Why Oh Soo Jae? (2022)

Why Indeed

Why Her is a character-driven suspenseful legal drama with romance undertones that explores top attorney Oh Soo Jae’s ambitious rise to prominence as well as her subsequent journey of redemption and finally search for the truth within the cut-throat world of South Korean politics and corporate culture that are mired in corruption all the way to the upper echelons of power. The storytelling includes themes of noona romance, love triangle, revenge-justice, courtroom drama, office politics, corporate mergers and acquisitions, criminal investigations as well as friendship and youth within a university setting. In short, this drama is reminiscent of shows like How to Get Away With Murder, The Good Wife (US and South Korean) and Law School, to name but a few.

Park Soo Jin (Dr. Romantic, The Hymn of Death) and Kim Ji Yeon co-direct this SBS production while the screenplay is written by Kim Ji Eun who specialises in melodrama/ makjang, aspects of which are manifested to an extent in this drama as well. Park Se Jun (Melancholia, Mouse, Vincenzo) serves as music director.

The soundtrack features 6 love ballads, which is indicative of the general atmospherics to be expected. My personal favourite is Sohyang’s cover of Vincent. Full listing as follows:

Vincent by Sohyang (cover of the original by Don McLean)
Beautiful by DOKO
What About Us by Hajin
I Will Love You by K. Will
I'm Here by So Jung
Where in the Fog by Ga Ho


What I Enjoyed

The lead actress, Seo Hyun Jin. Amazingly this drama represents the first work I’ve seen of her in what has been an eventful career that she’s had so far. I’ve become a huge fan because she is beyond phenomenal. She exudes class, charisma and gravitas to pull off such a stunning portrayal of the immaculately stylish and powerfully intimidating FL, Oh Soo Jae. Her wonderful performance here embodies perfectly the indomitable spirit, depth of character, emotional complexity and delicate vulnerability of the characterization the way it was perhaps designed to be. The character may not be without its faults, being shrouded in grey mist through actions and motivations but Seo Hyun Jin’s masterclass is certainly as near flawless as it could possibly be. I daresay without her presence, this drama perhaps would have been found lacking in its execution on so many levels.

This drama goes into the no. 1 spot - at the time of writing and unless something else comes along that dislodges it - of the most complicated drama of 2022 for me. To give viewers a taste of what to anticipate, a brief summary of the content (this list is by no means exhaustive)…

Push-pull noona romance and subtle hints of a love triangle
Murder and crime mysteries, including one that spans a decade
Politics revolving around the Presidential race and ministerial appointments
Corporate mergers and acquisitions
Various judicial wranglings
Longstanding hidden identities and secrets
Vengeance, retribution and justice sought by multiple parties

Expect intense power dialogues, heated confrontations, beast-mode slaps, shocking twists and reveals, among the many plot devices infused into the story, and a dash of makjang for good measure as well.

Production quality is commendable which is reflected through the ambience of the drama smoothly transitioning between mellow romantic sequences, powerful scenes of face-offs, and profoundly evocative atmospherics all throughout. The settings of the various arcs are generally well rendered, including the Seojung University Law School campus, TK Law Firm, and Hansoo Group corporate office. I also liked the framing of certain scenes that come across as symbolic of the state of affairs for which they allude to, which is testament to the excellent cinematography in this drama.

In addition to Seo Hyun Jin, the performances by the ensemble cast are on point, for the most part. Heo Joon Ho delivers a memorable portrayal of TK Law Firm’s chairman, Choi Tae Guk. Of the supporting cast, Kim Chang Wan’s understated Director Baek Jin Ki is also worth a mention, as is Lee Kyung Young in his third drama appearance this year as another antagonistic character, Chairman Han Sung Beom.


What Could’ve Been Better

I feel that the ML Gong Chan, played by Hwang In Youp, could have been better written. In fact, at times I think the entire romance aspect had more potential than was ultimately executed. The connection between the FL and ML is one of the major plot points of the story but is made unnecessarily tumultuous, for instance with the presence of a third party competing for the FL’s attention. The actor himself perhaps demonstrated a rather limited scope due perhaps to the character design which did not allow him to articulate the role even further.

Somewhere at the midway stage, the plot languished somewhat which threatened to derail the entire narrative. Too much time was spent meandering around certain side stories. Fortunately the drama eventually picked up the pace towards the closing stages of the second half to a rousing end. The presence of numerous interconnected arcs and subplots also contributed to the confusion and unevenness of the storytelling and character development, which require significantly more attention to details and effort to piece together the various threads.

I feel the need to rant about a certain plot device that transpires in episode 14. Without spoiling it, let's just say that for the sake of giving this drama a grand finale with another spectacular "twist", the screenwriter resorted to creating an unbelievable scenario that came out of nowhere. Totally unnecessary and which could've been written differently in a number of ways, in my opinion.


Final Thoughts

Despite some issues in the execution and character design of the ML, I actually enjoyed Why Her more than I thought I would. Much of this is attributed to Seo Hyun Jin who carried this drama and without whom, the story would perhaps have fallen flat. If you’re in the mood for highly complex storytelling with complicated plotlines and convoluted dynamics, like I was, then this is the kind of drama that fits the profile.

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Not sure why others are giving it a bad review?

I was hooked!! From the first episode. It’s classy and sophisticated. It’s gripping and smart and witty. I’m not watching it for the romance at all, so I guess it’s probably why I’m loving it.

Oh Soo Jae is a top notch female lawyer at a prestigious law firm. It’s basically a revenge story- how she was betrayed and lied to seven years ago; and how she came from nothing to making it to managing partner. However she had to sacrifice herself and her happiness to get to where she’s at now; and have the ultimate revenge on the people who destroyed her life and are continuing to destroy the lives of others.

There’s revenge, mystery, murder, unsolved crimes, outsmarting your enemy, being a few steps ahead, mastermind, scheming, and yes a little bit of romance. It’s not your typical boy meets girl and fall in love type of romance, and I can understand why some are cringing over it. I don’t mind the noona romance.. what I don’t really like is Bae In Huyk’s character. I love the actor, but his character seems rather childish and throws tantrums haha. The love triangle doesn’t seem to quite jive, but like I said, I’m not watching it for the romance.

The bad boss- Choi Tae Guk is one character I really love to hate! Yes- he’s doing the character justice and I can’t wait to see how the story unfolds. The music OST doesn’t seem to have any memorable songs.. so just watch it for the gripping storyline, and Seo Hyun Jin. One of her best roles :)

Update on final episode: [skip if you don’t want spoilers] Choi Tae Guk had it too easy... the impact of the good guys revealing the truth was not portrayed enough. The producers shld have given 2 episodes for that. For all the evil they have done, the 3 fathers, 3 sons and all the ppl involved- MORE shld have been shown on how they suffered and justice be done. The ending was disappointing.

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