Review of Typhoon Family / 태풍상사

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

Something I realized the other day is that I’ve been watching Korean dramas for over twelve years now (at the time of typing this)! I was in middle school when I watched a Korean drama for the first time, and it sent me down this weird path where I ended up living in Korea twice to learn the language, then I did my master’s thesis on Korean women’s literature.

I now run this blog on the side from my regular 8-5 job to keep my sanity in check, as I genuinely enjoy sitting around and reflecting on the kinds of content I come across in the world. I used to work as a film critic throughout graduate school and a little bit beyond, but I pivoted into this blog once I realized it wasn’t sustainable and I wanted to cover topics that aren’t deemed profitable by the industry.

And yes, I was told that almost directly multiple times throughout my career when I wanted to focus on international cinema. Diversity is often something that’s performative in these kinds of spaces, so I made this blog to not only keep track of what I’m watching, but to serve as an archive of sorts for the kinds of diverse and international movies, books, and shows I’m coming across.

Anyway, since starting my new job I haven’t been watching a ton of dramas, but one of the few ones I kept up with each week, as two episodes were released on the weekends, was Typhoon Family. I haven’t seen many sixteen episode dramas releasing/airing on streaming like this recently.

I watched it all the way through this weekend (again, at the time of typing this), so I thought I should get my blog post out. Let’s get into the review!

After the Asian Financial Crisis starts and the death of his father, a young man takes control of his father’s dying company to turn things around.

Our main character in this show, and the one the drama is kind of named after, is Kang Tae-poong. For those who know a little bit of Korean, his name actually means “typhoon,” but when we first meet him he’s a different kind of typhoon than what we expect. He’s a rich party boy living it up with his father’s money, and his family lives comfortably in Seoul during the late nineties.

His father’s company, which deals with imports and exports, is one that seems to be a model in Korea during that time. There are even interviews with him describing how well the company is doing, but as we see fairly quickly in the show: there are many cracks and there’s actually quite a bit of debt to pass around here.

When the Asian Financial Crisis hits, Tae-poong’s father suddenly passes away. It’s quite tragic, and Tae-poong, who he was looking for in some of his final conscious moments, wasn’t by his side. Instead he was out partying, which becomes one of his regrets once he learns what happened.

After his father’s death Tae-poong and his mother quickly learn about the extent of the company’s debt, as his father was unable to really even pay his employees towards the end even. With all of the belongings gone and their apartment seized and auctioned off for the highest bidders, they’re taken in by one of the company’s female employees: Oh Mi-seon.

Tae-poong’s life is a contrast to the female lead in this drama, who actually is Mi-seon. There’s a romance that will brew between these two, one that I found fairly unconvincing and one of the more lackluster elements of the drama as a whole, but it’s going to take a handful of episodes before we get to that point.

Mi-seon was one of the youngest employees at the company and worked as a bookkeeper. She lives with her siblings and grandmother in a house, but in one of the poorer districts of Seoul. It’s Mi-seon’s family who allows Tae-poong and his mother to reside there when they lose their apartment, even if the conditions aren’t the greatest compared to what they’re used to.

But it’s with Mi-seon, the only employee who sticks around after the company starts falling apart, Tae-poong decides to try and turn fate around. He becomes the CEO of Typhoon Company and learns that business in this new world is quite difficult, especially with so many Asian and Korean companies going under.

As we see throughout the course of this drama is this: when there are the lowest lows, there are also some pretty high highs as well. This is a show very much about the journey, especially considering how we see Tae-poong transform into a savvy businessman from his former partying ways.

Overall Thoughts

In the beginning, I thought this drama was really strong for me as a viewer. I wanted to watch more, as I was really enaged with the plot and the characters that were trying to make Typhoon Company a legitimate company with good grounding again. However, Tae-poong is the only character that really stood the test of time for me.

I wanted to love the female lead, especially considering her humble origins, but she didn’t have enough personality or an arc for me to really become emotionally invested in her. The only character I could connect with story-wise was Tae-poong, and even then it felt a bit cliche at times.

Perhaps this could have felt less of a bore for me if it were less episodes. I know some people in real life who absolutely love this drama, and I could see how someone might like this show a lot! Taste is so incredibly subjective and personal; what I might love someone else could hate and vice versa. Neither of us are wrong, and I respect their thoughts.

I think this show just didn’t click with me. It was a bit tough to finish, but I did it in the end. Did I regret that? No. I still suggest giving this a chance if you want to watch it and haven’t already. Here in the United States it’s on Netflix, which has been my go-to lately in terms of streaming platforms.

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