Nobody Loved (2021)

Un jour tout se sait, un jour tout se paie..

Lorsque j'ai commencé Reflection of You, j'étais assez mitigée. Le synopsis m'avait énormément attirée, mais les premiers épisodes ont été une véritable épreuve. Le rythme est très lent, la narration volontairement confuse, et il est difficile de comprendre où le drama veut nous emmener. Après six épisodes, j'ai même décidé de faire une pause de plusieurs semaines, tant j'avais du mal à m'investir dans l'histoire.

Pourtant, en reprenant le drama, tout a changé. À partir du sixième épisode, le récit gagne en intensité, les pièces du puzzle s'assemblent enfin et les véritables thématiques commencent à émerger. C'est à ce moment-là que j'ai réellement compris ce que Reflection of You cherchait à raconter.

Au premier abord, on pourrait croire qu'il s'agit simplement d'une histoire d'adultère. Mais, en réalité, le cœur du drama est ailleurs. Il s'intéresse avant tout au poids des mensonges, au refus d'assumer ses erreurs et aux conséquences que cela peut avoir, non seulement sur soi-même, mais aussi sur tous ceux qui nous entourent.

Hui-ju commet l'irréparable en trompant son mari avec le compagnon de son amie. Pourtant, ce n'est finalement pas cette faute qui constitue le véritable drame. Ce qui détruit peu à peu sa vie, c'est son incapacité à reconnaître ce qu'elle a fait. Elle refuse d'assumer sa responsabilité, nie les faits, ne présente jamais de véritables excuses à ceux qu'elle a blessés et agit comme si le silence pouvait effacer le passé.

Au fil des épisodes, le spectateur découvre d'ailleurs que son secret n'en est pas vraiment un. Son mari savait depuis longtemps. Sa fille également. Tous vivaient avec cette vérité sans jamais l'exprimer ouvertement, ce qui explique une partie des tensions qui traversent leur famille. Cette révélation renforce encore davantage l'idée que les non-dits peuvent parfois être plus destructeurs que la faute elle-même.

La vengeance de son ancienne amie prend également une autre dimension. Bien sûr, la trahison est terrible, mais ce qui nourrit véritablement sa colère est le sentiment de n'avoir jamais été entendue. Sa souffrance n'a jamais été reconnue. Hui-ju ne lui offre ni explication, ni excuses, ni reconnaissance de la douleur qu'elle lui a infligée. C'est ce manque de considération qui transforme une blessure en désir de destruction.

La fin du drama m'a particulièrement marquée. Elle est dure, profondément mélancolique et, surtout, tragique. Pendant toute l'histoire, Hui-ju se bat pour préserver ce qu'elle considère comme le plus précieux : sa famille. Tous ses mensonges n'ont qu'un seul objectif, protéger cette vie qu'elle s'est construite. Et pourtant, c'est précisément à cause de ces mensonges qu'elle finit par tout perdre.

Elle perd son mari. Elle perd ses enfants. Elle est finalement contrainte de s'éloigner pour protéger sa fille. Ce sacrifice est sans doute l'un des moments les plus déchirants du drama, car le spectateur connaît ses véritables motivations. Nous savons qu'elle ne part pas par égoïsme ni pour fuir son passé. Pourtant, ceux qu'elle aime interprètent ce départ comme un nouvel abandon lié à son infidélité. Cette incompréhension rend la conclusion encore plus douloureuse.

Au fond, Reflection of You rappelle une vérité profondément humaine : il est naturel de commettre des erreurs. Personne n'est irréprochable. En revanche, ce qui fait toute la différence, c'est notre capacité à les reconnaître et à en assumer les conséquences.

J'ai d'ailleurs eu le sentiment que si Hui-ju avait trouvé le courage d'avouer la vérité dès le départ, de demander pardon à son mari comme à son amie et d'accepter pleinement sa responsabilité, une grande partie de cette tragédie aurait pu être évitée. Les blessures auraient sans doute existé malgré tout, mais elles n'auraient peut-être jamais atteint un point de non-retour.

C'est précisément ce qui rend ce drama si poignant. Il montre que les conséquences les plus dramatiques ne naissent pas toujours de nos erreurs, mais parfois de notre incapacité à les affronter.

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"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are."

Sure, people can change themselves and their life, and it's good when you are trying to better yourself and prosper. But when you want to change yourself just to surpass the standards of certain someone, you end up loosing yourself, which is immensely evident.

REFLECTION OF YOU is a story of such desires and the constant urge of vengeance from someone who had pushed you off the cliff just when you were about to embrace your dreams. This is a story about two women: one who despite of her achievements, couldn't help herself in making choices and another who after loosing herself has become revengeful; both, thereby creating unavoidable consequences, that somehow drags their families into the mess. This is a story of love, desires, betrayal and revenge, as the synopsis states.

"Reflection of You (2021)" is the live action adaptation of the novel "Someone Who Looks Like You (너를 닮은 사람)", originally written by Jung So Hyeon (정수현)

Director Im Hyun Wook has done a very good job here, even as a newcomer with lesser experience; I am sure his work in his previous drama of similar genre, has helped him a lot. Yoo Bo Ra jakka-nim is a known and acclaimed face in the industry and she must be applauded for the stupendous plot development in this drama that carries several peaks and keeps the same intense throughout the series. Her method of storytelling as well as the monologue narrations and dialogue writing are all praiseworthy indeed.

Jung Hee Joo is a famous artists and essayist, married to a rich family. He got a loving husband and 2 adorable children: a highschool daughter and a 5yo son. She loves her family to the extent she can do anything for them and has to manage it along her artist life that she has built-up through passion. Gu Hae Won is a failed artist who has lost her path to happiness and changed from a happy-go-lucky girl to a revengeful woman. Both of them share a past that has ruinned themselves to different levels. The story shows their encounter after years, which involves the unveiling of the past events that has dragged them to hell and they try to bring down each other by any means. This major plot invoves many other characters involved with their individual lives and some sub-plots that is related to the main storyline, more or less.

What I loved about the production is that the script of the drama never ran out of substances. Whenever you feel like it might become boring and context-less, leading to subsequent exaggeration, the writer comes up with another enraging scenario which serves as a side dish. First episode successfully establishes an intriguing impression upon the audience, creating plentitude curiosity. In my case, I was mesmerized from ep1 to ep6 so much on my first day of watching that my anticipations was raised high. The way everything about their pasts got revealed within those episodes just so the viewers can draw the entire picture on their own, bothered me a lot as to what else they got to offer next. But I'm happy didn't go blank at all till the end. There's in fact no episode that didn't see development or was boring. The last 4 episodes become very intense, typical makjang vibes, that is frustrating and anger inducing like usual.

Jung Hee Joo (Go Hyun Jung) doesn't lack anything other than constant love and loneliness has grasped her.. She has seen the harshest of days but to her fortune, she falls in love with Ahn Hyun Sung (Choi Won Young), who always wants to remain flawless. Her family comes first to her and she's become very strong over years, despite which she's indecisive and can be easily manipulated that lands her in pickles many a times. Gu Hae Won (Shin Hyun Been) is a budding artist and was Hee Joo's teacher years back. She was a easygoing girl back then but situation and time has made her rude, arrogant, resentful and crazy for vengeance. She can now go to any extent to get her job done. She is married to Seo Woo Jae (Kim Jae Young), another aspiring sculpture artist who doesn't have any control over his feelings and can be reckless to get what he wants.

Other minor characters are Kim Bo Yun as Park Young Sun (Hee Joo's MIL), Kim Ho Jung as Lee Jung Eun (Hwain Museum Director), Kim Sang Ho as Yoon Sang Ho (Pub owner), Hong Seo Joon as Lee Hyung Ki (Min Seo's husband), Park Sung Yun as Lee Dong Mi (Hee Joo's friend), Seo Jung Yun as Goo Jung Yun (Hae Won's mother) and Shin Hye Ji as Lee Joo Young (Lisa's friend) , who are more or less good actors with experience.

Being a mystery-revenge thriller with makjang elements, this drama comprises of many important factors of reality. Loneliness being one of them, has won over almost everyone's mental health for which they choose to keep everything to themselves and be submerged within illusion. The worst part of it is not the pain inflicted by sad memories, rather the loneliness of it. Second being revenge, is a means to intrigue the viewers in here; they say, the best revenge is to unlike them who has caused the injury. But do people really believe in that? No! We are mostly who choose to avenge through damage, even so it is caused upon us. Obsession being another factor, proves once again that it in itself is a way of ruined beings to destroy themselves further. Of all human weaknesses, obsession is the most dangerous and the silliest. Also, lying being considered the worst habit of human beings, is something that can't be fixed. But we must remember, our lies catch up to us someday, somehow. Jealousy too is a factor that immensely dominate the story. The inner consciousness of one's own inferiority is something that can eat us out completely. Domestic violence, disturbances in marriage, parental love as well as negligence, bullying culture in highschool, greed, hate speech, extra-marital affairs, cheating, competition, insecurity, possessiveness, mistrust, etc are also a part of the drama.

I was worried the writer and director might forget about the few side plots that was incorporated into the major plot via the minor characters like Ahn Lisa (Hee Joo's daughter) played by Kim Soo An, Jung Seon-u (Hee Joo's brother) played by Shin Dong Wook and Ahn Min Seo (Hee Joo's SIL) played by Jang Hye Jin. Since there were long gaps before they brought forward the consequences of those scenarios, I was uncertain about them not turning into plotholes, but thankfully!

This has a set if good OSTs. My most favourite is "The Moment" by Lim Kim which is an English song that reminisces past and resonates the consequences with a sense of guilt and regret. The harmony in the track is very soothing, indeed. "Moving Away" by Savina & Drones is a lowbeat, despondent track with immense vocal works. "I Am Lost" by Lee Seung Yoon is a melancholic song about heartbreaks whose high note rhythms are enough to melt your soul. "Knocking On" by Jannet Suhh and "Midnight Sun" by Kim Kyung Hee are the other 2 tracks.

The sound production is also well done. The background scores and the OSTs have been utilized appropriately and were able to keep up the thriller plus makjang vibes throughout.

Knowing own-self is the beginning of all wisdom and can prove a great teacher. But the attempt to imitate someone else's reflection will only bring you misery and land in a horrendous & repulsive situation. What matters is the timely realization and withdrawal, followed by self-reflection and learning.

The finale week had the most dramatic consequences. 15th episode in fact laid a foundation for a superb finale episode but to my disappointment, that seemingly amazing seqence actually got wasted somehow; the peak at the end of ep15 somehow calmed down as soon as within 30 minutes of the 16th ep and the resr 1 hour of it was heading down some unknwon path. I don't wanna comment on it firmly bcs I am uncertain about the writer's intention, nor have I read the original work to be aware of it. But let me simply put it, that it might have another season, otherwise, we'll have to move on from it, considering that the drama got some plotholes. The ending sequences in the last 15 minutes have left me all confused and I have got at least 5 questions, which can be answered with another season only.

Its not new for Kdramas to have unsorted endings just to leave the audience to interprete and assume by their own but ai believe that's not the case here at all. I would have been happier if they had wrapped up the entire story within one season bcs I don't honestly see a potentially amazing drama out its 2nd part. Sure, this one is good but adding more to it will somehow feel like an unnecessary exaggeration, I think. Hoping to listen from the makers soon, I mean they should be clarifying about their intentions by now.

Overally, this is very good, if not something unique or groundbreaking but surely has different kind of moods and I thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing. It's more of a combination of mystery thriller and makjang, and not the typical frustrating makjang kinda drama. The last 6 episodes have the actual intense makjang stuffs, which might not be that sensitive. But anyways, enjoying this depends on your expectations and taste in makjang drama. For example, I am not a fan of intense makjangs so this mild dose was honestly good for me. It has it's own flaws of drawing plots and characters at few points but it's definitely worth the one time watch.

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