Viewers Hated This K-Drama Mum In Teach You A Lesson So Much They Started Attacking The Actress Online

Netflix’s latest hit Korean drama Teach You A Lesson has viewers talking, but one actress is finding it hard to escape her character in real life.

Park Ji Yeon, 41, who plays an overbearing mother in the series, recently took to social media to remind viewers that she's not actually the nightmare parent they love to hate.

Ji Yeon’s character became a major talking point after Episode 5, in which she plays an overprotective mum who constantly interferes with teachers, files relentless complaints and makes life miserable for educators trying to help her son.

Her performance was so convincing that some viewers apparently struggled to separate the actress from the character.

Teach You A Lesson, which stars Kim Moo Yul and Lee Sung Min, follows the Educational Rights Protection Bureau (ERPB), a fictional government agency tasked with protecting educators and restoring order to Korea's increasingly troubled school system.  

According to Ji Yeon, her social media accounts were flooded with comments from viewers criticising her character’s behaviour.

Some questioned why she made teachers' lives so difficult, while others admitted they hated "Woojin's mother" so much they didn't want to see her on screen.

The actress eventually posted a message asking netizens to stop treating her as though she were the character.

“Foreign friends, I am not Woojin’s mother. I’ve even pinned the link [to the actor who plays Woojin] in the top comment, but I guess many people can’t see it,” she wrote.

“For some reason, the algorithm suddenly pushed this [account] overseas and now I’m in an awkward situation. I’m not Woojin’s mum. You don’t need to follow me.”

She later revealed that the misunderstanding had spread beyond Korea, with people from Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and the US all referring to her as “Woojin’s mum”.

Fortunately, many viewers came to her defense, saying the backlash was proof of how effective her performance had been.

One viewer said they were "almost overwhelmed by rage" because of how convincing Ji Yeon was in the role, while another remarked that if viewers were getting angry and swearing at the character, it simply meant the acting was excellent.

Others praised Ji Yeon for perfectly capturing the kind of overbearing “dinosaur parent” that teachers dread encountering, with many calling her performance one of the drama’s standout moments.