Presentation
Korean Title: 해피니스
Aired in: 2021 (12 episodes)
Channel: TVING, tvN
Grade: 10/10
Actors: Han Hyo Joo and Park Hyung Sik
For more…
Han Hyo Joo:
– Iljimae
– Shining Inheritance
– Dong Yi
– W: Two Worlds
Park Hyung Sik:
– High Society
– Hwarang
– Strong Woman Do Bong Soon
– Suits
Dramas about virus:
– Dark Hole
– The Virus
– Kingdom
– Sweet Home
Analysis
Synopsis
Yoon Sae Bom is a member of a special police squad. She has just moved in her new apartment with her husband-to-be detective Jung Yi Hyun. Unfortunately for them, their building is sealed as soon as they settle because of an infectious disease that is spreading among the residents.
My Opinion (No Spoiler)
I loved that drama! The romance in the midst of chaos, the action and thrilling intrigue, the vast overview of human nature through a variety of characters and a perfectly executed performance by the actors: everything is there to make Happiness one of the best dramas of 2021!
If you haven’t watched it yet, I highly recommend it!
Analysis (Spoiler Alert)
Characters: To be honest, I think the drama’s main strength is its characters. Not only did the screenwriter an excellent job at showing different types of individuals, but the actors were amazing at embodying those types. Therefore, it is more than needed to analyze them one by one.
Main leads:
Yoon Sae Bom (Han Hyo Joo) is head and muscle. She is a stubborn, hot-tempered and strong member of the SOU team. Due to her job, she doesn’t fear much and tends to take the bullet by the horns. She is capable of putting herself in danger if it means protecting those she loves. She is also a loyal friend (especially towards her colleague Lee Seung Young (Lee Kyu Young)) and a good partner. Despite her tough appearance, Sae Bom is actually sweet and tender-hearted. She considers her little neighbor Park Seo Yoon (Song Ji Woo) to be her little sister and would do anything to keep her safe. Finally, Sae Bom is direct, straightforward and true to her words, especially when it comes to her relationship with Jung Yi Hyun (Park Hyung Sik).
Yi Hyun used to be a baseball player but had to quit after a knee injury. He then felt as if life was not worth living anymore. On the rooftop of the school, he met Sae Bom who saved him. He immediately fell in love with her and hasn’t stopped since then. He became a brilliant detective afterwards. He has a sheer eye for details, is very quick-witted and perceptive. He generally trusts his guts and follows his hunches, a behavior that usually enables him to arrest his suspects.
Yi Hyun is a born leader, he is charismatic and knows how to handle crisis by always remaining cool-headed. But his main quality is his devotion, better (or worse) his sacrificial spirit towards those he loves. When he discovers that he is infected, he chooses to stay in the building in order to give time to Sae Bom and the others to escape. Moreover, his patience towards the most evil residents is eventually rewarded when he is finally reunited with Sae Bom. On top of that, Sae Bom has realized her feelings for Yi Hyun during this crisis. So, they can now enjoy a happy and full-of-love marriage.
Han Tae Seok (Jo Woo Jin) is the third main character of the drama. Unlike Sae Bom and Yi Hyun, he is not inside the building during the lockdown. On the contrary, his job is to find a cure and contain the disease outside the apartment complex. Although Tae Seok’s actions can be questioned (especially at the beginning), I couldn’t help but think that everything that he did, was actually rational, fair and somehow good. The lockdown was a necessary evil for the greater good. In order to find a cure and contain the disease, he chose to imprison the infected. Until the end, he protected everyone: first he got rid of the rich and powerful responsible for the spread of the virus; second he didn’t give in to governmental pressure and helped Sae Bom go back inside to save Yi Hyun; third he protected his wife and baby during the entire drama.
Although Han Tae Seok appears to be a cold-hearted and selfish individual, the development of the character proved otherwise. He is a great ally and a formidable enemy.
Lee Ji Soo (Park Joo Hee) is Han Tae Seok’s right arm. She is supportive and always willing to help. She understands the stakes but never goes against her values: helping others; even if it means sneaking Sae Bom out, lying to protect her or receiving a punch to validate the lie. Ji Soo is also loyal and warmhearted.
Seyang Forest residents:
Level 1: Pure Evil
Andrew (Lee Joo Seung) is pure evil. Contrary to other characters, he is not really that complex. He is a killer, who hides his identity behind a mask. He has an excellent poker face (even if we don’t see much of it), is a sort of chameleon and plays his cards well throughout the drama. He accepted to be used by Joo Hyeong and set up a plan to get rid of Sae Bom and Yi Hyun. Unfortunately for him, he underestimated Yi Hyun. This mistake costs him his life. When Sae Bom and the others flee the building, Yi Hyun stays, turns and bites Andrew. The killer’s life comes to an end in the final scenes. Sae Bom and Yi Hyun confront him and kill him, even if Yi Hyun is gravely wounded.
Oh Joo Hyeong (Baek Hyun Jin) is enemy number one in the building. After murdering his wife, he is freed during the lockdown. He is manipulative, selfish, holds grudges and lies to survive. He uses his money to get out of tough situation and is willing to kill and sacrifice others either to save his own skin or to get rid of Sae Bom and Yi Hyun.
His attempts to attack the main leads are numerous but always fail in the end. Indeed, he never seems to overtake Yi Hyun’s wits in his mind games. That’s what happens with the pills. In order to get rid of Yi Hyun, Joo Hyeong poisons water bottles with pills containing the virus. Unfortunately, Yi Hyun guessed his move and switched the pills with vitamins. Still, Joo Hyeong didn’t care about others’ lives.
Karma strikes at the end for him. Even after he has ingested the pills, he doesn’t turn into a monster and is eventually trialed for his wrongdoings. A satisfying end I have to say!
Level 2: From greed to destruction
Oh Yeon Ok (Bae Hae Sun) is enemy number two in the building. She wishes to become the apartment representative throughout the entire drama, a wish that will turn into an obsession at the end. In reality, she and her husband pastor Sun Woo Chang (Cha Soon Bae) want to embezzle money from the building. So, behind the stuck-up, sophisticated and religious mask hide two con artists, hungry for money. Yeon Ok’s greed knows no limit. Just like Joo Hyeong, she would kill everyone to get what she wants. However, her power starts to weaken mid-drama, as well as her sanity. After losing her infected husband and partaking in Andrew’s evil scheme, she gradually turns crazy and obsessed with being a building representative. Another satisfying end for a dislikable character!
A level below in terms of evilness, there is Lawyer Kook Hae Sung (Park Hyung Soo). He is the perfect epitome of the coward. He thinks himself superior and accomplished because he is a lawyer. That’s why he treats his wife like a servant. He is sneaky and quotes law only when it is advantageous to him. He pretends he is a strong and brave man of principles, when in reality he has no courage whatsoever and even less principles. In fact, he only thinks about himself, his desires and his survival.
His ending is well-deserved too! Indeed, right in the middle of the crisis he cheats on his wife with Woo Sang Hee (Moon Ye Won), who already happens to be Joo Hyeong’s mistress. Sang Hee is only interested in money. In fact she is obsessed with it. She is also manipulative and uses her charms to seduce men and get what she wants from them. When she starts her affair with Lawyer Koo, it is only because he is the man of the law, who can help her get Joo Hyeong’s money. Plus, he is an easy clueless target. The final episode presents both characters stuck together: Sang Hee who has become crazy over money, scaring the hell out of Kook Hae Seong. Meanwhile, Hae Seong’s wife has left him and chosen divorce. He begs her to come but she hangs up the phone. Well done lady!
Level 3: To be or not to be ungrateful?
Moving on to the most ungrateful characters of the drama, the winners are: the cleaning couple Ko Se Kyu (Kim Young Woong) and Ji Moon Hee (Lee Ji Ha) and the jobless son of the old couple Kim Dong Hyun (Kang Han Saem).
Let’s start with the cleaning couple. At first, they seem to be quite the innocent and pitiful pair. They ended up in the building against their will, as they were simply here to clean a unit. They benefited from residents’ kindness, especially Sae Bom/Yi Hyun’s and the siblings’. Indeed, they provided them with food, water and lodging, despite everybody’s disapproval. They also risked their lives a few times (to get groceries for example). From that point of view, I was expecting them to be grateful towards those who reached out and protected them. Yet, their constant fear of dying pushed them into a corner and drove them crazy. Little by little, they sided with those who seemed to have the upper hand (that is, the most dangerous pack). They took part in Andrew’s scheme, didn’t protest and went with the flow. Their cowardice led them to betray others to the point that they ended up all alone.
But the drama shows something even better (or worse, depends on how you see it). Indeed, the lockdown is also a trigger of dissensions between rich apartment owners and simple renters; between those socially and financially elevated in the society and those below. To put it simply, Happiness sheds light on societal discrepancies.
The cleaning couple becomes crazy at the end, when they are left in Joo Hyeong’s luxurious apartment. They start dressing up with his clothes, wearing his wife’s jewels and believing that this house is theirs. This madness is just proof of the greed one, who has nothing, can have when one can suddenly have it all.
The third ungrateful character in the drama is Kim Dong Hyun. At first, he doesn’t seem to realize the gravity of the situation and only thinks about his views on social media. He embodies the frenzy among young people, who seek popularity and fame by all means. He puts himself (and others) in danger several times in order to succeed. But Dong Hyun is actually immature and childish. He is incapable of recognizing his parents’ sacrifice for him and how lucky he is to have them. After escaping death, he is able to redeem himself and ask his parents for forgiveness. He sees the value of family and goes back home to be with them, even if his mother is infected. Among all the residents, he is the only one who started as a negative character but finished on a positive note.
By the way, his parents are also admirable. First, they fully support each other even though the wife is infected. Second, they have unconditional love for their son. Although they don’t participate a lot in the group decisions, the fact that they isolated themselves kind of protected them from the general madness.
Level 4: Walking a fine line
Kim Jung Kook (Lee Joon Hyuk) lies at the fringe between good and evil. He is easily manipulated, naive and kind. Even though he wishes to do good in the first place, his lack of thinking puts him and his friends in dangerous situations more than once. Thankfully, he recovers his spirit by the end of the drama and is taken out of the building. Jung Kook represents perfectly the idea of: “Too good, too dumb”. He is unable to harm anyone, but his incapability of standing up for himself hurts everyone else in the end.
Level 5: On the road to Happiness
Contrary to her lawyer husband, Shin So Yoon (Jung Woon Sun) seems quiet, obedient and weak. She is always scorned by her husband, despite her efforts to please him. Yet, over the episodes, So Yoon realizes what a jerk he is. The way he treats others and herself opens up her eyes. At the end of the drama, So Yoon proves that she is far from being a submissive little wife. She is stronger than she looks and the only reason she seemed weak was out of love for her husband. His betrayal with Sang Hee is too much for her too handle. So, she decides to leave without regret with Sae Bom and the rest.
Throughout the drama So Yoon remained a rather neutral character within the group. She didn’t share her opinion much, except when it came to vote. Only then did we have a some clues regarding her mental strength. So Yoon doesn’t actually bend that easily and is tough to convince once she sets her mind on something. In one word, she is determination embodied.
Finally, Na Hyun Kyung (Park Hee Von) and Na Soo Min (Na Chul) are living proof that the lockdown can have positive consequences for some people. Indeed, their relationship is kind of tense at the beginning of the drama. Hyun Kyung is a webtoon artist, who has a comfortable life, while her brother is struggling financially to support himself and his family. That’s why he mooches off of her. He tries to get some of her money and argues over it. When Soo Min is bitten, both siblings choose to stick together. Hyun Kyung sneaks her brother inside the building to protect him, whereas Soo Min is reluctant to do so. He doesn’t want to bite his sister. Their bond actually becomes stronger through the crisis. Both realize that it was petty of them to argue over money. The most important thing is to be alive.
Motivations: Interestingly, Happiness clearly shows how one’s motivations can influence our behaviors, in a bad or good way. Of course, bad motivations in the drama are somehow punished while good ones are rewarded.
For example, Chairman Choi Seok Ju (Lee Ki Young) is at the origin of the spread of the virus. He was infected and wanted to find a cure faster. Therefore, he distributed contaminated pills in the city. In the end, he never received a cure and worse, he served as a guinea pig in clinical trials. Same for the residents who only thought about themselves to survive. They either turned mad or were judged after the lockdown was lifted.
The others like Sae Bom, Yi Hyun, the siblings, So Yoon and even Han Tae Seok got what they wanted, because their main motivation was protecting those they love at all costs.
Relationships: The drama perfectly depicts different types of relationships such as: newly-wed, broken marriage, affair, being a parent, a son, a sister, a brother, relationships based on trust and others on lies; showing that love always triumphs, even in the darkest moments.
Atmosphere: No need to tell you that the short format (12 episodes) was really effective in the delivery of the story and the emotions. A fast-paced drama, lots of twists and turns, fear, anxiety, anticipation, pumped-up action scenes, all of the ingredients were reunited to make Happiness a must-watch of 2021! The lockdown added to the survival ambiance showing the best and worse of human nature.
What are the themes tackled?
The new pandemic: Happiness is definitely a dystopia set in a near future. After the impact of the COVID-19 crisis worldwide, it is only normal to see a rise in dramas tackling pandemic, viruses and lockdowns. Happiness certainly doesn’t fail to deliver a real reflection regarding the uncertainty of life, the future and human nature. All of that with a brilliant and innovative touch.
Indeed, one of the main reasons behind the drama’s success is the fact that the virus spreading in South Korea is not that different from an actual virus (or that of the recent pandemic). Once you either take the pill or are bitten/scratched, you are infected. Yet, you don’t become a zombie in dire need of blood. You remain yourself and it is up to you whether or not you turn into a monster. All infected individuals in the drama can stay themselves if they don’t taste blood. The more you fight against the thirst, the more chances you have not to show symptoms. On top of that, other aspects of the disease can hint at a potential infection: the rapidity with which your wounds heal, the water thirst you have and of course the blood thirst when in contact with it. Apart from that, you are pretty much like the others.
This innovative narrative forces most of the residents of the building to consider the infected as human beings and not purely as monsters. Worse, it actually highlights the fact that the infected may not be the real monsters after all, as they often are less dangerous than their non-infected counterparts.
Finally, the existence of individuals carrying antibodies such as Sae Bom and, as we learn later on, Na Soo Min makes the plot even more realistic and possible on the mid-term.
Religion in uncertain times: Happiness did an excellent job at portraying human behaviors and attitudes when cornered and stuck in this kind of situations. The large panel of reactions enabled to either identify with or be terrified by some neighbors. Still, one of the most accurate depiction of human nature in the drama is that related to religion through the character of detective Kim Jung Kook. Indeed, the latter is separated from his family, feels completely lost, scared and powerless. At some point, he and the pastor are attacked but miraculously survive. The detective believes that God protected the pastor, who showed his holy cross to the infected and made him go away as a result. Jung Kook thus starts to turn towards faith and religion, hoping that he will also be granted protection. But it is above all a way for him to give meaning to this situation. He is trying to find an explanation to this chaos, thinking it is a punishment from God, while begging for help.
Unfortunately for Jung Kook, his naivety and newly-found faith is used against him by the pastor himself. The latter uses Jung Kook’s mental and emotional instability in order to force him to turn on Yi Hyun and Sae Bom. Before the end of the drama, Jung Kook comes back to his senses, but the situation has already worsened among the residents.
This episode is not only useful to the story (we get some insight regarding the pastor and his wife’s motivations), but also to the viewers. They have access to yet another human behavior.
Ending: There couldn’t have been more perfect ending in my opinion! Those who remained human (physically and psychologically) survived and were rewarded. For example, Shin So Yoon freed herself from her meaningless marriage with Lawyer Ko, Yi Hyun and Sae Bom are finally able to enjoy their newly-wed bliss, Park Seo Yoon is reunited with her mother, siblings Na Soo Min and Na Hyun Kyung were released from the apartment and together. Even Han Tae Seok had the opportunity to cure his wife. As for the rest of the residents, they all had to suffer the consequences of their actions.
The ending, like the rest of the drama, is a perfect balance between good and evil. It shows that those who remained human eventually stood back on their feet again.
The title: I wondered for a very long time why the drama was named Happiness. From the looks of it, there is nothing happy in the plot: the quarantine, the virus, the killings. It thus felt kind of ironic at first. But by the end of the drama, I actually thought that the title questioned the reasons behind our happiness.
What truly makes us happy? What does it mean to be happy? Is it money, power, an apartment? In a way, all characters who associated their happiness with either materialism or empty desires ended up crazy, dead or trialed. However, people who chose people and relationships as the true source of their happiness eventually achieved it. Take Sae Bom and Yi Hyun. They rescued each other more than once and survived without a scratch. Even Han Tae Seok reached happiness, for the one and only reason that his main motivation was to save his wife and baby.
All of these characters understand the real value of happiness and that most of the time it is shared with others.
OSTs: Isaac Hong’s “Pain” is my new favorite song! It gives so much strength to the plot! In general, the music fits so well with the storyline that it is hard to separate one from the other. If you haven’t heard them, I really suggest you check out these OSTs.
Actors’ performance: Simply amazing! All of them were perfect in their role. I loved hating Oh Joo Hyeong and Oh Yeon Ok, I prayed for Andrew’s death and I felt empathetic towards the siblings, the old couple and the supermarket’s cashier. Of course, I was in love with Han Hyo Joo and Park Hyung Sik’s couple. Their chemistry was just incredible! Well done to all of them!
Once Upon a Drama 