Title: 돈꽃 | Donkkot | Money Flower
Genre: Drama
Episodes: 24
Broadcast Network: MBC
Broadcast Period: November 11, 2017 to January 27,2018

Synopsis:

Kang Pil Joo went through a rough patch during his childhood days starting when his brother died. He ended up doing bad things just to survive. In truth, he actually wants to die until he discovered who he really was and met Jang Boo Cheon, a super rich kid who is spoilt and wants to just enjoy his life. He ended up living with him and his family, one of the richest and powerful conglomerate, Chung Ah Group. Forming a mix of friendship and master relationship. He worked, studied and tried to achieve the best of who he can be to reach his ultimate goal. He sacrificed everything of who and what he has including his only love, Na Mo Hyun, so, he can finally accomplish what he set out to do and the only motivation of why he still wants to live and that is to seek revenge against the person that’s the root cause of what happened to him and his family.

Characters:

• Jang Hyuk as Kang Pil Joo
• Jo Byung Kyu as Younger Pil Joo
• Nam Ki Won as 7-year-old Pil Joo
• Park Se Young as Na Mo Hyun
• Kim Ji Min as Younger Mo Hyun
• Jang Seung Jo as Jang Boo Cheon
• Lee Mi-Sook as Jung Mal-Ran
• Chae Sang Woo as Younger Boo Chun
• Lee Soon Jae as Jang Gook Hwan
• Han So Hee as Yoon Seo Won
• Moon Yoo Bin as Jang Yun Woo
• Sun Woo Jae Duk as Jang Sung Man
• Shin Young Jin as Park Sun Kyung
• Kang Sung as Jang Yeo Chun
• Yoon Sun Young as Lee Hyun Joo
• Lee Hang Na as Mrs. Han
• Park Ji Il as Na Ki Chul
• Choo Gwi Jung as Bae Jum Sun
• Dan Woo as Na Doo Hyun
• Ryu Dam as Park Yong Goo
• Park Jung Hak as Oh Ki Pyung
• Hong Kyung Yun as Go Eun Ah
• Kwon Hyuk as Yang Sang Do
• Kim Ji Sung as Secretary Ahn
• Jun Jin Gi as Woo Chang Sun
• Hong Hee Won as Ha Young Do
• Park Sun Woo as Bae Kwang Choon
• Yoo Hyun Joo as Yoo Jong Hee
• Ha Kyung as Kim Kyung Ho
• Jung Seo Yun as Ahn Ho Kyung
• Kim Min Ho as Kyung Chun

My Review:

After watching k-dramas for more than 15 years, melo dramas, more so, about revenge, became one of my least favorite to watch. It is because it is either too heavy for my taste to the point it renders me into the state of catatonic boredom or the stories most of the time gets lost on to what it sets out to do and becomes a bag of different tricks that ends to be nonsense and loses my interest all together along the way. This is the reason why I keep on contemplating whether to watch Money Flower or not. I do not want spend my more than 24 hours of my life watching typical vengeful story that has not much meat except childhood and heartrending love story that I can do find in almost all other k-dramas with much better entertainment value. However, because of Jang Hyuk, who I believe is one of the most talented k-actors I decided to plunge in and check it out. I promised myself that if it sucks I will just stop torturing myself and move on to search for a better k-drama. But, alas, sucking is the least word one can use to describe this drama. It is everything a revenge melo drama should be and more. In fact, after watching it, all I can say is “Wow”.

So, What do I Like About this K-Drama?

(1) Jang Hyuk never fails to amaze me in his talent as an actor. He is one of those that I believe underrated in the k-drama world but the best example, in fact, of what a superb actor should be. As Kang Pil Joo in Money Flower, he brought the house down for his sheer talent of portraying a complex character. His controlled emotions without being stoic, deep immense expressions of his eyes and subtle nuances of his actions that can speak volumes of what he is feeling brought this interesting character alive. Being typical revenge k-drama is the last thing one will think when one watches this because he made it work from start to finish.

(2) Almost all the actors are brilliant. They gel together and bring forth a revenge drama that is indeed I believe the best of all I’ve seen. Although, I’m not that crazy about Park Se Young as Na Mo Hyun, she’s still passable. I do love Jang Seung Jo as Jang Boo Cheon and Lee Mi-Sook as Jung Mal-Ran. I think of all Lee Mi-Sook’s k-dramas I’ve watched, this is the first time I truly enjoyed watching her elegance in portraying a strong woman albeit the villain of the piece.

(3) In most of what I watched rarely do I get to rave about the manner of directing. But, this one takes the cake of one of the best directing I’ve seen. The story unfolds as exciting as the previous episodes and is able to sustain the level of thrill to look forward to the next. Kudos to Kim Hee-Won!!!

(4) The topic is unseemingly banal and, in fact, if you will summarize or just gives synopsis of it, it will sound typical and boring. It is about rich people controlling money to make them powerful, childhood romance and villains but just like Misaeng, what looks typical because of the brilliance of the cast, production and director became more than ordinary. In the end, showcases an excellent k-drama.

(5) Some may not like the ending but, surprisingly, I did. One of the few endings I’ve seen that, although, may not satisfy my cravings for happily ever after, it actually is perfect and befitting for its story. It is realistic but it gives a certain hope. It doesn’t provide excuses to tie up all the characters in a big red bow just to satisfy its audience to unrealistic end, and can be lauded to have good ending by regular standard. It doesn’t excuses what is wrong to be right just so it can be in tune to illogical cravings of certain audiences to make it happy. The ending actually provided why this k-drama is one of the best I’ve seen because it didn’t make it predictable but really done right from beginning to end.

(6) Although, the OST may not again be the typical sound I enjoy saving in my iTunes to listen and emote, the soundtrack of this k-drama was done to really provide a heightened intensity to the scenes. Excellently executed for the theme of this k-drama.

(7) There are so many wonderful and memorable scenes, especially on Episode 20 between Kang Pil Joo and Jung Mal-Ran. It was so climactic and breathtakingly done to show the culmination of how Kang Pil Joo envisioned his revenge will be after all these years.

(8) There’s subtlety in tackling certain issues such as the sexual tone and relationship between Kang Pil Joo and Jung Mal-Ran. Moreover, the consistency of the characters and realistic portrayal of each and every actors in almost all suspenseful and dramatic scenes made this k-drama a league of its own.

What I do Not Like About this K-Drama?

This k-drama have very few flaws. It is apparent to certain scenes that are sometimes not necessary but probably done for the sake of adding thrill to it. Having said that, it doesn’t in any way affected my admiration and its brilliance in delivering a melodrama that deals with the least of my favorite k-drama subject, revenge drama.

Would I recommend this K-Drama? 100% Yes. Highly Recommended.

My Rating to this Drama
( See My Rating System: ) 5/5 Stars

OST:

01. My Way – Isu of M.C. the Max
02. Flame – Solji, Hani (EXID)
03. Healing – Lee Seok-hoon (SG Wannabe), Bubble Dia
04. Dreamy Love – Hyolyn
05. Waiting Here For You – Min Kyung-hoon

For Lyrics in English, Romanization and Hangul, CLICK HERE