Dear Hyeri

Presentation

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Overview

Synopsis

Joo Eun Ho has been an unknown announcer for 14 years. Due to a deep wound in her heart, she developed another personality named Joo Hae Ri. She used to date Jung Hyun Oh. Though he’s a star announcer, he carries a wound that he never showed to anyone. These 2 reunite again and cure each other’s wounds.

My Opinion (No Spoilers)

First of all, I think Dear Hyeri is yet another underrated drama this year. Not a lot of people actually talked about it, but I’m such a huge fan of Shin Hye Sun that I couldn’t miss it for the world. And I was right to put it on my list. Shin Hye Sun is absolutely amazing! She really carries the entire drama by herself and her acting performance as a suffering woman with 2 different personalities is top-notch. Nevertheless, the first episode did confuse me and I even wondered if I should continue watching. However, if you manage to get past that, you’ll see that the narrative is truly worth the watch. I can’t express how much pain I felt for the characters. All of them have been through a lot and their pain is palpable on screen. I rooted for all of them to heal and get better. Because that’s what this drama is really about: healing, becoming happy. I read some comments of people who were unhappy with the ending or even talked about a toxic relationship between Eun Ho and Hyun Oh, but I completely disagree. The drama realistically portrays the ups and downs of a long-term couple in which each partner has his heavy past to carry and is just trying to make it work. Contrary to clichéd romances in Dramaland, Dear Hyeri is honest and credible. The writer didn’t try to sugarcoat the love between characters, and that’s a good thing (it’s also so rare in dramas generally). Yes, I had my doubts about Hyun Oh, but his perspective is as understandable as everyone else’s – and you get that the more you learn about him. My only real pain point was the lack of communication between everyone – so frustrating. Still, this drama is a gem for me. It talked to my soul and moved me deep. I cried, suffered and laughed with the characters. By the end of the drama, I only wanted them to be ok and happy.

Analysis

• What it means to be happy
• What is love?
  The tumultuous romance between Hyun Oh and Eun Ho
  You have one heart
  A good break-up
  Other types of love
• Loving yourself
  A tragic background
  Dissociative Identity Disorder
  Kang Ju Yeon, unexpected healer
• Side characters
  Baek Hye Yeon
  Jeon Jae Yong
  

What it means to be happy: The drama ends with a simple, yet meaningful sentence: “Being happy is being myself with the person I love”. This line is pronounced by Joo Eun Ho (Shin Hye Sun) herself, and is the outcome of a very long journey to finding herself. This statement is valid for both main characters who have overcome quite a long list of traumas before realizing that their true source of happiness was the person accompanying them in their life journey. Indeed, Joo Eun Ho has always led a difficult life. Her parents died early on, then her sister mysteriously disappeared never to be found, and she ended up all alone when her grandmother finally passed away. Alone and isolated, she heavily relied on her boyfriend Jung Hyun Oh (Lee Jin Wook). Though she didn’t see it at the time, the moments spent with him were the happiest of her life. That’s even clearer when you actually follow the tumultuous aftermath of their break-up and the consequences on Eun Ho’s entire world. She developed another personality and spent her time juggling from one self to another. Only through the vicarious life of Joo Hae Ri, her other self, can Eun Ho understand how important people around you are and how much they participate in your happiness. When she discovered that Hae Ri was happy with the simple things of life, like seeing her crush Kang Ju Yeon (Kang Hoon) go to work, feeling the sunlight on her face, working at the parking lot, Eun Ho opened her eyes. She thought about all the times she’d felt happy like Hae Ri. She finally got her answer: Hyun Oh was the main vector of happiness for her. No matter the events between them. It took her a long time and many tours and detours on various roads before acknowledging that. The message is rather clear here: If you want happiness, you first need to do an introspection and look around you. List the things that make you happy and write down the name of the people who are the source of this happiness. That’s at least the tip I would take away from the show.

I would actually extrapolate Eun Ho’s sentence and debate that happiness doesn’t come from being yourself with only one person around you, but rather with the people (plural) surrounding you. If we take Hyun Oh as an example, it’s obvious that his past has inflicted great wounds on him. His mother abandoned him and his father was a drunkard and gambler. He then died in a fire accident, which led Hyun Oh to be raised by his father’s acquaintance aka the owner of the gambling den he owed money to. Surrounded by five senior women with very different personalities, Hyun Oh made it a duty to take care of them when they get older, the same way they sheltered him as a teenager. He bears the weight of responsibility on his shoulders, hence his fear of commitment through marriage. Despite his love for Eun Ho, her wish to officially seal the deal with him scares Hyun Oh away, leading to an inevitable break-up. However, this doesn’t stop Hyun Oh from loving and caring about Eun Ho – what he does through the entire drama. On the contrary, he’s rather keen on jumping in front of danger to protect her at work and outside. This behavior is also a sort of dissociation, not as clinical as Eun Ho’s, but still. Hyun Oh can’t really function normally without Eun Ho, and the reverse is also true. He can’t be himself fully. While apart, he gives her the cold shoulder, pretends he doesn’t care about her, while assuming his responsibility as the pillar of his family. On the flip side, he feels like he’s betraying his promise to his grandmothers whenever he makes Eun Ho a priority. Again, he can’t be fully himself in that situation either. In both Eun Ho and Hyun Oh’s cases, a reconciliation between their 2 selves is needed so they can fully be happy. The ending for them is synonymous with bringing their two worlds together by being with the person/people they love and by being truly themselves.

Another character also embodies this statement perfectly: Kang Ju Yeon. He’s been through similar pains as our leads. He used to have an older brother who dreamed of becoming a journalist, while Ju Yeon was a soldier. At his award ceremony, his brother tragically died in a car accident. Since then, his mother has never really recovered and is now placed is a hospital where she believes her remaining son is the brother. Meanwhile, Kang Ju Yeon bears the guilt and believes he’s responsible for his brother’s passing. Therefore, he’s shut himself from the world. He never really warmed up to anybody, not in the military (his first job) and certainly not as a news anchor (what he then became because that was his brother’s dream). That was until he meets Joo Hae Ri. Unexpectedly, Ju Yeon found himself wanted to confide in her. He showed his weaknesses to a woman he only had truly known for a few months by introducing her to his mother for instance. That’s a huge step for Ju Yeon. Seeing how innocent and pure Hae Ri is, he also wants to be open and on the same level of sincerity and vulnerability. Although their story is not meant to be from the very beginning, Hae Ri’s presence in his life allows him to enter a whole new world where Ju Yeon can live as himself (and not as his brother) in his mother’s eyes, but also other people’s. Kang Ju Yeon realizes that he has fulfilled his brother’s dream to become a respected and praised journalist, so he can now unburden himself and move on from his past by accepting new people in his life and living in the present. At the end, Kang Ju Yeon has grown into a more mature person who recognizes that there’s indeed someone who’s been by his side all along, and that’s not Hae Ri but his colleague Baek Hye Yeon (Jo Hye Joo). Indeed, Hye Yeon has had a crush on Ju Yeon for a long time. She’s consistently tried to conquer his heart, but without much success. She accepted Hae Ri as Ju Yeon’s girlfriend and supported them. When Hae Ri was no more and Kang Ju Yeon’s relationship came to an end, he became colder than before. That’s when Hye Yeon decided to leave his side. She switched companies and stopped contacting him altogether. Only then was Ju Yeon conscious of the fact that he missed her. He was feeling rather empty without her. If you take back the sentence from the beginning: “Being happy is being myself with the person I love”, it becomes obvious that Kang Ju Yeon has a chance at happiness too. He only needs to reconquer the person he loves to be fully himself.

What is love?: “In the end, to enjoy the same things and become happy together, that’s why we love”. This is yet another great sentence to take-away from the drama. So, let’s deep dive now into the meaning of love.

The tumultuous romance between Hyun Oh and Eun Ho: Jung Hyun Oh and Joo Eun Ho met in 2011 while at university, but really started dating in 2012. Back then, Hyun Oh and Eun Ho already knew each other and were close. But they became closer, when Eun Ho offered him a necklace that looked exactly like the his mother’s that he had lost. This necklace is Hyun Oh’s last piece of memory from his mother who abandoned him and is thus of great importance. So, it makes sense that such a gesture would move Hyun Oh towards Eun Ho. For 8 years, the two of them had the perfect life together. They were happily dating, living together and working side by side. That was until Eun Ho voiced her will to get married which, as mentioned earlier, scared Hyun Oh away. In 2020, he gave Eun Ho her freedom back. Indeed, he realized that she really wanted to get married, so he’d rather break up with her and give her a chance to find someone who would also want to tie the knot. Of course, this news came as a shock for Eun Ho. After 8 years of relationship, Hyun Oh left her with a smile on his face and with the most nonchalant behavior, as if it were nothing. From Eun Ho’s perspective, she had invested 8 years of her life in a relationship that led to nothing and didn’t even have a real reason as to why it was ending. This event marks a turning point in the leads’ personal lives. Following that break-up Hyun Oh and Eun Ho kept working together as exes, pretending to hate each other but always interfering at the right moment to protect the other. Finally, they get back together in 2024 and eventually get married. This is the result of Eun Ho’s spiral down and loss of identity. These were the last arguments needed to convince Hyun Oh that he needed Eun Ho in is life, no matter the cost.

You have one heart: Kang Ju Yeon describes love as having one heart, meaning that you can truly love one person only. Considering Joo Eun Ho’s dual personality, that principle seems quite hard to apply. Indeed, Eun Ho has never fallen out of love with Hyun Oh, while Hae Ri gave her heart away to Ju Yeon. In return, both men chose Eun Ho/Hae Ri as the owner of their heart. However, the situation gets more complex for Eun Ho when she recovers her whole self and pushes Hae Ri away. That’s when she decides to split with Ju Yeon, telling him that she can’t love him because she doesn’t know him and she’s not the person he wants her to be. Though Ju Yeon is heartbroken, he stands strong. He confesses that he’s got only one heart and that Hae Ri currently owns his. The reason why Ju Yeon hangs onto Eun Ho, despite knowing that she’s got DID is because he still sees a small chance for him to have Hae Ri back. Indeed, Eun Ho is not fully healed. She still has a long way to go, relationship-wise and with Hyun Oh as well, before she can completely overcome her traumas. From my perspective, I think Kang Ju Yeon senses that. So, he clings onto Eun Ho and brings her unconditional love and support to help her. Kang Ju Yeon only has one heart which is fully devoted to the person he’s chosen until it’s completely over. This behavior is applicable later on in the drama. After Baek Hye Yeon has switched companies and Kang Ju Yeon put a final end to his story with Hae Ri, he starts feeling the void his colleague has left. He misses her and her energy. Now fully free from his past feelings, he can open a new chapter of his life and give his heart away to someone who can wholly accept it.

This idea of having one heart also applies to Eun Ho and Hyun Oh. Even when they’re apart, everything they do is aimed at protecting the other. There are two moments in the drama that perfectly showcase that. First, it’s when Hyun Oh sacrifices his spot in the 9 o’clock news (which is the grail for announcers) in order to let Eun Ho continue presenting her programs. He trades with his boss and exchanges his place for hers. This shows how determined Hyun Oh is, if it means shielding Eun Ho. The second moment has to do with Eun Ho. By the end of the drama, Hyun Oh’s colleague Jeon Jae Yong has a car accident and is transported to the hospital. Being the 9 o’clock main announcer, the company needs someone to replace him. So, they ask the most qualified person in the room: Jung Hyun Oh. Though he could’ve jumped in joy over that opportunity, Hyun Oh crumbles down. He feels guilty and responsible for his colleague’s accident and fears that he would take his place while the latter is in no position to defend himself. Hyun Oh shuts down and refuses the offer. Seeing how hurt and scared Hyun Oh is, Eun Ho intervenes. She reassures him, tells him that she understands how he feels , but that he’s in no way evicting Jae Yong. He’s just his substitute until he gets better. This unconditional support and understanding is the final straw for Hyun Oh who then follows Eun Ho’s advice. That being said, it’s clear that Eun Ho and Hyun Oh demonstrate their love to each other through simple gestures and actions. Over their decade of knowing each other, they’ve never given their heart away to someone else.

A good break-up: The drama introduced me to the concept of a good break-up which I really liked. What is it about? Very simply, it’s about getting proper closure. When it’s time for Eun Ho to let Kang Ju Yeon go, she decides to organize a final ‘date’ with him. She can’t show up as Hae Ri, but she wants to help him say goodbye to her so he can move on. Kang Ju Yeon is aware that Hae Ri won’t come back and that Eun Ho is not the woman he loves. Still, he accepts the date. That’s a good opportunity for Kang Ju Yeon to part with his past love with a smile on his face and to remember only the good moments. It’s also the perfect occasion for Eun Ho to thank Ju Yeon for his presence and help in her recovery journey. Honestly, I really appreciated this scene. Though these two have nothing in common anymore – and barely know each other – it was a necessary step, so that both would start over with a light heart. That break-up is in total opposition with Eun Ho’s break-up with Hyun Oh during which he left her with a smile and no clear explanations as to why they were splitting. At least with Eun Ho’s method, there’s no unanswered question left.

Other types of love: Obviously, the drama doesn’t just focus on romantic love. It gives a broader vision of love as a whole. For example, family love transpires through the script. In Eun Ho’s case, her love for her grandmother and sister is the reason why she breaks down when she loses both. She cared about them deeply and the feeling of not having them around causes her to spiral down. Kang Ju Yeon’s situation is quite similar as hers. He lost his dear brother resulting in his mother losing her sanity. She confuses him with her lost son, yet he still takes care of her without complaints. As the remaining son, he has a duty to look after her. She’s also all that he’s left, so he doesn’t want to lose a beloved one again. For Hyun Oh, the story is a bit different. He may have lost his family, but he ended up finding a new one with the grannies. He’s grateful and loves them as if they were his real grandmothers. Hence his reluctance to put this relationship at risk if he were to get married. Indeed, he would need a wife who is also willing to take care of the grannies and would accept them unconditionally. What Hyun Oh doesn’t grasp fully is that love is mutual. The grannies are all wishing for him to be happy, start a family and have children. They consider him their own grandson. Maternal love being what it is: you only want what’s best for your child. The last type of love that we need to mention is friendship showcased by Hae Ri and Kim Min Young (Oh Gyeong Hwa). The two of them work together at the parking lot and form a strong bond. Min Young has always been an outcast and doesn’t have many friends, just like Hae Ri. It’s this connection that ties the two of them resulting in a sweet and cute friendship. Dear Hae Ri demonstrates that relationships are at the center of our lives and that we need to pamper them because love, no matter its form, is what truly gets us through good and bad times.

Loving yourself: Another quote from the drama has been imprinted in my mind: “Me too Joo Hae Ri, I like you and myself the best”. We talked about love coming from relationships earlier, but this line hint at the most fundamental type of love: Self love. Joo Eun Ho went through many hoops before realizing that her happiness, her love for others, even her personality were actually dependent on the love she has for herself.

A tragic background: Clearly Eun Ho doesn’t like herself. She feels she’s always been unlucky throughout her life. Worse, that she has something to do with it. First, she lost her parents and felt like a burden to her aunts and uncles whom she overheard debating over their custody. That’s her first trauma: rejection. Then, she suddenly lost her sister. Guilt ate her away. She started hating herself for having pushed her to make friends and go on that retreat. She thought she was responsible for the accident. If she had simply tried to understand her sister and the reasons why she was saying that Eun Ho and her grandmother were enough in her life, then maybe she could’ve avoided the tragedy. That’s her second trauma: injustice of losing a loved one, just like she lost her parents before. She directed that feeling towards her, accusing and blaming herself. That’s how her self-esteem started to plunder. After that, she had to say goodbye to her grandmother. She became an orphan, believing that everyone in her life was leaving her at some point. She would bring bad luck. Despite that heavy emotional luggage, Eun Ho pulled through. She met Hyun Oh and finally it seemed like her life was getting back on track. But he also left her. That’s the third trauma: abandonment and betrayal. On top of that, Eun Ho was confronted with the consequences of her break-up at work. She was compared with Hyun Oh, people whispered that she was not good enough for him, she was not successful as an announcer, etc… That’s the fourth trauma: humiliation. All of that combined made it impossible for Eun Ho to love herself. She’s an orphan, unsuccessful at her job, who’s not worth being loved and caused the death of her sister. Struggling to deal with all this negativity, Eun Ho turned towards her only solace: her sister. Maybe she would be happy now if she had listened to her. Maybe her sister had the recipe for happiness. Maybe by putting herself in her sister’s shoes, she would be able to comprehend what it is that makes you appreciate life.

Dissociative Identity Disorder: Joo Eun Ho’s other personality is the result of years and years of repressing feelings and not liking herself. Though her DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) didn’t suddenly start, Eun Ho is the one who initiated it. At the bottom of her life, she wanted to get closer to her sister who seemed always content with the smallest things. She took her notebook and saw that her sister’s dream was to work at Eun Ho’s parking lot. She didn’t have any grand dream for herself. Her introverted and timid personality would not allow it. Instead, she wished to be with the ones she loves. In order to understand that perspective of life, Eun Ho applied for a job there and said she was Hae Ri. From then on, her personality split started. Eun Ho found more comfort in her other simple life. She felt more at ease. She felt happy. I think living as Hae Ri was Eun Ho’s best way to cope with all the bad events that she was going through in her actual life. Hae Ri was her cathartic persona. She was able to let go of her bad emotions through her. It was also a way to protect herself from all the negative feelings she had towards her. She was not liking herself as Eun Ho, but she surely was as Hae Ri. That being said, Eun Ho’s goal in the drama is to reconcile these two selves. She needs to understand how to love herself more as Eun Ho using Hae Ri’s lessons, while learning how to tackle negative feelings and prevent them from taking over.

Kang Ju Yeon, unexpected healer: In that matter, it really struck me that Kang Ju Yeon was a necessary piece of the puzzle. Joo Eun Ho would never have been able to recover if Kang Ju Yeon had not brought her warmth and comfort. He appeared in Hae Ri’s life at the right time. He loved Hae Ri unconditionally and showed Eun Ho that she also had someone like that in her life: Jung Hyun Oh. Kang Ju Yeon is Eun Ho’s unexpected healer who gave everything without expected anything in return. He showered Hae Ri with warmth, forgiveness, patience, tolerance, comfort. He was a pillar of her life and an eye opener in Eun Ho’s. Even after he’s learned that Hae Ri is Eun Ho, he doesn’t get mad or resent her. He waits and supports. One of the best scenes of the drama is when Eun Ho and Hyun Oh are standing in front of each other in front of Eun Ho’s place. Hyun Oh is trying to understand whether or not she’s Eun Ho or Hae Ri. Meanwhile, Kang Ju Yeon appears behind Hyun Oh. He’s been worried sick that something had happened to Hae Ri/Eun Ho and is crying. Eun Ho empathizes with him. She sees the despair in his eyes. She knows that he’s worried and holding by a thread. So, she does what he’s been doing for her in the past. She runs to him and hugs him. Through this warm embrace, Eun Ho hopes to make Ju Yeon feel better, but she’s also giving back what he’s given her all along. She knows she doesn’t love him, but that’s her way of recognizing his importance in her life. To be honest, I think this scene was beyond emotional. I know many people were hoping Eun Ho and Ju Yeon would end up together. I also rooted for him, especially because Hyun Oh’s behavior was annoying. However, the more episodes I saw, the less sense it would make for these two to be together. Eun Ho clearly loved Hyun Oh and Ju Yeon was head over heels for Hae Ri and not Eun Ho. He was waiting for someone who would not come back. That’s why the best solution for these two characters was to help, heal and support each other until the end. And that’s what they did.

Side characters: The main trio of the drama takes a lot of screen-time and is obviously the main focus of the story. However, I believe that some appreciation for the side characters is needed. So, let me steal the spotlight away from the pain and negativity onto livelier side characters that deserve to be talked about.

Baek Hye Yeon: Among all the characters (main included), I think Baek Hye Yeon stood out the most for me. She was by far my favorite. Why? Very simple. Though she comes from a wealthy family and hasn’t gone through the same traumatic moments as other characters, she still has it rough. People – colleagues included – consider that she’s stupid and is popular only because she’s pretty. They constantly belittle her efforts and her work by invoking her good looks over her wits. This could not be further away from the truth. Indeed, Hye Yeon proves to be intuitive, diplomatic, perceptive and quite quick-witted throughout the entire drama. She also shows a mature side by supporting Ju Yeon’s love story, despite having a crush on him. She even learns to appreciate Hae Ri and become friends with her. Her loyalty and ability to understand and comfort others transpires, and she does that without an ounce of wickedness. When her female ‘sunbae’ criticizes her and unwillingly gets her involved in a scandal, Hye Yeon remains cool and laid-back. She doesn’t take things to heart and moves on with her life, without implicating anyone else in the matter when she could’ve. That’s proof of empathy and elegance. She’s also quite the funny character, focusing on details that no one would care about amidst a tempest.

Jeon Jae Yong: The second side character that was rather lighthearted was Jeon Jae Yong (Yoon Joo Man). He’s an outcast, completely aloof, goofy and eccentric. He was demoted to the countryside, but comes back stronger than ever. This is yet another character prejudiced by others like Baek Hye Yeon. His colleagues think that he’s only playing and having fun, is not a good journalist, and can’t be serious. That’s until he’s offered the 9PM news as the main anchor and proves everyone wrong. During the first broadcast, his colleagues discover an entirely new side of him that can he professional, serious and focused. Though in the back stage he’s back to his true self, he sure knows how to surprise people.

Sorry, I couldn’t find a good trailer 😦