It all started with a murder…

I was watching 2017 Korean drama ‘My Father is strange’ & suddenly it occurred to me that if he had not witnessed a murder & called the police, he would not have been in jail. Is it not the duty of every citizen to inform the wrong doing. He could have just stopped them, but his coach had just warned them against getting into a fight. He was just cautious. After the phone call he finds a person dead.

In the Korean Drama of 2018, “My only one’ the father goes to jail for a murder , again he is framed but we know in the end, for 20 long years. He is at the wrong place at the wrong time. His wife is sick & he needs money. Desperation leads to lifting the knife on the table & threatening. The loan officer chases him & in the tussle throws him to a grilled gate where he becomes unconscious. It leads him to believe he killed a person. The eye witnesses, loan officer & his wife, frame him.

The father in ‘My father is strange’ takes up the identity of his deceased friend to shake off the label of ‘Ex-con’. His daughter is a lawyer so she will clear it after so many years. In ‘My only one’ it is Mr Wang, his son-in-law who clears his name.

After coming out of jail he is still ‘The murderer’ who cannot reveal his identity to his own daughter. His wife dies in the beginning so he is all alone. Due to his job as the chairman’s driver, he meets with an aunt who has lost her husband. He resembles the dead husband. In the end they marry. He finds some joy with his daughter marrying Mr Wang & his new wife.

Both the shows have around 52 episodes. There is a string of weddings. First wedding is that of the brother. Then the daughter is interested in her boyfriend but against marrying. She is coming around. But I am just half way there. This pair won the couple award for the show. Ryu Soo young & Lee Yoo ri.

In “My only one’ Uee & Lee Jang Woo won the couple award. They have more screen time & things move with them. In “My father is Strange” each couple has some screen time, in every episode. So the story proceeds along with them. The balancing between the four siblings wasn’t easy.

Having a large star cast & handling them must have been difficult but the stories are well written & give something at the end of every episode. A moral, a thought or just a dialogue that remains with you.