Bimil (비밀) Drama

I remember watching this back in 2004 or 2005-ish when it aired in Cantonese dubbing on the Chinese satelite TV thingy and I really loved it then, but now that I'm watching it again, it's hard to stand in a way.

This drama was made back in year 2000, so most of the Korean dramas then had the same formula. There was always the main heroine or hero who was poor, then they're actually related to or falls in love with someone in a rich family, next there's always a deceptive evil sister or something that prevents people from finding out the real identity of the main character or allowing the main character to get together with the other main person, and lastly, someone dies in a car crash or leukemia. I think this was the second to last drama I watched before quitting K-drama completely since they were basically the same in almost every way.

In Bimil, it's a story about a girl who wants to be a fashion designer, but currently works in a clothing wholesale shop within a department store. She believes herself to be an orphan, taken in by her father, a truck driver whom once owned a clothing store, and is thankful to him for bringing her up all her life, except... she is actually his real daughter. The man was resentful towards the woman whom left him behind nearly 25 years ago, so he brought up his biological daughter as though he adopted her. He then met another woman and had a daughter with her, but he was abusive towards this woman and then she died. He raised this second daughter as his biological daughter, and she grew up with a deceitful streak.

Now in the present, the woman whom left her lover and infant child behind 25 years ago, is back in Korea as a famous designer. She wants to find the daughter whom she left behind years ago and support her as she should have, but she makes a mistake and thinks the younger daughter is her real daughter. The younger daughter, becoming more power-hungry and twisted, tricks the fashion designer and makes herself into a rich lady while her half-sister, the real daughter to the fashion designer, has no idea of what has happened.

At the same time, the director of the fashion designer's company falls in love with the main girl, but the fashion designer wants her "daughter" to marry the director, and it causes quite a rift between the two sisters. In the end, the main girl finds out that the fashion designer is actually her mother when she is diagnosed with leukemia and the younger sister runs to the main girl begging for her to donate bone marrow. However, despite that, the fashion designer eventually passes away without ever really reuniting with her real daughter. (Yeah, the fashion designer telling the main girl to call her mom as she lays dying by her bedside doesn't really count as a reunion =_= even if she does acknowledge that the girl before her is her biological daughter).

This is basically the entire story summed up in a nutshell. It's a bit excruciating to watch at the moment, because there's nothing more irritating than watching one of the sisters be a complete bitch, while the other accepts all the abuse. Frankly, it's annoying.

I used to love this drama, but now I can't seem to like it at all. Oh well.