My Mister

tvN’s 2018 Korean drama My Mister (also known as My Ahjussi) ran for 16 episodes from March 21 to May 17. Written by Park Hae-young and directed by Kim Won-seok, it centers on Park Dong-hoon, a middle-aged structural engineer played by Lee Sun-kyun, and Lee Ji-an, a contract employee portrayed by singer-actor IU (Lee Ji-eun). Their relationship begins amid workplace hostility and financial desperation, not romance. Ji-an lives in poverty while caring for her deaf grandmother, Bong-ae. She owes money to the violent loan shark Gwang-il, played by Jang Ki-yong, whose threat shapes her choices. Ordered by company executive Do Joon-young to find damaging information on Dong-hoon, she secretly records his conversations. Do, portrayed by Kim Young-min, wants Dong-hoon removed because Dong-hoon has discovered that Do is having an affair with Kang Yoon-hee, Dong-hoon’s wife. Dong-hoon’s home life is equally bruised. His older brother, Park Sang-hoon (Park Ho-san), is unemployed and humiliated by repeated business failures; younger brother Park Ki-hoon, played by Song Sae-byeok, is a former film director struggling after a stalled career. The three brothers regularly drink together in their neighborhood, where their loyalty and frustrations give the series much of its emotional texture. At work, Dong-hoon’s architectural inspection expertise and refusal to bend to office politics make him both respected and vulnerable. Supporting characters include lawyer Kang Yoon-hee, played by Lee Ji-ah, and Jung-hee, played by Oh Na-ra, the bar owner who has long loved monk Gyeom-deok, played by Park Hae-joon. The office storyline involves Dong-hoon’s fellow engineers and a corporate struggle over leadership at Saman E&C. Ji-an’s surveillance eventually lets her hear Dong-hoon’s private burdens as well as his kindness toward colleagues and strangers. Their guarded friendship becomes the drama’s central bond. Park Hae-young later wrote the acclaimed series My Liberation Notes, a further examination of weary adults, but My Mister remains a defining work in her television career. Its title reflects the Korean term “ahjussi,” which Ji-an uses for Dong-hoon, while the English title stresses his perspective. The show’s final episodes do not turn their connection into a conventional couple’s story. Instead, they show Ji-an gaining distance from Gwang-il and employment stability, and Dong-hoon confronting the collapse of his marriage and his resentment toward Do. The closing encounter between Dong-hoon and Ji-an, now able to speak more freely, confirms the mutual recognition that the series built through listening, work, and survival after much hardship.