Our Blues

Network: Netflix

Country: Korean

Director: Kim Kyoo Tae

Released: 2022

Genre: Drama, Romance

Description: The story of the lives and struggles of a diverse community of hard-working blue-collar characters living on Jeju Island.  All of their stories interconnect with each other as they all grew up or went to high school together.

    The first plot of characters are Han Su (Cha Seung Won) and Eun hui (Lee Jeong Eun).  They flash back to high school where she is this awkward unpopular girl who has a crush on the popular boy.  She plucks up her courage on a school trip and professes her love to him and kisses him. 

    I really loved the interactions with them both because he stood up for her when the other kids were teasing her about him and he always called her cute.  It warmed my cynical heart.  Flash forward to when they are in their forties and meeting again for the first time.

     He is this tragic, dejected father who is in debt up to his eyeballs and proceeds to take advantage of this friend’s affection for him.  I was really hoping she would finally get her happy ending with him but he turned out to be an asshole trying to use her for money yet she still wanted to help him.  I really felt her heartache when finally saying goodbye to her first love.

    Another ongoing story line is about two men In Gwon and Ho Sik who were friends since junior high school and always had each other’s back when the other needed them.  They have a falling out in their late 20’s that make them hate each other and are always at odds with each other.  

    I love their story line because the emotions are very raw between them.  They are single fathers, In Gwon has a son and Ho Sik has a daughter that fall in love in the last year of high school.  They are both smart kids who have bright futures.  That is until they get pregnant. 

     It was heartbreaking to see these fathers fall apart from this devastation and what it meant for their stubborn kids who refuse to have an abortion.  I think I cried the whole time for them.  The father’s eventually repair their rift and really step up for their kids. When they say it takes a village to raise a child its really true in this case. The acting is outstanding in this drama!

                                        **I really want to see this family happy at the end of all of this…….

    Dong Seok (Lee Byeong Heon) who is the illegitimate son of a woman who was a mistress and was regularly beaten by his father’s legitimate sons, helps a young girl Seon-a (Shin Min Ah) who lives with her alcoholic father and his brother who often fight after a night of drinking.  Her father ultimately drove his car into the sea and killed himself while his daughter watched.

    Dong Seok’s mother, who is dying of cancer is trying to get her sons forgiveness but he will not even acknowledge her and calls her Aunty as he never felt loved by her.  He doesn’t realize his mother is sick which breaks my heart.

He has a love hate relationship with Seon-a.  Seems like she always did things to disappoint him or maybe he just didn’t understand her.  She comes back into his life and tries to commit suicide by jumping off the end of a jetty.  He hates her but still shows up for her time and time again.   

     We find out that she had been married with a young child but suffered from depression so was unable to take care of her child and ultimately because she will not seek help her husband divorces her and get custody of their child.  This causes her to go back to Jeju and ultimately jump off the pier. 

   He really shows up for her in every way to help her with her depression and to get custody of her son.  He falls for her all over again.  I would love to see this couple get together.  They are so good for each other. He really cut to the heart of the matter when he told that she needed to live because if her son saw her kill herself he would follow in her foot steps as she follows her fathers footsteps  (basically in a nutshell).

**I really love this actor Lee Byeong Heon but its really irritating that he plays younger rolls and all of the female leads are like 10-15 years younger than him.  It doesn’t suit him at all.

     Jung Joon (Kim Woo Bin) who is a hot young boat captain and Young Ok (Han Ji Min) who is a pretty mysterious Haenyeo. She shows up in town having moved around a lot and tells inconsistent stories about her past.  Their relationship heats up but he’s not sure he can trust her because everyone around him is telling him not to.

    There are some side stories with minor characters about loyalty, an abusive wife, child abandonment and a sibling with a disability.  I was pleasantly surprised to see several down syndrome adults in this series.  It’s the first time seeing that in a K-Drama.  The story about loyalty in friendship really got me in the feels about how we can take advantage of longtime friendships or people that are always in our lives.  It’s a great reminder to be honest and kind to those people.   

  ** My overall rating is 10/10 they really tackled a lot of social injustices in this series, The acting was top notch and writing even better! If you don’t have Netflix this can be watched here:

  https://asianc.sh/drama-detail/our-blues