Review of When the Camellia Blooms / 동백꽃 필 무렵

Recently, as I was working on my blog while being funemployed, I realized there was a grave error I had made: there were some old blog posts, which were more relevant and recent at the time, that I had never posted! Several of these posts were in the Korean drama realm, as I guess I had shrugged them off and forgot about them.

Some context if you’re new here: hi, I’m Ashley and I run this blog. I write about books, movies, television, theatre, and travel, but I began this blog in 2021 after working for a bit professionally as a film critic. This was a space for me to focus on the dramas and movies I loved the most, as mainstream outlets tend to chase after profit.

Korean dramas have been my thing for over a decade now, as I began when I watched The Heirs in 2013 and never really stopped. I’ve lived in Korea for a bit and hold an advanced level of Korean, so when I watch dramas nowadays, it’s kind of for the nostalgia and to upkeep my Korean.

When the Camellia Blooms I had watched in 2022, when I had this blog, but for some reason I had never put out this blog post. I’ve rewritten the introduction here to include some context and bridge the old content I had made all those years ago, but I guess it’s never too late for some posts?

Let’s get into the review before I start rambling too much, shall we?

A single mother moves to a new town and finds the chance to start over again.

Our main character, and the female lead in this story, is Oh Dong-baek. She’s a single mother with a son, and she’s just decided to move to the town the show takes place in. Called Ongsan, she now opens a bar called Camellia and finds the opportunity to start over.

This is a small town though, and at first she is an outsider. Throughout the course of the series, we’re going to meet the fellow townspeople along with her, learning about their struggles and more about who Dong-baek is as a person. How did she come to this town? Who did she have her son with? Some of these questions are answered throughout the series—a little more on that in the next paragraph.

One of the bigger plots around involves the father of her child, who is a famous baseball player. He’s not as close with their son as Dong-baek is, which leads to some sort of friction. There’s also friction when she begins potentially finding a new love interest as well, leaving the past behind in order to create something newer and more beautiful.

Time begins to pass, and eventually Dong-baek meets a local police officer named Yong-sik. He’s a bit younger than her, and he’s quite smitten from the beginning. Dong-baek is rather respectful at first of this, a bit hesitant, but as the series continues they grow closer romantically.

Then we learn about the big conflict that drives the series. It’s a bit bizarre of a plot point to me in this series, as it was more lighthearted and in the realm of a slice of life with romantic elements, but it’s about a potential serial killer in the town.

Dong-baek begins realizing something is amiss, and then with the help of Yong-sik, they come to the revelation that this killer is indeed after her. They have to protect her from this new threat, adding even more struggles to her list as a single mother, business owner, and a now a potential murder victim.

Overall Thoughts

I think this is a cute drama overall. I preferred the slice of life and romantic comedy elements that were introduced earlier on, and, as I mentioned before, the killer storyline was a bit odd and out of place. It didn’t entirely feel like it belonged in this series, and was just kind of thrown into the mix.

That said, I enjoyed the representation of the single mother being the main character. In recent years, I’ve been loving how the female leads in dramas are older women, allowing us the chance to see that high schoolers and twenty-somethings aren’t the only ones allowed to have romantic situations.

Let’s allow older women to have their moment, right? Rewriting this in 2024, I think we’re slowly getting to that point even more, which I love.

Go watch this one if you’re interested in the plot and haven’t already. Maybe you’ll love it and find it worth the journey.

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