“SKY Castle” (SKY 캐슬)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
February 2, 2019

☆☆☆☆
Han Seo-Jin / Kwak Mi-Hyang (played by Yum Jung-Ah)
Lee Soo-Im (played by Lee Tae-ran)
No Seung-Hye (played by Yoon Se-Ah)
Jin Jin-Hee (played by Oh Na-Ra )
Kim Joo-Young (played by Kim Seo-Hyung)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name

The first episode of “SKY Castle” was so preposterous that I was either shaking my head in disbelief or laughing.

Having just finished the series finale, I am left with a little lump in my throat, not because it’s over, but because I know there are so many children out there who are at the mercy of a brutal educational system — where you are told your life means nothing if you don’t get into Seoul National University, Korea University or Yonsei University.

Of course, most South Koreans don’t graduate from SKY universities and manage to do just fine. But being told that you are a failure at life because you’re not a good test taker — or because you simply are not smart enough — is a brutal way to break a child’s spirit.

“SKY Castle” is what I call a “Melrose Place” drama. As with that American night-time soap opera, there is an evil character who on occasion does something human, and is therefore forgiven by her friends and loved ones. On “Melrose Place,” it was Amanda Woodward (Heather Locklear). Here, it’s Seo-Jin. The wife of a bigwig surgeon and the mother of two girls — the eldest of whom is the smartest in her school — Seo-Jin is the Queen Bee of SKY Castle. The other women either look up to (or fear) her.

Seo-Jin’s goal in life is to ensure that her daughter, Ye-Seo, enters Seoul National University’s Medical School and becomes their family’s third generation of doctors. Ye-Seo’s primary competition is Woo-Joo, a neighbor she has a crush on, and Hye-Na, a poor classmate she hates.

She seeks the advice of her friend and neighbor, Myung-Joo, whose son Young-Jae has just been accepted at Seoul National University Medical School. Seo-Jin learns that he had the help of Kim Ju-Young, a very expensive, very thorough specialized tutor who guaranteed his enrollment into the prestigious school. That’s all Seo-Jin needed to hear in order to ensure that her child would be a sure thing as well.

Some might say that cold-hearted Joo-Young is the true villian in this series. But without parents like Seo-Jin, she would not exist.

The last few minutes of Episode One were shocking and I will not ruin that surprise here. (Check my Spoiler Alert below if you want to know.)

According to an article in the Telegraph, this series — which clearly is critical of children being put under this type of pressure — has resulted in a subset of parents seeking out academic coaches like the ones depicted in “SKY Castle”:

While the dysfunctional characters in the series add to the parody, the germs of its success lie in the relatable depiction of the crushing pressures of the South Korean education system, which has driven young students to despair and sometimes tragically to suicide.

Central to the plot is Kim Ju-young, a coldly efficient university “coordinator” who once worked as an admissions officer at Seoul National University and who now advises the families privately on how to advance their children through the elite education system.

According to Lee Bohm, an education critic and a founding member of Megastudy, a massive private education corporation, the drama and Ms Kim’s role has generated demand from parents who want to find similar “fixers” to assist their own children.

“It’s obvious that the writers of the drama are being critical, and the reality is exaggerated. However, many people sympathise with the students in the drama because they also went through a similar competitive system,” he said.

“Many parents have started to look for similar services through consultants and I even have people asking me if these private coordinators actually exist.”

Mr Lee, who has worked in the educational field for decades, believes that they do. In a Telegraph interview, he described them as well-connected figures, often with a background in the education field, who operate discreetly in the shadows.

Despite all the cries to “fight the patriarchy,” when you deconstruct this series, you can see that it’s also a condemnation of a woman’s role in Korean society. All these housewives who reside at SKY Castle are educated and (mostly) refined women. But they quit their jobs once they became mothers. (The exception is Lee Soo-Im, who’s a writer. Yay, writers!) Their husbands treat them as glorified servants, whose job it is to get the meals on the table and keep the household running smoothly.

Why? Because, as they keep saying, a working mom doesn’t have the time and fortitude to prepare their children for school, tutors, tests and college. With that in mind, why was it so important for Ye-Seo to do well in school? She could become the most successful doctor in the world. But wouldn’t she be expected to give it all up if she became a parent? Or would she be expected not to become a mother?

And, just to make things clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a woman or man choosing to become a stay-at-home parent. The problem arises when your choice is really an order.

Seo-Jin’s younger daughter, Ye-Bin, does everything she can to get her mother’s attention. Because she’s not a great student, she doesn’t get the love and affection that her mom showers on her older sister. Even when she shoplifts for attention, her mother’s concern isn’t, “Why is my child acting out like this?” Rather, she wants to hide the evidence, because it will look bad on her school records.

There are the usual KDrama tropes — prejudice against orphans, parents hitting children, disdain for stepmothers, lazy teachers who only care about results — but there are some truly great moments as well.

My favorite was watching the slow evolution of Professor Cha, an asshole of a husband and father, who is at the risk of losing his entire family unless he agrees to let them exert their right to free will. Played by the excellent Kim Byung-Chul (“Mr. Sunshine,” “Goblin,” “Descendants of the Sun“), Professor Cha is a character you will roll your eyes at and feel empathy for every now and again. By the time he gets around to drunk texting his saintly wife Seung-Hye (Yoon Se-Ah), I was rooting for him. Because how could I not after reading this: “Without you, I am a birch tree alone standing in Siberian blizzard.” 😂

What I really enjoyed about this series is that it shows that life doesn’t have to be one way, just because that’s how it has always been. I loved seeing some of the characters take time off from school — or eschew higher education all together — to get their acts together and/or figuring out how they would shape their own lives.

There are alternatives to being No. 1 in your class. And life goes on for those who fail to make the grade. Literally.

Airdates: JTBC aired 20 episodes (ranging from 60- to 80-minute long) from November 23, 2018 to February 1, 2019.

“Hero”:

This is the second K-Drama where I’ve heard “Hero,” a song by the American group, Family of the Year. While not as well placed as in “It’s Okay, That’s Love,” the song lends a melancholy sense of hope in some of the scenes in the final two episodes.

Ratings:

As of today, “SKY Castle” achieved the highest rating for any Korean cable broadcasting station. The previous record holder was tvN’s “Goblin.”

Spoiler Alert: 

After reading her son’s diary, blaming his misery on his parents, Myung-Joo commits suicide.

Hye-Na is Ye-Seo’s half sister. Their dad had an affair, but never knew he had fathered a child. Remember how I said that Seo-Jin was the series’ true villian? She knew about this, but didn’t tell her husband during a crucial life-and-death moment. Hye-Na died, without her father having ever known she was his daughter. Make no mistake about it: This dad was an asshole, too. He only felt remorse once he learned it was his flesh and blood he let die, rather than some anonymous patient who deserved the same care as the rich and connected.

As for Kim Joo-Young, she got her crazy on after a university classmate bettered her in becoming the youngest professor in Korea. Her weird idea of revenge was to move to Virginia and raise her child, Kay, to become a genius. When the pressures of being a 9-year-old college student was too much for the little girl, Joo-Young’s husband threatened divorce. Before that could happen, Joo-Young had the brakes on her husband’s car cut, which killed him. The accident also permanently damaged Kay, who would live the rest of her life mentally handicapped.

When you deconstruct #SKYCastle, it’s not only a condemnation of the crazy lengths parents go to make their students No. 1, but also the expectation that a woman has to quit her job to be a valuable mother. My review⏯️https://t.co/YjbjBJS5SG pic.twitter.com/QJkAHFKLRb

— Jae-Ha Kim 김재하 (@GoAwayWithJae) February 3, 2019

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