This article contains spoilers.
3/5 stars
Lead cast: Kim Nam-joo, Cha Eun-woo, Kim Kang-woo, Im Se-mi
Latest Nielsen rating: 9.2 per cent
Given the traumatic experiences of its characters, Wonderful World may at first seem like an ironic or even cruel title.
This is a show in which the weak are trampled on, families are broken and, in its most shocking moment, a child is deliberately run over. However, it is also a story about coping with grief, and the new connections that form out of the ashes of the ones we have lost.
Wonderful World midseason recap: grief and revenge in Disney+ K-drama
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Eun Soo-hyun, the mother, is played with cool detachment by Kim Nam-joo, who buries her character’s passion under her placid exterior. Her poise subsumes the torrent of emotions raging within her in a performance that is mirrored by Cha Eun-woo as the mysterious Kwon Seon-yul.
When first introduced in the narrative, we have no inkling of who Seon-yul is. The first of many revelations clues us in on what drives him – he is the son of the man who killed Soo-hyun’s son and was then killed by Soo-hyun.
He plans to destroy Soo-hyun and he proceeds to blow up the relationships around her – namely revealing a forbidden night of passion between her husband Kang Soo-he (Kim Kang-woo) and her quasi-adopted sister Han Yoo-ri (Im Se-mi) – until she becomes just as isolated as the lonely Seon-yul, whose mother lies in a coma.
Unlike Soo-hyun’s impulsive act of vengeance which landed her in prison, Seon-yul’s bitter revenge plays out in a slow trickle over several years. Yet all of Seon-yul’s careful planning blows up in his face when new information comes to light following the death of his mother.
Seon-yul’s mother leaves behind a recording which proves that his father killed Soo-hyun’s son on purpose. Furthermore, it soon becomes clear that the crash that eventually killed his mother was no accident.
After a brief investigation, he discovers that all these deaths are connected to the person that Seon-yul thought he could rely on the most: Congressman Kim Joon (Park Hyuk-kwon).
It is around this time that the central relationship between Soo-hyun and Seon-yul reverses course. Following the death of Seon-yul’s mother, Soo-hyun visits the funeral and later, when he holes up in his apartment hiding from the world, she visits him with jook (Korean rice porridge) – a traditional dish prepared by a mother for a sick child.
At this point of the show, around episodes 11 and 12, the revelations start to come thick and fast. We learn that the man at the wheel when Soo-hyun’s son was initially hit by a car was Congressman Kim.
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Fearing how this would affect his political aspirations – he later becomes the leading candidate in the presidential election – he calls Seon-yul’s father for help. Seon-yul’s father suggests that he would take the fall if Congressman Kim promised to save his son, who was in desperate need of an organ transplant.
This realisation hits Seon-yul especially hard, as it means that Soo-hyun’s son died so that he could live.
The series pulls no punches as it shows us what Seon-yul’s father was willing to do to ensure his son’s survival.
Not only does he take the fall for the accident, but after the congressman leaves the scene of the crime, Seon-yul takes the injured boy from the back seat of the car, where he is screaming for his mother, places him on the tarmac, gets back in the car and reverses over him.
It is an intense and upsetting moment but it also unintentionally provides the germ for the bonding between Soo-hyun and Seon-yul that dominates the final stretch of the series.
Wonderful World is not without its issues. In between its compelling start and strong ending was a midsection that sagged and meandered, a result of a structure that needed to keep its cards close to its chest but lacked compelling side stories to keep us entertained.
The show also beggared belief with some of its twists, which often bubbled up to the surface owing to extremely convenient acts of happenstance, namely the recording passed by Seon-yul’s mother to Soo-hyun, which had no reason to exist.
But Wonderful World also showed the power of a strong ending, which can act as a palate cleanser, clearing out the bad taste left behind by a show’s earlier missteps.
Wonderful World is streaming on Disney+.
