I hope you all had a Happy Mother’s Day, ladies!
It’s hard to believe that I can only think of four dramas showcasing good mothers:
1. Reply 1988 (2015): who could forget the three moms of the Ssangmun-dong town?
2. Racket Boys (2021): the male lead, an ex-badminton prodigy, joins his middle school’s all-boys team coached by his klutzy dad. Meanwhile, his mom is the winning-est coach of the all-girl’s team. If the mom looks vaguely familiar to some of you, it’s because she was Jang Uk’s nanny/maidservant in “Alchemy of Souls.”
3. Our Beloved Summer (2021): the male lead was adopted by a loving and patient couple.
4. Stars Falling From the Sky (2010): the young heroine reluctantly becomes the guardian of her four young siblings after their parents die in an accident. She ditches her selfish and spendthrift ways to take care of them.
Can you think of others? What about this Cdrama “The Love You Give Me”?
Happy Mom’s Day everyone. I sure missed my mom today! When the Camellias Bloom – so many mother relationships. I really enjoyed this drama – would love it even more without the serial killer. Also had a great OST!
Thanks for this thread @pkml3.
I have to agree,… as I go down the list of shows I’ve watched in 2023, there really have been few parents worth mentioning. Perhaps a couple of nice ones but they hardly featured in the show.
‘The Love You Give Me’ has the young couple themselves as parents. Can’t say much about their parenting (they kept passing the kid to friends to keep an eye on), just that the child is precocious, but a good, reasonable, mature kid. This series is one of those that do not give any focus on the earlier generation.
Kdrama ‘Call it Love’ has only 1 good parent out of the mess of 2 families. I thought at first that mum had died as she was mentioned but made no appearance until the middle of the show. The other mother was the pits.
Cdrama: ‘A Rational Life’ (staring Dylan Wang) had 2 mothers. They had more screen time than most other parents. One was good although a bit needy, the other demanding and difficult but on the whole good and became reasonable.
‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’ had a great father but lousy mother.
Jdorama ‘First Love: Hatsukoi’ had the FL’s mum who meant well but made a mistake.
Hope your Mother’s Day was good!
Happy Mother’s Day to all who celebrate it. I liked Do-San’s perceptive mother in Start-Up and both mothers in You Are My Glory, but they were minor characters.
It’s odd to think that statistically there are so few outstanding mothers in the drama-verse. Most of them fall into the categories of ‘saintly but dead’, ‘absent for the child’s good’, ‘requires improvement’, or ‘dreadfully conniving and controlling’. Harrumph. It creates some tension within the screenplay. I suppose in RL none of us is perfect. Personally, I would rather not be saintly but dead. 😇💀
Here’s to the mothers, fathers and guardians who are trying hard to achieve much with and for their families. 💐🍾
Don’t forget the pushy moms in “SKY Castle,” @Fern. They used their kids as their proxy in the high-stakes competition for prestigious college acceptances.
@Fern,
The worst parents are those who scrounge on their kids, leave them to pay their debts, bring chaos and upheaval to their family and abandon them, all kinds of abusers, and suicidal parents. They leave so much trauma, guilt and brokenness behind them.
LOL I would prefer to be considered saintly and alive, not DEAD!
😂 😇 🤣
True, @GB.
The mother in the kdrama adaptation of “Little Women” was nothing like the saintly mother in Louisa May Alcott’s original novel. The mother in the adaptation absconded with the cash her older daughters saved up for the youngest daughter. Her reasoning? She deserved to have a break from her hard-up life. 😒
As for choosing between being a saintly or dead mom, I’d rather be a saint-in-the-making than dead. But if I were a abusive, sadistic, sexually perverted and psycho mother, then please, somebody! just kill me off.
Heheheh! @pkml3. Sounds something like an Advance Medical Directive (signed legal doc that says one can be left to die/do not resuscitate etc, etc if already unconscious or terminally ill). Yours would be an Advance Kill Directive under a whole bunch of conditions.
In case anyone is interested:
https://www.moh.gov.sg/hpp/all-healthcare-professionals/guidelines/GuidelineDetails/advance-medical-directive
Happy Mother’s Day Ladies!!!. Hope you had a lovely day with your loved ones!!! 😀
As far as good Drama mothers I have a soft spot for the stoic albeit full of love mom of the female lead in “Go Back Couple” (2017). That actress has played basically the same character in the few Dramas I have seen her. I don’t mind the recurrence of good archetypes.
On the other hand I loved the male lead’s mother in “Mischievous Kiss: Love in Tokyo”. She was over the top but she knew that Tomoko was a good woman for her son in spite of her chronical clumsiness. She did her best to nurture and bring out the potential of people around her.
I laud all of you Saints-in-the-Making. I may be getting a few grace points for attending a big concert tomorrow with my older daughter. My younger daughter was supposed to go but can’t because of her exam schedule. I hope my feet and temper survive the standing section. My husband will get points for waiting around and then the long drive home.
Do any of you attend concerts or festivals with you children?
Belated Happy Mother’s Day!!! 💐💐💐
I always have 3 occasions whenever the month of May comes, birthday, anniversary and Mother’s Day. 😃 It was nice and simple. ☺️
@Fern, fighting! 👊🏼 Enjoy the concert with eldest daughter 🥰 and make sure to give your hubby a reward. 😉
@GB, yes, Quanquan is a mature kid. I wonder how much time he spent with Cao Mu and Dr Rudji when Min Hui was busy at work😊 Come to think of it, they didn’t introduce any grandparents.
Happy belated Mother’s Day!!!
Reply 1988 was the one show I thought about too.
Though anyone watched Hi,Bye Mama? I cried so much throughout the show, both the for birth mother who died during childbirth (and became a ghost) and the step mother who was a nurse that witnessed it all sacrificially took over the role of the mother for the baby.
Actually I have to say this mother of all korean female lead daughters, Kim Mi-Kyung! She is the mother of Dr.Cha, Crash Course in Romance, Hi Bye Mama (again!), 18 Again, a lot of Park MinYoung’s dramas and more.
Kim Mi-Kyung — Her ex-cop computer hacker character in Healer is one of my favourite roles by anyone ever.
@Fern, when I chose ‘Ahjumma’ as my online name of sorts, it was Healer’s Ahjumma that I had in mind. Loved the shock in Healer’s face when he met her for the first time in her bag lady getup. Nothing could be further from the image that a great, master hacker should have. LOL.
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