Children of Nobody
Title: 붉은달 푸른해 / Children of Nobody
Chinese Title: 赤月青日
also known as: Red Moon Blue Sun
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Episodes: 32
Broadcast network: MBC
Broadcast period: 2018-Nov-21 to 2019-Jan-16
Air time: Wednesday & Thursday 21:55 (2 episodes back-to-back)
Synopsis
This drama is about a woman, whose life suddenly falls apart due to an accident too sudden to prevent, becoming involved in several incidents as she searches for the truth.
Cha Woo Kyung (Kim Sun Ah), works as a children’s counselor in a children’s center. She has it all, her life is perfect. She enjoys her job, she is married to a gentle and caring husband and is pregnant with her second child. It all changes when suddenly an accident changes her life. From that point forward she will have to face several incidents and end up discovering the truth.
Meanwhile, Kang Ji Hun (Lee Yi Kyung), works as a detective. He firmly believes that criminals should be punished by law. He suffers a lot because of a traumatic past that he doesn’t want to talk about.
Cast
Main Cast
Kim Sun Ah as Cha Woo Kyung
Lee Yi Kyung as Kang Ji Hun
N as Lee Eun Ho
Nam Gyu Ri as Jun Soo Young
Woo Kyung’s family
Na Young Hee as Heo Jin Ok (Woo Kyung’s mother)
Oh Hye Won as Cha Se Kyung (Woo Kyung’s younger sister)
– Chae Yoo Ri as as Cha Se Kyung (child)
Kim Young Jae as Kim Min Suk (Woo Kyung’s husband)
Joo Ye Rim as Kim Eun Seo (Woo Kyung and Min Suk’s daughter)
Hanul Children’s Center people
Kim Bup Rae as Song Ho Min
Joo Suk Tae as Yoon Tae Joo
??? (To Be announced) as Song Jae Hak
Police officers
Park Soo Young as Hong Ki Tae
Yun Je Hyung as Kwon Chan Wook
Others
Ha Eun Soo as Lee Yeon Joo
Kim Kang Hoon as Han Shi Wan
Kang Mal Geum (강말금) as Shi Wan’s mother
Lee Hwa Ryong
Kim Ji Eun as Min Joo
Cameo
Ha Joo Hee as Park Ji Hye
Kim Yeo Jin
Production Credits
Production Company: Mega Monster
Chief Producer: Son Hyung Suk
Executive Producer: Lee Jun Ho, Kim Yong Jin
Producer: Kim Ho Young
Director: Choi Jung Kyu
Scriptwriter: Do Hyun Jung
Notes
Lee Joon Hyuk was first offered for male lead, but he declined the role.
Awards
2018 MBC Drama Awards – Top Excellence Actress (Wed-Thurs Drama): Kim Sun Ah (Children of Nobody)
Episode Ratings
| Date | Ep | TNmS | TNmS | AGB | AGB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationwide | Seoul | Nationwide | Seoul | ||
| 2018-11-21 | 1 | 5.4 | - | 5.2 | 5.3 |
| 2018-11-21 | 2 | 6.2 | - | 5.4 | 5.4 |
| 2018-11-22 | 3 | 4.8 | - | 4.7 | 5.6 |
| 2018-11-22 | 4 | 5.7 | - | 5.5 | 5.9 |
| 2018-11-28 | 5 | 4.1 | - | 3.8 | - |
| 2018-11-28 | 6 | 5.0 | - | 4.7 | - |
| 2018-11-29 | 7 | - | - | 3.9 | - |
| 2018-11-29 | 8 | - | - | 4.7 | - |
| 2018-12-05 | 9 | 4.1 | - | 4.6 | - |
| 2018-12-05 | 10 | 5.2 | - | 5.5 (20th) | - |
| 2018-12-06 | 11 | - | - | 5.0 (19th) | - |
| 2018-12-06 | 12 | - | - | 6.0 (16th) | 6.0 (15th) |
| 2018-12-12 | 13 | - | - | 3.9 | 3.9 |
| 2018-12-12 | 14 | - | - | 5.2 | 5.4 |
| 2018-12-13 | 15 | 3.6 | - | 4.3 | 4.6 |
| 2018-12-13 | 16 | 4.0 | - | 4.8 | 5.1 |
| 2018-12-19 | x | x | x | x | x |
| 2018-12-19 | x | x | x | x | x |
| 2018-12-20 | 17 | 3.1 | - | 3.6 | 4.2 |
| 2018-12-20 | 18 | 3.5 | - | 4.7 | 5.4 (19th) |
| 2018-12-26 | 19 | 2.9 | - | 4.0 | 4.4 |
| 2018-12-26 | 20 | 3.2 | - | 4.9 | 5.3 |
| 2018-12-27 | 21 | 3.7 | - | 4.6 | 5.5 |
| 2018-12-27 | 22 | 3.9 | - | 4.8 | 5.7 (18th) |
| 2019-01-02 | 23 | 3.6 | - | 4.5 | 5.1 |
| 2019-01-02 | 24 | 3.9 | - | 5.1 | 5.7 |
| 2019-01-03 | 25 | - | - | 4.6 | 5.3 (20th) |
| 2019-01-03 | 26 | - | - | 5.4 (20th) | 6.2 (17th) |
| 2019-01-09 | 27 | 3.4 | - | 4.4 | 4.7 |
| 2019-01-09 | 28 | 3.9 | - | 4.7 | 5.0 |
| 2019-01-10 | 29 | - | - | 4.1 | 4.3 |
| 2019-01-10 | 30 | - | - | 5.2 | 5.6 |
| 2019-01-16 | 31 | - | - | 4.8 | 5.7 |
| 2019-01-16 | 32 | - | - | 5.3 | 6.2 (17th) |
Sources: TNmS Media Korea & AGB Nielsen Korea
*** Different between TNmS Media Korea & AGB Nielson – Here
Poster
Related Photo
(Other Photo from Official Site)
Trailer:-
– Official Trailer
– Trailer I
– Trailer II
13 Comments
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November 22nd, 2018 at 10:22 am
Hah! The kid that won in the relay race Han Shi Wan (Kim Kang Hoon) was the child Eugene Choi in Mr Sunshine
November 24th, 2018 at 11:21 am
This is better than the description would make you think.
November 30th, 2018 at 12:52 pm
LOVE Kim Sun Ah 🙂
December 8th, 2018 at 9:16 am
i love this drama..rating 10/10!
December 11th, 2018 at 11:14 pm
Enjoying this drama. Kim Sun Ah is a great actress.
December 20th, 2018 at 12:20 am
why are the ratings so low? KSA looks so different from her past dramas. much older. Is it a side effect of stopping botox?
December 21st, 2018 at 6:19 pm
It’s DAAAARRRRK!
December 30th, 2018 at 12:45 am
Rating 100/10. Full stop.
January 6th, 2019 at 7:58 pm
Does any one know who this person is? The actor or actress is listed under — “Others.” See below —
“??? as Song Jae Hak” === The name of the person is not listed that is acting as Song Jae Hak.
January 11th, 2019 at 8:48 pm
This is one excellent production. There is something going on in each episode. All the actors are doing great.
Kim Min Suk’s new love live in interest is priming his daughter big time with gifts and all that they are going to be doing. Smart chick.
Cha’s – is it adopted mother? – is a piece of work. Cha must have been abused when she was young. The sister’s eyes keep blinking now and then. Interesting…..
January 28th, 2019 at 9:48 pm
excellent drama, great acting by all specially kim sunah, don’t look at the rating, one of the best dramas ive sen you can’t predict the outcome till the last episode. very well written.
May 21st, 2019 at 1:07 pm
A REVIEW: CHILDREN OF NOBODY
“The world hangs on a thin thread, and that thread is the psyche of man…” – C.G. Jung
Children of Nobody is a dark drama with child abuse and child traumas as its underlying theme. In spite of the sensitivity of the subject, it has effectively showcase the atrociousness of abuse and its consequences in a way that is both appalling and eye-opening without sacrificing the storyline.
This drama is a good example of a psychological thriller. It keeps you at the edge of your seat from the very beginning up to the end characterized and defined by the moods it elicits, keeping the viewers guessing with heightened feelings of suspense, excitement and surprise. The inclusion of lines from a poem adds to the mystery and horror to the story.
The drama does not only deal with child abuse and traumas but with their consequences as well. Parallel to the stories of the children are the resulting effects of these traumas to the adults. The experiences a child goes through in his/her childhood mirrors the kind of adult he/she becomes. These experiences in varying degrees affect and shape the adult that he/she is now.
MAN, THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS
“No matter how much suffering you went through, you never wanted to let go of those memories. Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.” – Haruki Murakami
Man may be a thinking creature, but most of what he does is neither logical or rational. The main characters – Cha Woo Kyung, Kang Ji Hyeon, Jun Soo Young, Lee Eun Ho – are well fleshed out. You cannot help but feel their stories. Thanks to the excellent portrayal by Kim Sun Ah, Lee Yi Kung, Nam Gyu Ri and Cha Hak Yeon (N of VIXX). In particular, Kim Sun Ah has time and again shown that she is an actress of caliber. She effortlessly shifts her emotions seamlessly to show the vulnerabilities of her character.
Children of Nobody is not only a story of the children who were abused but also a story of the adults who were once traumatized children. As the drama progresses, we discover that each character carries with him/her a tormenting experience that would eventually shape the kind of person he/she becomes.
More than the horrendous physical violence, it is the emotional violence that is disturbing which resonates throughout the drama. In most cases, children who were abused or neglected suffer greater emotional damage more than physical damage. Child abuse prepares the mind a lifetime of mental health issues. Abuse and neglect, if left unchecked and unresolved, may result into serious mental health problems that can adversely affect the child’s development and result in irremediable lasting consequences.
The traumatized child grows into a disturbed adult. We see this true in all of the four main characters. CWK, as a child, was shocked seeing her younger sister dead. Her young mind could not comprehend the severity of the incident, thus she had a mental shut down. She has no memories of her childhood. Although not explicitly presented in the story, we can glean from KJH’s attitude towards having children that his childhood is far from pleasant. He could have been a neglected child, denied of affection. JSY, we have seen has been a battered child, suffering physical abuse from her elder brother. What is alarming with this is that such physical abuse was sanctioned by her mother, the very person who should have been her protector. But it is LEH’s childhood experience which is the most disturbing. His harrowing experience as a child left a deep and agonizing emotional wound resulting to a troubled mind which led to gruesome consequences. As the saying goes, “hurting people hurt people.”
THE CHOICES WE MAKE
“Life is about making choices, seeing those choices through, and living through consequences.” – Molly Bloom
Life is a choice. The choices one makes determine to a large extent his happiness or unhappiness, because he has to live with the consequences of his choices.
So much of the hows and whys of what a person does stem from deep fissures of hurts and anguish. All too often he carries the weight of these wounds in his life and it influences his reactions to his environment. Many times, these deep wounds cloud his ability to think.
The brothers, LEH and YTJ chose the path of dispensing justice through death as a way of putting an end to each child’s abuse. They have no qualms in murdering (either committed by LEH himself or through mental conditioning/manipulation as shown by YTJ) those they perceived as the abusers. While LEH’s devastating childhood pain and burning desire to stop the suffering of each child motivated him to execute “justice”, YTJ’s overwhelming guilt and anger towards the abusers made himself the judge. Nonetheless, the end does not justify the mean.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
The quality of mercy is not strained, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.” – Shakespeare
Sometimes, it seems impossible to forgive especially if the wrong that has been done is so horrendous. It seems unfair to be merciful. What to do when there seems to be a conflict between mercy and justice?
CWK chose, in spite of her rage and fury upon knowing that it was her stepmother who was the cause of her younger sister’s death, to show mercy. It took all of her strength to restrain herself (and a help from SK’s apparition) from bludgeoning her stepmother. In blind rage she could have killed the stepmother right then and there. Instead, she let her live. We may not know the real reason why. Perhaps, it could be the possibility that life can be better and a person in spite of her heinous crime can turn into a new leaf. CWK may not be able to forgive her stepmother for now but letting her live gives the chance for the stepmother to mull over her acts; gives her the chance to give to her real daughter Songyi who has been living a life as the dead Se Kyung, the love and care she never experienced. Or is it? Death could have been a much easier punishment but letting her stepmother live could be CWK’s way of punishing her. For as long as she lives, the stepmother will forever be burdened with guilt even if eventually forgiveness is bestowed upon her by her stepdaughter CWK and/or by her real daughter Songyi. It is far more tragic to be tormented by your conscience. But, CWK chose life over death, mercy over vengeance and ultimately healing for herself and of others who have suffered the same fate.
HEALING THE PAST
Healing doesn’t mean the pain never existed. It means the damage no longer controls our lives. – Karen Salmansohn
Until you heal the wounds of your past, you are going to bleed. – Iyanla Vanzant
Healing takes time, no matter how long it takes. You, alone, walk that path in your own way, not others’ way but yours and yours alone. But it takes courage. Courage to accept that you need healing, courage and determination to go through the process, courage to follow through to the end, until healing is complete. Healing is first of all a healing of the heart, of the soul. And love is the greatest motivator. From it springs courage to change, to heal. CWK’s love for her child urged her to take the path of mercy and grace. In choosing to tread the route of non-violence she set into motion her healing process. The process is not easy because she has to face her pain and grief. The only way to ease the pain is to experience it fully. One must find the strength to open the wounds and pull out the core of the pain that is holding one in the past and make peace. It is only when one is deeply aware of her inner hurt and conflict is she able to build cognizance and the ability to be with the pain of others, to be compassionate. And to be able to share others’ pain requires the deepest compassion. Everyone carries wounds from her past. But it is up to her if she wants to break free from the burden of the past.
What sets this drama apart is that beyond the thrill and suspense, Children of Nobody is a drama that sets it audience into keen observation and thinking. The subject matter – abuse in any form – is something that has to be looked into. It starts off by disturbing your sensibilities with a feeling of uneasiness and discomposure. It upsets you; it angers you. And this is good. The mark of a good if not great drama is that it moves its audience into thinking and mulling and perhaps, eventually into action.
August 7th, 2019 at 12:29 am
This drama looks really interesting, and I’m glad to Lee Yi Kyung in a lead. Will have to check it out!