[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Make a Woman Cry" Episode 25

Eun-soo's attempts at playing detective have at this point completely torpedoed any hope of her character being seen as sympathetic. I kind of want to see something terrible happen to her son, because short of that, it really doesn't seem like there's anything else that could make Eun-soo realize that taunting a woman about her dead child is only a few hairs short of outrageous cartoonish evil.

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The ridiculous part of all this is that Deok-in does find out what happened the revelation could well end up destroying the rich family, and Eun-soo with them. I mean that very literally. If Deok-in were to file a wrongful death suit the rich family might not even have a corporation to fight about anymore. Yoon-seo would have zero moral compunction about admitting liability if he got wind of the fact that doing so would wipe out the family that he clearly despises.

Deok-in's mother makes for a decent parallel to this. She spills her heart out to Bok-rye about what happened at the marriage meeting, and as expected, the exact circumstances of her pregnancy aren't pleasant listening. It's easy to feel sorry for Deok-in's mother. She might be rude and immature but...look, that's the thing about alcoholics. Nobody gets into alcohol just for the sheer fun of it. The stuff is medicine for depression. Not terribly effective medicine, but it's better than nothing.

In broader perspective "Make a Woman Cry" is still running into trouble when it comes to basic character sympathy. The cast is increasingly getting bisected into villains and victims. This isn't terrible in storytelling terms but the simplistic nature of the plot at this point is enough to make the depth seem rather shallow. I miss Kyeong-cheol, and how he was always struggling to attain some meager standard of happiness and inevitably failing. That context gave his outbursts some measure of sympathy even as Kyeong-cheol was obviously the bad guy.

Everything else, though, it just feels as if we've been watching the drama run in circles for the last several episodes. The cliffhanger, with its promise of Deok-in finally figuring out what's going on, is enough to hopefully move "Make a Woman Cry" into more exciting territory soon. At the very least we're finally getting some real tears here. Actual emotions are so, so much easier to empathize with than watching characters make every possible effort to avoid doing any emoting at all.

Review by William Schwartz

"Make a Woman Cry" is directed by Kim Geun-hong and Park Sang-hoon-III, written by Ha Cheong-ok and features Kim Jung-eun, Song Chang-eui, Lee Soon-jae, Ha Hee-ra, Oh Dae-gyu and Lee Tae-ran.