I’m not a huge K-drama watcher. I’ve only seen a couple here and there, because sometimes I find it extremely difficult to start watching something. But if it has caught my interest I very easily become fully obsessed with it.
That’s what happened with the 2018 drama ‘My Mister’. I basically started watching it because I had seen a teaser and IU looked a hot mess, so I was intrigued.
The drama was written by Park Hae-young. She also wrote ‘Another Miss Oh’ and ‘Two Weddings And A Funeral’. Can I just get a round of applause for an extremely talented screenwriter?
This drama has layers and layers of lies and intrigue. It’s really easy to get lost and overwhelmed in that maze of story lines, but the important thing is the way it is centered. Throughout its sixteen episode run the focus was always the heart and somehow, love however twisted it got.
The Characters
Now, ‘My Mister’ gets very dark at times, for both main characters. On the one hand you have Lee Ji-an, played magnificently by IU, she’s having a hard time making ends meet with her part time jobs, debts she has to pay off and somehow taking care of her grandmother as well. You can tell she’s been through many hardships in her life and she lost faith in other people and resorts to shady dealings to be able to put food on the table. (side note I really hope they got a lot of money from the coffee sponsorship)
Then, the other main character is Park Dong-hoon, portrayed by Lee Sun-kyun. He’s been nominated for awards twenty times and has even won Best Actor at Las Palmas. The man can act. Let me just say, he was brilliant in this.
His character Park Dong-hoon is being cheated on by his wife. She’s been sleeping with his boss who is younger than him and it’s a major, major slight, because of the Korean hierarchy system. So there’s a lot happening in his life, but everything is so internalized. How talented do you have to be to only show anguish in your eyes?
It may not seem like it now, but the drama is not all dark and depressing. Park Dong-hoon has two brothers and their dynamics are amazing. It’s all so layered and real. Because of course you love your siblings but sometimes they drive you up the wall. However they also bring out most of the laughs.
What I love about ‘My Mister’ is that even the minor characters are multi-dimensional. They don’t fall flat. They have a story and it makes it feel so real. It’s almost like a slice of life.
The Soundtrack
The last thing I want to mention is the soundtrack. I almost feel like I’m mentioning it all the time, but every single song is brilliant and beautiful. See my article about Vincent Blue here.
Here’s the playlist if you’re interested:
