Overview of The Good Bad Mother
‘The Good Bad Mother’ is a South Korean drama series aired from April 26 to June 8, 2023. The South Korean television series was written by Bae Se-young and directed by Shim Na-yeon. Ra Mi-Ran, Lee Do-Hyun, and Ahn Eun-jin a in lead roles and their incredible acting elevate this K-drama and immerses the audience in the bittersweet story of a mother-and-son relationship.
The drama has a bit of every genre which makes you emotional in one minute and makes your heart flutter in the next. It highlights heartwarming moments and some toxic realities between a mother and child’s relationship with raw emotions.
Profile
- Drama: The Good Bad Mother
- Director: Shim Na-yeon
- Writer: Bae Se-young
- Network: JTBC
- Episodes: 14
- Release Date: April 26 – June 8, 2023
- Language: Korean
- Country: South Korea
Cast
- Ra Mi-ran as Jin Young-soon
A single mother who runs a pig farm. She brought up her son harshly so he could live a better life.- Kang Bo-kyung as teenage Jin Young-soon
- Lee Do-hyun as Choi Kang-ho
Jin Young-soon’s son works as a prosecutor. He experienced strict parenting when he was a child and thus became a cold-hearted personality in adulthood.- Lee Kyung-hoon as child Choi Kang-ho
- Bae Jae-hyun as teenage Choi Kang-ho
- Ahn Eun-jin as Lee Mi-joo
Choi Kang-ho’s old friend and his ex-girlfriend who works as a nail artist. - Yoo In-soo as Bang Sam-sik
A person who causes problems for other people in the village has been in love with Lee Mi-joo.- Kim Jun-hee as child Bang Sam-sik
Supporting
- Choi Moo-sung as Song Woo-byeok
CEO of Woobyeok Group. - Kim Won-hae as Son Yong-rak
The village head. - Jung Woong-in as Oh Tae-soo
National Assembly member and a former prosecutor. - Hong Bi-ra as Oh Ha-yeong
Oh Tae-soo’s only daughter and the prosecutor Choi Kang-ho’s fiancée. - Cho Jin-woong as Choi Hae-sik
Jin Young-soon’s late husband. - Shin Seung-ho
A civil servant in the livestock division. - Kang Mal-geum as Jung Gum-ja
Lee Mi-joo’s mother - Kim Yong-jun
Choi Kang-ho’s investigator when he was a prosecutor. - Ki Eun-se as Hwang Soo-hyun
- Sung Nak-kyung as Cho Young-jae
- Jang Won-young as Mr. Bang
Synopsis
The story begins in the 80s in South Korea, where a bright-eyed woman Jin Young-soon (Ra Mi-ran) is proposed to by a pig farmer Choi Hae-sik (Cho Jin-woong) with a cute piglet. They get married and the couple starts to live a peaceful life. Jin Young-soon then gets pregnant with their first child and the two couldn’t be any happier.
One day, Song Woo-byeok (Choi Moo-sung), the CEO of Woobyeok Group approaches the couple with an offer to give up their pig farm so that the property can be used as a part of the Seoul Olympics. However, Choi Hae-sik was not willing to accept the offer, thus marking the beginning of a nasty war between Woo-byeok and Hae-sik. Then, the farm was burned down by the company.
The tragedy begins when Choi Hae-sik decides to fight for justice. Choi Hae-sik hires a prosecutor named Oh Tae-soo (Jung Woong-in) to fight Song Woo-byeok, but, unknown to Hae-sik, his own prosecutor had a backroom deal with Woo-byeok to destroy the farm.
Both of them even privately conspire to kill Choi Hae-sik and make it look like it was a suicide. Pregnant Jin Young-soon left the place to look after herself and her unborn child. Young-soon sets up her new pig farm in a village and she meets new neighbours. The neighbours immediately become close to Young-soon and they all develop a good relationship.
Another character is introduced, Jung Gum-ja (Kang Mal-geum), a lady in the village who is also pregnant. Gum-ja and Young-soon give birth to their babies Choi Kang-ho and Lee Mi-joo at the same time. As years passed, the two babies Choi Kang-ho and Lee Mi-joo became best friends and then high school sweethearts. An annoying man in the village Bang Sam-sik (Yoo In-soo) also has a crush on Mi-joo, but she only has eyes for Kang-ho.
Jin Young-soon’s life experiences made her a strict mother who wishes to make her son a strong prosecutor. The harsh mother relentlessly pushes her son to excel and uses inexcusable violence against Kang-ho to discipline him, thus forming a chaotic relationship between them.
The mother and son never had a warmth in their relationship which makes Kang-ho a very cold-hearted person towards his mother. Choi Kang-ho later became a successful and ambitious prosecutor. While climbing up the ladder of success, he gets detached from his loved ones and places that matter most to him. However, he keeps an intimate relationship with Mi-joo, who has opened her own nail salon to sustain herself.
While Choi Kang-ho completely focuses on his revenge on everyone who is responsible for his father’s death, Mi-joo grieves and leaves the apartment. She finds out that she is preganant and gives birth to boy-girl twins named Seo-jin and Ye-jin. Nobody except Mi-joo knows that the twins are Kang-ho’s.
Kang-ho deliberately tries to be friends with the two evil men Song Woo-byeok and Oh Tae-soo once he finds out that they are the people behind his father’s murder. Oh Tae-soo is the late Choi Hae-sik’s prosecutor in that old farm case. Oh Tae-soo’s adult daughter, Oh Ha-young (Hong Bi-ra) wants to marry Kang Ho. When Ha-young and Kang-ho were travelling in a car, Kang-ho met with a very unforeseen accident which was actually an attempt to murder by Hong Bi-ra.
After the planned accident, Kang-ho lost all his memories and now the only person he remembers is his mother. He goes back to a 7-year-old’s mental state and physically he is on the support of a wheelchair. When all his mental capacities are impaired, he becomes completely dependent on his mother. At the same time, Mi-joo returns back to the village.
The mother and son are now given a clean slate to re-do their extremely messy relationship. Now, it’s turn for the mother to take over and raise her son with all the love he deserves.
Ending Explained
After the recovery, Kang-ho resumes his plan and brings the villains to justice. With the help of Lee Mi-joo and Bang Sam-sik, Choi Kang-ho brings the culprits former prosecutor Oh Tae-soo and the CEO Song Woo-byeok to court for his father’s murder. Finally, the real culprits were brought to light after thirty years of the crime.
With all that revenge finally sorted, it’s Young-soon’s birthday, so Kang-ho and the whole village arrange a special birthday party for her. Young-soon lives a happy life with her loved ones in the little time she has left as she is diagnosed with a terminal disease. After the party, Young-soon gives Kang-ho and Mi-joo the engagement rings and Mi-joo and Kang-ho reunite.
That night, Kang-ho sings a lullaby for his mother, the same lullaby Young-soon used to sing for Kang-ho. While he is singing, Kang-ho realises that his mother has died, but he keeps on singing with tears and a broken voice.
Theme
‘The Good Bad Mother’ reveals the cost of carrying unresolved emotional issues that arise from certain traumatic experiences. The drama also sheds light on how emotional burdens affect the dynamics of a relationship and how unanswered issues ruin one’s ability to process emotions and foster healthy relationships.
One of the most significant aspects of the drama is wholesome romance. The highlighted concept of revenge in which a mother had to endure a difficult life causing her to become a poor parent due to the tragic situations she had experienced in life.
The raw and heartfelt South Korean series explores and unpacks the discomfort that comes with trying to work out parental love.
Awards
No information is available.
Interesting Facts about The Good Bad Mother
- This drama of slice of life and comedy genre is a brilliant work by the popular director Shim Na-yeon.
- The drama is a reunion of famous actors Ra Mi-ran with Choi Moo-sung after the South Korean television series ‘Reply 1988’ (2015).
- In the drama ‘The Good Bad Mother’ Lee Do-hyun reunites with the popular actor Kim Won-hae after the South Korean television series ‘Youth of May’ (2021).
- Lee Do-hyun once admitted that he has a purely emotional bond with the talented co-actress Ra Mi-ran. They both share a real-life mom-and-son relationship.
FAQs
- Does ‘The Good Bad Mother’ have a happy ending?
The Good Bad Mother ends with an elegant marriage ceremony of Choi Kang-ho and Lee Mi Joo. - Who is the director of the family drama ‘The Good Bad Mother’?
The brilliant comedy-drama series is directed by the popular film director Shim Na-yeon.
- How many episodes are there of the Korean drama ‘The Good Bad Mother’?
‘The Good Bad Mother’ has 14 episodes, each around 70-80 minutes long.
- Is the K-drama ‘The Good Bad Mother’ worth watching?
The slice-of-life series ‘The Good Bad Mother’ features a stormy relationship between a strict single mother and her son that will warm your heart. - What are the Instagram IDs of the lead actors?
ramirani668 is the Instagram ID of Ra Mi-ran and ldh_sky is the Instagram ID of Lee Do-hyun.
