This is the first drama I've watched in ages and I'm glad it was this show because it was super satisfying. Angry Mom is about a youthful looking mum, Kang Ja (Kim Hee Sun) who pretends to be a high school student in order to find out why her daughter, Ah Ran (Kim Yoo Jung) is being beaten at school.
This is not the only crazy, over the top plot device in the show. Kang Ja engaged the help of her friend, Gong Joo (literally princess in korean) to pose as her mum, and Gong Joo happens to be a gangster with minions dressed up as princesses lol. But the relationship between Gong Joo and Kang Ja was one of the sweetest and most heartwarming.
Although the writing was pretty clunky, such as everyone knowing everyone else, or the evidence always landing in the good guys' hands at the correct time, I think the writer succeeded in achieving most of what she intended to. When it was meant to be funny, I really laughed out loud. The shenanigans of Ah Ran trying to get her mom kicked out of school, when Bok Dong mistakenly thought Kang Ja had 2 mothers and was being forced into sex with a man who was actually Kang Ja's husband, or the increasingly ridiculous lies Kang Ja had to spin to prevent people from finding out that she was going to school.
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| When Kang Ja's husband came to find their daughter in class and Kang Ja started crawling on the floor to hide LOL!! |
One of the heavier scenes I really liked was when clueless, naive teacher Noah (Ji Hyun Woo) realised that his father had got him a position of a homeroom teacher through connections, and he was the very product of something that he was trying to stand up against.
The acting was consistently good throughout the board. Kim Hee Sun is not normally known for her acting skills but her real life experience as a mum may have helped because she embodied her role perfectly. As for her character, I thought Kang Ja was kinda stupid (especially trusting that horrible 'friend' Ae Yeon) and got on my nerves abit with how un-calm she was all the time but I guess I can't understand the anxiety of a mum since I'm not one. Kim Yoo Jung is amazing. I love her acting and she's so pretty gosh.
Newcomer Ji Soo also did well as Bok Dong, the high school gangster turned puppy in love with an ahjumma. At first, I felt that he was overacting in trying to be tough, but I guess it made sense since under all that bravado he was really a softie.
My favourite character turned out to be Ahn Dong Chil. We start off knowing him as a piece of trash, but I really loved that he showed flashes of humanity throughout the show. Many of my favourite scenes in the show were between him and Ah Ran, when Ah Ran thought he was her biological dad, or when he went around looking for her after the building collapsed. The actor, Kim Hee Won, did a wonderful job in bringing out the conflicted emotions of Dong Chil as he knows he's her uncle but he was also supposed to threaten her by the orders of the higher ups. My heart broke in the final scene between them when he escaped from the police car and finally told her the truth.
Overall, the writing could be better but it was still a show worth watching with lots and lots of heart.