To Watch:
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Cast:
Han Hye Jin as Seo Jung Eun
Kim So Hyun as young Jung Eun
Joo Sang Wook as Lee Young Jo
Lee Min Ho as young Young Jo
Kim Min Jung as Han Yoo Kyung
Yoon Jung Eun as young Yoo Kyung
Seo Do Young as Choi Kang Woo
Extended Cast
Cha Hwa Yun as Yoon Myung Ja / Lee Ae Rin
Kim Ha Eun as Yang Mi Ryun
Song Ok Sook as Kim Kye Soon
Choi Jae Won as Park Han Soo
Kim Dong Young as young Han Soo
Jung Ui Kap as Lee Young Gook
Park Ji Il as Choi Jong Dal
Ahn Seung Hoon (안승훈) as Yoon Myung Goo
Lee Mi Young as Soon Geum
Kim Soo Hyun (김수현) as Seo Han Byul
Genre:
Melodrama, Romance, Family
Plot:
The story begins following the lives of two best friends Jung Eun and Yoo Kyung. Jung Eun is an orphan who dreams of becoming an actress so that her birth mother can find her. Yoo Kyung lives with her adoptive mother who agrees to keep her because her birth mother pays her a lot of money. Just for fun, the two girls make a video depicting Jung Eun as the daughter of a famous actress, Lee Ae Rin. Little did they know that Ae Rin would be inevitably tied to their futures. Due to an incident where Yoo Kyung was bullied by some boys on the street, Jung Eun and Yoo Kyung lost contact with each other on bad terms.
More than ten years later Jung Eun and Yoo Kyung meet again. Jung Eun is a struggling small time actress while Yoo Kyung is now a well known producer and writer from the states. Yoo Kyung still harbors anger toward Jung Eun and blocks her at every turn, including in love. Jung Eun met Young Jo when they were younger and has always considered him her guardian angel. When she discovers him again he is already with Yoo Kyung. Kang Woo is a movie director who falls in love with Jung Eun. Yoo Kyung has Young Jo’s daughter without his knowledge but because of some misunderstandings, decides to abandon her baby. Jung Eun decides to raise the girl and take care of a sickly Lee Ae Rin.
In a clash of fates, Jung Eun, Yoo Kyung, Lee Ae Rin, and Young Jo struggle to survive in the world of movie-making and corporate politics. What will happen when both Jung Eun and Yoo Kyung find the identities of their birth mothers? How long can Lee Ae Rin and Jung Eun keep the secret of Yoo Kyung’s daughter, Han Byul? Will Jung Eun ever fulfill her dream of becoming a lead actress?
Review:
Using just one sentence to sum up the drama I would say the cast was absolutely phenomenal. Thorn Birds is the best melodrama I have watched in years. Actually I watched this one around the time that it was first broadcasted about two years ago but never got around to writing a review to it. In the last few days I had the opportunity to watch it again as I’ve been having some Han Hye Jin withdrawal.
Hye Jin plays the character of Jung Eun, a woman who dreams of finding her mother by becoming a famous actress. Throughout the drama we see her strength, compassion, and self-sacrifice. I don’t need to remind you that these types of heroines are my favorite. In reality, I don’t think most women in their right mind would have done the same things that Jung Eun was able to accomplish but I think her character was well rounded to portray a more realistic view. Through her emotions the audience could see the struggles she had in order to reach her decisions. Really great acting all around by the main cast and the supporting cast. There were sufficient moments of comic relief and as usual a good dose of crying from every character. Every melo scene really hit the emotions right. Kim Min Jung has also been on my list of great actresses since I saw her for the first time in Fashion 70’s. She really carries a lot of the emotional weigh in this drama as the most conflicted and dynamic character. At the end of the drama she is the one with the biggest character change.
I normally don’t analyze the content of the drama itself but for Thorn Birds I definitely want to add a few comments I had about the overall script. If you have the stomach for a lot of tears, I highly recommend this drama for it’s portrayal of family struggles, the bond between a mother and daughter (blood related or not), and also it’s inference toward good work ethics and value of money. I think Hye Jin really captures her role well as she falls into single motherhood. There are an abundance of values that we can draw out from this drama if you actually pay attention to the plot. All of the characters are very human and we see that over time all of the cast are changed in some way.
A lot of the dramas that I have watched have ended very awkwardly or very rushed that we always want to know more of what and why things happened the way it did. In Thorn Birds, I felt that it was one of the more satisfying endings I have ever seen in a drama and it really ties everything together very nicely. The ending is quite endearing and puts a nice bow tie on that last episode.
Rating:
4.9/5.0
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