Please Look After Mom

OMG it's Fifty Shades of Grey for the Korean mother set. It's a rich fantasy where a mother's disappearance sends her kids and husband into spiralling guilt over how they should have paid her more attention while she was around. No wonder it sold millions in South Korea. It feeds on the Korean mother as martyr complex while showcasing what her sacrifices wrought - a wealthy and successful first born son and a daughter who is a world renowned author. Even the daughter who has gone to raise her own kids is doing it in America.

There are so many cultural cues that, while certainly universal, resonate so clearly for a Korean son. And while I resent the clear manipulations on display here, don't think I didn't go and visit my folks immediately after reading the book. I've bumped my rating from a 3 to a 4 simply for the joy of reading my first Korean translation and recognizing so many of the Korean traditions and cues that I spent much of my formative years as a second gen trying to ignore.