Our Unwritten Seoul (2025) 미지의 서울
Directed by Park Shin-woo, starring Park Bo-young as Yoo Mi-ji/ Yoo Mi-rae, Park Jin-young (also known as Jinyoung) as Lee Ho-su, and Ryu Kyung-soo as Han Se-jin.
Watched 29 August - 3 September 2025 — 12 episodes (NETFLIX)
*I really love this healing drama about identical twins who switch lives to help each other and in the process discover themselves. The show is well written, with multi-layered characters, and the first episode was very good already. I was happy that this drama was able to maintain the great pacing and quality until the end. We've seen a twin swap before but Park Bo-young pulls off a great performance as Yoo Mi-ji/ Yoo Mi-rae and really manages to differentiate between the two characters. Mi-ji (who is the heart of the story) is a free spirit and works various odd jobs in her hometown, also caring for her grandmother. Once a promising athlete, she had to give up her sports career due to an injury. Her character is easy to root for because her sunny disposition makes her lovable. Mi-rae is more serious and successful and works at a corporate job in Seoul. She faces bullying at work and doesn't want to return to the toxic environment. That's when her twin sister steps in to help. Though the sisters are not inseparable like many identical twins, nor do they have a close and warm relationship, they stand up for each other when the other is in need.
*I love the sisters' love interests, Park Jin-young as Lee Ho-su (I've seen Park Jin-young before in The Devil Judge but he's more mature now) and Ryu Kyung-soo as Han Se-jin (seen this actor in Lovestruck in the City). Ho-su is a high school classmate of the twins, now a lawyer, and Se-jin is a quirky strawberry farmer, once a hedge fund Chief Investment Officer (CIO).
*I love the romance of Ho-su and Mi-ji. When Mi-ji impersonates Mi-rae after the switch, Ho-su recognises her as Mi-ji already early on. I was happy she was found out by him so quickly and that she didn't have to lie to him anymore, but she immediately denied being Mi-rae and he accepted this. Bummer! I was relieved when finally the switch wasn't a secret anymore. After Ho-su and Mi-ji confessed their feelings for each other, they hadn't defined their new relationship yet and acted giddy and awkward around each other initially. Sometimes it's a bit hard to believe how K-dramas depict first romance between adults in their 30s, but I love the cuteness and the hand-holding, so I just roll with it. Fortunately it wasn't all lovey-dovey and soon enough Ho-su pushed Mi-ji away as he didn't want to be a burden to her when his hearing deteriorated.
*I was really hoping for a romance between Mi-rae and Se-jin. When he eventually left for the States, I was kind of expecting a time lapse with him coming back. Well, the show didn't disappoint in that respect because he did come back. I was happy to see Mi-rae and Se-jin meeting again, but at the same time I was a bit let down we didn't see their relationship develop into a real romance. You really sense Se-jin's love for Mi-rae. From her side it felt more like gratitude and genuine affection than romantic love, but at least in their last scene together she seemed overjoyed to see him. It does make sense that this wasn't a full-blown romance, more fitting for Mi-rae's character. Still, I would have liked for them to get an extra scene.
*Love the complex family relationships with their painful pasts and the friendship between Ho-su's mother and the twins' mother. Everyone struggled and suffered in their own way and lived through the hurt, to come out stronger eventually. Incidentally, Jang Young-nam as Mi-ji/ Mi-rae's mother and Kim Sun-young as Ho-su's mother give terrific performances.
*All actors, main and supporting, deliver. I also love how the show pays attention to the smaller parts right to the very end, like Yoo Yoo-jin as Park Ji-yoon (high school friend of the twins) and the lawyer Im Chul-soo as Lee Chung-goo, Ho-su's senior colleague. Park Ji-yoon turns out to be a likeable character, someone who values friendships. Chung-goo seems to be a ruthless lawyer but he has a soft spot for Ho-su and I love how Chung-goo comes around in the end and represents Mi-rae in her assault case. I thought his character was interesting, a very intelligent man with a physical disability, and even though he was mean and calculating with the Kim Ro-sa case, I didn't completely hate him. The actor really played the character well, still leaving room for sympathy. I also loved Hong Sung-won as Kim Tae-yi, the data analyst, who helped Mi-rae, and how his sister (Park Ye-young as Kim Soo-yeon) eventually healed with the help of Mi-rae.
*Love the Kim Ro-sa/Hyeon Sang-wol story! Also really like the actress Won Mi-kyung. I hadn't expected her to play such a big role when her character was first introduced. I loved how Sang-wol, who had dyslexia, read Kim Ro-sa's poetry in front of a full audience in the last episode.
*Some great feel-good moments during the Kim Ro-sa case when Ho-su and Mi-ji joined forces to help the old lady.
*Though I liked the teen versions of Ho-su and Mi-ji, somehow I didn't think they matched their older versions well.
*The final episode wraps up everything neatly. Grandma's passing was predictable but it was depicted in such a beautiful way, with Mi-ji letting her go in a dream. Loved the show's last scene with Mi-ji seeing a bird outside her window and knowing grandma is watching over her.
*This show made me shed a lot of tears. And I mean, a lot!
*"We are our worst enemies".