The Virtual Bride ~ Can I Be a Real Daughter-in-Law?

“The Virtual Bride” (aka “The Eccentric Daughter-in-Law”) is a 2015 Korean drama series, with 12 episodes, categorized as Romance, Comedy, and Family; streaming on Viki and KOCOWA+.

SUMMARY: A K-pop idol in a girl group caused trouble, and her company had to pay for the damages. To make up for the problems she caused, she had to play the role of a daughter-in-law in a TV program that promoted authentic Korean kimchi. The eldest son was unmarried, and she only needed to pretend to be his wife. Sounds like an easy job. Right?

♦ Mother-in-Laws From Hell!

In “The Virtual Bride”, Oh In-Young is the lead singer for an idol group, and she caused a big problem with another idol group. She was in the wrong, but the company had to pay for the damages. All the girls in the group were being blamed, but her boss told her that it was only right for her to take full responsibility. She had two choices: either take the job he offered her, OR get kicked to the curb.

Yang Choon-Ja is the matriarch of the family, with two sons, one married and one not married, and a married daughter. She makes traditional, authentic Korean kimchi but needs to grow her customer base and get more sales to stay in business. So there is going to be a TV program about the eldest son and the daughter-in-law.

In real life, the eldest son, Cha Myeong-Seok, is not married, which means Oh In-Young is just a “pretend” daughter-in-law. To Yang Choon-Ja, her eldest son is precious, and she has plans for him to marry a woman from a good family, educated, with all of the qualities that would make a “perfect” daughter-in-law. In other words, NOT a woman like Oh In-Young.  So they better not fall in love.

Yang Choon-Ja has a real daughter-in-law, and she is very hard on her. One day, the daughter-in-law got fed up with her demands and left, leaving her husband and son behind. Yang Choon-Ja insists that she is not at fault and does what any mother-in-law would do, and the daughter-in-law is being unreasonable.

By contrast, when Yang Choon-Ja’s daughter comes to visit her, she treats her like a precious gem. She has no idea that her own daughter is dealing with a mother-in-law from hell! By comparison, the daughter’s mother-in-law is much worse! The irony is that her elderly widower father-in-law decided to remarry and now Yang Choon-Ja has to deal with a mother-in-law! After 40 years, now she has to call some woman “mother”.

Main Characters:

• Oh In-Young (played by Kim Da-Som, “Serendipity’s Embrace”, “Kokdu: Season of Deity”, “He is Psychometric”)
• Yang Choon-Ja (played by Ko Du-Shim, “Exit”, “The Atypical Family”, “Island 1 and 2”, “Curtain Call”, “Immortal Classic”)
• Cha Myeong-Seok (played by Ryu Soo-Young, “Queenmaker”, “My Lawyer, Mr. Joe”, “Bloodhounds”, “My Father is Strange”)

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

• IMDb: 6.6 of 10 stars
• My Drama List: 7.2 out of 10 stars
• Viki viewers rated this series 8.9 out of 10 stars

My personal rating is the same as the Viki viewing audience.

If you watched “Immortal Classic”, this series is kind of a condensed version. “The Virtual Bride” is a fun watch for when you’re not in the mood for anything intense. But to be honest, the viewer should ignore the first episode. It could be a turn-off. It almost turned me off. But based on my experience watching K-dramas, I’ve learned not to judge a Korean series by Episode 1. The remaining episodes were entertaining.

I liked the secondary storyline better than the main storyline. The main storyline was about a pretend mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationship. The secondary storyline was about real mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationships. The daughter-in-laws deserve a medal for going above and beyond the call of a wife’s duty.

LINKS OF INTEREST:

Virtual Bride/Eccentric Daughter In-Law [Drama Review] | Red watches TV

Mid Review: The Virtual Bride | Crazy About Asian Dramas

The Virtual Bride: Laughs and Food for Thought | picadrama

Rani R Tyas’s journal | The Virtual Bride / The Eccentric Daughter-in-Law (Review)

TRAILER/TEASER:

KBS WORLD TV. “The Virtual Bride.” YouTube, 18 Sept. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvJDrQmtKw0.

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