The Good Bad Mother

Wonderful

The Good Bad Mother is one of those rare dramas that captures your heart right from the very start and doesn’t let it go till the final credits are rolling around before your eyes. It virtually covers every emotion, humour, joy, grief, horror and finally deep satisfaction until you feel like you’ve been on a roller coaster but you loved it that much you want to get back on and go through it all over again. It’s a true work of art and everyone involved put their heart and soul into making it the remarkable production that it is. I can’t recommend it more highly so do yourself a favour and watch it 10/10 ♥️💫♥️

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Messy motherhood messaging

The majority of the drama is painting a very three dimensional portrait of Young Soon who endured loss her entire life and to cope with the trauma of her husband's mysterious suicide after they had been abandoned by everyone they trusted, she raises her son to be a weapon of revenge without a specific aim at a person, but rather at the entire Korean justice system, which is a lot of weight on the shoulders of a man let alone a little boy. Instead of filling her son with warmth and understanding, she isolated him from finding joy with her, within himself, or in anyone or anything else, so he'll be single mindedly focused on becoming a powerful prosecutor. She's very lucky that Kang Ho is a born artist who is empathetic and observant and can see the glimpses behind her abusive parenting tactics and realizes the true targets he needs to hunt down for justice for his family who he played in a long game. Those are his true strengths that kept him from hating her for her behavior, which he has every right to no matter her intention as he still carries the emotional scars she inflicted on him. She herself realized the harm she had done only when she was forced to reflect on them after his accident left him with the mindset of a seven year old and he refuses to eat because she always forced him never to be full at meal times so he can stay awake to study. It's shocking he got to grow as tall as he did without much food. The majority of the drama sees Young Soon trying to fast track his physical and mental recovery before she herself succumbs to her stage four stomach cancer. The drama misses out on showing Kang Ho finding himself through his interactions with various people and memories. It was so disappointing that the memories from his 18 year old self when he kissed Mi Joo after saving her from the creep who was harassing her at the hair salon did not move up his mindset from 7 to 18. It's creepy that Mi Joo kept kissing a man with the mind of a 7 year old and he was able to be taken advantaged of by the village thief and loser Sam Sik. Instead of organically unlocking his memories in a meaningful way, of course Kang Ho recovers them after more severe head trauma from saving his mom and Sam Sik from the burning pig farm. Lee Do Hyun did a fantastic job portraying both the Kang Ho who is suffering from the mental regression and the pained adult enacting the 35 year revenge plan which required some difficult to outsiders to understand methods including keeping innocents in jail to save their lives and to cozy up to the company chairman.

He got to experience agency and happiness during his college years with Mi Joo who volunteered to help with the household chores and expenses while he studied. He broke up with her because there's something he can only do himself and offered to tell her why as he reached the time when he had to start his revenge plan, but she refused and kept her pregnancy a secret from him so as to not interrupt the plan that she didn't want him to tell her. She trusted that Kang Ho is doing something so important that he would leave someone he loves to do it. That's an intense trust level that she has with him, but also partially learned behavior from her mom in staying the man she loves no matter what. Sadly her mom's situation was staying in a toxic relationship with her abusive, cheating husband until he died just so her daughters wouldn't be fatherless, a insult that is levied at Kang Ho and also his seven year old twin children Ye Jin and Seo Jin who Mi Joo lies to that their father is a nail salon owner in the US. The twins are the creepily precocious kind, but Ye Jin is smart enough to tell Mi Joo to just get divorced from the man who clearly doesn't care about them and they'll live a good life without them. It's really awful that the drama makes this smart observant 7 year old man crazy and spending the majority of the time obsessed with marrying the guy she doesn't know is her biological father. That's not cute, it's just weird. It's also a big misstep in not showing a scene of Kang Ho finally introducing himself to the twins as their father and Young Soon as their grandmother, having a scene of their family finally formally together before they have the final celebration with the extended village family. There was time that rightly showed the love hate sibling like bond between Young Soon and all the villagers, but shortchanged the bond between the direct family members. Lion the pig also disappeared even though the pig was in the main opening sequence for every ep and was part of the story for so long. Could have shown her giving birth to the piglet that Kang Ho uses to propose at the end or something. Kang Ho also loses his job as a prosecutor and it looks like he becomes a pig farmer like his parents, with no mention of Mi Joo settling her major financial problems after being scammed by her former work best friend. They could have even thrown in a line to tie that up.

The tone of the series is really all over the place. It would go to very dark desperate places like Young Soon contemplating murder suicide to hanging herself to motivate Kang Ho to stand to then the annoying antics of Sam Sik and the bumbling goons who bumbled their way into becoming cabbage farmers. The more serious of the goons becomes a major whistleblower for Kang Ho. Yet again the show was missing a scene where the goon hits the final straw with a hit ordered on him to get him to the whistleblowing point. It was at least a little amusing to see that they found their calling as cabbage growing savants, but Sam Sik was just awful the entire time. A spoiled son that ends the drama having transferred his obsessive infatuation to Ha Young who is serving time for having incriminated herself in order to bring her father down. She's an interesting character who was also spoiled and haughty but melted to Kang Ho's seeming care for her. She does have a soul being haunted by her role in Kang Ho's attempted murder and seeing how corrupt and murderous her father is. She doesn't deserve to have Sam Sik being foisted on her though. The gag that the village chief's wife always covered her face with sheet masks and face masks because she is a Japanese mob boss's daughter didn't go anywhere. Her skills and resources was entirely unutilized and her character was just used as a sight gag the whole time.

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To be a good mother is not that easy....

I really liked the storyline of this drama. It made me reconsider my relationshipp with my own mother, it made me think about how much we children often forget about all the sacrifices our parents made for us... In today 's world, it is really not easy to raise a child, to give him proper eductaion not just instruction.
Parents are not perfect, they were not born parents, they learn along the way, they make mistakes, everybody makes mistakes, most important we need to acknowledge our mistakes and ask for forgiveness.

I loved the courage of the mother, the warmth of the villagers, the unconditionnal love between two lovers....
And last take home message, at least for me, to archieve revenge is not an easy task, are we really ready to deceive or leave behind our loved ones just to archieve justice? was it worth it? maybe yes, or maybe no.....

I actually struggled to finish this drama, i got bored somehow in the middle and i had to forced myself to finish it, they were also some unecessary characters that could have easily been taken out without it affecting the drama, hence the 8/10.

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showing affection towards all living beings...

This show has a well written psychological foundation and covers many situations from every day problems to huge tragic events. The actors are fantastic and the storyline is well balanced between heartfelt episodes and action. The characters are convincingly developed. But what I really missed was the fulfilment of the trailer and the mother's description of humans treating animals in a bad way: if she has this strong intuition, why does she not make it possible for her pigs to roam outside? Is this a metaphor of her not liberating herself from societal constraints? How is it possible that she feels with them, even comparing humans and pigs, and not taking into consideration their situation where they can't even walk around? This I did not understand. I find here interesting aspects of critizicing urban lifestyles while maintaining so called traditional (industrial) behaviour.

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Wholesome

This drama was amazing, I really enjoyed it from beginning to the end. Although the story can be predicted at time.
Disclaimer: I’m mainly focusing on Kang Hong and his mother but there are also lot of other interesting characters, relationship, and events.

Story:
"The Good Bad Mother (2023)" is a heartwarming drama that delves into the complex dynamics of a family, exploring the relationships between the main characters and the challenges they face. At its core, it highlights the transformative power of love and the pursuit of redemption.

Cast:
Main Lead (ML) - Choi Kang Ho: A very complex character who is initially seen as cold and ruthless character, and holds a lot of resentment towards his mother but is kind, empathy, and hardworking man who is devoted to his family (parents) and wants to take revenge. He carries a burden from his past and struggles to reconcile with his mother's actions.
Main Lead (FL) - Lee Mi Joo: A compassionate and understanding woman who supports ML through thick and thin. She stands as a pillar of strength for Kang ho.
ML's Mother - Jin Young Soon: A flawed and complicated character who is haunted by the death of her husband and being powerless. Hence, she is forced to be very struck with her son. However, She seeks forgiveness and redemption but struggles to make amends.

Two Adorable Kids - Lee Ye Jin and Lee Seo Jin: ML and FL's children, who bring joy, innocence, and confidence to the show dynamic.
The rest of the character were also great and unique in their own ways. All of them were truly relatable characters. The good and bad mother was focus on all of the family in the show

Ending:
As the series progresses, the audience witnesses the transformative journeys of the characters.
Young Soon embarks on a path of self-reflection and seeks to make amends for her past actions (being super strict). Through her persistent efforts, she begins to repair her relationship with her son and becomes a source of support and guidance for him.

The drama concludes with a hopeful note, highlighting the power of forgiveness and the strength of familial bonds. It has a profound message about the complexities of motherhood, the capacity for growth, and the enduring power of love.

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A mother can be a good, and a bad one.

From it’s beginning till the end, this drama never disappoints until the end! I love how this drama is all known to kdrama fans and I never regretted to watch this first other than the ongoing kdramas that has no similarities with the story of the good bad mother. Also, from the name itself I do agree that Kang Ho’s mother, Young Soo might not be that perfect mother the same as my own mother. A mother can be a good and at the same time a bad mother but in different ways and it’s aspects to consider. Including of how for me as a kdrama fan, it was a better way to start this drama and this might be one of my favorite comforting kdramas I’ve watched, including summer strike, TFTW, and others :’). I might take longer to take note with regards to this drama, because I would consider this as one of the greatest masterpieces and so far confirming as one of the best mother-son/daughter relationships. I’ll go with the plot/story and the cast/characters.


STORY/PLOT
The story starts off with A single mother, Jin Young Soon who owns a pig farm in a small village who raised his only son, Choi Kang Ho. After her husband’s death due to fighting for justice with regards to their traumatic past from burning their old piggery farm from an well-known suspect during the 1980’s, her mother lose hope from her husband and disciplined his son Kang Ho while growing up and gaining his power as he graduated as a top student and one of the prosecutors in the court. As he turned a cold-hearted prosecutor, he and his mother discover slowly their past as Kang Ho dive deeper with his connections from his clients that are high positioned leaders in a company and challenged to politics and power. With an unexpected accident came from him, he returns from his hometown. On the other hand, Kang Ho’s childhood friend and schoolmate Mi Joo who was known from a soft hearted, kind a strong sense of justice, also reconnected with Kang Ho from his recent accident, unfolding the secret both has. Kang Ho goes back, slowly recovers until he slowly remembers everything he has been through, including his past relationships from his old village he grew up, with her mother taking care of him and together as both and their friendly neighbors fight and supported one another, making a strong relationship with each and one of them. My tears are worth it actually :’))

Phew, this was so long to type a note from the story to be explained further for the sake of my future self to rewatch this wonderfully made series!! I love the story, the flow of the story was well made, including the great character developments that the writer also added. I also liked the cliffhangs of the few episodes that made me think twice of watching the next series asap! No flaws to begin with, great chemistry from the cast and their friendship-relationships that connects their way of living each and every one of them with many purposes. A good 14-episode kdrama series, with no unnecessary flaws and plot holes, just loved the drama so much with less explanations!!


CAST/CHARACTERS
First and foremost, I really love their casting so much!! It’s that I have less things to say but to summarize their great acting skills, I do believe most of them has great potential to discover and enter different leading roles that can help their careers to be well recognized!! A big thanks to the casts, whether leading and supporting casts who did their best they can and leaving me with tears till the end :’) Not ending my note here, but I’ll thanked the most recognized actors and actresses who shined so much from their roles itself. Also, never forgetti the two gurads even if their mission was leading them to despair, they were on Kang Ho's side :'>

Starting off, Ra Mi ran as Jin Young Soon also known from the title itself, the Good Bad Mother. I love her so much from her role!! My very first kdrama encounter from this drama and her acting feels surreal!! She has potential as well to be part of the different type of roles in her future projects! Less thing to say to her since it’s my first time seeing her. But with her character, she’s kinda disappointing, but at the same time as a hardworking and a single mother, we cannot blame a mother’s love for her only son :’) Rooting for her future endeavors and her future kdrama projects she would be casted soon! Might dive in to her past kdramas!!

With Lee Do Hyun as Choi Kang Ho, the prosecutor. I really love how we was part from the casting. I cannot believe that he also did well with this drama and love the way he acts from his chosen project, which is this including his character. Well known from his big roles from The Glory 1 and 2, Youth of May and 18 again. My very first encounter was from the drama Clean with Passion for Now and Hotel del Luna (I cannot remember which one I saw him from his role but so far, these both are). He was proving himself with so much potential! From supporting roles from both kdramas until becoming his few well known leading roles, he can be anything!! Hoping I could see him more with villain roles. His character is sweet and loving, also Kang Ho never disappoints from the beginning. All In all, he was a promising actor and ever since youth of May, I already added him as one of my favorite actors. Rooting for him!!

Ahn Eun Jin as Lee Mi Joo the soft-hearted childhood friend turned lover of Kang Ho. Ever since my first encounter from a kdrama series The One and Only, from that role itself I already could see so much improvement and knowing that she was a good actress from portraying her character with her emotions. She was also one of my favorite actresses as well. Mi Joo was a loving character that she never disappoints from the beginning until the end of the story :’) But I also felt bad that she had a hard time recovering her deepest pain from Kang Ho :< Rooting for her especially how I wish she could enter different role this time :’)

Last but not the least, the funniest friend and enemy of Kang Ho, Bang Sam Sik portrayed by Yoo In Soo. Ever since my first kdrama from him from at eighteen, all of us are dead as the villain zombie and AOS 1 and 2 from his well-recognized characters from the last 2 kdramas I saw from him, he was really good as well. But I do hope I could see a role like from Lee Do Hyun itself but he was really improving!! His character also was a good but a mean one from Kang Ho until he was protecting and saving them from danger haha. To conclude his short comment from this drama, really love his roles that I have watched including this, and hoping he could show more of his emotions to his future roles. Rooting for him as well! (ESPECIALLY UNCANNY COUNTER 2 AS A LEADING ROLE! 😊 )

Overall, this was a good watch!! Very recommended to beginners who wanted a comforting kdrama to watch, really great for time kill and binge-watching! Also depending of my decision in the future, rewatching can be optional since there are a lot of things happened that surprised me as well. This is the end of the note, one of the greatest masterpiece that everyone should watch a good mother-son relationship!! <33

Rooting for the casts future drama projects to come! One, two, three… Piggy!!!

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It's okay..... Just okay.

I have no idea why this is so highly rated. I gave it the benefit of the doubt since I was on vacation and downloaded all 14 episodes. I will admit the show at times made me cry because of the mother-son relationship. I understand that the mother in her mind had reasons for what she did when he was growing up but I do not believe it's as black and white as to say she's all bad. Like the title say she is both Good/bad. I was waiting for everyone to know he is the father and the kids too but they didn't give us the reaction just the aftermath, which spoiler it's a good ending and they get married which isn't a bad thing but I stuck it out till the end so I could see the reaction and yet the kids mention it for 5 seconds in the last episode and that's it. The plot with the bad guys was very lackluster and made me skip over so many of the scenes when they were on screen

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AMAZING :)!

I loved everything of this K-drama from the story to the acting of every character (actor) to the music and OMG the PLOT TWISTS, they just left me stunned and I was amazed how the story and the characters devolved even better than I would ever imagined. Everything made sense, every of my questions where answered and revealed not too late and not too soon it was just perfectly connected and placed throughout the series and just made me more and more excited to watch the next episode and what would come with it, what would happen next and so on. It made me ponder and reflect on myself since I personally think it fits my life and thoughts very much. I‘m so happy I got the chance to have watched this series since it comforted me quite much and amazed me in every way. There wasn’t a scene for me that I couldn’t have understand, it‘s just SATISFYING. I know some like the opportunity for an open ending as to think of ways how it could have ended but this series gives us clues of how it will continue and even without them each individual is so strongly portrayed that we wouldn’t have needed them but it verifies our thoughts on it of how it’s going to turn out and we can still think of other opportunities of it’s following events. It has an amazing build-up from start to end and I’m also glad it wasn’t too short (I think 14 Episodes is very nicely and compact for the duration of it’s story). It had everything in it for me personally and I would say that they didn’t leave out any important aspects and also didn’t add too many unnecessary information for us either. I also search up the K-Drama with its casts and crew members after I’m done watching. Just gets better by seeing bts (behind the scenes) and I was even more overjoyed of how talented actors I know from other series too (wich I recently found out), have participated in this K-drama. Even after watching it I still listen to the ost (original sound tracks) of this series since I always feel better by hearing it and vibe to it. There’s so much much much… more that I could have said but I think it’s enough already ^^ so yeah, if I could’ve given it more than 10 than it would’ve definitely be much more OVER 10 <3!! A big recommendation from me :)) and a big thanks of make it this far. Lots of love to the whole cast and crew members and the K-drama itself FROM ME OFC (of course) ;) and to readers too :>

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Best from My List so far: Perfect Blend of Sadness, Comedy, Revenge, and Romance – No Cringe!

I thoroughly enjoyed the show; it had me in tears. A perfect blend of comedy, sentiment, sadness, revenge, and romance that wasn't too cringy (I usually avoid romance series). The emotion from the mother-son relationship was great. I'm not an experienced reviewer, and I've seen some negative reviews. However, from my perspective, this series stood out as the best from my list. There may be better versions like this, but for me, it was the best among the series I've watched.

I don't usually review; I rarely review the series that I didn't like and don't review the ones I like, just rate them. However, this series got my emotions triggered so much that it made me to write a review.

I'm searching for similar series, and I haven't had much luck finding ones that are similar to this. If anyone reading this has recommendations for similar series with a focus on parental love or related themes, please share your suggestions.

Don't spend time wondering whether to watch it or not-it's a definite yes. This series is exceptionally good, and it's one of the best I've seen in a long time.

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The mother-son bond was the highlight of the show

The whole show felt very organic even though the story included some makjang elements. Kang-ho's mother was very strict with him and didn't treat him very nicely even though she loved him a lot. She always pressured him to study and didn't express her love for him which lead to Kang-ho having a very tough and lonely childhood. She had her reasons to be like that and had Kang-ho's best interests at heart but having good intentions doesn't always guarantee good results. The complex relationship between Kang-ho and his mother was portrayed so organically it made me cry and reminded me too much of my relationship with my mom. The mother is a really strong person who fought through everything no matter what was thrown her way. They both love each other but don't know how to express it or come out of their trauma. The way they repair their relationship throughout the show stole my heart. The actors did a great job at bringing their characters to life. Especially Lee Do-hyun, he was equally good at portraying all the stages and sides of his character; Kang-ho the cold prosecutor, the sweet boyfriend, the 7-year old in a 35-year old's body dependent on his mother. Everytime he and/or Ra Mi-ran cried I found myself crying too. The whole story was good but the mother-son bond was too good. A great show with tear-filled moments, funny moments and action.
P.S. Mi-joo's kids were really funny and cute, those child-actors are really talented and deserve a shoutout.

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