It's Okay to Not Be Okay

The Power of Healing

"It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."

This line from "Rocky Balboa" seemed to ring loudly in my mind as this series concluded for me. Indeed, no one goes through life unscathed, and some take even greater lumps than most. However, no matter what we've suffered, it's perseverance that matters most. Not giving up. Always push on.

To my mind, K-dramas are dominating the television airwaves. While I have watched a few bad ones, most have been anywhere from great to superb. "It's Okay to Not Be Okay" certainly fits the "superb" bill for me.

As several reviewers have already mentioned, this is a very unique series that deals with the mental and emotional suffering that everyone has to deal with at some point in their lives. Perhaps that is what makes the series so relatable as well as profound with the central question: when do people finally acquire the courage to take responsibility for their own lives?

For so many people in this world, we blame our parents for our misfortunes and our sufferings. Why didn't they love us more? Why did they mistreat us? Where was that unconditional love we were supposed to be showered with?

Unfortunately, the answers we tell ourselves are filled with as many lies as the questions we come up with. Perhaps we weren't worthy of that love. Perhaps we simply weren't good enough. No matter what answers we contrive in an attempt to "makes sense of it all" we, too often, play the victim.

Gang-Tae is a caregiver at a local mental hospital. His body is riddled with scars given to him by patients who have lashed out at him. However, his physical scars pale in comparison to his emotional ones. In short, he truly believes he is not worth loving.

Sang-Tae is Gang-Tae's older brother with fairly severe autism. He suffers from a moment in the past when he was present for his mother's murder. The murderer threatens to kill him should he ever tell anyone about it. So scarred by the event, Gang-Tae placates his brother by making sure to move every autumn of every year. He somehow wants to be free of his burden.

Ko-Muen Young is a woman who was touted as a princess by her mother; someone who is head-and-shoulders above everyone else. And people should be treated with disdain and contempt for being so beneath her. This is a woman who has no idea how to interact with people. She had no filter, and therefore, speaks her mind and her feelings, both good and bad. She is a little girl desperately wanting someone to love her.

The irony is that all three characters, in some way, shape or form, represent some of the most common fears and desires of every single person on this planet: to be worthy of love, to be relieved of our fears and burdens, and to simply be loved for who we are.

The series masterfully navigates how all three characters are able to find peace with themselves, and perhaps, even some joy culminating in a last episode that will have you smiling and crying at the same time.

Yes, it is okay to not be okay. It is okay to fall. It is okay to be knocked down. It is not okay to give up and stay down. Everyone must find the courage to get up and keep going. That is the series' central message.

The performances in this series are top-notch all the way around. However, accolades must truly be given to Jeong-Se Oh (Sang-tae) who turns in a performance that easily rivals Dustin Hoffman's "Rain Man." In fact, to my mind, Jeong-Se Oh's performance surpasses it. He is truly deserving of any awards he might acquire for one of the best acting performances seen in a long time.

This series has almost everything: a mystery, laugh-out-loud moments, heartfelt moments, cringeworthy moments, and plenty of relatable moments, depending on who you are.

I cannot recommend this series highly enough. It should almost be required viewing. For perhaps, you might find some "healing moments" of your own as you watch this show, and be presented with the question: will you blame others for your problems? Or will you find the courage to begin living your own life?

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INDEED, A HUMAN HEALING DRAMA ✨

Just want to say how wonderful this drama is.

1. .PLOT:
Superb ❤ Love their Fairy tales!! So cute and effort animations. Each eps has fairy tale that has takeaways. It really amazed me the way their Fairy tale is such a heartwarming story that makes an eye opener for us. Love the deep message of the story!

Im also thankful for this drama for raising Mental Health Awareness. Truly, people really needs to know what mental health is to fight the stigma, how a person is really going through in such situations and how it is important for people with mental disorder to have family or someone by their side who will truly love, care and understand them as much as they needed it.
10/10. Love how they justify in the end that after all "Gang Tae is for Gang Tae" and how "Finding the real face" concluded. Superb!!!

2 . SCRIPT:
Love their dialogues!!!! You will obtain life lessons and words to ponder with their lines!! ❤❤

3. CASTS:
Fantastic casting!! Each and everyone in this drama is needed to make a beautiful portrait.
Love how the humor of the show balance with their emotional scenes. Such fun to watch all of them. Esp the #MmM trio!!! They are so funny and their touching scenes! So thankful for this drama that finally Seo Ye Ji is gaining much attention as much as before which she truly deserves. Love also Seo Ye Ji & Kim Soo Hyun chemistry!!

4. CGI: Wonderful!!! Seems like a true fairy tale. So effort.❤

5. OST's: So perfect! Love to hear their ost. Esp "Lighting up your world" which seems like a music video of the 3 leads.

Fun, heartwarming, eye opener. Definitely one of the best drama! ❤❤❤

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May not be everyone's cup of Tea

If you ask me to recommend a drama, Me, recommending
would be based on my closeness to that person. This drama makes you feel things that you won't dare to feel in your daily life and most people don't neither generally embrace these emotions not understand them, tbh.

A very very well written plot and fabulous plot points and twists. Won't say that this drama is adorned with cliffhanger but this story grows on you, makes you want to know more and as per louisa may alcott, that is the success of a writer.

Acting is fabulous.. specially the character Sang-Tae stole the show (i can't stop if i start so i won't)start. I have Kim so hyun better but Seo ye ji, she never stops to surprise me. The growth that she shows with each new show is immense. Damn..

Music is good too.. it did it's job of making the series more lovable.. specially the score "In silence, no one answers" makes you feel different stuff in different scenes, i.e. pretty versatile.

My rewatch value is low because I'm not much of a re-watcher.

Overall, Go for It, only if you are ready to embrace it.

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One of the most impactful shows I've ever watched

This was the first k-drama that I ever watched and it set my expectations so high for what I would watch after. Since watching it, I've rewatched it twice. I am aware that I am biased at least a bit due to it being the first one I watched, but it still holds up so astronomically well five years later. I have had the soundtrack downloaded on my phone since I watched it as well.

I found all of the characters to be so well-written with so much depth. Not only within the main characters, but a large amount of the supporting cast have their own minor plots, bit of backstory and personalities. The characters are written so well that you can feel real hate towards the hateful ones, related so deeply to others, and truly shows faults in even the most loveable characters. Fully showing the good and bad to so many venerable and amazing characters.

This drama also deals with many aspects of mental health, as well as grief as a whole, and disabilities, like autism. I have struggled with a plethora of both mental and physical illnesses over my life, and I resonated with so many aspects of the story. I do see why some people struggled with the autistic representation, mainly due to a nonautistic actor playing a character with autism. In general, I thought it was fairly well done. However, I do fully understand that it may be a dealbreaker or a deterrent from the show for people, and it's perfectly understandable. I do not have autism myself, so it is not my place to say for sure if Sangtae was a completely good and respectful portrayal of autism.

Gangtae, working at a mental health care facility, also gives us a lot of stories about many characters and their perspective health issues. The way this show speaks on trauma, grief, mental health struggles and it's stigma is so beautiful and well done. The relationships between these characters are complex, and the way all of them care for each other definitely made me cry multiple times.

I whole heartedly recommend this drama to anyone I know who wants to get into k-dramas, and I sincerely hope that people continue to watch it as years go on.

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Best Kdrama I've Watched

I've watched up to a total of 70+ dramas and I have to say that this must be my number 1. I kept watching ever since the drama premiered up until the last episode. And now that the drama ended, honestly, I feel slightly empty and I am not ready to move on. First of all, the best part of this drama is the character development. If you watch the interviews and press conferences they kept emphasizing that this drama should be a "human healing" drama. And truth be told, the healing journey of the characters were portrayed beautifully and was also wrapped up perfectly. And we could see the development not only in their personalities but in their relationship with each other as well. This goes to the second point of the interesting depths of the characters, particularly the main 3, Gangtae, Sangtae, and Moonyoung. Most Kdramas have 2D characters and they do not go in-depth towards the layers of the characters. However, this drama gave such fresh new characters, particularly for Munyeong and Sangtae. Munyeong is not the typical "weak, feminine" female character that a lot of kdrama characters have and she has so much more layers other than her "antisocial" personality. She also dresses very well. Sangtae is an autistic character and we also don't see this a lot in other dramas. This drama successfully brought onto the kdrama scene new characters and topics such as mental health that are rarely highlighted.
The second point is the emotional delivery. Throughout the drama, I felt like my heart was ripped apart and then mended and then ripped apart again. I honestly do not know how many times I have cried when watching it. I could feel the emotions of the characters and their pain and that is why it was very easy for me to cry along with them. Moreover, I found myself relating to their pains which makes it more emotionally engaging. I feel like the traumas and the pain these characters have would somewhat be relatable to most people.
The third point is the casting and the acting. I gave it a 10/10 because I sincerely could not imagine other actors taking the role of Gangtae, Sangtae, and Moonyoung. I don't think I have to say a lot about Kim Soo Hyun. He is a talented actor and very very handsome. Although in the beginning, his acting could be seen as rather flat, but as the drama goes on, we get to see why he didn't show many expressions and we also get to see more emotional delivery and dynamics in his acting. Seo Ye Ji is the perfect Ko Mun Yeong. I am honestly speechless with her portrayal of Ko Mun Yeong because she played her perfectly. Her expressions and how she delivers her lines successfully demonstrates Munyeong's bulldozer personality. She was also able to portray Munyeong's personal pains which made my heart break real bad. I feel like she really understands Ko Mun Yeong inside out and therefore she was able to play Munyeong flawlessly. Lastly, but definitely not the least, Oh Jung Se as Moon Sang Tae is just phenomenal. You just 100% believe that he is autistic and sometimes when I watch their behind the scenes or interviews I kind of get shocked that he is not really autistic. Even his small gestures with his fingers and his eyes really brought Sangtae to life.
When talking about casting, we have to take into consideration the chemistry between the actors. Kim Soo Hyun and Seo Ye Ji's chemistry is out of this world. I don't know if it is because they are great actors or if it's because they look alike that made their chemistry so phenomenal. They both were able to portray that they were really in love and makes you want to really root them that they actually are in real life. Honestly, they are also the ultimate visual couple. I really couldn't stop being in awe of their beauty when watching. Moreover, the chemistry between the three main actors was also amazing. You really could see that they are a genuine family.
Overall, every episode was perfect and beautiful. The director also was able to deliver aesthetic scenes which makes it enjoyable to watch. The OSTs are also beautiful, it gets stuck in my head but it's not on Spotify yet so I'm sad. The only one lacking point of this drama (SPOILER) is the lack of explanation of Munyeong's mom which I thought could be written better. But after analyzing it and after watching the best drama ending ever, I've settled with that it was not important. The explanation was not important for Munyeong because she just wants to forget her completely and thus maybe that is why we shouldn't be bothered either. Oh and honestly I think Jaesu kind of deserved better. He was so loyal but I feel like he was always taken for granted. I also gave the rewatch value 10/10 because even after 3 days since the finale, I am still rewatching clips and is already planning to rewatch it. OH and one of the best things should be the witty references to the previous episodes in ep 15 and 16 such as the deer and the saranghae part.

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I never leave a review, but this show deserves it.
Just the fact that they went in and dealt with mental health issues so beautifully is an amazing start already. Pair that with some of the best of acting I've seen, and a great script and the recipe is this amazing work of art.
There were unexpected twists and beautiful character growth. This show grabs you from the get go and doesn't let go.
I will say it's not for everyone,it does deal with very heavy issues, but it truly does it in such a beautiful way.
The amount of detail in this show is also very good and the attention paid tp the mental health problems is done well.
I loved this drama from begining to end, and it's one i will be re watching for sure.

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She's hella toxic

Well, the drama had a really good story, I really like the main male character, but Muyeong is just too shitty... She does whatever she whants, have really problematic actions and even so Gangtae was falling in love with her... If it was the opposite, the guy doing all those kinds of things I think more people would also find it problematic. The turning point for me to drop it was that he was falling in love with her, even if she was hella abusive with him and even used his brother to manipulate him. If the story continued and they helped each other to heal themselves and just be friends I would like the plot, but Gangtae falling in love with her was the end of it for me hahahhah

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Overrated mess

Cliche, tropey, messy. Thanks for all the puffy reviews for making me waste my time watching this less than mediocre story. Y'all really need to get TASTE before giving 10* reviews just because you stan the male lead actor or think the leads are attractive.
Autism story is nothing to write home about, there are tons of other series that tackle this subject better. Netflix Atypical for example does it 100000000000000x better.
Female lead is toxic af, even sexually harass the ML and the super woke viewers think this okay because of what exactly? If y'all had any coherence you wouldn't ship this couple.
Lots of mental illness used for comic relief or depicted in a stereotypical matter like the lady who sobs everytime because she gets triggered over the most inane things. Depression aint cute, funny and is definetly not like that IRL.
The manic episode used for comic relief yiiiikes
Faux woke series for faux woke people tbh

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Great Series

Great Writers, Great Actors, Great plot-line... The filming locations and sites used have been wonderful to the story line... Thoroughly enjoying this show... I laugh and cry with them... Only seen 10 episodes so far but I've loved each and every one of them ... The show gets better each week and episode... The main character actors (Ms Ko and Gang Tae) are incredible and talented... The actress that plays Ms. Ko is absolutely ravishing and gorgeous... Her wonderful extensive wardrobe enhances upon her visual beauty... She comes across as intense as she plays this complicated person with deep psychological issues/problems... The actor that plays Gang Tae is also a gifted and talented actor... He too is able to bring and define his feeling to the viewer...Great job...

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Excellent (9.8)

This review may not be super helpful, but I absolutely loved the series. Please note that I’m an extremely harsh grader and that’s why this show is not a 10. If anything, I would probably rate this series a 9.8. The acting was excellent. I LOVED the incorporation of the psychological elements of the story and the main characters novels. The plot was phenomenal, I loved the romance. This series was what I would consider to be as close to perfect as a K-Drama has ever been minus the ending which I thought was a bit weak. Either way, I absolutely loved this series and the actors were all incredible. This was so well done, I can honestly not recommend this enough.

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Life Isn't Always Fair!

14/01/2023

This is more or less about a 30 year old male that puts his whole social life on hold because of an older autistic brother only to have his world turned upside down when he meets a female author with a personality disorder.

It's not one's everyday typical type of romance which is rather refreshing plus it is quite intriguing observing the dynamics between a relatively "normal" guy and these two high maintenance characters in his life.

However, there is alot more to the story than just this chance encounter as there is actually history shared between them that goes back to their childhood plus something more than that - that is twisted.

One of the saddest lines ever from Moon Kang Tae (Kim Soo Hyun) that touched me to the core:

"I never want to be born again."

From a conversation between his "fake" mother and himself when she told him to repay her by being reborn again as her son, but he didn't want that because of all the burdens and hardships of his current life with his brother.

Kang Tae can't be in a real relationship because his brother requires full attention not to mention the guilt he carries of leaving his autistic brother to drown (almost) once and wanting him to die when they were younger as well as wishing a number of times that he was just "normal."

In addition, with the murder of their mother as youngsters and the case still being unsolved it still impacts on the two brothers in some ways - what they don't know, however, is the person responsible is connected to them including Go Mun Young, the author.

This unravels more and more in the later episodes until it is no longer a whodunnit anymore.

So, we have three beautiful damaged souls trying to survive life the best way they can all because of one selfish, sadistic, narcissistic person in their past that set that path in motion.

It is a brilliant and unique series which I thoroughly enjoyed!

ADDITIONAL NOTE:

I first saw Kim Soo Hyun in HOTEL DEL LUNA only dont really remember his character so perhaps it was quite minor and then recently in ONE ORDINARY DAY which was truly outstanding although I have yet to watch a few parts l missed as I don't like violence and also a few episodes from MY LOVE IS FROM THE STAR which is not too bad.

I read he is the highest paid or one of the highest paid Korean actors and I can see to an extent why that would be with ONE ORDINARY DAY and ITS OKAY TO NOT BE OKAY, but I would really like to see more versatility and if he can pull off comedy which is really hard to do. I need more proof!

I know some think he is very handsome and attractive, but it is his eyes really that are alluring and height rather than anything else.

There are a few better looking Korean and Chinese male actors I reckon.

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