Not your typical revenge drama, Wonderful World stars Cha Eun-woo (A Good Day to Be A Dog) in an addictive show filled with burning questions designed to keep viewers on pins and needles. Kim Nam-joo portrays Eun Soo-hyun, a psychology professor and writer who faces the unimaginable loss of her young son after he is hit by a car. When the unrepentant driver of the car escapes punishment, Soo-hyun takes justice into her own hands.
Dealing with his own grief, Soo-hyun’s husband, news anchor Kang Su-ho (Kim Kang-woo), uses his investigative journalism background to dig into the case. Supporting Soo-hyun is Han Yoo-ri (Im Se-mi of True Beauty) her former manager and the woman who is like a sister to her. Rounding out the cast, Cha Eun-woo is the mysterious Gwon Seon-yul. He is a person who seemingly has no connection to Soo-hyun but soon upends her life.
- Series Title: Wonderful World (Korean: 원더풀 월드)
- Starring: Kim Nam-joon, Cha Eun-woo, Kim Kang-woo and Im Se-mi
- Written by: Kim Ji-eun
- Directed by: Lee Seung-young and Jung Sang-hee
- Network: MBC TV
- Where to watch in the US: Hulu
- Premier Date: March 1, 2024
- # of episodes: 12
- KafeNook Rating: 4.3 sips
Wonderful World — !! Spoilers Ahead!!
I happened to be traveling down under when Wonderful World premiered. As a result, I was able to watch the first five episodes of the series through Disney+. That is all it took to get me hooked. Then I returned home to the States where Wonderful World had yet to be released. Even though I had Queen of Tears to keep me occupied, the burning questions from those first episodes of Wonderful World kept running through my mind. Did Soo-yun leave the gate open? Why didn’t Gwon Ji-woong take Gun-woo to the hospital until it was too late? Is Cha Eun-woo’s character the victim of Jang Hyung-ja? Who is the mystery person following Soo-hun?
Much of my Kdrama news comes through social media, so it’s hard to avoid spoilers. As much as I tried not to see information about Wonderful World, a few spoilers broke through. By the time the show became available in its entirety on Hulu, I wondered if it would hold the same interest to me. I worried for nothing. Jumping back in, I quickly became engrossed in the series. Even knowing the answers to a few of my burning questions, I still found myself biting my proverbial nails during each episode. The tension between the characters, especially Soo-hyun and Seon-yul is palatable. And the heartbreak! Plus, the questions kept coming. . .
Here are answers to 8 burning questions in Cha Eun-woo’s Wonderful World that kept me up at night.
Question 1: Did Soo-hyun leave the gate open?
Leading Wonderful World is the wonderful Kim Nam-joo as Eun Soo-hyun. At the start of the drama, Soo-hyun has it all – a successful career, a happy marriage, and a bright, young son who is the center of her world. As she is leaving on a business trip, Soo-hyun learns from husband, Su-ho, that their son, Kang Gun-woo (Lee Jun) has a fever. Instead of going on the trip, she returns home to check on Gun-woo who is playing outside. After talking with Su-ho, Soo-hyun returns outside to find Gun-woo missing and the gate to the street open. What follows is a harrowing time for both parents as they search for their son. Things take a turn for the worst when Gun-woo turns up as the victim of a hit and run. A short time later, the boy succumbs to his injuries.
The first big question in Wonderful World, “Did Soo-hyun leave the gate open?” – is one that nags at Soo-hyun. If the gate had been closed, Gun-woo would still be alive. Soo-hyun desperately believes she heard a click after entering the gate, but her belief is plagued with doubt. A sneak peek at the answer comes early in the drama. Su-ho is shown CCTV footage from that day and threatened to stop his investigation into the incident or risk having the footage sent to Soo-hyun. It’s only at the end of the show that Soo-hyun learns the heartbreaking truth – and understands the reason Su-ho ended his investigation. She did not close the gate.
Question 2: Why didn’t Gwon Ji-woong take Gun-woo directly to the hospital?
The man who ran over Gun-woo is Gwon Ji-woong (Oh Man-seok), the representative of a construction company. When Gun-woo succumbs to his injuries, his parents learn that if Gwon Ji-woong had taken him to the hospital instead of leaving him in the road, the boy might have lived. So why didn’t Gwon Ji-woong take Gun-woo directly to the hospital?
Gwon Ji-woong goes on trial and, to the shock of Soo-hyun and Su-ho, is acquitted. Confronting Gwon Ji-woong in the middle of the street, Soo-hyun asks him to apologize to her dead son. Instead, he complains how the trial hurt his business. Getting into her car, Soo-hyun makes the spur of the moment decision to run down Gwon Ji-woong. For the crime of manslaughter, an unrepentant Soo-hyun is sentenced to seven years in prison.
Su-ho suspects that Gwon Ji-woong got off due to his relationship with Representative Kim Joon (Park Hyuk-kwon). The same person who bribed Su-ho to stop his investigation. Representative Kim has an ulterior motive for helping Gwon Ji-woong. While drinking and driving, he is the person who ran over Gun-woo. Because Gun-woo saw his face, he can’t let the boy live. Kim Joon convinces Ji-woong, a man deep in the Representative’s pockets, to take the fall for the incident. And – make sure Gun-woo won’t talk. As a result, Gwon Ji-woong doesn’t take the boy to the hospital.
Question 3: Is Cha Eun-woo’s character the victim of inmate Jang Hyung-ja?
During her time in prison, Soo-hyun is befriended by fellow inmate, Jang Hyung-ja (Kang Ae-sim). She is a woman who accidentally caused a fire that resulted in the death of a young boy’s parents. After receiving a terminal diagnosis, Hyung-ja asks Soo-hyun to give the now grown boy a notebook. It’s her way of apologizing to him for destroying his life. A young man, portrayed by Cha Eun-woo, appears several times at the prison during Soo-hyun’s sentence. Who he is, is not certain, but his appearance at the prison seems intentional.
Upon her release from prison, Soo-hyun visits Gun-woo’s grave. There she is comforted by Cha Eun-woo’s character who is also at the cemetary. Later, when Soo-hyun tracks down the boy, Seon-yul, from Hyung-ja’s crime, she is surprised to meet the same young man she met at Gun-woo’s gravesite. Was their original meeting a coincidence? Seon-yul expresses his anger at Soo-hyun who wants to give him her dead friend’s notebook. He has no interest in helping Hyung-ja atone for her crime. On her own journey of atonement, Soo-hyun perseveres until Seon-yul finally accepts the notebook.
The two frequently meet again – often at the construction yard where Seon-yul works. Soo-hyun brings Seon-yul food and is concerned about his frequent injuries. Some of Seon-yul’s injuries come from his side job – carrying out clandestine tasks for Representative Kim Joon. Wearing dark clothes and a ball cap, he looks the part of a sleuth while taking damaging photos of Representative Kim’s opponents. Seon-yul seems to relish the altercations that come with the job. This worries his friend, Hong Su-jin (Yang Hye-ji), who reminds him of his heart condition.
Su-jin is also helping Seon-yul track down Gwon Min-hyuk (Lim Ji-sub), a young man who lives on the edge. When he finds Min-hyuk, Seon-yul rescues the other boy from thugs and takes him to the hospital to treat his injuries. Later, Seon-yul delivers the notebook from inmate Hyung-ja to Min-hyuk, telling the other boy it is now with its rightful owner. This reveals that Seon-yul is not the boy whose parents died in the fire caused by Hyung-ja.
Question 4: Who did Su-ho have an affair with?
When Soo-hyun returns home after her prison sentence, Su-ho begs her to take him back. She agrees and the two share their heartbreaking story on the air where they talk about how they are moving on together. But just as Soo-hyun begins to glimpse happiness again, her life comes crashing down. After the broadcast, she receives an anonymous picture of Su-hu and another woman.
When confronted, Su-ho admits to his one-time indiscretion, but he refuses to divulge the identity of the other woman. Then Soo-hyun catches him lying about his whereabouts and follows him to a hotel. There, she discovers he is meeting with the woman who lives across the street, Yoon Hye-geum (Cha Soo-yeon). Hye-geum, whose son used to play with Gun-woo, later confirms she is the one in the photo. Soo-hyun reveals the affair to her friend Yoo-ri, prompting Yoo-ri to angrily confront Su-ho about his actions.
But – Yoo-ri is hiding her own secret. Soo-hyun sees the recording of Yoo-ri and Su-ho’s confrontation and is shocked to learn that Yoo-ri is actually the person in the photo with Su-ho. While Soo-hyun was in prison, Su-ho and Yoo-ri sought comfort with each other though both immediately felt regret. What hurts Soo-hyun the most is not the indiscretion, but the fact both Su-ho and Yoo-ri lied to her.
Question 5: Who is the mystery person following Soo-hyun?
A mysterious figure follows Soo-hyun after she gets out of prison and is the one who sent the picture of Su-ho’s affair. The drama initially hints this person is the troubled Min-hyuk. But with the reveal that Min-hyuk is the boy from the fire – he doesn’t seem to have a reason to go after Soo-hyun.
Soo-hyun’s investigation into who sent the photo leads her to the wife of Gwon Ji-woong, the man Soo-hyun killed. During Soo-hyun’s time in prison, Gwon Ji-woong’s wife, Kim Eun-min (Kang Myung-Joo) became the victim of a hit and run and is now in coma. When Soo-hyun makes a visit to the comatose Eun-min, she is surprised to see Seon-yul enter the hospital room. She is even more surprised when blue-collar worker, Seon-yul, displays a knowledge of medical procedures after the woman’s vitals plunge. After Soo-hyun leaves the hospital room, what she doesn’t see is Seon-yul taking the patients hand and calling her mom. Not long afterward, Soo-hyun puts the pieces together, realizing Seon-yul purposefully directed her to him as Hyung-ja’s victim – that he doesn’t have any burn scars. Seon-yul is the son of Gwon Ji-woong.
Question 6: Why does Seon-yul wait to take his revenge on Soo-hyun?
For the first five or six episodes of the show, it’s not clear who is pulling the strings. Once Seon-yul is revealed to be the mastermind, his character is even more riveting. Who knew Cha Eun-woo would be so good at playing a character harboring malicious intention? At the same time, it’s riveting to see Seon-yul holding in all his heartbreak and sorrow. This is a character who lost his father because of Soo-hyun and watches his mother slowly fade away in coma. I would hate to see Cha Eun-woo play a villain in a future drama, but if he did, he would be good at. The intensity in his eyes as Seon-yul plots his revenge is a little scary.
Seon-yul purposefully visited the prison where Soo-hyun was an inmate to get information on the woman who destroyed his family. During that time, he plotted his revenge. Meeting Soo-hyun at the cemetery, pretending to be Hyung-ja’s victim, frequenting the restaurant run by Soo-hyun’s mother, getting Soo-hyun to care for him all fit into his plan. Wanting Soo-hyun to suffer the way he has suffered, Seon-yul waits to execute that plan until the moment Soo-hyun is happy again.
Question 7: – Why did someone try to kill Seon-yul’s mother?
Soo-hyun is suspicious of the accident that put Seon-yul’s mother, Eun-min, in a coma. Conducting her own investigation, she discovers someone paid the truck driver to run over Eun-min. When Soo-hyun gives this information to Seon-yul, it’s his turn to be stunned. Taking her last breath, Eun-min says one word to Seon-yul’s friend, Su-jin – “tablet”. At the same time, Soo-hyun learns from her neighbor that Gun-woo had his tablet in hand when he left the house.
Grieving for his deceased mother, Seon-yul listens to the saved calls on her phone and hears the conversation his father had with Soo-hyun right before his death. Once he hears his unrepentant father, Soo-hyun better understands why Soo-hyun took the action she did. He also remembers how his mother told him to always keep her locket with him. In the locket, he finds an SD card with information on the location of Gun-woo’s tablet.
Soo-hyun recovers the tablet from a pawn shop and, taking it to her house, watches the last video recorded by Gun-woo. A lurking Seon-yul listens in. During the video, Representative Kim not only asks Seon-yul’s father to take the blame for running over Gun-woo. He also tells him to make sure the very much alive boy will never talk. In return, he promises to help Gwon Ji-woong’s dying son, Seon-yul, receive a needed heart transplant. Seon-yul learns two heartbreaking truths. He is alive now because of Gun-woo – and, Representative Kim, the man who paid the medical bills for his mother, is the one who tried to kill her. All to prevent the video on the tablet coming to light.
Question 8: Will Representative Kim be brought to justice?
After hearing the recording on Gun-woo’s tablet, Soo-hyun and Seon-yul apologize to each other for the actions they took that caused harm to the other person. Seon-yul realizes the only person who has ever treated him with kindness is Soo-hyun. Instead of hurting her any longer, he wants to help bring down Representative Kim.
Su-ho also plans to take down Kim Joon. His first attempts fails when neighbor Hye-geum doesn’t show up at Su-ho’s broadcast with Kim Joon. Representative Kim is the father of Hye-geum’s son, and he uses the boy to keep her from bringing forward the evidence she has against him. Soo-hyun also fails in her first legal action against Kim Joon due to the media blitz that protects him. Undaunted, she uses her status as an author to announce she is writing a book about the events surrounding Gun-woo’s death. In the process, she fingers Kim Joon as the ultimate culprit. Though an investigation is opened, once again Representative Kim escapes justice.
Soo-hyun then stages a one-woman protest. Eventually joining her are Seon-yul, her mother, Yoo-ri and the people Soo-hyun has helped and supported throughout the drama. In the meantime, its revealed that Seon-yul offered to help Su-ho get Kim Joon to confess to his crime. Su-ho only pretended to turn over the tablet to Kim Joon, while Representative Kim’s assistant used a hidden camera to record his confession. During Kim Joon’s speech in front of his constituents, Su-ho airs the video of his Kim Joon’s confession along with the footage from Gun-woo’s tablet. Kim Joon is finally arrested, found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
Wonderful World Ending
Soo-hyun meets with Seon-yul one last time to encourage him to “dream, heal and truly live”. They agree to part ways, but Soo-hyun wants Seon-yul to contact her again when he is doing better. Seon-yul has learned from Soo-hyun what it feels like to truly receive care and compassion in the midst of heartbreak. She shares with him a way they can both move forward with their lives – just as Gun-woo would want.
After a time jump of six years, Wonderful World reveals how each of the main characters has moved on with their lives. Seon-yul, who dropped out of medical school to plot his revenge, is a medical resident. Yoo-ri has launched her own fashion brand. Now a news director, Su-hu takes care of Soo-hyun’s mother who has dementia. Soo-hyun is the “mother” of a group of children at an orphanage and has published a new book. At her book signing event, Soo-hyun sees Seon-yul again for the first time in six years and sends her a text. He is okay now.
Wonderful World Final Thoughts
Wonderful World succeeds at posing burning questions throughout the show, but these questions would be meaningless if not brought to life by the stellar cast. Being a mother herself, it is easy to see how actress Kim Nam-joo tapped into the emotions of her role. The tragic loss of a child and the failure of the justice system to prosecute the person responsible could drive any mother to unimaginable lengths. Kim Nam-joo’s performance is a master class in acting with Soo-hyun’s range of emotions on full display.
Not to be outdone, Kim Kang-woo’s soulful gaze, genuinely expresses Su-ho’s grief in his inability to protect his family. When Soo-hyun pushes him away so as not to hamper his career, the devastation he conveys is clear. Anb his own tragedy in compounded. And Im Se-mi as Yoo-ri perfectly portrays the anguished friend, devasted by the hurt she caused to the woman she calls sister.
In his best role since Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung, Cha Eun-woo convincingly portrays the various aspects of Seon-yul’s complicated character. Starting with controlled indifference punctuated with bursts of action, he later shows a calculating intelligence and simmering rage. This is followed up by explosive grief, heartbreaking denial, and finally resolute determination. But it is the relationship between Soo-hyun and Seon-yul that really shines. Soo-hyun continually defies Seon-ho’s expectations by reaching out to him even after experiencing the results of his revenge. For her part, Soo-hyun sees in Seon-yul the consequences of her decision to run down his father. She takes responsibility for those consequences and subsequently helps him not only him, but others like him.
Ultimately, it is how these characters move from profound tragedy to finding a way to live again, that makes the show worth watching.
Wonderful World Soundtrack
The Wonderful World soundtrack didn’t grab me like the OST of many other Kdramas. I often found the soap opera-esc music grating. But there are some bright spots. These include Cuz You sung by Park Hak ki, Kwon In Seo’s haunting Remember, and the main track Never Again with soaring vocals by Lim Ji Soo
