Thirty-Nine (2022) [+]
Jun 26 2024
Thirty-Nine is a South Korean drama romance with 12 episodes. Three 39 years old women and best friends deal with relationships and an impending tragedy.
Early on the three go for a long-overdue checkup then later Mi-jo is told that Chan-young has terminal cancer. Chan-young decides to forego chemotherapy since she only has a 1% chance of recovery and doesn't want to be bed-ridden until the end -- later on we see in a flashback that the three helped Jo-hee's mom beat cancer but that's the reason Chan-young doesn't want to go through the experience if she's dying anyway.
The series is about helping Chan-young live her last six months without regrets. Chan-young also has two goals for her friends: hook up Joo-hee and Hyun-joon (though he has a girlfriend) and help Mi-jo find her birth mother (which does not turn out to be a happy ending). Meanwhile now that she's dying Cha-young wants Jin-seok to stay married though her impending death has made him realize that he'd rather divorce and spent all his time with Cha-young.
It's a rather sad series but not depressing. Lots of cathartic crying but lots of happy and funny moments. All the women and their boyfriends have character subplots and arcs. The ending is well done and not depressing and they have ten episodes to build up to it. Overall it's remarkably good.
- Cha Mi-jo (Son Ye-jin, who I first saw in Crash Landing On You) - dermatologist who has her own clinic along with older sister Mi-hyun (Kang Mal-geum) who is the administrator. She is a former orphan but grew up in a loving adopted family. Mi-jo starts a relationship with newly hired dermatologist Kim Seon-woo (Yeon Woo-jin).
- Jeong Chan-young (Jeon Mi-do) - acting teacher who due to an accident missed her chance at acting. She's been in love for a decade with talent agent Kim Jin-seok (Lee Moo-saeng) but unfortunately he's married and doesn't want to divorce because of his young son.
- Jang Joo-hee (Kim Ji-hyun) - manager of a cosmetic counter at a department store and rather unhappy with her job due to rude customers. She becomes attracted to Park Hyun-joon (Lee Tae-hwan), owner and chef of a small new restaurant and quite younger.
Early on the three go for a long-overdue checkup then later Mi-jo is told that Chan-young has terminal cancer. Chan-young decides to forego chemotherapy since she only has a 1% chance of recovery and doesn't want to be bed-ridden until the end -- later on we see in a flashback that the three helped Jo-hee's mom beat cancer but that's the reason Chan-young doesn't want to go through the experience if she's dying anyway.
The series is about helping Chan-young live her last six months without regrets. Chan-young also has two goals for her friends: hook up Joo-hee and Hyun-joon (though he has a girlfriend) and help Mi-jo find her birth mother (which does not turn out to be a happy ending). Meanwhile now that she's dying Cha-young wants Jin-seok to stay married though her impending death has made him realize that he'd rather divorce and spent all his time with Cha-young.
It's a rather sad series but not depressing. Lots of cathartic crying but lots of happy and funny moments. All the women and their boyfriends have character subplots and arcs. The ending is well done and not depressing and they have ten episodes to build up to it. Overall it's remarkably good.