I thought it was good that the show brought up the difference in how women were treated in Korea 30 years ago. I know that Korea is still a very patriarchal society, and so much so that it drives a lot of Korean women to leave the country, and seems to be very big part of the reason for the abysmal birth rate of Korea (2nd lowest in the world). It also seems like a lot of effort was spent on recreating the Korea of 30 years ago. A big part of the charm of such a show is seeing how things have changed. It seems that from similar shows that take place in the current ear, things have changed a lot.
But not sure it this is so representative since 1988 is right after the constitution reform which followed decades of being under a fairly repressive dictatorship, and I would sort of expect a lot of repercussions from the change, and it does not seem like this is so evident in this series.
I am American, so not familiar with what Korea was 30 years ago. However, there is one fact I was able to check up on, and that was smoking. In 2000 it was about 35%, vs about 20% today, and at that point it was already in a steep decline. That would indicate that it had to be somewhere in the 50% range in 1988, and so few men probably did not smoke--And we see no smoking. See modern Korean series with lots of smoking, which I think it probably excessive, and none in this series. Too bad they did not try to do more to make it truly.
