KDRAMA REVIEW|| PSYCHO BUT IT’S OKAY

Welcome to the review of Psycho But It’s Okay!

This is definitely on my favorite list for the year. This drama just encapsulates everything that I love about Korean dramas. I also have to appreciate the fact that this gave me a satisfying ending, I mean it was just perfect, the story progressed well and it ended perfectly. Honestly aside from the drama itself, the story about the actors and the writer of the drama just makes the drama more special and interesting. This drama explores topics that Korean society tries to ignore and I love that it did it so blatantly without any reserve. I obviously cannot say that this is the first drama to explore mental and personality disorders as there are a couple that I have watched and loved. One of them is the It’s Okay, That’s Love is still one of my favorite dramas especially because it highlights mental illness and classism together, I mean there is this idea or rather an uninformed idea, where people think that mental disorders are things that rich people deal with and not just something that occurs as a result of societal, prenatal and emotional differences. I will include a shortlist of dramas that you might enjoy if you want dramas that explore mental illness and how basically it’s okay to not be okay. Okay, I will also point out that not all the representation might be spot on but I will give them a plus one for trying.

Title

Psycho But It’s Okay

Genre

Romance

Comedy

Humor

Year

2020

Cast

Kim Soo Hyun

Seo Yeo-Ji

Oh Jung Se

Park Jin Joo

Kim Joo-Hun

Park Gyu Young

Kim Chang Wan

Kim Mi Kyung

Jang Young Nam

Episodes

16 episodes

Synopsis

Following Moon Gang-tae a social worker or a health care work at a psychiatric ward and Ko Moon-young, an anti-social successful children horror book author. They meet each other accidentally, and they slowly get to know each other. Gang-tae not ready or even have enough time for love and Moon-young too self absorb and psychotic to let what she wants to go especially when it comes in a steamy package like Gang-tae.

Review

This drama follows three main characters, Gang-tae, Sang-tae, and Moon-young. The first two are brothers who move from place to place because of a traumatic past that causes Sang-tae who is Autistic to have nightmares that involve butterflies. Gang-tae is struggling to hold everything together especially since he has basically put his life on hold to protect and basically serve his brother. But everything sort of changed when he came across Moon-young after things got a little bloody at a book reading event at the hospital he works. Basically he doesn’t have any life outside of his protect and provide duties (which comes from the place of guilt not really that of service, as you would find out later) and his only friend his Jaesu who for some reason follows them around anytime they have to move (honestly the writer did him dirty, they should have given him some sort of ARC). Anyways, Moon-young writes children fiction which is really somewhat grotesque and dark but later on you find out how sad, lonely, and emotional these stories really are (I mean not everyone wants to read or write a Cinderella story). She comes off as anti-social, psychotic, and honestly lacking of empathy and social cues at the being which leads to her being ostracized by society. However we cannot forget a gem that the scene below was powerful, it laid the foundation for how raw and wounded this drama was.

They end up in an altercation that resulted in him getting fired and her wanting him, she basically wants to possess him. He moves back to his hometown to work in a mental health clinic, which is basically where this drama really picks up. He returns home his overshadowed by the fact that this was the same town of his loss, where his mother died and where he ran away from. At this point in the drama, we find out that Gang-tae and Moon-young have a past of him loving her until he found out her ‘deranged’ ways and left her which basically made him a hypocrite to her because she had witnessed him abandoning his autistic brother, Sang-tae in a frozen lake. Anyways because she has decided he belongs to her, she follows him to the hospital where he works, which also happens to be the same hospital her father is in. She has basically abandoned him there because he almost killed her when she was younger. So with her life going to shambles and the publishing company in smokes, she goes back to the cursed castle in the old town, from where she continues to pursue gang-tae.

A first it was not really from a place of love, but more of possession, then it slowly turned to that of friendship and companionship. With gang-tae not having felt this sort of love and acceptance, he feared what having more or allowing himself some love would do. This was especially triggering for Sang-tae who has always had Gang-tae and he begins to feel the loss and that causes a mental break down. This drama shows mental health awareness by pointing out disorders related to trauma, substance abuse, social outcast, loss, mood, and more. I am happy that they got the ending they deserve. I am trying not to spoil this drama because other than the surface plot, this drama addresses topics that are overlooked and often labeled as perverted, uncouth, and more.

For me, as much as the main characters did an amazing job, I cannot overlook all the secondary characters that made this drama a life lesson, that made this drama a perfection. Sang-tae who was Autistic was crafted and portraited so well that we sort of see his own personal journey and how he overcame his fears. His love for his brother and even the interactions they had. Gang-tae never spoke to him like we were younger or unable to understand or unintelligent, he spoke to him with respect and seniority which one would expect with siblings. I just thought it was beautiful and an accurate representation of good communication. This drama wasn’t afraid to talk about sex and how it is used as a tool. Honestly, I don’t know what more to say than it was a package of drama, comedy, life lesson, and mystique. I am happy that its over and the way it ended but I just want to watch it all over again.

Little Spoiler

Her mother is close by.

Rating

I gave this drama 10 out of 10 stars

List of Dramas with Mental Health Representation

• It’s Okay, That’s Love
• Kill Me, Heal Me
• Clean With Passion For Now
• Cheese In The Trap

Thanks for reading