" Missing You 당신을 누락 " Korean Drama Series "

" Missing You " Episode 1 "

I Miss You premiered today, and I was eager to check it out for a few reasons. First off, the childhood leads are amazing. I like the adult leads as well, Yoochun and Yoon Eun-hye, and think they’d rock the melodrama genre, in addition to basically loving Yoo Seung-ho in anything he does. Plus, the writer and PDs’ resumés (Smile You, Can You Hear My Heart, Can’t Lose, Thank You) had me hopeful for a heartfelt, warm type of melo, rather than the overly theatrical kind.

Except… this is not a heartwarming melo. It’s a hardcore tearjerker with tragedy up the wazoo. I am decidedly nonplussed about this. I was all set to embrace this show and dive into the emotional whirlpool, only now, I find myself hesitant. I Miss You is definitely beautiful to look at, well-shot and strongly acted with characters whose predicaments you can really sympathize with. It’s the overload of misery that gives me pause.

I’ll hold out hope that things take an upturn, because there’s something here that’s quite compelling. As with so many things, it’s a matter of balance, and if I Miss You can deliver enough emotional substance to counter the heavy dramatics, I’m much more optimistic about its future.

SONG OF THE DAY

I Miss You OST – “떨어진다 눈물” (Falling Tears) by Wax. [ Download ]

EPISODE 1 RECAP

A girl walks down a residential alleyway, her head hung low, her eyes darting around nervously. I don’t think it’s jumping the gun too much to identify her as our heroine, LEE SOO-YEON (Kim So-hyun, played in adulthood by Yoon Eun-hye).

Soo-yeon enters the gate and hears a loud thunk! from inside the house. It pulls her short, all nerves. Oh dear, she lives a pretty grim life, from what we see of her shabby neighborhood and her fearful posture.

Cautiously, Soo-yeon makes her way inside and asks, “Mom?” A man roughly grabs her from behind and muffles her mouth. “Be quiet!” he hisses, “Somebody’s outside.”

He grabs her threateningly, asking where her mother is. Soo-yeon sobs that she doesn’t know, and he throws her to the ground, covering her in a blanket. Yikes.

We cut to outside, where a woman shakes as she listens below the window. Are you Mom? Are you really going to just hide there while your daughter screams, “It hurts”? I guess you are.

The man stomps on Soo-yeon brutally, over and over. He smirks, “It hurts? You were happy I was gone, weren’t you?” Please tell me this isn’t Dad. I don’t blame Mom too much for hiding, given that this is what would be happening to her too… okay, I do blame Mom. Lord, woman.

Some time later, Dad sits nursing a soju bottle. Another man enters and addresses him warningly as Lee Tae-soo. Dad flings the bottle at his head and swings with a wrench, but this man is expecting the fight and efficiently restrains him. Ah, he’s a cop — he cuffs Dad and rattles off his list of crimes.

More cops drag him off, and Dad yells, “I didn’t kill him!”

It’s only now that the cop, Detective Kim (Jeon Gwang-ryul), notices the huddle under the blanket. He finds Soo-yeon trembling, saying, “I… was wrong…” It’s her constant refrain, the thing she must always say in hopes of calming Dad’s rage.