Red Shoes S01 is an intense Korean drama with a thick plot shedding light upon the elements of love, betrayal, revenge, and emotional wounds. The crux of the show is the traumatizing effect of abandonment and the quest of justice as experienced by rich, nuanced women. The fact that Hee-Kyung abandons her family to follow her first love represents a catalyst that impacts significantly on her daughter, Jem-ma, who lives in resentment having lost her father after the latter dies mysteriously. The story perfectly juggles the close family drama with the darker motives of vengeance so that every episode has an emotional intensity to it.
The series makes use of the metaphoric imagery visually as well as in its plot and the most frequent one is red shoes symbolic of desire, longing, and culminating revenge. This theme adds to the story-telling process, bringing depth to the inner battles of the characters. The film presents the story of Kim Jem-ma with a great amount of emotional drama, and she tries to discover the secrets of her mother and strives to overcome her personal sense of hurt and betrayal. The acting is strong with Choi Myoung-Gil playing wealthy cold-hearted Hee-Kyung who has left deep scars in the past dwarfing the life of her daughter. Simultaneously, we have the chemistry of Jem-ma and Yoon Gi-seok that includes a delicate shade of romance on top of the plot to take vengeance.
Although the show passes big time in evoking emotion and meaningful allegorical narration, other audiences may believe that its melodramatic twists and tropes of character types in the plot are too much to bear at certain points and too formulaic in its narrative. However, Red Shoes S01 is highly acting, multi-layered character-driven drama with some interesting themes of revenge and desire, making it emotionally intense drama. It makes an enduring impact, leaving viewers with a feeling of sadness and anger and finally the urge of making things right due to which it is a good movie to watch by people who enjoy watching family dramas that end with dark secrets.
