This review may contain spoilers
A MASTERPIECE IN MAKING ✨
Park Hae Young has worked her magic yet again. After masterpieces like “My Mister” and “My Liberation Notes,” she returns with “We Are All Trying Here.”
Actor Koo Kyo Hwan, whom we know from “D.P. 1 & 2,” plays the character of Hwang Dong Man, and Go Youn Jung, known for “Can This Love Be Translated?”, “Resident Playbook,” and “Alchemy of Souls 1 & 2,” plays the role of Byeon Eun A in this drama.
Honestly, when I started it, I wasn’t sure if it was going to click with me or not. It’s unlike the usual dramas we watch,there is no superhuman ML or invincible FL...What we see instead is a deep dive into the very realistic and harsh world of the film industry. When I first started the drama, I didn’t know who the writer was, but I got this uncanny feeling of similarity to “My Mister” and “My Liberation Notes,” and lo and behold, it's the same writer!✨🤗
Unlike the typical K-drama style, which often leans toward a kind of fictional utopia, this drama dives headfirst into the realities of the film world. There are no purely black-and-white characters; every character falls into the grey area, just like most of us in the real world...The characters represent complex emotions like: greed, ambition, jealousy, inferiority, competitiveness, hardship, and the deep desire to be noticed. Each of them has something they love, something they want, and something they are anxious about...
OUR ML & FL
Our ML, Hwang Dong Man, represents the struggle of someone who wants to pursue what he loves but hasn’t gotten his break yet, even after 20 years in the industry. He’s an aspiring director and the only one in the famous film industry group “The Eight” who hasn’t debuted...Despite this, he shows up to face the world with a smile, masking his anxiety with a talkative facade. It’s his way of maintaining a sense of normalcy in a harsh and often demeaning environment...
He’s a character that may be hard to fully understand at first. He uses his love for food and his talkativeness as shields to fill the void within him...Watching his peers move forward while he remains stagnant, he inevitably feels jealousy and anxiety, which sometimes cause him to behave unpleasantly towards his colleagues, friends, and those around him. Still, his struggles make him someone we can’t help but root for...
On the other hand, Byeon Eun A, a producer at Choi Film, is almost the complete opposite...Instead of expressing her emotions outwardly, she internalizes them, letting them build up until they manifest as anxiety in the form of nosebleeds. She reminds me of Lee Ji An (played by IU) from “My Mister,” especially in the way she moves through life with a deadpan expression and eyes that seem to lack warmth...There’s a sense of hollowness and emptiness within her that reflects in her gaze, almost as if her eyes are a mirror to her inner world. She’s known as “The Axe” due to her sharp screenplay reviews and used to be extremely cutthroat in her criticism. However, something happened about a year ago that caused her to change...It seems to be connected to her ex-boyfriend, though the details are still unclear since only two episodes have aired...This is something that will likely give us deeper insight into her character as the story progresses...
Both characters carry their own struggles, and it’s through these struggles that they begin to connect...
OTHER CHARACTERS
Park Gyeong Se, played by Oh Jung Se, is one of “The Eight” and is easily provoked by Dong Man’s blunt and talkative nature. After his movie receives bad reviews, he blames Dong Man for it. He represents someone who externalizes blame, and for him, Dong Man becomes the scapegoat...
His wife, Ko Hye Jin, CEO of Gobak Film (played by Kang Mal Geum), is loyal yet grounded. She’s the kind of person who will show you the truth when you’re wrong. She understands Dong Man’s situation while also recognizing her husband’s tendency to shift blame. Tho I have to say the way she kicks out Dong Man out of their group activities and his brother too when he confronts them about it I found to be very harsh especially the sign outside the restaurant "Dong Man and his brother not allowed here" is very bullying and discriminatory...But I guess she has her flaws too...
Choi Dong Hyeon, CEO of Choi Film (played by Choi Won Young), comes across as narcissistic and self-absorbed. He looks down on others and doesn’t like seeing anyone who might outshine him...
Hwang Jin Man, played by Park Hae Joon (“When Life Gives You Tangerines”), is Dong Man’s older brother. He works hard and struggles but deeply cares for Dong Man and wants the best for him. While he may seem brusque at first, his actions reveal his genuine concern and love for his brother...
There’s still so much more to explore in their stories, and I’m honestly looking forward to learning more about each of them as the series progresses!😇✨
Actor Koo Kyo Hwan, whom we know from “D.P. 1 & 2,” plays the character of Hwang Dong Man, and Go Youn Jung, known for “Can This Love Be Translated?”, “Resident Playbook,” and “Alchemy of Souls 1 & 2,” plays the role of Byeon Eun A in this drama.
Honestly, when I started it, I wasn’t sure if it was going to click with me or not. It’s unlike the usual dramas we watch,there is no superhuman ML or invincible FL...What we see instead is a deep dive into the very realistic and harsh world of the film industry. When I first started the drama, I didn’t know who the writer was, but I got this uncanny feeling of similarity to “My Mister” and “My Liberation Notes,” and lo and behold, it's the same writer!✨🤗
Unlike the typical K-drama style, which often leans toward a kind of fictional utopia, this drama dives headfirst into the realities of the film world. There are no purely black-and-white characters; every character falls into the grey area, just like most of us in the real world...The characters represent complex emotions like: greed, ambition, jealousy, inferiority, competitiveness, hardship, and the deep desire to be noticed. Each of them has something they love, something they want, and something they are anxious about...
OUR ML & FL
Our ML, Hwang Dong Man, represents the struggle of someone who wants to pursue what he loves but hasn’t gotten his break yet, even after 20 years in the industry. He’s an aspiring director and the only one in the famous film industry group “The Eight” who hasn’t debuted...Despite this, he shows up to face the world with a smile, masking his anxiety with a talkative facade. It’s his way of maintaining a sense of normalcy in a harsh and often demeaning environment...
He’s a character that may be hard to fully understand at first. He uses his love for food and his talkativeness as shields to fill the void within him...Watching his peers move forward while he remains stagnant, he inevitably feels jealousy and anxiety, which sometimes cause him to behave unpleasantly towards his colleagues, friends, and those around him. Still, his struggles make him someone we can’t help but root for...
On the other hand, Byeon Eun A, a producer at Choi Film, is almost the complete opposite...Instead of expressing her emotions outwardly, she internalizes them, letting them build up until they manifest as anxiety in the form of nosebleeds. She reminds me of Lee Ji An (played by IU) from “My Mister,” especially in the way she moves through life with a deadpan expression and eyes that seem to lack warmth...There’s a sense of hollowness and emptiness within her that reflects in her gaze, almost as if her eyes are a mirror to her inner world. She’s known as “The Axe” due to her sharp screenplay reviews and used to be extremely cutthroat in her criticism. However, something happened about a year ago that caused her to change...It seems to be connected to her ex-boyfriend, though the details are still unclear since only two episodes have aired...This is something that will likely give us deeper insight into her character as the story progresses...
Both characters carry their own struggles, and it’s through these struggles that they begin to connect...
OTHER CHARACTERS
Park Gyeong Se, played by Oh Jung Se, is one of “The Eight” and is easily provoked by Dong Man’s blunt and talkative nature. After his movie receives bad reviews, he blames Dong Man for it. He represents someone who externalizes blame, and for him, Dong Man becomes the scapegoat...
His wife, Ko Hye Jin, CEO of Gobak Film (played by Kang Mal Geum), is loyal yet grounded. She’s the kind of person who will show you the truth when you’re wrong. She understands Dong Man’s situation while also recognizing her husband’s tendency to shift blame. Tho I have to say the way she kicks out Dong Man out of their group activities and his brother too when he confronts them about it I found to be very harsh especially the sign outside the restaurant "Dong Man and his brother not allowed here" is very bullying and discriminatory...But I guess she has her flaws too...
Choi Dong Hyeon, CEO of Choi Film (played by Choi Won Young), comes across as narcissistic and self-absorbed. He looks down on others and doesn’t like seeing anyone who might outshine him...
Hwang Jin Man, played by Park Hae Joon (“When Life Gives You Tangerines”), is Dong Man’s older brother. He works hard and struggles but deeply cares for Dong Man and wants the best for him. While he may seem brusque at first, his actions reveal his genuine concern and love for his brother...
There’s still so much more to explore in their stories, and I’m honestly looking forward to learning more about each of them as the series progresses!😇✨
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