In various cultures the swan symbolizes grace and elegance; when colored red it also symbolizes the rare beauty of a courageous individual’s journey through life, despite swimming against a sea of troubles. In this outstanding Korean drama Red Swan (Disney+/Hulu, 2024) both our lead characters, played brilliantly by my long time favorites Kim Ha Neul (A Gentleman's Dignity, The Wind Blows, On The Way To The Airport, Stained Glass, Road No. 1, Secret, Into The Sunlight, Piano, original classic film Ditto) and Rain (A Love To Kill, Full House, Sang-Doo Let's Go To School, Sketch, Ghost Doctor, classic films I'm A Cyborg But That's Okay, Ninja Assassin, Uhm Bok Dong) could be symbolized as red swans. They have the grace and inner fortitude to swim past all the negative influences (and influencers!) in their lives and to survive stronger than ever before.

I was so addicted to this Korean drama that I didn't leave my house for two days! I could barely tear myself away to do chores or to sleep! I marveled at how both main stars haven't aged a day in over twenty years of my enjoying their dramas and films. Both are just as beautiful to look at as they ever were. In the early parts of this drama Rain boasted a slight beard that I found extremely sexy --- he should wear a beard more often! :)

Honestly, sometimes I do get a little tired of all the chaebol dynasty (rich conglomerate family) drama stories made in South Korea; I end up skipping a lot of them because there's rarely anything unique about them. It's mostly just who is clandestinely sleeping with whom. Yawn. In this case, however, I was not about to miss any drama these two favorite stars of mine were in together. Amazingly it was their first pairing together. I am glad I plunged in because in some ways it was quite different from other such rich family dramas: our two main characters here both came up from poverty and were secretly looked down upon by the wealthy family members with whom they interacted. It created a kind of spiritual bond between them where it became Two Against The World.

The Story:

Beautiful Oh Wan Soo (Kim Ha Neul) began her life in poverty. Her mother Shim Chun Hee (Jung Kyung Soon) was at one time a servant to a rich golfing family and when she was fired from that job for poor performance she spitefully stole two golf clubs from her employer and proceeded to teach her daughter how to swing the clubs. In time Oh Wan Soo began to excel and even entered professional golf tournaments, ultimately winning numerous international championships as well. She became world famous. Sadly, though, her mother took most of her prize money and gambled it away. Mother and daughter became estranged.

On a charity trip to Africa to help poor children in need, Oh Wan Soo met the male heir to the rich chaebol Kim family, who own the Hwain Group, a giant corporation with branches in many nations. This male heir, Kim Yong Kook (Jung Gyu Woon) is enamored by Wan Soo's stunning beauty and proposes marriage, but unfortunately he has trouble staying true to his new wife. Soon after their marriage he begins cheating on her with a gold-digger named Jang Tae Ra (Ki Eun Se). Both Wan Soo and Tae Ra become pregnant around the same time; Tae Ra's son survives, but Wan Soo's son does not. This loss further estranges Wan Soo from her flighty husband Yong Kook. She pours herself into her charity work, creating a foundation called The Now Foundation which becomes aligned with UNICEF. She often flies to various countries like the USA, Philippines, China, Africa to run this charity foundation. Of course this results in her marriage becoming a "merger" in name only. It never really had much of a chance to remain romantic. It doesn't help much that Wan Soo's "husband" is very handsome; the women keep throwing themselves at him and he often can't resist them.

 

The matriarch of this Kim chaebol family, Park Mi Ran (Seo Yi Sook) is an unkind, shrewish type woman who resents Wan Soo's devotion to her Now Foundation charity. It often seems that the Now Foundation is making more money than her own family's Hwain Corporation! It becomes obvious over time that the Hwain Corp. is making their wealth through money laundering and gambling rather than legitimate economic enterprises. Mi Ran is helped in this endeavor by her corrupt lawyer, Han Sang Il (veteran actor Yoon Je Moon, unforgettable as the madman in King 2 Hearts). In flashbacks we learn that Mi Ran had often bedded this lawyer, committing adultery on her own ailing husband, Kim Du O (Jo Won Hee). Another son had resulted, the illegitimate younger half-brother to Yong Kook, named Kim Yong Min (Go Yoon). Yong Min and his nasty wife Ji Yeon (Kim Yun Jee) are always butting into the family's decisions regarding personal wealth distributions to each family member; they feel they aren't making enough moula. The matriarch doesn't care. Her husband died under mysterious circumstances in Switzerland and now she is the head of the family and the corporation. She can do whatever she likes with the money -- until the dead husband's will is scheduled to be read at a later date. Everyone in this Kim "family" is nervous about that future event!

Meanwhile, Wan Soo travels to Manila for more charity work, and while there an attempted assassin tries to shoot her dead from a nearby rooftop. A professional policeman from Korea named Seo Do Yoon (Rain) rescues Wan Soo and brings her all bloody to his apartment to clean up. She is grateful that her life was saved by this kind man. Ultimately this policeman is hired as her personal bodyguard back in Korea. It's a good thing, too, because more attempts are made on her life, one even a bizarre drone attack as she and Do Yoon drove in a car near Busan. (I was really impressed by the special effects in this scene. They were incredible!).

Yet another attack against Wan Soo occurs near a dock and Do Yoon ends up rescuing them both by escaping on a nearby boat. Do Yoon is often hurt more in these attacks than Wan Soo because he is so committed to protecting her, even if it means pain or death for himself. Obviously he has fallen in love with her, and eventually it's obvious that she is in love with him, too. However, there's no intimacy, no adultery committed, but they physically help each other out whenever it's called for, like tending to open wounds after attacks. (Oh, those fix the boo boo scenes! They are in every K-drama!).

At first it is assumed that ISIS is behind all the attacks on Wan Soo because she has helped so many young girl children escape from abusive Muslim nations, but Do Yoon isn't convinced. He thinks that the attacks are coming from someone much closer to home in Wan Soo's married family set-up. Possibly someone who is jealous of her work with the Now Foundation, who might have hired a professional assassin to coordinate the attacks.

We learn later that Do Yoon's best friend in police school, Shin Ju Hyuk (Sung Hyuk), had donated a kidney to him when he needed a transplant to live. Then Ju Hyuk died when he was attacked by gangsters and Do Yoon is determined to find out who was behind his best buddy's murder. He even begins to suspect those killers might be the same ones involved in trying to eliminate Wan Soo. At the same time more details about the Hwain Corporation patriarch's mysterious death are revealed and Do Yoon learns that his best buddy might have been a witness to that mysterious death. Perhaps that is the reason he was killed. He knew too much. Do Yoon wants to capture his best friend's killers and Wan Soo's attempted assassins ... even if it's the last thing he does!

Red Dawn is definitely a must watch if you love captivating mystery thrillers. Rarely will you enjoy a drama this addictive, with such top-notch stars who know instinctively how to create superb chemistry on screen. I loved reading an interview with Rain about this drama where he said he used to stare at photos of Kim Ha Neul when he was in high school. "There was no one more beautiful" he admitted. Even when they were both starting out in the entertainment business as actors he wanted to work with her on a project. It might have taken over two decades but his wish finally came true! Hooray for him! And hooray for us!

 

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