Castaway Diva (2023)

Castaway Diva is Mostly a Cast Away Series

Castaway Diva is a good story that does a lot of things right, while overlooking and dismissing a lot of things throughout the story. In many cases, a 16-episode story arc can run too long. This is a case where the series would have been better served with 16 episodes rather than 12.

The premise is a good one, in which Seo Mok Ha finds herself stranded on an island for 15 years, after trying to escape her abusive father. I didn’t know that there are over 3,000 islands within the Korean Archipelago, a fact that should have been mentioned to give the viewer some idea of why Seo Mok Ha was so difficult to locate.

Some suspension of disbelief is required for this aspect of the series. Unlike in the movie “Castaway,” which was well researched by Robert Zemeckis, Seo Mok Ha has suffered no psychological effects from being isolated. She isn’t suffering from malnutrition, and her teeth are perfectly white. Also, that far north, Korean winters can bring cold weather, even on that island, and yet, she somehow survives this without any ill effects as well. It plays out more like a Disney movie than anything resembling realism. And yet, despite all of this, I was interested in seeing more of “island” Seo Mok Ha and some explanations about how she survived and got through a day. The series spends little real time on this aspect.

We know from the beginning that Seo Mok Ha has aspirations of being a famous singer, just like her idol, Yoon Ran Joo, going so far as to send Yoon Ran Joo a demo with the hopes of taking her first step toward a possible singing career.

One of the themes of this series is child abuse. It’s a disturbing crime, no matter the form it comes in. It was difficult to watch Jung Ki-Ho holding off Seo Mok Ha’s abusive father, as he’s being pummeled on the dock. It was far worse seeing people standing and watching while doing absolutely nothing about it.

Jung Ki-Ho relates to Seo Mok Ha’s plight as his own father—a police officer—is even more sick and abusive. 15 years later, we find that Jung Ki-Ho, along with his mother and brother, have found a way to live a new life away from Jung Bong Wan (their father) with the hopes of escaping the abuse.

There are many parts of the series that work well, but there are also many parts that are severely overlooked or just don’t really work at all. It was as if the writer had either forgotten or simply didn’t take such logic into account. As a result, the story suffers.

I was waiting for a conversation between Seo Mok Hal and Jung Ki-ho after his identity is finally revealed. I was waiting for Seo Mok Hal to ask him all about what happened on that fateful day on the dock; to find out what had happened to him, and all of the questions a close friend would have had running through their minds. No conversation takes place. They move on as if nothing had happened.

Jung Ki-ho goes to great lengths to expose his father for the abuser that he is, including setting up equipment to use as evidence against him, particularly when his father beats him yet again. And yet, when the evidence may be crucial in bringing Jung Bong Wan to justice, or at the very least, used to demonstrate to the prosecutor the nature of Jung Bong Wan’s character, the evidence is suddenly nowhere to be found, nor is it ever mentioned again.

Also, with the number of charges brought against Jung Bong Wan, how is a man like that allowed to roam freely? No explanation is offered regarding this either. It was as if the writer chose to dismiss these things in order to make the plot work---which is always a mistake, by the way.

I love Eun Bin Park. I think she’s one of the best young actresses in the business, but after “Age of Youth,” Hot Stove League,” and “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” this is my least favorite performance of hers. It was as if she couldn’t find the balance between the innocent, young girl stranded on an island, and the driven young woman striving to fulfill her dream! In short, she often overacts in a number of scenes, and at times when it’s just not warranted at all. It sounded forced. I like that Seo Mok Hal is a strong woman who is loyal, but her transition from stranded island girl to an ambitious singer was so fast that it was as if she’d never been on the island at all!

Another problem is that the chemistry between Eun Bin Park and Chae Jong Hyeop is literally nowhere to be found. The little “romance” never took off at all, not only because the two actors had no chemistry, but also because the amount of screen time devoted to them together was miniscule at best. There was nothing built up, nor was there anything taking off from when they were in middle school together. Frankly, the chemistry between the two actors portraying Seo Mok Hal and Jung Ki Ho in middle school was far more appealing!
Also, there are just too many times when characters quickly dismiss a conflict or problem and then it’s just magically resolved. The biggest glaring example of this was between Seo Mok Hal and Park Yong Kwan. They have tremendous friction between them, and he refuses to let Seo Mok Hal use his song. But suddenly within the space of a day, he does a one-eighty.

The songs are well sung in this series, but frankly, none of them caught my ear. That’s always been a thing about basing a movie/show on music. If the music doesn’t work, then it hurts one of the key elements. I can’t think of any musicals that I liked when I didn’t care for the songs or find them appealing.

Castaway Diva is not a bad series, but it’s not a great one either. Its sloppy writing and lack of chemistry prevented it from being a great series. There was more chemistry between Seo Mok Hal and Yoon Ran Joo. Perhaps if the writers had focused on that aspect more, the series would have been much better. If you spread yourself out too thin as a writer, you end up coming up short on all of your storylines. Castaway Diva is a perfect example of this.

Read More

PURSUING DREAMS with DRIVE and PERSISTENCE

Dreams can take us in many directions towards a goal. Sometimes, along the way, there are obstacles: Jealousy, Greed, Self-Destruction; Self-Discovery, Survival, Triumph! “Castaway Diva” is that story. It deals with the struggles of family, and how they interact on a scale of imperfection and dysfunction, to unity and joy. It shows how misunderstandings, low self-esteem, selfishness, and loss of confidence can hamper one’s professional growth and development. It highlights surpassing those defeating thoughts, by undergoing introspection, towards survival and success. I liked the show’s definition of family-whether it be biological, career, components of the wilds, or whatever. In the end, it’s about feeling whole. I thought the initial episodes had an element of goofiness. I debated if it was the English dubbing, or simply the role of the characters. It just appeared incongruous. In the end, I was enlightened by the show. And although extended minutes to each hour, I liked that there were only 12 episodes.

Read More

cute..

Castaway diva is a coming-of-age Korean drama. It deals with heavy topics such as domestic abuse but pursuing dreams despite such hardships. While it only has 12 episodes, each episode is about 80 minutes long amounting to a standard drama.

What I liked:
• character development- Most characters seemed to go through a character development. Both Woo-hak and Bo-geol (Kiho) learned to express their emotions and not take people for granted. Mok-ha matured and stopped running from her problems. Yoon Ranjoo started trusting others and became less concerned with money and fame. And I could go on.
• solid acting- I had relatively high expectations for the acting performances, since I knew all the actors are fabulous. I think it is safe to say that they didn’t disappoint though the real applause goes to the child actors, who did an incredible job.

what I disliked:
• highly unrealistic- This drama tries to be somewhat relatable and showcase various obstacles one has to overcome. However, it fails to do that because of the situations that are just way too difficult to imagine. Additionally, this results in several plot holes as well. The idea of someone surviving on an abandoned island for 15 years in it of itself is already absurd, but the fl is shown wearing various kinds of clothes. Where did she get them, when she jumped in the water without any things on hand? Personally, I found the plotline with the male lead’s father a bit over the top, too. This is a shame, since it discredits aspects of the drama that were actually really well done and relatable.
• the murder attempt (ep 11)- I thought this was so unnecessary, cliché and unrealistic. I understand that it was supposed to be a way of giving the characters’ development, but neither did I find it interesting nor touching.
• Yoon Ranjoo- I just found her really annoying a lot of the time.. In my opinion, she was even more reckless and immature than Mok-ha..
• low rewatch value- This isn’t a huge setback, but I don’t really see myself ever rewatching Castaway diva, as it feels like a one time watch. I don’t think that rewatching it would give me anything new.


Overall, Castaway diva was a nice watch full of both emotional and cute moments. Having said that, I don’t think it was too memorable and there are better kdramas out there.

Read More

It's a bit disappointing from kdrama writer giant Park Hye Ryun, still this is no Start-Up.

Screenwriter Park Hye Ryun is responsible for 3 dramas on my all time top 10 list. Because of that even though Start-Up was a huge disappointment I've let the comment section's hype get to me.
What's good news I suppose that this is far far better than Start-Up. (Which I may have dropped half way or so in, I'm not even sure anymore)
Anyhow the plots and themes in Castaway Diva are very much Park Hye Ryun-like, despite the fact that she is not the only writer, probably the other writer Eun Yeol contributed more to dialog, I don't know. Anyway anyone who has watched the big three dramas I mentioned before (While You Were Sleeping, Pinocchio, I Hear Your Voice) will find many subplots & the general direction of the story in this drama oddly familiar. Near the finale there is a pretty iconic scene that is 1:1 While You Were Sleeping as well. Not that I mind this too much, Park Hye Ryun always heavily built and iterated from her previous works in all her dramas and I absolutely adored them..
So you might ask, why did I rate the writing at 5.5? Well, out of all the preproduced (non live filmed) dramas this was perhaps the most inconsistent (that I can recall anyway). To me it seems like the writers shaped the plot assuming that the general audience won't remember the minutiae of what they've seen 2-4-6 weeks ago. Unluckily for me I binge watched this over the course of 4 days during long daily workout sessions, as such in almost every episode I had several moments where I was rolling my eyes at all the gaslighting that has been presented to me. Also even if I ignore the plot itself and look at the various world building elements, the drama is -even by kdrama romcom standards- just incredibly poorly researched. Pretty much every little detail about the Island was wrong. I understand this is fiction, but it would not have been very hard to ask someone well versed in wilderness survival to give the writers some tips & to use common sense. (I could list countless things here, but just to say a few: potatoes, FL's well groomed-ness, swimming in baggy sweatpants/shirts, the shoes)
The biggest writing related pain point though is that this is like a romcom with most of the romance ripped out of it, but the rest of the things are left as they would be in a really silly drama about a cat shapeshifter or something else like that.
Anyway I did not really feel the leads bonding at any point in time, as opposed to the second lead doing some of that. Basically the love triangle here is very similar to what we've seen in While You Were Sleeping, but with the amazing main romance missing, if that even makes sense xD (meaning the second ML is not a nuisance, it's just this is so weird overall)
If you are curious what a good romance-less romance drama is like, take a look at the cdrama Reset.

Onto the second big problem I had with the drama, which is Park Eun Bin, or more specifically her portrayal of castaway Seo Mok Ha. I have seen this actress before shine in Age of Youth. (I don't think she is lacking in skill, in fact she is probably awesome.) Also while in Attorney Woo I very strongly disliked how she acted as an autistic lawyer. There she did the usual Hallyu version of "person struggling with disability" act and probably did it as well as it is possible, but I always found that incredibly offensive in any drama, but I digress. The point I'm trying to make is that someone had the genius idea to not only cast her for this role, but also make this castaway character's portrayal essentially the same, or maybe because this was her next drama after Woo she did not completely recover from that role which she has taken way more seriously as an actor. I suppose instead of all this ranting I could have just said that she is overacting in this one, but it just feels wrong & weird.

The casting in general is not all that great. I love watching good sismances in dramas, but I did not feel that sister chemistry all that much, though all the back and forth in the plot did not help. Nor did FL have good chemistry with ML, but there was barely any time to build on that, so I could be wrong. Though I must admit the evil dads were quite fit for their roles, despite not having seen these supporting actors in evil roles thus far.

Remember how the final 3-4 episodes of Pinocchio were after due to it being a huge success they extended the run from 16 to 20 episodes? Walkaway Diva has ~8 episodes like that, out of 12 which is obviously not great. Earlier I ranted about the writers expecting the audience to forget stuff, now that I think about it, perhaps that could have totally worked on me too, because I don't think I'll remember much of anything of what happened between ep2 and 10 in a couple of weeks.

I apologize for all the rantish walls of text so far, I too am getting tired of writing this review, so I'll quickly list -in no particular order- what I actually liked about the drama:

⌲ Episode 1 is a great short film, with very talented child actors [10/10]
⌲ Everyone is really attractive, with very pleasant, almost hypnotic voices.
⌲ The entertainment industry related procedural parts are usually far far worse. (they avoided many common themes that tend to ruin things in other dramas about idols)
⌲ The parents -adoptive dad+mom- were adorable.
⌲ The OST and all the singing is really really and I mean REALLY good. (though it's annoying that everything is basically lip syncing, because all songs are perfect studio recordings, where there was no effort made to make them live-ish during editing)
⌲ There are no significant misunderstandings.
⌲ It's a high quality production with great photography & across the board great audiovisuals.
⌲ Evil Dad #2 was a relatively high class kdrama villain & did not overstay his welcome. (similar to other Park Hye Ryun villains)
⌲ There were some very satisfying -power-fantasy like- scenes.
⌲ The dialog has some rather great moments, here and there.

Read More

good core story but a bit dragged out

I wasn't sold on the title but PEB’s acting in recent projects(TKA & EAW) influenced me to start this. She is that good.

The plot was pretty original. At its core this is just a story about a girl with a dream and an unexpected friend who helps her achieve that dream. You could say some aspects were unrealistic but the whole “I survived on an island alone for 15 years” thing was done rather well imo. The plot with Kiho’s dad and LRJ dragged out a bit longer than they should have. Ideally this show could've been 8 eps with far less filler but then it would've run the risk of rushing the finale. The writer did her best to subvert expectations about which brother was Kiho but it was obvious early on. I did second guess myself a few times. I'm sure others did too.

The characters were fine. Younger Kiho and Mokha are the story, and they beautifully set the tone for the story going forward. It's a shame the momentum they set up faltered. I wasn't impressed with the progression of RJ’s character. Her motives towards MH were selfish but I don't blame the FL for puting putting up with it. She was too pure in that sense. I don't like how they ended Bong Wan’s arc. I understand him not being seperated from his family but his last actions were a bit much.

The acting was good from everyone. PEB really immerses herself into her characters. Shout out to those kid actors. They really set the emotional tone and brought so much weight to the story with their heavy performances. N surprised me with the few emotional scenes he got. He had a bit more to work with than in Mine. As much as I dislike their characters, the actors depicting Kiho and MH’s dads played their roles really well.

The finale was ok. The longer the show dragged on the worse it became. This was 12 eps and yet I felt even that was too long. This felt similar to Start up. Both shows have the same screenwriter and it shows...Strong start but rocky finish. And waaaaay too much filler. At its core this is about a girl with a dream and an unexpected friend who helps her achieve that dream. In the end we got to see Mokha stand on stage and make it as a star, which was a bit emotional. PEB did a phenomenal job with the singing. She's in her idol era here and I love to see it.

Read More

Only the first episode is good, the rest is mid (derogatory)

The first episode has a TON of rewatch value. It has such a different sensation from the rest of the drama that you'd think it was from another series. The child actors played their challenging roles extremely well with so much heart. In comparison, the rest of the drama has an unserious attitude coupled with a weighty plot making it unenjoyable and difficult to finish. The younger versions of everyone also had 1000x better chemistry/synergy than the main cast had. Mok Ha's circumstances weren't acknowledged properly by the story, I know the other characters got their own problems too but selfless FL surrounded by selfish people (the idol industry ppl ESPECIALLY including her bias) will always be extremely unentertaining and unoriginal. The worst of the supporting characters got more screen time than the actually supportive supporting characters. The adult leads' chemistry lacked charm but at least the mystery wrapped up decently. 5 stars because the first episode was THAT good. It carried. AGAIN, the first episode was amazingly fresh with the rest of the series being uncreative to say the least.

Read More

chaotic and cheerful family abuse story

this story is about children overcoming abuse from their father. I know a lot of people loved it so much, but I didn't (not as much). why?

1st: 12 episodes seems to be a few, but the duration is 1:20 hour. that means the show has 14 episodes lasting 1h. it's not so far from the usual 16;
2nd: there is a lot of things happening during these 12 episodes: a music star being born, an old music star surviving the decline of her career, 2 families getting rid of their abusive father (this alone should have been enough), and how a young girl got lost on a remote island and how she got rescued, and how she adapted again in the society (this also alone should have been enough). the result is a little bit overwhelming. I really think that the quality of the show would have been better if they chose to focus on less main subjects.
3rd: the music was nice, but I didn't LOVE any of them.

what I loved: the actors were really good, especially the young actors. the atmosphere of the show was very well transmitted. the writer did a very good job sharing his views about the complexities of relationships. you are sometimes very mad at some characters then understand that they had their own reasons and it's forgivable. I think that it can be very interesting to re-watch the show.

audience: not under 15 because there is some violence
when to watch: it's a dense story, watch it on week-end so you'll have some time process it.
even if it's mostly cheerful I didn't find it relaxing.

Read More

Empty plot and waste of time , she gained three life lessons in her 15 years of solitude. Two of which she kept repeating over and over again
Near the end she repeated those again and mom was like skiiiipppppppp

And worse are the crazy fans saying “is thinking a luxury” whenever someone criticizes this flat writing, it’s funny even writers are “excused” like the foot actor oppas
Of course if the plot sucks, it’s the writers fault
It’s not my fault for not being smart enough to see something that’s not there, which is a well written coherent plot?

They had zero plot and made it worst with their stupid conflicts
The dad better not die, the abuser should tho

Beside that stupid angst, how the heck did they not see him coming from the front, especially if he got close enough to stab, and the way they filmed it to not show how it was done is cuz they knew they were being illogical

Read More

I've been struggling this entire year to get hooked on a kdrama, most of the ones I've started seemed promising but when I gave them a chance dissapointed me. I began watching Castaway Diva without really having a lot of expectations, but it quickly grabbed my attention and I devoured it in 3 days.

The acting of the child actors on the first episode was amazing, and really sold me on this show. I liked their future selves, and thought that the reasons they were kept apart were reasonable, instead of just an excuse. I found all of the characters interesting and complex, they felt like actual people. They were not steryotipes or just tropes. There have been some dramas (coughKing the Landcough) in which the characters feel like caricatures and you get tired of seeing them, but I felt the opposite with the characters of Castaway Diva.

The only complaints I have are:

I wish we knew more about what happens with Ran Joo. Like, it seems like she's become the producer of the entertainment firm, but she chose to stay with somebody that she had a romantic relationship with and screwed her over multiple times? I did ship them at the beginning, because I loved the angst of it and there were scenes in which he was considerate towards her, but he went way too far, so I'm a little yikes that she chose to stay on the company that treated her like shit instead of building her own. Or at least have her get part of the ownership of the place so they could co-direct it, something that gave her more power of choice.

I wish we had more of the romance. We only had ONE kiss between the main couple, and not really a lot of scenes in which they're happy or like go on a date together. We've seen A LOT of them supporting each other, which is good to make the relationship believable, but I wish we'd had a few more scenes of them happily together after all the suffering and time apart they went through.

Read More

I just couldn't get to sit another four hours for this drama.

It started off really good and interesting. It's quite refreshing. The plot was kinda unique as we were introduced to a girl who survived 15 years in a deserted island and how she continued to pursue her dream. OSTs too were really great, and I'm surprised Park Eunbin herself sang to some (or all?) of the songs performed in the drama. I also do love the whole moral of the drama — if you want something, it will come to you in one way or another.

However, I lost interest midway, torturing myself to finish the 7th and 8th episode until I decided to drop this. To be honest, I find it cringe; mainly because of the FL and the whole ass love triangle. She was rather more mature when she was 16 than when she turned 31. Also, how quick she had a change of heart. One time she's all willing to be a singer, and the next thing we knew, she's all out supporting her idol like someone who doesn't have a dream for herself. It's like she didn't have that solid character. Another thing is the love line *sigh* I'm sorry for those who loved the romance but it's a no for me. There's no chemistry whatsoever with the ML and FL, their younger selves played it better. And the fact that the other brother literally did more things for the FL than ML himself? But in the end we're forcing that sweet highschool buddies to be together? I'd rather love to see them highlight FL's journey to getting the spotlight rather than unnecessary romance in between.

Thanks for the good songs from this drama though. I'll still listen to them, they're really good.

Read More