One Fine Day boasted a fine cast and one of the messiest plots I’ve seen. Starring Gong Yoo, Namkoong Min, Lee Yun Hee, and Sung Yoo Ri, the writers didn’t have to do much to develop a story interesting enough to showcase their young cast’s talents but decided instead to make the story as ridiculous and melodramatic as possible.

I usually give a brief synopsis of the drama so that my review makes some sense but this story will give you emotional whiplash with the way it starts and drops story threads and then completely changes them. Geon and Ha Neul are stepsiblings-no blood relation-who have been separated for 15 years. Tae Won and Ha Neul/Hye Won are siblings via adoption. Geon just wants to be her brother or so he says. Tae Won is a creepy incestuous molester. Gang Dong Ha is Ha Neul’s boss at the aquarium where she works and he is also in love with her. Hyo Ju is the girl Geon grew up with after his parents died and his dad’s driver took him to live in Australia. Hyo has a heart condition and is cuckoo, obsessively in love with Geon. Geon may or may not be reconnecting with Ha Neul because her adoptive family has money and Hyo Ju needs an expensive surgery. Ha Neul’s adoptive father may hold the key to what happened to Geon’s father.

Gong Yoo, when he wasn’t having to play the yelling possessive brother, gave a strong performance. Namkoong Min was entertaining as the charming boss with a past. I couldn’t help but root for him. Both men sported their BoF style haircuts before BoF came out. Sung Yoo Ri only had to display three emotions-surprised, sad, and “where did I leave my wallet?” Nothing any deeper as Ha Neul had no lasting emotional trauma from being molested. This was prime time for wrist grabbing in dramas. This girl was yanked from pillar to post throughout the drama. They even pulled off the complex double wrist grab. In one scene I saw bruises on her arms, no surprise where those came from. I’m not a fan of the wrist grab, I find it a dominant move that is degrading.

Hyo Ju will go down as one of the most selfish, manipulative characters in drama history. Lee Yun Hee did a good job of making me loathe her character. Yoo Ha Joon was excellent as the creepy, incestuous brother who had a scene with his dad that the drama The Heirs lifted straight from. And Jung Dong Hwan who would later play the wealthy lemon sucking dad in The Heirs played the wealthy lemon sucking dad here. The drama couldn’t decide whether to make him a villain or sympathetic. No sympathy from me, he knew his son was creeping on Ha Neul/Hye Won and did nothing about it.

The biggest problem with this drama was that it had no commitment and follow-through. The plot was overly complex and never fully explained. I kept waiting for the big flashback to show exactly what happened from the guilty party’s viewpoint, but it never happened. Geon prepaid for Hyo Ju’s surgery in Australia but she refused to have it when he left to find his sister. That money was still available, so why the proposed scam on Ha Neul’s family? Geon made some inexplicable decisions near the end of the drama, that truly made no sense. Even his motives toward Ha Neul took most of the drama to come to the surface. He and his found family brother went to work for Ha Neul’s adoptive father, but were never at work. Ha Neul worked at the aquarium but was hardly ever there except to mope in front of the fish so that Gang could comfort her. Her adoptive family was seriously twisted but she kept going back to them to act like a good daughter.

There’s a lot to unload with this drama, mainly because people’s motivations changed from minute to minute. Also, the secrets they knew changed which completely overrode their prior actions. There were plot holes big enough for a fleet of Mack trucks to drive through. One Fine Day was like a rollercoaster ride with no seatbelts. I was able to hang with the story and get some enjoyment out of it for most of the drama until the last few episodes when they completely ran that ride off the rails. If you like to watch pretty people and/or pretty fish, have a very flexible neck for when the ride changes directions, you could try this drama, but I suggest giving the Tilt-a-Whirl a chance instead.

26 June 2024