother, who works in a psychiatric hospital. His life begins to change when he meets Moon Young, a fairytale writer with antisocial personality disorder.

Cast:

Kim Soo Hyun (Moon Kang Tae)

Seo Ye Ji (Ko Moon Young)

Oh Jung Se (Moon Sang Tae)

Park Gyu Young (Nam Joo Ri)

Kim Joo Hoon (Lee Sang In)

Park Jin Joo (Yoo Seung Jae)

Kang Ki Soong (Jo Jae Soo)

Kim Mi Kyung (Kang Soon Duk)

Kim Chang Wan (Oh Ji Wang)

Hang Young Nam (Park Hwang Ja)

General Thoughts:

Why am I like this? Why do I watch great dramas and then procrastinate writing a review for so long that the drama’s details start to fade from my memory? Why? Whyyyyyyy? So this was a good drama. It really and truly was. It’s one of those rare times where I sit down and really feel like I’m watching something that will be remembered years from now as a K-Drama classic.

A memorable, parody-able moment

Whether ‘It’s Okay’ will still be popular and thought of fondly in years to come remains to be seen, but that’s definitely how it felt as I was watching it. It reminded me of other dramas that I loved so completely such as ‘My Love from the Stars’ and ‘Coffee Prince’. There was enough plot going on that the story never felt like it was only centred around a romance (though I’m sure some would argue that it is) and the characters had so much growth and development going on throughout the show’s run. There were a lot of great things going on in this show that contributed to its smooth, sleek, professional feel.

Gah, I really love these three

The directing was really brilliant, and the PD really knew how to maximise the emotional aspects of a scene, whether through darker lighting or longer, lingering shots of our characters. The writing was absolutely brilliant, particularly when it’s only this writer’s second drama (the first being ‘Jugglers’ which was also great, but didn’t have quite the same emotional draw as ‘It’s Okay’). The characters were written with so much depth and complexity, and the way the writer was able to portray so much of their hopes and fears without making them seem bi-polar or sporadic was nothing short of brilliance. The relationships between all the characters, particularly our main three, were so important to the show, and the writer did such a wonderful job at making these relationships deep and layered as well. At first I found Kang Tae and Moon Young’s relationship slightly toxic, and was worried that it was going to portray an unhealthy relationship as something dreamy and romantic, as K-Dramas sometimes do (hellooooo controlling and misogynistic wrist-grab). I was happy to see that as the characters and the relationship developed, Kang Tae and Moon Young actually had this lovely dynamic where they both supported and challenged each other. While Moon Young definitely had some characteristics that could dominate and steamroll other people, I was glad that the writer was able to give Kang Tae enough stubbornness and backbone to not be completely swallowed up by Moon Young’s wants and desires, while also managing to maintain his own apparent soft and submissive nature.

'I want you'- don't we all, babe

Kang Tae’s brother, Sang Tae, was a whole other way of personalising and developing characters. While Moon Young and Kang Tae were both a little out of the ordinary, they were not so different that they seemed abnormal. Autism can be tricky subject to broach, particularly these days when everyone is so ready to be hypercritical of individuals from the societal norm commenting on minorities and marginalised groups. And those with intellectual disabilities are certainly a marginalised group. The writer handled Sang Tae’s character with a lot of tact and did an excellent job at presenting Sang Tae as a whole, complete character all on his own.

Absolute standout

It would have been easy for Sang Tae to only be relevant as ‘Kang Tae’s disabled bother’, so I’m glad the writer put a huge amount of effort into making Sang Tae a relevant, meaningful character of his own accord. I also appreciated that the writer didn’t sugar coat life with autism either. Sang Tae didn’t just have the characteristics and mannerisms of  a younger child, but also demonstrated a whole host of other autistic traits, some which were not exactly easy to live with. Sang Tae often had difficulties with social interactions- even with Kang Tae who knew him the best, and he also had extreme and lengthy emotional reactions to minor things that others did-particularly Kang Tae. There was a good balance of difficult and endearing behaviours in Sang Tae’s character, and I am endlessly glad that he was not simply relegated to ‘simple but delightful’ or ‘simple and difficult’. Apart from our three main leads, not many of the other characters got much in the way of development. Joo Ri’s character was a little all over the place- she was mainly used for comedic effect, but occasionally it seemed like the writer was trying to do something a bit more emotional, only the emotional aspects never really seemed to pay off. While in theory I liked her relationship with Moon Young’s publisher, there just wasn’t enough chemistry on screen to convince me that this was a relationship that made sense. I found them more entertaining when they were butting heads and being comedic than when they had serious discussions.

Not quiiiiite bying it

I’m happy that Joo Ri wasn’t pushed down the path of Snarky Second Lead, but do wish that she had a bit more something going on with her. Towards the end when Joo Ri and Moon Young seemed to be making steps towards a reconciliation and forming a sassy friendship, there were some really nice moments and enjoyable scenes that clicked more emotionally, so I kind of with the drama had focused on that rather than the romance. Similarly Sang In (the publisher) was played more for humour than anything else. Which was fine most of the time. But there is a fine art in giving comedic characters emotional beats, and it again didn’t quite pan out with Sang In. There were moments where his true affection and protectiveness of Moon Young shone through, and that was really nice and could have been potentially capitalised on more. But just like Joo Ri, Sang In's character didn’t really benefit from the forced romantic relationship.

The big family dynamic was nice though

A case in this drama of a comedic character getting solid emotional moments would have to be Jae Soo. He was adorable, he was hilarious, he was heart warming. I think this was particularly helped along by Kang Ki Doong as he ALWAYS gives his funny characters such heart and humour and I ALWAYS love it. His dry, deadpan style of humour is totally my style, and I think it also leaves him slightly more open for those emotional scenes when they do come- because while his previous scenes are still funny, it almost seems like his characters’ humour is being used a shield for the characters’ emotions, rather only a humour tool for the writers to use to evoke laughs.

Oof- my heart

Park Jin Joo has a similar acting style, and this came through here in her character of Seung Jae, but not quite as often or as hard-hitting as Kang Ki Doong's character, Jae Soo. The rest of the side characters didn’t get much in the way of development, but they were enjoyable enough all the same. The patients at the psychiatric hospital weren’t utilised quite as much as I think I would’ve liked, but on the other hand I’m not sure I would have loved this drama as such as I did if we spent significantly less time on the three main characters. When the synopsis and casting first came out for this show I was a little excited to see a K-Drama focusing on mental health. There have been a few K-Dramas I can think of that have done this (‘It’s Okay, That’s Love, 'I Remember You’, ‘Kill Me, Heal Me’), and I was keen to see how far into the rabbit hole this drama would go. The answer to that is ‘not very’, which is a bit of a shame, but the show still pulled together really nicely, and did an amazing job with Sang Tae’s character. The other patients were a little more stereotyped which is a bummer, but I think I was most let down by the avoidance the drama took when looking at Moon Young. In the first handful of episodes Moon Young mentions that she has antisocial personality disorder, and then never brings it up again. Instead, the drama seems to link her strange behaviour and inability to engage in normal relationships to trauma caused by her mother and her mother’s death. Which is fine. Trauma can make for interesting characters (see ‘Come Here and Hug Me’), but I wish that my hopes hadn’t been all caught up by the drama saying that the heroine had a personality disorder that was then widely ignored for the rest of the show’s run.

This show was so bloody cinematic too

All in all I think that this drama did a pretty great job at being appropriately sensitive and appropriately realistic while still remaining enjoyable and entertaining. I really love the english title, and think it is a perfect reflection of the show’s contents and progression. I would have liked it if the Korean title followed suit with the name change, because personally I think sticking with the title ‘Psycho But It’s Okay’ is a bit sh*t, particularly given the stigma around mental health and that none of the main characters were actually psychopaths.

What Was Great:

Cast and Charters:

The heart and soul of this show was for sure the main trio. And they were all just excellent- both the characters themselves and the actors that portrayed them. I have struggled to like Seo Ye Ji in any of her roles in the past that I have seen her in. It’s not that she’s a bad actress- she is a very competent actress, I just never really found myself connecting with her or her characters in the past.

Her in this role is just perfection

Maybe it’s because she’s mostly played pretty vanilla characters previously. Maybe I was just so hurt by ‘Moorim School’ that I found it difficult to unlink her face from those feelings of utter, utter boredom. But here Seo Ye Ji really found her light. She was born to play a sarcastic sass queen. I adored her in this role. It fit her so well and I loved her in every scene she was in. It completely took me by surprise, and I am thrilled by how much I enjoyed her in this role- I hope she goes on to pick more dynamic characters in the future too. Moon Young was a character that seems like she should have been hard to like, but that wasn’t the case at all.

I wonder what it's like to be so physically flawless

Her straightforwardness and bluntness made her fun and enjoyable, even though at times she could be very selfish. I loved how Moon Young was basically just how a regular person would be if they didn’t have a filter. Her statements about Kang Tae being good looking were hilarious and on-point, and these added bits of humour certainly helped in adding warmth to a character that was quite cool and aloof. I think what worked well for Moon Young is that even though the things she said and did could seem thoughtless, she was usually very honest, and didn’t often come from a place of maliciousness. Her bluntness was her being honest about her feelings, even if she didn’t understand others’ feelings or they couldn’t understand hers, so I think that made it easier to forgive her when she appeared self-centred and controlling. Kang Tae’s character was almost the complete opposite, where he was more about holding back- he held back his thoughts, his feelings and his wants as a way to please those around him and not cause waves or unnecessary attention. What Kim Soo Hyun did so well in this role was that he was really able to express Kang Tae’s inner desires, even when Kang Tae was being stoic and closed off. His face can show such great minor changes in expression that can really reflect his character’s inner workings, and that was so crucial for a character like Kang Tae where there is a lot going on beneath the surface. Kim Soo Hyun also played the scenes perfectly where Kang Tae was finally breaking out of his shell and starting to live for himself- he gave off such a feeling of relief, excitement and fear all at once, and it was just so lovely watching this character finally start to live for himself.

And boy did he start living

Kang Tae’s arc was really about learning to let go of this carer role he had built up for himself in his mind and start striking out into the world on his own. I adored that the show didn’t need to completely sever him from Sang Tae in order to do that, and that it took the time to show each of the brothers starting to make small steps towards an individual, independent life while still being able to remain good friends and rely on each other when they needed to. While the two leads were absolutely amazing, what really made the show something special for me was Sang Tae. There was so much complexity to his character and his relationships with those around him.

I didn't expect Sang Tae to be one of my favourite characters of the year but he so was

Because Sang Tae had a view of the world that was so different to most of the people in the audience, it became fascinating just seeing how he viewed and interacted with everyday things around him. Sang Tae wouldn’t be complete without Oh Jung Se being the actor behind him, and what a phenomenal job he did! Oh Jung Se really acted from his head to his toes and absolutely everything about him embodied his character. I was finding myself constantly amazed and awed by just how accurate a representation of autism this character and this actor were being- from the way Sang Tae spoke which was logical and repetitive to Oh Jung Se’s posture and hand movements- it was all just perfection. What really completed how wonderfully written and cast these characters were was the chemistry between these three actors. The romance between Kang Tae and Moon Young was brilliant- while Moon Young became obsessed with Kang Tae quite quickly, it still felt like there was a nice slow burn of them actually getting to know each other and falling for each other. They had amazing chemistry both for their romantic scenes and (perhaps even more so) for their comedic scenes. When I think comedic actors I certainly wouldn’t think Kim Soo Hyung and Seo Ye Ji, but they were brilliant and hilarious together, and I don’t remember laughing this much during a show in quite some time.

Man this show was fun

The chemistry between Kim Soo Hyun and Oh Jung Se was also nothing short of amazing, and their relationship was both so heart warming and heart wrenching all at once. With Sang Tae, I really appreciated that they gave him his own separate relationship with Moon Young also. While the relationship between the brothers was endearing and special, I think it added a lot to the story to have Sang Tae be so close to another person outside of Kang Tae. Having that person be Moon Young was just absolute icing. Seo Ye Ji and Oh Jung Se also had really wonderful comedic timing together, but it was their quieter moments of looking after each other that really hit the sweet spot. One of my favourite moments in the show was Sang Tae stepping in to feed Moon Young after she and Kang Tae fought simply because that was his role as a big brother and he knew no other way to comfort her- it was super sweet and really stood out in the show.

All the moments of Sang Tae acting like a Hyung were just so good

These three characters were so vastly different but they also had a lot of similarities. Their shared stubbornness made for some great scenes, and really helped foster their feeling of family. Even though they didn’t understand each other all the time, all three of them were so determined to at least meet each other half way so that they could stay together, and that was quite special.

Thematic Storytelling:

What I didn’t expect coming into this show was how beautifully thematic it was going to be. When I read that Moon Young was going to be a fairytale author I kind of assumed that they just gave her that job so that they didn’t have to bother about actually explaining why she didn’t have a job that she had to go to during the day, or waste scenes showing the heroine working.

Nothing says fairytale quite like a castle

I was happily surprised when the drama really ran with the idea of Moon Young being a fairytale author and wove that motive into every single episode. Moon Young’s fairytales had a lot of great commentary about how she felt as an individual and were a great way to provide insight into Moon Young’s emotional state, and her history with her mother as well. I liked that the show took the time to make small fairytale details stand out- such as Moon Young’s red high heels, as it contributed to each and every episode feeling like a perfect piece in a well structured set. Another theme that was strong in this drama was the idea of family. While a lot of media touch on the idea that ‘you can make your own family’ it was a particularly strong thread in this drama, particularly when both Kang Tae and Moon Young were picking Sang Tae to be a part of their family over and over again. At first I feared that the show was going to focus on jealousy- with Sang Tae becoming jealous that Moon Young was stealing away his younger brother, so I absolutely loved it when the show instead went the route of Kang Tae asking his brother if he would accept Moon Young into their family. It enforced the idea that Moon Young had a strong relationship with each of the brothers individually, and really made me think that even if she hadn’t gone on to date Kang Tae she still would have been accepted as family due to her close friendship with Sang Tae.

I kind of love when Kang Tae got jealous of how close their friendship was

Memory was another theme that dipped in and out of the drama often, and I quite liked the way the drama explored this through its use of flashbacks and reminiscing. I thought the commentary on memory was poignant and relevant and enjoyed the way our characters came to differing realisations after they heard or remembered something extra about their own past. Seeing as this is a drama about mental illness and mental scars, the drama did a good job at tying in mental wellbeing with our memories- we remember the trauma vividly, but gloss over the happier moments. We can remember second for second how someone else hurt us, but can remain completely oblivious when we are the one who has hurt someone else. There was a lot of great thought and insight in this drama, and it was great to see recurring ideas really be explored and extrapolated as the drama progressed. 

This show was a solid 'How To' on maximising flashback effectiveness

What Wasn’t:

Crummy Mum Reveal:

Moon Young’s Mum was an interesting character for most of the show’s run in the sense that she kind of just…wasn’t even a character. She was an idea, a memory, a bad dream. She was a manifestation of Moon Young’s fear. There was a lot of mystery surrounding Moon Young’s mother and why she and Moon Young had such a tumultuous relationship. She posed a great threat to our couple’s relationship,

Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope

in that her Mum’s previous jealousy and possessiveness of Moon Young clearly sparked a deep fear in her around getting close to other people, which is evident in her treatment of others in her every day life. While she was a phantom living in Moon Young’s mind she was truly frightening, as it is so insanely difficult to fight against something that exists only in your head. Moon Young’s night terrors and sleep paralysis were absolutely bone chilling, and created both distance and closeness between Moon Young and Kang Tae. Distance because there was no way for him to see and combat this ghost directly, and closeness because he was always there to remind Moon Young that she was safe and loved. She was also absolutely terrifying as the butterfly manifestation that terrorised Sang Tae and was the reason the brothers were constantly moving around- because Sang Tae was terrified of being murdered by her also. And that’s some severely scary sh*t. Where the show dropped the ball on Moon Young’s Mum was with the final reveal. It was creepy throughout the show wondering if she was alive out there somewhere, but she really lost a lot of her scare factor when she was finally revealed. While her being Nurse Park was a twist I admit I didn’t see coming, the final showdown between her and the three leads just felt a bit…weak. There’s three of them and one of her, and even with the psychological damage she has inflicted on Moon Young and Sang Tae, that still left one fully functional human to combat her. A tall, strong human no less.

She's so tiny next to Kim Soo Hyun

If the main characters hadn’t all made stupid decisions and split up (seriously I rolled my eyes so hard at that), they would have been able to alert the police and capture Nurse Park no problem. Perhaps it’s the fact that Nurse Park didn’t really do anything that made her lose a lot of her fear factor. She just kind of sang a song and laughed and said mean stuff. For how dramatic she had been set up all drama long, the final conflict was just a bit lame, and not nearly as thrilling as I was wanting.

Like, she was totally dead so how is she not?

I almost wish that the show had left Moon Young’s Mum as a phantom and that it was more time and emotional healing that the three characters needed as opposed to Nurse Park getting arrested and locked up forever. Though I suppose this ending did give us Sang Tae facing his fear and knocking Nurse Park unconscious to protect Moon Young (who he is now calling ‘my dongsaeng’) which was super adorable and super badass. I also literally have no idea how Nurse Park even survived being murdered by Moon Young’s Dad. Like, he pushed her off a balcony and her head cracked open and he then dragged her down into the basement, zipped her in a bag and threw her in the lake. How…how would an unconscious woman even get out of that situation and live? And what was up with the patient that was pretending to be Moon Young’s Mum- why would she do that? Honestly, I kind of thought that the show was going to make Nurse Park into a fan of Moon Young’s Mum’s books as having her be a sasaeng would explain how she knew so much about Moon Young’s family life, and also would have avoided the ‘how did she get out of the bag in the lake’ issue. It also would have left the ghost of Moon Young’s Mum out there still as there would have been no definite answer as to what happened to her. Which would have been mega creepy.  

Recommend?

Yes. There is literally no K-Drama fan I would not recommend this to.

A lovely family indeed

Missing 9

Missing 9

5/10

Missing 9

Genre:                                 Episodes: 16                          Year: 2017

Mystery

Thriller

Synopsis:

After an Entertainment agency’s private plane crashes, most on board are rescued or confirmed dead, but nine passengers are unaccounted for. The nine survivors are stranded on an uninhabited island and must survive together. Four months later, Ra Bong Hee, one of the survivors is found. 

Cast:

Baek Jin Hee (Ra Bong Hee)

Jung Kyung Ho (Seo Joon Oh)

Choi Tae Joon (Choi Tae Ho)

Oh Jung Se (Jung Ki Joon)

Lee Sun Bin (Ha Ji Ah)

Kim Sang Ho (Hwang Jae Kook)

Tae Hang Ho (Tae Ho Hang)

Chanyeol (Lee Yeol)

Ryu Won (Yoon So Hee)

Yang Dong Geun (Yoon Tae Young)

General Thoughts:

I’m pretty sad that this drama turned out the way it did as large stretches of it were really interesting. The series really started to suffer around the halfway mark and it was just a downhill trend from there.

Try and drink away the disappointment

I held out hope that the end would provide enough satisfying conclusions to make the drama bearable- but it didn’t and it wasn’t. I once had a fish and I was so sad when it died that I didn’t throw it away for a couple of days because I held out hope that it was just sick or sleeping or something. But the fish was dead. Just like this drama.

His complete uselessness on the island was actually kinda cute

Much as I hoped the drama would somehow pull itself together and return to the gripping, fast-paced, adrenaline filled show it was in the beginning, it just never happened. Despite the disappointing aspects of the story, the cast were all brilliant. Jung Kyung Ho was just superb as our hero- I was on his side 100% all drama long. He gave Joon Oh a gentle heart wrapped up in false bravado and it was just glorious. His interactions with Baek Jin Hee were just pitch perfect. I love Jung Kyung Ho in romance, and even though this wasn’t exactly a romance drama, he really sold the deepening relationship and hints of romance between Joon Oh and Bong Hee. Just the way he angled his body slightly more towards her than anyone else and the way he leaned ever so slightly towards her when they were together spoke volumes. In fact, every actor in this series was pretty excellent at expressing emotion through body language rather than dialogue. As early as the first episode we were given pretty strong vibes about each of the relationships purely from how the actors positioned themselves in the scene, their expressions, and even how much eye contact was given.

Whole cast was fab

Baek Jin Hee didn’t grab my attention with her performance, but Bong Hee was a rather understated and overlooked character herself, and I think Baek Jin Hee showed that and developed it well. She was never bursting to be the centre of attention, but was always very present in the scenes and gave off a friendly, warm vibe.

But thumbs up on killing the resident puppy- I totally didn't see that coming

Chanyeol did a great job in his first foray into acting and I was quite looking forward to seeing him take on some meatier, more emotional scenes. As we know, this didn’t occur as he was killed off in the drama’s early days, but what I saw of Chanyeol’s acting I liked, and he seems like the kind of idol that will slowly expand his roles and develop as an actor before jumping into lead roles- which is nice as he definitely has potential. I absolutely adored Yang Dong Geun as our prosecutor. He was a nice, steady calm to balance out the drama’s craziness, and my goodness that man’s voice is smoother than silk and sweeter than honey. While Choi Tae Joon did a good job at acting out our baddie, his character’s motivations were kind of awkward and that kind of made a few of his scenes a little awkward. Like, I totally believed that Choi Tae Ho had gone completely crazy and was on a murder spree, but that made it hard to see him so normal once we were back in civilisation. I think it was more a writing imbalance than an acting issue.

I don't really understand you and your decent into Crazytown- but as long as it keeps the show interesting go for it

The writing never really expressed how the island and the need for survival turned Tae Ho into a murder machine, it seemed more emotional and personal than situational (no one else on the island had similar desires to kill anyone). I think the writers really needed to give Tae Ho stronger motivations to start knocking people off rather than just ‘oops, I accidentally killed one person, better just get rid of the rest too’. It would have made much more sense if the supplies had been dwindling and Tae Ho got rid of a few people so there were less mouths to feed or something, rather than fighting over a boat. Because the information behind Jae Hyun’s death was revealed to us later, it made Tae Ho’s rampage on the island a tad non-sensical.

Why stop at one when you can kill everyone on the island?

While I loved the emotional impact behind the reveal of Jae Hyun’s murder (and then the second reveal), this information probably would have been helpful in explaining why Tae Ho was so ready to kill literally everyone. What the writing did do well was the way it was able to play around with extra information. We were quite often given most of a scene, and then drew conclusions on our own (such as So Hee’s death and Jae Hyun’s ‘suicide’), only to find a couple of episodes later that there was more to the story that totally changed the reality of the situation.

It's a bummer she died, but So Hee was pretty high on the crazy scale too

It was very clever, and I never felt like the writers were trying to manipulate me, which can often be the case when drama’s attempt to add on more information in that way. There were quite a few times in the course of the drama where I found myself being surprised at the turn the story took due to 4 or 5 minutes of extra footage. Sometimes there were times when I felt some tonal imbalances in the series. Occasionally I really enjoyed the way a moment that should have been serious was played for comedic effect (such as Joon Oh stepping on a landmine), but there were also times when I thought that the attempted comedic tone felt wrong and detracted from the intensity of the moment (such as Joon Oh schooling Bong Hee on the correct way to throw a key when the villains were on their way up the stairs). Generally, I found the comedy fit more while our characters were on the island, but once the group returned to civilisation the attempts at comedy seemed to just miss the mark. The story felt a bit like that too- while we were on the island everything felt interesting and exciting, but once the characters were back in China or Korea the pace seemed to slow dramatically and I was less invested in the story. 

What Was Great:

The Island:

The island was an exciting place to be. I was never bored on the island. The brief lead-up to the plane crash was interesting as we were just starting to get a feel for all our different characters and their relationships, and the plane crash itself was extraordinary. The way the crash was filmed was just stunning- with the rolling, and the colours, and things falling down, and the water. It was really exhilarating to watch.

Being stranded is a nice way to open up the story for anything to happen

And things seemed to happen so quickly on the island- just when one conflict is resolved about a million more seem to crop up. The best thing about survival movies and series is that you don’t have to put in a heap of effort, but the conflicts are still deeply interesting. Simply having our characters being forced out of their comfort zones and having to try and survive together was wonderfully engaging.

Just look how intense things got

Of course, when you throw in the added information that one of these survivors gets murdered by another, it just becomes even more addictive. The relationships really blossomed on the island, and each character was given enough time to grow and develop- particular Ji Ah and Ki Joon who seemed to fade into nothingness once they were back in civilisation. The complication of having a psychotic murderer among the survivors was an interesting one, because there’s no clear answer. If you leave him alone he might kill you all. If you want to be 100% safe from him you have to murder him yourself. The show even went as far as to question if knowingly leaving a murderer alone with no supplies and no means for survival was also murder or not. Of course, the downside to having such an exhilarating time on the island meant that Korea seemed pretty boring in comparison. Once you’re used to approximately three fist-fights and a life threatening situation an episode, vague threats and searching for a phone containing clues for three episodes just didn’t seem very exciting. I loved the island and the ways the isolation forced our characters to interact and grow, and I wish we’d spent more time there. 

Civilisation just wasn't this good

The Colours:

It was an odd sort of thing that I haven’t seen in any other drama, but actually really enjoyed. I’m not sure if the colours used in the drama were supposed to serve some greater meaning that I just missed entirely, or if they were simply ways to make the drama more visually appealing. It took a long time for me to realise the monotone vibe of the wardrobe- with all the characters being dressed in beige.

I must say, it took me waaaaay too long to notice that everyone was wearing the same colour

Then once the survivors found the suitcases from the plane crash on the island things became a lot more colourful. It was nice that the characters were given one colour throughout the whole drama-

The survivors discover colour for the first time ever

it wasn’t a move that was so in your face that you questioned the reasoning behind, but was kind of nice once you noticed it, whether you assigned a greater purpose to the clothing choice or not. Joon Oh was always red- red jackets, red shoes. Ki Joon was green shirts, green jackets, green socks. Bong Hee was yellow and pink. It was a nice consistency for our characters that kind of linked their island selves with their civilised selves. Other characters and all the extras tended to be dressed in beige also, which only made our survivors stand out that much more. To go along with the colours, the drama had a really fabulous soundtrack. While I can’t remember it exactly, I know it when I hear it and it did an excellent job of adding tension to the series and enhancing the scenes.

Strong Female Characters:

By far one of my favourite things about this drama was the way all the female characters were portrayed. Our heroine Bong Hee may have been quiet and unassuming, but she was the solid rock that supported Joon Oh and prevented him from losing hope- both on and off the island.

And them being totally adorable together was just a sweet bonus

Not only did she have unwavering support and unquestionable loyalty, Bong Hee was also the most useful person on the island. Having her grow up by the ocean was a great way of ensuring Bong Hee’s character had the skills necessary for survival without it feeling too forced. Bong Hee was the one who gathered the food, cooked the food, lit the fires, and did almost everything that guaranteed the group's survival on the island.

I do wish she'd snagged a bit more screen-time

It was nice to see a heroine have some further purpose than simply being the object of the hero’s affections. We also had Ji Ah who was just plain tough. She always stood up for herself, formed her own opinions and made sure those opinions were heard. She was strong and independent in a way that was feminine, yet didn’t reek of ‘I’m so tough and better than the boys, and go girl power’. I think one of my favourite things in the show might have been Ki Joon gently kicking a bad guy after Ji Ah had already beaten him up. Hilarious. Despite being murdered fairly early on, So Hee also had a nice dose of individuality and strength. Her strengths came in a more sneaky way than Bong Hee or Ji Ah, in that So Hee would use information to try and twist situations to her advantage. She also had a pretty loud mouth, and while these traits combined were ultimately what got her murdered, I can’t deny that it made her one interesting character. Even the female head of the Investigation Committee was powerful and commanding, and wasn’t afraid to call the shots. It's not like the drama went out of its way to tout girl-power, but so many K-Dramas have female characters that are soft and nice and get walked all over that it was nice to have a drama with more realistic, more interesting female characters.

What Wasn’t:

Murky Motivations:

I really have no idea why any of the antagonists did anything in this drama. On the island Tae Ho just went full bonkers and started trying to kill everyone off- successfully killing at least four people (the pilot, Yeol, So Hee, and the reporter).

And yet Suddenly-Psycho Tae Ho was probably the most sensical bad guy

But that’s fine, it’s a stressful situation and some people go nuts in stressful situations- there was enough there to argue that Tae Ho was just trying to clear up his mess of murdering Jae Hyun. So Hee knew he helped kill Jae Hyun so he killed her, then tried to kill everyone else so when they were rescued no one would know that he was a giant murderer. Slightly ridiculous, but passable.

And did he shave his head specifically so people would know he's a villain?

Jang Do Pal was a bit confusing as I don’t really understand why he was so desperate to cover up for Tae Ho. I guess he was a super famous actor that earned the company a lot of money, but he was a giant liability what with his tendency to lose his temper and kill people. I get why Do Pal covered up the Jae Hyun case- it was messy and made things complicated if Jae Hyun survived the almost fatal attack from Tae Ho, plus getting Jae Hyun out the way made things easier for the band to split up and gave Tae Ho room to become the famous actor he became- which is obviously a cash benefit to the entertainment company. But I don’t see why Do Pal continued covering for him once he was off the island and there were so many people out to reveal Tae Ho for what he was- surely it would have been more beneficial to throw Tae Ho under the bus at that point? Similarly, I don’t understand why no one on the Crash Investigation Committee or any of the Prosecutors had any interest in actually finding out the truth. Sure, they just wanted a quick job and to get the plane crash and survivors off everyone’s mind, and I can see how for a time siding with Tae Ho was the best option.

It was like they didn't want to be ethical, but they couldn't quite be assed being evil either

When it was just Bong Hee’s word (only a stylist and virtually a no one) against Tae Ho’s (a famous, rich actor with connections and power), it made sense to side with Tae Ho. But once more famous people started showing up and it became clear that Tae Ho was a big ol’ murderer, I don’t understand why the authorities continued to take Tae Ho’s side.

Like, why are you all being so darn unhelpful?

I know it needed to be an uphill battle for the plot to be interesting, but the plot can’t be interesting if I’m constantly confused as to why characters are acting the way the are. Once it was clear that Tae Ho killed So Hee, there was less than no benefit for the authorities in taking his side- they had no deal with Tae Ho or his entertainment company and at an early point they all could have jumped ship onto team Joon Oh and Bong Hee and no one would have batted an eye. But they didn’t. They stayed on the obviously sinking ship with Tae Ho. The writers constructed the authorities so they seemed like nothing more than corrupt powerhouses who were completely self-serving and did nothing unless it benefitted them. And yet, here they were going out of their way and actively making more work for themselves trying to protect one murderous actor. Just, why?

Happy Ending:

Okay, I wanted a happy ending- just not this happy ending. Like, what the hell even was that? So the first half of the series was all exciting and stuff, and then the second half was less exciting but seemed to be moving towards our characters beating the system and getting justice. Only, they didn’t really beat the system.

I'm still not sure why President Hwang's testimony was 100 times more reliable than everyone else's combined

In the last 10 minutes or so of the final episode, the authorities that had been going against our heroes all drama long just decide to flip sides and save Joon Oh. The flip is not explained, nor are we shown how we got there. We go from Joon Oh’s trial where the prosecutors are against him to some other force arresting those same prosecutors. Why hello random other authority- where have you been all series when our characters were getting trampled over?

The brightness and happiness feels so out of place considering how many people died and how little jail time was given

Even though the drama seemed as though it was ramping up towards a final showdown, that showdown never came- we didn’t see what led up to the arrests of the corrupt prosecutors, and from what I can tell Tae Ho and Do Pal never even got arrested! I know! You can’t just kill like four people and not go to jail. That’s just silly. And cute as that last painting scene was, it really annoyed me that Tae Ho was included.

Joon Oh: Plz stop killing people. Tae Ho: Hm, kk.
No joke, that's pretty much how it went down.

In fact, it really annoyed me that Joon Oh forgave him at all. We weren’t given nearly enough backstory on the relationship between the two boys to warrant forgiveness. We never saw Tae Ho when he was a nice young kid, we only saw him once he went off the deep end. The forgiveness felt really forced, even for Joon Oh. It’s clear that Joon Oh’s a lovely man and that he cares deeply for his friend, but it just didn’t make sense. This guy has killed multiple people and you’re just going to ignore that? That’s not healthy for anyone involved. And the fact that the rest of them were all happy and laughing as well? Fat chance. All series long Ki Joon has been trying to protect Ji Ah while Tae Ho has actively gone out of his way to make sure her life was in danger. All series long Tae Ho was threatening Ho Hang with President Hwang’s life to ensure he stayed under his control. Tae Ho actually strangled Prosecutor Yoon’s sister to death and then tried to blame it on Joon Oh and Bong Hee. And now they’re all happy sitting together painting a wall as friends? What the actual f*ck- that was the dumbest thing I’ve seen in a long while.

Apparently we're all just going to forget that this happened...

The reasoning behind Tae Oh’s forgiveness was also pretty weak. I get that he probably would have been a completely different person if he’d known that he hadn’t been the one to kill Jae Hyun- but that totally doesn’t excuse his actions past that point. Sure, it’s sad that a bad man made you think you killed your friend, but that doesn’t mean you can just go around killing other people now, it doesn’t work that way.

I wanted so much more closure in this relationship

And while I was content that our characters were happy at the end there, it did bother me that their stories felt unfinished. Joon Oh and Bong Hee’s relationship ended really well and I loved the way they left it with them obviously liking each other but not acting on it yet- but Ji Ah and Ki Joon got no such closure. We didn’t find out anything about Ji Ah’s mum borrowing money or about how her relationship with Ki Joon was going. Although we were never promised any romance, it was still the only real story arc those two characters had, so I was disappointed when it didn’t come to a close. And Yeol. Poor Yeol. I wasn’t ever really expecting him to come back because he looked pretty darn dead in the scene he got killed in, but I kept the possibility open purely because nothing was ever mentioned about him after he disappeared (even though Joon Oh heard Tae Ho say he killed him). It was odd how they never mentioned finding his body, and only ever talked about So Hee being murdered when we all know that Yeol was killed too. And so was the reporter. But apparently no one cares about that.

Recommend?

I’ve changed up my structure here to ‘Recommend’ rather than ‘Re-watch’ because I was finding my answer was starting to be the same for every drama- if I had an infinite amount of time I’d watch again, but there are so many new dramas coming out and I really want to keep up. And to be honest, I’d rather watch a mediocre drama I’ve never seen than a fabulous one I’ve already watched. Variety is the spice of life.

I just don't have the time

So would I recommend ‘Missing 9’? No, not really. I like survival films, and while the island aspect of the drama was fun and interesting, it only lasted for around 10 episodes, and even then there was a lot of time allotted to Bong Hee back in civilisation. The later parts of the drama just weren’t as entertaining and actually boarded on non-sensical. So, unless you’re a diehard fan of one of the cast-members, I really wouldn’t tell you to rush out and watch ‘Missing 9’.

It's an interesting concept but it loses its wow-factor as the show progresses