Netflix K-drama Mine: elegant and diverting drama fuelled by the whims and secrets of high society
- Mine looks at the lives of rich and powerful women of a family behind South Korean corporation Hyowon Group
- The melodrama is entertaining, but Mine needs to up its game to match similar melodrama The Penthouse
The torrid and tumultuous lives of women in high society are back in the spotlight in the new Korean drama series Mine. The 16-episode tvN production follows others such as SKY Castle and The Penthouse in examining the desires of powerful women and the prejudice they face, in spite of their social rank and material wealth.
Mine explores the lives of the family behind the fictional Hyowon Group, a powerful Korean corporation, who live, by their own description, in “another world”. This world is a lush, landscaped paradise away from the bustle of Seoul, dotted with sleek, modernist buildings and teeming with a small army of staff. This expansive oasis, which necessitates golf carts to get around, is home to just 10 family members.
Head of that family are Chairman Han (Jeong Dong-hwan) and his harridan of a wife, Yang Soon-hye (Park Won-sook). They have three grown-up children, the buffoonish eldest son Jin-ho (Park Hyuk-kwon), the capable second son Ji-yong (Lee Hyun-wook) and the tempestuous daughter Jin-hee (Kim Hye-hwa).
But our lead characters are the daughters-in-law, Ji-young’s wife Seo Hi-soo (Lee Bo-young) and Jin-ho’s wife Jung Seo-hyun (Kim Seo-hyung), and two key new members of the staff, Kang Ja-kyeong (Ok Ja-yeon), tutor to Hi-soo’s young son Ha-joon (Jeong Hyun-jun), and maid Kim Yoo-yeon (Jung Yi-seo), to whom Seo-hyun’s son Soo-hyeok (Cha Hak-yeon) has taken a fancy.
However, both Hi-soo and Seo-hyun are in fact stepmothers to these young Hyowon Group heirs, which adds an element of doubt to their positions.