Finally! We’re getting our first look at tvN’s Mother, the kidnapping drama based on an award-winning Japanese drama by the same name. Lee Bo-young (Whisper) stars as a cold and logical ornithology researcher in her mid-thirties. By coincidence or fate, she is sent as a temporary substitute science teacher at an elementary school.
It’s there where she, who thought she was too cold-hearted to be a real mother, meets an eight-year-old girl who begins to melt her heart. Played by Heo Yool, this girl’s parents have abandoned her, and now she’s all alone in the world without protection. These two scarred souls form a mother-daughter bond, and help each other heal and live past the emotional pain from their broken familial relationships.
In the first teaser, after having made the decision to keep the eight-year-old girl as her daughter, Lee Bo-young has taken her to the beach. The gentle desperation in her voice is palpable as Lee Bo-young says to her, “I’m going to take you away where no one knows, to a place thousands of kilometers away. Can you do it?”
I’ve heard that the last time Lee Bo-young played a mother in God’s Gift–14 Days, her performance was riveting (even if the writing veered off in the end), so I have high hopes. Although not shown in the teaser, supporting castmates Lee Hye-young (Can You Hear My Heart, Boys Over Flowers) and Go Sung-hee (While You Were Sleeping) will be acting alongside Lee Bo-young in prominent roles.
At the helm of Mother, we have PD Kim Chul-kyu, who also created beautifully directed Chicago Typewriter and On the Way to the Airport. And the writer Jung Seo-kyung did a fantastic job exploring the extremes of human morality in The Handmaiden. So all in all, the production team looks to be in good hands.
Wednesday-Thursday drama Mother will air on tvN starting January of next year, after the end of Smart Prison Living.
