Trolley ~ Why Can’t I Just Live a Quiet Life?

“Trolley” is a Korean drama series released in 2022-2023, with 16 episodes, and categorized as a family melodrama, romance, political thriller, and mystery.

♦ Is a Quiet Life POSSIBLE?

In “Trolley”, Kim Hye-Joo does not want to interfere with her husband’s noble goals and ambitions. Her husband, Nam Joong-Do, is serving as an assemblyman and is popular among the people. Unlike many politicians who are only in it for what they can get for themselves, he is genuine and wants to serve the people.

Kim Hye-Joo only wants one thing from her husband. That he not drag her into his political campaigning and all of the “other stuff” that comes with being an assemblyman. She doesn’t want to be in the spotlight or the public eye. Nam Joong-Do did as she asked and consequently, many of the people who saw her every day did not even know she was the wife of a politician.

Nam Joong-Do has a good reputation as an assemblyman. No thanks to his private life. He has a son who is in prison and a daughter who is experiencing the “troubled teen” crisis and believes her parents just don’t understand her. At least his wife is always happy to see him when he comes home. She never wants to disrupt his activities as an assemblyman and does her best to make their home a place where he comes for love, happiness, and peace.

It takes more than being a genuine politician who serves the people to stay in politics. People will judge you if any sort of bad light is cast your way. The news reporters feed the frenzy and don’t seem to be interested in getting the details and explaining what happened, i.e. telling the truth to the people.

Is there a rule in the news media and in politics that bad news is always better than good news? So reporters should just grab a few facts and then “spin” the rest of the story. If they don’t have enough to “spin” then they should try to frustrate, discourage, and provoke the people that the story is about. Maybe those people will lash out and say or do something that adds more fuel to the story’s fire. If that’s a rule, it’s a stupid rule!

In “Trolley”, the husband had a son from a previous relationship but the biological mother died. His wife tried her best to be a mother to the son and she also had a daughter for her husband. There are nice memories of when they were children and they got along. The family was happy. But then the son took a turn for the worse and ended up in prison.

When the son was released from prison Kim Hye-Joo set him up in his own apartment and gave him some spending money. He had the nerve to say to her: “You must have money since you were able to get me an apartment.”

What an ungrateful son! First of all, since he’s grown, she didn’t have to pick him up when he got out of prison. She didn’t have to do anything for him! Kim Hye-Joo swallowed hard and said to her son: “The money for this apartment was supposed to be used for your college tuition.”

Yeah, you stupid rude ungrateful kid! Your parents had planned for you to have a good future. But you screwed it up!! They could have taken the money for your college tuition and went on a Mediterranean cruise. However, they still thought of what was good for you when you got out of prison and got you an apartment. No doubt they hoped you would turn your life around with a little bit of help from them.

Meanwhile, they would carry on and try to live a quiet life.

♦ Looks Like a Quiet Life is IMPOSSIBLE!

Kim Hye-Joo and her daughter got into a disagreement, ending with her daughter stomping her feet saying her mother does not know what’s going on and then going to her bedroom and slamming the door closed. Later that evening, Kim Hye-Joo goes to check on her daughter and discovers an empty bed. Like any caring mother, she panicked and went to the police station to report her child missing.

Her husband arrived at the police station and the police were treating it as a “runaway case”. But as soon as they found that he was an assemblyman the police apologized to him and rolled out the red carpet. Nam Joong-Do asked them not to give him special treatment but to handle the case the same way they would for anybody. But of course, the mother is hysterical and pleads for them to do whatever it takes to find her missing daughter.

All of a sudden the police come out in force. Before they were handling it as a runaway child. But the police chief ordered them to treat it as a missing person. Manpower that was supposed to be used for other police work was diverted because … hey! we have to find the assemblyman’s daughter!

Sadly, in the process of trying to find the daughter, the police found the dead body of the son and they found illegal drugs on his person. The daughter shows up at the police station apologizing saying she just left the house because she wanted her parents to be worried about her. She didn’t mean to do anything wrong. So! While the daughter was just trying to get attention, her brother was found dead!

Can it get worse? Yes, it can and yes it does.

Funeral services are held for the dead son and before he can be put into his grave, the news is buzzing about how the assemblyman abused his power to make the police look for his daughter. The missing daughter wasn’t really missing, she was just misbehaving like a spoiled brat. Whereas the dead son was not exactly a model citizen. He had just been released from prison and was found dead 15 days later with illegal drugs in his pocket.

Can it get any worse? Yes, it can and yes it does.

A young girl shows up at the home of the assemblyman saying she’s pregnant with his son’s baby.

Wait a minute! The son died a suspicious death and the police are investigating. Meanwhile, some girl shows up on at the family home where the son grew up and wants to live there. She thinks that she should be allowed to live there with her family. She’s pregnant with his kid, and she was staying with him but he died and now she has nowhere to go.

Needless to say, her appearance immediately caused a divide in the family. The sister told her to get lost! The father did not want her there either. He hasn’t even had a chance to grieve his son’s death. News reporters and fellow politicians are hounding him. He would like to know the truth about his son’s death since it was suspicious. While he’s grappling with that, some young woman he has never met is telling him he will be a grandfather. Is he supposed to hold his arms open and hug her?

By contrast, Kim Hye-Joo wants to be sympathetic and empathetic, because she remembers when she was young, she had no parents, no home, etc. But then she met and married a good man. Surely this young girl just needs a helping hand.

So the husband/father and the daughter/sister are on the same page. Even if the girl is pregnant with the son’s baby, they see no reason why they should take her in off the streets. She’s the one who got involved with him and got pregnant. The parents set the son up in an apartment and hoped he would straighten out his life. They didn’t expect him to die. But they sure didn’t expect him to leave behind a pregnant girl they would have to take care of … for?? … for who knows how long!

The husband also sees no reason why his wife should be so sympathetic and empathetic, and oppose his position on the matter. This girl shows up out of nowhere and she is supposed to be welcomed into his home. WHY?? The fact that his wife wants to help her based on that “sob UNPROVEN story” does not sit well with him.

Can it get any worse?

Well! Let’s just say it gets worse before it gets better. So much for living a quiet life.

Main Characters:

• Kim Hye-Joo (played by Kim Hyun-Joo, “Jung_E”, “Hellbound”, “The Bequeathed”, “Watcher”, “Blooded Palace:The War of Flowers”)
• Nam Joong-Do (played by Park Hee-Soon, “The Policeman’s Lineage”, “A Model Family”)

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

• IMDb: 6.8 out of 10 stars
• My Drama List: 7.7 out of 10 stars

My personal rating is 9 out of 10 stars.

In “Trolley”, the main character is a woman with secrets from her past life. She meets a man who loves her, marries him and tries her best to be a perfect wife and mother. It’s bad enough to have to hide something in the background, hoping that if it stays secret your present and future life will go well. But when trying times and difficulties also occur in your present life … there is an obvious question that comes to mind: ‘Is there such a thing as a quiet life?’

Dr. James Dobson is a well-known family counselor who said there are two types of children: compliant and defiant. The compliant child never causes any problems or makes trouble for his parents. But the middle name for the defiant child might as well be “troublemaker”. They are rude, and disobedient, and seem to want nothing more than to cause their parents grief and pain.

Per Dr. Dobson, rarely do parents experience the extremes. Most children are in between compliant and defiant. But every once in a while, there is a child who causes the family nothing but heartache. The parents often question where they went wrong. But often the reality is that the kid chose to go down a certain path and the child has nobody but blame but themselves. 

As a parent, I found this K-drama relatable and gave high marks for the storyline and the performances of the entire cast.

LINKS OF INTEREST:

• Opinion | In Netflix’s K-drama Trolley, starring Park Hee-soon and Kim Hyun-joo, a politician must choose between his career and family | South China Morning Post
• Park Hee-soon and Kim Hyun-joo star in grim teaser for ‘Trolley’ | NME
• Mystery Romance Drama “Trolley” Introduces Intriguing Cast Of Characters | Soompi

TRAILERS/TEASERS:

Netflix K-Content. “Trolley | Official Trailer | Netflix [ENG SUB].” YouTube Video. YouTube, December 16, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5oO0F3cmXI.‌