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I am an avid reader of super heroine type books such as Sarah J Maas or RF Kuang (poppy war) who always feature extra powerful female with magical suerpowers which can banish kingdoms. It’s nice to read that.
But I also feel from a social perspective the reason why society is patriarchal is because women are considered physically weaker and smaller and ergo they are inferior to men. Which is why I was musing that what if a book author or a drama author wrote a female character who was actually physically smaller and weaker but nonetheless still worthy of thoughts of equality and social respect. And it’s hard to find these characters who embody feminine characters whilst still worthy of equality. I would consider Pachinko feminist since this was about a female who stood against prejudices in her own away. (I read the book did not watch the show so I don’t know what the show showed). But good to discuss this issue and understand how we have differing viewpoints 😊

I agree with you. However people perceive feminism to be anti male somehow despite shouting from the rooftops that feminism is not anti male.
However I don’t think this drama is feminist at all since heavily it uses the trope “not like other girls. “ she is not delicate or feminine, and all delicate and feminine characters are a bit manipulative. This drama is just “IS”. That’s all. A lighthearted breezy fun drama with a whacky oddball heroine and a cute non toxic male lead.

At least then not a jealous melodramatic nonsense of two women fighting over one loserish man please. Have had enough of those… in Bollywood (usually starring sixty year old Shahrukh with twenty year old heroines fighting over him 🤦‍♀️) and Korean dramas and Chinese dramas (cue concubines fighting).

Not really because this drama is an honest critique on Korean society. There are three instances of them showing very negative women prototype characters too
1) the stalker fan base of the male lead who are slut shaming the female lead and totally try to “killer her existence” socially
2) the opportunistic first girl friend of the male lead
3) the manipulative female lead in the last drama the male lead was with who sells him out
On the other hand the female lead is presented with a group of male friends / acquaintances including her colleagues and ex boyfriend who do support her. So there you go, this is a balanced drama. Not too sour not too sweet.
PS : this is no dystopian anti male drama such as the Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood, this is very much a cute romantic story

100 💯 agree to your points. However if the reverse were true where he was 20 and ill and she was 40 and old, people would have opposed vehemently.
I personally love marriage contract with UEE where she is 20 years younger and she is dying too and it’s my top 5 all time favourite dramas.
But what the other commentor and I are sharing is that people have a more open mind if the guy is older and vice versa the comments are vicious. You can check out crash course in romance comments to understand what I am talking about. Just read them once…
this is the dichotomy we are talking about. Both dramas airing simultaneously one 1) both leads are above 40 and age difference is around 10 very mean comments 2) lead one is 20 and one is 45 and the comments are largely respectful. The only difference is that the male is older and hence more socially acceptable and the second pairing where female lead is older is being met with derision and ridicule.

That’s because he is a guy. You should have read the vicious comments on crash course in romance even though they both are above 40, because the female lead was older. Here the age difference is 20 years even then no problem. Age is not an issue if the guy is older and that’s been the case for thousands of years now. Remember King Arthur and his young wife or Othello from Shakespeare or Mr Kneightly from Emma or Rhett Butler from gone with the wind. They are always 20 to 30 years older and people are ok with that. Personally I don’t like this pairing but I do like Mr Kneightley. I also did like the pairing of Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. I like the old Hollywood classics where the male lead is much older. But in modern settings it’s a bit harder especially if the female lead is barely an adult.

I wish it was GL. The one that Kim Tae Ri was in was based on a book called fingersmith which was written in 2002. I was in high school then and remember how shocked I was when the girl love was exposed in the last quarter of the book. It was not so common then. I also remember then going back and reading most of Sarah Waters’ books. She and Margaret Atwood (Handmaid Tale) write awesome stuff.
Anyways I digress. I would love it if Han So Hee was obsessed with SHK and it’s a dark thriller. Just hoping. Both have done avant-garde edgy dramas off late so this would be awesome.

I agree there would probably be no happy ending. I just wish this drama ended with some message for example she died but successfully brought about a legislation in the area where the school was so that no new kids get bullied and the cycle of horror stops.

I think it was more shown as a way of how desperate the mother was to break them up that she wanted to play that dirty. Which is why even her husband got fed up. She tried to play mind games with the female lead and that’s what the drama tried to show. For example one scene where she says I was wrong you are exactly like your mom. Until the last few minutes she did not even apologise to her. So to me it was less of a trope and more of a “mind games played by a woman who is up against the wall.”

Most of them have the Leonardo Di Caprio complex. “I will be older, fatter and maybe not so good looking myself as a man, but I wanted to act with and date with actresses younger than 25 if I am a famous actor. I am entitled to do so. Does not matter if I myself am pushing 40.”

Oh did not know… yes but I do agree to your point though… which dramas are they?

Dude Koreans don’t. It’s the international viewers who do. Especially those from more conservative countries. Because Koreans are ok with this paring and this drama is doing very well there.

Even when she is young and attractive it’s not the end. Have you see the mental health issues very beautiful young girls have. People constantly staring and them trying to keep up looking prettier everyday while being aware that everyone ages, it drives so many women mentally ill. Why can’t we just not focus on how women even young women look. I in fact personally know women who have attempted sui@#$& because they just can’t handle it anymore all this pressure and creepy men etc.

People made it a point to do an absolute witch hunting because she dared to be 50. The comments flung at her were terrible and even now they continue to do so.

I totally agree. Crash course in romance was like a lesson in misogyny. I know that Chinese have this saying that women are stale cake beyond 25, you know what Indians say. They say “ mard to satha mein bhi patha hai” meaning a “man is super attractive even when he is sixty”. All Bollywood heroes are 55 plus and none of the heroines are past 30. This trend will keep continuing globally if we don’t talk about it

I agree… have you seen the comments on crash course in romance

I hope so too, but feel like it’s a futile hope. Let’s wait …

You are not alone. Many of us got creeped out.

I think it was the author of this drama who introduced the female lead as a child and he as her guardian. So it’s a very parent child relationship. In Jane Eyre movie, the leads do have a large gap in real life too. However, Jane meets Mr Rochester after she is a young lady of 18 and completely taking care of herself. So it was not weird.
If you do get a chance to watch the movie do so. She is a phenomenal actress and I loved her in Alice, Crimson Peak and this movie.

Watch it till the end, you may revise your rating up. The reason why I gave this a high rating since this drama felt like karma (the mother got back what she dished out. It felt like justice. ) and redemption (the female lead decided to let go of her revenge and sacrificed her life). I also liked the end where she voluntarily resigns even though people were still leaving her as a teacher because there are consequences to her action and she took responsibility for it.
To me , It’s one of those dramas where you go “huh what was the writer thinking and when you think back you ate like “oh so this was what the writer meant”. But it’s purely my perspective. If she did not resign in the end and sacrifice her life, I would have rated this drama the same as you