Welcome to Samdal-ri (2023) [+]
May 21 2025
Welcome to Samdal-ri is a South Korean romance/drama running 16 hour+ episodes.
Cho Sam-dal (Shin Hye-sun, who I loved as the female lead in See You in My 19th Life) is a talented photographer with her own studio but after allegations of employee abuse she and her sisters flee back to their small home seaside town of Samdal-ri on Jeju island. Once back home Sam-dal has to deal with her ex-boyfriend Cho Yong-pil (Ji Chang-wook, male lead in Backstreet Rookie and Lovestruck in the City) who even eight years later is still in love with Sam-dal.
It takes a while for them to re-hookup. Lots of flashbacks to their childhood and how they broke up (two different perspectives) and how they were as a couple — flashbacks are out of order and often don't reveal the whole truth until closer to the end of the series. The big obstacle to reconciling is that both their parents are sort of against it: Sam-dal's mother Go Mi-ja (Kim Mi-kyung, has played many mom roles) because she doesn't want to see Sam-dal hurt again, and Yong-pil's father Cho Sang-tae (Yu Oh-seong) who blames Mi-ja for the death of his wife and Yong-pil's mom.
A couple of other romantic subplots for variety. Sam-dal's older sister Cho Jin-dal (Shin Dong-mi) divorced her rich husband Jeon Dae-young (Yang Kyung-won) who has returned to the area in order to finalize a deal for an amusement park in the next town. They both still love each other but she divorced him so he wouldn't be ostracized by his family after she did a whistle blower thing on the family conglomerate.
Sam-dal's younger sister Cho Hae-dal (Kang Mi-na) is a single mom who got pregnant at 20 but her boyfriend died. Now she has an adorable 9 year old Cha Ha-yul (Kim Do-eun). In any case Ha-yul befriends Gong Ji-chan (Kim Min-chul), who heads a local Dolphin Center, and then Ha-yul plays matchup between her mom and Ji-chan.
One of the strong elements is the haenyeo, a name for the female divers of Jeju Island who dive daily harvesting ground sea-life such as abalone and seaweed. Go Mi-ja is the head of the town haenyeo and Yong-pil's mother was a haenyeo. It's kind of nice seeing this uniquely Korean thing which I didn't know about before.
I like the series. Nothing groundbreaking but well executed and delivers on the romance.
Cho Sam-dal (Shin Hye-sun, who I loved as the female lead in See You in My 19th Life) is a talented photographer with her own studio but after allegations of employee abuse she and her sisters flee back to their small home seaside town of Samdal-ri on Jeju island. Once back home Sam-dal has to deal with her ex-boyfriend Cho Yong-pil (Ji Chang-wook, male lead in Backstreet Rookie and Lovestruck in the City) who even eight years later is still in love with Sam-dal.
It takes a while for them to re-hookup. Lots of flashbacks to their childhood and how they broke up (two different perspectives) and how they were as a couple — flashbacks are out of order and often don't reveal the whole truth until closer to the end of the series. The big obstacle to reconciling is that both their parents are sort of against it: Sam-dal's mother Go Mi-ja (Kim Mi-kyung, has played many mom roles) because she doesn't want to see Sam-dal hurt again, and Yong-pil's father Cho Sang-tae (Yu Oh-seong) who blames Mi-ja for the death of his wife and Yong-pil's mom.
A couple of other romantic subplots for variety. Sam-dal's older sister Cho Jin-dal (Shin Dong-mi) divorced her rich husband Jeon Dae-young (Yang Kyung-won) who has returned to the area in order to finalize a deal for an amusement park in the next town. They both still love each other but she divorced him so he wouldn't be ostracized by his family after she did a whistle blower thing on the family conglomerate.
Sam-dal's younger sister Cho Hae-dal (Kang Mi-na) is a single mom who got pregnant at 20 but her boyfriend died. Now she has an adorable 9 year old Cha Ha-yul (Kim Do-eun). In any case Ha-yul befriends Gong Ji-chan (Kim Min-chul), who heads a local Dolphin Center, and then Ha-yul plays matchup between her mom and Ji-chan.
One of the strong elements is the haenyeo, a name for the female divers of Jeju Island who dive daily harvesting ground sea-life such as abalone and seaweed. Go Mi-ja is the head of the town haenyeo and Yong-pil's mother was a haenyeo. It's kind of nice seeing this uniquely Korean thing which I didn't know about before.
I like the series. Nothing groundbreaking but well executed and delivers on the romance.