From Corporate Success to Rural Struggles: How ‘Simwoo-myeon Yeonri-ri’ Challenges Family Dynamics

Park Sung-woong sheds his usual sharp charisma to play a beleaguered family man locked in a losing fight with — of all things — cabbage. KBS2's new series Shimwumyeon Yeonriri (writers Song Jeong-rim and Wang Hye-ji; director Choi Yeon-su) premiered on the 26th and injects fresh energy into Thursday nights by realistically depicting how a family accustomed to city life unravels when forced into rural living. What starts like a polished office drama pivots immediately into a gritty survival story about returning to the land — full of mud, rocks and very little glamour.

The series centers on Seong Tae-hoon (Park Sung-woong), a skilled executive who climbed to a department-head role at food conglomerate Mat Story. His upward trajectory stalls, however, when office politics derail his effort to resolve a cabbage-sourcing crisis. After a clash with Director Choi (Min Seong-uk), Tae-hoon is reassigned to the Yeonriri branch — the company’s so-called \"exile\" post. The transfer is essentially a thinly veiled push toward resignation, but with a son in medical school and other children studying abroad, quitting isn't an option.

When news of Tae-hoon's demotion reaches his wife, Jo Mi-ryeo (Lee Soo-kyung), she and their three sons rush back to confront him. Reality ultimately wins out and the family boards the bus to Yeonriri. The chemistry between Park Sung-woong and Lee Soo-kyung as a married couple is a highlight, grounding the story’s emotional core.

Accustomed to urban comforts, the family greets Yeonriri like a disaster zone. The dilapidated farmhouse, seeming ready to collapse, elicits a mixture of disbelief and weary laughter — a reaction many viewers will find familiar.

Jo Mi-ryeo’s biting quip — \"Country staycation~?\" — and their second son Seong Ji-sang’s (Seo Yun-hyuk) panicked \"There’s a ghost here!\" line underline the family’s harsh new reality. While Tae-hoon throws himself into the cabbage crop that he believes will secure the company’s future, Mi-ryeo begins carving out her own path by getting involved with the local women's association. The family's bumbling adaptation in the old house swaps glossy production values for a rough-hewn, comforting rural aesthetic that paradoxically feels healing.

The biggest obstacle to returning to the land turns out to be people, not soil. From his first meeting with village chief Im Joo-hyung (Lee Seo-hwan), Tae-hoon faces open hostility. Im's antagonism toward anyone associated with Mat Story is immediate and blunt: \"Clear all the stones and see if a single weed will grow,\" he says, puncturing Tae-hoon’s overconfidence.

By episode's end, Tae-hoon stands stunned in a barren field as a sprinkler soaks him — a visual shorthand for the rough road ahead. Tension ratchets up when field caretaker Noh Hyun-gap (Jeong Seon-cheol) is shown behaving suspiciously, seemingly reporting Tae-hoon's every move to an unseen party.

Against the adults' brutal world, Yeonriri's younger residents hint at a softer subplot. Tae-hoon's eldest son, Seong Ji-cheon (Lee Jin-woo), crosses paths unexpectedly with Im Bo-mi (Choi Gyu-ri), the village nutritionist and the chief's daughter. As the parents wage war over cabbage and land, this budding connection offers a quieter, romantic counterpoint worth watching.

The title Shimwumyeon Yeonriri carries a double meaning. Put the place names Shimwumyeon and Yeonriri together and it reads like \"plant it and it will open.\" Tae-hoon's confident refrain — \"What's farming? Plant it and it'll grow\" — reads less like bravado and more like the desperate self-talk of a provider who can't afford to fail.

Shimwumyeon Yeonriri wraps realistic pressures — workplace demotion, the cost of raising children, and local territorialism — in a comedic skin. Park Sung-woong’s portrayal of an overmatched provider offers weary viewers a sympathetic, quietly comic consolation. Can this city family overcome local resistance and pull off a successful cabbage harvest? Episode two airs April 2; viewers will be tuning in to find out.

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