dangermousie | Worlds Within has the best female characters I've ever seen in a kdrama

Is there a single female character on Worlds Within who is NOT awesome? It doesn't feel like a typical Korean drama in its attitudes at all - these women are not self-sacrificing saints - they are capable of sacrifice to the same degree as men, but they are ambitious, strong-willed, knowing what they want. And not a single one has a life which solely revolves around a man.

We have our heroine (oooh, I bet the fangirls hated her) who is a dedicated, driven perfectionist of a professional, who is pretty good, and who unapologetically declares to the hero she has no desire to have kids because it would interfere with her career and that she wants to keep their relationship a secret at work because office gossip might be detrimental to their careers. This is not portrayed as at all wrong or bad on her part (it is made clear that it is something that might be a problematic difference of opinion in a relationship later but that is an entirely different thing!). Did I mention that the heroine tells the hero she prefers compliments on her shots to compliments on her personality? And that a large part of the reason they click so well is because they talk about their work together and he is always so proud when he sees her do well.

We have a veteran star actress who has had multiple marriages and divorces (and this is not viewed as making her awful), who is a consummate professional, insisting on shooting a scene right after she hears her mother is dead, because there is no other time. She likes working with the heroine even despite the fact that heroine and she have personality clashes, because she respects the heroine's smarts. She is good friends with the hero without any cougarishness on her part and takes back an old old flame on the condition he will not overly intrude on her life and not care if she goes out with others sometimes.

We have a famous talented and much-wanted screenwriter, who is 40 and single, and it is not portrayed as a lack on her part - poor thing, better off with a man. No, she is fulfilled and needs nothing else.

We have the mothers of hero and heroine, neither of whom is demonized and both of whom have, in their vastly different ways, carved out tolerable lives for themselves in some not ideal circumstances.

We have the tough young assistant director who can outwork a lot of men, swears and drinks like a sailor.

We have two senior veteran actresses who are professional and very tough.

And we have my favorite secondary female character, a brand new actress who got her role of a lifetime (starring role in a period drama made by a director all of whose dramas hit insane ratings) by not just talent but dogged persistence in hounding the director until he gave her a chance to show whether she is qualified, and insane work ethic (she insists on doing her own stunts). She is forthright, cheerful and unabashedly interested in the director 'that way' - the best part is she chases him not in any sort of a meek "I am going to weep if you don't like me" kind of way, but in a bulldozer (yet non-crazy) fashion of "if you don't like me, I am not going to mope as it's your loss, but since I like you, I see no point in concealing my feelings and not going for what I want." The best part is when they end up sleeping together and he (because he has rather a fear of emotional connections, though it's clear to anyone he's totally fallen for her) tells her "just because we slept together once, doesn't mean we have anything between us" and...she grins and says "OK" and leaves and you can see him be totally taken aback. That was awesome. Oh, and did I mention the below scene happens after his 'oh it was all totally meaningless' declaration? Yeah, keep telling yourself that :P