Kate

Our Unwritten Seoul is a story that will make you reflect on your complex past, face your everchanging present and hope for a beautiful future.

Different paths that present inspiring life lessons ⇢ the characters and their struggles.

As the Korean title states - it’s Miji’s story. Story of her lost dream, fear for the future and overwhelming present. It’s hard to describe in words how perfectly her character was written. How complex and realistic was that portrayal of her anxiety and depression, how longlasting the effects were. How one can look happy, but suffer inside. How healing is a process that at times might feel like it will never end.

I loved how Mi Ji was not this strong and confident woman with no fears. She bravely helped others, while also feeling deeply insecure about her own shortcomings. She stepped up for others, and backed down for herself. But she changed, at her own pace. What the character shows is that there is no time limit for growth, it’s never too late to start over. It’s never too late to start moving forward.

On the other hand Mi Rae was one that did not know how to stop, take a break, hit the pause. From a young age she felt responsible for acting as the backbone of the whole family - feeling the responsibility, not wanting to disappoint. I honestly loved the contrast between the two sisters - one did not know how to move forward to find herself, while the other could not find herself, because she did not know how to stop.

Then we have Ho Su with his fear of being a burden to others. But what interested me more was where it came from - his egocentric thinking that was at least partially caused by guilt. It’s so human to overestimate the effect we have on people, to see every situation from our point of view and not accept there might be different perspectives. With Ho Su everything started with “I” - I don’t want to burden others, without really thinking if he actually is the burden. What I also really liked is how he never truly grew out of that egocentrism, he just learned how to ask questions and listen to people around him instead of making his own theories and conclusions. I appreciate how the characters did not really get rid of their flaws, but rather learned how to cope and make them affect them less.

Sadly I would not say the writing for them was flawless, though the issue lies in the structure overall, and is a problem in all Korean dramas. Noticed how I wrote nothing about Se Jin? That’s because he was painfully underdeveloped compared to other main characters. Why? Because by all means this show does not have four main characters. It has one - Mi Ji. Mi Ji who is the main hero. Then we have Mi Rae and Ho Su who are second lead characters and Se Jin who is just a supporting one. We need to move on from the idea that being a "love interest" to a main character makes you one too. It does not. That said, it’s not a unique issue for this drama - it’s more of a labeling problem. It might give viewers some false expectations though. It did for me. I kept wishing to see more of Se Jin’s story, to understand him as deeply as I did the other three. It never happened.

Hurt people hurt people ⇢ the relationships that highlighted larger issues, but also the glimpses of hope

Starting from Mi Ji and Mi Rae and how uneven parenting can cause trauma. Mi Ji felt ignored - the lack of expectations placed on her made her not even attempt to move forward. Mi Rae who had all the attention on her, feared disappointing others so she just pushed forward, bore the pain in silence. Often dynamics like that cause resentment between siblings (glad it was not a case here) - one being jealous of the love and attention, and the other being jealous of the freedom and what might seem like trust to always manage and take care of themselves.

On a larger scale, the parenting issue did not start with Ok Hui and how she raised Mi Ji and Mi Rae. Dynamics between her and her mother give a good representation of what generational trauma might look like. How can one become a good mother, when they did not experience what good parenting is as they were children? Where one learns from? How to not make the same mistakes our parents made? But also how not to overcompensate which leads to its own issues...

One relationship I wished to see more was Ho Su and Chung Gu - there was so much more meat here, potential, depth to be explored. The way the characters mirrored each other, but also were a complete contrast. Their interactions, but also the relationship between Mi Ji and Ho Su presented a clear lesson - take your own advice, care for yourself like you care for others, don’t see the traits you appreciate in other people as your flaws. The way we as humans often have way higher standards for ourselves than we have for others - instead of being our own best friends, we turn into our own enemies.

There are different types of love ⇢ romance driven dramas can be more.

Our Unwritten Seoul is for sure leaning more towards the Life over Romance genre. Don’t get me wrong - there is plenty of romance, but it’s never the core of the drama. Romance? No, but love for sure is: love between parents and their children, step parents and their step children, siblings, friends, colleagues. The variety of human interactions, how acts of kindness can change someone’s life.

I loved how they did not segregate the characters into pairings that should only interact with each other. I loved how Ho Su was an important part of Mi Rae’s life. I appreciate how Mi Ji interacted with Se Jin completely outside of his connection to Mi Rae. Everyone was one way or another connected to each other, it did not feel like different plotlines living their own lives never crossing the paths.

Personally, I like that some of my favorite relationships were not romantic ones. Friendship between Kim Ok Hui and Yeom Bun Hong? Amazing. Mentorship between Ho Su and Lee Chung Gu? Food for thought. Kim Ro Sa with Mi Ji and Ho Su - heartwarming. Even Mi Ji and Mi Rae’s interactions with Gyeong Gu and Park Ji Yun were interesting to watch.

What’s more, one has to appreciate the lgbtq representation Gyeong Gu as the clear one, and Ro Sa and Sang Wol a vague (not so vague) one. Personally I think it was clear they were in love with each other and were living as partners not "roommates"...

Bringing the character to life ⇢ acting that never disappoints.

Can Park Bo Young chill a bit? How is she so good? The way she portrayed two characters in a way I had no issue differentiating between them, without making them caricatures of contracting traits? The way Mi Ji and Mi Rae were so different, yet so alike in many aspects. The way she presented complete heartbreak, but also silent pain. The way I could see the boldness, but also hesitation. The way each scene seemed so natural. I have to give props to the whole production team - be it writing, directing, acting or editing, they managed to bring these two characters alive on screen and it did feel like two real people interacting with each other.

Then we have Park Jin Young and I’m amazed with the level of vulnerability he was able to present as Lee Ho Su. Ryu Kyung Soo managed to bring comedy as Han Se Jin, without turning the character into just a comic relief - his character, as funny as he was, was also clearly one of the more mature and wise ones and it showed.

Beauty in simplicity ⇢ production value that compliments, but does not impress.

Here’s the thing - I’m not even mad this show does not stand out in terms of its aesthetics. It’s your typical high value production kdrama with some pretty shots, good lighting, great set design, clean camera work. It works, it compliments the story without being distracting. The writing was so strong you do not need some innovative and creative editing to make it better. Was I especially impressed by any shot? Not really. Sure, I did take a number of screenshots, I did whisper “that’s pretty” a few times as I watched the episodes, but if someone asks me in a month, or even in a week to describe any scene that visually sticked in my mind - I won’t be able to name any.

Perfection does not exists ⇢ what I did not like

I already wrote how unbalanced this drama felt in terms of development, depth and care put into presenting what they claimed were four main characters. It just made me want more and sadly feel a bit disappointed when I did not get it.

The “vague” bit of lgbtq representation. Personally, I do not understand why they could not be more straightforward with it.

The main romance between Mi Ji and Ho Su. Here’s the thing - I really liked their teen romance phase, and I like where they ended. They were losing me a bit during the “misunderstanding” phase of the plot when Mi Ji was pretending to be Mi Rae. On one hand I understand why it was important for them to go about it the way they did, on the other, it was frustrating to watch and a bit inconsistent with how Ho Su was written.

Justice for Se Jin. Did Park Bo Young have it in the contract she can only kiss one male lead? Did they fear viewers might seem uncomfortable with her kissing both, even though she was playing to different characters? We've got an amazing hug, but damn I was waiting for that kiss in the last episode.

Random thoughts to close the review:
Ryu Kyung Soo looked especially hot in his “rich boy in suit doing business” takes.

Overall, what a journey. I feel like I honestly wrote down maybe 20% of my thoughts and feelings about the drama. What it teaches you is, it’s never too late to learn from your past. It’s never too late to improve in the present and it’s never too late to work on your future.