Drama Discussion: The Virtual Bride ♥︎

Decided to start watching this drama it was a public holiday for Deepavali. Drama watching is like considered a relaxing activity for me ^^

So the drama I watched, KBS's 별난 며느라 The Virtual Bride, also known as, The Eccentric Daughter-in-Law.

I was searching for a drama to watch and this plot caught my attention. But of course, I was more interested to see Dasom's acting too. The whole idea of idols not being able to act sort of piqued my interest to begin watching this drama.

The description on Wikipedia reads:

In order to boost her flagging popularity, former idol group singer Oh In-young (Kim Dasom) agrees to appear in a television reality show that pairs up fake mothers- and daughters-in-law. In-young's partner is Yang Choon-ja (Go Doo-shim), the matriarch of a long-standing traditional clan, and they end up hating each other on the show. But as fate would have it, the two later end up becoming mother and daughter-in-law for real.

It summarises the drama nicely and that's really what the whole drama was about. Despite knowing the outcome, I wanted to see how the writers would develop the idea and surprisingly, I was not disappointed. I'm usually quite interested in the process rather than the outcome.

The main themes for this drama would include: virtual vs reality, family & family hierarchy, mother-in-laws, good vs bad intention. Although this themes do sound rather heavy, it was not difficult to watch this drama and I finished it in a day. Yes, you read that right. I started it in the morning and was finished watching it just after dinner.

Without further ado, let's begin this drama discussion!

Note: This post will contain spoilers so for those who have not watched the drama, you may not want to continue reading.

The Characters

Oh In Young played by Sistar's Dasom is the female lead for this drama. The character is similar to Dasom's real life job of being a singer in a four member girl group. Oh In Young's character although is rather feisty and also rather blunt, she has a kind and respectful nature. Due to the decreasing popularity of her group, her company's director gave her no choice but to film this television program where she is a virtual daughter-in-law to the Cha family. She grew closer to the Cha family, when she was forced to stay with them as she needed to make a break in the entertainment industry otherwise her company would not re-contract with her.

On a side note, I thought Dasom's acting wasn't too bad. I read some articles questioning the director's choice and saying that there were many other actresses to cast. I think that she portrayed the role of Oh In Young well. I guess there's quite a lot of negativity regarding acting idols. They have to prove themselves even more so now after some awkward acting idols were casted.

The mother-in-law, Yang Choon Ja, is played by Go Doo Shim. Honestly, I didn't even know her name since everyone in the show referred to her as either eomonim or omma. Her character is a rather complex one. Towards the end, I realised that she sacrificed her life for her family and everything she does is for the sake of her family. It was really sweet to see how she changes in the end. Maybe this drama is trying to get it out there to all Korean mother-in-laws to change their perspective on things?

The virtual husband, Cha Myeong Suk played by Ryu Soo Young, is a... nerd. He's really quite a noob. He's an adjunct math professor at a university and he is very serious about his work. His mother would do anything for him to get the best. That is how she agreed to film the virtual mother-in-law program as she was told it would help him become a full time professor. He is also much older than Oh In Young, though it wasn't specified how much older he is. We only see that Oh In Young addresses him as ahjussi throughout the drama.

These few characters are the main characters although the other characters also play an important role in the development of the plot. Since it's a family drama, the storyline is centered around the same few family members.

The Plot

The plot really does thicken in this drama. I guess that's how most family dramas are like, there's always an expectable build up in the plot. With regards to this drama, there were a few unpredictable peaks which made it more captivating.

The first theme that was quite prominent throughout the drama would be the virtual and real aspect. It's probably one of the main themes as it's often mentioned. It was introduced at the beginning when Oh In Young started filming as a virtual daughter-in-law with the Cha family. Later on, it was questioned whether her feelings were real or just existing in virtual reality. I guess the idea was really a spoof of We Got Married.

Another big theme would be the family & family hierarchy theme. It comes quite similar to the mother-in-law theme. It's probably a significant part of the Korean culture although I'm not sure if it should be referred to as hierarchy though. I guess in every Korean family, age and ranking is seen as something important. Like how the daughter-in-law is treated and how the mother-in-law should be like. It was interesting that the writers gave viewers a chance to do a cross comparison between the Cha family with the Cha family's daughter who got married off. I'm sure if you watch this drama, you would understand what I mean.

In this day and age, most women aren't as traditional as before and obviously they wouldn't want to listen to their mother-in-laws. Through this show the reality of what Korean daughter-in-laws face. Since it's on KBS, they could be trying to get the message out there to all mother-in-laws that they have to keep up with times and maybe try to stop treating their daughter-in-laws badly. In any case, Korea is still a country that follows closely to traditions so it might take years for the mindset to change. Also, I would think it's quite common to find a mummy's boy husbands there. They had a mummy's boy character in this drama so if you would like to see for yourself, I suggest checking this drama out. Though I really felt a lot of frustration while watching it. 

The last theme which I pointed out would be the good vs bad theme. Like I've mentioned earlier, the writers had two sets of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law teams to allow us to compare. Of course the Cha family's mother-in-law eventually came around and turned out not to be so bad. Probably turning into a good example for all Korean mother-in-laws out there. Not only that, there were other instances where good vs bad intentions were shown. I guess such scenarios make the drama more exciting and engages the viewers more. 

The Ending

I would say that this drama had a pretty well rounded happy ending. They tied up all the loose ends and although they didn't conclude with the male and female leads getting married but it was implied so that's good enough for me. I used to dislike such open endings as it left people wondering what would happen, I used to think like what if they don't actually end up together. Then I guess most viewers wouldn't think as negatively as me so that made me start appreciating open endings more.

On the whole, I still would think this drama isn't too bad but unfortunately I don't think it was very popular. I had difficulty finding photos to decorate this post. It might seem more bare than other drama reviews.

I shall end with the trailer. Enjoy!