No. of episodes: 16 (each approx. 1.15 hours long)
IT’S OKAY NOT TO BE OKAY was a rollercoaster ride for me. It tested all my emotions, never did I feel bored, they kept me entertained. The drama had so many specific details that I tried to highlight them as much as I could. Sorry for making this blog so long in the process, I hope you will understand :p.
I finally watched this drama after seeing how popular it was with the K-Drama Addicts. My first impression was, both Kim Soo-hyun and Seo Ye-ji look so good, their looks, their personality, their style, I loved them all. Also, I liked the whole storybook concept of how they started the drama and how smooth the scene transition was. It was like a modern fairy tale, with colorful objects and locations, pretty characters, and a too-good to come true storyline.
Moon Gang-tae (Kim Soo-hyun) is a caregiver by profession and lives with his older brother Moon Sang-tae. Gang-tae is soft at heart, caring and forgiving, because of which all his patients at the psychiatry ward love him but his colleagues sometimes take advantage of his personality. He takes care of Sang-tae, who is suffering from an Autism disorder. It is shown in the initial episodes that because of a horrifying incident during their childhood, the brothers keep on shifting places, and Gang-tae changes hospitals frequently. He is someone who prioritizes his brother’s needs before himself and struggles each day to see a smile on Sang-tae’s face.
Ko Moon-young (Seo Ye-ji) reminded me of IU’s character in Hotel de Luna. She has a strong, carefree, bold personality with a great fashion sense, who believes in reality and not in fairy tales. She is a popular children’s book author, who tries to portray the bitter truth of the world through her works. Moon-young has been treated as an outcast her whole life but she accepted it with a brave face. She does not show her inner feelings and desires to others, she lets them believe that she is manipulative and rude but what she wants is someone, who will love her for who she is, longs for that warmth.
As the story progresses, Gang-tae and Moon-young both start having feelings for each other and decide to explore their relationship slowly. Meanwhile, Sang-tae who is a big fan of Moon-young starts getting jealous after seeing his brother so close to her and he refuses to share Gang-tae with Moon-young. A time comes when Sang-tae hears some rumors about them getting married and bursts out on Gang-tae, accusing his brother of killing him. Gang-tae breaks down seeing his older brother like this and realizes that even if he hates it, he needs to stay by and take care of him, so he lets Moon-young leave by pushing her away. This scene broke my heart, seeing Gang-tae break down on the stairs, Sang-tae shouting and accusing his brother and Moon-young in tears to see them devastated like this.
Meanwhile, it is shown that Moon-young’s mother, who was assumed to be dead before, has come back with a different identity. Gang-tae had a hunch that she would hurt Moon-young and in the process, those two reconcile. They decide to support and stay beside each other until Sang-tae accepts Moon-young as one of them. As the story progresses, their relationship starts having more difficulties. First one being, Sang-tae not able to accept their relationship but with time he accepts Moon-young as a part of his family. The second one was the worst as it turned out, Mrs. Ko (Moon-young’s mother) murdered the Moon boy’s mother. Mr. Ko who was struggling with cancer passed away, but before this, he reveals that his wife murdered their housekeeper, who was the Moon brother’s mother, and the true identity of writer Do Hee-jae is shown. Eventually, Moon-young figures out the truth and it breaks her heart, but she makes up her mind to deal with her mother on her own. On the other hand, Gang-tae tries his best to keep her out of it and ends up losing Sang-tae to Do Hee-jae.
The last couple of episodes were the most awaited ones, starting from seeing Sang-tae being able to overcome his fear of butterflies and protecting his new family, was so overjoying. Gang-tae turned a new leaf and Moon-young’s influence on his life could be clearly seen, it was even at times. The last story ‘Finding the Real Faces’ was so touching, especially when Moon-young and Sang-tae were reading it out during the book event. Also, the relationship between Sang-in and Ju-ri though was initially doubtful but in the end they really looked good together. I felt so happy seeing the three finally going on a long camping trip, those scenes were shot so beautifully, showing all their moods day and night.
The other supporting actors added a lot of humor to the show. Especially, when Jae-su kept on asking Gang-tae, “Who do you like more?” (and in the end when Gang-tae called him ‘Hyung’, that happiness on his face) or when Nam Ju-ri cursed after drinking. Even when Sang-in tried to persuade Ju-ri to date him or scold Seung-jae and even when he tried buttering up Moon-young, it made the audience laugh. The patients of OK Psychiatric Hospital also made a special place in our hearts :)
Special mention
Oh Jung-se who played Moon Sang-tae, really did a great job playing the character. He made his role so believable and I loved the bond he had with Gang-tae. Starting from expressing his fear of butterflies, to getting angry on his brother for leaving him to die in their childhood, to when he finally decided to live his life on his own without always having Gang-tae around, every emotion stirred up the viewers.
Also, Jang Young-Nam, who played writer Do Hee-jae in the last few episodes did a phenomenal job. She scared the audience with her creepy laughter, those evil eyes, and her whole body language. The whole transformation from Head nurse Park Haeng-ja to Do Hae-jae was a shock to the viewers.
