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Drama Hangout: Revolutionary Sisters

The latest KBS weekend drama, Revolutionary Sisters is full of family friction, mystery, and mayhem–and we’re only two episodes in.

Three sisters, played by Hong Eun-hee, Jeon Hye-bin, and Go Won-hee, have a strained and complicated relationship with their father (Yoon Joo-sang) and their parents being in the middle of a divorce only adds to the tension. Another thing that doesn’t help promote good family vibes? A murder investigation into the sudden death of their mother and Yoon Joo-sang’s soon-to-be-ex-wife. Everyone is a suspect and with Episode 2 ending on a dramatic, last-minute halt to a cremation, we’re about to dive right into the case.

Though we’ll be working through the murder and ensuing fallout, it won’t be all gloom and sadness. Lee Bo-hee and Lee Byung-joon have a loveline on the cards, and there may be romance in the air for wannabe rock star Kim Kyung-nam and Jeon Hye-bin. The potential Kim-Jeon loveline is bound to be complicated since Jeon Hye-bin’s character is already married, but with 48 episodes left to go, anything could happen.

So whodunnit? Play detective as you watch and share your theories here.

Spoilers may be rife, so Beanie beware.

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I wanted to watch it for Kim Kyung-Nam but I'm not sure that I can handle this kind of family drama...

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same. esp bc it is a weekend drama, I expect the dramatic notch to be high

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They want to stay in touch with real life pandemic situation, but they use the mask on their chin, and on off, in off as they like. Sigh. I'm done show.

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Such behavior is actually more common than you may realize. I am not saying it is smart or proper- just that I regularly see it.

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Oh yeah, I see it too. People either pull it up and down or wear it under their nose. The drama should do it properly though.

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I have seen both as well- and I think that you are right that the drama is not capturing this perfectly

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Same here. Most of what I see is the uncovered nose.

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So, the character taking care of the twins - is he their father, or is he just a conscientious ... soft touch?

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The initial impression we get is that he is there father- which is why he could dump them on his father in turn to watch them for a few hours.

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I meant to say "their father" .

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Same impression, but I couldn’t remember or find a scene with a definitive statement...which left me wondering if there’s a birth secret to be revealed.

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In a 50 episode show that is quite possible.

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Sigh. I like having a weekend drama to watch but couldn't get into the previous one. I was hoping for something lighthearted. This is not it.

I really disliked the sisters, at least the youngest and oldest. The middle one wasn't as bad though she's an idiot to marry that loser. I hated how they treated their dad. This is going to be hard to stick with, but I like some of the actors and am curious how the Kim Kyung-nam and Jeon Hye-bin loveline will go.

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Surely the middle sister will dump the cheating lazy bum and his awful family.

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Yes, but looks like her arc will include twins and their father?

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I am quite sure of it- we are getting all sorts of foreshadowing.

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OK, so I have some quibbles over this "murder".

First, with the physical evidence. The actual event we saw was a car driven at high speed, a tire blowing out, the car skidding around and then going over a high embankment. Then in the garage the investigators are looking at an entirely intact tire with a puncture in it. That is simply impossible because in the course of the accident that tire would have been completely shredded between the effects of the blowout, the frictional forces ripping it as the car skidded around and then in the course of bouncing off of the cliff.

Second- that is a substantial puncture- which happened many hours before the car was driven. That tire should have been completely flat before our truly nasty mom ever got into the car. Which brings me to my main point about this supposed murder.

No one intended to kill Dear Old Mom. If you want to kill someone a tire puncture is really highly unlikely to do it. The odds are so low that no one would choose such a method. Puncturing a tire might create an unsafe driving situation but you simply cannot count on even that- the car tire goes flat and the car does not even get driven. Puncturing a tire is simply intended to be an annoying act of vandalism and nothing more. A prosecutor might be able to make a lesser charge of manslaughter stick but it would be tough going.

What really killed mom? Karma. This woman was horrible and she passed her attitudes along to her daughters- including her twisted view of her husband. She had it coming and it came. The dramatic problem set up by this drama will be whether can the daughters drop the baggage she loaded onto them and whether our father can escape from the huge burden of resentment which he carries. I am fairly sure that this will need to take the entire 48 remaining episodes of this show.

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Any clues on what the big secret is?

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Everyone will suspect the father- and they will be wrong because he would have simply seen a ruined tire as yet another expense for him to pay for. He will be suspected- and everyone will be wrong. I do not think we have seen enough to yet - the only thing that w do know is that someone either wanted petty revenge or to scare her (think her lover's wife for instance). What ever it is the intent was NOT murderous- but that actually means that there may be many more potential reasons out there. Even given what little has been revealed it is likely that she had offended a significant number of people.

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All true about the mother, yet - she seems to have the absolute loyalty of the daughters, who seem to be ignorant of some big family secret.

Interesting start!

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That mom effectively brainwashed her daughters from the beginning is abundantly clear. I am sure that we will see at lest one family secret- and be told her mom twisted it so as to make seem he husband's fault. Or another secret that was kept from them which might change everything they think they know.

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I'm here for Jeon Hye-Bin and Go Won-Hee, but I definitely expressed my reservations about this writer's past work in the 'What We're Watching' article.

Basically the last thing this writer wrote baited me with good actors/actresses as well, and had damn near universally awful people never learning any lessons. It was rooough to watch them all take their mother's side when we can see even from their limited interactions with her she's a real piece of work. I'm still going to watch at least a couple more episodes, but I'll need something to keep me on the hook real quick.

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I like Go Won-hee- and seeing her be "bad" is fun.

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Liver Or Die? This drama already reminds me soooo much of that one. The selfish siblings, piece of work mother, father (brother) who gets constantly yelled at, even the babies left with the dad? I finished Liver Or Die even though it sent my blood pressure through the roof. Not sure I can do it again with this one.

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Yup. Same here. I watched the whole thing, and I can’t watch another show that has no pay off with awful people being awful the whole time.

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Oh look, I located it on Viki! That was a surprise.

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So I just watched the third episode and am confused. Father is bankrupt in part because middle sisters future in-laws demanded compensation for the wedding that did not happen. She has now been gone for a year and, at the airport she is placed in handcuffs on her return. Why?

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The 2nd daughter did not bother telling her father (or sisters?) why she bailed out, that she had already told the groom to cancel the wedding. And the father was too...dumb? Proud? Responsibility addicted? Whatever? to call on his son in law the lawyer for help. And during the year, no one had checked in on the father...

The daughters are not just selfish and unthinking - they are also irresponsible. The characterizations so far are being drawn with a very broad brush.

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And when the oldest and youngest find out dad lost the house all they do is scream that their sainted mother could not have been in debt. SMH.

The 2nd daughter was the only one of them I could stand, but then she comes home after a year and doesn't even ask about dad and nobody tells her he lost the house, partly because he paid off her in-laws. This writer really knows how to write completely unlikeable characters.

I do like Han Ye-Seul okay so far, but where did the babies go?

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Perhaps their mother returned and retrieved the babies?

We already know that eldest daughter is about to be hit with some serious heartache. Will this be a wake-up call of sorts? It certainly builds in a new serious conflict.

Middle sister running off and leaving her father to deal with her mess? My opinion of her dropped a lot from this. She had made a bad mistake in her choice of fiance- and her in-laws were also utter trash- but this was her mistake to deal with. Yes, Father should have summoned his son-in-law to deal with them- but with the bride missing so was the evidence that Son-in-law would have needed.

Their nasty mother taught her daughters to be irresponsible and simply shift blame and responsibility to their dad. Any redemption arcs will have to include all three of them taking responsibility for themselves, their actions, their decisions and also their debts.

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I hope the father is alive and well at the end of this drama. Or is that too much to ask for?

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Yes, where are the twins? One year and a bit old...it doesn’t look like grand father is taking care of them, the “father” isn’t, ... I’ll be a really unhappy camper if they’ve just been dropped!

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Usually we get such depictions from arrogant chaebol sons who are in need of a redemption arc. Not characters like this.

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This is the first drama that I can recall that leaned so heavily into making the gruff patriarch the sympathetic character. The first two episodes were almost entirely from his perspective, aside from his daughters who were portrayed as harridans. Its not a 'no' from me on this series, but I'm cautious about where the series is going to take me.

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I believe that the 'gruff patriarch' is anything but a patriarch. He literally has no authority in his family at all. I have to theories as to where the writer may be going with this- and both would be a significant departure from current K-drama norms:

First is a massive "I told you so": See what happens when you stray too far from our traditional Neo-Confucian path? Everybody is miserable, mistakes are made and then compounded. Supporting the idea that this is what the writer is thinking is that our father is the eldest son of a traditional 'noble' family- although since disowned. This is the least likely hypothesis, in part because most Koreans understand that Neo-Confucianism is what made their country vulnerable to Japanese occupation.

Second- and yet more daring in its own way- is that the writer is exploring spousal abuse and its effects. Most of our father's behavior makes sense if you understand him as an abused spouse, including his clinging to a marriage he should want to leave. His wife has made a career out of belittling him, wasting all of his money, turning his daughters against him and having an affair on top of it all. She may not have physically assaulted him but she did everything else.

But in the end is he a sympathetic character in reality. His habit of shooting his mouth off uncontrollably probably represents his actual emotional state but it absolutely conflicts with his upbringing.

We may think that we know him right now but I have a hunch that there is more to come. Perhaps he too is in need of growth and redemption.

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Who isn’t in need of character growth and redemption, in this drama?

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Maybe the very nice young who had the two kids? Oddly, he now seems to be the only one who has actually been growing and has reached a greater maturity from where he was a year ago.

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Except - where are the twins? Neither saw nor heard mention of them in the last 2 episodes.

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The dad is only sympathetic because the daughters are so awful. He has plenty of unlikeable qualities and probably his own skeletons to uncover.

I just hope we see the growth and redemption and it doesn't happen offscreen or in the last episode ala the writer's last drama "Liver or Die."

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Maybe that is the reason that this author decided to attempt a 50 episode story- it gives plenty of time for growth and redemption.

And you are right about the father- he is only 'sympathetic' by comparison.

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People forget the lead in 'My Mister' (My Ajusshi) was a VERY unlikable husband in early episodes. The actor Lee Sun-kyun said at first he struggled with how to play the character. And, like in this drama, they rehabilitated him by making the wife so much worse in comarison.

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I definitely am having the same issues as everyone else with the attitudes of the daughters. The writer should have been more subtle. Having us peel back prejudices that are ingrained in them from their mother, and feelings of neglect (since they weren’t boys) from their father. I feel some of the issues presented could be good if done well, and I really like many of the actors. But usually your leads are not this blunt and awful. There is nothing redeeming. They all just seem despicable. I think the writer is trying to show that they all have had emotional and mental abuse, but it’s done in such a way, it is tough to really care. There is no positive or fun trait to root for. Only the middle daughter I can find any good in. I am still watching this for now, but if they keep going like this, and don’t show some positive traits/growth in the daughters, I probably will quit.

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With weekenders it takes a while for the original situation to be explored. Thus far the daughters are unaware of the extent to which their mother twisted them. Once they find out about her affair the light may start to dawn- but that will just be the fist clue.

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I meant the 'first' clue

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Thanks. I agree, I just wish that they were more likable in the meantime, lol.

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Episode 5- OK I did not see this one coming: the reveal of the oldest sister’s past.

Meanwhile the middle sister and her disgusting in-laws: The middle sister not having grounds for divorce? infidelity is not grounds? Really? I know that adultery is no longer a criminal offense in the ROK but it is still one of the five legal grounds for divorce. If middle sister goes to her lawyer brother in law he will tell her that as soon as he asks her if her husband cheated and she says yes. Will he ask her that? Absolutely- as a competent lawyer he will literally ask her about each of the five possible grounds of divorce (think of it as going down a checklist). In the practice of law most of the work that a lawyer does is what he does before the trial- starting with an extensive questioning of one’s client (This is why there is an attorney-client privilege- that is why the client can tell the lawyer anything without fear).

Is the mystery of dad's locked suitcase about to be revealed? Stay tuned for tomorrow's episode.....

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Episode 6: Lots of problems, lots of stupidity.

Our detectives are still engrossed in their "murder" investigation. If the took a step back and realized that the intention was no more than vandalism it might make them look at things differently.

Dad's locked suitcase? Why would anyone assume that he was 'hiding the evidence' there?

Middle sister committed a colossal piece of stupidity in running off for a year but that still doesn't mean that she had not caught her husband with his pants down- so she still is not, repeat not, at the mercy of her husband's family. As for their throwing out the claim that she must have had an affair while she was gone the proper response should be "OK, if you really believe that then YOU divorce ME"! It is not some sort of defense against her divorcing her husband. The writer's insistence on keeping this as a plot element is grating on my nerves- excuse me but her older sister is married to a good competent lawyer- why hasn't she talked to him? Why did she not talk to him before she disappeared for a year? Supposedly she has brains but I have yet to see any evidence of it.

Go Won-hee's character is a greedy airhead, pure and simple. What a waste of her talents.

Older sister, her husband and his baby and the baby's mama: Well at least it is the sort of dilemma that fits into a weekend family drama.

Dear old dad and his friend tailing the widow of his wife's lover? Please explain how that would result in evidence of her guilt for an act of vandalism committed a year ago.

The aunt's younger sister, just released from prison has shown up with a young daughter in tow and a claim that she is dying of colon cancer. No prescriptions being taken, no visits to the doctors or tests- OK, she scams people so maybe this is actually in character.

What happened to the twins?

At this point this show is simply a mess. It is one thing to start with unlikeable characters. It is another when everyone is just being stupid- that is simply frustrating.

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If you're going to catch you're husband with his pants down make sure to obtain admissible evidence. Otherwise its hearsay.

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Eyewitness evidence is not hearsay- remember that in the first episode she literally came upon husband and his lover with their clothes off and they admitted to it as well - and husband's girlfriend even taunted her about it when she went to see her later. This is called an Admission By a Party (also not hearsay) when the husband says it.

In the courtroom the Husband could try to lie about it and say it did not happen but fact that the wife did not attend the wedding two days later plus that she is willing to put it out there now in a public document would likely incline the court to believe him over her- and that is all you need- this is not a proof beyond reasonable doubt situation just a preponderance of the evidence proceeding.

In addition a good lawyer (remember that her brother in law is a good lawyer- and even if he cannot take the case he knows who else is a good lawyer) would certainly be able to cross examine the Husband if he tried to lie- that examination would be done by going into all of the reasons why husband would be motivated to lie- in other words all of the reasons the in-laws want to keep their slave, I mean daughter in law. By the time he is done the court will be looking for a reason to grant the divorce- and the most straightforward way is to simply declare that the court finds the testimony of the Plaintiff Wife credible while that of the Defendant Husband is not.

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You really ought to call the scriptwriters and offer your services as a consultant.

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They probably could not afford me- and it would be better to have an actual Korean lawyer anyway.

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REVOLUTIONAY SISTERS finally abandoned the ridiculous "Murder" idea. I still do not know if the show can be salvaged though.

It was nice to see how the rabbit was pulled out of the hat- the actual culprit was the awful, but now deceased, mother herself. Her plan of puncturing a tire to purposefully have an accident backfired in a big way. I will say it again: What killed dear old mom was karma- she had it coming and it came.

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I was glad the "murder" plot came to an end. The deceased mother was a horrible person, even neglecting her kids which led to the death of their baby son in a fire. I wonder if those two reveals were meant to come this soon or if the writer's hand was forced. I imagine the feedback about the "murder" plot and how the kids treated their father wasn't great. Now the deck is cleared.

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The feedback was bad because the idea was bad- if the network listened to the audience for once this lead to good decisions.

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Wondering what the new mystery with that diary is.

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Me too. It is probably the only reason I am still watching.

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