Movie Digest
This drama is about a woman who is mourning the death of her lover and decides to go on a journey to complete all the activities she and her partner made on a list while he was alive. As she is on her way to complete all the tasks, she meets a musician who is planning to debut as a singer but has severe stage fright. As the female lead is trying to overcome the trauma of her lover’s death in an accident, she has support in the form of her best friend and a new blooming relationship with the musician. In this drama, we see how pain, loss of a loved one, and grief play a role in a person’s life. It’s not uncommon to feel grief and this drama shows a woman coping with her lover’s death by doing all the things her lover wanted to do and making it into a bucket list.
The Feel Good Part
As mentioned, grief is not uncommon. At some point, most of us have grieved over the loss of something, someone in our lives. That woman’s bucket list is a heart-warming drama that portrays how guilt and grief come together when the loss incurred is of a loved one. Cha Ra Ri our main female lead is in a relationship with her boyfriend Geun Hyung. Geun Hyung was planning a surprise gift for Cha Ra Ri and to make up for it monetary wise he took up a part-time job. Due to an accident at his part-time job Hyung unexpectedly passed away. Ra Ri found out about his death a week later and was devasted beyond control. Moreover, she blamed herself for his death since he was planning to buy her a gift that required extra money on his part. This is where the drama does a good job of showing how badly death impacts the mental and emotional health of our beings. Ra Ri’s guilt pushed her to attempt suicide many times. Her best friend Min Kyung however was rock solid next to her as a support system. When Ra Ri meets Han Sol the musician, she realizes that to complete her bucket list she needs a friend, and that partner can be Han Sol. Together Ra Ri and Han Sol head face-on to overcome their fears. For Han Sol, it was stage fright and For Ra Ri, it was her trauma.
The Disappointing Factor
A surprise love interest introduced at the end kind of makes the drama fall flat on its face. Without giving any major spoilers, the first six episodes were taking the route of a devasted woman mourning her lover, but it switches this track very soon and turns into a jumble of things a drama of only 200 minutes could not achieve. Because of the twist in the story instead of coming as shocking it just simply destroys the setup of the story. Since it is adapted from a webtoon, the drama has kept the episodes at a minimum of 10 episodes. Geun Hyung had problems convincing his mother that Ra Ri was a good match for him. Ra Ri found out about Hyung’s Death very late. If the story had thrown more light on why his family had a problem with Ra Ri. That would have added depth to the story. The ending was a bit hurried and the makers could have extended it into a new episode altogether.
In-Depth Analysis
The acting was quite amateurish since the female lead is a rookie in the acting industry. The drama had the potential to turn into something exemplary like dealing with grief and sorrow. But it added a twist in the middle of it that crumbled the efforts of the initial half of the drama. The twist in the plot was very jarring and seemed very unrealistic to the point comical to think something like that would happen in real life. With only ten episodes the drama did not do any justice to the development of the story in proper pacing. The ending was very rushed. Most of the actors did a good job since the storyline was kept simple and did not require anything extravagant to be brought to the role.
Star Power
Kim So Hye played the role of Ra Ri and Nam In-woo was the idol trainee Kang Hansol. We also had Lim Sejun in the support role along with Kim woo Rin in the role of the best friend Min Kyung.
Overall Opinion
It has very less focus on romance and there is a plot twist in the show that is very unexpected and shocking. The drama touches on sensitive topics like committing suicide, and grief coping mechanisms. The female lead and male lead were good together. Their relationship was portrayed as helping each other and they don’t realize how much they rely on each other for comfort. The drama is good with a simple storyline and very short as well.
