A Stalker's Guide to Lee Min Ki
And You Thought Step-Mothers Were Evil...
*Warning: Spoilers*
You have now been warned. Proceed with the show...
Be Strong, Geum Soon is a special drama because the unluckiest woman alive, Geum Soon, has two mothers-in-law through the course of this drama. Out of every potential mother-in-law I've encountered so far, I could understand where these two were coming from the most. I wanted to scream at them, shake them, force them to open their eyes to the destruction they were causing... but a little part of me could see where they were coming from. They were completely irrational and over the top in their protectiveness, and yet you could understand how their lives had shaped them into the monster-in-law they became.
Our first example of evil incarnate is the mother of Geum Soon’s first love. Jung Shim (Kim Ja Ok) dislikes Geum Soon from the very beginning because she feels Geum Soon isn't good enough for her son. Which, quite frankly, is the one thing ALL potential mothers-in-law have in common. This woman has 163 episodes of serious attitude, starting with the grief stricken reaction she has to her son’s death. Geum Soon’s husband of two days, and father to her unborn child, dies tragically in the first real dramatic event of our story. It was a heartbreak I had known was coming from the start, yet the aftermath was more than I had expected. I understand grief and the craziness it can bring, but Jung Shim takes grieving to a whole new level. She viciously hates her daughter-in-law after her son dies. She screams at her to leave their house and never come back, all the while knowing Geum Soon is about two months pregnant with her grandchild and has nowhere to go. The depth of her savage hatred had me feeling less sympathy and more contempt. Her severe disregard for Geum Soon is a thread we follow throughout the length of the drama. We see the way it cuts away at Geum Soon’s self confidence and brings her immense sorrow.
Our second mother-in-law, Oh Mi Ja (Yoon Mi Ra), started off helping Geum Soon through her early struggles. She gave her a job when no one else would, and was supportive after finding out that Geum Soon had been married and was now a single mother. But that all changed upon discovering that Geum Soon was the woman her son was head over heels for. All of a sudden everything she had admired about our heroine became the things she hated the most. Mi Ja becomes a swirling whirlwind of disdain when she discovers the relationship between Geum Soon and her son Goo Jae Hee. The worst thing about Mi Ja is that she started out so wonderful. Having been a single mother herself you really felt she could relate and would become a force of good for Geum Soon, but the woman becomes hypocritical to extreme.
At the end of this drama I felt it was a very long and perilous journey. There were many times I felt like slapping these mothers-in-law and saying “Don’t you know how cruel you’re being?” The utmost stubbornness they cling to is truly what makes them so terrible to me. I can understand Jung Shim’s grief, and Mi Ja’s desire for her son to have a better life, but the way they hold on to these ideas causes so much pain. It only hurts their loved ones, and eventually themselves.
One of the most infamous Korean mothers-in-law is Kang Hee Soo (Lee Hye Young), also known as the mother of Goo Jun Pyo. This lady has evil written into her DNA. The mother of our main male lead is the power hungry head of the largest corporation in Korea, which leads her to neglecting her son as a child and causing him to be a bit emotionally crippled. But her true devilish ways come forward when it's discovered that her son and heir has his heart set on a girl so far below his station she's practically at the bottom.
Hee Soo has the longest list of strikes against a heroine I've ever seen. Financially torturing Jan Di’s friends and family, hiring some guy to seduce her, and even arranging her son’s marriage are just a few. But she really takes the cake when she manipulates Jun Pyo to leave Jan Di by faking his father’s death. Hee Soo tells her son that he must step up and be a man, forsaking everything from his childhood in order to fill his father’s shoes. Just when our couple is finally on the same emotional page she severs the connection most cruelly... and that’s just the middle of the drama. Her cruelty continues until Jun Pyo and Jan Di prove to her that nothing can tear them apart.
The ending to Boys Over Flowers is fairly anticlimactic, especially considering Hee Soo. After her husband wakes up, she suddenly becomes this cuddly little puppy with no real bite. We’re expected to believe that all of her craziness was because her husband was sick and unable to do his job. Yeah right. The vendetta she had against Jan Di had her doing everything she possibly could to keep the couple apart. She might not have started out so singularly vengeful, but as soon as Jan Di stood up for herself it was clear Mama Kang would do everything in her power to separate the couple. The ending would have been far more believable if they hadn't decided in the last few minutes to try and show a softer side to the embodiment of evil.
These are my first three examples of overprotective mothers. They represent the first evil moms-in-law I encountered, and the most recent ones. But do these potential mothers-in-laws represent all that is to be feared upon entering a relationship with a gorgeous Korean man? Maybe. But each potential mother-in-law has her own particular brand of evil, and we've just hit the tip of the iceberg.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Point of Discussion: Has anyone ever come across a drama with an evil mother-of-the-bride?
