The Woman Who Plays (2024)

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After a fairly long time this was a light romcom that brings back the classic old Kdrama feel. The main draw is of course Uhm Tae-goo, a genius move casting him as the titular sweet mobster. The acting from all characters including the villains was just so good it smoothed over flaws here and there. I blame the bad old summary section spoiling the identity crisis for the live watch because initially the drama was building it up well till everyone pointed out it was already revealed in the summary given. This drama is based on a webnovel which also has a webtoon based on it which is incomplete and its fun sifting through both and comparing for strengths and weaknesses of the source and the drama(for eg: as kids they were 10 and 13 in the webtoon but 7 and 13 in the drama). Theres some biblical allusions which aren't too deep. Much of the plot followed an idea of subversion which sometimes worked much better but sometimes weakened the plot of the drama.

Uhm Tae-goo and Han Sun-hwa had more chemistry in Save Me 2 I feel- but that wasn't a romance drama. Their acting in My Sweet Mobster was genuine in a way it made the drama that much sweeter than it would have been with the usual lot and their relation comes out nice and strong. Of all their interactions the drunken playing in playground remains the best and highlights the duality of both. I love the FL's character in terms of her integrity and principles about children's content- it was one of the well done messages of this drama. She also has this strength and maturity you can tell she faced a lot of hardship in life and doesn't let anything make her compromise though it makes her more like a mother to the cast. She was also frank and clear about drawing lines and deserved more honest communication by people around her(which is why Deers and her bond is the strongest). The found family aspect steadily became stronger in the second half than the romance once the couple actually start dating and they grew too shy, with odd moments of immature possessiveness. The online comment war was hilarious however. The SML came across as annoying in his interactions with the FL ever since he said he was never rejected in his blind date of the past as it painted a poor picture of hidden ego and he kept acting two-faced. The character himself was written to be nice and had many things that make for good relations but something always felt jarring. The SML however was great when dealing with the bad gangsters though his thawing towards the main group was a tad marred because even that came only because of personal biases because it was connected to FL than in a properly objective manner.

I may have started this for Uhm Tae-goo but I fell head over heels for Yang Hyun-min: Jae-soo was the greatest. Ever. May nothing separate Jae-soo and Man-ho for eternity. Hong-ki won me over with his straightforwardness and he became my third favourite. The way they love and support each and every one of their found family was beautiful. I love Miho's actress and thus I easily moved past her and her beau's archaic trope to like the straightforwardness(Miho), and the impulsive couple they made. Her parents were hilarious. The found family made of the Deers getting their second chance is however where one of the biggest issues lie- the Deers needed far more plot dedicated to them than was. Their lesson shown in absurd song and dance sequence that was as cringe as Mini Eonni's videos but they could have used the idea of lessons to reveal more about each of the Deers themselves(like in the webtoon) which would have bolstered Eun-ha's choice of future kid's content as while their background was clear to her, it was only vaguely implied for the audience. The message part of this KDrama about not judging ex-cons was weakened by the superficial manner it was handled- oversimplification the likes of which I'd expect of small children's cartoons. The choice to erase the original ML's face scar and tattoos was a different type of choice I get but adds to that feeling of appearances nonetheless defining things. I know KDramas are pretty black and white and harsh about even petty crimes and this is one small step but to me its too puerile to make the point especially the way they overdid the reactions of children and 'normal citizens'(strawmanning much?). The lack of actual plot for Deers and the Cat gang members was a big part of this. Yena too needed more screentime- I liked her in the last few episodes but don't quite get her in the first half. Yena is a foil to Eun-ha the way Yang-hee is to Ji-hwan. But for both the 'bad' ones the logic behind their characters is weak and shallow.

On the thematic front Yang-hee is a proper villain. His ridiculousness fit the overall absurdity of this drama and at the same time his sinister expressions and pettiness underlined the dark gangster world. He alone showed wanton criminal tendencies beyond an aesthetic. A foil to Ji-hwan in every aspect from poor leadership to being the black yin to his white yang, an epitome of scrappy street crime that won't just disappear and fit in to be good for the sake of being inherently good. He however sucks at being a gangster unlike Ji-hwan who fits the life like a glove. But it was surprisingly impossible to hate Yang-hee even when he almost kills people. The drug arc, with those kid's candies that are exactly like Yang-hee's duality, was dark but well done as a serious arc and the Taek guy was used well. But when the father comes in fulltime, the gangster part becomes aimless outside of Ji-hwan's father issues and undermines everything Ji-hwan had been established as being with backstories so far- into a bluff almost. The march of the goons was brilliant cinema but empty. All tiger moms and dragon dads are the same so its not very gangster at all(in webtoon he has Ji-hwan kidnapped at 13 and with Yang-hee trains him to be a gangster since that young age). Other significance of the dad's- to humanize and turn up Yang-hee's resentment to the max with his vacillating treatment. It pays off when he finally explodes. If he doesn't snap and strike, Ji-hwan can't show his father that its time to give up because his father would never let such issues go beyond a certain line(honestly it might have worked better if they did a temporary hatelliance like the two in Doctor Prisoner to get their lives out of the dad's web and fixed the dad's attitude with less bloodshed). Seo Tae-pyeong couldn't make up his mind if he wanted to be a bloody gangster whom his men feared getting punched around by(patterned kkangpae shirt) or the honorable mafia(hat+dark suit) who follows hypocritical codes he isn't consistent about. He was a power broker according to his character page rather than the assumed violent gangster. Non-organized-crime characters have been deadlier than him in other KDramas so why are people scared to death? The father being redeemed because of being 'father' was kindof shallow because of how they initially framed the backstory and the mother being on the run from him for decades(again different from the webtoon).

Similarly for Yang-hee too, they didn't have much of an idea outside of Cain and Abel which doesn't work because Yang-hee isn't an adopted brother but a much older pretentious right-hand man so his monologue sounding like daddy issues makes very little sense. His character page calls him a petty cat burglar who was groomed into a gangster by the dad and they could have played this as him being a weak financial criminal instead of an inefficient low tier goon turned puppet leader with no bark nor claws? Didn't make sense why he was kept on as a second-in-command in name only after he tried to kill the same child ten years ago and has always been a volatile liability. Yang-hee was also if Lim Chul-soo was playing Ahn Gi-seok again, more bumbling but evil and more of a gay punchline, dressed like a royal cat granny with a villainous perm. His final look was aptly gangster and made him look like discount Giovanni(he already had a not-Persian) which would make a Pokemon knockoff theme with his not-Pikachu tattooed goon. The Cat Gang theme was nicely "over"done since the four actors end up very much resembling cats and their gang's everything revolving around cats was funny. Il-yeong's equivalent, the extremely efficient Kang-gil, while really intriguing was also left a blank slate and it was hard to tell his real feelings which keep getting contradicted by his contradictory actions and inactions. That is, aside from his relation with Yang-hee with whom he has whole conversations between shared glances alone(mainly over Ji-hwan) and represents a long cycle of boss-underboss abuse.

Overall, the romance and sweet interpersonal relations win in feeling genuine even when tropey and its one of the best found-families in Kdramas in a long time. The drama itself has a lighter vibe to it with so much heart, and is not too cliched but old-school nonetheless. One major thing to add is how creative the concept of the Hit Like and Subscribes were. I absolutely love the OST and background music. The song Beautiful Woman's music in Ep 1 playing for the Deers scene and then the ringtone... I really liked the opening song, Everything, Ring My Heart, The Way and See the Moon are so beautiful. Quite a few of the scenes had a good cinematic vibe and the slapstick comedy was mostly good. They should have kept the darker part of it much lighter and comical instead and characterization oriented. And added a more clear redemption for Kang-gil, all based on the scope of how far they wanted to actually take things with the characters, instead of trying their hand at mixing various darker genres just for the sake of trying them out.

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