The movie is set in the aftermath of the Korean War. Yoon Ha, played by Seo Kang Joon, meets Jeong Boon, played by Moon So Ri, as a child. They help each other during a difficult time in their lives. Fast forward roughly 10 years and they meet again. A love triangle develops when Jeong Boon’s daughter, Mi Soo, develops feelings for Yoon Ha. Unbeknownst to Mi Soo, Yoon Ha only has eyes for her mother. In turn, Jeong Boon realizes that any feelings they harbor for each other are doomed, and she rejects Yoon Ha. Consequently, Yoon Ha marries Mi Soo when he realizes this is the only way to stay near Jeong Boon.
The story is well done. I would have given this a 10, except I couldn’t completely buy into the dongsaeng-noona relationship between Yoon Ha and Jeong Boon because of the huge age disparity. We’re talking about a 20 year age difference that could have worked, if the directors hadn’t made Moon So Ri look so aged and more like Yoon Ha's mother, instead of a love interest. This often left me with the impression that Yoon Ha’s feelings for Jeong Boon bordered on obsessive and at times were a little creepy. I like to think this vibe was intentional on the writers part, because they wanted to push our buttons by forcing us to explore our feelings and thoughts on the whole ‘age ain’t nothing but a number’ theme.
As a newcomer to dramaland, Seo Kang Joon is really beginning to show us his acting abilities. I’m happy he opted to play this character, because it’s not an easy role to convey. Kang Joon did well showing the absolute love Yoon Ha feels for Jeong Boon. Often the emotion he conveys is nothing short of palpable. Everyone else also did a fantastic job, making this short drama special a nice watch. Be warned, however, there is no cutesy happy ending and there are moments where the show is downright heartbreaking.
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Plot-wise, Haneuljae's Murder reminds me of a greek tragedy. It comes across as a play almost. Considering the little budget this project had and the short running time, the outcome is pretty impressive. There was much effort spent on the cinematography, I could tell. Even though the production value is not very high, the consistent autumnal color palette is beautiful and it creates a sense of nostalgia and sadness.
Overall, I'm intrigued by these drama specials now! They take on this seemingly impossible and ambitious challenge of cramming plot enough for a 10-16 ep drama into an hour. The result is not exactly satisfying, but interesting and somehow captivating for sure!
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This review may contain spoilers
talk depressing, everyone is going on about the forbidden love as if this some sordid animalistic attraction. this was more about Yoon Ha, he was a lost soul all alone in the world, who found solace in a kindred spirit, Jung Bun. she didn't treat him like a kid & was as lost as him - like she said "...just cause she was older, didn't mean she wasn't as helpless & lost..." just another disconnected human like him, that had lost everything & was doing the best to survive & even though their interaction was only as street vendors, he helped her as much as she helped him - they were equals.when she suddenly disappeared from his life, he felt abandoned all over again & meeting her again by chance a decade later "Felt like kismet" & as a young adult man, with all those hormones flaring it was natural that he felt attraction to the women who was his other half in suffering, loss & pain.
just now as an adult, he could shoulder her pain & help her as a man - add the hormones & he wanted to be more then just a comrade in suffering. but given her daughter's infatuation, let alone societies norms, she knew she couldn't encourage him in any way, that's why she ran -
personally i just felt sad for both - for different reasons. i don't see this as cheating - maybe forbidden love & the ending was depressing. but what other outcome could there have been. i don't agree with the daughter's commentary at the end - she was being petty, like her mother acted petty by taking the power box. it was cause her ego got hurt, when her daughter told her a woman her age couldn't were power, as people would laugh.
sorry, but just cause u r a mother doesn't mean u lose ur sense of self worth - u push it to the back putting ur children before urself - heck u put ur whole family before ur self, like Jung Bun did. mothers can be jealous of their daughters & vise versa, & being human they can be selfish too, doesn't mean Jung Bun was a bad mother, it for sure doesn't delete all her hard work or the love she had & gave her daughter. if anything she tried her best to safeguard her daughter, without breaking her heart, moving the 1st time & then she tried to make it clear to Yoon Ha that if he didn't love her daughter, he should stop what he was doing.
the fact that Yoon Ha was too desperate to have Jung Bun in his life, even if that meant using Mi Soo is a sad decision he came too, but he also knew that there was NO other way to keep Jung Bun in his life otherwise.
the end was Jung Bun knowing all was lost & choosing suicide by In Bun's hand. she was tired of being her sister's caretaker, watching her daughter have what she prevent herself from having. maybe keeping up the act that all was ok had become too tasking. maybe she couldn't live with Yoon Ha being near but knowing she could never lean on him, cause now being her son-in-law it would be doubly forbidden & it weighted on her soul that she wanted too, but would never dare.....
this was well written & acted, but OMG depressing.
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