The subject of mental illness in a drama or film
truly needs to be explored by an outstanding writer
like Ga Ram because it is perhaps the most
challenging theme for Korean dramafans to
understandproperly (and I certainly saw
a lot of unfair misunderstandings online in
viewers' comments about this psychological drama!).
As an underpinning in the story we see how,
eventually, true love, the patient forgiving kind,
can be a healing force in people facing life's
traumas.
The Story:
We are introduced to an attractive female news anchor,
working for television network PPSMedia N
Seoul, named Joo Eun Ho (Shin Hae Sun) who has been
working at her craft for fourteen long years but who has
never fully captured the interest of the general viewing
audience. She resents the fact that no matter how hard she
tries the public seems incapable of warming to her.
Producers at the station, especially Team Leader Kim Shin
Joong (Jeon Bae Su, Extraordinary
Attorney Woo), seem reluctant to put her in
the prime news time slot of 9pm, and instead they give
that honor to her main competitor, the handsome hotshot
male news anchor Jung Hyun Oh (Lee Jin Wook). When not on
camera these two news anchors often argue about how best
to deliver the news to the public. Their interchanges
become increasingly petty over time. Fireworks! Eun Ho
remains stuck at the less prestigious 12 noon time slot to
deliver the news, and she is paired with a younger male
anchor named Moon Ji On (Kang Sang Joon) who fails to see
her "charms" even after she makes it known she is
attracted to him. He can see she is still attracted to
Hyun Oh, too. No man wants to be second best.
We soon learn via flashbacks that Eun Ho and Hyun Oh had
once dated rather seriously for several years but the
romantic relationship had been doomed to failure because
both of them had unhealed wounds in their hearts about
tragedies they had suffered earlier in their lives due to
broken family situations. Hyun Oh (rather wisely, I
thought!) did not want to commit to marriage with Eun Ho,
sensing that it would be a troubled union. Eun Ho still
holds a grudge about their breakup to the present day, and
the tenseness of their professional relationship creates
some disharmony at the station. Even when Hyun Oh rather
smugly says he will try teaming up with Eun Ho as a
co-anchor in an effort to get her better ratings she
continues to be resentful of him.
In Eun Ho's case she
had been traumatized by the tragic loss of a beloved sister
and had taken on a dual personality and identity to cope
with her grief. Her alternate identity is named Joo Hyeri,
her lost sister's name, and she works as a parking lot
attendant at the station at night. This second personality /
alter ego is sometimes full of mischief, and whenever she
senses news anchors she crushes on at the station are
nearing the parking lot at night she finds excuses to stay
hidden or to camouflage her face with a weird hairstyle with
long bangs. The girl she works with at night, Mi Yeon (Kim
Na Mi), realizes there's something mentally wrong with her
and tries to help her out when necessary.
Eun Ho and Hyeri switch personalities at exactly 4:00pm and
4:00am every day so this timing helps her to live a double
life. It is Eun Ho who takes the time to visit a
psychiatrist, named Lee Seung Yoon (Ahn So Yo), and this
doctor eventually reveals to the Hyeri personality when she
shows up that she is in fact a split personality with Eun Ho
the daytime news anchor at the station. Is there any
possibility that she could be cured of this terrible
condition? The psychiatrist cannot promise any cure, just
that she will continue to listen and help the girl(s) cope.
One night it is Hyeri who
rescues a different male news anchor at the station named
Kang Ju Yeon (Kang Hoon, Rookie
Historian Goo Hae Ryung, The
Secret Romantic Guesthouse) who gets into
trouble with viewers for an inaccurate news report on
Korean agriculture. After a physical attack on him is
stopped by security he becomes intrigued by his strange
rescuer Hyeri who had rushed him away from the scene,
especially when she suddenly kisses him passionately with
no warning and then simply walks away, leaving him
stunned!
Ju Yeon continues to try and find out more about her. This
new interest in her provokes jealous reactions from a
female co-worker named Baek Hye Yeon (Cho Hye Joo, A
Love So Beautiful, Search:
WWW, The
Secret Romantic Guesthouse). She wants Ju Yeon
for herself! As time progresses a rather odd quartet of
romantic friction develops between these four news
professionals. Eun Ho finds herself jealous whenever Hyun
Oh takes special interest in other females at work, and
Hyeri is jealous of Hye Yeon who often hints at her
devotion to the handsome Ju Yeon.
Then on top of
everything else a murder mystery takes place and Eun Ho's
life is put in danger because of it. Hyun Oh comes to her
rescue time and time again and it's obvious he still cares
for her, especially when he begins to realize she has a
split personality and is putting herself increasingly into
compromising situations that could risk her life. However,
he still delays telling her about his sincere feelings for
her because he also has to confront his own mental issues
about growing up in a broken family. That is the real reason
he has always been wary of committing to anyone fully in
marriage; he doesn't want to be abandoned like his
mother abandoned him.
Will it ever be possible that Eun
Ho's broken personality can be healed, that Hyeri could
eventually disappear as a manifestation of her mental
illness? Will Hyun Oh's wariness of marriage be resolved if
she is fully healed? What about co-workers Ju Yeon and Hye
Yeon? Can their own hearts be healed after suffering through
painful relationship ups and downs due to Eun Ho's mental
illness?
Personally I think it's generally
good practice for a mentally ill person to not become
involved in any romantic relationship until they've got
their mental illness resolved. It's not fair to themselves
or to the other person. There are other things someone can
do to give their life meaning besides a romantic
relationship, which often comes with inherent dangers even
if the people involved are not mentally ill. To add mental
illness to the picture is doubly dangerous. I suspected here
in Dear Hyeri that Eun Ho's alternate identity as
her lost sister would have to disappear in order for Eun Ho
to have any chance of a normal life. I could see that quite
a few viewers online failed to make this connection, but
others understood where the writer was coming from from the
beginning. Kudos to her for writing such an interesting
screenplay, and to all the actors for fleshing out their
complicated characters so well.
You can currently watch Dear Hyeri on Viki HERE.
Keep an open mind, and enjoy!
