Welcome To Samdal-Ri, starring Shin Hye-sun as Cho Sam-dal and Ji Chang-Wook as Cho Yong-Pil in the lead roles, is a healing drama that sketches the love story of Sam Dalee and Yong Pil, who are childhood sweethearts.
Cast:
In the lead roles, the drama stars Ji Chang Wook and Shin Hye Sun and features Shin Dong-mi, Kang Mi-na, Kang Yeong-seok, Kim Mi-Kyung, Go Mi-ja, Yura, and Seo Hyun-chul in crucial roles.
Episode 1 Tears of the Dragon
The first episode starts by portraying the lead’s childhood, where young Sam Dal is seen getting nervous as her best friend Yong Pil has to perform on the stage. She later joins Yong Pil on the stage, where she expresses her will to be free and become a dragon in the sense that she wants to grab every opportunity that will let her explore the world. Yong Pil expresses that Jeju is his home and is happy to live in only his small, comfortable space. Years later, Sam Dal gets spotted as the cool and sassy female lead who fulfils her cheating boyfriend’s desire to have kimchi soup by drenching him in front of a huge crowd. The story proceeds to emphasise the lead characters, Yong Pil and Sam Dal regarding their professional and personal lives.
Episode 2 The Soulmates’ History
Sam Dal and her sisters rush to Jeju to avoid the chaos and chatter that surrounds them as Sam Dal gets accused of power-tripping and workplace abuse. The hilarious take subsides the sisters’ pain, and the comments by other characters portray the female leads who choose to live a life as someone who is powerful, crazy and cheeky. Episode 2 dramatically focuses on how society judges women and how righteous people are considered annoying.
Analysis:
A divorced woman, people in power only power trip and a pregnant woman who is not married, the first two episodes focus on judgement and what being resilient exactly is. Sam Dal worked for 15 years to make her place in the photography industry, but people began to judge her for another individual’s version and didn’t even bother paying heed to what she had to say. At the same time, society began to dig down on her family by judging her sisters, though they had never once witnessed how they lived their lives. Cho Yong Pil, on the other hand, gets ignored for having taken a stand when he has a point. The characters acquaint the audience with reality with the splendid performance and excellent writing. Recent Korean dramas go through cinematography changes, taking the audience through the 2000s and late 90s story portrayal. Though the start of the drama with the evergreen cinematography wasn’t extremely impressive, it justifies the story the director wants to narrate.