Welcome to Samdal-ri is the heartwarming story of two people who reconnect after years apart.  When successful photographer, Cho Sam-dal (Shin Hye-sun of Mr. Queen), is accused of bullying by her mentee, her only recourse to escape the bad press is to return to her hometown of Samdal-ri.  The last person she wants to see there is Cho Yong-pil (Healer’s Ji Chang-wook), her childhood friend and ex-boyfriend.

A Jeju Island weather forecaster, Yong-pil works to protect the people he loves even if that gives him a reputation as a troublemaker.  Then Sam-dal, his first and only love, returns home.  The more time the two spend together, the more their feelings for each other come to light.  As they discover the truth concerning the events that broke them apart eight years earlier, they are given a second chance at love.

• Series Title:  Welcome to Samdal-ri (Korean: 웰컴투 삼달리)
• Starring:  Ji Chang-wook, Shin Hye-sun, Kim Mi-kyung, Kang Young-seok
• Written by:  Kwon Hye-joo
• Directed by:  Cha Young-hoon
• Network:  JTBC
• Where to watch in the US:  Netflix
• Premier Date:  December 2, 2023
• # of episodes: 16
• KafeNook Rating:  4.6 sips

Welcome to Samdal-ri  — !! Spoilers Ahead!!

You know that feeling you get when you watch a drama and are little depressed when it’s over?  That’s how I felt after watching Healer, starring Ji Chang-wook.  My cure for that?  Find another Ji Chang-wook drama to watch!  Welcome to Samdal-ri seemed like the perfect choice – especially since it also features Shin Hye-sun who I adored in Mr. Queen.  What can I say except this show does not disappoint.

I am glad I waited to watch Welcome to Samdal-ri after all the episodes aired.  The wait between episodes would have killed me.  This show is like a treasure hunt for the heart with events from the past fed out like breadcrumbs. Part of the fun of the series is trying to figure out what happened in the past to these characters who reconnect in the present.

Parallels between Welcome to Samdal-ri and Hometown Cha Cha Cha are inevitable.  Both feature seaside towns.  Both contain nosey, loud yet endearing town residents.  And both feature characters who overcome a past trauma.  Unlike the fictional town of Gonjin, a place I imagined visiting in my review of Hometown Cha Cha Cha, Samdal-ri is a real neighbored in Seongsan-eup, Seogwipo City, Jeju Island.  That means Jeju is now firmly on my bucket list.  I would love to walk the shores of Samdal-ri looking for dolphins. Or get ice cream at the tiny market down the road.  Will I see haenyeo’s diving?   Are the waters as beautiful as they look on screen?  Is the sunset as vibrant?   How great it would be to find out.    

The Scandal

Both in real life and in Kdramas, scandals are big news in South Korea. It’s not surprising then, that a bullying accusation is the launching point for Welcome to Samdal-ri.  Cho Sam-dal, a famous photographer is accused of workplace bullying following her mentee’s apparent suicide attempt.   The press and public sentiment side with the mentee. People she thought of as friends and clients she had worked with for years shy away from her. Even when Sam-dal tries to tell her side of the story, no one is interested in hearing it – except the people in her hometown.

To escape the press, Sam-dal retreats to her childhood home of Samdal-ri. Returning home after eight years away leads Sam-dal on an emotional journey of self-discovery. She is vindicated when the mentee’s true colors finally come to light, but more importantly, she reclaims herself, her family, her childhood friends – and the boy she never stopped loving.

A Red Ball of Yarn:  The History of Sam-dal and Yong-pil

Sam-dal and Yong-pil are the heart of the story. Born on the same day, they are best friends growing up.  Sometime after moving to Seoul, their affection for each other changes.  Yong-pil attempts to confess his feelings to a drunk Sam-dal, but instead ends up opening a present from her containing a red, knit scarf.   With the scarf is a note from Sam-dal admitting her feelings for him. He dances for joy at realization that she also likes. Their life in Seoul is not always easy but they share the good and bad moments together.  

A trip back Samdal-ri brings up a painful reminder from the past. Yong-pil’s father, Cho Sang-tae (Yu Oh-seong) continues to blame Sam-dal’s mother, Go Mi-ja (Kim Mi-kyung) for the drowning death of his wife years earlier.  Unbeknownst to Yong-pil, his father tells Sam-dal to break up with him, threatening that Yong-pil will lose both his parents if she doesn’t. Heartbroken, Sam-dal does as he asks. She saw what Yong-pil went through when his mother died and doesn’t want him to lose his father. Yong-pil is naturally upset by Sam-dal’s action. In anger, he pulls apart the red, knit scarf and wraps it into a ball of yarn.   Before he can go after Sam-dal to win her back, his father guilts him into staying for his mother’s memorial service.  Following the service, a confrontation between Sang-tae and Mi-ja causes Mi-ja to collapse, revealing her heart condition.   

Sam-dal regrets her decision to break-up with Yong-pil and returns to Samdal-ri but this time its Yong-pil who breaks up with her.   He knows that if Sam-dal learns of her mother’s heart condition she will give up her dream of studying abroad.  Yong-pil makes the choice to be the one to stay on Jeju to look after and protect Mi-ja who refuses to give up diving.   Not realizing why Sam-dal broke up with him in the first place, he believes he is the only one to suffer. He doesn’t realize how much other people end up suffering due to his decision.

During their eight years apart, Sam-dal tries to move on from Yong-pil. She dates other men, but always compares them to her first love.  Yong-pil, on the other hand, admits to his friends that he never tried to move on from Sam-dal. He continues to love her, as painful as that is for him. It’s the red ball of yarn that is the symbol of that love and his hope she will return to him. Even though his father repeatedly tries to throw away that ball of yarn, Yong-pil stubbornly retrieves it from the trash each time. After Yong-pil and Sam-dal finally get back together, Yong-pil gives her the red ball of yarn and tells her to unwind it.  Inside, Sam-dal discovers the note she gave him with the scarf and realizes he has held onto her love all this time.

The Cho Women

A great thing about a drama like Welcome to Samdal-ri are the supporting characters. I couldn’t help but root for the women in Sam-dal’s family.  Leader of the Samdal-ri haenyeo divers, Sam-dal’s mom, Mi-ja is a stubborn woman who is haunted by the death of her friend.  There were times when I got mad at Mi-ja for being part of the reason that Sam-dal and Yong-pil are apart. But in the end, she moves past her grief and fights for the two of them.  It’s also nice to see Ji Chang-wook reunited with his Ajumma – Healer co-star Kim Mi-kyung.  They easily slide back into their mother/son chemistry from Healer.

Sam-dal also has two remarkable sisters. Oldest sister Cho Jin-da (Shin Dong-mi) is a former flight attendant and ex-wife AS Group CEO Jeon Dae-young (Yang Kyung-won of Crash Landing on You).  She can be loud and opinionated but is at a loss for words by the fact her ex-husband still loves her. Jin-da hates his family and their company, but it’s clear she is not over him either. Who else will protect him from cockroaches? By the end of the drama, Jin-dal is back at work, this time training flight attendants. (Why does she carry around a suitcase at work?)  She is also back in a relationship with her former husband, now the president of AS Airlines. 

If anyone deserves happiness, it is younger sister, Cho Hae-dal (Kang Mi-na) and her daughter, Ha-yul (Kim Do-eun). They have the best relationship – sometimes mother and daughter, sometimes like sisters. It’s a fact that observant Gong Ji-chan (Kim Min-chul), CEO of the Dolphin Center, points out. He seems like the perfect husband/father for these two cuties. How sweet is it that Ha-yul emulates Ji-chan’s interest in dolphins after meeting him -not to mention trying to bring him and her mother together. She knows his gaze will go immediately to that dolphin tailed necklace she tells her mother to wear. Ji-chan is also the person who gives Hae-dal the idea of becoming a haenyeo like her mom to help keep Mi-ja safe. (He’s handsome and smart!) After two years, Hae-dal and Ji-chan are still dating. Isn’t it time for them to marry and give daughter Ha-yul the beautiful family she craves? 

The Power Rangers

Sam-dal and Yong-pil would not have found their way back to each other without the help of their three friends and fellow Power Rangers. Talkative Wang Kyung-tae (Lee Jae-won), who works as a security guard at the Meteorological Administration, has a mouth that gets him into trouble. However, he is remarkably insightful and is often the one who reveals a critical piece of information. In spite of this, he has a hard time talking to the person of his affection – one of Sam-da’ls assistants. Thankfully she recommends he text her what he wants to stay or that relationship would have been DOA!

Cha Eun-woo (Bae Myung-jin), an observer at the Meteorological Administration, is a little touchy about his famous name. (Yep, the one that Astro singer, Lee Dong-min, took as his stage name. 😊) He is the person who best understands the truths that his friends keep even from themselves and is the one they can confide in. After moving back to Seoul, it’s great to see him fulfill his own dream of working in the comic book industry.

Boo Sand-do (Kang Young-seok) runs a popular restaurant and has the coolest car in town.  He’s had feelings for Sam-dal since childhood but could never find an opening. Somehow Yong-pil always ends up where Sand-do wants to be. As Sand-do tells his friend, even walls need repairing after thirty years but there has never been a crack between Sam-dal and Yong-pil that he could wedge himself between. Poor Sand-do never had a chance. Maybe in Seoul where he ends up running another location of his family’s restaurant, he will finally find someone to love and who appreciate him.

Welcome to Samdal-ri Ending

After Sam-dal and Yong-pil reunite, Sam-dal seeks out Sang-tae. She tells Yong-pil’s father that she would like his blessing but will wait for it because Yong-pil is the only person for her. She will love him forever. Sang-tae finally comes to his senses after hearing her words and gives the two of them his blessing. With the scandal behind her, Sam-dal holds her first exhibit under her original name in Samdal-ri. Her photographs showcasing the People and Weather of Samdal-ri are amazing but especially the final picture simply captioned: “My Yong-pil”. (Drying my eyes here.) Yong-pil is the red, ball of yarn of her life, always surrounding Sam-dal with love and support. He is the one who protected their love over the years, giving them the chance to be together again.

Two years later . . . (I am not a big fan of time jumps in Kdramas, but the more I think about the time jump in Welcome to Samdal-ri, the more I’m good with it.)  Yong-pil and Sam-dal spent eight years apart, so it seems a little unfair for them to be separated again with Yong-pil off to the world weather organization in Switzerland.  But this time, at least they are back together and can visit each other. It also means that Yong-pil, who sacrificed so much for the people he loves, can realize his dream.  He supported Sam-dal’s dream for years and always put himself on the back burner.  He deserves to live out his dream and Sam-dal deserves the chance to help him accomplish it.

More popular than ever, Sam-dal’s business is thriving, but she misses Yong-pil.  Then he arrives in Seoul, giving her the best Christmas present ever – himself!  Even better, Yong-pil is clearly there to stay. His final scene shows him working (and causing trouble as usual) at the Korean National Weather Forecast Bureau in Seoul.

Random Things I Liked

Maybe this goes under the topic of “most frustrating”. Yong-pil plans a romantic camping trip for him and Sam-dal only to have her assistants crash the party.   He even went all out with wine and little lights for the tent!  Sam-dal owes him a bunch of romantic camping trips in the future.

The old-fashioned looking epilogues for each episode that reveal events from the past.

The Haenyeo divers driving around in their little four-wheelers to gunfight style music.

Yong-pil showing up in Seoul the day before Christmas gave me the wish from my Healer review – Ji Chang-wook in another turtleneck!

Welcome to Samdal-ri Soundtrack

A slice of life drama like Welcome to Samdal-ri is bound to include a collection of great songs.   I have three favorites from this soundtrack: Short Hair, a fun, upbeat song sung by DOKYEOM, Dream by Taeyeon which embodies the spirit of the dreams of the main characters, and Shin Seung Hun singing the beautiful Reunion.  Fun fact:  all three are new versions of songs by the famous Korean singer-songwriter Cho Yong Pil who is featured in the drama.   

My rating:   4.6 sips