Life is a strange thing; funny and worth living for, as well.
"Be My Dream Family" truly defines what a family should be like despite of difference in opinions & personalities, least communication and distance. I watched this with lots of anticipations after finishing "Once Again" earlier this year and this, for my 2nd Korean soap opera, is very pleasing to me, if not as good as Once Again. Rather it has more realistic elements and less melo stuffs than Once Again.Soap operas with big fat joint family drama, do not have a solid plot development; instead a goal at the end, leading to a happy family life for everyone and this drama is no exception.
Geum Jong Hwa & Kang Mo Ran are in their twilight ages and happen to be single when they meet each other as neighboring business owners. As they hang out with each other, both fall in love so much that decide to marry only after 6 months. Both of them have their big families already but now that they become family, they have a hard row to hoe in order to bring all of them together to one plate. The drama is about the journey of the family members going through various challenges in their personal lives as well as fighting among themselves, until they come to embrace various shades of each individual, finally accepting each orher as their own.
Both the screenwriter and director have done a good job in this drama I swear, it's like developing a perfect partnership. The way the script is interlinked between different scenes and director's editing work upon that are very nice. For 80% of the story, one scene starts with a conversation on the topic upon which the previous scene's conversation had ended. The 120 episode dailysoap might feel a bit slow for the first 10 episodes but it definitely gets better as you watch further. There is almost no background score for majority of the drama but again, that's another feature of Korean daily soaps.
Since soap opera family dramas don't have a solid plot, rather daily live happenings are showcased with an ultimate goal leading towards a happy family life, together, I don't there is much to talk about things. So let me just talk a bit about the characters.
I loved the character development of all the characters...
# Geum Jong Hwa: Lonely, aggressive old man to a loving father.
# Kang Mo Ran: Loves and cares for every single family member and tries her best to bring everyone together despite problems.
# Geum Sang Gu: Naive, jobless, family man to a good businessman. Loving husband & father.
# In Young Hye: Responsible mother & wife who craves love. Becomes close to step-in-laws very fast.
# Geum Sang Gu: Rude, arrogant drama PD to caring son and loving husband.
Oh Min Hee: Ambitious actress coming back to industry after 20 years hiatus. Despite difficulties and public backlash she holds onto things and detrmines to do better. One of the best character development of the drama. Loved the way she changed over episodes.
# Geum Sang Min: Twin daughter. Hardworking yet struggling & dirt broke artist of years. Becomes a better son.
# Geum Min Ah: The 20yo SNU student, hardworking yet stubborn and does things without any thought. The cutest probably.
# Geum In Sol: Twin Son. Another best character development. The 20yo guy was neither studios nor decisive. Clueless with what to choose, he tries various job in order to decide what he wants. Regardless, a very good son to parents who thinks clear and takes care of his family.
# Han Geu Roo: 32yo single, with a closed heart. Protective of her family to a great deal and does a very good job work as an editor.
# Han Da Bal: Widowed, a single mother and an amazing judo artist. Loves her daughter and family a lot but still not open to have another partner.
# Min Ga Eun: Orphaned girl living with sister inlaw's family. Very ambitious at work and works hard. Soft-spoken and bubbly.
# Min Sol: Thoughtful despite of her age, loves her mother a lot, loves to befriend everyone.
# Choi Ji Wan: Divorcee, loving father, an amazing CEO of Aarang Publication. The humblest yet clueless.
# Hyun Shi Woon: Temporary marketing head at Aarang. The friendliest and mood maker. A cupid to many lovers. Loved the way he talked.
# Choi Yi Jae: Very shy kid, stuck between separated parents. Changes a lot by opening up to his father with Da Bal and Min Sol's help.
# Ki Young: Physiotherapist, alcoholic, divorced, friendly yet hard to open up to.
# Im Heon: 20yo brilliant student yet a stupid guy just like his wife, Min Ah. Causes trouble together.
COUPLES:
Jong Hwa & Kang Mo Ran: Married at their twilight years after falling in love. Becomes closer with time. Together, bring the 2 families together.
Sang Baek & Young Hye: Felt in love in highschool, married despite situations, care for each other and together manage their small family. Concerned for their children.
Sang Gu & Min Hee: Fall in love as asst. Dir. and rookie actress, marry after pregnancy. Maintain a bitter relationship but later turn in into a loving couple and embrace each other's flaws.
Sang Min & Ga Eun: Formerly student & teacher, met each other after years as step families. End up staying under the same roof, working together and finally falling in love with each other.
Geu Roo & Shi Woon: With a embarrassing first impression, both avoid each other at work but while helping Geu Roo as a cupid both fall in love unknowingly and faced difficulties to maintain it.
Da Bal & Ji Wan: Both the single parents had to go through various challenges to end up together till the end because of their children , family and situations. It was like contrasting characters attracting each other.
Min Ah & Im Heon: Married at 20 bcs of unexpected pregnancy. The cutest couple, both clueless and immature. Cause trouble for family but decide to do everything for their baby to come.
So many important things anf factors of life at different places like home, education, workplace has been portrayed along with various aspects of life. A number of relationships and their various shades are beautifully represented. I am very glad after watching this drama.
Many other things that's also been thrown light upon are: stress from study, early pregnancy, failed business, family responsibilities, alcoholism, fraudulent, cheating, extramarital affairs, highschool first love, dirty sides of entertainment industry, hatred & online abuse, sincere worker, struggle in performing and creative art sector, atmosphere in publication company, child mental health, divorcee life, widower life, love & care within family, understanding, privacy, concerns, etc.
Ep 100-115 were the peak of the drama where life-changing events happened for most of the characters. It has literally everything summed up and despite many problems, the last 5 episodes ended the drama in a very good way. Loved it.
I am happy I decided to watch it soon, bcs I don't really watch daily soaps (this is my 2nd). This drama brought out all kinda emotions from me and I was laughing, crying, smiling widely, cursing and all through out the drama. This drama is in fact more of a funny comedy and ngl, my laugh has become uglier after watching this TT. Korean daily soaps grow on you no matter how you watch it, ongoing or binging.
PLEASE GO FOR THIS.
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Great family drama
This drama from the very beginning shows you a very dysfunctional family. That over time grows and develops. You need a lot of time to show the changes in the people. No one can change overnight as is shown several times. Characters that you might dislike in the beginning over time you will relate to and come to feel sorry and also root for. Very good acting by some of the veterans and I must say I am very happy with the quality of the acting overall.Family dramas are hard to do well because there are so many characters that are all involved with each other. There is always a risk that the drama can go overboard and this is often the problem with many daily dramas. I find most dailies are so over done and it really grates my nerves and I cannot continue watching. This drama solves things quickly and the story progresses at a good clip. I have hardly noticed the length of the episodes because most were so much fun. I binged watched this starting from last week.
Don't miss this good family drama.
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A nice laidback family drama gem
So this isn't one of those dramas where there is a lot of plot that happens -- by that I mean, some overarching drama plot like revenge from an event 30 years ago. Instead, it just shows two familes with adults blending together to become one large family. In the process, many of the relationships are strengthened and characters are better shaped. Many of the conflicts and feelings were very realistic but at the same, it wasn't depressing to watch. It was a perfect watch for these pandemic times. Would highly recommend for those looking for something to watch with multiple generations.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Good Family Drama
I loved this drama! It was nice and refreshing to have no bad characters, yes most of the characters had some flaws, but that was what was so good about this drama. In the beginning when the widowed Father and divorced mother decided to get married and have the families join together you learned of how dysfunctional the father's family was. The Mother even though she had ups and downs while raising her kids she was still kind and gentle. Through her Love, care and understanding the father begun to change his bad habits and as he started to change he was able to reach out to his kids and slowly build a relationship they never had. Both families in the beginning didn't get a long but as the drama continued the families started to get closer and the characters that had flaws were slowly changing for the better. While watching this drama I felt like I was part of the family. I was smiling and laughing, and was upset when characters were upset. This drama had the perfect balance of story line with all of the characters. The ending may of been a little rushed I was hoping to see some wedding but it still ended very nicely and enjoyed it. I was smiling from ear to ear. I am so glad I watched Be My Dream Family and will miss it!Was this review helpful to you?
This show is a must watch.
You know if be very honest the first five episodes sets the pace and creates a good ground for understanding later but believe it's a slow burn for the first five to six episodes however after the seventh or with you will be completely hooked on the show because the story talks about real life experiences in a non fantasized manner as other kdramas do.It's really shows the growth of the characters and the story lines of the characters makes you invested enough to see their success.
I think a lot of viewers would be able to relate to these characters in one way or the other and their struggle to find love peace and self acceptance.
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Only for masochists
Here are three ways to spend time that are INFINITELY more fun than watching this Drama:Floss a lion's mouth.
Handwash an angry cat.
Listen to 60 hours of traditional Chinese opera sung off-key.
Actually, doing all 3 together would STILL be way more fun than watching this Drama. I started it, and FFd through it to the mind-numbing end, for Wang Ji Hye and Hahm Eun Jung. Ms Hahm's storyline even had promise as a single Mum falling for a single Dad. But there's zero credible character development in this Drama. Horrible characters (75%) are REALLY horrible, until suddenly they're not, around the 80 episode mark. Ditto the useless sad sack dishrag art teacher, who actually remains hopeless well past episode 100. The last 20 episodes give clear proof that it's not only the VIEWERS' brains that get turned to mush by prolonged exposure to this drivel, it happened to the WRITER too. Save yourself pain and stupefied frustration and skip this one
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Hmm..
The tamest family drama I've ever seen. It's borderline too mundane. There's almost no conflict at all and even if there was one, it's very light and doesn't last longer than few episodes. Everyone is happy, everyone got a relationship/romance/kids/happy-ever-after/career. It can get too superficial with its events. Not necessarily a criticism but it's too ordinary. You would only stick around with it to watch the relationships develop with the younger cast. For this type of drama, I expected more baby making at the end.One more thing I found strange about the sound design is how muffled and subdued the sound is. You would hear the drop of a needle. Any background noise is very restrictive. It feels there's a switch that mute and un-mute the sound when a character speaks and stop. It's just something I kept noticing. The sound is probably fine for you, I'm just complaining too much.
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