Jeon Hye-jin transforms into a ‘passionate mom of Daechi-dong’.

Starting March 2nd, she plays the role of ‘working mom’ Lee Jung-eun in the ENA drama ‘Riding Life’, and jumps into Daechi-dong in Gangnam, also known as the ‘number 1 private education district’.

This drama is garnering attention even before it airs as it marks Jeon Hye-jin‘s return to the small screen after two years and deals with the social issue of ‘7-year-old civil service exam’. There have been many dramas that dealt with private education in the past, but this is the first time that the target of private education has been set as infants.

‘7-year-old exam’ refers to children who go to English and math academies from the age of 3 or 4. Recently, comedian Lee Soo-ji vividly depicted mothers in Daechi-dong who are obsessed with private education for their children, which set a record of over 6 million views on YouTube.

Jeon Hye-jin plays the passionate ‘working mom’ Lee Jung-eun in the drama. She is a character who struggles to do well in both childcare and work. Her ‘guardian’ who helped her young daughter get to and from school suddenly loses contact, and she experiences joy and sorrow as she asks her biological mother (Jo Min-soo) to ‘ride her.

Jeon Hye-jin attended the production conference held online on the 25th ahead of the first broadcast and smiled brightly, saying, “It’s been a long time since I‘ve seen you.” She had an unintentional hiatus from acting after her husband and actor Lee Sun-kyun passed away in 2023.

On this day, she said, “I wanted to cheer up mothers through the character of Jeong-eun.” “No matter what, you are doing your best. That path may be wrong, and you may regret it when you look back, but I wanted to comfort you.”

Jeon Hye-jin, who is actually a mother of two sons, said, “I am also very interested in education. Regardless of time or place, I think it is inevitable when you have the title of mother.” “The story of the Daechi-dong academy district is bound to catch your eye. It is heartbreaking and regrettable. There is also a story about a mother, and I appeared because of that part.”

The resemblance between Jeon Hye-jin’s idea of the character and the character is over “70%”. She said, “I think it‘s because I have a child and work too,” and “Honestly, I don’t know if I am as passionate a mother as Jeong-eun. I don‘t know what the right attitude toward education is, and I am still struggling with it. “I will do my best to fit the situation, but I don’t think I can do it as well as Jeong-eun.”




Reporter Lee Jeong-yeon annjoy@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.