"Bad Mom", starring Luo Meilan and Li Daoxuan, has the shell of a bitter drama. If domestic bitter dramas are more reflected in the "three broken and one bitter" (broken families, broken emotions, broken marriages, and family suffering themes), then the bitter dramas of Korean dramas are more reflected in the "Three Treasures of Korean Dramas" that we are familiar with— — Car accidents, amnesia and cancer. "Bad Mom" can be regarded as a collection of the "Three Treasures of Korean Dramas". Even, the suffering that befalls "Bad Mom" Chen Yingshun (played by Luo Milan) is more and heavier.

"Bad Moms" poster

Chen Yingshun had a happy family when she was a child, but she lost her parents and younger brother in an accidental car accident.

Chen Yingshun, who has grown up, meets the loyal and honest Cui Haizhi (guest star Zhao Zhenxiong), who is the owner of a small pig house. The couple love each other and look forward to the arrival of a new life.

Young Chen Yingshun (played by Luo Milan) and her husband Cui Haizhi (played by Zhao Zhenxiong)

In 1988, when South Korea hosted the Olympic Games, the South Korean government asked Cui Haizhi to dismantle the pig house on the grounds that seeing the pig house during the torch relay ceremony would embarrass the South Korean government. Cui Haizhi disagreed, this is his family's legal private property, and there is no reason to sacrifice it for the face project. The unscrupulous developer secretly burned the pig house. Cui Haizhi continued to fight, and he sued the developer angrily. However, the developer and the prosecutor colluded secretly and secretly. The developer was afraid that the matter would be revealed and killed Cui Haizhi, but claimed that he committed suicide.

Choi Hae-sik was uncompromising and was eventually killed

Chen Yingshun had just lived a happy and stable life, but in a blink of an eye she lost her piggery, her beloved husband, and her happiness.

After that, his son Cui Qianghao (played by Li Daoxuan) was born. Because he has experienced the pain of being hurt and insulted due to lack of power and power, Chen Yingshun pins all his hopes on his son, hoping that his son will study hard, get ahead, and become a prosecutor when he grows up, so that he will not follow in the footsteps of his parents , will not be bullied to the head.

Chen Yingshun really hoped that his son would become a dragon. However, Cui Qianghao, who became a prosecutor, was very indifferent to Chen Yingshun. He always hangs up on his mother and hardly ever comes home. On Cui Qianghao's birthday, his mother traveled thousands of miles to the city to deliver carefully prepared side dishes to Cui Qianghao. Chen Yingshun didn't even know which building his son lived in. Cui Qianghao told the security guard on the phone: "Tell her I'm not here." Chen Yingshun heard it clearly. She quickly wiped off the disappointment on her face, and wanted to inquire about her son's condition from the security guard: if he looked good, and if he seemed uncomfortable in any way. After that, enduring the stomachache, she staggered back to the car, ate a biscuit in the car to satisfy her hunger, and comforted herself "he was just too busy".

Chen Yingshun worked hard to train his son Cui Qianghao (played by Li Daojun) to be a prosecutor, but his son was very indifferent to her

Finally one day, Chen Yingshun learned that his son was going to marry the congressman's daughter, and that his son was going to bring his girlfriend home with him. Chen Yingshun took great pains to prepare. She put on new clothes, specially put on makeup, went to the mall to buy a necklace for her daughter-in-law, and carefully prepared all kinds of side dishes for them...

The future daughter-in-law, who has always lived in the clouds and aloof, can't hide her rejection of the countryside—for example, she noticed the unteared label on Chen Yingshun's suit, did not take the necklace Chen Yingshun bought when she left, and disliked the side dishes prepared by Chen Yingshun for the car. It smells... This is blatant class disparity and class contempt.

Chen Yingshun took off the clothes label too late, 48,000 won is equivalent to 250 yuan

What was even more cruel was that his son came back this time not to share the good news, nor to bring Chen Yingshun to the city to enjoy the blessings that the neighbors imagined. The son wanted to "sever ties" with his mother. He asked Chen Yingshun to sign a renunciation statement, agreeing to Cui Qianghao's adoption. Cui Qianghao was adopted by a powerful chaebol—it also happened to be the person who killed Cui Qianghao’s father in the past. When Cui Qianghao became the son of a chaebol, he would have the right to inherit property and marry the daughter of a congressman as he wished. Shocked and distressed, Chen Yingshun said, "As long as you live well, that's enough," and stamped the seal with trembling hands.

so sad

Chen Yingshun's suffering has not yet ended. Cui Qianghao got into a car accident on the way back to the city and was in a coma for several months. Although he was lucky enough to save his life, his son only had childhood memories and his mind returned to the state of 7 years old. And because of the strong impact, Cui Qianghao's limbs temporarily lost their functions, and he still needs a long rehabilitation to recover.

My son was in a car accident, and his mind and memory stayed at the age of 7

Now, the bad mother and her son returned to their son's childhood. Chen Yingshun, who was too strict with her son, reflected on her own education methods. The hard work paid off, Cui Qianghao regained a happier childhood, the mother and son made up for the lack of family affection before, and Cui Qianghao's condition continued to improve.

It’s just that in a drama of bitterness, it’s impossible for the protagonist to lighten up easily, but whenever there is a spark of hope, the cold water of despair will extinguish it. Chen Yingshun, who had been enduring the stomach pain, was found to have gastric cancer. The cancer cells had spread, and surgery was of little significance.

Now, car accident, amnesia and terminal illness are all here

The hemp rope was broken at the smallest places, and it was so miserable, but the suffering still did not let Chen Yingshun go. Because of the outbreak of swine fever, all the pigs in the pig house had to be killed. This became the last straw that broke the camel's back. Chen Yingshun completely lost her will to survive and decided to die. Fortunately, she was rescued by Cui Qianghao both times.

Chen Yingshun had no choice but to tell Cui Qianghao the truth. She didn't know when she would leave, so she took photos of her death in advance, and practiced repeatedly with Cui Qianghao the process of condolence after she left... The brighter Chen Yingshun's smile in the photo, the more heartbroken the audience was.

Chen Yingshun took photos of his death in advance

Her husband was murdered, her son was in a car accident, her son lost his memory, her own cancer, and the painstaking efforts she put into the pig house were repeatedly destroyed... When so much suffering befell Chen Yingshun, Chen Yingshun, with the strength, tenacity, selflessness and sacrifice spirit of a mother and a woman, To digest and resist, it is easy to arouse the audience's sentimental feelings about East Asian mothers who are "too great and too hard". "Bad Mom" took the routine of bitter drama to the extreme, the audience's emotions fluctuated following Chen Yingshun's experience, and the ratings rose steadily, setting a TV station's highest ratings record for this period.

The common viewing experience of Chinese and Korean netizens is: it is very good to watch, but also very good to cry. It seems that they are all old stalks of bitter dramas, but the arrangement of the plot is innovative. The old stalks are filled with a lot of delicate details of life, coupled with Luo Meilan's super acting skills at the post-view level, making the routines credible and appealing .

But "Bad Mom" is not limited to sensational and tear-jerking bitter scenes. The profound thing about this drama is that it is different from those vulgar dramas of bitterness, which attribute all the bad luck of the protagonist to accidental misfortune or accidental teasing of fate; of course there are accidental factors in Chen Yingshun's suffering, but there are also social factors. mechanism factor.

For example, this drama is called "Bad Mom". How could the great Chen Yingshun become a "Bad Mom" at the same time?

This is mainly because Chen Yingshun's too strong and eager "hoping for his son to become a dragon" put the childhood Cui Qianghao under heavy pressure and overwhelmed. Chen Yingshun has only one requirement for her son: to devote all her time and energy to studying, and she does not allow anything to distract her son. Therefore, when Cui Qianghao was a child, he could not participate in extracurricular activities, watch TV (Chen Yingshun would just throw the TV away), and not go out to play with his classmates... The most frustrating thing is that Chen Yingshun did not allow Cui Qianghao to have a full meal, because eating too much would make him feel tired. If you are sleepy, you will not be able to concentrate on your studies, and if you are unable to concentrate on your studies, you will not be able to become a prosecutor...

Chen Yingshun never let Cui Qianghao eat too much

"Don't eat too much" is Chen Yingshun's most frequent exhortation to Cui Qianghao. This sentence is deeply engraved in Cui Qianghao's mind. He has almost never had a good meal at home since he was a child. This also led to a rather tragic scene in the play: Cui Qianghao, who was only 7 years old after the car accident, had no will to survive. For a while, he didn't want to eat anything, and passed out. Chen Yingshun finally broke down emotionally, and Cui Qianghao murmured the reason for not eating, which was what his mother had been telling him all the time: "If you eat enough, you will want to sleep, and if you want to sleep, you will not be able to continue studying." Only then did Chen Yingshun realize that she What a severe mental trauma the harshness of the past brought to my son.

East Asian parents hope that their children will become a dragon, which always makes people love and hate intertwined

The plot also has a process of suppressing Cui Qianghao first and then promoting it. At the beginning, the audience thought that he, who became a prosecutor, confessed to the thief as his father, only wanted to climb up, and revenged his mother with indifference and cold blood. But as the plot progresses, Cui Qianghao's last resort is slowly revealed, and everything is probably just his forbearance and disguise for revenge.

Some viewers once thought that the main purpose of "Bad Mom" was to examine the utilitarianism and introversion of Korean education. This is indeed one of the intentions of the plot, but it is only a superficial theme. Looking further, what "Bad Mom" wants to reflect on is: what is the root cause of "misery". The introversion of Korean education is just a manifestation of misery. Like many misfortunes that happened to Chen Yingshun, it has something behind it.

That is: when a small person with no power and power has a conflict of interest with a behemoth, he can only be insulted and damaged. This is the root cause of all the sufferings that Chen Yingshun encountered - the pig house was burned, her husband was killed, and her son was in a car accident.

Deep in Chen Yingshun's heart, there was always a faint fear and uneasiness. She worried that if her son was not strong enough, he might repeat the misfortune of his parents. Invisibly, Chen Yingshun agrees with the logic of social Darwin: survival of the fittest, survival of the fittest. She wanted her son to become a strong man, not to bully others, but to not be bullied. In order for her son to become a prosecutor, she put extreme pressure on her son, which made Chen Yingshun a "bad mother".

Chen Yingshun thought that being a "strong man" would give him immunity

Therefore, "Bad Mom" does not stop at the expression of "everything is life" in the bitter drama, but can go further and ask: why is it so difficult for little people to live with dignity and dignity? Why do little people have such strong insecurities?

The plot points the finger at the rich and unkind plutocrats and the power holders who do whatever they want-from prosecutors to congressmen to presidential candidates, they have mastered most of the advantageous resources in society. The powerful classes collude with each other and protect each other, which makes them feel confident and lawless, and wantonly plunder the legitimate rights and interests of the powerless. At the same time, the hereditary power leads to the consolidation and solidification of the class.

Little people are filled with insecurities. In order to prevent themselves and their families from being bullied, they can only continue to squeeze themselves, keep introverting, and bear the burden of humiliation in order to obtain very slim opportunities for class mobility. Chen Yingshun became a "bad mother" and Cui Qianghao became a "bad son" in the eyes of others because they were unarmed and had nothing, and the only tool they could rely on was themselves. To make themselves instrumental, they had to put their feelings aside for the time being. But even if Cui Qianghao becomes a prosecutor, even if he schemes at all costs, in the eyes of the real powerful, he is still as small as an ant and can be easily crushed to death.

"Bad Mom" has a popular and attractive cloak of bitterness, but it has a good theme expression and a strong emotional core. It points the root of Korean society's "suffering feelings" to institutional humiliation, and presents the process of little people struggling and unyielding for their dignity. It is not only by becoming a "superior man" that one can have dignity, but that all living beings are equal, and small people also have the right to live in peace and not be harmed. This is not just true in Korea.