The Good Bad Mother (2023)

June 25, 2023

Our Take: An authentic look at what it means to be a mother. 

The Good Bad Mother is a story about the rich and the poor, the intricate dynamic between parent and child, and how far people are willing to go for power. Jin Young Soon (Ra Mi Ran) is a pig farmer who unexpectedly has to care for her son, Choi Kang Ho (Lee Do Hyun), alone after her husband dies. Traumatized by his abrupt departure, Young Soon raises Kang Ho with an iron fist, forcing him to sacrifice his childhood to study hard to become a prosecutor. 

Because of her tough love, Young Soon and Kang Ho have a strained relationship. Eventually, Kang Ho becomes a successful but cold-hearted prosecutor in Seoul with an ulterior motive. As he begins rising in the ranks with some of the most powerful men in the country, he keeps a safe distance from his mother and pushes his first love and childhood friend, Lee Mi Joo (Ahn Eun Jin), away. Mi Joo is a warm and bright person who hopes to open her own nail salon one day. 

One day, Kang Ho gets into a life-threatening car accident that causes him to lose his memories and revert to his 7-year-old self. Shocked, Young Soon takes him back to his hometown in You-ri to help him recover. There, they have a second chance at repairing their mother-son relationship. Kang Ho also reconnects with Mi Joo and Bang Sam Sik (Yoo In Soo), his childhood frenemy. 

At the heart of The Good Bad Mother is the utterly complex relationship between mother and son. The show explores the ups and downs of motherhood and the sacrifices moms make for their children's sake. It dives deep into motherly love and the unbreakable bond between parents and their children. But, it also touches on the trauma and abuse parents may inadvertently inflict upon them.  

Through these lenses, themes of forgiveness and personal growth get woven into the story. Without second chances, one cannot let go of the past, heal ourselves and others, and move forward. While Young Soon and Kang Ho are flawed, they are also vulnerable and multifaceted characters who gradually evolve and find redemption. 

As a mother, Jin Young Soon is overbearing and harsh but does not get villainized. After losing her husband, she channels all her energy toward raising Kang Ho to become a prosecutor while running a successful pig farm in Jou-ri. In the process, she robs him of his childhood and frequently exhibits abusive behavior toward him in the name of love. Her behavior is reminiscent of a "tiger mom" who cares deeply about her son but expresses her love and affection in a misguided way. 

Through her backstory, we see all the pain and trauma she's endured over the years and how that led her to raise Kang Ho with equal parts of fear and love. On one hand, she was scared to lose him because of what happened to her family. On the other hand, Kang Ho is her pride and joy. The thought of potentially losing him was too much to bear, causing her to hold onto him too tightly as she attempted to shield him from the rest of the world. 

While Young Soon's experiences do not justify how she treats Kang Ho, it's hard not to sympathize with her. We often think of our parents as indestructible and fearless, but mothers are also humans and can make mistakes. Whether she is a good or bad mother is debatable. She never actually takes full accountability for her abusive tactics, but Kang Ho still loves and forgives her. Although her story comes full circle by the end, from the viewer's perspective, Young Soon is neither truly forgiven for her actions nor given a complete redemption arc. 

Choi Kang Ho is another character that has more to him than meets the eye. Initially, he's portrayed as a callous and brutal person, one who is willing to trample over others without hesitation to get what he wants. However, as the narrative progresses, we see his whole self, including his first steps, traumas, love and passions, and kindness and grace. 

Kang Ho is not perfect by any means, but we grow to love him for who he is, flaws and all. His love for his mother runs deep, and even in the darkest times, he does his best to help her find peace and make up for all the pain she felt living as a bad mother to her beloved son. 

An underlying pig metaphor adds an additional layer to the plot. In the show's opening moments, Young Soon explains how pigs are actually quite clean and highly intelligent. It's in their nature to do business in one place and eat in another. But, because humans confined them into poop-filled pigpens, they became aggressive and dirty.

Along this vein, Young Soon is frequently misunderstood by others. She initially gets rejected by her neighbors for running a smelly pig farm and struggles to get by after losing most of her immediate family. Seeing her experiences, it makes sense why she wants to give her one and only son a better life. 

After Kang Ho's accident, he falls into his mother's care yet again. Like a pig who can only see the bright blue sky when they fall on its back, it's only after Kang Ho falls can he finally look up. Growing up, he only did what his mom wanted and had tunnel vision. But, after his accident, he gets a second chance at living a life true to himself. 

The villagers in Jou-ri all shine in their own ways, adding another dimension to the storyline and bringing some of its more lighthearted moments. Kang Ho and Mi Joo are both born around the same time, while Sam Sik provides much-needed comedic relief to the darker moments. In Jou-ri, we see different families united together, bickering, crying, and laughing. From the first scene, it's clear that they all love each other and rely on each other for support. 

Mi Joo, in particular, is one of the show's central characters, but she primarily acts as a foil to Kang Ho. We see her through her relationship with Kang Ho and as a single mother to her twins, with some glimmers of her goals and dreams. But, she's often used as a springboard for Kang Ho to express his thoughts rather than as an individual with her own sufferings and sacrifices. Unfortunately, her character's development barely scratches the surface and does not get fully explored the same way Young Soon and Kang Ho are.

The primary villains, Song Woo Byeok (Choi Moo Sung) and Oh Tae Soo (Jung Woong In), are your standard antagonists. They serve as a means of creating conflict, but their motivations and backstories are likewise not explored further. However, Oh Tae Soo's dynamics with his family, particularly with his daughter Oh Ha Young (Hong Bi Ra), starkly contrasts with Young Soon and Kang Ho's relationship. Whereas Young Soon is willing to sacrifice everything for her beloved son, Tae Soo treats his family like they are disposable, pushing them around as he pleases to their detriment. The two types of bonds make us question the role of parents and children and how much influence parents have on their kids.

One of the plot's more problematic areas that get downplayed is the treatment of Kang Ho after his accident. Many of the characters, including his mother and doctor, frequently call him a fool and an idiot. They also imply that Kang Ho's disability is a punishment for Young Soon and that if he didn't make a full recovery, he would not be able to live without her. While likely not intentional, this implies that people who were once able-bodied and then became disabled is because of fate punishing them for someone else's behavior, which is not true.

Final Thoughts

Good Bad Mother is a story about love, forgiveness, redemption, and the bond between parent and child. The show explores imperfect motherhood and the sacrifices parents and children make for each other. While Young Soon and Kang Ho's relationship is chaotic and far from perfect, their love for each other is strong and runs deep, making their story one you want to root for.