The Miracle

A wonderful lesson is learned when sisters swap bodies in the romantic fantasy webdrama The Miracle.

Twin sisters – but as opposite as opposite can get. Kwon Shi-Ah is slim, has long red hair, is selfish, down-right rude, and an actress and member of a girls’ Kpop group. Kwon Shi-Yeon is overweight, has short black hair, is sweet, kind, and a total outcast. One night, as Shi-Yeon is out looking for her dog she sees a woman lying in the grass. She puts the lady on her back and takes off for the hospital but they end up at the woman’s tarot shop instead. The stranger insists she’s fine, claims she is a tarot master and instructs Si-Yeon to choose a tarot card. The card she picks is called The Miracle. Made by the tarot master it’s a one-of-a-kind that has never been chosen by any one before. Si-Yeon is skeptical when told to make a wish but the first thing to cross her mind is her desire to switch places with her idol sister, Si-Ah. However, keeping that to herself, she tells the lady she wants to be able to eat anything and never gain weight. Then, the tarot master gives Shi-Yeon a gift, an emerald necklace, and sends her on her way. Moments later both sisters end up collapsing. When they awake next to each other in a hospital room, POOF, Shi-Yeon’s secret wish has been granted. Now the two sisters get to see what it’s like to walk a mile in the other gal’s shoes and it’s not as easy and wonderful as Shi-Yeon thought it would be.

Kwon Si-Ah reeks of arrogance and is extremely bossy. In the words of her sister, “In front of the camera you act nice and pretty but in reality, you’re a two-faced psycho and sociopath!” She is the most popular girl in the group, Miracle Girls. Although she dances well her musical ability is sorely lacking. The poor girl can’t sing a note. She’s also been in a drama and is sought after for commercials. Her career is her number one priority and she’s not about to let anything or any one get in the way of her success.

Kwon Shi-Yeon is tired of being judged solely on her looks. She is intelligent and friendly but because of her weight she is a target for all the bullies in the school. Even the guy she likes picks on her. She sings beautifully and would love to work in musical theater after she graduates high school. She has a web channel called “Sexy Diva’s Blog” and although she sings while she’s broadcasting no one knows what she looks like because she tapes a picture of a gorgeous blonde to the camera.

Ban Hae-Seong is a popular solo artist, number one on the music charts. He composes music, writes the lyrics, and performs the songs – a triple threat. He’s not interested in doing things like commercials because he insists he’s not an idol, he’s a musician.

The boy Si-Yeon has had a crush on for years is Han Gyo-Seok. He’s the popular, handsome guy in class. Unfortunately, he’s part of the crowd that ridicules Si-Yeon and the chances of them ever getting together is slim to none.

Kim Na-Hyun, whose entertainment career began in 2014, is a member of the seven member girls’ Kpop group SONAMOO. The egotistical Kwon Shi-Ah, in this webdrama, is Na-Hyun’s acting debut. In my opinion her acting skills aren’t horrible, just novice. Hopefully, they’ll get better with time.

It’s obvious Hong Yoon-Hwa isn’t a stranger to acting. She is definitely the best actor/actress in the cast. Her debut came in 2010 with the Japanese TV series Mischevious Kiss. She’s also appeared in the TV show Real School! and the Kdrama Oh, My Venus. In this webdrama she turned her character, Kwon Shi-Yeon, into a darling girl that’s easy to like and cheer for. Yoon-Hwa is engaged to comedian Kim Min-Ki.

Kim Dong-Hyun made his entertainment debut in 2011 as the lead vocalist in the six member Kpop group Boyfriend. His acting debut, along with all the Boyfriend members, was in Go Go Ikemen 5, 2013’s Japanese idol drama. He has kind eyes and did a fine job making me like his character, Ban Hae-Seong, in this show. I believed he sincerely cared about music more than he did about being a star.

Yang Hak-Jin played professional volleyball for ten years before a knee injury ended that career and he began modeling and acting. In 2016 he made a name for himself in the sports variety show Cool Kidz on the Block. Since then he has been quite busy, acting in four shows in 2016 – Night Teacher, Tong: Memories, Solomon’s Perjury, and this webdrama, playing the part of high school senior Han Gyo-Seok.

Body switching isn’t the only miracle involved in this show. The word miracle is used quite a bit. It’s in the title, of course, the group Si-Ah belongs to is called Miracle Girls, the tarot card Si-Yeon chooses is called The Miracle, the company Si-Ah and Ban Hae-Seong are signed to is Miracle Entertainment, and there is a scandal surrounding a song Hae-Seong writes with miracle in the title. See if you can find any “miracle” that slipped by me.

Birth of a Beauty and Oh, My Venus taught us the size of our pants isn’t important, it’s the size of our heart that matters and now The Miracle adds its voice to that same wonderful message. Slim, chunky, pretty, plain… it’s our hearts and brains that make us who we really are and that’s all that counts! The measure of a person is important – we just need to remember to measure the right thing… one’s character.

I’m very familiar with Kdramas who have characters that have to masquerade as someone they’re not – Who Are You: School 2015, Mr. Baek, Birth of a Beauty, Doctor Stranger, Healer… the list goes on and on. We also have those gender-bender, girl pretends she’s a boy/boy pretends he’s a girl shows like You’re Beautiful, Coffee Prince, Nail Shop Paris, Ma Boy and so many more. Then there’s that wonderfully delicious body swapping drama Secret Garden! (One of my very most favorite shows, ever!) So how does this “sister has to assume her twin’s life without messing up or getting caught” storyline stack up to the others? It’s certainly not anywhere close to great but it’s okay entertainment with an “Awhhh, that’s sweet” ending.

Since the lives of the characters in The Miracle revolve around music we expect the show’s soundtrack to be decent, and it definitely is. Nahyun and Donghyun sing a lovely duet entitled Two of Us, SONAMOO performs First Kiss and Donghyun sings a solo called Promise. My favorite song is Voice. It’s a soothing ballad which includes a rap, performed by the group BtoB. Over all I give the music a B+.

There’s not a lot of varied backgrounds to the show mainly because the webdrama is so short it’s difficult to add in anything that’s not essential to the actual plot. The scenery is pretty much limited to the girls’ house, Si-Yeon’s school, and the entertainment company Si-Ah is signed to. But that’s not a problem. We really don’t need anything more than that to move the story along.