I sought this short Korean drama special out, not so much for the cast, because they were all excellent and I've enjoyed them in other works, but because the writer also wrote the unforgettable, magical K-drama I'll Go To You When The Weather Is Nice (2020), and I had totally fallen in love with that drama. Han Yeo Reum's Memory came three years before that one so I wanted to check out anything else Han Ga Ram had written.

What I was most impressed with here in this drama was the combination of present day and flashback scenes and how seamlessly they were interwoven together to present a total picture of one woman's four love relationships over her lifetime. I am so much of a linear thought person in my own writing style, that interweaving scenes of present and past together so deeply, and so frequently, as this drama presented, would be impossible for me. So, kudos to this writer, Han Ga Ram! She should write more dramas!

Lead actress Choi Gang Hee (Thank You, Protect The Boss, Heart To Heart, Queen Of Mystery) was the perfect choice to play a woman in her thirties who is reflecting deeply on the past loves of her life. She is often enigmatic in her approach to acting roles so you have to watch her carefully to figure out her characters' real emotions and motivations. That requires a degree of intuition on the viewer's part that doesn't seem to come easy to your typical fly-by-night K-drama viewer today. There is a reason that this drama is labeled with a "15 years old or older" audience age requirement: it's not for anything objectionable, like violence or sex scene or foul language, because there is nothing overt like that presented here, but because the situations presented in this drama require an audience with more mature thought processes and life experiences.

The Story:

Thirty-seven year old Han Yeo Reum (Choi Gang Hee) is a popular radio program writer. She has a rather problematic relationship with her boss, Producer Oh Je Hoon (Tae In Ho, Descendants Of The Sun, Just Between Lovers, Black Dog, Ghost Doctor). While they are attracted to one another they hold back their feelings because of their work relationship, which takes precedence for both of them. Eventually they go on a movie date, and even tentatively kiss, but then Yeo Reum discovers that her PD is also seeing another, younger, girl at work, so that nixes that romantic relationship! Thankfully Yeo Reum can talk over her strained feelings with her best girl friend, Jang Hae Won (Choi Yeon Oh), who also works at the station. (I'm not sure why, but this actress kept reminding me of a young Choi Ji Woo!).

At Age 37 Han Yeo Reum Is Still Looking For True Love

Then an old boyfriend of hers named Park Hae Joon (Lee Joon Hyuk, City Hunter, Naked Fireman, Stranger), who is a K-pop music columnist, is hired to join the station, and Yeo Reum is quite nervous about it. She had been the one to break up with him several years earlier, because of her bad temper and lack of understanding at the time; he had wanted to stay together. So Yeo Reum has an element of guilty feelings toward him. It also doesn't help that Hae Joon is in a current relationship with a rather clingy woman he would like to break up with, named Choi So Yi (Son Soo Hyun). He has compassion for her but it's obvious he doesn't really love her.

It's A Relief To Talk Over Love Problems With A Best Friend

Also working at the station is another old boyfriend of hers from her college days, named Kim Ji Woon (Lee Jae Won, Master's Sun, Doctor Stranger, Record Of Youth, Strangers Again), but he is in a rather testy relationship with a secretary at the station named Yoon Hye Ri (Yoon Jin Yi). If they break up is there a chance that Yeo Reum and Ji Woon could get back together? They at least had a lot of humor in their relationship, and a sense of humor really does help when life gets complicated. The fourth man who can't seem to forget Han Yeo Reum is her high school sweetheart, Choi Hyun Jin (Choi Jae Woong, The Village: Achiara's Secret, Stranger, Misaeng, Doctor Lawyer). Even in his thirties he keeps tabs on her life from a distance, but he's still a bit angry that the stresses of life had separated them when they went away to college.

Four Handsome Guys Can't Forget Han Yeo Reum!

Then one day Yeo Reum, overwhelmed by stress at work, and unable to put to rest her past romantic relationships permanently, impulsively packs a suitcase and takes a vacation to see her sister, who is living in Los Angeles, USA. A week later it breaks on Korean TV news that she had been found dead in her sister's apartment! Speculation begins among those who cared for her in Korea as to whether she committed suicide, or was, in fact, murdered. Police declare her death might have been due to a break-in by thugs, but little is out of place in the apartment when her dead body is found, and nothing had been stolen (I think they should have looked at the sister!).

The four men who had ostensibly cared for Yeo Reum all have different reactions to the news of her death, and each man's personal reactions really pegs it for the audience as to whether they were honest in their feelings for her, or not. Flashbacks also reveal the truth of how she died (although we are spared any gory details), and what her final thoughts had been. Her best girl friend has the most poignant memories of her, and after her death she obligingly takes over her job as writer at the radio station, trying her best to write as beautifully as Yeo Reum had done during her career there.

Who Was The One Man Who Truly Loved Her?

It's difficult to track down this compelling short Korean drama special: I had to resort to a bootleg site, which I hate to do, but sometimes it can't be helped. I downloaded the episodes and made my own DVD for it. I think this short K-drama should be far better known, especially for more mature audience members who get tired of all the young boy and girl idol dramas that they throw at us every year. This was interesting, in contrast, because all the characters were shown to have flaws, despite being older and (supposedly) wiser about life. It seemed more true to life that way.

Just do a general search online and Han Yeo Reum's Memory is bound to pop up somewhere. Enjoy.

~~~~~~~~

HOME TO KOREAN DRAMA REVIEWS