Who Is She: Episodes 1-2

1 December 20, 2024December 20, 2024

by Dramaddictally

The Miss Granny remake is upon us and it has worked K-drama wonders to differentiate itself from the original film. The premise still entails a grandmother who goes back to her 20-year-old body and becomes a singer, but who are all these doppelgängers? And while our granny dreams of singing ballads, is she really about to debut as an idol? It looks like we’ll be answering these questions soon as the drama gives the heroine — and the story — a new lease on life.

EPISODES 1-2

Who Is She: Episodes 1-2

It’s here! And for fans of the film, it comes with quite a few updates to keep us from settling in and thinking we know what’s going on. First, let’s start with the basics. Right away we meet our heroine OH MAL-SOON (Kim Hae-sook), a woman around seventy, who’s led a tough life, raising a child on her own and giving up her aspirations of being a singer.

She lives with her successful and bossy adult daughter, BAN JI-SOOK (Seo Young-hee), along with Ji-sook’s can’t-keep-a-business-running husband, CHOI MIN-SEOK (In Gyo-jin). There’s constant tension in the house, as Ji-sook talks down to her husband about his life choices and tries to keep her teenage daughter, CHOI HA-NA (Chae Won-bin), on the straight path to college.

On top of that, Mal-soon and Ji-sook don’t get along. We learn that Mal-soon raised Ji-sook as a single mother, but it’s not clear to us — or to Ji-sook — what happened to the father. We get some clues that he left them, but when Ji-sook asks her mother about her father, Mal-soon is vague, telling her to just forget about him — which also opens up room for a big secret to be revealed later on.

Now that Mal-soon is aging, along with her sight and hearing, her singing voice is also deteriorating. However, there’s a song competition she wants to participate in, where she’ll sing a legendary song from her youth. At first, it seems like Mal-soon is just trying to live out her long-lost dream of being a singer while she still has the chance. However, when she actually gets on stage at the competition, we learn there’s some sort of vengeance involved.

We meet a woman named KIM AE-SHIM (Cha Hwa-yeon), who’s around Mal-soon’s age, and recognized as one of the nation’s most famous singers. Ae-shim is now running UNIS Entertainment — the agency where this song contest is being held. When Mal-soon takes the stage, she says she’s chosen the song she’s going to sing because it’s “her song.” But everyone knows that this is the song Ae-shim debuted with many years ago. Mal-soon lock eyes with Ae-shim, and it’s clear the two women know each other from the past and there’s definitely bad blood.

Mal-soon starts off singing great, but soon, her voice gives out and she’s straining to keep the tune. She starts to cry and leaves the stage, passing by Ae-shim, who says that “becoming a singer isn’t something just anyone can do.” When Mal-soon gets backstage, she kneels on the floor and cries.

Who Is She: Episodes 1-2

That night, after the competition, when Mal-soon is already feeling like she “doesn’t want to wake up in the morning,” she enters her house to find Ji-sook and Min-seok in an argument with Ha-na. The crux of it is that Ha-na is an excellent student, but she’s decided that she doesn’t want to go to college. Instead, she wants to pursue her dreams of being a singer (and later, we come to learn that she’s already been accepted as a trainee at UNIS Entertainment).

Ji-sook argues that even if Ha-na gets into SNU, she’ll still have trouble landing a job at a great company, like the one Ji-sook works at, so she needs to keep studying. Ha-na argues back that she’s not interested in following her mom’s life path. At this point, Mal-soon enters the discussion and defends Ha-na. We’ve already seen that Mal-soon and her granddaughter have a really close relationship, hanging out at the local noraebang together, so this comes as no surprise.

But when Mal-soon takes Ha-na’s side, telling Ji-sook to go easier on her, Ji-sook turns on her mother. She asks how she can possibly tell her to be nicer, when that’s not the treatment she got while growing up. Ji-sook says that her mother wasn’t there for her and scolded her whenever she made the smallest mistake. She goes on, and it’s clear from her anger and her tirade that Ji-sook is a perfectionist — tough on herself and everyone around her — because Mal-soon was so tough on her.

Mal-soon yells back at Ji-sook that she didn’t raise herself. Does she really think her mom didn’t help her grow up at all? But Ji-sook feels suffocated and is tired of being told what to do. She says Ha-na is her daughter, she’ll raise her the way she wants to. At that, Mal-soon asks how they’ve lived together for all these years. “Should I leave?!”

Ji-sook admits that they’ve lived together for too long, and everyone at the table is stunned into silence for a few seconds. When we cut back to Mal-soon, the look on her face, staring at her daughter, is part fury and part heartbreak. (Really, it’s enough to make you cry.) Then she gets up from the table and leaves the house.

Who Is She: Episodes 1-2

Outside it’s raining, and as she walks down the street, a taxi pulls up beside her and the driver says he wants to give her a lift. She gets in the car and falls asleep in the back, and when she wakes up, she’s in a photo studio. She knows something is weird because the guy working there is the same guy who was driving the taxi, but he denies it.

He asks to take a photo of her, and when he does, we see some animations on the screen as if she’s remembering her youth. And then, we see her in the photo studio alone — and she’s gone back to looking like her 20-year-old self.

Now, to be clear, she hasn’t gone back in time, she’s only gone back to a young body. At first, she thinks she’s dead, but quickly realizes it’s not the case. And before long, she decides that what’s happened isn’t a punishment, but an opportunity. It’s her chance to compensate for her long, tough life by getting to do some things over again.

Who Is She: Episodes 1-2

Alongside all these shenanigans, we’re introduced to the former idol group member, DANIEL HAN (Jinyoung), who’s now a producer at UNIS. His story is that he’s put together a girl group that’s about to debut — but the leader has gone missing. The group can’t debut without her, which is a huge problem for him, because he was just about to quit his job and pursue a life of leisure. Now, he needs to track her down, send these gals out on stage, and make them successful, so he can move on with his plans.

This is where all the weird doppelganger stuff starts. The girl gone missing is called EMILY (Jung Ji-so) and she looks exactly like our newly transformed Mal-soon (it’s the same actress). And so, when Daniel is running around trying to find Emily, and he stumbles on the young Mal-soon, of course he thinks he’s found his missing idol.

Who Is She: Episodes 1-2

Daniel starts talking to her like he knows her and she acts like she’s never seen him before. He shows her a video of Emily singing at her audition (the very song that Mal-soon was just singing at the noraebang), and our heroine is shocked at what she sees. Daniel says that even if she’s lost her memories, he needs her to live as the person he’s looking for.

Realizing she can’t go home in the state she’s in — and idol members get housing — our heroine decides to take him up on the deal and join the group. She’s got three months to get ready for debut, but with her young voice back in tune that shouldn’t be a problem. Except, there’s that whole bit about learning the dance moves. Oh, and putting up with the other four members — one of whom hates Emily and is apparently the reason she disappeared.

But if that’s not enough, we have a second doppelgänger. After our young heroine decides to become an idol, she’s leaving UNIS when she runs into her older self. (Huh?) The older woman is there asking to speak to Daniel about Emily. As the old self and the young self come face to face, we’re left to ponder until next week what the heck is happening.

And I literally have no idea. All the guesses I can come up with make no logical sense, and I’d like to hope that our drama has something better in store for us, so I’ll keep those guesses to myself.

I’m doing my best not to compare the drama to the movie, but I do want to say that I really like the change to have this be about three generations of women. We have a grandmother, with her daughter and granddaughter (rather than son and grandson, like in the film), and I’m excited about the direction this is headed already. The scene where Mal-soon and Ji-sook argue at the table is magnificent. Their hurt is palpable, and valid on both sides, and watching them grow past that could be very satisfying.

Other than that, I’m full of questions about where this is headed, what secrets will be revealed, and how it’s at all possible that I haven’t seen Jinyoung since 2015’s Warm and Cozy. (What? Really?) I’m also keeping my eye on Chae Won-bin here, who I really liked in last year’s My Lovely Boxer and Love Attack. It’s a good cast, with great source material, that has me curious about how it’ll resolve all the messes it’s creating. Not a bad start at all.

Who Is She: Episodes 1-2