[Drama 2018] My Mister, 나의 아저씨 - Best Drama at 2019 (55th) BaekSang Arts Awards

[sheherizade3]

 

I just finished watching this beautiful drama about two people who met each other at the lowest point in their life and found redemption from their individual pain.  

 

I skipped this drama when it aired because I thought it was a romance between an older man and a young woman (the tile My Mister was quite misleading).  I stay away from May/December romances.  Thus, my late comments.  I'm particularly impressed with our main actors  Lee Sun Kyun as Park Dong Hoon and IU as Lee Ji Ahn.   This was my first time to watch IU and she played the role of Li Ji An brilliantly.  She deserved the best acting awards for this drama.

 

I consider My Mister as one of the best Korean dramas.  It depicted the life of a man in his forties having a career crises, while unbeknownst to him, his wife's having an affair with his boss,  and a young woman struggling to make ends meet, caring for her ailing grandmother, at the same time being physically abused repeatedly by a loan shark.  The story included PDH's relationship with his his wife, his own family, two brother as well as his co-workers and friends.  

 

Overall, this drama had everything; intensity, humor, drama, suspense and love especially between PDH and his two brothers and LJA and her grandmother.  It also showed greed and intrigue in the workplace where the executives where fighting among themselves like rabid dogs.

 

My only beef with the writer is that I find the imbalance in the way the drama was presented.  There was so much emphasis on the life of PDH and his brother, his mom, his friends but there was hardly on LJA's side.  Although PDH's brothers were lovable, I find their constant crying and bickering so over-the-top and childish for two 40 something year old men.  I would have wanted to know more about LJA's best friend Song Ki Bum.  There wasn't much background about him except he's a very interesting and nerdy character  who happens to be around LJA.  It seemed that he was LJA's partner in scamming people not only at the company where she met PDH but on her previous jobs.   

 

But the character that fascinated me most was Lee Gwang Il, the loan shark who used to be her very close friend until LJA killed his father.  How did he transition from a loving friend to a cruel, abusive individual.  It is hard for me to accept the writer's brutal version of him especially when he witnessed firsthand his father's cruelty and that he knew LJA killed his father out of self-defence.  Their backstory was not expanded.  

 

The finale was heart wrenching.  I was crying so much I ended with a headache.  PDH got his somewhat happy partly unresolved ending (his wife's away with her son) but LJA broke my heart.  Although, she had new friends, she's still basically alone.  There was no resolution between her and her tormentor Gwang II.  Apart from him returning the wiretapped conversations, it would have been great if he fell on his knees and begged for LJA's forgiveness. There was too much emphasis on PDA's brothers and LJA grandma's funeral that could have been put to better use.  I would have wanted to see more of LJA's life after she parted ways with PDH, her best friend as well as Gwang II.   

 

My Mister should have been a 9 but I give it an 8 because of the unresolved issues on LJA's side of her story.

[widala]

Reenactment of one of My Ahjussi famous scenes 

The lighting is very similar with the original...

 

[widala]

Hi, @sheherizade3

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about My Ahjussi.

 

Yes, I agree with you. LJA's background wasn't completely covered, especially her relationship with Ki Bum. Ki Bum once said that LJA was in the trouble with the loan shark partly because of him too (maybe this explains his loyalty to her) but we don't get to know what exactly happened...

 

May I add, what I also found lacking is Kang Yoon Hee's background. Why was she so adamant to be the first in PDH life? In episode 12, she said something about her mother's marriage (remarried?). It makes me wonder about what kind of family she has...

 

 

[sheherizade3]

16 hours ago, widala said:

Hi, @sheherizade3

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about My Ahjussi.

 

Yes, I agree with you. LJA's background wasn't completely covered, especially her relationship with Ki Bum. Ki Bum once said that LJA was in the trouble with the loan shark partly because of him too (maybe this explains his loyalty to her) but we don't get to know what exactly happened...

 

May I add, what I also found lacking is Kang Yoon Hee's background. Why was she so adamant to be the first in PDH life? In episode 12, she said something about her mother's marriage (remarried?). It makes me wonder about what kind of family she has...

 

 

 

Hi widala.  I also agree with your observations.  There were a lot of important missing pieces in the story that the writer missed.  What sometimes frustrates me with Korean dramas is that, the writer's focus becomes muddled along the way so we get unnecessary, oftentimes repetitive scenes.  Like, how many times do we have to see PDH's brothers cleaning a building or their friends drinking in a bar, the love story of Jun Hee and the monk (it's so unrealistic that, at this day and age, a woman would pine over a man for 20 years), the snivelling actress and her equally snivelling boyfriend, Gi Hoon.  The drama wasted time on the above.  Time that did not contribute to the main story.   I'd rather see a meaningful conversation between Gwang II and LJA instead of watching him threaten and repeatedly brutalize her without giving us, the audience, a deeper understanding of his character.  Jang Ki Yong did great at portraying Gwang II.  The expression in his eyes showed anger, pain, frustration and it would been awesome if the writer and director took advantage of this actor's talent to explore and delved deeper into his character.  

[Joseph Lim]

 

[ann04]

On 3/18/2019 at 6:53 AM, Joseph Lim said:

 

Aww I hope they remain close and if Lee Sun Kyun confirms his appearance in the new drama then theyll both be appearing in a new drama, almost at the same time. I wish wish wish theyd reunite someday. 

Edited March 19, 2019 by Jillia
Please do not quote IGs! Thanks! :)

[chickfactor]

Hello Najusshi fans... I miss you all.

 

"My Ahjussi" first aired on 3/21/2018. It was almost a year ago! 

 

I'm still not over this drama. I still love it. I keep watching K-dramas and I enjoy many of them, but none have replaced this in my heart.

 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful 2019 so far.

 

I just watched "Radiant" (or "Light in Your Eyes") starring Kim Hye-Ja and Han Ji-Min, and if anything holds a candle to "My Ahjussi," this was the one for me.

 

It's made by the same PD-writers team who worked on "I Live in Cheongdam-dong," on which writer Park Hae-Young was also a writer on. A pretty tenuous connection, of course, but it was a really wonderful drama. Just wanted to share.

[widala]

HAPPY MY AHJUSSI DAY!

 

21 March 2018, a year ago a drama titled My Ahjussi was aired for the first time.

I started to watched this drama with little expectations, I never thought that it would have such an impact for me...

Thank you to the amazing My Ahjussi team, all the casts and crews that worked so hard to make My Ahjussi possible.

Despite the controversies and the prejudices, I believe their sincerity had touch so many audience.

 

And thank you to all My Ahjussi Soompi forum members that have shared the love for My Ahjussi 

[sadiesmith]

Happy one year anniversary!

 

Some of us have been here for more than a year.  I came with a lot of nervous expectations and received more than what I thought a drama could ever deliver. I am currently doing my second rewatch and very pleasantly surprised to find new details here and there that I missed the first two times. 

 

On 3/20/2019 at 7:25 AM, chickfactor said:

I just watched "Radiant" (or "Light in Your Eyes") starring Kim Hye-Ja and Han Ji-Min, and if anything holds a candle to "My Ahjussi," this was the one for me.

 

It's made by the same PD-writers team who worked on "I Live in Cheongdam-dong," on which writer Park Hae-Young was also a writer on. A pretty tenuous connection, of course, but it was a really wonderful drama. Just wanted to share.

 

And it is directed by the same PD who directed 2016 This Week, My Wife Will Have an Affair, another excellent drama starring Lee Seon Kyun as a cuckold husband. 

[Yana Mujay]

Time flies so fast..

I do really can't believe My Ahjussi first screening is today 1 year ago seems just like yesterday we ended our long warmth,argument, predictions and joking around with all Sompiers in this thread.

At past 12 months span i do watch many dramas some is okey, some is not to bad but mostly i couldn't stay tuned till endings. Or even i had finished  afterwards i couldn't recall what's the drama about this different with MA.

rewatching  MA always got me something new and newest feelings.

Happy 1st anniversary My Ahjussi.

Nice see some of friends here in another good drama threads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[arctichare]

Happy Anniversary to this beautiful show!!

 

Can you believe how lucky we got with this show, and this cast, and this director/writer/crew?!!

[justamom]

Hello it’s been...only a year?

 

Feels like eternity. Over in a flash yes, but if I think of who I was this time last year...

 

there’s Me Before Ahjussi...and Me After Ahjussi

 

Does anyone else feel that way? That’s how much it touched me. As a writer, a storyteller, Park Hae Young, Kim Won Seok and team showed me the level I should aspire towards, and the extent a story can move our hearts. It changed the way I built the bones of a story, and how I wrote about love. How I perceived love. That love is as simple as...

 

walking, and eating, walking and talking, eating and talking, then walking some more

 

-feeling inspired to finish a certain fan fic story-

 

Also, at this point last year I could barely speak Korean, but thanks to hours and hours spent translating Korean interviews, essays and articles on My Ahjussi I improved rapidly...and a year later I can understand 80-90% of most dramas...I think it would be very different for me to watch My Ahjussi again 

 

@widala thanks for keeping the My Ahjussi love going on Instagram

 

@chickfactor any recommendation from you is worth checking out, I will watch!

 

@sadiesmith you said you would still be here holding the fort and you are!

 

all the rest of you, thanks for the lovely memories!

[sadiesmith]

55 minutes ago, justamom said:

-feeling inspired to finish a certain fan fic story-

 

[chickfactor]

4 hours ago, justamom said:

 

 

@chickfactor any recommendation from you is worth checking out, I will watch!

 

 

 

You're the one who introduced me to "Sky Castle!" That was a serious addiction for a while! 

[ann04]

Its been a year already! It feels both like it’s been a long time and also like it was just yesterday since MA aired. ❤️

[widala]

22 hours ago, justamom said:

 

-feeling inspired to finish a certain fan fic story-

 

Yes, please 

 

22 hours ago, justamom said:

 

@widala thanks for keeping the My Ahjussi love going on Instagram

 

No problem, it was my pleasure 

 

Anyway, for all of you guys, (if you haven't) check out this IG account dedicated to My Ahjussi 

 

[sadiesmith]

Here's a little anniversary gift to us all:

https://givemeslippers.wordpress.com/2019/03/24/interview-with-iu-and-lee-seon-kyun/

 

No subs though. 

 

 

[Joseph Lim]

 

[Yana Mujay]

Thank to the owners of this accnt for great translation.

It's  weird...

@Joseph...what a timing to post

So i deleted mine

Did we have special connection?

I posted after checking yours..

And there's non so decided to post but ...

Lol...strange...

Fighting  joshep...

 

[akhenaten]

Hello All!!!! 

 

So happy to see old friends here on this thread.  Yup.  One year since My Ahjussi first aired and here we are.  

 

Anyway, it's so nice to know that, despite having so many new projects on their own, the cast still keep in touch.  I think the kind of atmosphere that a drama like MA created encourages true friendships to form between cast members.  Their roles were the kind that requires intense immersion into their character so I wouldn't be surprised if the friendships between their characters turned into real-life friendships as well.

 

I think it was really very good for Lee Ji Eun/IU as well to have been a part of such a talented group of actors.  I believe she really bloomed as an artist.  And I think her presence was very good for the older, more seasoned actors as well.  I wouldn't be surprised that she and LSK struck a friendship despite their differences in age.  Maybe that accounts for the wonderful dynamic that we saw between PDH and LJA.  That beautiful, beautiful chemistry that none of us will ever get over.    

 

Even if they don't get to work together again, my wish is that, maybe, they can come up with a MV for the other song that LJE/composed for the drama but didn't get included in the official OST.  Sort of a mini-sequel.  That would be such a treat!