My Rating: 2.5 out of 5.0 stars
“Welcome to Samdal-ri” has one major flaw: it’s far too long. It spends five episodes on the female lead’s scandal and fall from grace, as well as a lot of back-story for Jo Yong-pil and Jo Sam-dal, played by Ji Chang-wook and Shin Hye-sun, respectively. These parts of the story could have been told effectively in a couple of episodes or, in the case of back-story, eliminated all together. Truthfully, only the dynamic of the relationship between Yong-pil’s father and Sam-dal’s mother is critical to understanding a major plot point. The rest of the story is fun with lots of small, interesting sub-plots involving the wonderful supporting cast. I would rate it higher if not for the misstep early on. I’ve heard a lot of people say they dropped the series after the first few episodes because of tedious pacing. Ultimately I’m glad I stuck with it, though.
Sam-dal is a highly-regarded photographer in Seoul, sought out for commercial and artistic work. Her apprentice, an ambitious but cocky, argumentative aspiring photographer, is confronted by Sam-dal one day for ignoring her instructions during a photo shoot. Feeling spurned, the apprentice fabricates several stories in the press, including one about how she almost committed suicide due to Sam-dal’s treatment of her, and Sam-dal is immediately attacked by the public. She loses her clients, as well as a huge exhibition of her work that was about to open. In desperation, she decides to hide from public view in her hometown, Samdal-ri.
Side note: I just described that major part of the plot in a single paragraph. That’s all the viewers needed. Certainly not five episodes of tedious exposition.
Despite her best efforts to lay low, Sam-dal eventually is discovered by her former love interest, Yong-pil, who works at the weather service in Samdal-ri. For most of the series they’re at odds, partially because Sam-dal is reluctant to rekindle their romance. Their breakup was fraught with misunderstanding so there’s some guilt there, and she thinks that her scandal will soon be over and she’ll be able to resume life in Seoul. Complicating things further, Yong-pil’s father blames Sam-dal’s mother for the death of his wife years earlier, so he would see resuming that relationship as a betrayal.
The rest of the series plays out from there in typical K-drama romance fashion, again drawn out too long, in my opinion. The supporting cast, though, is fantastic and their story arcs are quite entertaining. Sam-dal’s mother is played by the legendary Kim Mi-kyeong. She’s type-cast as the caring, over-involved mother, but she does it so well. The story of her conflict with Yong-pil’s father is heartbreaking. There’s also my favorite minor arc involving Sam-dal’s older sister, Jo Jin-dal, played by Shin Dong-mi. Her ex-husband re-appears in her life due to his business dealings with the town of Samdal-ri. He failed to stand up for her to his family, leading to the divorce. Every time they’re on screen together, it’s laugh-out-loud funny, and their eventual reconciliation is sweet.
“Welcome to Samdal-ri” is overall a good drama, but the way it drags through the first episodes is really off-putting. Admittedly I almost gave up myself, but I think at the time I was also watching “Backstreet Rookie”, and I was really loving all the Ji Chang-wook content. I’d say if you want to give it a try, watch enough of the first few episodes that you get the main points, then skip ahead to Sam-dal and her sisters moving to Samdal-ri. That’s where the fun starts, and it’s entertaining enough to keep you hooked.
