Familiar Wife is a show that started airing from August 1st and went off the air just this last Thursday! I love this show so much that the shadows of the show is still lingering and also fresh in my mind after the show stopped airing a few days ago. I first heard about this show through Viki.com. I was recruited to become one of the subbing crew for this show but at first I was nonchalant despite the fact that it had my favorite elements which are SC-FI and Fantasy since this show involves time travelling and parallel lives to a degree. I guess I wasn’t completely into helping with the subbing because my mind was very busy with other endeavors at the time but the day that Familiar Wife aired on the 1st of August I decided to just bite the bullet and help with the subbing process but my goodness I fell in love with the show but somewhat moderately. I liked the fact that it was talking about planets, meteorites and travelling back in time on the first episode but it still had a tad bit of awkwardness so I didn’t super duper get into the show until the fifth episode. Just to let you know, this show is a regular 16 episode show although I wished it was a tad bit longer but I still liked the way it ended and the length of the drama.

The main four actors were Ji Sung, Han Ji Min, Jang Seung Jo and Kang Hanna. When I found out that Ji Sung was in this show I was excited but not as much as I could’ve been since I wasn’t his super fan or anything. Oddly enough my first show with Ji Sung was Defendant and he was really good there, I really enjoyed his performance in that drama but I wasn’t fangirling over him or anything but instead I fell for the villain which was Eom Ki Joon.  Despite the fact that Ji Sung was so good in Defendant he was slightly buried by Eom Ki Joon’s dramatic performance that I didn’t realize that Ji Sung was a gem to be found. However, after episode 5 of Famliar Wife it changed everything. In most cases it seems like Ji Sung earned a lot of fans through Kill Me Heal Me. And yes, once I became a huge fan of Ji Sung because of Famliar Wife I watched Kill Me Heal Me and most of his other hit shows like Secret Love.

The premise about this show is about a regular bank employee as the Assistant Manager at the KCU Industrial bank named Cha Joo Hyuk who is played by Ji Sung goes through marriage problems with Seo Woo Jin who is played by Han Ji Min. They are young professionals in their thirties with two young children but barely making ends meet. They not only have to care for their two young children but they have Seo Woo Jin’s mom to take care of who has Alzheimer disease and Cha Joo Hyuk’s parents who are barely getting by with their snack bar business. So the marriage was a mess, no communication and nothing but screaming and hollering. So one day Joo Hyuk runs into a man on the train who gives him two 500 WON coins that were issued on 2006 which are a rarity in 2018 so Joo Hyuk uses the coin given by the man to try to change the past to get away from his current situation where there is nothing but screaming and hollering.

 

I really love the Cha Joo Hyuk and Seo Woo Jin couple. I don’t think I’ve seen such a couple with this much chemistry. Well, Ji Sung’s character Cha Do Hyun had chemistry with Oh Ri Jin which is Hwang Jung Eum’s character in Kill Me Heal Me but this really beats that. It was so natural. Ji Sung is a married man in real life but he looked so good with Han Ji Min that it almost seemed real. If there was an alternate reality I would totally support this couple, that’s how real it looked to me. I was yearning for them to be together despite the fact that Cha Joo Hyuk went back to the past to fix things and even explore other realities but still I wanted Cha Joo Hyuk to go back to Woo Jin in the end no matter how difficult things might be for them. 

I also loved Cha Joo Hyuk’s best friends, or one of this best friends named Yoon Jong Hoo played by Jang Seung Jo. Yoon Jong Hoo is his colleague, his fellow Assistant Manager at the KCU INDUSTRIAL BANK.  I thought their friendship was cute since it’s not that easy to find a life long friend after High School or College. Joo Hyuk also has another life long friend name Oh Sangshik played by Oh Euishik who  he met while attending college and is also the significant other of his younger sister Cha Joo Eun played by Park Hee Bon. Speaking of the girl who played Joo Hyuk’s younger sister, I remember seeing her in a show called BUBBLEGUM and she was really boring and dull there but in Familiar Wife she was spunky and fun. Joo Eun’s personality is somewhat equal to Woo Jin since they are both a bit tomboyish, straightforward and spunky all in one.

I can relate to Woo Jin a lot because she is similar to me in a lot of ways. For instance she is a bit of a foodie and she’s definitely not the type to hang very well when she is hungry. However, she’s a lot worse than me since I can hang a little while longer when I’m hungry but Woo Jin she needs to right away when her tummy is giving her signs of hunger. Also, Woo Jin has a bit of a temper and I think I kinda do too but even here Woo Jin has a stronger temper and I ever could. This girl would yell and scream and even curse at her husband really loud in front of everyone at the grocery store. While I was watching this show I was wondering if show was mildly dealing with anger issues in a lot of the young professional females since they have to deal with home life and work life outside of the home all at the same time.

Cha Joo Hyuk is a bit indecisive and a rather shy. He is not straightforward like Woo Jin. This guy is definitely on the wishy-washy side of things. He has been working at the KCU INDUSTRIAL bank as the Assistant Manager for quite sometime but he never really got a promotion in a long while so his wife have been giving him a hard time about it. He tries to escape it all by trying to change his past but he goes through different kinds of problems experiencing his other reality. He fell in love with a girl named Lee Hae Won played by Kang Hanna  while he was a university student and Hae Won was his first love.

Joo Hyuk’s friend Jong Hoo is there for him when he is late to work. Since Joo Hyuk has a hard time juggling so many things all at once he doesn’t get good sleep at night so he ends up waking up late and ends up being late to work as well. And sometimes he would have to create a scenario where he was on time but he was just getting a cup of coffee and of course Joo Hyuk’s friend Jong Hoo would back him up and cover for him.

Hae Won, Joo Hyuk’s first love is a pretty dame who was like treated like a goddess by all the male students at Yeon Hee University, that’s the school that Joo Hyuk, Hae Won and Euishik all attended. Hae Won played the cello and our main guy Joo Hyuk runs into her while she was playing the cello. 

I had a fun time watching all the side characters too. The KCU INDUSTRIAL BANK workers. Team Leader Byun (Park Won Sang), Team Leader Jang (Kim Soo Jin), Joo Hyang Sook (Kim So Ra), Kim Hwan (N, A.K.A Cha Hak Yeon from Vixx), and Choi Hye Jung ( Gong Min Jung). I loved all the funny bickering between these characters and our main characters. You get to see people just living regular lives unlike the Chaebol dramas and Sageuks. 

Speaking of Chaebol dramas and Sageuks. In FAMILIAR WIFE you get to see people just living normal daily lives. Our Main character Cha Joo Hyuk just wears regular workman’s suit to work and at home you see him just wearing PJS. Also, it’s such a dream to see Ji Sung’s character wearing just plain cotton t-shirt, plad shirt, pair of jeans and tennis shoes while riding his bike at the college campus. I guess I’m not used to handsome K- actors just playing regular guys. In Chaebol dramas our main lead male characters drive fancy cars and wearing super expensive brand name clothes that cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. They even waste money like it’s nothing but in FAMILIAR WIFE that’s definitely not the case. Joo Hyuk even rides the subway train to work or just a regular car for average folks.

I really enjoyed the music as well, especially the main theme from the OST called LOVE ME AGAIN by SF9. This theme song really matches the storyline and the emotions of the character while I really love the modern sound that seems cool compared to the other typical K-drama OST songs. I also grew fond of other songs from the OST like Let me Stay from John Park, No Longer Mine by Roy Kim, Let me Show You by N Flying, You in my Dreams by Damsogongbang, and Hello by Yoo Seung Eun. 

I think this show has a lot of social themes and also reflects the current reality of young professionals of South Korean and probably most of the countries in the modern world. Through our main characters and supporting characters it’s showing a lot of the problems that the countries of the modern world are going through. Low marriage rates, low birth rates and the like are some of the issues that a lot of the industrialized countries are dealing with in the modern 21st century. Right now younger Koreans are not getting married as much and also younger folks are not giving birth as much and a lot of it has to do with not having enough jobs to go around and taking care of children and ontop of that their elderly or older parents are too difficult to deal with in the modern climate of things.

I also want to mention Woo Jin’s temper. She has issues with controlling anger and due to stress and having an unstable life, there has been a study saying that a lot of the working young professionals in South Korea are developing various illness and that’s including mental illness like Anger issues, bi-polar disease and among other various mental illness. I think the show is dealing with a lot of social issues that the working young professionals are going through without being too preachy about it.

The show is pretty much saying appreciate the people that are around you even if they give you a hard time or even if things get too difficult. I also think that this drama is trying to get people to communicate with each other. The main character Joo Hyuk was just thinking about himself. He just thought that he was the only one having a hard time while his wife Woo Jin was going through a lot herself. Woo Jin wouldn’t have turned out to be such a monster if Joo Hyuk communicated with her and tried his best to listen to what he had to say. The same goes for Woo Jin. Woo Jin probably didn’t realize that Joo Hyuk didn’t have a headspace go and be there for Woo Jin all the time because of all the stress that he deals with at work.

Another thing that I want to mention that I thought was cute was Woo Jin calling Joo Hyuk oppa here and there. She called him Oppa like when she was in High School and also in College as well. I find this refreshing because it’s hard to see a girl calling a guy oppa in a cute but tomboyish ways. It’s cute and innocent, it’s something that I don’t see that much anymore. And I also like the fact that Joo Hyuk is a moderate gamer. Since I’m a moderate gamer I was able to relate to it, although Joo Hyuk likes to play video games to release his stress from work and what not. Joo Hyuk’s friend Jong Hoo is a moderate gamer too.

I also like the relationship between Assistant Manager Cha and Kim Hwan who is the newbie bank employee. The reason is because Hwan is a bit on the immature side and he likes to complain to himself and he doesn’t want to do things and bickers with Joo Hyuk from time to time. 

I forgot to mention a few more things. I really liked the fact that N from Vixx was in the show as Kim Hwan. He was funny but a bit of a trouble maker at the bank. It makes sense though since he’s a newbie and all. And I thought the Branch Manager Cha Bong Hee played by Son Jong Hak was a nice character, he was a real nice boss. 

The cinematography is pretty and colorful and it goes well with the the atmosphere of the show and also the characters.  The style and colors of the cinematography feels comfortable and cozy and I think that it’s a high quality for just a television series.

I highly recommend this show and I would like to give it a high rating…I usually don’t give such a high rating but I would like to give it a solid 9.5!