The worst scene was in the finale when SYJ returns ALONE to tell the child she was adopting him. Clearly, it was a post-filming re-shoot to drop in a "happy" moment for the ending.

You beat me to it. One of the first dramas that got me into Kdramas. Kim So-Hyun is such an accomplished and lovely actress and I am eagerly waiting for her upcoming drama this year.

Stealer is the most recent example I've seen!

Wish upon me male lead goes back I think to find out if anyone ever looked for him and the woman running it was quite cold and horrid in her response to him.

LOL Obviously I didn't even read the prompt all the way through, this is just off the top of my head minus the ones @sicarius and @ally-le mentioned. Also Romance Is a Bonus Book has an orphanage volunteer day but I don't recall that any of the characters had lived there.

Similarly not-quite-on-topic, but with luck the moderators will let it slide 🙃…

The orphans that stick in my head are the OTP from Once Upon a Small Town. I don’t remember if the drama makes it explicit, but I currently am left with the impression that neither of them grew up in orphanages, but instead had other family/found-foster families.

The show spends some time, as does Thirty-Nine, working through the cultural biases against orphans, as if this were something the kids had control over(!)…which was no small feat for such a delightfully, light rom-com. I mean, no world problems were solved or anything, but I remember how touching it was for these two orphans to back each other up.

Seriously folks, if you’ve not seen Once Upon a Small Town, it’s a really sweet watch.

Yes, I was surprised by the number of orphanages in dramaland.
I hope this is just because of the trauma possibilities.

Yes to The Smile Has Left Your Eyes. Moo-Young visits the orphanage with Jin-Kang to look for answers about the childhood he only vaguely remembers.

…right, and poor Roy had two things going against him culturally in this drama (see @welh640’s point below)—he was both an orphan and not-Korean/American due to his being adopted out-of-country (something that was also the case for Park Mo-gun/Morgan in Search: WWW).

It would be interesting if folks might be willing to contribute their commentary on the narrative roles that being an orphan had on the plots of these shows.

For example, sometimes folks are going back to their orphanages to find their parents (like Roy) while other times they’re going back to “give back” (like in Business Proposal).

Yes, Cha Eun Woo's character visited the orphanage he and his brother grew up in.

I already forgot about Island. 😂

I KNEW You're All Surrounded was one. Thank you.

I've been trying to think of that one the past two hours, you saved the rest of my day!

Do orphanages still exist in SK? I often wonder about this but haven’t researched it. In the west at least, orphanages no longer exist as they were and it might be the same in SK even if the subs still call them orphanages. Clearly the sad fact is that children in state care are/were either surrendered because of economic hardship and other societal shitty pressures or have/had the misfortune of not being wanted. Btw, it is outrageous that a developed economy cannot find homes for these precious children within SK. I know about the cultural issues and they suck. It must be so hard for these children to adjust to a new country and culture. Don’t get me wrong. I know there are many loving adoptive parents but for so many kids it must be wrenching being taken from their homes.

A tangential point: It still makes me laugh when “Ryan” was called “lion” and the Korean word for it (사자) used by Ahn Bohyun’s. character. A Judo himbo.

The art gallery staff goes to the orphanage to do art projects with the children, and Ryan goes along. (I’m pretty sure it was the one he was in.) Deok-Mi tries to get him to draw along with the kids, but he’s still suffering from “painter’s block.” She manages to get him to do a simple tracing of his hand—I don’t remember if they used it to draw a Thanksgiving turkey…

FYI for those of you who may not familiar with the hand-tracing turkey: this art project is one of the rites of passage for American elementary-school students around the Thanksgiving holiday, where turkey is part of the traditional menu.

Try it for yourself! https://www.instructables.com/Make-a-Hand-Turkey/

In Mother, I recall they camped out at what was once her orphanage?

Love that you put the time stamp! Those are some serious treasure hunting skills.

They do go there - at least once, maybe more.

In 2021, SK announced that it would increase the orphan emancipation payment from $5,000 to $10,000 and would add additional programs such as a $300/month living allowance up to 5 years, and educational and counseling programs. Whether that plan was fully implemented is unknown. A good number of aged out male orphans join the military to serve their mandatory service.

Yes, I came here just to post this because MHL is my all-time favorite drama.