K- Drama: It’s Okay Not To Be Okay

Hello people! I hope all of you are safe and happy! Today I am here with something a bit unusual for me. Instead of books, today I want to talk about a k-drama I watched between January and February. I don’t really know how to write a review for a tv shows, and I am not really trying it, but I loved this drama, and I wanted to share it with you all, because there are some things going on in there that are really interesting!

Plot (from Wikipedia):

Moon Gang-tae (Kim Soo-hyun) lives with his older brother Moon Sang-tae (Oh Jung-se) who has autism. They frequently move from town to town ever since Sang-tae witnessed their mother’s murder. Gang-Tae works as a caretaker in a psychiatric ward at every place they settle in. While working in a hospital, he meets a famous children’s book writer, Ko Moon-young (Seo Yea-ji), who is rumored to have antisocial personality disorder.Circumstances lead Gang-tae to work at the OK Psychiatric Hospital in Seongjin City, the same city where they all lived when they were young. Meanwhile, Moon-young forms a romantic obsession for Gang-tae after finding out that their pasts overlap. She follows him to Seongjin, where the trio (including Sang-tae) slowly begins to heal each other’s emotional wounds. They unravel many secrets, seek comfort from each other and move forward in their lives.

I think that the title of this drama is quite beautiful, and it is a title that goes hand to hand with the story, so I am not really complaining, but I also think that one of the alternative titles with which this series is known is, somehow, even more accurate: Psycho, But It is Okay. I think that the first one is more serious, while this one is a bit more… witty, and accurate all the same.
But the titles are not really what I wanted to share with you all, so let’s proceed. This is a rom-com with some mystery elements to it, but a really big chunk of the drama is not about a love story, but about mental health. This is one of the big themes here, and I really mean big. Moving the plot along we have love, mystery, and a lot of things related to mental health. And even if we are speaking about a tv show, and a rom-com at that (so sometimes we get to see things that could make a psychiatric/psychologist and people who work in the same area go a little bit… bonker!), mental health has a big role in it, and the way in which its treated in there is astounding.

First thing first, the brother of the MC is an autistic man. And he lives with his “little” brother, who is taking care of him since they were children. On top of that, when they were children, Moon Sang-Tae, the older brother, witnessed their mother’s murder, and this traumatic event didn’t help the matter, at all. And we get to see how the life of the siblings/parents/tutors of an autistic person is. (Sure, it is not 100% accurate, again, I am not saying that this is perfect, but since we are speaking of a tv shows, well yes, it’s pretty perfect!). We really get to see it, with the ups and downs. I think that the relationship between this two brothers (and their acquired family) was what really made me fall in love with this drama. It moved me so much.
I am not really a crier, but I have cried quite a lot, and I almost cried when I was telling my mother about this series. I think that growing old I am going soft, to be honest, but it was also really really moving. Because, even if a bit romaticized, it was realistic and well thought. Really, just for this, this series is worth watching.

And the second thing, but just a bit less important, is that we get to see a psychiatric clinic in a good light. In there the clinic is a really important place, in which a lot of the story took place. And we get to know some of the people who live in the clinic, their stories, and their dreams for the future, once they could go back home (if they want to go back home). And this clinic is really a nice place. It was beautiful to know so many patients, and it was beautiful to see, for once, the good side of this kind of institution. Usually, we get to see them in a really bad light on the screen, but this is not the truth. There are some places that are nice, with really caring personnel and it was good to see it.

Those two points are what really made the difference to me. We get other things going on, and I appreciated all of them (and I would tell you more in one second), but the parts about mental health were the absolute best! And they are the reason I am trying to recommend this drama to everyone!

And then we have all the rest: they spend quite a lot of money in there, and it shows. We have a great cast, all the actors were good, and the cinematography is amazing. It is really beautiful to watch. And one of the MCs wrote children’s books, with a Tim Burton’s style to them, and we get to see a lot of these illustrations. And I loved them! And we have a nice love story, they really are cute (sure, this is not the sanest love story ever, mind me, but they tell you so from the beginning, and it is quite obvious, too) and fun. And we have an amazing acquired family in there, too. And this is one of the best literary tropes to me, so I appreciated it quite a lot. And even if some of the things in there are not really happy, we get to see happiness in there too, and some really funny scenes. It is quite a wholesome series, and I think that it really deserves some love, and some hype!

What about you? Have you watched this drama? Or do you like to watch Asian Drama? Let me know!!

Have a nice day!
S.