We’re back with a new K-Drama Review, this time we’re talking about ‘Hi, Bye Mama’. To say that this drama broke my heart into tiny pieces and then broke it again in even tinier pieces feels like an understatement.
I bawled my eyes out in each and every episode. I don’t think I’ve ever cried harder while watching a K-drama. So this is a quick warning, if you don’t feel like watching something that’ll leave you heartbroken, then maybe this is not the one for you.
The plot
‘Hi, Bye mama’ is a Studio Dragon production for TvN and was written by Kwon Hye-joo. The story revolves around Cha Yu-ri, portrayed excellently by Kim Tae-hee who passed away five years ago and has been a ghost ever since. She’s been following her daughter and her loved ones to see how they’re doing and can’t move on because she wants to see her daughter grow up.
Her husband Cho Gang-hwa, played by Lee Kyu-hyung has remarried and at first glance seems to be doing okay, but he still carries a lot of guilt and anger. He’s a neurosurgeon, but hasn’t been able to perform any surgeries since Cha Yu-ri died because he gets panic attacks due to the guilt he’s still carrying inside of him.
Cha Yu-ri’s family hasn’t spoken to Gang-hwa in years and are mostly unable to see Cho Seo-woo, Yu-ri’s daughter.
There’s a shaman, Mi Dong who’s been herding the ghosts and urging them to move on into the afterlife so they can be reborn, but a lot of them have stayed on for years. Mi Dong feels too much empathy to just send them over. She’s let them stay and her scores in the shaman community suffer for it.
Because of the fact that Cha Yu-ri has been hanging around her daughter so much, her daughter started to see ghosts and is bound to end up as a shaman. She doesn’t want that for her daughter. She starts cursing God and that’s how she ends up becoming human again. Well, not a full human, temporary back to life also sounds a bit off. She has 49 days to help her daughter so she stops seeing ghosts.
Female friendships and dialogue
I loved so many different aspects of ‘Hi, Bye Mama’ it’s hard to pick. However, my most favorite thing is the female friendship that is so beautifully portrayed.
Ko Hyun-Jung played by Shin Dong-Mi and Cha Yu-ri have been best friends for years and years. Imagine losing your best friend, I don’t think I’d deal with it very well personally. But Dong-Mi has done an excellent portrayal of the strong character that is Ko Hyun-Jung. She has such a fragile core hidden beneath all that strongness that it hurts even more to see her breakdown in front of Cha Yu-ri.
The new wife of Gang-hwa, Oh Min-Jung hasn’t had the easiest life. She married Gang-hwa and took care of his daughter and the other mothers at the daycare judge her for marrying for money. She’s very much in a slump, almost bordering on depression.
When the three women team up, it was hilarious and heartwarming and one of the highlights of the series.
The dialogue is another highlight of ‘Hi, Bye Mama’. Death and mourning are not exactly easy topics. It’s incredibly easy to fall into clichés. I feel like the writer did a really good job of portraying how life moves on, how you have to force yourself to take it one day at a time despite feeling like your world has fallen into bits.
All of the other ghosts have interesting stories as well and you start caring for all of them, even if they’re busybodies.
‘Hi, Bye Mama’ is so rich in storytelling and worldbuilding that it makes sense that they’re talking about a second season. Though I’m not sure if they should continue with the same storyline. I think it’d be interesting to focus on a new character and work from there.
Overall
Despite all of the good things, I do feel like there were a couple of holes in the plot. Despite his very interesting persona, the other shaman was only in the series a handful of times. And it was pretty much only to drive the plot forward so they had a threat. Also the departure of some of the ghosts felt very abrupt, as if they just needed to wrap it up as soon as possible. It felt a bit odd, because the entire series has quite a slow pace.
‘Hi, Bye Mama’ is a K-drama that lingers on for a long time after you’ve seen it. It’s definitely worth a watch if you’re okay with crying buckets. It’s available on Netflix. Also if you want to get some inspiration on other dramas to watch if you like tearjerkers, go check out our list.
Check out the trailer.
