Page Turner

Episodes: 3

Synopsis:

        Yoo Seul is a piano genius and the top student of an art high school. She has been extremely successful in her piano career and has won numerous contests under her mother's watchful eye. Her mother begins to invest her entire life into Yoo Seul because she saw that her daughter could achieve the dream of being a pianist that she wanted for herself when she was younger. As Yoo Seul's mother continues to push Yoo Seul to do greater and achieve more with her talent, Yoo Seul works harder and misses out on a lot of opportunities to live as a normal teenage girl just to make her mother happy. However, one day, everything changed. Yoo Seul gets into a car accident and loses her sight. Blinded, she loses faith in herself and is hurt when her mother cared more about her playing piano than about her health. She decided she was tired of piano, of pretending to like it, and that she was going to quit. It is through her rival Jin Mok and the happy-go-lucky Cha Sik that she learns to live her life the way she wants and in a way where she falls in love with piano for herself instead of for her mother. 

Review:
         This is an extremely short drama as it is only 3 episodes. It is a fast watch but very touching, comedic, and beautiful. This drama is more about finding yourself after losing yourself than anything else. The three main characters in this drama struggle with their own battles and find solace in their passion for music and for doing something they believe in. Yoo Seul lived her life playing the piano according to her mother's wishes. However, after the accident, she is able to make her own decisions to stop playing the piano, to play again, and so forth. She is able to fall in love with piano based on her own free-will instead of constantly being forced into it. At the same time, she is also given the ability to enjoy life as a high school student as she plays with Cha Sik, argues with Jin Mok, and rides on a bike for the first time in her life.
         Cha Sik was extremely likable for me because his personality was very endearing. He is a happy-go-lucky guy who is very impulsive in the things he does. However, once he sets his mind on something, he goes through with it. He starts off as an athlete on the national team for pole vaulting. After an accident, he finds out that the injuries in his spine would prevent him from being able to continue with sports. Despite being disheartened, he tried to keep up a positive image to not worry his mother. Cha Sik lost himself for a while because he didn't feel like he fit anything except for Thankfully, through his loving relationship with his mother and her constant support for him, he was able to rediscover himself in music after a white lie her mother used to get him out of his depression. He begins to put everything he has into playing the piano and becomes Yoo Seul's aid at school so that he is able to attend class and practice alongside with her.
          Jin Mok spent his entire life butting heads with Yoo Seul. He's second place in the school while Yoo Seul was first place. Constantly being torn by the idea that he was not good enough to become a world-reknown pianist, he begins to despise those better than him. After Yoo Seul's accident, he begins to actually see reality more clearly as he begins to help her more and also battle against himself. At the very end, he was able to confidently say that it didn't matter if he only became a piano teacher instead of a pianist because he still wanted to try and he still wanted to play piano. Jin Mok grew a lot as a character and finally became comfortable in his own skin as the drama went on. It was great watching him stop whining and actually figure things out and resolve his internal struggles.
         These three stories are all tied together. It was funny watching their interactions and touching to see them all fight their own battles, practice piano, and perform at competitions. I feel like this is definitely worth watching. I really enjoyed it (especially since I'm a big fan of Kim So Hyun -- watching her grow in each drama she acts in has been a wonderful experience for me over the years).