[K-DRAMA REVIEWS] 굿바이 솔로 (Goodbye Solo)

In Korean films, while a very significant portion of the entire population lives in the Metropolis (or similar settings in smaller cities anyway), urban melodramas or films dealing with those themes are surprisingly under-represented compared to other countries, other cities, other film industries. Although the genre is clearly there both on film and TV, with gems such as 네 멋대로 해라 (Ruler of Your Own World), 후아유 (Who R. U.) and the like, the theme of urban alienation doesn't seem to concern Korean pop culture as much as other things do. That is why Dramas targeted at an older audience focus on adultery and class divide issues, while teenager-friendly Trendy Dramas are more concerned with love in its various shades (puppy love, platonic love, crazy love, love needs a miracle, a love to kill, a genre to kill too... if possible), pretty faces and over the top histrionics. Then if there's a milieu that's certainly the world of Mania Dramas, a sort of weird subgenre usually generated from a lack of mainstream appeal and an almost violently obsessive following online.

Now calling Mania Dramas a genre is sort of like throwing all Animation films into a genre. Since Mania Dramas include Fusion Sageuk like 다모 (Damo), 'melodramas of pain' like 미안하다, 사랑한다 (I'm Sorry, I Love You) -- which, unlike the others, was also popular on TV -- cult sitcoms like 안녕, 프란체스카 (Hello, Francesca) and its creators' new, interesting work 소울메이트 (Soulmate), the label only defines its status vis-a-vis the audience. But more than anything else, that label fits perfectly with urban melodramas, with the uncontested queen of the genre being In Jung-Ok of Ruler of Your Own World and 아일랜드 (Ireland). When I heard one of the other big names in the Mania Drama game, supremely talented writer Noh Hee-Kyung of 꽃보다 아름다워 (More Beautiful Than Flowers), 고독 (Solitude) and more, would write her own urban melodrama I was quite intrigued.

Even though she always more or less dealt with relationships between alienated characters, lately she's been working around the tropes of 가족주의 (family-ism), the traditional canons of 홈드라마 (Home Drama, Family Dramas) often in very gloomy, depressing but still very powerful ways. But in the last six months or so a sort of mini-movement is forming both on TV and the big screen, that of reconsidering what the essence of that family-ism really is. Through shows like 불량가족 (Bad Family) and films like Kim Tae-Yong's 가족의 탄생 (Family Ties), the new keyword is stripping all the patriarchal veils which coloured the term for decades, and really trying to find what family means to people.

Just like its Korean title -- 'The Birth of a Family' -- Kim Tae-Yong's film sees the family as something you build from emotional interaction and understanding, not simply by the 'blood is thicker than water' mantra. Similarly, the recently concluded SBS Drama 'built' a family from scratch, showing that affection is not something you can take for granted just because you're family. It's then interesting to analyze the different approach to the concept of family writers from different generations take: the Queens of Family Dramas, Kim Soo-Hyun and Kim Jung-Soo, push for a more traditional view of family-ism. Take all the 'strong mother' roles Kim Hee-Ae has played in Kim Soo-Hyun Dramas, the latest slated for later this year in 눈꽃 (Snowflower). Or similarly Go Doo-Shim in the wonderful 한강수 타령 (Ode To the Han River) -- which Bong Joon-Ho half-jokingly mentioned to define the kind of relationship driving the family members in his latest work 괴물 (The Host).

Of course the two deal with different tones, Kim Soo-Hyun much more intense and with sometimes heavy handed (but meaningful) dialogue, Kim Jung-Soo with a slightly more realistic, personally even more palatable bittersweet tone. These shows, mostly shown during Weekends, tend to target an older audience, but those two veteran writers are the last flagbearers of an old traditionalist 'school' which is rapidly disappearing. Why? Today's Home Dramas are led by writers like Im Sung-Han of 하늘이시여 (Dear Heaven) with her guerrilla tactics (just as manipulative as the de facto dictatorship patriarchal family-ism can become), or Moon Young-Nam of 소문난 칠공주 (7 Princesses) and last year's excellent 장밋빛 인생 (Life in Pink), with a knack for dialogue and almost obsessively intense 'tough love'. Let's admit it, family-ism can create great Dramas, like the classics 그대 그리고 나 (You and I) or 장미와 콩나물 (Roses & Beansprouts), but it's often just an excuse to eventually resort to the same tactics -- superficial class divide issues, mother/whore dichotomies between the Friday and Daily 'adultery Dramas' and the like.

Trendy Dramas rarely even border this subject, as they're too concerned with 삼각관계 (menage a trois), secrets of birth and walking cardboard cutouts strolling their product placement on the screen. So this new movement of Dramas trying to find an alternative to that patriarchal family-ism are certainly a welcome novelty, and so far have produced good results. I should have expected it, given the slightly off-balance views towards the traditional family writer Noh has shown over the years, but the most striking example of this new 'genre' might very well be her latest show, 굿바이 솔로 (Goodbye Solo). Like Bad Family, it doesn't necessarily deal with a blood-related family, but a 마음의 가족, a 'family' but out of emotional connection and mutual understanding, often regardless of blood ties.

Noh made a few very important changes with this show: she moved the focus from the usual 4 characters to 7, almost all with equal importance; unlike many of her past works, she didn't paint the characters' struggles through poverty, although their current condition has a lot to do with the poverty they experienced in the past. In a way, that sense of poverty which gave a different spin to characters like Go Doo-Shim in More Beautiful Than Flowers is something Noh uses to build her new familyism. Stripping the show's world view from the usual patriarchal, Confucian, capitalist view of the family with all the following 'roles' emerging, we're mostly dealing with characters that more or less are free of financial problems, at least at the moment. But poverty, being in the past, is what guides their modus operandi, in a way. It's what forces them to lie, to do things they wouldn't do otherwise, to hide behind a wall they build by themselves.

Even with casting, Noh changed the cards a little. Although people like Bae Jong-Ok and Na Moon-Hee have been Noh regulars for quite a while, the choice of Kim Min-Hee surprised many people, not only because she's never been in a mature Drama like this, but because of her past work people would rather remember her as Lee Jung-Jae's girlfriend than as an actress. At the end of the day, perhaps because Noh had a troubled childhood before getting to where she is now, and she never really liked 잘난 척하는 (stuck up) people, she's always shown a predilection for those who work hard, who try to improve even when the raw talent isn't there. To be more specific, one of the reasons why Noh is such a precious writer in this industry is because she can get that fire out of her actors. She did that with Han Go-Eun and Kim Heung-Soo in More Beautiful Than Flowers making them look like real actors for the first time in their careers, and she essentially did the same with Kim Min-Hee here.

Known for her distinctive and striking dialogue, Noh poured a lot more of her personal stories into this show -- the closure to Young-Sook's character arc is pretty much taken from her own experience with her mother -- which never feels like something shot on the fly. Although it's obvious the final script was done while the show was shooting, as always Noh prepares her actors several weeks before, and it's pretty obvious by looking at the performances that they had time to understand their characters, because there's nobody trying to impose his or her style over the character's aura. And at the center of it all is that 'Solo' of the title. Characters living solo, alone, because of the pain of their past. Soo-Hee can't deal anymore with her mother changing partner every few months, even though she knows why she's doing all that; Mi-Ri essentially separated from her family to stay with the man she loves, Ho-Cheol, who in turn continues to blame himself for his past, releasing his tension through his life as a third rate gangster; Ji-An seems to be doing fine on the outside, but his castle of lies is about to fall, not because of other people trying to reveal his past, a past which could ruin his present, but because he himself can't escape the burden of all those white lies. 'Grandma' Mi-Young hasn't spoken a single word in decades, hiding all the pain inside her, taking insults and everything else like a passing breeze; Min-Ho is separated from his family because of more secrets, and Young-Sook is dealing with the repercussions all her lies created. They're all people in pain, suffering day by day, sometimes laughing in the face of tragedy, sometimes crushing under the weight of all that pressure.

No, this show is not about finding an alternative to that 'Solo' lifestyle in a romantic sense. We're not dealing with characters looking for a soulmate, at least not all of them. What they're trying to escape from is loneliness. Find someone who understands them, someone they can trust, rely on, that is what they want. The only way Min-Ho has to communicate with his mother is through phone calls and a few glares from their respective cars, while driving on the big bridge; Ho-Cheol and Mi-Ri fight all the time, pretend to break up every 15 Minutes, but then the only moments of happiness they can find is when they're together joking, bitching at each other, having silly fights and showing how quick their temper really is. No review is really going to give justice to this plot, because it doesn't work on plot devices and/or character development they way you expect. Characters never close the circle in a neat package: Ho-Cheol will remain an overly impulsive time-bomb, Soo-Hee will always doubt her decisions, Mi-Young will not start speaking again all of a sudden, and Min-Ho and his brother Min-Jae will not likely go back in good terms in a couple of weeks. It's not like the usual injection of plot devices other Dramas resort to, getting rid of the obstacles in the way, and then enjoying their perfect resolution. It's not like that because, well, life just isn't like that.

The change in style is not simply down to using more characters: Noh, for the first time, used elements of mystery in the Drama. It might feel like something out of place given her style, but it slowly adapts, blends with the dynamics of the show in ways I didn't expect. We're not dealing with a whodunit perse, as the mystery is not in the accident itself, but in the psychology behind the mystery. What are those elements trying to say? They add to the overall concept of the show, to forget about the past, and start living the right way now. What that 'right' is, Noh never tells us. She lets her characters find those answers by themselves, as everyone creates his own sense of reality based on their experience. So while Young-Sook's relationship with her children will certainly improve, she'll probably continue to be a little 'out there', flamboyant and wonderfully eccentric in her own way. Ho-Cheol and Mi-Ri will continue to fight, and her parents will continue to disapprove their relationship, at least on the outside, not to show something is slowly changing inside. Unlike other Dramas, Noh doesn't give us a beginning and an end. She shows the journey, or at least part of it.

But although Noh's hand dominates this show, she's not the sole reason why it works so well. Praise should also go to PD Gi Min-Soo, who worked with Noh on More Beautiful Than Flowers. The subtle camerawork, a little closer to urban melodramas like Who R. U. than the average Miniseries, gently guides us through Noh's marvelous dialogue, never intruding too much, showing enough to let things transpire. And, of course, the other big plus: the acting. I want to start from the obvious, as there was even more pleasure in certain surprising discoveries later. Na Moon-Hee is simply mesmerizing. She utters two words in the entire 16 Hour Drama. Two. The first is to set up the beginning of her character's flashback, to slowly introduce her. The last one is of devastating power, right at the end. Simple, meaningful, or using her words, beautiful. Bae Jong-Ok, more comfortable than ever inside the world of one of her favourite writers, is a joy to watch. I bet many people will have a hard time connecting with her at the beginning, but as the character slowly strips the outer layer, her performance becomes more focused and touching. And again it's no surprise if Lee Jae-Ryong does this well. The star of 상도 (Sang Do) has been one of the industry's most underappreciated talents, and he shows his talent here once again, in a role which fits him perfectly. Other highlights the usual able work from Jang Yong and Jung Ae-Ri, and another winner from Cheon Jung-Myung, whose explosive raw talent is emerging at such a fast pace it's quite intimidating. You'll hear more about this guy soon.

Yes, Yoon So-Yi and especially Lee Han also do well, but I want to reserve the biggest praise for someone else, another of Noh Hee-Kyung's miracles. Nobody, including myself, ever thought of her as an actress. There were simply too many horrible performances, lazy star vehicles with caricatures never showing anything beyond her image. Even writer Noh wasn't too sure about her, all she knew is that she was pretty and... and, well, that was all. The fist time she saw her try the part, after PD Gi Min-Soo convinced her to give Kim Min-Hee a chance, she didn't seem impressed, but then everything changed the second time. And when she called her one night, not an easy feat for an actor, asking for another chance, she knew Kim was trying to do something. And that something will be pretty evident to anyone familiar with her past performances, after seeing this show.

This might turn out to be the Drama of Kim Min-Hee's young career: not because she's suddenly become the next Moon So-Ri, no, as far from it as possible. But she's shockingly good here, she shows a humanity beyond her pretty face, she shows that fire she never seemed to have in the past. When she gets red in the face after Ho-Cheol (Lee Jae-Ryong) tells her why he can't marry her, then that didn't feel like Kim Min-Hee trying to look as angry as possible. That was Mi-Ri. Just her. Angry, confused, jealous, scared. Just Mi-Ri. And that's a start. From now on, unless she forgets all she learned here in an instant and goes back to her old self, a la Han Go-Eun after More Beautiful Than Flower, we can finally call Kim Min-Hee an actress. And be it because of Noh's magical dialogue, or because she gave her all for this role, that is something nobody can take away from her.

Noh's shows always seem to face rating problems, this one deviating very little from the norm, with an excellent start at 20%, and the rest of the show average around the 12%. Why isn't she able to attract the viewers' interest, despite her obvious tentative to get a little closer to the mainstream, at least in terms of style? Perhaps because even in the slightly heightened sense of reality a TV Drama like this can create, it's a little too close to home for people to take. This is not escapist entertainment, it's not fluffy crap with pretty faces trying to fill time until they'll say 'I love you... foh ebahhhh". This is a bittersweet look at how people find a 'home away from home', an emotional connection regardless if that comes from family ties or not. And it's quite exceptional at that. I love all the characters in Goodbye Solo because they're full of 성질 (temper), they're often miserable in dealing with others, they make mistakes, they hurt people and then some. But then, just like in real life, they have the power to forget that, forgive that, laugh the day after.

Usually when you really like a show, you often want to know more about the characters after the end, to see where the roads they built will lead. But even though many questions are still left unanswered -- perhaps one of Noh's major talents when it comes to writing -- at the end of the show I didn't really need to know more about Min-Ho, Soo-Hee, Mi-Ri and all the others. Why? Because thanks to what's so far the best script of the year, capable direction, and excellent performances I can trust they'll do well, whatever they choose, wherever that road leads them to. Because they not only said goodbye to us, but also to that inner disease, that unwelcome companion that walked with them for years. Goodbye. Solo.

RATING: 9

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AVAILABILITY
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A Korean DVD of the show has been announced for this Summer, and although there's still no specs available, since this is a KBS Drama it should have English Subtitles. We'll post a link to the pre-order once it pops up.

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굿바이 솔로 (Goodbye Solo)
수목드라마 - Wed/Thu Drama
16 Episodes - Aired From 03/01 to 04/20/06 [KBS2]
윤소이 (Yoon So-Yi) as Su-Hee, 천정명 (Cheon Jung-Myung) as Min-Ho, 김민희 (Kim Min-Hee) as Mi-Ri, 배종옥 (Bae Jong-Ok) as Young-Sook, 이재룡 (Lee Jae-Ryong) as Ho-Cheol, 이한 (Lee Han) as Ji-An, 나문희 (Na Moon-Hee) as Mi-Young, 장용 (Jang Yong) as Joo-Min, 정애리 (Jung Ae-Ri) as Kyung-Hye, 김현균 (Kim Hyeon-Gyun) as Min-Jae, 엄수정 (Eom Su-Jeong), as Ji-Soo, 김미경 (Kim Mi-Kyung) as Hae-Young, 윤유선 (Yoon Yoo-Seon) as Mi-Ja, 박지일 (Park Ji-Il) as Young-Sook's Husband, 김태훈 (Kim Tae-Hoon) as Shin-Shik, 장태성 (Jung Tae-Seong), 소도비 (So Do-Bi), 주진모 (Joo Jin-Mo)
Official Website / Photo Gallery / Wallpapers / Soompi Thread
PD: Gi Min-Soo, Hwang In-Hyeok / WRITER: Noh Hee-Kyung
RATINGS: AVERAGE 11.91%, PEAK 20.1%, LOWEST 9.6%