K-drama midseason recap: Mine – Netflix high society inheritance drama a show of women’s solidarity against patriarchy
- Melodrama with a number of twisty narratives focuses squarely on the lives of the rich and powerful women involved in business empire the Hyowon Group
- Initially at odds with each other, they band together against a common enemy, in this case the evil and villainous Ji-yong, played by Lee Hyun-wook
This article contains spoilers.
The standard format for a K-drama has long been to cast a rich, handsome man opposite a scrappy young woman trying to fend for herself and throwing them against each other, again and again, until sparks fly. The most refreshing thing about the recent run of high society prime-time melodramas such as SKY Castle, The Penthouse and Mine, is that they’ve put the focus squarely on the women, while tearing down the prince-like image of the typical Korean leading man.
The women in these shows typically fight for their children, and these battles pit them against other mothers, but everything is in flux in these twisty narratives. The most exciting parts are when women who have been at odds with each other band together against a common enemy, invariably a man.
Mine’s early stand-off was between Hi-soo (Lee Bo-young) – former actress and wife of Ji-yong (Lee Hyun-wook), the second son of the powerful Hyowon Group, and mother to Ha-joon (Jeong Hyun-jun), who is secretly her stepson – and Ja-kyeong (Ok Ja-yeon), who is Ha-joon’s tutor but turns out to be his birth mother Hye-jin.
Ja-kyeong’s improbable position as her son’s tutor quickly comes under scrutiny as her behaviour arouses suspicions all around. Seo-hyun (Kim Seo-hyung), wife of Ji-yong’s older brother Jin-ho (Park Hyuk-kwon), figures it out first, but when Hi-soo falls pregnant, she fears upsetting her in her condition with such a major revelation.