Overview of Mr. Plankton

‘Mr. Plankton’ is a South Korean television series featuring Woo Do-hwan, Lee Yoo-mi, Oh Jung-se, and Kim Hae-sook. The show was directed by Hong Jo-chan and the screenplay was written by Jo-young.

It consists of 10 episodes and was released by Netflix on its platform altogether. It portrays the story of Hae Jo/Chae Seung-hyeok and Jo Jae-mi. The series was released on 8 November 2024.

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Cast

Main Cast

Synopsis

Hae Jo is an orphan who runs a small business. Their company consists of two people: his partner and him. They do the work available on the Internet but only take up the work that excites Hae Jo. One day, Hae Jo gets a job offer from a lady. Though he is not interested in helping her, she breaks into his apartment and compels him to help her.

She is going to marry a rich and notorious guy, with the intention of escaping South Korea after stealing his money. In the end, Hae Jo becomes excited to stop her marriage.

He and his partner plan to kidnap her during the marriage function. Before the marriage ceremony occurs, Hae Jo enters the scene riding his bike, making everyone believe that it is an entertainment program arranged by someone in the gang. Gifting a straight punch to the goom’s face with his helmet, Hae Jo kidnaps the bride in front of everyone. A furious groom who lost his wealth and bride on the same day starts his search to find the kidnapper and his bride.

The woman becomes impressed by Hae Jo’s skill and courage and asks him to accompany her. When the thought of marriage and family flashes into Hae Jo’s mind, he loses control of his bike, and the duo falls. Hae Jo finds himself in a hospital when he opens his eyes and he learns from his partner that the woman has already escaped. When they were about to depart from the hospital, the doctor calls Hae Jo.

Hae Jo learns that he is affected by a terminal disease and has very little time left. It triggers him to discover his true identity. In reality, he used to live in a house with his parents during his childhood.

In the past, Hae Jo’s gestational parents (the parents who carry and raise the child of someone else) met with a crisis. The husband gets diagnosed with cancer. Giving birth to a child was the ultimate dream of the couple. Therefore, they decide to preserve the sperm to use it later to produce a child after the recovery of the child.

Years after giving birth to Hae Jo, his gestational parents discover that the hospital has mistakenly implanted the wrong sperm. The revelations make the couple abandon Hae Jo. Afterwards, he starts to live his life doing odd jobs for a living.

Later on, he meets Jo Jae-mi who is also an orphan. On a rainy day, Hae Jo’s bike crashes into a car and it turns out to be his gestational parents’. He gets deeply hurt when he sees the happy couple with their biological daughter. He stands in the rain with his hand bleeding. Surprisingly, Jo Jae-mi appears out of the blue and attends to his wounds. She ties his wound with her handkerchief.

The next day, Hae Jo goes to see Jae-mi with the clue in the handkerchief and soon they fall in love. Nonetheless, they break up when Jae-mi expresses her wish to give birth to a child. She leaves Hae-Jo with the hope that he will put an effort to make her stay, but it never happens.

Years later, Hae-Jo sees Jae-mi in the hospital, on the same day he learns about his illness. He sees her crying and follows her to the mourning hall. She starts crying her heart out in the grief of the diagnosis of early menopause. Currently, she is in a romantic relationship with Eo Heung, the only heir in the Eo clan, and their marriage is already fixed.

To marry Jae-mi, Eo Heung lied to his mother saying that she is pregnant. Jae-mi becomes devastated learning the truth that she cannot give birth. Also, she gets terrified by the thought of Eo Heung’s mother learning the truth. Therefore, the day before her marriage, she tries to elope, but she encounters Eo Heung before she leaves the house.

Eo Heung gifts her a cute pair of shoes and promises her that he will find her at all costs even if she runs away. The genuine love of Eo Heung touches Jae-mi and she drops her plan to elope.

The next day, Hae Jo comes to see Jae-mi and asks her to accompany him. When she refuses, he kidnaps her.

By kidnapping two brides on their wedding day, Hae Jo becomes the target of two powerful people in South Korea.

Jae-mi tries her best to escape from Hae Jo’s custody but fails every time. However, she manages to inform Eo Heung of her current location through a shop owner lady’s phone. Receiving Jae-mi’s text message Eo Heung goes in search of her despite the disapproval of his mother (on the flip side, his mother already knew he would go in search of her and has secretly filled fuel in his car).

Hae Jo takes Jae-mi to an old man’s restaurant. Since they reach the restaurant at its closing time, Hae-Jo lies to the old man that he travelled a long way with his pregnant wife to eat at the restaurant.

In reality, Hae Jo acquired the details of five sperm donors from the hospital by threatening the doctor and the old man at the restaurant is the one among the list. To obtain the sample required for the DNA test Hae-Jo persuades the old man to give them shelter for a single night. At night, Hae Jo overhears the old man’s children discussing about selling the restaurant and sending their father to an old age home. Hearing them talking, Hae Jo middles in and starts a fight. It makes the old man cast Jae-mi and Hae Jo out of his house.

The next day, Hae Jo receives the DNA result stating that the old man is not his father. However, the thug leader and Eo Heung reach the restaurant in search of Hae Jo and get captured by the police. Due to Eo Heung’s public status, he was easily released from police custody. However, he steals the police vehicle and drives away to find Jae-mi.

Learning the mess caused by Eo Heung, his mother hires a professional to help him. In no time the professional lands and starts accompanying Eo Heung. By the time Hae Jo and Jae-mi go in search of the second candidate on the list.

The second candidate was a man living in the countryside. On the night at the restaurant, Hae Jo has already told Jae-mi about his quest to identify his biological father. Therefore, Jae-mi soon after meeting the man told him about their reason for coming. The man becomes emotional and provides the sample for the test. Also, he tells Jae-mi that he startes to feel a fatherly love towards Hae Jo. Despite his sweet-coated words the man escapes the next day stealing Hae Jo’s money.

On the flip side, the thug leader and Eo Heung reach Hae Jo’s current location. Seeing other people coming the duo escape from the place. Later, the duo rest at a small harbour. However, the leader and Eo Heung are not ready to give up their mission. They find the duo at the harbour. To escape, Hae Jo jumps onto a boat dragging Jae-mi. When the thug leader starts to use his weapon, Eo Heung unties the boat to save Jae-mi. Later, Eo Heung jumps into the water when he sees Hae Jo raiding the boat with Jae-mi.

The trio reaches an isolated island. There Hae Jo and Eo Heung fight over Jae-mi. Later, Jae-mi decides to reveal her health condition to Eo Heung. Eo Heung who is scared of Jae-mi’s rejection do not pay attention to her. However, when she discloses her health condition, he feels a lot relieved and promises her that he will always be by her side.

The thug leader who is now angry with both Hae Jo and Eo Heung reaches the island and picks up a fight. Accidentally, in the middle of the fight, Jae-mi gets stabbed in her stomach. The trio gets to the shore with the help of the police and Jae-mi gets taken to the hospital.

Learning the health condition of Jae-mi, Eo Heung’s mother asks him to forget her. Nonetheless, he refuses and starts to undo his dress in protest. Annoyed by the actions of Eo Heung, his mother agrees to take her to their house until she recovers.

One night Hae Jo goes to Eo Heung’s house to give her shoe that was with him. Though he behaves unbothered about Jae-mi, deep down he still loves her. Eo Heung understands their love and decides to send Jae-mi back to Hae Jo.

Though Hae Jo initially rejects her, she stays beside him recognising his love for her. Later, Hae Jo and Jae-mi happily resume their quest to find out Hae Jo’s father. The next person on their list was a famous personality. Therefore, the duo goes to a place where he is supposed to arrive. Jae-mi becomes very focused on obtaining a hair strand from the old man, but still, she fails in the mission. When she turns back she sees Hae Jo collapse on the ground.

She takes him to the hospital and from there she learns about his terminal illness. To make him happy, she decides to go on the mission alone. On the day she goes alone to collect the DNA sample, Hae Jo becomes terribly sick. It takes him a while to recover again from the verge of death.

After his recovery, he takes Jae-mi shopping and tells her that they are going to meet the next sperm donor on their list. However, he takes her to the house where her biological mother lives happily with her family. With the help of Hae Jo’s assistant, she travels back to her place.

Hae Jo decides to meet his gestational father. After the suicide of his first wife, he remarried but his second wife left him. Hae Jo meets his father. His father welcomes him with a warm and emotional hug and takes him to their house.

Eventually, wiping out all the tension, the drama ends on a happy note showing Jae-mi and Hae Jo living their life together.

Themes

The drama ‘Mr. Plankton’ dives into themes like family, identity, trust, and true love. It shows the physical and mental struggle that a person without a family endures in society. Also, the show portrays the struggles of an orphan in moulding his identity alone.

Awards

No information is available.

Interesting Facts about Mr. Plankton

1. ‘Mr. Plankton’ is a comparatively short South Korean television series that premiered on Netflix and it consists of 10 episodes.
2. On 8 November 2024, all the 10 episodes of ‘Mr. Plankton’ was released on Netflix.
3. Netflix disclosed the main cast (Woo Do-hwan, Lee Yoo-mi, Kim Hae-sook, and Oh Jung-se) of the show ‘Mr. Plankton’ on 12 July 2023.
4. ‘Mr. Plankton’ was produced by Base Story.
5. Hong Jong-chan, the director, of ‘Mr. Plankton’ was famous for his work ‘Juvenile Justice’ (2022).
6. ‘Mr. Plankton’ is penned by Jo-young, the scriptwriter of ‘It’s Okay to Not Be Okay’ (2020).
7. The filming crew of the ‘Mr. Plankton’ was criticised for careless dumping waste on Jeju Island. On behalf of the claim raised by a netizen, the production company of the film responded to an online news outlet ‘Newsen’ that they planned to clean the premises where the filming occurred after 2 days, since the filming on Jeju Island ended after sunset.

FAQs

1. Which actors play the lead roles in the drama ‘Mr. Plankton’?
   Woo Do-hwan, Lee Yoo-mi, Oh Jung-se, Kim Hae-sook played the lead roles in the Netflix series ‘Mr. Plankton’.
   
2. What is the Instagram ID of Woo Do-hwan?
   @wdohwan.
3. Who wrote the screenplay for ‘Mr. Plankton’?
   Jo-young.
   
4. Where can I watch the Kdrama ‘Mr. Plankton’?
   ‘Mr. Plankton’ is available on Netflix.
5. What is the Instagram ID of Lee Yoo-mi?
   @leeyoum262.
6. When was the drama ‘Mr. Plankton’ released?
   8 November 2024.
7. Who is the director of ‘Mr. Plankton’?
   Hong Jong-chan.