Beating Heart (aka Six Love Stories) is a Korean drama omnibus series that aired about a half dozen years ago or so; it does not get the love it deserves in my opinion. It's a quick, 12 episode long series that is divided into 6 two part episodes. Each 2 part episode is directed and written by a different team, and since I'm assuming they aired this drama under the typical KTV production time constraints, this had to be one unusual & hectic shoot to say the least. I feel the end result is quite stellar though, and I thought it was tremendously well done overall. I think it's definitely worth watching.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Everything, story wise, revolves around the lives of a husband, his wife, their young daughter, the wife's sister, and the husband's "brother". Each of the 2 part episode blocks focuses on a particular family member while intertwining the other family members who are not particularly central to each story line.
The 6 two part individual stories are summarized as follows (NOTE; they are not listed in the proper order as they were aired; I can't quite remember the order):
1. Wife's unmarried sister is focused on as she tries to find love and get moving forward in life as a young single female who is quickly approaching the "now or never" marriage questions.
2. The husband yearns to recapture his youth and considers taking off with a young attractive girl that reminds him of his younger days.
3. Wife experiences a dilemma with an old flame similar to that which husband faces above.
4. The young daughter experiences her first love.
5. The husband's "brother" shows up to reconcile with family. He's now a she, and would like nothing more than to just be accepted for who he/she is by her family.
6. I forget what this last story was about to be honest. I think it was some type of ghost story related to the former love interest of both the wife & her sister, but I might be confusing this with story 3 above.
I watched this series because a like minded friend of mine recommended it to me years ago, and I'm a huge Bae Doo-na fan, so it was a no brainer for me. Bae Doo-na plays the wife's sister and she starts the series off with a 2 part episode that mostly focuses on her. It was OK, but definitely not my favorite of the 6 stories.
There's probably something here for everybody, and you'd likely be able to identify with one or more of the stories, or at least find one or more enjoyable. I liked stories 2, 4, and 5 (above) the best, but opinions and enjoyment may vary. Story 2 hits a little too close to home for me, but let's not get into that shall we. Story 4 is really cute, and that child actress is just terrific (she's also the girl that the monster grabs in "The Host" and the handicapped orphan nobody wants to adopt in "A Brand New Life"). She's not a child anymore these days though, and is likely on her way to becoming another talented young Korean actress. I last saw her in "God/Master of Study" where she was already growing up, and now that I think about it, that's makes at least 3 separate vehicles her and Bae Doo-na have been in together now. Story 5 is perhaps my favorite of the bunch and involves the husband's brother who had a sex change and has since been ostracized by her family and society in general. I think it's clearly the most emotionally driven of the 6 stories if nothing else.
Production values aren't all that high, but they don't really need to be for something like this. It's all about the story, script, acting, and direction here. Acting is superb throughout, particularly when you consider the entire cast has to switch from one team of directors & screenwriters to another every 2nd episode, while still maintaining the overall feel of their familial and interpersonal relationships. The various direction/writing teams all do solid work, and their differing styles and methods produce a nice array of varying tones and approaches to storytelling throughout the series, but not so much so that any particular individual story line seems too out of place within the context of this ultimately being one seamless and continuously flowing series. Actually, it's really remarkable everyone involved here was able to pull this whole thing off as successfully as they did. Job VERY Well Done, I says.
Bottom line: I liked it a lot! For a Korean TV melodrama, it gets 8 out of 10 stars from me. Well Recommended!
