Actor Park Sung-woong is winning hearts and laughs with his realistic portrayal of a K-father in ‘Simu-myeon Yeonri-ri’. However, the 12-episode series faced a bit of a blow when episode 5 recorded a low rating of 1.5% on May 7.
Airing every Thursday on KBS 2TV, the mini-series ‘Simu-myeon Yeonri-ri’ follows the chaotic rural life of Seong Tae-hoon (Park Sung-woong), a city man who moves to the “pure yet fierce” area of Yeonri-ri.
Park Sung-woong realistically captures the weight of being the primary breadwinner. Fans are noting his “laugh-cry” lines, such as “Giving up is only for counting cabbages,” “I don’t mind struggling, but my family can’t. I will endure no matter what to go back,” and “Work and kids are both so hard.”
After being demoted from the Mat Story headquarters to Yeonri-ri, Seong Tae-hoon dives into cabbage farming to return to Seoul, but the reality is harsh. From the runaway antics of his second son Seong Ji-sang (Seo Yoon-hyuk) and youngest Seong Ji-gu (Yang Woo-hyuk) to the eldest son Seong Ji-cheon (Lee Jin-woo) dropping out of medical school, his “children farming” is also not going as planned. Things get even tougher when his wife finds out he tried to hide Ji-cheon’s dropout and his carefully tended cabbage field is damaged.
Despite these hardships, Seong Tae-hoon shows strong responsibility for his family, declaring, “A father never gives up. I’ll use the word ‘give up’ only when I’m counting those cabbages to send to the company, but there is no such word in my life.” He also shows touching fatherly love by comforting Seong Ji-cheon, who gave up medical school due to trauma from a medical accident.
Despite the acting, ‘Simu-myeon Yeonri-ri’ is struggling in the 1% rating range, with episode 5 hitting a low of 1.5%. With the 12-episode series now past the halfway mark, all eyes are on whether it can bounce back.
Meanwhile, in episode 7, Seong Tae-hoon began questioning Mat Story. Tension rose as it was revealed that Director Choi (Min Sung-wook) manipulated cabbage seedling test results, and the identity of the fake field manager Noh Hyun-gap (Jung Sun-chul) was partially revealed.
Episode 8 of ‘Simu-myeon Yeonri-ri’ will air on the 14th at 9:50 PM.
