By ATTY. ANGELA LIBRADO-TRINIDAD
Editor’s Note: Atty. Angela Librado is the Philippines’ Labor Attache to the United States and is based on Washington. She is a former three-term City Councilor in Davao City.
It is not dark although everything in this Kdrama is crazy. ITS OK TO BE NOT OK illustrates the madness our world has already seen and experienced.
Brothers Moon Gang and Moon Sang Tae are haunted by the memories of their slain mother driving them irrationally to different places and work environment. Sang Tae, the older brother with autism, having witnessed the murder, struggles hardest as he is constantly confronted by the “butterfly” that tore his family apart in his dreams (nightmares)
Finally, the brothers circle back to their roots with Gang Tae, who is a health worker/caregiver, settling in ITS OK (TO BE NOT OK). He finally meets his pre-teen crush Ko Moon Young, who although a famous author of well-loved children’s books is a callous, foul-mouthed, spoiled brat who peddles her own wild interpretation of fairy tales and “tortures” even her young followers.
ITS OK TO BE NOT OK is the health facility which caters patients with mental health issues .From a war veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, famous , rich alcoholic and drug dependents, women victims of domestic abuse to a father whose dementia was also precipitated by paranoia or his incessant fear that his daughter will turn out far worse than her mother—the hospital sheltered them all .
All through out, Gang Tae, Sang Tae and Ko Moon Young exhibited deviant, violent and eccentric behavior either towards each other or their friends alternately and consistently as they fought (against) their banshees. Their set of equally crazy friends completes the picture. Ko Moon Young’s publisher Lee Sang-in and the latter’s assistant, Yoo Seung who proved they were willing to explore the most outrageous means to motivate her to write more enterprising stories. Gang Tae’s best friend, Jo Jae Soo, who almost fanatically follows him everywhere.
Slowly but definitely, ITS OK drew all these characters and its patients closer providing the space for everyone’s emotional and psychological therapy.
As KO Moon Young becomes fatally attracted to Gang Tae and stalks him incessantly, she is “forcibly reunited” with his paranoid, dementia-afflicted father and homicidal “resurrected” mother, On the other , the artistically inclined Sang Tae, who was commissioned to paint a mural in the hospital, conquered his fear of butterflies. Gang Tae learns that in letting other people in(to his life) , he is letting go of all the negative energy he has nurtured.
And while the series occasionally shows medical personnel administering pills, the drama actually suggests that a collective acknowledgement of but with no judgement on one’s violent past and behavior, idiocy and folly is not only a sure pathway for initial healing but a sound formula for cultivating loving relationships.
Thus, Ko Moon Young, while still basically ruthless, has mellowed because of the maddening but uplifting love of Gang Tae and which same love that has healed and metamorphosed Sang Tae to become the mature brother he so desires.
Its OK TO BE NOT OK is neither dark nor terrifying. Instead, it assures that there is beauty in madness.
