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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Family Outing" Episode 9

Joon-hee has progressed to doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. I guess it's an improvement over what she was doing before, but the whole issue regarding her potentially being exposed by Dong-seok really does outline the inherent silliness of the story. Dong-seok is easily dissuaded from believing Joon-hee's motives are sinister because it remains really hard for him to guess what her angle could possibly be. Joon-hee's actual dream of being a fashion designer is simply much more believable and workable than whatever it is she's trying to do subversively.

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This actually becomes a bit of a running theme this episode. Most of the family ends up responding to the current challenge via the use of elaborate schemes. Kkeut-soon's wacky decision to decide the inheritance this way looks more reasonable by the episode. Nearly everyone is treating this like some kind of contest with prize money, all the while ignoring the fact that Kkeut-soon is trying to secure her legacy. Joon-hee, an actual con artist, has at least managed to figure that much out.

There's relatively little actual drama this time as the focus is on comedy, and the current plot trajectory utilizes this pretty effectively. We're most directly laughing at the characters who think these ridiculous ideas are actually going to work. Even Jong-tae tries to weasel his way into a higher position- ignoring the fact that he's already in the lead and can probably stay there, given his main competition is an elementary age child.

This is "Family Outing" at its best- when the production just fully gives in to the absurdity of its premise. As character study all we really know about most of the character is that they're generally irresponsible and constantly hounded by debt collectors. In this light, Kkeut-soon's overly defensive stance is quite reasonable. Moreover, any time we get a scene focused on the family scheming, even when it involves Joon-ah the interloper there's such an obvious sense of hopelessness. Nothing about these plans is going to work.

By collating the characters who aren't Joon-hee, Dong-seok, and Kkeut-soon into a mostly generic mass of bumbling buffoons "Family Outing" has finally managed to set up a potentially satisfying ending. Personally I'm holding out for them being humbled into obedience by little Chae-won. The girl's just adorable. And I guess Joon-hee can have a happy ending too, just so long as she eventually remembers that she's interested in fashion design principally because she's actually interested in fashion design.

Review by William Schwartz

"Family Outing" is directed by Joo Dong-min, written by Kim Sin-hye and features Lee Jung-hyun, Jin Yi-han, Oh Sang-jin, Park Won-sook, Jung Han-hun and Park Jun-gyu.

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