Currently Watching: One The Woman

by Christian, November 19, 2021

15 12

Warning: this article contains spoilers.

Annyeong Chingus! And Drama Crazed People like me.

Hey, guys, I am back with another currently watching article. I hope this will be as much fun as the previous ones. It is almost the end of the year, and we are being entertained by amazing Korean dramas one after another. This year started with intense revenge dramas like Vincenzo and The Penthouse: War in Life seasons 2 and 3 and is now coming to an end with some romantic dramas.

This year we had dramas from seaguk to Makjang, romcom to thriller, and many different genres. We loved every bit of it. Personally speaking, I started this year with still watching Mr. Queen and then Sisyphus The Myth and Vincenzo. We had many romcoms on the way like So I Married an Anti-Fan, Doom At Your Service, which brought us into tears, making us feel: "why can't we have a love like that?"

But apart from that, I got intrigued by the drama One the Woman, with a fresh plot that I had never seen before. Of course, we had many body switches shows, but then this one is a bit different. I can go on and on when it comes to Korean dramas, so just let me stop myself here and get into the article.

Title: One the Woman

Network: SBS

Episodes Count: 16

Runtime: September 17th to November 6th

Aired On: Fridays and Saturdays

Duration: 70 minutes

Genre: Comedy, Crime, Investigation, Mystery, Romance, Drama

PLOT

The plot revolves around look-alike Lee Yeon Joo, a prosecutor working at the prosecution office, and Kang Mina, youngest daughter of the Yumin group and daughter-in-law of the Hanju group. They are rivals: Yeon Joo is a corrupt and very confident person, who loves buttering up the upper men, with flattery and bribery as her speciality, whereas Kang Mina is very timid and tortured by her-in laws because of being born out of wedlock.

Lee Yeon Joo's goal is to become the chief prosecutor, so she keeps herself on the better side of the chief prosecutor and keeps buttering him up. She is also the heir to the Seo Pyeong Nam Mun gangsters.

The story starts with Lee Yeon Joo meeting her look-alike Kang Mina at an auction she is attending. On seeing her, she is fascinated and shocked at how much both looked like each other. After the auction, while chasing a culprit, she gets into an accident. When she regains consciousness, she finds herself in a very different atmosphere, where she has become the youngest daughter of the Yumin group and daughter-in-law of the Hanju group. The doctor informs her that she has retrograde memory loss.

She finds all things are weird as she feels as if she doesn't belong to where she is. She, later on, finds out that she is not the person that people around her are saying her to be. She realizes she is Lee Yeon Joo and starts the journey to discover why she got into this situation. Then, she begins navigating her life as Mina. At first, Yeon Joo finds out that Mina's in-laws are very cold towards her. They love bullying her, her husband happens to have an affair just in front of her and hits her whenever he feels like it, whether out of frustration or because his day was bad. Due to a tragic accident where Mina's siblings and parents die, she automatically becomes the heir to the Yumin group as she is the only surviving member of the family. She learns that her in-laws are different from her when she is about to inherit the vast empire. While pretending to be Mina, she meets Han Seung Wook, not realising that he is Kang Mina's, first love. Soon after, Seung Wook also realises that Mina is not the same as the one he knew, starts doubting and finds out more about her. Both start the journey of unraveling the mystery behind Kang Mina's disappearance.

POSTERS

THE CHARACTERS

Lee Ha Nee as Jo Yeon Joo

Yeon Joo is a corrupt prosecutor. She is a very confident and cocky person and dreams of becoming the chief prosecutor. She is also the heir to the Seo Pyeong Nam Mun gangsters. While investigating a case and chasing after the culprit, she gets into an accident and wakes up from a coma as Kang Mina, youngest daughter of the Yumin group and daughter-in-law of the Hanju group.

Lee Ha Nee as Kang Mi Na

Kang Min Na is a very timid person. She is the youngest daughter of the Yumin group and daughter-in-law of the Hanju group. Initially, she was to be married to her first love Han Seung Wook, but due to circumstances, she married her present husband. To make matters worst, when her in-laws find out she is born out of wedlock, they start bullying her and treating her in the worst manner. Unable to handle it anymore, she plans to get away from them and decides to disappear.

Lee Sang Yoon as Han Seung Wook

Seung Wook, the first love of Kang Mina, was supposed to marry her, but due to the sudden death of his father and getting pushed out of the line of succession from the Hanju group, Mina was married to his cousin. Because of the inheritance struggle in the family, he decides to move to the United States with his mother. But even after years, he is not able to cope up with the sudden demise of his father, and after hearing the news of the abrupt decease of Mina's family, he decides to come back to South Korea and investigate his father's death. After coming back, he finds that Mina is not the same as the one he knew, and then finds out about the identity confusion. He seeks Yeon Joo's help to solve the mystery and later on falls in love with her.

Jin Seo Yeon as Han Song Hye

Eldest daughter to the Hanju group, she is very cunning and scheming. She is a very hardworking person and hopes to become the successor of the Hanju group. She works twice as hard as her brothers to prove her competence and show people that she is capable of inheriting the company. She is not afraid or hesitant to step on people to achieve her dreams.

Lee Won Keun as Ahn Yoo Jun

Yoo Jun is a prosecutor and was a classmate of Yeon Joo's at the Judicial Research and Training Institute. He has a beautiful appearance, an excellent brain and a humble mind. He is the confidante of Yeon Joo. When she was mistaken as Mina, he was the one who helped her realise that she was indeed Yeon Joo, not Mina. He has a one-sided love for her and even confesses to her, but to his disappointment, she just sees him as a brother that she can lean on. He helps her with every matter he can, like background checks, studying a case and stuff.

The character development in the drama is well-paced. The way they get entangled with each other and the flashbacks give us enough explanations to understand the story as it unfolds. The well-written plot and twists are a bonus to the drama. Every character intrigues you, making you instantly fall in love with their charms. Personally, I like Lee Won Geun's character the most. He is fresh as well as handsome and perfectly fits the character. Yeon Joo is fun to watch as she navigates through the act of impersonating Mina and how she gets to know about her and her in-laws. The romance plot is also going at a very great speed. By every passing episode, you are drawn to a cliff, and the curiosity of what is gonna happen next makes you want to come back and watch it again. But what intrigues me the most is the new and fresh storytelling rather than a typical Korean drama ;).

REVIEW

The drama itself is amazing, fun-loving and comedic. I love how the characters play out their past. The cast and their excellent skills are being showcased at their best. The versatility of the actors is stunning. The character development, the humor and the plot, the cut of scenes from one frame to another are also wonderful.

The drama showcases how people change their behaviour according to their benefit. Mina's in-laws' behaviour changes when they find out their daughter-in-law is about to inherit a vast empire after her parents' and siblings' sudden demise. They start acting well towards her, which was quite the opposite in the past due to being her an illegitimate child of the family.

To put it simply, it showcases:

How far would you go for what you want?

What can greed make you do, and to what extent are you willing to go?

These questions are being explored in the drama. If you are interested in slight revenge, with elements of romance and comedy, along with interesting turns of events, then this is the drama for you. It is amazing on the plot itself, but then, the stars add a unique signature to the characters. The chemistry between the leads is amazing, swoon-worthy, even in the jealousy drama that comes when there is another handsome guy involved with the female lead (my heart smiling at me thinking about the character played by Lee Won Geun). The second lead syndrome that the character Ahn Yoo Jun gives out is very relatable, as we get to see in most of the romcoms.