top of page
Writer's pictureDrama Banter

MINE -- Episode 13, 14, 15 & 16 (final): Love is a Learned Behavior

More than anyone, Ji Yong hates himself the most. His behavior and evil doings strike me as a cry for help. It almost feels like he acts the way he does because those around him expect him to be that. But that everybody wanted him dead, even those he called family, is the saddest part of this drama. I blame Chairman Han Suk-Chul and Ji Yong's mom for that and for turning him into the monster he became.

Rather than teaching him love, they led him to hate, cruelty, and take without consequence. If either had loved him unconditionally as Hi Soo loves Ha Joon, he might not have been such an empathetic and tormented soul. Nobody is born evil; Ji Yong was enabled to be that. And despite having received love from Hi-Soo and others, he, unfortunately, couldn't give or even receive what he never knew. As they say, love is a learned behavior. If you don't learn how to love yourself, someone will teach you how to hate yourself. The same goes for the rest of the family. None of them really know what love truly is despite having experienced some form of it.


Aside from Seo, Hyun Hi-Soo shone the brightest to me this week. Although she's experienced the worst kind of pain and shock of losing her marriage and baby all in one day, rather than let it break her, she used those tragic events to make herself stronger and break free of the false peace that surrounded her and faced head-on the uncomfortable truths about her life. And in doing so, she was able to rediscover what was rightfully hers all along—herself.

The same goes for Seo Hyun; her candid conversation with Jin Ho, the first-ever, I am sure touched me the most. The way Jin Ho listened to her rather than criticized or belittled her for her life choices but just accepted her for what she was showed more character than his family or the people around him ever gave him. It had me wishing they'd done it a long time ago, how different things may have been for the both of them. But I guess they had to go through what they needed to be comfortable enough with each other to have that kind of talk. It saddened me yet made me feel good about Jin Ho at the same time.

I know the show wants us to think that Butler Kim Sung Tae (Lee Joong Ok) killed Ji Yong because of the offer Jin Ho makes him, the blue diamond necklace for killing Ji Yong, but I'm not buying it. If anything, I have a much easier time believing Housekeeper Joo Min Su (Park Sung Yun) or even Mother Emma (Ye Soo Jung) killed him. The truth is that everybody in that family had a motive for wanting him dead, but as to who had the guts to do it now, that is a different story.

Many elements made this show, everything from the high-end production design, the set, the beautiful outfits and styles, and even the OST, sets the tempo and brings character to the drama, Kim Seo Hyung, though elevates Mine with her performance. She thoroughly embodies the layered character of Seo Hyun so brilliantly that without her, Mine wouldn't be as good as it has become. I love how our three strong women worked everybody from the Chairman to the nun and the police, feigning memory losses and even using Mother Emma's own words against her—ingenious. They had everything planned to the "tee," as they say. This show clearly articulates that everybody has secrets—until they get caught or, if lucky, get away with it.


Mine was a great drama to the end; kudos to the screenwriter, director, and actors for bringing this fantastic story to life. However, as sad as I was to see it come to an end as appreciative of the important message it left behind in that one can ever truly own anything if they don't own themselves first, and to love others, one must first love themself. And that just as love is a learned behavior, if one never learns how to receive it, they will never know how to give it back.


I enjoyed and relished all the actors who did a great job making me believe them each in their own way but Kim Seo Hyung the most. Mine could've been a multitude of stores, but I liked that rather than be a story about sexual minorities, it was a story about love and finding one's true self in themself. And what elevated it to the status of brilliant was the way the drama portrayed Jung Seo Hyun and Seo Hee Soo’s relationship not as sisters-in-law fueled by jealousy or hierarchy but as sisters who find themselves stuck in a world filled with hatred but learn through it all to care and protect each other to the end deeply. Watch Episodes drama here.

0 comments

コメント


bottom of page