After watching Wonderful Days, I had to help myself move on from the separation anxiety I was experiencing. :D
I researched thoroughly about the show's cast to see if they had other shows that would be interesting for me to watch. I mostly found shows starring Lee Seo Jin (Dong Seok) and Kim Hee-sun (Hae-won). I made a list and was happy to discover that some of these shows were on Netflix (grateful to my brother who lets my family leech on his Netflix account).
I found Kim Hee-sun more interesting than Lee Seo Jin so I chose to watch her show first. The show was Angry Mom.
I was extremely exhausted the night I started watching it. I was not able to finish the first episode. I dozed off halfway to the show. When I told my husband about it the following day, he told me that probably the show was not interesting at all because even if I were sleepy, I would have stayed up for it if the show's interesting. He had a point. And I honestly thought that was it for me and K dramas.
Good thing I decided to check out some reviews of the show. They only had nice things to say about it. So I gave it another chance. And I'm glad I did.
The show is about a mom, Kang-ja/Bang-wool (played by Hee-sun), whose daughter, Ah-ran (Kim Yoo Jung), was being bullied in school. When Ah-ran would not open up to Kang-ja, the mom had no choice but to go undercover and enroll in Ah-ran's school as a student to protect her daughter. It was so crazy. Kang-ja, who was now known as Bang-wool, discovered a lot of horrible things in her daughter's school.
Ah-ran's best friend, Yi-kyung (Yoon Ye Joo), had a relationship with a teacher and she ended up pregnant. The teacher wanted to get rid of Yi-kyung and he asked for help from another student, Bok-dong (Ji Soo), who was being trained by a gangster, Dong-chil (Kim Hee Won). Bok-dong was tasked to bully Yi-kyung to pressure her to transfer to another school. Ah-ran got involved because she wanted to protect her friend.
Corruption in the school and the Ministry of Education were also discovered. It led to a disastrous collapse of a building that was hastily and sloppily constructed. Some students and Kang-ja's husband died as a result.
Kang-ja's past as a gangster in high school was also revealed. She reconnects with her old friend Gong-joo (Go Soo Hee) who pretends to be her mom and does everything to protect Kang-ja and her family.
The show was branded as brave for boldly talking about some taboo topics like corruption. And although it was a lot heavier and more serious than Wonderful Days, I found it refreshing to watch a drama that tackled difficult but relevant topics.
I loved the lengths Kang-ja was willing to go to protect her daughter. I can imagine how any mother would do the same if all else was lost.
I loathe bullying but I loved how the show attempted to present both sides of the story. There's a story behind every bully and I like how the bullies' back stories were presented. It was easier to understand Bok-dong and Sang-tae after seeing how they lived at home.
If the corruption depicted in the show resembled corruption in South Korean society, then Oppa must be right that South Korea is really similar to the Philippines. Although I would have to say that South Korean society is better at holding their corrupt officials accountable compared to Filipinos. I'm just glad how all the bad guys had to suffer the consequences of their actions towards the end.
Although this K drama was serious, I found it cute that it tried to create a love story line between Kang-ja and Bok-dong. Bok-dong was so adorable whenever he felt jealous and protective of Kang-ja.
Over-all, it was a good drama. While it was much shorter than Wonderful Days (with only 16 episodes), Angry Mom was able to deliver a thought-provoking story that is relevant to how we live these days.
Noona says...it's a 4.5.