Origin and release year: South Korea (2023 – Castaway Diva)
Korean title: 무인도의 디바
Starring: Park Eun Bin, Kim Hyo Jin, Kim Yoon Seol, Lee Re, Chae Jong Hyeop, Moon Woo Jin, VIXX’s N (Cha Hak Yeon), Kim Joo Heon, Bae Gang Hee, Shin Joo Hyup, Kim Bo Jung, Yoon Jung Hoon, Lee Seung Joon, Kim Min Seok, Jung Joon, Ok Kyung Hwa, Lee Yoo Joon, Seo Jung Yeon, Lee Joong Ok, Lee Min Goo
Director: Oh Choong Hwan
Screenwriter: Park Hye Ryun, Eun Yeol
Synopsis: An aspiring singer who spends fifteen years alone on a deserted island before setting out on a journey to become a diva. (IMDb)
The start of this drama is heart-wrenching as it starts out with the child abuse and domestic violence stories of young Seo Mok Ha (played by Lee Re) and young Jung Ki Ho (played by Moon Woo Jin). Given the emotional depth of the narrative early on, we have to give a shoutout to the child actors of this drama. They start the drama off on a promising note.
The adult actors were exceptional, too. Judging by the casting there was no surprise about that. However, Seok Mok Ha (played by Park Eun Bin) who was supposedly the main character felt like she was lacking screentime in her own drama. Regardless, she gave a lovely and entertaining portrayal.
The fact that it was Park Eun Bin’s real singing voice during the performances in the show was such a pleasant surprise.We knew she has musical talent from seeing her do K-Pop dance covers like ‘Love Dive’ by IVE and ‘Shut Down’ by BLACKPINK at her fanmeetings. However, her voice has become the biggest plot-twist when considering her skills. Honestly, she could’ve debuted as an idol with no problem considering her skillset.
Make sure to stream ‘Someday’ for clear skin!
Speaking of plot twists, after Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Park Eun Bin received a lot of compliments for her diverse acting. However, for the first few episodes where we got to see grown up Mok Ha – she seemed to still be stuck in Woo Young Woo’s character. Things like her facial expressions or speech patterns sometimes were quite reminiscent of the character, which was a bit of a shame. However, overall she delivered yet another stellar acting performance. Her dialect (satoori) was also impressively consistent. She deserves to get her flowers for this role, too.
As for the rest of the cast, the brothers Kang Woo Hak (played by VIXX’s N aka Cha Hak Nyeon) and Kang Bo Geol (played by Chae Jong Hyeop) were so well-acted. They both had distinct personalities and backgrounds essential to the story in different ways and their chemistry was exceptional, too.
In spite of this, the whole mystery behind which Kang brother is Jung Ki Ho was a little bit underdone. It felt as though this part of the story could’ve had more suspense. At first, it was a really exciting element of the story but thereafter it felt lackluster. The reveal of who Ki Ho was was a little bit disappointing as it felt like the climax of the mystery fell flat on its face.
Then we need to talk about the OG diva of the story. Yoon Ran Joo (played by Kim Hyo Jin)’s storyline was also great but felt slightly discombobulated. Her character arch was a bit messy because it just felt like too much of a seesaw ride until she finally got a grip, but that’s probably where the realism comes in.
One of the really good calls of this drama was cutting it off at 12 episodes. Honestly, there were some points that were skipped over – possibly due to a lack of time. For example, we didn’t get to see Bo Geol’s reasoning behind getting the apartment in-depth, the ending also left us wondering if Bo Geol and Mok Ha were officially dating or not, etc. etc. However, had the drama been forced to run over 16 episodes, the story would’ve been less entertaining because they would’ve needed to drag things out and stall for time.
Overall, the drama was pretty good. It was one of the better K-Drama offerings of this year and we highly recommend watching it.
What did you think of Castaway Diva? Let us know in the comments!