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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Woman who Married Three Times" Episode 20

The drama appears to have realized where its current strong storyline lies, and has shifted gears appropriately. This episode largely deals with Tae-won's fatherly relationship with Seul-gi, and it involves lots of parenting. The cliffhanger from last time is resolved in a fairly humdrum way- unsurprising, really, given that there's only so many places Seul-gi can run away to. But Tae-won correctly realizes that the crisis isn't resolved just because Seul-gi's back home.

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As a parent there's a lot to admire in Tae-won, and I love Song Chang-eui's performance. He clearly wants to hug and strangle Seul-gi at the same time for scaring him so much, but has a much firmer, much more self-controlled attitude when dealing with the little girl. Tae-won might be upset. No matter what, though, he is still her father, and she needs to trust him with her problems rather than acting on her own like that and putting herself in danger.

Even for all this, though, Seul-gi is still scared, and only gives a limited degree of information on why she ran away. Tae-won comes to a conclusion that's...well, it's not a wrong conclusion. Actually it's probably the right conclusion, it just wasn't relevant to the immediate situation. In either case, we once more see  Tae-won taking a markedly different attitude toward his family, directly standing up to his mother and making it clear he will not negotiate over matters of Seul-gi's emotional well being. It's an inspiring moment that really pulls off the character development Tae-won has been going through.

As for our other characters, the changes are more subdued. Luckily nothing drags or anything. There's an odd bit of levity as our unattached characters all end up going to dinner, an event where one of them ends up degenerating into sobbing tears for reasons that aren't immediately clear to anyone. I'm almost willing to consider this self-parody about the way some of this drama's past episodes have dealt with crying. Although it's honestly not that funny.

In more relevant storyline developments becomes clear this episode that the problems with Eun-soo and Joon-goo have not resolved simply because he's sick and Da-mi is an unwelcome interference. There's not a lot of plot development here, but then there's not much screentime either so it's really no big deal. The preview indicates that soon stuff is actually going to start happening with this storyline again, so if nothing else, something to look forward to.

Review by William Schwartz

"The Woman who Married Three Times" is directed by Son Jeong-hyeon and written by Kim Su-hyun and features Lee Ji-ah, Uhm Ji-won, Song Chang-eui and Ha Seok-jin.

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