Mental Health Care
As much as I loved it as a narrative and jumping off point for meaningful discussion, I have to point out the conspicuous lack of mental health care. Suicide prevention 101 is that you don't yell at the person and you escort them directly to a mental health care facility or hospital, never sending them off alone after. That may sound like splitting hairs but it gets to my next - and more significant point - which is that the kind of depression suicidal people have would require medication and intensive treatment because it is not just a mood or a temporary state of mind. It is a disease with physiological causes and it's so hard to recover from because even when you "know" that life is worth living and you are worthy of a good life, you can't "feel" it. Even if you can drive the bad thoughts away temporarily, they keep coming back. Not to mention the strong correlation with other mental illnesses like bipolar disorder. All attempted suicide cases or people who are at-risk for suicide need to follow up with long-term care to really heal. Reducing the stigma around mental health care, helping build people's trust in it, and making it affordable need to be included in any critical analysis or deep dive into suicide. I recently watched Dreath's Game and I found Tomorrow to be much more empathetic but both focus too much on trying to guilt people out of killing themselves. Considering your loved ones is certainly important, but scaring people with threats of hell or eternal punishment is not the right approach. Daily Dose of Sunshine and Doctor Slump are the only two K-dramas I can think of that portray depression and suicide treatment accurately.
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