Kdrama 2016

Happy Home (Kdrama Review & Summary)

 

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• Genre: Family, Melodrama, Nuclear Family
• Release Date: 2016
• Origin: South Korea
• Kdrama: 51 Episodes

Cast

• Kim So Yeon as Bong Hae Ryung
• Lee Sang Woo as Seo Ji Gun
• Lee Pil Mo as Yoo Hyun Ki
• Kang Yi Eun as Hong Ji Suk
• Kim Yeong Cheol as Bong Sam Bong
• Won Mi Kyung as Bae Sook Nyeo
• Jang In Sub as Bong Man Ho
• Yoon Da Hoon as Bong Sam Shik
• So Hee Jung as Oh Min Jung
• Ji Soo Won as Bong Sam Suk
• Choi Yoon So as Bong Hae Won
• Kim Ji Ho as Han Mi Soon
• Yoon Jin Yi as Joo Se Ri
• Park Min Woo as Lee Kang Min
• Gil Jung Woo as Yoo Seo Jin
• Seo Yi Sook as Jang Man Ok
• Ahn Hyo Seop as Choi Chul Soo
• Nam Myung Ryul as Seo Do Hyung
• Lee So Jung as Lee Young Eun
• Park Ji Il as Lee Suk Ho
• Jung Yoo Min as Ji Soo
• Kim Sa Rang as Bong Seon Hwa
• Lee Na Yoon as Bong Jin Hwa
• Kim Woo Hyeok as Kim Jin Yeong
• Lee Gyoo Jung as Ahn Cho Rong
• Kim Nan Hwi as Ahn Mi Na
• Ahn Nae Sang as Kim Min Suk
• Yoon Hee Won as Kim Sung Hoon

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I watched this melodrama’s all 51 episodes (75 minutes per episode) over two days (I did fast-forward a bit). It was two days of almost non-stop crying.  Sometimes it was not just free falling tears but actually sobbing.  Hu hu hu.

Happy Home is anything but a happy home. The family is so dysfunctional, you’ll thank your lucky star yours is ‘normal’. 🙂 🙂 🙂

The actors were all magnificent, including the young cast/children but I particularly like Lee Pil-mo, who played Yoo Hyun-gi, the husband of the eldest child of the Bong family.  He was perfectly matched by the elegantly beautiful Kim So-yeon who played Bong Hae-ryung, the eldest child of the Bong family.  Most of their scenes were emotional rollercoaster. Lee Pil-mo with his controlled acting and often well groomed in three-piece suit spoke to the heart.  I actually like him better than Lee Sang Woo, though he is also gorgeous.

As a brief synopsis the story is about the Bong family who opened a Chinese restaurant.  Bong Sam-bong the family patriarch and his wife had 3 children, twins Bong Hae-ryung & Bong Man-ho and a younger daughter, Bong Hae-won.  The Bong family is a nuclear family, where generations of relatives live and eat together.  They bicker and sometimes do each other harm but they pull together when need be.

Bong Hae-ryung was married to Yoo Hyun-gi, happily at first but after the death of their much loved son, her life became a living nightmare, tortured by her sadistic mother-in-law and largely ignored by husband who became remote and secretive.  For five years after the death of her son, she was alone in her guilty grief as she blamed herself for her son’s accident.

She found her mother-in-law’s secretary kissing her husband in their study and this was the final straw that drove her away, out of the house and marriage.

The character of the philandering husband gets interesting.  He was cheating but he was absolutely furious with his mistress.   They had an understanding that they do not conduct any hanky-panky in the house.  His house is for his wife alone, where he sleeps and where he eats – sacred!

After a time, Bong Hae-ryung had a romance with another gorgeous man, Lee Sang Woo who played Seo Ji-geon.  The romance was so sweet.  After she finally had her divorce, she got engaged and eventually held some sort of marriage ceremony with Seo- Ji-geon.  But this ended too soon as she found out that her ex-husband had only months to live due to a malignant brain tumour.

Her ex begged her to return to him for 3 months,  she did because she felt sorry for him when she found him, looking lost and forlorn, waiting in the rain for their son outside his school.  Apparently one of the symptoms of his illness was temporary amnesia.

I easily cry at melodrama but this drama was something else!  It is a cryfest! I mostly cried for the husband as he had a sad back-story.

A story that you will remember for a long time.  Highly recommend it.