[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Make a Woman Cry" Episode 39

In the final stretch of "Make a Woman Cry", writer Ha Cheong-ok has decided to pretend like Eun-soo hasn't been the entire focus of the drama for about as long as I can remember. The cliffhanger is resolved just a tad too easily and with a tad too much easy forgiveness. Then practically out of nowhere Deok-in and Jin-woo start acting like the main characters again, having extended heartfelt conversations about loss, forgiveness, and being able to move on with life.

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This is, for all intents and purposes, the story we had at the beginning of the drama, complete with Yoon-seo's reappearance as an important character. Yeon-seo- remember him? The guy who got put on an airplane at about the same time that Eun-soo took over the storyline? Yoon-seo is the teenager who defined the entire romance between Deok-in and Jin-woo, and I only realized now that he's back that Yoon-seo leaving the story is the main reason why Deok-in and Jin-woo were pushed to the sidelines. Without Yoon-seo's physical presence they couldn't resolve their issues.

While the material here involving Yoon-seo is good, I can't help but be frustrated that the entire drama wasn't about this conflict. Deok-in's revelation near the end honestly comes off as kind of silly, precisely because there hasn't been any real build-up or resolution over that plot point. As nice as it is to see Deok-in in full-on cop mode again, why is it that this has barely been a presence lately?

I kind of feel like a jerk for getting mad at "Make a Woman Cry" for finally doing things correctly, but everything here really is just practically out of nowhere. Like that wedding? Didn't these two first meet a few weeks ago? I seem to remember that organizing wedding was much more difficult back in the earlier part of the drama. And I was being facetious about Kyeong-soo's love of pizza. I didn't think that was literally going to be his plot arc.

Maybe I'm not really mad so much as just generally befuddled. If "Make a Woman Cry" itself is barely interested in making a meaningful effort to redeem Eun-soo's character, then why in the world did the drama dedicate so much runtime and plot to her bad decision-making abilities? Were all the other actors wrapped up in contract commitments elsewhere or what? I've certainly found the Eun-soo story interesting analytically in parts, but after all those dramatics there really doesn't seem to be any satisfying way to resolve it.

Review by William Schwartz

"Make a Woman Cry" is directed by Kim Geun-hong and Park Sang-hoon-III, written by Ha Cheong-ok and features Kim Jung-eun, Song Chang-eui, Lee Soon-jae, Ha Hee-ra, Oh Dae-gyu and Lee Tae-ran.