[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Make a Woman Cry" Episode 31

By William Schwartz on 2015/08/01 at 21:24 PST

The story is still just about completely centered around Jin-han- although we're still not that much closer to his actually participating. From Deok-in, we do get an explanation that indicates her icy attitude toward Eun-soo wasn't just a function of the latter woman's terrible personality. There's an excellent logistical reason why Eun-soo shouldn't be the one to confront Jin-han, at least not in the immediate sense. And also Jin-woo is working at the company now.

That pretty much covers it in terms of everything important that happened this episode. "Make a Woman Cry" is, at this point, mostly stewing around in its own juices. The Jin-han conflict is the only one that has much energy, and that can't be resolved too quickly because there are too many episodes left over. So we're still just getting more brief looks at what a day in the life in Jin-han is like, with occasional participation from characters less ignorant than Jin-han is.

The way the rest of the drama has been left in the margins is by comparison just a tad strange. Deok-in's mother now hangs out at the house with the people who she's not actually even related to. That's good for a laugh or two, but there's not much in the way of urgency. There's the usual product placement at the pizza restaurant, Jin-woo and Kyeong-cheol have another informative emotional chat. Nothing that produces fireworks though.

One of the more explosive points is, weirdly enough, how much "Make a Woman Cry" feels like summer. The cicada noises are overpowering, and given how frequently they show up, I get the impression that the production team genuinely just couldn't come up with a way to remove the extant sound from the scenes. This isn't relevant or anything. I bring the subject up mainly to indicate that I frequently found the cicada noises more interesting than the actual story.

On the more positive end "Make a Woman Cry" isn't really doing anything wrong. I've mostly accepted the wide range of improbabilities necessary in order to make the Jin-han conflict work in the first place. "Make a Woman Cry" isn't really dedicated to its plot at this point so much as it is building up the dramatic devices necessary to have people in the rich family carp at each other about the crisis, providing opportunities to watch their general dysfunction unfold. Without a high point, though, it's easy to get impatient about this stuff.

Review by William Schwartz

"Make a Woman Cry" is directed by Kim Geun-hong and Park Sang-hoon-III, written by Ha Cheong-ok and features Kim Jung-eun, Song Chang-eui, Lee Soon-jae, Ha Hee-ra, Oh Dae-gyu and Lee Tae-ran.