“A beautiful daughter-in-law? It’s kind of like brainwashing”… Writer of the destination of’My Daughter-in-law’

Let’s say that his daughter-in-law Min Sa-rin (Park Ha-seon) is going on a business trip. To Sarin, who is in charge of preparing for the sacrifice for her grandfather, her husband Moo Gu-young says, “I will go quickly and help you.” If this is the’Sea World’ landscape we’ve been familiar with, the web drama’Daughter-in-law’ raises the question by pinching these patriarchal perceptions that Korean society has taken for granted. “Koo Young-ah, I haven’t even seen my grandfather’s face. Don’t you think I’m helping you?” This is the line of the main character Sarin.

This twelve-part web drama, aired by Kakao TV since November of last year, is the story of Sarin, who became a double-income couple after marriage, from the same college and department as her husband, Gu Young, who was the same age. In addition to the realistic absurdity, the number of cider lines was combined with episodes of around 20 minutes each time, exceeding 17 million views accumulated over 12 weeks. On the 13th, on the 13th of the Lunar New Year holiday, the free streaming of the first episode recorded 2.3 million views in 4 and a half hours amid hot responses.

There are many comments online, such as “My daughter-in-law” and “I am depressed and angry.” From house to house, depending on the position, there is also an argument. The life-oriented anecdotes that make you look upset while watching are verified from the original webtoon by the author of the destination. This webtoon, which was serialized on Instagram and Facebook from 2017 to 2018, gained popularity with the number of followers exceeding 600,000. In 2017, he also received the’Our Today’s Manga Award’ hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
“I thought I had already met many readers, but the drama is definitely different. There are some people who became more angry and cried because the real actor was acting, and I think they accepted it like a real story.”
These are the words of the destination writer I met over the phone on the 10th. During the webtoon series, a drama was released after three years of contracting the copyright. In December, he published 1st and 2nd volumes of Gon, a new webcomic about the crime of abortion through his own publishing company, Tangerine Press. Until the 21st, the Gyeongnam Webtoon Campus is participating as a’Daughter-in-law’ in the webtoon exhibition’Family Exposition’, which is being held free of charge through online VR on the website (www.gnwc.or.kr). “After’My daughter-in-law’, the Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays have become the busiest part for me,” he laughed.

“When I was serializing, I couldn’t enjoy it because I was busy, but the drama was out of my hands, so I enjoyed it as one of the viewers.”

“I set Sarin’s hair to be’cloudy hair’ rather than just short hair or perm to draw a cartoonish style, but I did it. I was grateful for the desire to save the original. I heard from PD Lee Kwang-young that Park Ha-seon had long hair, but he said he would cut it to match the original as much as possible. The facial expression was also excellent. At the beginning of the drama, her mother-in-law gave Sarin the remaining kiwi while giving her’eat it’, and the expression she received showed all the subtle situations to say.

“The manga puts in the middle of the past how two people dated and married, but in the drama, it was good to keep showing why the couple who had been in love like this by arranging their marriage in the past and the current in the back. The most important thing in the cartoon is the (past wedding) scene where the officiating teacher gives Sarin the main character’a daughter-in-law’ at the end, and the fact that the drama was put in an important place from the beginning and increased weight seemed to understand my intention.”

The daughter-in-law depicted by this webtoon is’a period that you experience when you become a daughter-in-law like puberty and menopause.’ In other words, it’s a time when you want to be pretty and praised by your in-laws and sacrifice yourself excessively. On the wedding day of both webtoon and drama, Sarin asked “Would you like to receive your daughter-in-law?” He agreed with the words of the officiating teacher, and added a fantasy setting that he would jump into a marriage mate like magic. Afterwards, the journey of gradually escaping from the’daughter-in-law’ unfolds while joining the absurd reality.

“When you become a daughter-in-law, it was a cartoon that started with the idea that you would receive something like a little’ki’, a daughter-in-law. It’s kind of brainwashing. It’s through the media and through the look of my mother who grew up.”

“Because I posted the webtoon on social media, I received a lot of direct messages and mails. Among the comments, there were many people who sent stories of their own parenting and work. I couldn’t put it because the story was all set. One foreigner told me that my husband is a Korean, and that he would present this book to him, and he was still awkward in Korean to tell all his feelings, but he said that my heart is in this cartoon.”

“Women in their 20s are the most favorable to me. When giving lectures in the library, there are a lot of generations up to 60s or older, and there are discussions among the visitors. People who are older may feel empathy with their mother-in-law, making food with their families during the holidays, and not knowing why they don’t like it. ‘Daughter-in-law’ is the subject of the conversation. It’s fun to be able to talk to each other.”

After majoring in Western painting, he worked as a fairy tale illustrator. In 2012, he started a cartoon with his autobiographical work 『3 Grams』, which deals with the fight against ovarian cancer. The destination is a pseudonym and has been active without revealing his/her identity. It has only been revealed that it is a double-income couple without children. He pointed out that “I usually meet with my mother-in-law and relatives often” as the background to be able to draw honestly about Sea World. “For families that don’t usually come and go, the holidays can be serious and a big issue, but I didn’t.”

After starting the webtoon serialization, for the past four years, “I can feel a change of not having rituals on holidays, eating out and going to both families. I also heard feedback that I changed the way I spent the holidays watching’my daughter-in-law’ with my husband.” “Personally, since it is a holiday, I have nothing to do. “My husband and I are sending in the direction they want to send.” “I hope it will be a very old-fashioned story to become a’daughter-in-law’, but it is still good to sympathize, but on the other hand, it is sad.

The webtoon’Daughter-in-law’ has already been published in Taiwan, and is also being discussed for launch in Japan and Europe. Regarding future work activities, I felt through the comments that there were so many people who didn’t know that they had to decide whether to use the husband’s last name for the child or the wife’s last name when they published “Gon”. I didn’t know the item well, but I got to know it while preparing the work,” he said. “I want to be free to work on a subject that interests me at that time, without a frame that I should do something because I did something before.”

Reporter Na Won-jeong [email protected]