Drama Review: "It's Okay to Not Be Okay"

Hello, today we have a review of the K-Drama "It's Okay to Not Be Okay." This is a K-Drama that talks about mental illness and it's various forms and I feel like it was pretty well written considering mental illness is taboo to talk about in many places. The story focuses on three main characters Gang-tae, Sang-tae and Mun-Yeong. 

Gang-tae and Sang-tae are siblings and the older brother, Sang-tae, is autistic. Sang-tae has always been high functioning and after their mother passed away (she was actually murdered) Gang-tae became his brother's keeper and protector.  They started living their life on the run from the time that Gang-tae was 12, after their mother was killed and his brother witnessed it, ultimately causing Sang-tae to develop a fear of butterflies. As they got older the brothers would re-locate every year around springtime because the butterflies come out, re-igniting Sang-tae's fear of butterflies. 

As the siblings continued to move around, until they ultimately ended up back in their hometown, Gang-tae would always take jobs as a caregiver for mental health patients and he continued this job when they moved back to their hometown. Sang-tae is autistic and sometimes makes it very difficult for Gang-tae to take care of him but the brothers never abandon each other. Sang-tae is high functioning but prone to angry outbursts and very sensitive to lying, some of their disagreements would lead to physical fighting but for most of their life Gang-tae would never fight back. 

This brings us to our next main character, Ko Mun Yeong. Having experienced severe trauma in her childhood from her mother's mental abuse and her father trying to kill her after attempting to kill her mother, she grew into a sociopathic adult.  Don't misunderstand, from even childhood Mun Yeong would show signs of a personality disorder when she would rip the wings off of butterflies and ask if a bird should be killed because it can't fly with a broken wing, and she is an author for children's books. Now how does that make sense when she would write dark children's books (basically the raw truth before everyone pretties it up to make it more "suitable" for children)? Ko Mun Yeong was actually very famous for her books and the stories she would tell would revolve around her childhood trauma that she experienced at the hands of her parents and is the main way that she communicates with the world because she does not know how to express emotions. Mun Yeong also happened to be Sang-tae's favorite author and her relationship with the brothers started when she tried to stab a father who was going to kill his daughter so that he didn't die alone after her book reading was interrupted and Gang-tae stopped her and ended up being cut pretty badly needing like 17 stitches. 

The story continues on, and the brothers move back to their hometown, as previously mentioned, and that is when the story started getting pretty dark. Mun Yeong followed Gang-tae there because she also used to live there in the cursed castle with her parents (a mansion her father had built so her mother could just focus on writing, and she never actually left the house much). Gang-tae started working at Ok Psychiatric hospital with his friend Ju-ri and his friend Jae-su also followed them and opened a Pizzaria that Sang-tae worked part time at. The director, Director O one day stumbled on Sang-tae's ability to draw and asked him to paint a mural on the stairs to which Sang-tae agreed as long as he got paid in the end and the director agreed to those terms. The relationship between Mun Yeong and Gang-tae continued to develop as she started working there by reading the patients fairytales and having a literature class on certain days of the week. As their relationship developed and Gang-tae started falling for her he also started lying to Sang-tae a lot to be with her because, since he is autistic, he would say that his brother was his and that no one else could have him, which Gang-tae allowed for a while until he could no longer do that and started pursuing Mun Yeong more actively. There were many occasions where Mun Yeong tried to push him away because he got hurt a lot because of her (by the end of the show two stabs in the hands and the emotional pain of realizing that her mother killed his because she wanted Mun Yeong to get help for her antisocial behaviors and her mom did not like that) but by the end of the show they learned to endure and try to overcome all of their misfortune together. As the show ends and Mun Yeong's mother is arrested, Sang-tae finished his mural and overcomes his fear of butterflies, Mun Yeong and Gang-tae could be together and all of their friends found their someone. Director O even gave them a camping car because of everything they went through and encouraged them to go on a long trip together, just the three of them. The final 5 minutes of the show presents how Sang-tae has learned to be on his own despite his autism and decided to leave with Mr. Lee (Mun Yeong's publisher) while the couple continued their journey. Sang-tae decided to continue to be an illustrator after he became recognized as one due to his illustrations in Mun Yeong's last book. because he wanted to continue being an illustrator for children's books. 

I personally felt like this was a really good show and I thought the actors portrayed their assigned mental illness pretty well.  It really showed how people can become resilient if they so choose and overcome barriers. I have seen other reviews and there are a lot of divides on if it was melodramatic or not and I think it was at times but throughout most of the show, I feel like the drama was well paced. I was so happy that the brothers and Mun Yeong got happy endings, and I would recommend this drama to anyone who would ask about a recommendation (with proper warnings of course). I know I only put a lot of basic information about the overall story in this post, but I feel like it is enough to pique the interest of those who read this and make them consider looking into watching the show. As always, thank you for those who read my posts, and I will try my best to remain more consistent.