Within a male dominated spectacularly exclusive golden Jaebeol-Cage women stand up for their rights
The (fictional) Hyowon Group's extended family is among the richest one percent in the country. This clan is analyzed in detail with their personal stories and their dynamics among themselves. It quickly becomes clear that despite all the wealth, nobody is happy here. They are prisoners in a golden cage of their own greed. The peacock cage in the park of the estate is a beautiful allegory for this.If they were just satisfied with what is, they might be better off. But it always has to be more. "Mine... Mine... I want it... I want more... I don't want to give it away..." Communication is replaced by competition, love and comfort by money and luxury. The price has to be payed by suffering souls. Having lost their grounding in trust, sympathy and kindness, they somehow blindly fight for a substitute. "Mine" thus illustrates their sandbox games including mud fight. Maybe with designer sand - the architecture and furnishings are spectacularly exclusive down to the last detail. You don't have to like that, but it is supposed to impress - and it does.
Still, mud is just mud... And it is disgusting to deal with.
The Jaebeol orbit traditionally is a man´s world. In this respect the KDrama "Mine" choses a unique and inspiring approach: Here concentrated, intelligent and courageous women's power is fighting for liberation from the golden cage. This is possible in South Korea in 2021. Also that one of the female protagonists is in love with a woman. Can women set themselves free from male dominated power structures and constraints? There are some truly beautiful, touching, powerful moments of sisterhood and women's power. Sometimes offensive, sometimes subtle.
If you like, "Mine" is also a contemporary social criticism, quietly hidden behind the curtain of an exclusive and alien world of feudal arrogance. The orbit of the Jaebeol may be far far away from the rest of the world, but with all the interpersonal and inner-psychic dynamics (actually quite ordinary and human) that are in focus here, it comes very close to the themes of 'normal' (South Korean) society - with its social constraints, its strict hierarchical structures and their prejudices that put chains on people of almost every social class. The audience is thus free to choose who from the Hyowon clan household they want to identify with. And whether they want to dare to break free, too, and take a different path (together with one or the other protagonist).
--------------------- SIDE NOTE: --- Jaebeol and their different topics among second and third generation heirs ---
The rise of the founding Jaebeol, like the growth of their companies, was shaped by strong patriarchal hands. Hardworking hands, too. However, this first generation patriarchs are slowly dying out... this being accompanied by creeping processes of change. The founding fathers knew where they came from. Plus, from the very first hour, they had long-standing, loyal relationships with their assistants, secretaries, drivers, foremen that had grown over time (even if they were characterized by dependency)... and over time they have built up a systematic network that takes care of their interests wherever they wish.
Their offspring however is already born "with the golden spoon in their mouth", spoiled by wealth and far away from the ordinary people who work for them and their living environment. These Jaebeol are increasingly preoccupied with their ego, family dynamics, scandals and inheritance disputes. They lack ´brothers in arms´, who shed their blood, sweat and tears - thus they lack someone they can trust. The principle of bribery may still work, yet the reins are now in several, increasingly fractious hands. By now many Jaebeol-Clans have already begun to dismantle their power structures by themselves. And if not, their past machinations are increasingly catching up.
"Mine" documents quite vividly how the Jaebeol families dismantle themselves... how the heirs identify with their (still young!) identity as Jaebeol as if they were feudal old noble blue blood... They haven't really had to prove themselves yet and by their arrogance are already failing in the second and third generation. Additionally, the youngest generation increasingly is no longer interested in the corporate empire, let alone their management...
In this respect "Mine" also represents a new variety of topics within the Jaebeol-Genre in KDramas for the 2020s. ´Competition´, ´cabal´ and ´revenge´ as leading subjects have already been processed back and forth since the early hour of KDrama. ´Justice´ was an increasing topic during the last decade. ´Breaking free´ as a Jaebeol-topic however so far is rather new and rare, yet it might increase in the future...
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Power to women
This is the second drama I watched because of Cha Hak Yeon (I am a Starlight, what can I say?) and I became hooked. Actually, the main themes aren't that great or interesting, rich people, forbidden love stories, secrets etc. What made this drama a masterpiece is the characters and the plot. Strong but sensitive women with weaknesses and bad moments, real people, are trying to free themselves from a supressing and abusive enviroment like a marriage, the society etc. Everyone, Seo Hi Soo, Jung Seo Hyun, Lee Hye Jin, has their own way to do it and each one has to create their own path to archive their freedom. They are real women in a real world.This drama actually works a lot with the prejudice that follows the women. For example, the patriarchal sterotype is, if a woman wants to be a leader, she must be strict, emotionless with a "proper" family. Or if she is sensitive and sweet, she is naive or weak. I really, really, really loved how Seo Hyun and Hi Soo broke these stereotypes and became what they wanted to be.
The only thing which was a bit off is the wealth. We speak about a crazy rich family who lives away and without the real problems of the majority of the society. I think it would better if we talked about everyday women. But, OK, I understand that is a drama in a major korean channel and cannot be everything...
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This review may contain spoilers
this is like the TKEM of makjang, and LBY/KHS were the WDH of the show
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Lee Bo Young, Kim Seo Hyung and even Ok Ja Yeon did a great job, before I go to the buts I have to applaud these women for carrying this show on their own, this show had no plot just amazing acting.whether this was a sismance between Seo Hee Soo and Jeong Seo Hyun, or if it was a starcrossed lovers (which would've been a better plot twist), their relationship and love for each other was the highlight of this show
The writer did an amazing job with Woman Of Dignity so where did this go wrong? when she decided to follow the ONE big mystery format? when she thought crazy family makjang would distract the people from the fact that this show had zero plot line?
This show has one "murderous night" that gets revealed peace by peace each ep while the rest of the show is about the over complicated lives of rich people.
long story short, everyone had a kid that wasn't theirs. one loved him as her own. one took care of him and raised him with everything he needs, and one hated him which resulted in the biggest makjang of all
but does that justifies his actions? I think we've seen enough "mistress's kid", "abusive dad" in rich guy/poor girl romcoms that this does not look like the fault of the horrible parents, he was just a psychopath.
now I can't remember if the step mom faked the "1st love's" death or if Ji Yong told her to do it, but overall the starting point of this makjang was moot.
he wanted his kid to have what he didn't, he married and perfected the fake ideal husband that everyone was happy but his crazy self went ahead and brought the real mom around becasue he wanted both women to give double the love and care to his son
when he remembers how horrible his own mom was. so instead of appreciating Seo Hee Soo, he goes and brings chaos to his house then cry about the 2 women not wanting to be manipulated.. way to go genius psychopath...
soooo that's it. that was the whole plot, everything else was a filler and a "what happened", then they kept showing multiple scenarios as if the 1st thing they showed didn't reveal the whole thing... tbh even before their "big reveals" I knew what will happen right after the 2 women realized who the really enemy was
even when they kept showing different truths, the 1st truth was obvious..
the funny thing was, they only finally revealed everything at the end, and it was another WOD knockoff. in WOD I thought it was genius, but that just shows, you can't use the same plot move and expect the same result. I wish the killer was heeso's assistant xD
now on to the maid and the rich dude. penthouse really ruined that one. sure knetz are suckers for that but the fact that that move got so hyped in penthouse writer's think everyone wants that..
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This review may contain spoilers
Well this was an emotional rollercoaster...First of all the acting in this drama did not disappoint at all! all of the actors did a great job at playing their characters.
Another thing i really liked is that there was lgbtq+ representation in this drama, which is not something you see often in kdramas, or at least i didn't see it.
The story itself was very interesting and intriguing! every episode made me want to see more.
One thing that i didn't really like is the random comedy parts in between serious parts, i skipped most of them because they didn't really contribute to the story in any way.
As for the murder case, i feel like it was kinda lacking in some ways, it felt a little rushed.
Overall i enjoyed this drama a lot and besides the two things that i disliked, this drama was very well done!
Watch it if you want to feel thrill, cry, laugh and get angry, if you want to see lgbtq+ representation, if you want to see powerful women winning and if you want to see the unbreakable bond of a mother and her child, despite them not being related by blood!
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Total Waste of Time
I kept watching each episode, expecting something exciting will happen. Alas, it was one boring episode after another. By the last 2 episodes, I fast forwarded so many times just to get over this dud of a drama. This was a non-story with the over the top screaming and screeching from the stepmother to the unhinged daughter that did not really add to the drama and their scenes were just fillers in my opinion. I was expecting an exciting ending with the "who done it" reveal only to be extremely disappointed and that was after an extensive attempt on the part of the writer to increase the suspense. A total yawn of an ending.Was this review helpful to you?
Worth a watch
I am a bit in too minds on this one. I did watch it all the way through but I thought the biggest problem was that it dragged on a LOT. You could have done the plot in half the time. There are also too many characters in this drama, some of them were just filling up the time. I would have liked to see more about the "young master" and learned more about his character instead of the many maids who seem to get a lot of air time. I also would have liked more time with the "villain" of the story, I wanted to understand him more so having a couple less characters less (I didnt need the siblings, both waste of time including the bible study group...) and spend more time on the important characters would have made the drama better (for me)Lots of things in that story did not make sense either but that was mainly because of the above issues. Not enough time to find out more about the main characters and explain their actions and how they got there.
But there is one thing that stands out to me and that are the relationships of the women in the drama. So nice to see powerful woman supporting each other. In general women supporting each other. I also really like how sensitive and beautiful the lesbian love story was shot. It broke my heart, those scenes made me cry, I rooted for them so much.
So yes, I watched it to the end and it had some beautiful moments and very good acting but its not a drama I will watch again.
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Not a thriller, but it has "sismance"!
Let’s start with calling things by their right name: Netflix has this marked as “Soaps - Drama - Dysfunctional family", and that is what it is, in other words: makjang. It is in many ways a melodramatic and exaggerated drama about family, friendship, motherhood, and obsession. It also has a mystery, but it is not too heavy on the suspense and I would not call this a thriller at all. In my opinion, that is not a bad thing! As I wasn’t expecting it, I wasn’t disappointed.This being said, I guess I can understand where the “nothing happens” reactions come from, because there must for sure be more thrilling dramas than this one. I however, found the plot interesting enough and I cared about most of the characters. The things that happened were often related to family matters, even though the starting point of the drama is that someone (it remains to find out who) is found dead.
When I was halfway through it, it amused me to compare it to a palace drama, because the main characters are crazy rich and live in huge houses with servants, and some of them act like royalties from another century. (I was half expecting the old woman to demand to have servants flogged at some point…) People who like those dramas might also enjoy Mine! In the beginning of the first episode, the patriarch of the family falls into a coma (how many emperors in a coma have you seen yet??), and the family is stressed out by the fact that they don’t know who’ll inherit the company (become crown prince). The oldest son is kind of a slacker (sounds familiar?), but the youngest and very ambitious one is the son of a mistress (since long dead noble consort) and the matriarch (empress) doesn’t like him.
This whole “father in a coma, who will get the company” part is just the background, though. The main character is Hee Soo, wife of the younger son. It is interesting to compare her to her mother-in-law. The old lady screams and shouts a lot, and she was never able to love the son she didn’t give birth to. We’ve seen this in many dramas. Hee Soo, however, is also a stepmother, but she loves her little boy just as much as any mother could ever love her child! This drama is about different kind of mother-child relationships. Hee Soo appears very gentle and warm, “just” a sweet, motherly woman… but this drama will show that she has claws just like any “tiger mom”. Something starts to happen when the family hire a new tutor for their little son, and Hee Soo soon feels that something is not right with her.
Hee Soo and the teacher, Miss Kang, are two of the important women in the drama. The third one is Seo Hyun, wife of the older son. She is everything he is not: elegant, smart, in control, fully capable of leading a very big company. She is born to be a queen! But of course she has a secret… She doesn’t have a very good relationship with her husband and stepson, but she is close to her sister-in-law, and in the end, female friendship and support is one of the main points of this drama. If Hee Soo and Seo Hyun had been male characters, people on the MDL feeds would be talking about the amazing, beautiful “bromance” all day! I adored the two of them. There are also many more important characters, like the nun, Mother Emma, who is close to Hee Soo, among others.
This drama has a few mysteries, like who is the teacher really, who is the one who dies and who did it, and there are secrets that are revealed throughout the drama, for example connections between characters. This drama also has pretty much every cliché in the book… but that is to be expected from a makjang, right?! Some characters are also pretty boring (like the older grandson and his rich man/poor woman romance, but maybe the idol actor is there to attract younger viewers?), but even if there is some “filler”, I didn’t find the drama draggy and there were also a few (unexpectedly) hilarious moments. Many of the characters did their best to grow and change for the better.
I almost never rewatch dramas (once in seven years), so the “rewatch value” category doesn’t mean anything to me… but if I imagine that I have to rewatch this (I could maybe convince some friend to watch, and the friend demands company..?) I don’t think I would mind, because there is a lot to look at in this drama. The houses are big and shiny with nice art, the women are beautiful and their clothes are gorgeous most of the time. Sometimes they wear pretty jewelry and the peacock in the garden (mother-in-law’s pet; expect something funny related to the friendship theme I mentioned in the later episodes!) is beautiful. Everything was really nice to look at. Rewatching Seo Hyun and Hee Soo really wouldn’t hurt me.
The music is just background to me, unless there is something annoying or something that is very good. This was okay.
So, to sum it up: don’t expect something dark and thrilling, but lots of motherly love, sibling rivalry, screaming women and sisterly affection. This drama was enjoyable to me – and I was pleasantly surprised by the actual LBGTQ-content that wasn’t just subtext!* -- and I’m very glad I watched it. But I wouldn’t recommend it to someone like my grandmother who is disgusted by crazy rich main characters (“so unrealistic!”), or to anyone who hates makjang.
* I don’t mean that this drama has everything from lesbians to queer, I just included all letters to avoid spoiling too much!
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So what?
Standard someone gets whacked: who did it and why?Standard rich family and internal mess.
To differentiate itself from being a boring rehash of similar situations, the series banked on weird things. Thus, the rich family is made mostly of incompetent (how could it have made it big?). The homes are huge and uncomfortable. The people have weird relationships: wife can't like hubby, who anyway sleeps around elsewhere, and is totally unaware of the wife [why did he marry her?], son fools around with maids, other guy is a control freak, matriarch likes birds, the nun is an ex-gisaeng, who in the end leaves her vocation, head of maids is another "masterpiece", etc. This mess remains a mess throughout the whole series.
In the end you get to see why the guy got wacked, how, and by whom, and then you ask yourself: so what?
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This one takes a while for me to finish. I seldom drawn to high-class society themed drama, but I was drawn to it from a friend's advice, Lola, as well as the actors Kim Seo Hyung and Lee Bo Young. Although the first 4 episodes were grand, I wasn't sold yet. I was on and off watching it because it has an intriguing concept, script and visuals. The architecture of the house they are living in... Can only be said extravagant. It’s more a hotel than a house to me. The main plot never drags for too long and it is carried so artistically through recurring scenes of an art piece, animals, their behaviors and the discussion around them. They contribute meaningfully to the drama themes on what it means to be a woman, a mother, family, someone with power, someone with privilege, and even someone with nothing aspiring to have more. One of the highlights that got me reeling for a while is that nothing in the world is never really yours except for yourself, your words and your actions… Inspiring!
Every single character own their scenes, the maids, the polices, the sons... But shout-out to the ladies of MINE elevate the drama that without them, MINE wouldn't be as good as it has become. Kim Seo Hyung always become a highlight for me no matter her role is. She thoroughly embodies the layered character of Seo Hyun so brilliantly. Not to spoil you on the character but the positive gay representation is so hilarious and entertaining, not for being sexy or flirting, but though his organic portrayal of being gay. You just have to see him yourself. He become my favorite adult male character because everyone else were trash #hehehe. Also, Lee Hyun Wook played the whole arc of Ji Yong so satisfyingly.
This drama isn't without it's flaws, it might've been better with lesser episodes. I found the self-effacing rich people scenes are overdone. I wouldn't recommend this show to someone who wants a good mystery, but I truly recommend MINE to anyone who wants to see female characters find power among one other and use it to their advantage in critical situations. Nothing was more satisfying to me than watching the people who felt trapped by their circumstances, gain the strength, or find a reason of their own to take what they deserved. The end climax is the true momentum, unassuming plot twist which was greatly executed and resolved!
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Feeds your craving for chaebol drama and mess!
This show most definitely will not fail to intrigue it's viewers. I've already watched Sky Castle, The World Of The Married, and I'm waiting on Penthouse 3 to premiere, so you already have an idea of my taste in kdramas. I was waiting for another's drama like the ones mentioned above to come and my prayers were answered. This one is just as fascinating and with fleshed out characters to match. And a murder isn't a bad way to start off a show either.One thing I want to talk about is the overall feel of the show. It has an aura of mystery but one that affects how you view the characters and their actions. It's hard to articulate but it's like you know what's going on but at the same time you don't. Even if you think you grasp the characters and their motivations, there's this invisible fog that's clouding your judgement. That might've been purposeful on the writer's part but it only draws you in so you can find out more.
Each family member has secrets of their own and a storyline to go with them. The character I found most intriguing is Seo-hyun. She is the composed member of the family yet she is concealing the most damaging secret! Kang Ja Gyeong's backstory is crazy but the journey to finding out what led her to going up her son was really good. Hisoo is very likeable, which is good for dramas like this. In a world full of sinister characters you need someone to root for. My favorite storyline is that of Suhyeok and Yoo Yeon. They were quite minor but I'm a sucker for forbidden love and I just really found their dynamic interesting.
I definitely recommend this if you're a fan of the previously mentioned shows or if you just want to satisfy your craving for backstabbing rich families and dangerous secrets. 9/10
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Faux-makjang where nothing actually happens
I honestly would classify Mine under the makjang category. Unfortunately, it's not good makjang in that it's neither memorable nor entertaining, and 15 episodes in nothing struck a chord. There is some resemblance of a story but it's so frivolous that you just cannot get engaged. (The funny thing is, even Kim Seo-hyung thought the show made no sense at the start.)In a nutshell, the theme of the drama is about discovering your real identity and finding your true self. However, the story does not serve this purpose. I feel like this is extremely similar to another currently airing tvN drama that gave me the same feeling in that they have good intentions but horrible plot and execution that leave you thinking "okay, if you say so".
The amazing thing about drama as a medium of expression is that everything is being played out in that small screen that is like a parallel world to real life. Nevertheless, most dramas fail to show what they want to express and eventually have to resort to plainly voicing out the underlying themes. This is exactly what Mine did and I really really dislike it.
I hope to see our two leads in better projects. Adiós.
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mine: how far will you go to make something yours?
The plot was close to perfection. I love how they didn't have a typical ending where everyone got what was just (so if you're into a righteous ending and feel bothered when its not, do not watch!), but rather every character got what made them feel at peace and happy. The only thing that they lacked in was the execution of it. At the beginning of every episode, they would cut back to the same scene over and over again~ which might have been used for impact but otherwise (as an audience member) felt unnecessary --> it just felt like the drama was trying to make you stay by reassuring themselves that the audience was still interested in the hook dropped at the beginning of the show. They also do time skips and rewinds A LOT in this show, which I'm not exactly a big fan of.The characters were so well written here. I love the relational development amongst the leads and larger supporting characters, but the smaller roles had little to no character development, which led to problems and loopholes in the plot. Firstly, I love the concept of "women empowering women." (I'm getting tired of the same 'poor, weak girl falls in love with the heir of a huge company' trope (: ) Having three strong women as leads was such a risky but strong move from our director and staff. I also love how they incorporated topics surrounding the LGBTQ+ communities and the prejudice that they face from society (and even the Church's perspective on it! ...although it may not accurate at all~ also "Happy Pride Month!" at the time I am writing this). Finally, the cast here felt perfect! At first watch, I already knew that most of the actors were perfect for the roles, although I was very pissed at two loud and annoying characters -- I'm pretty sure her character was written like that. The only concern I had had was with N; his acting skills were not really on par with the other m embers of the cast, however, that played an advantage because it allowed that storyline to fade more into the background to complement the other storylines.
Overall, I would RECCOMEND this drama unless you are an avid police/justice drama watcher.
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