Oh Hae Young Again vs Another Oh Hae Young
If you follow me on tumblr (and don't black out when I talk about kdramas) then you know that I spent 9 weeks devotedly watching this show, which I initially only checked out for Seo Hyun Jin and Kim Mi Kyung. Two women named Oh Hae Young (OHY for the lead and OHY2 for the secondary female lead) were in the same class throughout high school. OHY2 was bright, popular and pretty, the social center everywhere she went and consistently one of the top students in her grade. OHY was plain (or so I'm told by the show...like Hollywood, "slightly less glamorously gorgeous and not fashionable" counts as "plain" here), always in the bottom half of the class, and always mistaken for OHY2 when it came time for bullies to come around, or rejected suitors to throw rocks through windows, and was constantly made fun of by their classmates.
As an adult OHY's life seems to have turned around, until her fiance dumps her the day before their wedding. In a grand case of mistaken identity, it turns out that OHY2 left her fiance, Do Kyung, at the altar, and Do Kyung, believing that OHY's fiance is the man OHY2 left him for, arranges to have the fiance's business ruined, resulting in the fiance being arrested for fraud. He later learns about his mistake and alternates between trying to make amends without revealing what he did, and pretending he never did anything (there's actually a point towards the middle where both he and the show seem to forget that he ever did anything to start with, though the show recovers from that). He also has visions of OHY which always come true. Shortly after, OHY2 returns to Korea working for the same company as OHY, upsetting both OHY's professional and personal lives.
The show has two main alternate titles, Oh Hae Young Again and Another Oh Hae Young. When the title is OHYA, it's from the perspective of OHY, and referring to OHY2 entering her life again. Both Hae Youngs have depression (OHY2 also has anxiety) though neither presents in a way that we immediately associate with depression, and both live in a constant state of impostor syndrome. OHY is lazy and cheerful and willing to laugh along and even joke at her own expense, but will speak out if you go too far. But she's also a complete mess inside, and aside from the laziness, much of her public persona is a defense mechanism. OHY2 continues to present as open and cheerful and, friendly but if you look closely, she doesn't actually have any FRIENDS. Instead she's the bright star everyone orbits around, but no one seems to truly care about or really know. Even before she returns to the main story, we know from flashbacks that she exists in a state of near-desperation for approval, without letting others know how insecure she is. OHYA is about both women coming to love themselves and dealing with their jealousy towards each other (OHY2's reasons for jealousy don't get revealed until later on) and coming out better for it, with a hefty romance plot to go along with it.
AOHY is from the perspective of DK, and his realizing his mistake and trying to deal with it, while also falling for someone he unintentionally hurt, as he deals with his own enormos load of problems. For better or worse, AOHY is the route the shows opts for, with OHYA being the secondary focus. While I really, really like AOHY, OHYA is the show I wanted.
Along with the Hae Young's, the best characters are OHY's parents, who are poor in money but huge in personality and cooking skills, and Soo Kyung, the extremely weird boss of the OHYs and DK's older sister, who has her own weird romance plotline with DK's playboy best friend (and the one who co-plotted the destined-to-misfire revenge while extremely drunk).
The show had a two episode extension that it really didn't need, resulting in some things dragging out much longer than it should, and DK is difficult (to say the least) for a lot of the show. There's also a lot of toxic relationships and some secondary focus on the affects of bad parenting. In addition to the sometimes laggy middle, some things towards the end were blatantly manufactured for the greatest drama. Despite that, and it not going for the focus I wanted, I think this is one of the better kdramas I've watched so far in 2016.
As an adult OHY's life seems to have turned around, until her fiance dumps her the day before their wedding. In a grand case of mistaken identity, it turns out that OHY2 left her fiance, Do Kyung, at the altar, and Do Kyung, believing that OHY's fiance is the man OHY2 left him for, arranges to have the fiance's business ruined, resulting in the fiance being arrested for fraud. He later learns about his mistake and alternates between trying to make amends without revealing what he did, and pretending he never did anything (there's actually a point towards the middle where both he and the show seem to forget that he ever did anything to start with, though the show recovers from that). He also has visions of OHY which always come true. Shortly after, OHY2 returns to Korea working for the same company as OHY, upsetting both OHY's professional and personal lives.
The show has two main alternate titles, Oh Hae Young Again and Another Oh Hae Young. When the title is OHYA, it's from the perspective of OHY, and referring to OHY2 entering her life again. Both Hae Youngs have depression (OHY2 also has anxiety) though neither presents in a way that we immediately associate with depression, and both live in a constant state of impostor syndrome. OHY is lazy and cheerful and willing to laugh along and even joke at her own expense, but will speak out if you go too far. But she's also a complete mess inside, and aside from the laziness, much of her public persona is a defense mechanism. OHY2 continues to present as open and cheerful and, friendly but if you look closely, she doesn't actually have any FRIENDS. Instead she's the bright star everyone orbits around, but no one seems to truly care about or really know. Even before she returns to the main story, we know from flashbacks that she exists in a state of near-desperation for approval, without letting others know how insecure she is. OHYA is about both women coming to love themselves and dealing with their jealousy towards each other (OHY2's reasons for jealousy don't get revealed until later on) and coming out better for it, with a hefty romance plot to go along with it.
AOHY is from the perspective of DK, and his realizing his mistake and trying to deal with it, while also falling for someone he unintentionally hurt, as he deals with his own enormos load of problems. For better or worse, AOHY is the route the shows opts for, with OHYA being the secondary focus. While I really, really like AOHY, OHYA is the show I wanted.
Along with the Hae Young's, the best characters are OHY's parents, who are poor in money but huge in personality and cooking skills, and Soo Kyung, the extremely weird boss of the OHYs and DK's older sister, who has her own weird romance plotline with DK's playboy best friend (and the one who co-plotted the destined-to-misfire revenge while extremely drunk).
The show had a two episode extension that it really didn't need, resulting in some things dragging out much longer than it should, and DK is difficult (to say the least) for a lot of the show. There's also a lot of toxic relationships and some secondary focus on the affects of bad parenting. In addition to the sometimes laggy middle, some things towards the end were blatantly manufactured for the greatest drama. Despite that, and it not going for the focus I wanted, I think this is one of the better kdramas I've watched so far in 2016.