[Drama special review] The Reason for Our Breakup

by Dramaddictally

Two divorcees navigate post-marriage dating while juggling some unwieldy baggage in this O’PENing drama special. With a subtle script and the plainest of production design, the drama tells a simple story that’s all about subtext, but its core message stays just a little too far out of sight.

 
DRAMA SPECIAL REVIEW

Breakup is a strong word for the title of this story (which might be better translated as “One Reason We Can’t Meet”), since this couple never really gets together, not in earnest anyway. We’re introduced to our leads in the opening sequence where they’re seated at a table, going through the motions of a public breakup — and then we learn it’s the first day they’ve met. The setup: here are two people with commitment issues.

But as the story goes on we find out exactly what’s holding them back. KIM KI-JOON (Kang Sang-joon) is twice divorced and still blaming himself for his cheating ex-wife’s unhappiness. His mother (a cameo by the lovely Seo Jung-yeon) really wants him to remarry, even though she herself is miserable in her own marriage (“If your father died? Oh, then I’d be free,” she laughs to her son).

On the other side of our couple equation, we have a single mom, JUNG WON-YOUNG (Uee), who prior to her divorce thought marriage was forever. In a moving flashback, we see her ex-husband say he wants to end it, only to have her laugh it off and exclaim, “We can’t breakup. We’re married.”

He’s quite serious, though, and the next thing she knows she and her pre-school-aged son are on their own. In the whirlwind of it all, she quits her office job and gets a part-time gig at a café, where her younger co-worker schools her on the current ways of the dating world. These days, young people live together without any intent of marrying and they break up when they want to. It’s not a big deal.

When Won-young and Ki-joon meet, they sleep together on the first day (the same day we met them “breaking up”), but in a confusing timeline they randomly run into each other again a year later and take up where they left off. Heeding the advice of her co-worker, Won-young speaks to the camera, telling us that now divorcees in their 30s can sleep with people they don’t want a relationship with — though I get the feeling she’s mostly trying to convince herself.

The device of speaking to the camera is used consistently with Won-young breaking the fourth wall to give us (what are meant to be) comedic interjections. She’s the only one with an awareness of our presence and stops mid-conversation with other characters to clue us in to what she’s thinking. The side effect is that we hardly ever get to see her react to a situation. Instead, we’re told how she feels, which flatlines the emotional resonance (and the humor just isn’t witty enough to make up for it). All this makes it hard to connect with the characters, even as I understand their plight.

With some choppy editing, we learn that after their second meeting Won-young and Ki-joon have continued to sleep together regularly — but they never really get to know each other — until one day Won-young suggests they move in together. She’s rejected (Ki-joon doesn’t want either of them to have to change for the relationship), which leads to more internal dilemmas of “what to do.” Why these two are so drawn to each other, or what they actually like about each other, remains a mystery as we see them worry, argue, and rationalize about how to move on post-divorce. They’re trying to force an endgame without actually (re)playing the game.

This is especially apparent in the drama’s strongest scene, close to the end, when we finally meet Won-young’s son. It’s his birthday and Won-young has invited Ki-joon to a restaurant to celebrate, just the three of them. Ki-joon arrives quite late, which leads to an argument, and it’s the five-year-old who cuts them off and acts like the most mature person at the table.

Afterward, Won-young cries in the car as her son quietly and patiently sits in the backseat. She apologizes for forgetting about him and making him feel bad on his birthday. Here, we’re finally allowed to see her react and it’s much more affecting than all the earlier scenes where she explains her feelings to the camera. One earlier moment that doesn’t hit right is when she admits to a friend that she completely forgot about her son when she asked Ki-joon to move in with her — and it’s played for laughs. Luckily, in the car, we see how much she’s truly grappling with, by trying to be a mom and also get on with her love life.

The birthday dinner marks a turning point for Won-young, who decides to get back to the corporate world and also to try dating Ki-joon for real. Rather than forcing it and worrying about the ending, they actually spend some time in each other’s lives. He helps her prep to reenter the fulltime workforce and gets to know her son by taking care of him while she’s at work. And the budding couple goes on dates to the aquarium and the botanical garden, smiling and holding hands. All seems to be going well, until it’s time to talk about the future again. When they finally contend with their baggage, they each have a clear picture of what they want in life, but heartbreaking as it is those visions don’t match up.

Overall, this drama gives me the feeling that something is missing. I see the story it wants to tell — about divorcees, still wounded, afraid but wanting to move on. But it’s trying to tell that story with such exacting subtlety that it leaves out some essential components, like raw emotion. The lines feel like they’re being read off a page and until the moment when Won-young breaks down in the car, I had trouble believing this woman went through a tumultuous breakup or struggled with caring for a child. Her flippancy and repartee seem like that of a young person who hasn’t yet been battered by life — which doesn’t mesh with the painful subtext of the story.

The frame is in place for a thoughtful modern take on divorce (I mean, when’s the last time you saw a lead divorced multiple times?), but without some meaty emotion to grip onto, the frame remains a bit hollow. With less exposition in the moments of interaction — and a little more information between the transitions — this could have been a soulful story. As it stands, while the reason for their breakup may be clear, I’m still not totally sure why they were together.

 
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