[Drama Recap] Make A Woman Cry: Episode 18

Kyeong-cheol comes off surprisingly sympathetically considering that he's basically a whiny child. The confrontation at the rich family's house doesn't go the way he was hoping, and when given the chance, Kyeong-cheol unwinds by literally having a temper tantrum. Watching Kyeong-cheol is kind of like watching a kid who has just been told that life isn't fair, after having been told point blank that the authority figures are going to do things in a hypocritical way. What gives this really troubling subtext is that this isn't the first time this has happened to Kyeong-cheol. Think about it. Deok-in wasn't the only one to lose her son.

While Deok-in has been grieving in a more traditional way, Kyeong-cheol is hurting too. He has no idea how to cope with what's happened. All Kyeong-cheol knows is that there's nobody he can really count on. The frustrated visit Kyeong-cheol makes to his family just epitomizes this. The man's losing his grip on reality.

This again makes an interesting contrast to Jin-woo, who has a nigh superhuman ability to accept just about any form of reality no matter how obviously absurd. Jin-woo's not a bad winner, but there's still this sense that he's not fully grasping the extent of his own failures. Jin-woo does such a good job handling his family, it's practically like he's begging the fates to knock him down a peg. All of these are very strong points. So that leaves the main weak point of the rich family drama. While the parallels with Deok-in's story are definitely more obvious than they were at the start, the specific plot points regarding long-kept secrets about clandestine family relations just aren't terribly interesting.

Even so, there is the irony of the fact that the rich family is capable of tolerating almost any kind of outrageous behavior as long as it doesn't originate from inside their own family. That's at least moderately interesting. As of late "Let the Girl Cry" has been utilizing the classic soap opera style of storytelling- at any given moment at least one story is starting up, another is midway through, and another one is just finishing. This form of narrative is considered classic for a good reason- even if one of the three points typically there's at least one that's exciting enough to compel further viewer interest. And I have to admit that cliffhanger was a pretty shocking one- it turns out Jin-woo can't simply will away all crises simply by maintaining a cool head.

Review by William Schwartz