The Good Bad Mother (2023)

The Truth is in the Title

The Title tells you what you need to know. The Mother here is both Good and Bad in many ways and at different times. Her Husband was brutally murdered while she was still pregnant with her first and only son. In her mind, she has one and only one really important job. She must raise a son who is extremely well educated and can go on to aspire to an important and powerful job, in spite of living in the countryside on a pig farm. As he grows into his teen years, she allows him almost no free time or fun time, because he must study. She does not let him spend time drawing, even if it his favorite pastime, because it will not lead to a position of power in which he can deal with the people and their ilk who killed her Husband and his Father, who he has never met. She doesn't allow him to go on a field trip, and when he fills out the form, giving the reason why he can't go, he writes down "Bad Mom". He goes on to become a Prosecutor with a rather cold demeanor. His is involved in a traffic accident, has a head injury, loses his memories and reverts back to the mentality of a 7 year old. She is his sole caretaker and has moved to a new village where she has a pig farm. Initially, the villagers decide they don't like her because the farm is "smelly" though in truth, it is pretty pristine. She is determined to bring her son back to "normal". He does physical therapy to help him escape his wheelchair, for instance. But when she finds that she has a death sentence disease, she becomes even more powerfully determined that her son's condition will improve so that he can care for himself when she is gone. She does some horrible and shocking things to him to prove he can leave the chair behind. She is not abusive because she doesn't love him, but because she loves him too much, and is terrified what will happen to him when she is gone. He has a friend who was born in the same place on the same day that he was, and they fall in love, but she leaves the area, saying she is going to the US. She leaves twins in her mother's care. He befriends the twins, and in his 7-year-old state, loves to play with them. More happens - but I will let you find that out for yourself. This is not really an unhappy story and is filled with love and goodness. He manages to recover quite a bit from his injuries, and he really loves his mother. On her Bad days, when she was desperate to make him self-sufficient, she was "Bad". On good days, when she cared for him in her Loving way, she was Good. She was both.
The bottom line is that I loved this show, even though it brought me to tears more than once. Lee Do Hyun was exceptional as the son, and Ra Mi Ran played the loving Mother with the desperate and abusive actions with love, strength and determination. The twins were outstanding! I don't know where in the world the Koreans find children with this kind of ability. His girlfriend , who reappears, was perfect and all of the rest of the cast were outstanding as well. Even the pigs did a good job, with one of them having a little bigger role. I recommend this show with no reservations at all. It is outstanding and a "must watch" in my opinion.

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