개인주의자 지영씨
KBS2 (2017) 2 Episodes Short K-Drama
Romantic Melodrama, Grade: A
Korean Drama Review By Jill
~~~~~~~~~
A touching and
emotionally challenging two episode romantic melodrama,
Individualist Ms. Ji Young (2017) seems to begin
as a romantic comedy but that's a facade for what is
soon to come: an in-depth examination of a woman
who finds it impossible to love anyone because she came
from a completely abusive home (for instance, one
Christmas her mother presented her with a dead cat as a
"gift" because she had said she wanted a pet!). There
was constant fighting in her home so when she became an
adult she finds it impossible to trust people and is a
committed loner (individualist). Then into her life
comes a sociable, but a bit quirky love interest fellow,
but will she fight him off like every other man who has
tried to make her love him in the past?
The two main actors brought a lot of bittersweet
qualities to their roles, quite a daunting challenge for
a drama that only lasts two hours. If you like complex
melodramas then by all means don't miss this one. I
watched it all the way through without stopping, like a
movie. It has few typical K-drama cliches, which is
refreshing.
Can Any Man Get Close To This Face?
The Story:
Ji Young Na (Min Hyo Rin, from the film
Sunny) is a thorough individualist and loner,
stemming from growing up in an abusive home. Ironically
she chooses nursing as a profession, but all her female
co-workers seem a lot more compassionate and interested
in their work and patients than she does. It seems if
she ever lets a guy get close to her it's for quick sex
only, and then out the door he is kicked. She has no
interest in marriage or in having children, after the
example her parents showed her during her formative
years.
Our Love Is Untouchable .. Or
Is It Really?
Park Byeok Soo (Gong Myung, from To
The Beautiful You) is the type of man who
can't live without having relationships with women, but
he has an underlying reason for why he does: he's
just an office worker and he wants to save money on rent
by shacking up with women. By coincidence his latest
love interest who dumps him and tells him to leave her
apartment lives right next door to loner individualist
Ji Young.
Because of disturbing the peace during
their latest break-ups, Byeok Soo and Ji Young meet at
the police station. They don't hit it off at all, but
that doesn't stop Byeok Soo from targeting Ji Young as
his next "love" interest because she lives next door to
his ex. However, he has no idea who he is really facing:
Ji Young takes no guff from anyone!
Honest
Conversation
Byeok Soo tries every trick in the book to make her
notice him, but nothing works -- until he pretends to be
sick and homeless. Then Ji Young happens to show an
ounce of compassion to him and tells him since she works
long shifts as a nurse he can stay at her place to sleep
-- on the floor -- when she is not around, on the
understanding that it is only temporary and he must find
his own apartment soon.
The inevitable happens, however, and
they slowly begin to feel attracted to one another. He
buys her a kitten as a present (not knowing that her
mother cruelly gave her a dead cat for Christmas when
she was a child!). Ji Young seems pleased, but scared
about committing to a pet, too. (I was feeling deja vu,
kept thinking of Because
This Is My First Life and Audrey Hepburn's Breakfast
At Tiffany's with the cat scenes).
Things seem to be going well between
them for a time but then Byeok Soo makes the mistake of
reading her diary, a process which she commits to for
her mental therapy sessions with her female psychiatrist
Soo Kyung (Oh Na Ra). He is horrified to learn about her
childhood and when he finds out Ji Young has been
ignoring her estranged mother's phone calls, telling her
that her father is dying, he intercedes and tries to
make Ji Young meet her mother.
As soon as she finds out what he has been up to, Ji
Young is having none of it - and none of him anymore -
and tells him to leave her apartment NOW. She refuses to
meet her mother or see her dying father. It's just too
much for her emotionally: she finally finds
someone who genuinely seems interested in her as a
person and then he invades her privacy in such a
delicate way and even seems to have no animus toward her
parents.
Months go by and after the storm in her heart quiets
down Ji Young begins to think rationally for the first
time and realizes how much she is missing out on in her
life. One afternoon she just breaks down crying in the
hospital restroom and is consoled by a female co-worker.
She realizes that her awful parents will have won over
her life if she never commits to anyone, or has her own
family. Ji Young is finally growing up, and all this
time Byeok Soo has been waiting for her, waiting to say
he is sorry, that what he did was simply out of concern
for her, not to ruin her life, but to make it better.
Will she finally be able to forgive him and find true
love for the first time in her life?
If you like a
gripping and realistic romantic melodrama, with
above average acting, one that doesn't drag out for
twenty episodes or more, then this two episode
bittersweet drama is perfect for you. Enjoy.