I am an avid watcher of Korean TV, especially dramas. In fact, the only things I watch in general are YouTube, Korean dramas, and Korean variety shows. Here at school, I usually watch them while I eat to save time, but back at home, I watch with my family. Recently, the drama I have been watching since March of this year just finished. The drama in English is called “Mother of Mine,” while the literal translation from Korean is actually “My Prettiest Daughter in the World”. I think “prettiest” in this case is actually more like “precious” and not the physical aspect of it. I find the English title to be very interesting. “Mother of Mine” is from the perspective of the mother’s three daughters, while the Korean title is from the perspective of the mother. I do not know the intent behind flipping the title. Maybe the original title was too long, or maybe it is the difference in culture?
Anyway, this drama captures the importance of family in the Korean culture. The drama features Park Sunja, the mother who runs a seolleongtang, or ox bone soup restaurant alone and her three daughters. The oldest daughter, Kang Misun, is married with a daughter of her own and finds herself in many frustrating and difficult situations with her husband, daughter, and in-laws. She struggles with balancing a career with expectations and responsibilities of being a mom. The second daughter, Kang Miri, is a hardworking career woman who seems unapproachable and intimidating at work, but with her family, she’s completely different. Out of the three daughters, she truly expresses how much she loves her mom, who isn’t actually her real mom. As she engages in a relationship with her coworker, the son of the family who owns the company they work at, she ends up in a complicated situation where she finds her birth mother, who is actually the aunt (by marriage) of the man she loves. Lastly, the youngest daughter, while immature and lazy, was once a promising author, but had been in a writer’s block for years until she meets the son of her past editor/publisher. After somehow sealing a contract with him, she eventually writes a book about her mom and her sisters.
By watching this drama, you can learn about family in Korean culture. Koreans are generally very family-oriented. Parents’ primary goal is to see their children grow up to become more successful and educated than them, so most are devoted to their children’s success and well being. In the drama, the mother says how hard it was to send all three daughters to college all on her own with her restaurant. She takes care of her granddaughter, so her first daughter can go to work without upsetting her mother-in-law. She goes over to both her first two daughters’ apartments without them knowing in order to clean for them since they’re so busy. She also takes care of her youngest daughter who lives with her without a job.
This might be a huge spoiler, but when the mother is later diagnosed with end stage lung cancer, the daughters are shocked as the thought of her mother dying never crossed their minds. They realize how badly they treated their mom as they were so busy with their own lives. They feel an immense amount of guilt as they try to convince their mom to receive treatment, which only hurts her more. As I watched this drama, not only did I cry buckets of tears, but it made me realize how far my mom goes for me and she’s only becoming older and more tired. But overall, this drama was great and I highly recommend it.
Also this is a picture of seolleongtang. It tastes really good.
And here is a picture from the drama.
Comments
I still remembered that you talked about this drama a lot. To be honest, I have never watched a family K-drama. From your description, I feel like this must be a really good drama. The love between mother and three daughters is really precious. Maybe I will learn more about typical Korean family from the drama. Thank you for your recommendation!
Fantastic!