Title : Familiar Wife, Knowing Wife, Wife That I Know
Episodes : 16
Genre : Time traveling, Fantasy, Romance, Family, Mystery
Story : 7 out of 10
Characters : 8 out of 10
Cinematography : 8 out of 10
Familiar Wife is not only familiar to the main lead, but to the audience as well. But a well loved recipe sometimes is nice to just watch it again. However, although promising, this drama failed to come through.
Story
Joo Hyuk is not happy. His family life is a disaster. His work is hell. He feels like he is stuck and he can’t do anything that he wants or have the life that he always wanted. Then, a meteor crosses the night sky and Joo Hyuk, after crossing an odd like traffic control station, goes back in time, to the day when he had met his wife. The next morning, he wakes up only to realize that him going back to the past, had influenced his present life. And so, he goes back once more, in order to prevent ever meeting his wife.
This time, when he wakes up, he has a perfect life. He is married to his first love, a perfect, rich girl he had a crush on when he was in college; he works in the same bank but in a better position now, and he can finally enjoy his hobby. Things don’t go as planned, when his ex-wife, now a woman whom he supposed to never have met, starts work at the same bank.
Familiar wife follows the plot of Go Back Couple and Tomorrow with you. At first, the drama was actually good, as it had some thrilling moments and an interesting story to tell. Although I didn’t like the way Joo Hyuk forgot about his family, as in Go Back Couple it was more realistic (I mean, he only thought about his kids for a scene and then he continued his life like they had never existed!!). Also, as Joo Hyuk slowly started to learn more about his ex-wife, he started slowly to fall for her as well. And that was nice to watch, as it was sweet and the couple had chemistry.
However, things started to get complicated halfway through. Actually, the drama could have finished in episode 12. After that, the twists were meaningless, the characters acted irrationally and pretty much everything that happened felt like they were just trying to extend the dramas life even if that meant that the whole plot was going to be ruined. So, the ending episodes were really disappointing and they messed up the drama.
Characters
Joo Hyuk is the only character we are introduced to in the first few episodes. We only see things through his perspective. And his perspective is a very gloomy one. His wife is presented as a monster who doesn’t understand him and lashes out at him. So, his personality is pretty much the victim of a sad life. Things change after he changes his life. He is brighter and his true colors shine. He has a nice personality, being friendly with everyone and he seems to mean well.
However, there are also notes in his bright personality that show an egoistic man who only wants for himself to be happy and he never thought about his wife and what she was going through. After he realized that he actually had messed up, we can see that he is not as strong of a character as he supposed to be. Ji Sung is a veteran actor and by now he has played in many many productions. So, his acting was natural and flawless. Though his character was a bit of a failure, he managed to pull through and because of him, the drama at least watched worthy after episode 12.
Woo Jin is Joo Hyuk’s wife. We only can see that she is a tired woman, who struggles at work and to raise her children. Therefore, she blames her husband and makes his life a living hell. However, after the change of events, we realize that she had as many on her plate as Joo Hyuk.
In present life, she is now a strong, independent woman, who does well at work and she is friendly and energetic. She is probably the most likable character of the series. Han Ji Min was excellent as Woo Jin, as she mastered those scenes of struggle and drama. Plus, her transformation from a wife to a businesswoman was amazing.
Hee Won is the current wife of Joo Hyuk. She looks perfect, but she is a spoiled rich girl who wants everything to be as she likes them too. She doesn’t like to be around Joo Hyuk’s family, she snobs everyone and we can see that she is the complete opposite of Woo Jin. Kang Ha Na was good in her role as Hee Won, the most despised character of the drama and she did a good job making her character the egoistic, arrogant girl that was just not for Joo Hyuk.
Cinematography
The going back to the last point, with that traffic control station, was actually nicely done and original. The rest of the drama was a simple romance drama and didn’t have much to display.
Overall
My overall rating will be 6 out of 10, because of the horrible last episodes, but at least the performances were good and I can’t ignore that.
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