A Stalker's Guide to Lee Min Ki
And You Thought Stepmothers Were Evil...
Part 2
So in our first installment we discussed the ladies of Be Strong Geum Soon, and Boys Over Flowers. Today we cover the rest of my “More Evil Than You Can Imagine” list.
This article has...
*Warning: Spoilers*
You have now been warned. Proceed with Act 2...
It’s generally agreed that Moon Boon Hon (Park Joon Geum), the mother of Kim Joo Won is one of the nastiest moms-in-law around. She tries her very hardest to separate Ra Im from her son, and even openly admits to paying off his previous girlfriends! It really makes me wonder if she thinks ANYONE would be good enough for him. Because marriage dates aside, I’m not sure if she’d really accept anyone becoming more important than her in her son’s life.
While Boon Hon represents every cliché there is in a mom-in-law, there is one thing that makes her stand out from the crowd...she never gives in. At first I was really upset about this but a friend of mine told me, that for her, it was one of the best things about this drama. After thinking about it I have to agree. In Korean dramas we see a lot of perfectly sunny endings where all is right in the world, but they can sometimes lack a sense of reality. Not everything in life will always turn out perfectly, and Boon Hon’s attitude is a wonderful example of that. Our couple has a fantastically wonderful life, and even if obstacles still remain, they won’t let it get in the way of their happiness.
Arguably the evilness of Mo Hwa Ran (Kim Sung Ryung) is mostly centralized on her drop dead gorgeous tortured soul of a son, but when she discovers the blossoming romance between him and Go Mi Nyu, she throws on another bucketful of GRRRR. Upon realizing that the young boy with so much likeness to his father is actually his nearly identical twin sister, all Hwa Ran can see in this innocent face is the woman who kept her lover from returning to her. As if being a girl made her any less his child. This realization pushes Hwa Ran into prematurely letting loose the secret to her son that "Hey, that girl you're in love with...yeah, I was supposed to be her new mommy. She's also the reason I never wanted to be your mommy. Try and find happiness together now. BAM!" Wow did I want to punch her. It is a unique strategy to keep the destined couple apart though. Most Moms-in-law try the "She's trash, only I love you" approach. This is the only time I've seen the opposite. Which I'm sad to say actually worked. Oh Tae Kyung! Why did it take your tortured broodiness so long to listen to Mi Nyu?!? As most of us know, all turns out well in the end. Our couple overcomes their differences and Mi Nyu even convinces Hwa Ran to approach Tae Kyung for reconciliation.
I have a love-hate relationship with Hwa Ran. The way she treats her son is despicable to the extreme. But when her diabolical deeds set off a chain of events pushing Mi Nyu and Tae Kyung together, which leads us to a face like this,
I really don’t know whether to hit her or hug her.
Honorable Mention
So technically the evil stronghold in Shining Inheritance is a step-mother not a mother-in-law, but her particular brand of evil is so strong it deserves a dishonorable mention. Baek Seong Hee (Kim Mi Sook) is the stepmother to Go Eun Sung, our steady hard-working main lead. This woman will do anything to give her own daughter, Seung Mi, the life she thinks she deserves. This includes stealing every penny from her two stepchildren shortly after their father is reported dead. The drive and selfishness this woman possesses leads her to do many despicable things during the course of the drama, but none is as heart wrenching as what she does to Eun Sung’s brother.
Go Eun Woo is a mentally handicapped teenager, and with their father’s death, Eun Sung’s only living relative. When he discovers the posh new apartment his stepmother and stepsister now live in, Seong Hee panics, and kidnaps him. When she sees her perfect plans being threatened, she feels she has no choice but to take Eun Woo far away from his home, and dump him in the middle of the street. I couldn't get over her lack of human decency. There was no way to explain that away, no possible means to justify her actions. I know in her head, everything made sense, but I could not see her as anything even close to a human being after that. When the time came for her to get her just desserts, I couldn't even feel an ounce of pity for the woman.
It’s a pretty tough journey our main leads go through to find happiness. Obstacles are thrown at them left, right, and sideways, but they always prevail. I truly believe that apart from the “insert life-threatening disease here” obstacle, the potential mother-in-law is by far the most difficult trial to face. But the ladies in these dramas not only prevail, they do it in style.
Who do you believe reigns supreme in the “Is he really worth this?” category? Or have I left out the mother representing the most perfect example of the overprotective mama bear?
