Drama Special 2015: Secret (2015)

Until death do us part...

This drama special had the potential to be a satisfying romance and murder mystery. There wasn't just one secret, there were several. A construction worker paid for a wife from Vietnam, but his own insecurities created problems that turned deadly.

Mail order bride stories tend to be problematic in real life. They are often rife with scams and human trafficking issues. In this story, a rough construction worker buys a Vietnamese wife. He has little trust in her and hides her foreign registration card and passport. She diligently works taking care of his shoddy home, assisting his invalid mother, learning Korean, and eventually finding jobs to help support their little family. He drinks at night, falls asleep, and goes to work, leaving little time for conversation. Eventually, they have a child together. Despite her loyalty he refuses to help her gain Korean citizenship, fearing that she will leave. She patiently hopes that one day he will see the love she has for him. The special opens with her being interrogated by the police for his brutal murder, so spoiler alert, there's not a happy ending for this couple.

This drama special had great potential but the writers decided to sabotage the relationship, not with a secret but with physical abuse. On separate occasions he hit her in public repeatedly. If she killed him, I was ready to be a witness for the defense. She constantly displayed saintly long suffering with his silences, distrust, jealousy, and physical abuse. Nothing she did seemed to penetrate his insecurities. He may have shown kindness towards her a few times, but I can't get past him hitting her and leaving her vulnerable without her foreign registration card. At first, he may have been cautious with a stranger in his house but some of his actions could be perceived as him treating her as less than because she was foreign or even worse because she was a commodity he had paid for. Because he refused to communicate with her and treat her as a real wife, he set up the dominoes to be knocked over leading to his death and financial ruin. Secret had many secrets but the biggest was why the writers thought an abusive male lead was ever going to be seen as sympathetic.

8/21/23

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