Mr. Plankton: The show that made me want to go on a wandering journey with Woo Do-hwan for the rest of my life

Hello, this is Junpu, who doesn't have the courage to go on a trip without a destination.

This is urgent. I just posted a summary of the Korean works I watched this year, but... I finished all 10 episodes of "Mr. Plankton," which I had marked as a ◎ while still watching.
As a result, it's not just a ◎, it's ☆☆☆!!! It's enough to make my nose bleed.
For those of you who can't decide on the best drama of the year, please watch it before the year ends...!

Below are my thoughts, beware of spoilers.

Hae-jo (Woo Do-hwan) has lived like a rolling stone after being rejected by his family upon learning he had no blood ties. One day, Hae-jo is diagnosed with a vascular malformation in his brain and told he has three months to live. He learns that his ex-girlfriend, Jae-mi (Lee Yoo-mi), is trying to marry into a prestigious family while hiding the fact that she has early menopause and cannot conceive. On the day of the wedding, he kidnaps her and they set off on a journey together. It is a journey to find his biological father, who left him with nothing but a genetic bomb in his head. Jae-mi's fiancé, Heung (Oh Jung-se), chases after the two of them...

The first half is a slapstick romantic comedy and road movie with other pursuers. The second half is a tear-jerker human drama packed with bonds that transcend blood ties and the preciousness of the world. It was a work like a film filled with light. It was truly the light emitted by plankton.

There are five potential sperm donors who could have created Hae-jo. Three of them appear, and the first one, the owner of a sundae soup restaurant, is played by Ahn Suk-hwan, and the second one, a former salaryman living in the mountains of Busan, is played by Cho Han-cheul; they are both reliable character actors. I didn't know the third one, Kim Jung-ho, so I assumed the father-finding plot would end there, and it really did. As his death approaches, Hae-jo realizes something more certain than DNA.

Knowing that the screenwriter Jo Yong is the same person who wrote "It's Okay to Not Be Okay" made a lot of sense. Heung, played by the same Oh Jung-se, has a purity reminiscent of Sang-tae oppa, and the cruelty of blood ties and the stinging sensation of loneliness depicted in "It's Okay to Not Be Okay," that painful yet healing feeling, came back to me.

While the story is easy to understand and simple, the structure of revealing things each time deepens the immersion into the characters. Lee El, who played Bong-sook, who raised the lonely Hae-jo even though she was neither his mother nor his lover, had a unique role in "Guardian: The Lonely and Great God" and "My Liberation Notes," but I think her charm and characteristics shone the brightest in this work. It was Bong-sook because of her style and personality, and perhaps that's why Hae-jo, raised by such a Bong-sook, was able to become who he is. Bong-sook is the best woman.

The styling and direction matched so well that the character of Hae-jo was perfect.

To borrow a line from the show, Woo Do-hwan is just "fucking sexy."

There are a lot of scenes where he's shirtless, but I was so swayed by the dangerous charm he showed up until the second father candidate that my heart couldn't take it! (I watched the rainy day scene twice, even though it was in the second half)
Even though he is such a dangerous man who embodies decadent beauty, his delicate expressions when he holds hope and longing for his father candidates were also good. Woo Do-hwan has 6.77 million Instagram followers! I think he looks a bit like Rain, but he has more followers than Rain oppa's 3.88 million! Well, I follow both of them.

As for Oh Jung-se, I feel like I wouldn't have been able to watch the character of Oh Heung if it hadn't been him. He is the heir to a family that has lasted 500 years, a bird in a cage bound by his mother who has built up the family. He just wanted to have his own way with his marriage to Jae-mi. While he seems like a mediocre, clumsy, and pathetic man from beginning to end, his acting range is truly incredible. He made me feel that Oh Heung's life journey began on the day of the wedding when Jae-mi was kidnapped.

Lee Yoo-mi, who played the orphan Jae-mi, is the girl with the nose piercing from "Squid Game." At first, Jae-mi tries to escape from Hae-jo and tries to contact Heung, but she cooperates with Hae-jo's search for his father because of her guilt over her early menopause. Although it's the direction, there are moments when her emotional expression is frustrating, but she is a "dorky but cute girl." Here, I suddenly remember my own theory... "Dangerous men are taken by unstable girls"

She was taken...

No, it's fine.
I like that chin of Lee Yoo-mi. She looks like Zhang Ziyi.

From the errand boy Kim Min-seok to the national mother Kim Hae-sook, every character was great without exception, but the mysterious sunglasses man John Na! I think the bromance between this man played by Alex Landi and Heung, and the development with the mother in the final stages, provided the perfect finish to the story of the main three.

The scene where Heung gently covers his eyes as he watches Hae-jo and Jae-mi kissing at the pier from afar might be the best scene of the year. I want to make it a painting. The scene where he puts sunglasses on his mother is also good, and I love the sense of suddenly having Chow Yun-fat from "A Better Tomorrow" descend.

The Mamas & the Papas' "California Dreamin'" played during the ending several times. This song reminds me of "Chungking Express," but its floating feeling was perfect for the OST of a wandering journey and for this season. A happy journey like making memories in the time left for the two of them is nice, but the journey of searching for his father while being chased from all sides in the first half was also crazy and fun. Even though there are many dirty descriptions and lines, it was a beautiful drama when it was all over.