Skip to main content

Baby Makes Three

Woo-ri the Virgin is one of those k-dramas that is probably going to have a lot of hate, as it features a religious protagonist caught in a love triangle after becoming accidentally pregnant via a rather stupid artificial insemination mix-up. This while she's keeping a lifelong vow of chastity until marriage, no less. While Woori was at times pretty clueless, and some of the drama's complicated plot lines got annoying, I thought it was pretty charming. The ending also startled me, which is very difficult to do.

Im Soo-hyang plays Oh Woo-ri, an assistant drama writer who is dating police detective Lee Kang-jae (Shin Dong-wook). Both are faithful and in a nice relationship (always doomed in Korean romances) when a mix-up at a hospital leaves Woo-ri pregnant with the baby of Raphael (Sung Hoon), the handsome chaebol son of the hospital's rich and powerful conglomerate owner. As it happens Raphael, who has just beaten stomach cancer, can't father any other children, either. Woo-ri is his last chance to have kids. At this point I was glad to see virtually everyone around Woo-ri supporting her right to have an abortion (just don't move to the U.S., honey.)

After a realistic struggle with deciding what to do, Woo-ri agrees to have the baby and hand it over to Raphael and his wife Lee Ma-Ri (very well-played by Hong Ji-yoon). What follows is the expected romantic conflict this causes between her and her cop boyfriend, but also the impact it has on her single mother, grandmother and the very surprising guy who turns out to be Woo-ri's father. Raphael has his own problems, which include his lying, cheating, scheming wife, and a murderer using his father's hospital to perform illegal operations on criminals to alter their appearance. Add to that regular threats that come close to terminating the pregnancy, and that's the story.

Sung Hoon does a great job with a tricky role, but the actor who impressed me the most was Shin Dong-wook, who had the most realistic portrayal of a man whose life is turned upside down by a twist of fate. The medical mix-up that leads to Woo-ri becoming pregnant is completely implausible (wouldn't you know the difference if you came in for a standard GYN exam and someone attempted to artificially inseminate you? I know I would.) Some of the religious and pro-life messages of the drama are offensive, frankly, to women who don't believe in God, vows of chastity or being forced to have a child they don't want. I'm on the fence about that; I try to see both sides but lately it's been a lot more difficult. As far as the US is concerned the timing of this drama could not be worse.

I won't spoil the ending, but I didn't guess the drama would end the way it did, so there you go. Available to watch on Viki.com.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Love Means This

Invested in a couple of hand-dyed bundles from one of my favorite fabric artists. This one said "Make me into something for Valentine's Day." So I went for a quilted and embellished tote. I kept thinking about what love means to me as I worked on it. Here's the finished tote. Although I was tempted to embellish with beads and pins, I got sick and only felt well enough to do a little stitching every night. As I worked I thought about how often love seems disappointing to us, especially when it fails to live up to our expectations. But now that I've experienced love in many forms, I can say that it's made me a better person than I might have been without it. Love is a precious thing, and should be appreciated in all its forms. I am very grateful for the love of my guy, my child and my friends who have stuck with me all these years. That's you two, in case you're wondering. :) Also finally found something to do with a ve...
1 comment
Read more

Goodwill Gamble #2 Arrives

My second Goodwill gamble arrived; this is one I paid ten bucks for last month. Just inside the lid was a big roll of plastic mesh that I think is for latchhook work. In the auction listing it looked like fabric to me, so that was unexpected. Someone at the seller's end was nice enough to put a note on this pinned fabric. I'll put on my gloves before I take it out to inspect it. The embroidered green fabric turned out to be 1-1/2 yards of sequinned and three-dimensional designer fabric. I'll guess this cost somewhere between $20.00 to $30.00 a yard, and it's in pristine condition. But here's a shot of everything in the lot, which is mostly crafty odds and ends with a small amount of cotton fabrics, a large amount of synethetic fabrics, and some other surprises. The original owner of these was probably a Catholic school teacher; these beads, crosses and medallions are the kind of rosary kits for kids to make at Sunday school or Bible camp (and s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fabscrap for 2023

In December I made two orders from Fabscrap. The first arrived with this giant spool of variegated taupe yarn; it's more than enough to make a nice big wrap or a lap blanket. I also added two pounds of mendable sample garment tops in this particular order. I made a mistake and clicked on large for the size, and then later read that they were out of stock. I expected they would backorder my order, but instead they made some delightful substitutions. This pretty pink top doesn't need any mending or alteration. This is a dress, I believe, and it looks to be in perfect condition, too. A white eyelet blouse, also in new condition. Keep in mind that all these garments are $8.00 a pound, which works out to $4.00 each for this order. That's cheaper than Goodwill. I even got a coat. That neon green faux fur on the cuffs definitely has to go, but I love the coat. This is a yard pack of neutral naturals. The linen alone (on the right) is worth about $25....
Post a Comment
Read more