Missing You

Missing You was definitely not a great drama, nor an award-winning drama. Anyone can guess that it isn't all smiles and sunshine. Rather, it's a bleak and bitter melodrama. But it's one I always come back to, for a few reasons, and whilst this drama is not cute, happy or fun, there are a few things it left behind that I love and can't forget.

Missing You is about the sad love story between Lee Su-yeon and Han Jung-woo, two people who are tore apart after an awful and scarring event and find eachother again many years later. They met for the first time as teenagers shortly after the execution of Su-yeon's abusive father. She and her Mother are outcasts as the family of a murderer. Jung-woo, on the other hand, has just returned to the country after studying abroad for some time. Unaware of Su-yeon's history, he's kind to her and treats her like a real person. After finding out the truth, he becomes her first, only, and best friend. The two become inseperable. But behind this budding love story there's a much darker tale - Jung-woo's father, determined to get the family fortune, kills his own father and locks up his step-mother. The key of finding this money is around Kang Hyung-joon's neck, who is technically Jung-woo's uncle but also a boy perhaps not older than ten, who is being protected. Once Su-yeon and Jung-woo get tangled up in this fight, they lose any chance they had of happiness.

Watching Missing You was an interesting experience for me, I don't think I've ever seen something so miserable before this. You would have to be incredibly paitent to stick through this tearfest - in other words, I think this show is only likely to appeal to a small percentage of people. The only reason I watched until the end was because the first four episodes, which were set in the past, got me invested. Child actors Kim So-hyun and Yeo Jin-goo put on a performance tens of thousands of times better than the adult actors did. They were more talented, for one thing, compared to Park Yoochun and Yoon Eun-hye, but more than that they made their characters lovable. I could have watched an entire drama about them, and honestly, I would have prefered to.

  Once their part of the story was over, I think I was most interested in the serial killings. The romance wasn't all that great, so I focused more of my energy on Kang Hyung-joon, or Harry Borrison, who grew up bipolar and pyschopathic. Yoo Seung-ho did a fantastic job of making the two-faced Harry lovable. Even though he was evidently twisted, I still wanted to root for happiness after all the grief he'd experienced. I've spoken about twisted morals in my I Remember You review, and Harry's obsession over Su-yeon was so sad. In his own way, he was just trying to make her love him the way he loved her, but killing off the people who'd wronged them wasn't the way to go. Nevetheless, he was a compelling but pitiful character, and a fantastically chilling villain, and one of the show's highlight.

This show was not worth watching, overall. I would suggest any viewers watch the first episode, maybe the first two episodes, think very hard and then decide whether it's worth continuing. Even though Kim So-hyun and Yeo Jin-goo have graduated to real leading roles now, I can safely say that these two are my favourites of their characters. At least Missing You has a semi-happy ending, although it's not like that even begins to make up for the show's shortcomings.