First time I wouldn't have minded if kdramaland used the mom's death as a plot device. Tbh, I think that would've been better than keeping her in the show just to play villain.

Sigh, this show... San Ah could've chosen to go to Seol to be there for his dongsaeng who lost both of her parents. It's not like her mom is going to be there for her anyway...

Idk, but I thought that at least a show titled "Family by CHOICE" wouldn't try to force the bio relationships and make a kid responsible for their abusive parent's rehabilitation?

2. Chef dad made me feel disappointed this week.

It's not like dad was going to make a bunch of money in the few months the kids have before going to college, so why get sick and make the kids worry?
And why start acting as if Hae Jun ever said that he wanted to go to the US or become a professional player or something?

I do get Hae Jun, his aunt made a great job making him feel like a burden his entire life and making him believe that he shouldn't treat his dad as his dad, but instead keep a distance between them.

So I get it that the second he saw his dad like that, he felt guilty and as if he was a burden all over again. And dad should've known that! No, even if Hae Jun didn't have that past, chef dad shouldn't have done that, because no kid is going to be happy on the other side of the world or in another city when they know their parents are fainting to pay for their things. Especially when they don't have to! Hae Jun pointed out that his dad is financially stable, so that most have made him feel even more guilty since his dad had no real reason to overwork himself like that.

And now the kid is forcing himself to do something he doesn't want to or have to for literally no reason... What.

I guess it's not dad's fault, the show just wanted a separation and time jump to happen...

During the coma scene, did anyone else notice the aggressive push up bra? She just got into a car accident and had major surgery, but the nurse decides to help her put on a bra in a coma... Are we sure she got life healing surgery and didn't go for a breast augmentation?

It's been a long while since I've felt the need to write words-and-words-and-words about a show, but Family by Choice is breaking my streak. This show is a calm killer, with a quiet pain of constrained choice laced throughout.

The first time through I kept wondering when the high-melo was coming. I was defended against OTT emotions and crazy behavior (and San-ha's mom did deliver some of that), but that's not how this show is finding its effectiveness. It is a slow-burn melo, such that when I went back to re-watch, I cried more not less, precisely because I knew what was coming and I could better see the ways that the emotions were building up slowly and with silent glances more than with words or loud shouting.

The director of photography has this style that I love, and that I think is doubling-down on the slow-burn effect. Scenes begin with wide, establishing shots, but then as the characters beginn talking, we usually see only one face on the screen at a time. The scene of the dads talking (it turns out prophetically) about Hae-joon and San-ha's mothers at the beginning of episode 7 is a good example of what I mean. For a scene where the number of cuts is actually distracting, if you're paying attention to the art and not the narrative, check out the conversation between Hae-joon and Dal on the rooftop--it's almost frenetic the cuts between the two of them, but that's not the first impression of the scene, which is one of unknowing, shared intimacy. It's so adorable how she has his trust, but he doesn't recognize what that might mean for him...it also makes it so teen-tragic when he assumes that she's there for San-ha. That they then play that reveal for comedy is soooo like this show. There was already so much angst in the room, and so we get a break.

The family of five is also the maximum number of characters who are (often) in a scene at the same time, but we usually only see one at a time as they speak...with small cuts to the middle-distance to ensure we know how the others are in physical proximity.

Not to mention the way that shooting through the edges of a pane of glass on an interior door offers a fragmented view onto the oppa-ointment scene where San-ha feels different things for Ju-won than she's returning. Beautiful visual metaphor, but also unusual for the show...it made realize that I wanted to move the door aside to see better what the two were doing.

The way the siblings have both unconditional support for one another but then the way that support allows them to push back on and criticize each other's choices is amazing. While San-ha only got one wrong answer on his CSAT ("I guess that's the best I can do," he says 🥰), I also love that our athlete is going to college no matter what, and I don't care one whit that he answered "3" on all the questions of his CSAT. You go, kid.

The "brothers" both want to stay near their family and that's adorbs, but...

Joo Won standing their heartbroken was really sad for me. The dad's will survive, but Joo Won LOVED her family by choice, so much so she wanted them all to have the same name. I knew San Ha was leaving as soon as the car accident, I'm glad they initially showed his dad fighting against it. His mother is a PIECE of work and now we have to see more of her. As for Hae Joon, what in the hell is he going to go do in the states? Play at a D-3 school and not excel on a team with more than 6 players. I understand the writer needed to go from point A -C, but they should have made it more believable, like he was going to Seoul or something.

I am excited to see them as adults. So this should be interesting.

Bae Hyeon-seong as Hae-joon gave me all the feels this week. A beautiful performance. On the other hand, I'm ready for the time skip and their grownup phase because I am not connecting with Jung Chae-yeon as teenage Joo-won. I wish she'd dial down the pouty, wide-eyed, baby-voiced performance. I'm also eager because the coming romance is working better than the original. Perhaps because San-ha feels less desperate, less brother-like here. Of saintly fathers and monstrous mothers, what else is left to say?

I didn't know we're headed for a time jump since I hadn't watched the original C-Drama but I'm here for it.

I just hope San-Ha's mother doesn't wreak too much damage on him and his little sister. Neither of them deserve to have a mother like her.

As for Hae-Joon - I think deep down he knows that everyone is right that he should do what's best for the talent that he has. Honestly, I'm glad his BFF laid out the whole thing so rationally and pointed out stuff that Hae-Joon, who is deep into his emotions about the whole situation, did not realise. Sometimes, the truth is tough to hear but a good friend (like his BFF) will say it because they do want the best for you.

Noodle Dad and Cop Dad will now just be raising Ju-Won for the rest of her high school and college and it'll be interesting to see how she develops as a person without her two big brothers around to bail her out of scrapes that she sometimes gets into at school.

This version is kinda more difficult to watch. It's not that the parents were better in the original version but in this drama it's very condensed, it's like punch after punch...

Hae-Joon : the adults need to understand he doesn't need money or great education, he needs love and a family! By making it about his studies, they gave him a burden not a better chance in life.

San-Ha : it's not fair he asked to sacrifice his own adolescence for a mum who abandonned him. Joo-Won is his only joy and without her, he won't really live anymore, just operate day to day.

Joo-Won : I'm disapointed in this version, they didn't give her her own passion yet.

Thanks @starrygazer for the great recap. I feel with you.
Dad Yoon/Noodle dad was given the best line of the episode when he said to Hae-joon not to say anything Joo-won wouldn’t say. In other words ‘you are my son, just as Joo-won is my daughter’. Stop with the ‘I will pay you back crap’. (Speaking of lines, I can’t find out anything about writer-nim Hong si-young).
I didn’t watch the original drama. I didn’t know there would be a time jump but I guess it makes sense.
In some way San-ha is mentally the tougher of the three siblings but there is no way he should have to shoulder the responsibility of his mom’s care. Dad Kim should definitely make sure that doesn’t happen.
As far as Hae-joon’s future goes (the swinging friend was useless) I think he would be happiest going to school close to home forgetting about a future playing professional basketball. He is a jock. He needs things straight forward (as San-ha said). I would have Dad Yoon offer to bring him into the business. Teach him to cook. He is good with people. He would be good with the customers and could coach basketball on the side to kids. His aunty is a doozy but Dad Yoon brought her back to earth earlier. His mom?

These episodes with all the back and forth between the two boys and their "original" family members seemed very protracted. I am looking forward to when this is behind us and the romance occupies a more central position.

Thank you for the 👨‍👧‍👦👨‍👦recap.

Hae-joon still has a long way to go to believe what Joo-won and San-ha already know, even if Joo-won wants it legalized and San-ha says they are not. They are family - just like San-ha to categorically state that to his mom. Sadly it had no effect.

All these absentee parents swooping in to claim a piece of their children is just aggravating. Whether Hae-joon's healthy father who doesn't need an organ but a heir or San-ha's mother who first brainwashed her new daughter to manipulate San-ha and then played the pity card after her accident.

This was a hard set of episodes to watch with so much heartbreak all around.

Joo-won visiting Seoul all alone was perhaps a moment when she perhaps unconsciously felt a change in her relationship with San-ha.

Hoping both the boys don't have it so bad and the real family though apart can still love and support them in what are bound to be very trying times with their bio families. I am looking forward to when the boys can finally pay their dues and come back.