[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Woman who Married Three Times" Episode 5

It occurs to me that if you take "The Heirs" and strip it of all the genre trappings necessitated by plots involving romances and corporate takeovers, you basically end up with "The Woman who Married Three Times". The way this drama shows off the sheer wealth of some of its characters is impossible to ignore. Even in their most casual moments the wealthy characters are in this environment of sheer opulence that feels almost entirely disconnected from reality.

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The main emotional event this episode is Eun-soo asking for permission to see her daughter, and this turning into some sort of bizarre legal negotiation. The entire situation is just grotesque- it's like watching an alien demand a human explain what these things are we call "feelings". Little Sul-gi's situation just gets more depressing all the time, since everyone seems to be treating her like a possession that creates love rather than as a child who may well turn out wrong if she's not exposed to a more healthy emotional environment.

That seems to be what happened Hyeon-soo, anyway. She gets a big scene this episode where, in another one of these horribly ostentatious displays of wealthy culture, Hyeon-Soo ends up both negotiating and deliberately emotionally manipulating someone at the same time. It's all rather discouraging stuff. What do these people do for fun when even obviously romantic stuff is just another means for them to engage in more cruel scheming?

Consequently, when the drama takes a break from these scenes and we get portraits of normal people suggesting that our lead characters do normal fun things, it is an immense breath of fresh air. Every character in this drama should take note of the one thing that makes Sul-gi really happy- talking to her dad. It's a joy that just seems incomprehensible to the ridiculously convoluted motives every other character is bringing to this drama. If only they could be happy that easily.

In any event, though, there's really only so much of these depressing social statements I can take before a drama starts to wear down my pscyhe. Hopefully we'll have more happy stuff soon, more of a shift away from the complex intricacy of the in-law plotlines, and have these characters learn more about the love of life. Yes I know that sounds unbelievably corny, but there's got to be at least some possibility of a happy ending here. Right now everything just feels like it's on an inevitable crash course to disaster.

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.