Castaway Diva (무인도의 디바) is a Korean rom-com that tells the story of a woman stranded on an island for 15 years and how she comes back into society and tries to pursue her dream to be an idol. Directed by Oh Choong-hwan, the drama stars Park Eun-bin, Kim Hyo-jin, Chae Jong-hyeop, Cha Hak-yeon, Kim Joo-heon, and Lee Re, alongside other cast members.
The Kdrama tells the story of Seo Mok-ha who dreams of becoming a singer, however, an incident leaves her stranded on a deserted island where she survives for 15 years. Now, she is finally rescued, but times have changed and circumstances make achieving her dream challenging. Will she be able to become a singer and get her own stage?
The show will have 12 episodes and be broadcast on tvN in the Saturday-Sunday slot at 9:20 PM KST time slot previously occupied by Arthdal Chronicles season 2. Castaway Diva episode 1 has a run time of 80 minutes.
Watch the Castaway Diva Trailer
The synopsis of the Kdrama reads:
Fifteen years after being stranded on a remote island, an aspiring singer reenters society- stopping at nothing to pursue her dream of becoming a diva.
-Castaway Diva Episode 1 Recap Contains Spoilers-
Castaway Diva Episode 1 Recap
Castaway Diva episode 1 begins on Chunsum island with the teen fangirl Seo Mok-ha who runs around her school looking for someone with a similar phone brand as hers after finding out that her phone has no power. Now, in order to get her phone to turn on she is looking for someone with the same model so that she can insert their battery in her phone and turn it on.
Finally, she finds her classmate Jung Ki-ho who has the same brand but he demands money in exchange for the service. Mok-ha is surprised and pleads to him saying that she has an important call to pick up. Ki-ho continues to demand more money but then he sees Mok-ha begin to cry and gives her his phone.
Mok-ha immediately exchanges the batteries and turns her phone on when the call she had been waiting for arrives. Meanwhile, in Seoul the singing idol Yoon Ran-joo is a sensation among people and is now on her way to a radio show where a lucky fan gets to sing along with her live.
Mok-ha is the lucky fan who gets the chance to talk to her idol and is unable to contain the sheer joy when she hears Ran-joo call out her name. However, right before the moment she gets to sing along with her idol and get noticed, Ki-ho snatches her phone and disconnects the call.
Mok-ha is shocked by his actions and is unable to contain her anger but, Ki-ho just shrugs it off and leaves. Unable to let out her anger, Mok-ha now grieves that her plan to be noticed by her idol and get a chance to meet her in Seoul has come to an end. This is when her friend tells her that she has another chance as a contest has opened up where she needs to send a video of her singing.
Mok-ha is excited to hear this but soon finds out that she needs a video recorder and Ki-ho is the only one who has a video recorder in their school. Mok-ha is once again disheartened but has no other choice other than to ask him for help. Elsewhere, Ki-ho is working part-time at the docks when someone recognises him and asks if his father knows about this.
Ki-ho is shocked and gets scared when he asks the man to not let his father know, making up the reason that he is preparing a gift for his father. The man is happy to see this attitude and promises to not let his father know, however, he later reveals the matter in front of Jung Bong-wan, Ki-ho’s father.
Later that night, Bong-wan arrives home and heads straight to his son’s room and begins beating him up while calling him ungrateful for trying to gather money to run away. Ki-ho tries to deny this but is unable to make his father stop hurting him. The next day, Mok-ha approaches Ki-ho with money and asks him to film her singing.
In need of money, Ki-ho accepts the job and while he makes fun of her stage set-up, he is soon amazed by her singing voice. He continues to shoot her all around the island and puts together a video during which he finally understands that he had been jealous of her happy smile which is why he disconnected the call the other day.
But what he does not know is that like him, Mok-ha too is a victim of parental abuse at home. The next day, she does no arrive at school which makes Ki-ho worry for her and rush to her house after school. However, there he sees cops at her shop whom she had called to report abuse.
He sees her bruised arms while his father Bong-wan, who is a cop, sees a situation similar to his own and blames Mok-ha, telling her that she has a syndrome. Mok-ha is shocked by this but gets no chance to refute it as Bong-wan tells Seo Jung-ho to apologise to his daughter and vice-versa.
Ki-ho witnesses the incident from outside and is able to relate to her better than ever before. Later at night, he arrives at Mok-ha’s shop and hands over the video he prepared for her. He tells her to submit the video and make her dreams come true, but seeing her disheartened self who does not care anymore, he decides to submit the video on her behalf.
That night, Ran-joo watches the video and is amazed by Mok-ha’s singing which leaves her awake all night. The next day, she tells her manager about letting other companies know of her plans to move to another company when her manager Lee Seo-joon offers her to join his company.
Ran-joo is surprised and asks him about the people who sent their music videos and whom he noticed. If his thoughts are similar to her own then she will accept the offer. Later that day, Ki-ho gets a call from Seo-joon and he rushes to Mok-ha while on call to hand it over for her to talk.
However, he is surprised when he sees Mok-ha decline Seo-joon’s offer and later understands her state when she bursts out crying in front of the whole class. He understands that Mok-ha only wants to be saved by her idol and is not ready to give up, thus, he rushes to her and tells her to come to him if her father ever harms her again.
He assures her that the two will run away whenever she comes knocking on his window and leave to meet her idol Ran-joo. Soon, the day for them finally arrives when Mok-ha’s father tries to hit her again and she makes the choice to run away. She rushes to knock on Ki-ho’s window and seeing her outside, he understands what they need to do.
He is prepared to leave and the two rush to the docks on this rainy night. Ki-ho then calls Seo-joon and fixes a meeting with him in Seoul after which the two wait for the first boat to leave in the morning. Meanwhile, Seo-joon is surprised by this call but soon gets another shock when Ran-joon calls him and accepts signing into his company as an artist.
Castaway Diva Episode 1 Ending
The next morning, Seo Jung-ho notices that Mok-ha has run away and rushes to find her while the two teens board the ferry and are ready to leave. However, Jung-ho reaches the docks before they can leave his arrival is seen by Ki-ho who then tells Mok-ha to make this journey alone.
He tells her where to go in Seoul and whom to meet after which he asks her to forget about everything on this island including himself. He only wishes for her to become a big star whose songs are heard everywhere and reach so high that no one can ever harm her again. Ki-ho then rushes out and blocks Jung-ho from entering the boat.
However, Jung-ho beats him up and enters the ferry before it leaves. Mok-ha is saddened by Ki-ho’s departure after which she opens the bag handed over by him but she is soon surprised to see him so well prepared. She then finds pictures of bruises on his body in his bag and understands that he too was abused by his father just like herself.
Unfortunately, before she can grieve over the situation she sees her father standing right outside and is shocked. She tries to run away from him which brings her to the end of the ferry where she sees no choice in front of her but to jump off the ferry to escape. Mok-ha falls off the boat and Jung-ho too trips over the railing in his shock.
The news of their incident is spread all over their island and Ki-ho too finds out about this when he wakes up in the hospital covered in wounds. He regrets trying to escape the island, unaware that Mok-ha was washed away on an uninhabited island where she tries to find a way to survive. However, she also sees the body of her father washed on the shore and while she remembers her wish for his death, seeing him like this makes her cry for him.
In the following years, Ki-ho finally arrives in Seoul and goes to the place he had asked Mok-ha to go to when she goes to Seoul. Standing in the place year after year, he never stops going to this place. Meanwhile, Mok-ha is now all grown up on this deserted island and has adapted to the environment.
However, one day while going through her daily routine, a drone flies across the island and comes face to face with Mok-ha.
Castaway Diva Episode 1 Review
The first episode of this Kdrama may be long with a lot happening, but there is no confusion about anything and only leaves you hooked until the end. Castaway Diva is really in for a beautiful and mesmerising journey, which is obvious after the start of this show has given its viewers.
The young actors have wonderfully performed in this episode and the same goes for all the other well-known actors in this episode. However, it is definitely the plot that has me wanting more already and I’m sure that the long waits ahead are not going to be easy if the story succeeds in following up with the same magnitude as this episode.
Altogether, it’s just one episode and I’m pretty sure that this is going to be a treat for viewers everywhere. What do you think of this episode? Let us know in the comments below!
Watch Castaway Diva on Netflix.