Our Unwritten Seoul can be summarized as a drama that gently pushes you to take a leap of faith and make the best of your life. Directed by Park Shin-woo and written by Lee Kang, the Netflix K-drama includes 12 episodes with a runtime of 60+ minutes each.
The cast of the show includes Park Bo-young as Yu Mi-ji/Yu Mi-rae, Lee Jae-in as teen Yu Mi-ji/Yu Mi-rae, Park Jin-young as Lee Ho-su, Park Yoon-ho as teen Lee Ho-su, Ryu Kyung-soo as Han Se-jin, Jang Young-nam as Kim Ok-hee, Cha Mi-kyung as Kang Wol-soon, Moon Dong-hyeok as Song Gyeong-gu, Yoo Yoo-jin as Park Ji-yoon, Im Chul-soo as Lee Chung-goo, Kim Sun-young as Yeom Beon-hong, and others.
As per Netflix, the show’s description reads, “Twin sisters, whose similarities end with their looks, swap identities amid personal struggles — embarking on a journey to rediscover love and life.”
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers.
5 Reasons to Have Our Unwritten Seoul on Your Watch list
1) Initially Predictable Plot that Takes You By Surprise
Our Unwritten Seoul starts with seemingly typical story line of two identical twin sisters, who would often exchange places with each other as they pleased. They are so identical that even their own mother can’t differentiate between the two. But as they grow up, one can easily figure who’s who due to their contrasting personalities. One sister (Yu Mi-rae) grows up to be the overachieving sibling, excelling in academics and seemingly the obedient one.
Meanwhile, the other twin (Yu Mi-ji) excels in sports, especially running, is more extroverted but her whole world comes crashing down when she injures her leg in a race. Not being able to do the one thing she excels at, Mi-ji falls into the pit of darkness, shutting herself in her room for years.
Usually, in K-dramas where there’s twin siblings, one of them often dies and the other takes their place in order to take revenge. The sibling that dies is either bullied or going through a hard phase that makes their life unbearable. Something similar happens in Our Unwritten Seoul as well, when Mi-rae is shown to be getting ostracized at her workplace that she even considers taking her own life. However, that’s where the drama proves itself to be different from the rest. Despite dealing with serious issues, it also shows glimpses of hope which hints that maybe things will workout.
Instead of Mi-ji gearing up to take revenge, she simply takes over Mi-rae’s life until she sorts out her feelings and mind. By stepping into each other’s shoes as adults, both of them are able to understand each other better, bringing them closer. It also works as a catalyst to face their own personal issues, discover their strengths, and gives them a new outlook on life.
2) Resonant Themes of Loneliness, Self Worth, and Success in Life
As Mi-rae and Mi-ji live each other’s day to day lives, the show also highlights how they lived their own lives so far. Since Mi-rae used to be quite sick during childhood, she received more attention and care than Mi-ji, from their mother. While Mi-ji wasn’t neglected, Mi-rae growing up to do well academically and achieving things that their mother might have aspired or thought of them as goalposts of success, left an impression of Mi-rae being favored more in Mi-ji’s eyes.
This often leaves Mi-ji feeling lonely, comparing herself with her sister, and not realising her self worth. However, that doesn’t mean Mi-rae’s life is shown to be a path of flowers. She has own struggles, feeling pressured to not let anyone down, to grabbing any opportunity that would make her family’s life better. Amidst all, Mi-rae buries her own wishes to lead a conventionally successful life.
Similarly, the other characters such as of Ho-su and Se-jin, reflects a similar dilemma or dealing with loneliness, chasing the default markers of success, and feeling inadequate in their lives. Various issues related to mental health and disabilities are talked about with sensitivity and slowly shows how they strive to recover or get out of the rut.
3) Complex relationships with different parents and between generations
One of the core issues that the characters in Our Unwritten Seoul deals with is their relationship with their parents. Mi-rae and Mi-ji’s mother grew up to think that her mother didn’t love her, was unnecessarily strict with her and subsequently, she raises her twin daughters with hard love. Although she cares for them deeply, she doesn’t know how to express it and perpetuate a similar pain that she feels with her mother, to her daughters. As the story line progresses, how they exchange their pains and feelings are relatable, as well as emotional to watch.
Similarly, in Ho-su’s case, he is never able to fully accept his step mother’s unconditional love, thinking that he is a burden on her, after his father’s death in an accident. The car accident also left him with issues in his leg and loss of hearing in one ear. These factors add up to his timid and wary personality that doesn’t allow anyone to come close enough. He often misjudges his step mother, who herself has been abandoned by her family after the car accident.
In Se-jin’s case, he grew up with his grandfather. Seeing the amount of hard work his grandfather did to provide him the best education and everything else, he feels a need to achieve tangible success to prove that all that hard work didn’t go waste. But he also feels guilty of seemingly neglecting (not taking care as much) of his grandfather, and his death crashes all his ambitions making him feel as if none of it matters. Over the course of 12 episodes, the show explores and resolves these complicated entangles which is gratifying to watch.
4) All Cast Member’s Stellar Performances Including Park Bo-young’s Double Role
There couldn’t have been a better cast for Our Unwritten Seoul. Each actor portrays their role immaculately. Firstly, talking about double role, Park Bo-young shows her acting prowess by portraying such contrasting personalities and mannerism, even when both Mi-rae and Mi-ji share the same screen. While the audience might feel quite relatable to Mi-ji’s personality and her chirpy nature, one could clearly sense a feeling of heaviness and unspoken feeling from Mi-rae. Despite being played by the same person, it might seem astonishing how one could sometimes hate Mi-rae but absolutely adore Mi-ji.
Similarly, Jang Young-nam and Kim Sun-young, who play the twins and Hosu’s mothers respectively, have proved time and again that every drama they will be cast in, it can never go wrong. While Park Jin-young and Ryu Kyung-soo bring a gentleness as male leads and act as an anchor in the twin sister’s self exploration journey. Ho-su’s reserved nature and Se-jin’s extroverted but understanding nature, goes along well with Mi-ji and Mi-rae’s character.
5) Gentle, Sweet Romance that Makes the Character’s Lives Better
When talking about a K-drama, one can not leave romance behind. Although not the central theme of the show, romance makes Mi-rae and Mi-ji’s lives better in different ways. For Mi-ji, she realizes that her first love had feelings for her as well, boosting her self-esteem but also helping her get through unfamiliar things. Her relationship with Ho-su is a mature version of puppy love which emphasizes communication to get through hard times and misunderstandings.
Meanwhile, Mi-rae and Se-jin’s relationship is a calmer, friendship like romance that respects the boundaries but never fall short of supporting and encouraging each other. Their romantic storylines might not fall in the passionate love category but the ones that keeps you smiling throughout.
*Few Things to Note
While, one can’t recommend this healing drama enough to others, you shouldn’t forget that it’s still a fictional K-drama. There are unique storylines that puts it above others but there are also various overly dramatic and cliche scenarios that are akin to dramas. Especially, when highlighting jealousy, or misunderstanding among characters, the creators take help of vastly used tropes that viewers might be too familiar with, or feel over the top.
Another thing that felt unnecessary about the drama is when Mi-rae’s problematic manager, who makes her worklife hell, is shown to be someone who looks identical to her dead father. It leaves you speculating if there’s another backstory behind her father’s death, is he related to him in some way, etc. Without even introducing the angle that she trusted him too much because of identical features, and leading to her taken advantage of, the story would have been the same if the manager wasn’t identical looking and wouldn’t have been confusing for some parts.
Other than that, Our Unwritten Seoul does an excellent job in taking the audience for an immersively emotional ride, which has its fair share of lighthearted and heartwarming moments that leaves you wanting for more. The visual elements, cinematography, performances, dialogues, and music create a perfect show that one can relate, cry and laugh along with wholeheartedly.
Watch all the 12 episodes of Our Unwritten Seoul on Netflix.
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