When the Camellia Blooms is a well written fantastic collage of mixed genre drama that connects the leading female character Dongbaek, a seemingly naïve single mother and owner of a restaurant/bar in the small town of Ongsan, with different town people and a serial murderer. The town characters add dimension to the fairly common life of a single mother who’s trying to make ends meet and gets entangled in a series of circumstances that threaten her life and livelihood. The melodrama can be classified as a bourgeois tragi-comedy with characters that range from the most simple with strong moral principles and core values (Kang Ha Neul as the main male lead policeman Hwang Yong Shik), comical and absurd characters like Dongbaek’s ex-boyfriend (Kim Ji Suk as Kang Jong Ryul) and Dong Baek's landlord (Oh Jung Se as Noh Gyu Tae), enigmatic and complex personas like Dong Baek's friend (Son Dam Bi as Choi Hyang Mi) and Dong Baek's mother (Lee Jung Eun as Jo Jung Sook), the sometimes absurd police chief (Jeon Bae Soo as Byun Bae Soo)and the neighborhood watch ladies, to the psychopathic murderer, and more. There is a romantic storyline between Dong Baek and Yong Shik and, although their romantic scenes are cute and light, their romance's heartfelt connection is beautiful. The drama is packed with great seasoned and younger actors that deliver their characters with a flawless performance. Enjoy it!
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