It’s Okay Not to be Okay (2020)
Review of It’s Okay Not to be Okay / 사이코지만 괜찮아 (2020)
This is the drama where I think I’ve massively turned gay for Seo Ye-ji. I mean the chemistry between her and Kim Soo-hyun was off the charts, I couldn’t believe how much I liked this main couple as I was watching, but oh my god Seo Ye-ji as Ko Moon-young was absolutely divine.
The costumes they put on her were absolutely stunning, and the set design and character development was also stellar. I wanted to live in that gothic, slightly European-style mansion she was living in and brought the brothers to live with her.
After that introductory rant (I could go on, but I will spare all of you today), I initially started watching this drama when Netflix was dropping it in episodes. I can’t deal with the fact that Netflix does things now by slowly dropping one episode a week, but I guess it’s more healthy for me at the end of the day.
I started watching the first episode a long time ago, got bored, saw there was only one more episode out, and then dropped it. I’m glad I waited to be honest because this way I savored each episode in a binge watch, and this was a drama that truly was binge-watch worthy.
I’ve said a lot—let’s get into the review!
Content
This was such a poetic, beautiful drama. I’ve never seen a show, especially a Korean drama, cover mental health and illnesses in a way that was so well-done. Granted, I haven’t watched television like this until recently, but I’ve watched a lot of shows nowadays.
Both our leads have mental health issues, and learn to help each other heal. They say some people come into our lives to help us learn something, and I think that’s something we watched in this drama.
Something important to note about this drama is that it is extremely based on fairy tales, if you can’t get the symbolism behind the titles of episodes being named after specific fairy tales.
Our female lead is someone who can be considered unloveable at the beginning of the show. She’s selfish, arrogant, rude. She has anti-social disorder, and it was something that draws people away from her. She also has this extreme obsession with Gang-tae, which he initially resists, leading to some…creepy actions.
E.g. she walks in while he’s changing and puts her hands on him, hires his brother to make him move in with her, etc. And then he just chooses to fall in love with her.
Have to give a shoutout to the acting in this drama as well, because everyone was absolutely divine in their role.
The star of the show is the actor who played the autistic brother. Hopefully one day we will get to the point where we will have real autistic actors on the screen, but he did a great job playing a brother who’s older by mentally more immature because of the illness he was born with.
One of the most pivotal scenes of the drama is when the brother accuses Gang-tae of lying to him, because he found out he spent the night with Moon-young, and then goes around screaming about how Gang-tae used to always wish he was dead and left him behind in a frozen river once.
It was so heartbreaking to see the anguish of both brothers who clearly love each other.
Outside of the main relationship, I found myself really liking how developed the relationship between Moon Gang-tae and his brother Moon Sang-tae is. Sang-tae is autistic, but Gang-tae is such a sweetheart for taking care of his brother until the end.
It’s heartbreaking to see how his brother isn’t used to the lack of attention when Moon-young comes into their lives, because he keeps saying that Gang-tae is his and only his. He tries his best to stay connected to his brother, but there’s an obvious riff going on as the drama progresses because Sang-tae feels abandoned.
Something I also really liked at the end of the day was that this drama wasn’t shot in Seoul. I’m all for the aesthetics that Seoul has to offer, and I understand that Seoul is like THE city to live in in Korea, but it was absolutely refreshing to see the natural landscapes of Korea, the traditional homes in the countryside and the quiet lives that people live outside of a major city.
Overall Thoughts
It’s a good drama, but it has some questionable moments (e.g. I think what Moon-young did to Gang-tae in the beginning as he was getting dressed is considered sexual assault).
I think it’s a pivotal moment of character development, but don’t know if it’s morally okay. Besides that, I think the drama flows well, the characters are well-developed, and the cinematography and setting is absolutely gorgeous at times.
If you want a drama to watch and haven’t seen this already, give it a shot. I think it’s worth it.
