“Our Unwritten Seoul” (미지의 서울)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack (.pdf)
June 30, 2025

☆☆☆☆ (out of ☆☆☆☆)
Yoo Mi-ji / Yoo Mi-rae (played by Park Bo-young)
Lee Ho-soo (played by Park Jin-young)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

This show was included in my Teen Vogue round-up of the best K-dramas of 2025:

Mi-ji works odd jobs in the sleepy town where she grew up. Her twin sister, Mi-rae, has a respectable office job at a Seoul company that her mother brags about to anyone who’ll listen. But after Mi-rae supports another female worker who was sexually harassed, she becomes the office pariah. Mi-rae is bullied to the point that she wishes she could be “lightly grazed by a bus” and stay home from work for a couple days. Worried about her sister’s mental health, Mi-ji convinces her twin to swap places.

Park Bo-young beautifully captures the nuances of both sisters and the struggles that each deals with daily. Our Unwritten Seoul presents everyday choices that may seem too much to bear, but also offers the kind of realistic hope that’s better than a pat, happy ending. (Netflix)

As always, there was a lot I couldn’t fit into that Best Of column. But I’ve been reflecting about some of the topics and wanted to touch on them a bit. Maybe we can even start a dialogue about some of these topics.

Please note that there are spoilers below.

° Interestingly enough, the direct translation of the Korean title — “미지의 서울” — is “Mi-ji’s Seoul.” The Korean title offers a more accurate indication of where this K-drama’s focus lies than the what-are-you-talking-about “Our Unwritten Seoul.”

° One of the most profound moments in the K-drama that still stands out, almost a year after the show’s premiere, is when Mi-ji, who’s pretending to be Mi-rae, finds herself facing undue pressures at work that she is unprepared for. Mi-ji says the same thing her twin had told her earlier: “Maybe if I was just lightly grazed by a bus, I could stay home from work.” No one should have to wish for an injury to get the time off they need.

° In Episode 5, the sisters’ mother tells Mi-ji (who is actually Mi-rae) not to get married just because she doesn’t think she has a future as a single woman. She warns her daughter that putting all her hopes and dreams onto one man isn’t the way to live a good life2. It was so refreshing to hear this, because so many shows (both Korean and western) are focused on marriage being the be-all end-all.

° Park Jin-young is one of the finest idol-actors working today. His scenes with Kim Sun-young, who portrays his stepmother, stand out in a show that is filled with strong performances. For her, there was no question that he is her son. But for him, he is laden with guilt that she has been stuck taking care of him after his father (her husband) died. When he breaks down weeping, she makes it clear that they are a real family and that nothing will ever change that for her. (Much of his guilt stems from overhearing her relatives at his father’s funeral, telling her that he is no longer her responsibility and that she should send him away to an orphanage — as if he’s a used sweater she can easily discard.)

Because he knows the feeling of not wanting to burden his stepmother, Ho-soo relates to Mi-ji (as Mi-rae) not wanting to burden him with her problems. He shows his support by not pushing her into accepting anything from him. “If you open the door,” he says, “I’ll be right outside.” He gives her time to process what she needs from him. That’s the kind of affirmation so many of us need to hear.

° “Our Unwritten Seoul” also reflects on what it is like to live apart from your family, and how the choices we make impact our loved ones’ lives. Do we move away, earning money to take care of family members back home, but also not being there as our loved ones get sick or die? Or do we stay closer to them, working with the limited opportunities of a smaller environment? Those are the choices that Mi-rae and Mi-ji made, respectively.

It wasn’t until they switched roles that they understood that the childhood expectations each had didn’t have to be a lifelong punishment for either.

Airdates: Twelve episodes, running about 70- to 80-minutes each, aired on tvN from May 24 through June 29, 2025. (I watched this on Netflix.)

Note: The review was written shortly after the series ended, and then the blurb was written for Teen Vogue in December 2025.

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