Thirty, Nine
Mi-Jo, Chan-Young and Joo-Hee are on the verge of turning 40 and spend a lot of time together. They do their best to avoid baby showers or weddings, believing they’re too old for that now. However, they do attend funerals – an ominous bit of foreshadowing I assume? Mi-Jo is the oldest and Chan-Young is the youngest. They all have two children who are in college. Joo-Hee has a son who is in his early 20s. So far, this show has shown us that these three friends will continue to be important to each other through their 40s.
Mi-Jo Cha arrives at work and is not happy. Her sister Mi-Hyun still owes money.
Mi-Hyeon is not happy when she finds out that Joo-Hee and Chan-Young are not going to pay for treatment. They have playful banter together, but Mi-Hyeon is frustrated because she feels like she was adopted.
Mi-Hyeon is a young woman who is friendly to her friends in the hallway. One day, she leaves and some women show up to accuse her of cheating. The drama escalates and Mi-Hyeon’s friends wait for their turn to give a statement.
Mi-Hyeon shows up at her sister’s house demanding to know what happened. She’s wearing a bright pink dress, and it certainly turns heads. As we find out later on, she’s actually involved in dance sports and has been doing this in secret, unwilling to tell their parents. ..
The whole incident at the police station is a misunderstanding. The women got the names mixed up, and this isn’t the same Cha she was searching for.
Jin-Seok and Mi-Jo are still angry about the cheating and want to make things right. They offer to take Joo-Hee and Chan-Young home, but Mi-Jo is quick to insist that they stay for dinner. They have a nice dinner together, but once it’s over, Mi-Jo wants them to leave.
Jin-Seok is actually married and he’s been having an affair on her with Chan-Young for a fair while.
The next day, a new English teacher, Kim Sun-Woo, arrives at the Onnuri Child Care Center. She offers to take over from Mi-Jo on the grill, and completely shuts him down. However, they exchange a tentative smile. ..
After dinner, the three women discuss Kim Jong-un. One of the men there, Hoon, talks to Mi-Jo separately about adoption. Mi-Jo tells him she’s leaving for a year and he’s clearly disappointed by this news. As Mi-Jo tells her friends later on too, she’s heading to Palm Springs in the US. ..
Mi-Jo talks to her friends at a bar about her ties with Jin-Seok. When Chan-Young talks about fate, Mi-Jo is quick to call her out for it. Chan-Young loses her temper and heads outside. Mi-Jo follows her and learns the truth.
Chan-Young and Jin-Seok have never actually slept together and she’s known him before his wife so technically it’s not an affair. But according to her, it is an affair because they are both on the same team.
Chan-Young made the decision not to follow Jin-Seok when he got his current wife pregnant, because she didn’t want to be a part of the break-up. Together, Chan-Young and Jin-Seok made the big decision to give him up and also quit smoking. Chan-Young is trying to move on from this phase in her life.
Mi-Jo left her watch behind at the care center. Given that Sun-Woo is heading back to Seoul anyway, he agrees to meet her and give it back in person. The thing is, Mi-Jo is very drunk and after handing him some flowers, an awkward silence washes over them both. ..
Sun-Woo suggests they head out to eat, which inevitably sees Mi-Jo drink even more. She does admit that this orphanage she helps out at is actually where she grew up before she was adopted. After their meal, Mi-Jo staggers off, deciding to get a taxi home. So too does Sun-Woo, saving Mi-Jo’s number under the name “Peony” which is pretty cute.
Sun-Woo and Mi-Jo both attend the same concert the next night. They seem to have a lot in common, which Sun-Woo is quick to point out. He even invites her over for the night too, where they end up kissing and, it’s implied, have sex.
Chan-Young shows up at Jin-Seok’s office, but so too does his wife and it causes a bit of friction. However, she brushes it off as a business meeting and eventually ends up shielding under a building from the rain when she leaves. Jin-Seok walks his wife to the car and symbolically shields her with his umbrella. It’s a tell-tale sign that she needs to move on – and hopefully she does.
Chan-Young takes a bold stand that night and meets Jin-Seok, asking him if he’ll divorce his wife or not. When he fails to reply, she realizes that there’s no way he’ll break up so she needs to move past him. After quitting smoking, she’s also going to quit him too. ..
Mi-Jo is surprised to see Sun-Woo at the restaurant that night. She’s not expecting him to show up, given that she’s the new director who’s going to take over from her. As they look at one another, we fade to black.
The Episode Review
The opening chapter of Thirty Nine is decent, but it’s not the best thing that the show has to offer. The focus is on the romantic vibes and how they’re played out in a slice of life drama. There’s some good chemistry between the central three characters, but Joo-Hee hasn’t had a whole lot of screen time just yet.
Despite the fact that the idea of fate and entwining this around Mi-Jo and Sun-Woo’s “chance” encounters is a nice way of paying into that fairytale romance, Thirty Nine also plays with the idea of growing older and beauty – both inside and out. The pair emanate a sense of beauty that is both inside and out, which makes for an interesting read.
Chan-Young and Jin-Seok’s story is one of tragedy. It seems that Chan-Young has now made the right choice and decided to let him go. It will be interesting to see if she manages to branch out and find another man to fill that void or if she’ll go it alone as a strong, independent woman. ..
This drama has a nice, established feel to it, establishing the characters and their banter early on. It almost feels like we’re going to get a time jump at some point. Mi-Jo is intending to take a sabbatical, so the story will be developing over time.
Sun-Woo is learning about his new job from Mi-Jo, who seems to be really enjoying it. The two are getting along well and the writer could explore more workplace romance vibes in this chapter if Mi-Jo decides to stay around.
