Castaway Diva (2023)
Every thing I mention here occurs in the first episode. I'm trying to adhere to that self imposed rule so I don't spill any spoilers. (Still, I ended up placing much of it in spoil frames. I know I can be very "wordy" and I cannot assume that it is interesting.) Also, I have not watched the last two of the twelve episodes, so I cannot spoil the ending.
A sixteen year old girl, Seo Mok-ha, is obsessed with K-Pop artist Yoon Ra-joon and emotional.
Classmate Jung Ki-ho is focused on earning money and is for the most part stoic.
They appear to have little in common, except they are physically abused by their fathers. Her dad is a drunk lashing out at his daughter. His dad is a self important policeman.
Mok-ha pays Ki-ho to record her singing for a contest co-created by her idol K-pop artist, Yoon Ra-joon. He confronts her about their differences. He appears to admire her singing, but he is unimpressed by her shallowness. He edits the video together and goes to her home to give her the flash drive containing the recording. When he arrives, the police are present, including his father. He sees Mok-ha's arm is purple and bruised. With that, he understands her desire to win the contest. He submits the video on her behalf. She wins, but she cannot go to Seoul. Ki-ho buys tickets for him and her to run away, via ferry, and travel to Seoul where she will claim her prize and the possibility of a recording contract. But her dad shows up at the dock. Ki-ho hides this fact from Mok-ha and leaves her to stop Mr. Seo from fetching his daughter. Mr. Seo give Ki-ho a merciless beating as Ki-ho tries to stop Mr. Seo. It is only when Mok-ha looks up and sees her dad looking at her through the ferry window that we know if Ki-ho was successful or not. A chase ensues. Suffice it to say, Mok-ha ends up in the water, as does her father. He ends up on the beach of a deserted island. She must find food and water and shelter, and she must get rescued. One of those things does not happen for another fifteen years.
And that is how we transition from a sixteen year old girl into a thirty-one year old
Park Eun-bin. Honestly, Park Eun-bin is why I found this series. I've seen her in two other series and one movie. I'm wondering how this familiarity with her work will affect my watching the second season, or series, if you like, when it is finally filmed and aired. Regardless,
she is found, and rescued, and sets out to find Ki-ho and Yoon Ran-ju
.
I have enjoyed this series. The series is full of peaks and valleys, twists and turns. In other words, the plot is not straight forward. Characters are not taken at face value. Little peeks at their past life are provided to explain how they got to where they are today.
I like the title. Just as the film Cast Away had more than one meaning, the title Castaway Diva has multiple implications.
Park Eun-bin does her own singing, and she has a nice voice. If there is auto-tune or pitch correction, it is not blaringly obvious. For one performer, it is obvious as it is part of the story and her insecurity.
- Three plus hours later...
I watched the last two episodes. All I'll say is a person is stabbed in the throat, a person wakes up in the hospital after fours unconcious, a person dies, and the fifteen years spent alone on an island taught Seo Mok-ha (Park Eun-bin) valuable life lessons. It was a nice ending.