THE SHORT VERDICT:
Measured, quiet and thoughtful, I really liked this show, for the most part. I enjoyed the deliberate, considered vibe of the writing and the overall handling, and the small town setting feels refreshing and different. For a good stretch, watching this show feels like a nice dose of therapy, away from the roar of current affairs and world events.
However, I struggled quite significantly from episode 13 onwards, with certain plot developments making me legit angry with Show. BUT, Show manages to turn things around just enough in its final steps, to end on a sufficiently positive and uplifting note.
I wanted Show to be better, especially given its strong start, but I suppose it could’ve been worse. For the record, I really enjoyed Seo Kang Joon in this.
THE LONG VERDICT:
I went into this drama knowing that it wasn’t for everyone; this one was reputed to be slow and thoughtful, and not everyone enjoys slow and thoughtful, after all.
But, I believed that it was for me. I liked it right away, or at least, I was intrigued right away, and Show grew steadily on me. It was as thoughtful, beautiful, and excruciating as its fans had said, and I enjoyed the gentle teasing out of the various characters and what makes them tick, as well as the gradual forming of relationship bonds. However, like I’ve already mentioned, Show made some decisions in its late stretch that didn’t work for me. Not only was I mad at Show, I was also mad at our female lead character Hae Won (Park Min Young) – but, more about that later.
At the same time, I also wanted to say that that’s not uniformly the case for everyone, and that there are many fans of this show who don’t feel the same way I did. So, just because I became disgruntled with Show doesn’t mean that you will too. Also, despite my grumbles about Show’s late stretch, I do still find it a reasonably solid watch overall. That’s not bad?
OST ALBUM: FOR YOUR LISTENING PLEASURE
Here’s the OST album, if you’d like to listen to Show’s very pleasant OST, as you read the review.
I really enjoyed the OST in this show; so many of the tracks have a heartfelt, wistful quality about them, which I thought was perfect for Show’ general vibe. I also felt that the OST managed to lift the watch, making quiet scenes feel almost ethereal, and amplifying feels that would’ve otherwise felt muted.
MANAGING EXPECTATIONS
Show is slow, there’s no doubt about it. It’s more people-centered than plot-driven, so it helps if you put aside any need for strong plot movement, and enjoy the unfolding of characters and relationships. When Show is at its best, it’s engaging, calming and warm, and feels like a welcoming safe haven.
Not all our characters are likable, and all of our characters are flawed &/or hurt in some way. It’s probably also helpful to know that, in keeping with real life, our characters don’t manage huge leaps forward in their healing journeys. Progress is usually made in small, baby steps, rather than in big, significant strides. And, they also sometimes experience setbacks, amid making those baby steps. If you’re not in a patient frame of mind, this would likely be hard to watch.
Regardless of whether Show upsets you the way it upset me, I’d say that it’s important to know that every episode ends with an epilogue.
THE EPILOGUES
More often than not, the episode epilogues add a whole new layer of flavor and meaning to the episode itself. I tried to imagine what it would be like, it we didn’t have the blog post epilogues in this show – like when someone who’s watching the show doesn’t know there’re there, and misses them – and I realize that the epilogues make a world of difference.
I personally really like the epilogues and looked forward to them at the end of every episode. They’re always thoughtful, and reminded me of the epilogues in Romance Is A Bonus Book.
I also wonder whether there is an over-reliance on the epilogues. They’re a nice way to turn things on their heads in an efficient few seconds, but it alienates the viewer who doesn’t know to watch them.
..But that’s why I’m here to let you know that you should stick around for them. Always.
[SPOILER ALERT]
In episode 7, Eun Seob’s (Seo Kang Joon) oddly frozen reaction to Hae Won’s confession that she likes him, and the continued act of pushing her away, while looking like a deer in headlights, is left to us to interpret, without much to go on, and the episode feels like we’re frozen in time, with nothing much happening. It’s only when we see Eun Seob’s blog post entry at the end of the episode, that I feel like a sense of closure and balance, and coherence, is brought to the episode.
“Irene told me, “I like you.” I froze in that spot and couldn’t say anything. Is this what you call a time that feels like an eternity? With those words from her mouth, the whole universe, including me, came to a stop. I barely pulled myself together, but all I could say was “Okay.” What on earth have I done? It’s such a bitter night.”
When I read that, my heart goes out to him, as I feel his angst over botching his reaction to Irene’s confession. But without reading that, I only am able to conjecture, while I wonder what he’s really thinking. World. Of. Difference.
[END SPOILER]
STUFF I LIKED
General tone and vibe
I really liked that our drama world feels so measured, and quiet, like a completely removed world, from the busy bustle that many of us are so used to, in the city. This feels like an escape from the buzz, where you can get away to a place quiet enough, that you can hear yourself breathe, and finally hear your own thoughts that you’ve been struggling to make out in the midst of the noise.
All the little sounds of life are amplified in this world; the slurping sound of Eun Seob sipping his coffee; the sound of the turning of a page; the quiet thump of footsteps. It’s as if all the little sounds of life that we tend to overlook because they get lost in all the noise, finally have space to be heard. It’s all very pretty and atmospheric, and I liked that a lot.
I also enjoyed the the inclusion of quotes from books, via our resident book club (more on that later). This lyrical touch reminded me of both A Poem A Day and Romance is a Bonus Book, in a very positive way.
Seo Kang Joon as Eun Seob
I must say, I grew to really enjoy Seo Kang Joon as Eun Seob.
Eun Seob is reticent, private and, to some extent, socially awkward, and yet, once Show starts peeling away some of his layers, it’s easy to see how compassionate, generous and caring he is, despite the emotional wounds that he’s clearly still struggling with.
Show reveals Eun Seob’s backstory a little late, but that didn’t stop me from feeling his struggles and his pain, and rooting for him to overcome his demons.
The thing that strikes me most about Eun Seob, is how he positions himself as a healer of others, despite his own lack of healing. He is, in essence, a wounded healer, and that generosity and empathy for others just gets me right the heart. He pours out so much of himself for everyone else, that it hurt my heart to see it.
Though Eun Seob’s healing and growth process is slow, I was still gratified to witness it. And Seo Kang Joon does a lovely job injecting glimpses of personality and pathos through Eun Seob’s smilingly stoic armor.
[SPOILER ALERT]
E1. At first, Eun Seob appears to be quietly nonchalant around Hae Won. When she ends up in his bookstore to take shelter from the rain, he seems so calm and collected, like he’s almost indifferent to her presence; he only gets up periodically to pass her something to make her more comfortable, but otherwise busies himself with his own book. But, it turns out that he’s such a smitten dork underneath it all. He’s paralyzed in her presence, and all that cool and calm turns out to be a quickly disintegrating illusion, as he fumbles for words. It’s so dorky and secondhand embarrassing and endearing. He’s so dorky and endearing.
E2. I love Eun Seob’s blog entries. They’re reflective and expressive, and give us a little more insight into Eun Seob’s heart and mind, articulated in his voice. I really like that. I think it’s very endearing that he has a blog where he shares his most embarrassing, awkward thoughts.
E3. Eun Seob saying that maybe Aunt (Moon Jeong Hee) is one of those people who never tells anyone else about her loneliness and instead embraces that loneliness like retreating to a cabin.. It sounds like he’s speaking from experience. He’s also talking about himself, isn’t he?
E3. This epilogue, Eun Seob talking about Hae Won staying under the same room with him, in a tone of distinct wonder, is just so earnest and endearing.
E4. When Hae Won asks why Eun Seob is able to go up to the woods even though it’s dangerous, his answer – again, with the same metaphor of loneliness in mind – feels haunting; “I know it like the back of my hand.” I don’t even know why Eun Seob is as lonely as he is, or what he’s suffered, and already, this feels so poignant.
E4. Aw, haha I love the epilogue today. Eun Seob musing about whether Hae Won chooses to read the books that other book club members have shared because she’s curious to know more about the people who chose to read those books, and then wondering what book he should choose. The accompanying still of Eun Seob is adorably dorky, and I find the whole thing just perfect.
E5. When Eun Seob perceives that their conversation has put Hae Won in a bad mood, he suggests doing something to make her feel better, and they watch a retro movie together. It strikes me that Hae Won enjoys it and smiles, but Eun Seob is more focused on her than the movie. He appears pensive still; I feel like he’s in the wounded healer space again, where he’s pensive, but he’ll help her feel better. This thought tugs at my heartstrings.
E5. I love the epilogue blog posting. Eun Seob sounds so earnest as he recounts how Irene brought home camellias, and tells him about her family from time to time, and how he feels like they’re getting closer. And, squee! He hopes to tell her that for him, his first love isn’t in the past perfect. Aw.
E8. It seems that Eun Seob struggles to be himself, and perhaps he’s spent so much time being the good son and good brother that he feels he ought to be, for the family that’s embraced him and taken him in, that he’s lost sight of who he might be, if he weren’t trying so hard to live up to his own expectations of himself.
E9. I feel so sorry for Eun Seob. When that fight erupts between Dad (Kang Shin Il) and Dad’s angry friend, the words that he hears are so hurtful; he’s referred to as not his father’s son, a street urchin. And despite the hurt that he must feel, when Mom (Nam Gi Ae) asks him not to say anything, he says he won’t, with a gentle smile, as if it’s the most expected thing in the world.
He swallows his feelings and re-absorbs them, out of consideration for other people, and he does it without questioning, as if he thinks that he’s less than, and therefore doesn’t deserve to feel things if other people don’t want him to. It’s heartbreaking, and even more so, that his parents initiated this unfortunate conversation, out of a desire to keep him safe.
E9. Eun Seob’s voiceover about his childhood, combined with the flashback of him as a child living in the mountains with his dad, is so poignant and sad. His happiness was unbridled and carefree, and Dad really looked so happy to be living with him. For Eun Seob to then become suspicious of every happiness, because of how it might be abruptly lost, is so sad.
Mom and Dad taking Eun Seob in, and caring for him, and showering him with love and kindness, is so sweet, and yet, it’s so sad that Eun Seob just can’t relax into that happiness that they’re offering him, because he’s afraid he’ll lose it too.
[END SPOILER]
Eun Seob and Hae Won
You might’ve gotten the sense by now, that between Eun Seob and Hae Won, my heart lies more with Eun Seob. I found him the more likable character, and I basically rooted for this relationship, because of how much it means to Eun Seob, rather than because I feel like they are perfect for each other.
I struggled to warm to Hae Won (more on that later), but I liked the effect that spending time with Eun Seob has on her. To my eyes, she becomes more likable more in association with Eun Seob, rather than on her own merit. But the end effect is reasonably similar; I found myself enjoying their OTP scenes quite a bit, even though by all accounts, the progress of this OTP leans heavily on the slow end of the scale.
I believe it was Jesse (have you checked out his very cool guest post about onscreen chemistry?) who referred to the development of the OTP relationship as feeling like two left feet wading through mud, in one of the conversations on the blog. I agree that yes, at points, it does feel like Hae Won and Eun Seob are wading through mud, but in this case, because I felt like it makes sense in the context of their characters and the situation, for the most part, I didn’t mind exercising some patience, as I watched them engage in struggle that feels necessary for personal healing, growth and progress.
Granted, I was a lot less pleased with how Show chooses to handle things in the last few episodes, and that does impact the OTP as well, but I’ll talk about that later.
[SPOILER ALERT]
E1. I find it cute and dorky that Eun Seob’s given Hae Won a code name in his diary. That way, he can write about “Irene” without revealing her identity, and I find it oddly sweet and intimate, that he has his own secret pet name for her.
E2. Eun Seob is indeed awkward around Hae Won sometimes, particularly when the topic of feelings comes up. How mortifying, that he blurted out all that stuff about having liked her in the past perfect tense, when all she’d meant to do was ask him if she could borrow a book. Eep.
At other times, though, when Eun Seob isn’t tripping himself up with overthinking, and is just being himself, he seems really comfortable with Hae Won. I like that they’re hanging out and becoming closer, and having conversations.
E2. In spite of his ungainly awkward gaffes around Hae Won, Eun Seob can be really sweet. I feel like he’s sweetest when he shows that he’s considerate of her. In spite of his own embarrassment, he comes out with a torch so that he can light her way back home, saying only that it gets dark at night. That’s thoughtful and sweet.
And there’s the way he bends over backwards to allow her to work at the bookstore, when he’d actually been looking for someone to supervise the skating rink. And he’s a cute sleepy drunk too, who mumbles about how he’s glad that Irene’s there. I can see why Hae Won checked herself in the mirror before heading out to work, and took the trouble to put on makeup, while she was at it. And, she showed up early to work too; she’s just that happy to spend another day with Eun Seob. Aw.
E3. I hadn’t been expecting cohabiting hijinks, but I can’t say no, now that Show’s serving it up. It’s quite cute how Eun Seob practically falls over himself to find a way to convince Hae Won to stay at his place instead of going back to Seoul, at least until they can get a plumber to come fix her house. And in the short space of time that we see them live together this episode, I already feel like they’re growing a little closer and a little more comfortable with each other.
Eun Seob is as thoughtful as always, anticipating Hae Won’s need for a hairdryer, and putting one out for her, even before she can ask him for it. And Hae Won feels his absence so keenly, when he disappears into the mountain, that she ups and charges into the mountain on her own even though it makes her nervous, because she’s buoyed by the assurance that he’s there.
Hae Won clinging to Eun Seob, crying, is mostly fueled by her scary experience of being in the mountains by herself, but I think it also expresses how she’s come to rely on Eun Seob, in the short time that they’ve been neighbors and housemates. In this place, she feels all alone, but for his presence, and this is amplified many times over, in the dark mountains.
E4. The fact that Hae Won volunteers the information to Eun Seob, about how she’d felt scared that her mom wouldn’t come home, when she’d been left alone at home as a child, is pretty huge. She’s telling him that she’d felt the same feeling, when she couldn’t find him. She’s starting to regard him as someone close.
E4. Hae Won reflexively becoming so defensive of Eun Seob, and questioning why everyone just expects him to be able to go up the mountain on his own, without worrying for his safety, is a big indication that she’s started to care about him quite a bit. Plus, she’s getting reflexively defensive too, when it comes to other women asking to see Eun Seob, even if it’s the person that he’d saved asking to see him to thank him. Hae Won may not realize it yet, but she wants Eun Seob for herself, heh.
E4. It’s sweet of Eun Seob to get Hae Won snow shoes. He’d seen the unsuitable shoes that Min Jeong (Park Ji Won) had been wearing, and clearly, he’s worried that something might happen to Hae Won too, and so he gets her proper snow shoes, to keep her safe. Aw.
E5. Hae Won is understandably shocked to see her mother (Jin Hee Kyung), even though they barely speak. And it’s notable, that the moment she sees Eun Seob, she wastes no time telling him that her mother is here, and sharing more about her relationship with her mother, and he asks questions, and they discuss it together. How telling, that she doesn’t hold back the information, and instead volunteers the information, and then muses about it all, out loud, with him. I do love that she’s so comfortable with Eun Seob, and wants to share things with him.
E5. Aw. Hae Won looks quite crestfallen that Eun Seob isn’t done, when she’s done with the family lunch, and therefore she won’t be meeting him to go back to the house together. She’d spoken to him normally, with familiarity and some warmth in her voice, but when Aunt and Mom casually tell her goodbye, the contrast is stark; the company she’d been in, with them, had been frosty and distant; the company she enjoyed with Eun Seob, familiar and warm. No wonder she’s gravitating towards him.
E5. I’m glad that Hae Won tells Eun Seob about seeing him in town with Bo Young (Im Se Mi), and feeling unhappy about it. That’s way better than bottling it up, and I like that they talk about it honestly, him telling her what Bo Young had requested, and her telling him how she feels about that.
E6. He does it again. It’s quite clear that Eun Seob doesn’t want Hae Won to leave, and Hae Won is a little wistful at leaving too, but it’s what was agreed, and neither of them is going to say anything about it. But when she leaves, it isn’t long before he appears in front of her in the darkness, again, offering to be her light in the darkness. Aw. And she completely lights up too, the moment she notices the ray of light at her feet.
E6. I like that Hae Won is completely disinterested in Yeong Woo’s (Kim Young Dae) advances, even though he’s clear that he still likes her. She’s not at all fazed by his presumably impressive specs; she is focused only on the fresh realization – literally only when Yeong Woo asks her if there’s someone she likes – that she likes Eun Seob. And I love that she wastes no time in seeking Eun Seob out, and then telling him that she likes him.
That’s such a brave thing to do, and I can only imagine what a big thing it must be for her in particular, since she’s usually so reserved, keeping her thoughts and feelings to herself. But I think, because it’s Eun Seob, with whom she feels comfortable enough to share her personal thoughts, she’s comfortable enough to tell him, and right away too. I don’t even think she stops to realize that this is taking courage. With Eun Seob, she feels the ease and comfort to let the words flow. I like that.
E8. All this time, the warmth that he’s shown Hae Won, had made me feel like Eun Seob was a wounded healer, and that’s not untrue; it’s just that Eun Seob is a lot more wounded than we knew, and now that his wounds are starting to be unearthed, when he doesn’t have the presence of mind – the buffer – to be the ideal self that he’s been practicing to be all these years, Hae Won is confronted with a raw, brusque, scared, battered Eun Seob who is too afraid to admit his feelings for her, for fear of losing her. It’s heartbreaking, to think about this, and watching them wade through mud, as it were, feels like watching someone who’s lost the use of his legs, learn to walk all over again. It’s a painful process that is slow, but it’s a worthy undertaking, and the painful process is worthwhile, in the end.
The truth is, Eun Seob’s liked Hae Won long before Hae Won realized he existed. But he’s so devastated by loss and rejection in his life, that even though Hae Won is now telling him that she likes him, he’s too paralyzed to embrace it.
Bearing in mind that Hae Won is a very reserved individual who’s lived with the hurt of being an outcast, and has never sunk deep roots with people, even her own family, it’s a huge step that she takes, to tell Eun Seob that she likes him. I felt that in that moment, she’d felt buoyed by the warmth that Eun Seob brought to her life. So to be effectively rejected, is a huge blow to her. For Hae Won to still lean in and take the opportunity to request a formal response to her confession, was very courageous, even though it came across a touch cold, in its delivery.
That moment of vulnerability and honesty at the summit is quite lovely. Hae Won’s quietly emotional, as she confesses that she can’t look Eun Seob in the eyes because she can’t do the simple thing and just accept that he doesn’t like her. Her tears, burgeoning in her eyes, as she brightly promises that she will accept it, from now on, cause her vulnerability to really shine through, and I’m not surprised that Eun Seob’s resolve breaks, as he pulls her into an embrace and kisses her, and then kisses her some more. Aw.
E8. I love Eun Seob’s blog entry this episode.
“There are things you can see more clearly when you’re alone. And it’s not so bad to learn from loneliness. The less you expect, the calmer your days are. It’s painful to genuinely want something. But I’m not without desires. I kissed Irene in the mountains. I almost fainted. I can’t joke about it anymore, which means it’s serious. She now lives behind my eyes.”
Tee hee. How cute, that he felt like he was about to faint. And how poetic, that she lives behind his eyes; I think he means that she’s a part of him now.
E9. There is something very sexy about a shy guy who kisses like he means it. Eun Seob is usually so reticent and reserved, and yet, when he’s kissing Hae Won, once he actually moves to kiss her, there’s no stiffness or hesitation; just a savor and a wonder, that is both melty and sensuous. I likey.
The fact that he becomes reserved again, afterwards, as they descend the mountain, is somehow very endearing to me, like he’s shy.
E9. Given Eun Seob’s past, I get why he’s so hesitant around Hae Won; he likes her even more than other shiny, warm, lovely things he’s liked in the past, and lost, so he’s even more terrified of losing her. I can rationalize his paralysis and I can understand why he’d be absorbed in thought, and not even remember telling Hae Won that he’d call her when he got to Seoul.
I can also understand Hae Won’s evolving mood, from deliriously happy, to anxious, to downright sullen. The confidence she’d had, had been worn down by the act of waiting fruitlessly for the assurance in the shape of a phone call, that never came.
I can also understand Hae Won going right over, when Eun Seob returns, only to passive-aggressively pick a fight; she’s not looking for a fight; she’s looking for assurance, but doesn’t want to appear needy or weak, in asking for it. She still wants her dignity.
I love that Eun Seob smiles at her and shows her nothing but patience. I love his gentle tone, when he says, “Come here,” and “Why are you picking a fight?” He’s not going to quarrel with her, and he’s not going to respond with annoyance or irritation at her passive-aggressive behavior. I just melt at his gentleness, as he tells her that what happened in the mountains wasn’t a mistake, and to prove it, they can just do it again, before he leans down and kisses her. Aw. Sweet.
E9. I do like the role reversal, when Hae Won learns the truth that Eun Seob’s been living all this time. She thinks back on everything that he’s said, pieces it all together, and then goes to him, to tell him that she knows he’s the boy in the story about the wolf with the silver eyelash, and that he’s wrong, because he does find the happy village with real people, and that he’ll live there happily ever after. And then she hugs him and holds him close. I love that when he’d been the one to comfort her and encourage her before, that she’s now the one comforting him and encouraging him. The healer role has changed in this moment, and I love the idea that these two people, in their own wounded ways, are bringing healing to each other, by putting the other person above themselves.
E10. I like seeing Eun Seob and Hae Won together as a newly minted couple. They’re cozy together, and there’s teasing, and there’s tenderness, and a touch of shyness, and it’s so very endearing. The way she holds onto him, like he’s the fuzziest, coziest thing in the world, and the way he leans into her, like that’s the most comfortable, appealing place in the world, is just quite lovely. Pity they got interrupted so suddenly by Hwi and nearly jumped out of their skins, hur, but it was very sweet to witness, if just for a while.
E10. It’s great to see Eun Seob come back, and I am tentatively relieved that he’s back, but I also feel a great deal of uncertainty over what’s going to happen next. He could still leave, possibly. And now, things with Hae Won are suddenly taking a tentative turn. When Hae Won asks if he’s going to leave, he counters that Hae Won had said she was going to leave too, in the Spring.
It’s time for some honest and serious decision-making up in here, so that both Eun Seob and Hae Won can have a greater sense of certainty, as they give of their hearts to each other. It’s true that even as they’ve embraced their feelings for each other, they’ve existed in a happy bubble of pure “right now” with no indication of what might happen in the future. From our vantage point, it appears that Hae Won’s been quietly entertaining thoughts of staying on long-term, but she’s not told anyone about this, and I can’t blame Eun Seob for falling back on her previous statement of leaving in the Spring, because I can imagine that Eun Seob wouldn’t want to be the one holding her back.
E11. I like that Hae Won is opening up to Eun Seob. The way she relates her suicide attempt in high school, is gentle and open, yet matter-of-fact. She doesn’t gloss over things; she narrates it like it is, and it’s pretty huge, I think, that she’s allowing Eun Seob to see this corner of her memories. I’m certain she hasn’t told anyone else about this, and only Aunt knows, because Aunt was there.
E11. It’s understandable that reserved Eun Seob needs some prodding, and I do appreciate that Hae Won is stepping out of her shell to do that prodding, asking him if this is love, between them. And I like that Eun Seob says yes.
E11. It’s also quite bold of Hae Won, to casually inform Eun Seob that she wants to sleep with him, when they get back to the bookstore. Eun Seob dropping the books in his hands in discombobulated shock is too cute. I would’ve never guessed that reticent Hae Won would ever do that. But that shows just how comfortable she is with Eun Seob. And, I think it also shows that she understands that Eun Seob’s going to be the more reserved one between them, and so if she wants things to happen faster than they are, that she’ll have to nudge him along. It’s quite an unexpected but not unwelcome sight, to see Hae Won lead Eun Seob in matters of the heart, and even in the bedroom.
E12. So we see that Eun Seob had followed Hae Won the day that she’d wanted to kill herself, and that he’d been the one to call Aunt. Ok, so I’m glad Show cleared up how Aunt managed to appear on the scene and talk sense into Hae Won. But.. I’m struggling somewhat, with why Eun Seob didn’t tell Hae Won the truth, when she told him about that day. Given the state of their relationship, where they’re getting along well, and opening up to each other, it would seem the perfect time to share that with her.
I can rationalize why he wouldn’t; maybe he was afraid that she wouldn’t like the idea that he’d followed her; maybe he’s just so reticent that he couldn’t summon the words. Either way, I would like Show to give me an indication of why Eun Seob didn’t say anything. Otherwise, it just seems like Show withheld the information not because of Eun Seob as a character, but just to weave another layer of meaning into the story for us, in the form of a delayed reveal.
E13. I appreciate that Eun Seob doesn’t withhold information from Hae Won, and tells her right away, that Bo Young had called, and for what reason. Good on Hae Won for taking the bull by the horns, and just going to get Bo Young herself, rather than allow Bo Young to guilt-trip Eun Seob into saving her. And good on Eun Seob, for trusting Hae Won to go up the mountain without him, even though he’s at least a little bit worried for her.
E13. I’ve come across viewers who say that they’re really upset that Hae Won read Eun Seob’s diary entries. I’m not sure how I feel about it. I recognize that it’s an invasion of privacy, but at the same time, neither she or Eun Seob seems to see it as an act of malice. She chanced on it while looking at the bookstore’s web page (a perfectly innocent thing to do, since who would guess that a private diary would be linked on the bookstore’s web page), and given her relationship with Eun Seob, she probably felt it was ok to read what she’d found. And aside from feeling very embarrassed about it, Eun Seob doesn’t seem to blame her for reading what she found. Since the reaction from them both, as a couple, seems to be a combination of embarrassment and amusement, and Eun Seob doesn’t seem to be offended, I don’t feel like I need to be offended for him, if that makes sense.
I do think that Hae Won and Eun Seob should talk about some of the stuff she found out from reading the diary entries, though. Especially about what they each think, about the future. On a related note, I think it’s important to note that just as Eun Seob doesn’t seem offended at Hae Won reading the entries, Hae Won doesn’t seem offended by the fact that Eun Seob hadn’t told her about having followed her the day she’d run away determined to die. Like I mentioned previously, when she’d told him about that day, that would’ve been the perfect time for Eun Seob to come clean with his side of the story, but he didn’t. I find it significant that both Hae Won and Eun Seob are laughing (well, and cringing too, on Eun Seob’s part), rather than getting upset.
[END SPOILER]
The book club
I found myself growing very fond of the book club, whose meetings are held at Eun Seob’s bookstore, and are sprinkled through our episodes.
The book club doesn’t operate like other book clubs I know of. People don’t read the same book and discuss specific chapters when they meet. In this book club, it’s almost like a show-and-tell session, where the members collect stories or poems and share them with one another, and talk about what they like. I love that they all get so excited about it, and I love that they go through their daily lives collecting these literary nuggets, and storing them away so that they can share it with one another, like little precious treasures. It feels so pure.
I found it endearing that the book club members get so excited about the book club meeting, and each eagerly prepares something to share, whether it’s the reading of a poem, or a snack of roasted tangerines. It’s more like a warm family gathering with deeper thoughts sprinkled in, and it’s heartwarming stuff that infuses each episode with a coziness that I really liked.
[SPOILER ALERT]
E10. The flea market held by the book club looks like so much wholesome, good-hearted fun; I love the idea of each member of the book club bringing their own brand of talent to share, and creating an eclectic mix of fun things for people to do.
E14. I love how the book club members band together to welcome Seung Ho’s grandpa (Han Chang Min and Lee Young Suk) home from the hospital. They all distribute the tasks and chores among themselves, to make sure that Grandpa comes back home to a warm meal, loving friends, and a spruced-up home. It is the warmest, sweetest thing.
[END SPOILER]
The small town-ness of it all
I love the small town vibe of our drama setting. It’s warm, welcoming and altogether quite delightful, even though the residents themselves sometimes chafe at how inconvenient all the intimacy can get. I found this a lovely community though, and every time the small town charm reared its head in our story, it made me smile.
[SPOILER ALERT]
E7. It’s quite charming that all Eun Seob has to do to cancel the book club meeting that night, is make one phone call, and the message gets passed along so organically, with hardly any need for phone calls. Each member calling across or down the street to the next, is such a small town thing. I like it.
E11. Jang Woo (Lee Jae Wook) going on his inadvertent blind date, getting spotted and blackmailed by Hwi (Kim Hwan Hee), and then being teased by colleagues, is so awkwardly cute. It’s surely annoying that everyone knows what you’re up to, when you live in a small town, but from where I’m sitting, it’s rather charming that everyone is so intimately involved.
E14. The small town community warmth is a bright spot for me, this episode. The sight of people coming together, and working and celebrating together, smiling, cooking, eating, serving one another; it’s all so very welcoming, cozy and homey, that it makes me kinda-sorta want to live in a small town just like this, too.
E14. Once again, the extent and detail of the small town gossip blowing Jang Woo’s mind is amusing to me. I love how discombobulated it makes him, to hear that Eun Sil’s (Yang Hye Ji) broken up with her boyfriend. Eun Sil’s startled reaction, when she hears, through the same grapevine, that Jang Woo went on a blind date and will be getting married soon, also says a lot about how she sees him, too. These two would make a very cute couple.
[END SPOILER]
Special shout-outs:
Lee Jae Wook as Jang Woo
Even though Jang Woo is a secondary character who doesn’t get a great deal of screen time, Lee Jae Wook makes him pop, and I found myself perking up every time Jang Woo appeared on my screen.
The way Jang Woo tends to rattles on about one thing, then switch topics and ramble in run-on sentences at full speed, is quite amusing. Even though I found the introduction of Jang Woo’s crush on Eun Sil rather sudden, I found this little potential loveline very cute and amusing, especially with Jang Woo being such a nervous dork about it; I had no objections whatsoever, against watching him sputter and flounder in the presence of his crush, heh.
[MINOR SPOILER] Also, in episode 12, Jang Woo gazing happily at Eun Sil’s photos during his spare moments as he drinks banana milk, or as he nurses a beer, is such a small, cute boi. <3 [END SPOILER]
Particularly when Show became heavier in its focus in our late stretch, any and all diversions to Jang Woo and his crush were very welcome indeed.
Eun Seob’s parents
I have to say, I liked Eun Seob’s family right away, from the moment I laid eyes on them in episode 1. There’s so much noisy warmth among them, and their affection is expressed loudly, both in words and actions.
As Show gives us glimpses into the deeper emotions in this household, my affection for them never flagged; if anything, understanding their angst endeared them to me even more.
[SPOILER ALERT]
E1. Eun Seob’s family seems really pleasant, right away. Dad’s obsessed with his walkie-talkie and is embarrassing in his insistence that Eun Seob use it, even though they’re near enough to each other to hear each other just fine. Mom is loving and caring, in the way that she makes sure Eun Seob gets to eat the best morsels of food, and I think it’s sweet that she’s curious about Eun Seob’s potential hypothetical girlfriend, but also says that she’s not ready to marry him off just yet. Little Sister is as nosy and annoying as any little sister can be expected to be, and the whole family chattering noisily together at the breakfast table just adds up to a very warm sort of scene.
E8. The way Eun Seob’s mom cries at how Eun Seob went into the mountains, is so raw and real; I really feel her fear and worry and her pain, as a mother who wants so dearly to be truly close to her son. But, like she says in exasperation, Eun Seob only addresses her as “Mom” as opposed to his usual more formal “Mother” when he wants something; that’s so telling of what their relationship is really like, despite her regular displays of affection, and of what she wishes their relationship would be like. Poor Mom.
On a related tangent, I wanted to talk about some viewer dissatisfaction I came across, about Mom favoring Eun Seob over Hwi. Basically, I understand that some viewers feel that it’s unfair of Mom to favor Eun Seob over Hwi, and be so obvious about it.
I’m not a parent, but I’m told that parents love all their children, but can’t help looking out for the weaker or more incapacitated child. In this case, I feel that Mom sees Eun Seob as the weaker child, who therefore needs more care. I don’t think that she literally loves Hwi less, because she’s watching more carefully over Eun Seob.
The thing with Uncle
E10. Did the uncle (Kang Jin Hwi) just demand that Eun Seob go somewhere far away with him, without telling him where or why, and just insist that it be done, in the name of blood ties? And Eun Seob just goes with him? Noooo.
I can see why this would be confusing for Eun Seob. He does care about his adoptive family, but it’s also clear that he doesn’t feel like he’s truly one of them. And, he does have that reticent quality, where he entertains thoughts of being the kind of person destined to never share his loneliness with another, who embraces that loneliness as a retreat. So when Uncle so emphatically tells him that this is a quality that runs in their blood, and they’re both fated to live alone, I can see why Eun Seob might be persuaded, or confused. Unless he has a strong conviction otherwise, or doesn’t have the fatalistic outlook that Uncle is pushing, it’s a pretty persuasive argument.
Mom and Dad’s complicated emotions about what to do, is so poignant. They want to give Eun Seob the room to choose, but they are also fearful and anxious, and wistful, and worried, and it’s expressed so acutely, in Mom’s stifled tears. Watching them angst over this, and hearing the anxiety and worry in their voices, my heart can’t help but pinch for them.
In the midst of this all, is the idea that Eun Seob should be given the room to choose.
I feel like Eun Seob is somewhat paralyzed, in this situation. He has deep feelings for his family, that he finds himself unable to articulate, and he has deep feelings too, for Hae Won, which he likewise finds himself unable to articulate. It makes me think of this episode’s epilogue, where Eun Seob talks about the flea market, and how, looking at the photos of the book club members, he feels almost envious.
I feel like that sense of quiet envy – a kind of wistfulness – is how he seems to look at the world around him. When he looks upon the warmth of others, he appreciates it, but doesn’t seem to think it a possibility for himself. Hwi is so expressive around him, telling him that she loves him, and that she hates him, because he’s her brother and has always been. And looking at her, I feel like, in the midst of the affection in his eyes, I also see a wistfulness, as he wonders why he can’t just simply tell her that he’s not going anywhere.
How very sweet and thoughtful of Eun Seob, though, to get Hwi the bike saddle of her dreams. He can’t articulate his love for her, but he’s definitely showing it, in his own way, and I totally teared up, as he smiled at Hwi as she rejoiced at her new saddle, her tears forgotten. Aw.
[END SPOILER]
Kim Hwan Hee as Hwi
I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed Hwi, as a teenaged character. I find Hwi very natural and expressive; she strikes me not as a drama teen, but as a teen that I might meet in real life. She’s so bubbly, that her words often spill out in a rush, while her facial expressions contort elastically and her hands gesticulate wildly, to try to fully express what she wants to say. I love her.
Sometimes she can be a little annoying, but she’s got a good heart, and I found that even when she said things that sounded selfish or ignorant, she was never malicious.
[SPOILER] I especially love the way Hwi cheerily seeks Hae Won out in episode 7, and coaches her through being rejected, because she has experience and therefore “know-how” in being rejected; it really is the cutest thing. Plus, I do love how she blithely informs her ex-crush that she’s stopped liking him two days ago. Tee hee. I love it. [END SPOILER]
STUFF THAT WAS OK
Park Min Young as Hae Won
I don’t know if it was writer-nim’s intention, but I felt quite conflicted about Hae Won as a character, overall.
On first impression, I found Hae Won very cold and austere, with little interest to connect with other people, including her own family members. To my eyes, Park Min Young’s visuals in this role really help to support that. I feel like she looks a bit gaunt in the face in this outing, like her features are overly sharp. I personally think it’s a bit unnatural looking, but the look fits the role.
For a good stretch, I was encouraged to see Hae Won warm up, bit by bit, and show more warmth. However, I also realize that this change is Hae Won is basically brought out when she’s with Eun Seob. It’s like he brings it out in her, but.. I’m not sure that I see her manage to sustain it, on her own.
When Show turns a corner in episode 14 (which is when I started to get upset, and also, when I started to question Hae Won’s actual healing and growth over the course of our story), I found Hae Won quite unlikable, to be brutally honest, and that feeling only intensified in episode 15. I found Hae Won self-centered and lacking in empathy, and.. I don’t know if that’s writer-nim’s intention.
I can accept that not every protagonist needs to be likable; I just find that it really helps me to connect with a character, if I can like them. And while there were times when I found myself enjoying Hae Won quite nicely (see OTP section above), that feeling was definitely much dampened, by the time I got to the end of the show.
[SPOILER ALERT]
E1. Hae Won appears so mysterious, and then she seems to be such a great handywoman, buying supplies so confidently and fixing things around the house with gusto – until all her handiwork falls apart, and I realize she’s more bluster than substance, ha.
E1. Hae Won does strike me as someone who’s feeling lost, and who isn’t even quite sure of what she’s searching for, now that she’s removed herself from her dilemma. I do think she’s not suited to her cello teaching job at the music academy. Her skills might be a fit, but her personality does seem rather more serious and straightforward than what they’re looking for, and forcing herself to fit in there isn’t going to make her or her employer happy, I’m sure. I do think she needs a fresh start. The question is, what, where and how, which is what she’s trying to figure out now.
E2. That moment when Hae Won watches Eun Seob with his warm, noisy family at the skating rink and smiles to herself, I feel like is the moment she falls in love with his family. She seems unconsciously appreciative and wistful, like she’d love to be a part of that noisy caring bunch that feeds one another raw chestnuts out of the bag, just coz.
E2. Hae Won is vehement in her explanation of why she hates the word “misunderstanding,” and I get where she’s coming from, but.. that leaves no room for true misunderstandings, which do exist. It seems that she never tried to find out whether Bo Young really talked about her family matters that time in school; never asked Bo Young about that incident, even though they were supposed to be close friends. I think that’s indicative of how damaged Hae Won is.
E3. We get a lot of insight into Hae Won’s backstory, and it’s true that her mother murdered her father. We still don’t know why and what actually happened, but we do know that Hae Won was bullied for it in school, and mercilessly too. It’s no wonder that she holds such a deep grudge against Bo Young, who supposedly leaked her secret.
E3. It’s so sad and cruel that not just the kids, but the adults too, look upon Hae Won as if she’s a monster, when she is actually a victim. People can be so heartless. It’s no wonder that Hae Won attempted to drown herself.
E5. This outburst of questions that Hae Won is asking Mom, is actually startlingly healthy. She’s finally asking all the questions that she’s kept in her heart all these years, and even though Mom keeps being evasive, Hae Won keeps giving the questions voice. She gives her feelings voice, too. It feels cathartic to my ears, and I feel like this time that she’s spent with Eun Seob, has warmed her enough, and healed her enough, to finally allow those questions out of her heart and into the world. I think that the fact that Mom can’t deal with the questions says more about Mom’s incapacitated heart, than about their relationship or lack of it.
E7. In Hae Won’s defense, while it may look like she’s overreacting after being rejected, with moping in bed and lashing out at Aunt, it IS a big deal, for her. She’s always been so reserved and wary of people, and afraid of being betrayed, that she’s withdrawn into herself in a pretty extreme way. And now that she’s felt safe enough, and brave enough, to tell Eun Seob that she likes him – a brave move for even an average person – she’s hit a wall, without explanation or proper reaction, even. It’s understandable that she’s confused and mortified.
E14. I realize that I find Hae Won rather unlikable in this episode.
When Eun Seob sends Hae Won home with the manuscript and makes it clear that he feels it’s important that she read it, I didn’t like that she left the manuscript on the table, untouched, for the entire day. There was no hint of conflict or uncertainty in her expression as she left it; just a stony expression that looked, well, dismissive. And then when she does finally reach for the manuscript, again, we don’t see anything but that stony expression. Perhaps that’s supposed to represent her protective outer shell, but this did not help me feel engaged with her.
I can understand Hae Won’s upset reaction at finding out the truth, on a mental level, but I can’t seem to engage with it on a heart level. I get that she feels betrayed by the one person who had been there for her, after Mom went to jail, and that because of this, she feels like so much of her life was a lie that she doesn’t know who she can trust anymore. But, I think her suffering pales in comparison to what Aunt and Mom went through, and so I’m automatically categorizing her pain as smaller in scale, like her emotional pain is disproportionately bigger than the suffering she went through.
I also feel like Hae Won’s reaction is too self-focused. We don’t see empathy from her at all, for what Mom and Aunt went through. She shows more sympathy for Aunt before she finds out the truth. Once she finds out the truth, she starts lashing out, and whatever sympathy she’d shown for Aunt prior, seems to be gone. And, it disturbs me quite a bit, that Hae Won doesn’t express any sympathy for Mom, who got beaten up so much by her husband. Instead, all Hae Won says is that he was a good dad to her. This bugs me, because I want Hae Won to be more empathetic.
That said, I concede that Show might be making the point, that often, the ripple effects of a tragedy get overlooked. Aunt and Mom are the main players in this family tragedy, and Hae Won is emerging relatively unscathed, in comparison. But, that doesn’t make her pain not real. That doesn’t make her growing up years not difficult. And it’s not fair or right, to brush her pain aside because it looks less terrible than the pain of Mom and Aunt. For the record, I still think Hae Won needs to be more empathetic.
[END SPOILER]
The thing with Aunt
From the moment we meet her in episode 1, I wondered what the deal was, with Aunt. I had so many questions. Why is she wearing sunglasses all the time; why is she as pessimistic as she is; why is she so exhausted by her age? She’s consistently blunt and brusque when she talks to Hae Won. Why? Is that just her nature, or is there something between her and Hae Won that we don’t know yet?
Show remains relatively coy about Aunt’s backstory, but it’s not hard to guess that there’s a lot more behind Aunt’s general dark outlook on life, thanks to Moon Jeong Hee’s delivery of Aunt. Even though you can’t see her eyes much of the time, you can hear the deadness in her voice, and the defeated tiredness in the droop of her posture. You can just feel that there’s something she refuses to talk about, and that something is big and complicated.
[VAGUE HIGH LEVEL SPOILER] Show does bring Aunt’s story to the forefront in its second half, and while I feel that it’s important for Aunt to get to tell her story, it also felt like a large shift in narrative focus. Suddenly, it felt like our main characters were taking a backseat, in order to give Aunt the spotlight, and that was.. a little weird, for me.
Essentially, I find it rather strange, that Hae Won is our protagonist, when Aunt’s story and suffering are so much larger, in comparison. It’s like, when Show whips out Aunt’s story, all of Hae Won’s suffering seems small in comparison. Also, I feel like Aunt’s story doesn’t get as much resolution as Hae Won’s story, and so that feels rather uneven and unbalanced, as well. In a weird way, it feels like Show decided to focus on a side character in Aunt’s tragedy, and make that its main story. But it’s impossible to tell Hae Won’s story without tellings Aunt’s story.. but once you tell Aunt’s story, it dwarfs Hae Won’s story.. does that make sense?
In the end, I feel like in telling Aunt’s story, Show kind of lost its grip somewhat, on Hae Won’s story – which is supposed to be our primary focus. [END SPOILER]
[SPOILER ALERT]
E11. I have mixed feelings about the flashbacks to Aunt’s relationship with now-Editor (Hwang Gun). On the one hand, I feel sorry for Aunt because she’d used to be the pretty and popular one, and now, look what her life has become. That’s quite a way to fall, and she must’ve imagined a very different life for herself, back then.
On the other hand, I hate how, in the flashback, she repeatedly tells now-Editor that she wants to break up with him, over the pettiest of reasons. That’s so flippant and casual, and it makes her look terrible, like she doesn’t care about him at all. And yet, the one time that she had no reason at all to tell him, was the final break-up that was actually for real. There’s some irony there.
Aunt’s gruff and everything, but the way she reveals her blindness in one eye that she’d been fiercely hiding heretofore, in an effort to relieve her old friend’s pain of suffering from terminal cancer, shows that she does care, beneath the prickly surface.
And what a reveal, of the events that fateful day that Hae Won’s father died. It was awful to see him railing on Hae Won’s mom, and it’s crazy that he would even turn violent against Aunt, since – in my mind, anyway – these abusive men usually don’t have the guts to hit anyone other than their wives. The insanity of the moment is palpable, as both Mom and Aunt scramble to protect each other and survive. There’s literally no time to think, and the women react instinctively; Mom pushes Dad away from Aunt as he raises an iron to hit Aunt, and he tumbles down the stairs. And then like a video game character that just keeps popping back up, he leaps at them while they’re in the car, and starts smashing the car with a golf club, over and over and over again – until the car runs him into the metal gate, and we see that it was Aunt at the wheel, and not Mom.
Woah. What a whirlwind of events, that leaves my brain swirling. This means that Mom took the fall to protect Aunt. It explains why Aunt broke up with now-Editor, because her whole life had changed in an instant. And it also explains why Aunt’s been so reclusive all these years. The truth must have been hanging over her so heavily, all this time.
Editor’s request for her to write her memoirs – now with the clause that allows her to mix fact with fiction – is her chance to process all of it, through writing. Does Editor have any clue or inkling about this? He keeps saying that he needs to publish her book, because there’s something he needs to find out.
It somehow makes it so much worse, knowing that the abusive men in this episode – Hae Won’s dad, and Aunt’s classmate’s husband – are otherwise picture-perfect husbands who say and do nice things for their wives. Ugh. It’s awful to follow the train of thought that Aunt and Editor muse over, that the wives put up with the beatings, because that’s their husbands’ only flaw.
E12. Now that we know what really happened that day, it’s not hard to understand the path that Aunt went down. She felt too paralyzed with guilt to live her life well, the way her sister had instructed her to; she felt the need to punish herself for what she’d done. And so, she put a stop to everything that was good in her life; her relationship with Editor, her writing, everything. She became an almost hermit; she became joyless and cynical; she just couldn’t see herself as deserving of anything good, and that’s really tragic. It’s tragic that the guilt ate away at her, until there’s barely anything left but bitterness and disenchantment. Will Aunt find the liberty she needs, through writing this book?
E12. The way Aunt wails during her friend’s wake, as she sees the parallel between her friend’s daughter and Hae Won, and as she thinks back on everything that’s happened, is just heart-chilling stuff. How much anguish has she bottled up all these years, and how painful it must be, to allow that anguish a voice now, after it’s been festering all this time?
E13. Aunt’s refusal to say anything to clear her name with reference to the malicious rumors, says a lot about how she still feels the need to punish herself. I hope Editor sees through her facade, because he does care about her.
E14. Aunt takes centerstage this episode, as she finally writes her truth and starts to share it. I do like that Editor beelines to see her right away, and just offers her a hug, without questioning her about the truth of her story. That was heartwarming to see, and the single tear that escapes Aunt’s eye, tells us how much this means to her, underneath the gruff surface.
The idea that it’s worse to let guilt eat away at you, than it is, to pay for your sins. Aunt’s deep and long-running misery only seems to get worse over time, the longer she tries to keep it all bottled up, and keep the status quo the way Mom wants her to. Mom took the fall out of good intentions, but those good intentions inadvertently made Aunt’s life even worse, than if she hadn’t done anything. Plus, there’s the tragedy that this pair of sisters, who used to be so close, are now effectively estranged, because of what happened.
It is admittedly inappropriate for Aunt to ask Eun Seob to share the manuscript with Hae Won, but I rationalize that this was the most that Aunt, repressed and dysfunctional as she is, was able to convince herself to do. Eun Seob handles the situation well, wisely telling Aunt that he can’t do more than pass the manuscript to Hae Won, and I appreciate the empathy that he expresses, that it must have been difficult for Aunt to have kept it all to herself all this time.
[END SPOILER]
STUFF I DIDN’T LIKE SO MUCH
The thing with Bo Young
I’ve seen a fair bit of hate for Bo Young’s character, and while I did find Bo Young annoying, I found that I did not hate her. As a neutral third party observer, I actually found that I kind of pitied her, for her misguided obsession.
I can’t say I enjoyed Bo Young as a character, but I was able to rationalize what Show did with her character, and I’m reasonably satisfied with how Show wraps up her arc with Hae Won as well.
[SPOILER ALERT]
E4. I’m with Hae Won on the incident regarding Bo Young. Bo Young had promised not to tell anyone, and she’d broken that promise. Sure, in mitigation, she’s saying that she’d done it to protect Hae Won’s reputation, but that wasn’t her story to tell. She should’ve checked with Hae Won first, to ask her what she wanted to do. Because Bo Young broke her promise, regardless of her intentions, Hae Won suffered ridicule and bullying for the rest of her high school years. Bo Young expecting to be forgiven because she’s explained herself, is quite shortsighted. Can’t she see how much suffering she caused Hae Won with her decision? Hae Won is right in saying that Bo Young can only see herself as the victim.
E5. Bo Young just wants to be forgiven and told that she did nothing wrong, but she’s not acknowledged the terrible effect that her actions had on Hae Won’s life, and that’s just not ok.
E7. In typical kdrama fashion, Bo Young is still nursing a crush on Eun Seob, all these years later. I wonder why she’s only trying to woo him now, though? Bo Young’s been here the whole time that Eun Seob’s been here. Is she only doing something now, to get his attention, because Hae Won is back in town?
Also, she’s still playing the victim card, telling Eun Seob that she’s glad that Hae Won doesn’t work at the bookstore on Sundays, because it’d be awkward to see her because Hae Won hates her so much.
E12. Bo Young’s choice to put herself in danger in order to get Eun Seob’s attention is very extreme, but I can rationalize this as an obsession that’s so deep-seated that it’s taken hold of her. I don’t think of her as evil; I think in this moment, she’s not thinking straight. When people are desperate, they can do very stupid things. And I do think that she’s blinded right now, by her obsession, and also, her desperation to be seen and heard, rather than relegated to the sidelines. In my eyes, she’s pretty much a crazy person right now, who can’t be held accountable for her actions.
As for why Bo Young would nurse a crush on Eun Seob for so long, I can rationalize that in such a small town, where many of the young people leave for bigger cities to pursue their careers, that there aren’t many other eligible men to distract her.
E13. I’m glad that Bo Young and Hae Won had a talk about things, and Bo Young finally says she’s sorry for not thinking of how things would’ve looked from Hae Won’s point of view, but.. essentially, Bo Young is still trapped in her victim mentality. She still thinks that she deserves forgiveness from Hae Won, and she’s determined to wait it out, so that Hae Won looks cold and petty for not forgiving her, even if that makes her a miserable, pitiful person.
SUCH a victim mentality, even in the face of evidence that she’d ruined high school for Hae Won. Plus, she has a defeatist attitude too. She bemoans the fact that no matter what she did, Eun Seob never liked her or paid her any attention. The truth is, she didn’t do very much, in all the time that Hae Won wasn’t around. Bo Young genuinely believes her own thoughts, so it’s not like she’s being vicious. But her victim mentality and her defeatist mindset make her pretty darn toxic, not only to others, but to herself as well.
Thinking from Bo Young’s perspective for a bit, it seems that she fell for Eun Seob after he 1, helped her close the window without being asked, and 2, offered her his umbrella and then went without, himself. While those are kind actions in themselves, I can’t help wondering what kind of existence Bo Young had, if that was such a huge deal in her life, for someone to show her kindness, to the extent that she would fall into an obsessive one-sided love because of it.
[END SPOILER]
The thing with Mom [SPOILERS]
Because of the weird balancing act that Show attempts to do, between Aunt’s story and Hae Won’s, Mom ends up in a weird in-between space where I feel like we don’t spend enough time learning about her story, and yet, also, we are spending too much time on her story.
I was curious about Mom for sure, with her being so non-committal, distant and quasi-dismissive. And it hits me like a ton of bricks, when we learn in episode 5, that Mom had been so widely admired, and had married the man who’d been most devoted to her. It’s so sobering, to realize that the man who’d hit her regularly, had been the most devoted to her.
Mom harbors a lot of pain and bitterness, as to be expected. In episode 5, the fact that she comes all this way, just to bring camellias to her dead husband’s grave on his birthday, and yet says that she hates him and hates the day, because it’s when all her misfortunes began, shows how complicated it all is, for her. There’s resentment, but there’s still a familial bond.
The thing is, kind of like in Aunt’s case, Mom doesn’t get enough screen time for Show to truly explore her journey towards healing, and so, by the time we reach the final credits, I only have a vague notion that Mom must have made some progress, to be able to write Hae Won a letter, and also, sell the marital home that she’d been holding onto, all these years.
Maybe what we needed was a drama to first tell Aunt’s story, along with Mom’s, then a spin-off to tell Hae Won’s story, so that each character would get a proportionate amount of focus and attention. I’m not sure. I just know that for me, it feels like Show tried to do too much, and that’s why the final stretch felt so different from the initial stretch, and felt kind of forced, to me.
THEMES / IDEAS / MOTIFS [SPOILERS]
E3. There’s a recurring motif of Eun Seob accompanying Hae Won even though she doesn’t expect it of him, and when she remarks that he doesn’t have to, he says that it’s because it’s dark. And he’s always there, to be her light source. Literally, he’s holding a torch for her, but metaphorically, this is so meaningful too. She doesn’t ask it of him, but he keeps wanting to be there for her, and he’s her source of light, in the midst of her darkness.
E3. There’s another recurring motif, of Eun Seob and Hae Won drinking hot coffee or tea together, in the winter. I feel like this is metaphor for how they’re warming themselves up, together. They’re both in the midst of their own cold winter of loneliness, and together, while making small conversations, they’re warming up, side by side. That’s sweet.
E4. In the dark, scary mountain, Eun Seob hears Hae Won and goes towards her (though admittedly he doesn’t know it’s her). And she clings to him, in her fear, in the darkness. When she lets go momentarily, and he suggests they leave and turns to walk away, she reaches for him again. I feel like this is a metaphor for how they’re finding each other in the darkness.
E4. Eun Seob leads her out of the woods by the hand, but with this metaphor of the dark mountains representing loneliness in my mind, it feels like Eun Seob is a wounded healer. He’s hurt and lonely himself, but he’ll lead Hae Won out of her loneliness.
E6. It’s true that you only realize what you lost, when you lose it. Hae Won didn’t realize how much warmth Eun Seob brought her, until she went back home and was faced with the cold there. It’s only then that she realizes that she’d been cold – and that he’d been warming her, gently, and consistently.
E7. The idea that people who love, become stupid and do stupid things, even if it means leaping to their deaths. It fits with what Hae Won does at the end of the episode, putting on her boots and going into the mountains when she doesn’t know the area, and in the night, no less. All for the love of Eun Seob. Thanks to that flashback to her tossing the book aside in a fit of pique, we know that she hates that she’s doing this, but she can’t help herself, because she cares that much, about Eun Seob.
E7. The idea that happiness and misery are two sides of the same coin. It’s a sad truth that Eun Seob articulates in response to Hae Won’s initial fit of pique:
“They can stop liking something.” … “They can stop offering their hearts. They can give up on the happiness… they’ll gain from liking something. Since happiness and misery… are like two sides of a coin. If you don’t become happy, you won’t become miserable either. If you don’t have something in the first place, you won’t lose it either.”
It brings us back to the classic question: Is it better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all? What is crippling Eun Seob so much, that he would rather not have anything or anyone, for fear of losing them?
E8. There’s this idea that happiness is right where we are, even if we embark on a long journey to seek it elsewhere. It’s telling that Hae Won says, in such a deadpan way, that she doesn’t believe in happiness, and that perhaps this saying is just something that people make up, to make themselves feel better. That’s a pretty sad way to live, and this is Hae Won’s reality. That’s.. sad.
SPOTLIGHT ON THE PENULTIMATE EPISODE [SPOILERS]
Not gonna lie; I am quite upset with this episode.
First, let me talk about the minor silver linings I found in this episode.
At first, I was rather perplexed at Bo Young’s words that implied that the big chasm in her relationship with Hae Won, caused by her actions, was just a small crack in an otherwise perfect “table.” But, I was mollified when Bo Young acknowledged that she’d hurt Hae Won immensely, and expressed that she was willing to wait until Hae Won was more ready to engage. That sounded a whole lot better to me, and I think I’m finally pacified, regarding this arc.
Also, Jang Woo and Eun Sil feeling awkward about the whole town knowing the minutiae of their love lives is mildly amusing, and served as a muted silver lining this episode as well.
But now, for my big beef this episode: Does writer-nim set out to make Hae Won selfish and unlikable? Because if so, that’s going swimmingly well, right now.
When Hae Won continues on the same pity party as where we left off the previous episode, focusing only on why nobody told her, and how her whole life is a lie, and Eun Seob tells Hae Won that he believes Aunt didn’t tell her the truth and chose to suffer alone, so that Hae Won wouldn’t have to suffer, I thought that Eun Seob was teaching Hae Won empathy.
But no. Hae Won tells Aunt that despite what Aunt says, she still can’t understand her. Worse, she instructs Aunt not to turn herself in, and live another 10 years like this, for Hae Won’s sake, since Aunt had lived 10 years in this situation, for Mom’s sake. That’s honestly really selfish of Hae Won. I get that she’s blinded by her own pain, but can she not see that Aunt is doing this to finally assuage her conscience?
And then, Hae Won tells Eun Seob that she has to leave, because she can’t look Aunt in the eye anymore. And so, Eun Seob smiles and hugs her, but grieves on his own.
I just can’t, with how self-centered this is. Hae Won won’t let Aunt do what Aunt feels she needs to do, but Hae Won gets to do what she feels she needs to do, never mind what Aunt or Eun Seob feel about it? Why does Hae Won get to do what she needs to do, and why doesn’t Aunt get to do what she needs to do? That’s unfair and messed up. If Aunt doesn’t get to do what she needs to do, then Hae Won shouldn’t get to either; if Hae Won gets to do what she needs to do, then Aunt should get to, too. Hae Won is in a situation where she understands what it means to feel like she needs to do something, and yet, she fails to empathize that Aunt feels the same way, about turning herself in.
Also, I’m upset that Eun Seob is hurting, and I’m upset that Show scores all of this, with beautiful, melodious music, as if this is supposed to not be messed up.
What gives, seriously? What does Show want me to feel right now? I’m fairly certain Show didn’t intend for this episode to result in an upset, angry reaction, but if Show was intending this episode to be thoughtful and healing in some way, it really didn’t work for me.
THOUGHTS ON THE ENDING [SPOILERS]
To be perfectly honest, I felt rather underwhelmed by this finale, BUT, Show manages to wrap things up on a warm enough note, that I’m coming away feeling reasonably mollified. That’s quite an achievement, considering (a) how upset I’d felt at Show’s penultimate episode, and (b) how perfunctory and slow I found most of this finale episode.
The episode starts out – and then intersperses key events through the rest of the episode – with everyone pottering around and welcoming spring, and repeatedly remarking to the people around them about just how nice the weather is. I found this very heavy-handed and far from subtle, honestly. I mean, I get it, Show wants to clue me in on the fact that THIS is when all the relationships will heal, because it’s been something that’s been said at various points of our story, like Hae Won telling Bo Young that she’d be in a better space to be friends, when the weather is nice. I think, though, that maybe having a character or two say it, rather than five or six (or more?) characters say it, would’ve felt more in keeping with Show’s earlier general tone of restraint.
I found that I enjoyed Show’s lighter moments this episode. Hwi finding a new crush in a new transfer student who shares her name, and promptly throwing her crush on Young Soo out the window, was nicely amusing.
Eun Seob embroiders a scarf for Mom, with heartfelt words that she’s been yearning to hear, but which he can’t articulate: “To the Mom whom I love.” Aw. It’s no wonder that Mom breaks down in tears (though I wish she hadn’t hurriedly sent Eun Seob away; I feel that he would’ve understood her tears), and then proceeds to wear the scarf proudly and show it off to her friends.
Jang Woo and Eun Sil finally become a couple, when Eun Sil cutely realizes that Jang Woo is cool for knowing himself so well that he has no doubt about what he needs in order to be happy, and declares in wonder, that she likes him now. Jang Woo seizes the moment and plants a kiss on her lips, before bumbling back to his nervous chatter, but it’s official now: they’re going to be lovey-dovey from this day forward. Cute.
On a more serious note, Aunt gets Mom to write a letter to Hae Won, saying that there are some things that people just won’t understand unless you tell them. And so Mom finally writes, awkwardly explaining that she’d been so preoccupied dealing with her messed up life that she’d been cold to Hae Won as a result, but that she’d always loved Hae Won. Mom also tells Hae Won that Aunt plans to leave for a faraway place soon, and asks that Hae Won come back before Aunt leaves.
And so Hae Won comes back, and the way she, Mom and Aunt interact stays largely the same; they’re gruff and somewhat distant, but there are little hints of the earlier frost thawing, as questions are asked, and answers are given, as they sit around the table at the same Chinese restaurant where they’d last eaten together.
Aunt leaves, with Editor coming to (presumably) drive her to the airport, and Hae Won, Mom and Aunt say non-committal, nonchalant goodbyes, even in the face of Aunt saying that she has no intention of coming back. I.. find this kinda weird, but I guess this family’s been so cold and so dysfunctional for so long, that this is already considered progress?
We don’t learn where Aunt intends to go, and only know that it’s someplace far away, and she has absolutely no plans to come back, even for a visit. I have to admit, I’m not too keen on this ending for Aunt. She doesn’t get to assuage her conscience the way she’d wanted to, and now, she’s decided on a Plan B that involves self-exile. Honestly, I don’t believe this Plan B actually can do anything to ease her conscience; the most it can do, is give her some temporary distance and relief. We all know that guilt on the conscience is something that stays and eats away at you, if it’s left undealt with. It festers. I feel like that’s what Aunt is in for, even as she leaves, and I’m not happy at all, at how Show wraps up her arc. Aunt deserves better.
Hae Won goes to look for Eun Seob, and finds him just as he’s leaving the bookstore with flowers for his mom’s death anniversary. Things are awkward and Eun Seob drives off after a polite, distant few words. Hae Won runs after the car, though, and when Eun Seob stops the car in response, Hae Won leaps on him in a big hug. As she begins to walk away, Eun Seob hesitantly asks how long she’ll be staying for this time, and Hae Won breaks into a big smile.
That’s when we get a montage of Eun Seob and Hae Won being lovey-dovey and sweet together, with Eun Seob musing in voiceover about what Hae Won had said before, about happiness being hard to notice, and requiring a lot of effort and care to make it yours, and adds, “Happiness.. is hard to get hold of.. and does not stay with you for a long time.” … “But.. no one can predict our future.”
Amid shots of Eun Seob and Hae Won being cozy together, we see that Eun Seob’s published his book, finally, and it’s titled, “Goodnight, Irene.” Ahh. I’m heartened to know that he actually did it, after demurring for so long. That’s a sign of personal progress, and I’m happy for him.
The final shot, of Eun Seob and Hae Won smiling at each other from across the yard, is coupled with a voiceover of them talking about how, if you keep moving forward endlessly, and keep trying, [happiness] will come, like this. I.. didn’t love this part, because it makes happiness seem like something that’s so elusive and so hard to achieve. I don’t think that’s very uplifting or encouraging at all, really.
HOWEVER. Show manages to lift my mood significantly, via Eun Seob’s final blog posting, and then with Show’s own final words to us, as an audience.
Eun Seob writes:
“I met Irene again after a long time. I waited and longed to see her again so much. But I tried to hide my feelings and stupidly turned away from her. When she ran towards me and came into my arms, she melted my frozen heart yet again. I spent days and nights blankly without being able to sleep. But I can’t believe I’m back in the past now. It’s late at night, and she has fallen asleep on my arm. She is light, and smells like the grass from a spring breeze. Guys, the scent of acacia is filling up this place again. Roger.
PS. She woke up from her sleep and kissed me on my nose.. and fell asleep again with her head buried in my chest. I didn’t know kissing was such a nice thing.”
Aw. I thought this made the entire reunion come alive in a way that it didn’t quite manage to, earlier. Before, their reunion had felt kind of disconnected, distant and philosophical to me, but this feels personal, emotional and sweet, and it makes me feel, so much more. I like this.
And then, Show gives us its final benediction:
“That’s what happiness is like. It’s a difficult thing. But even when you.. open your eyes in the morning to begin your day, and quietly live your life today, you may be achieving that difficult thing.. and making someone.. happy at this moment. To some, you are someone to be thankful for. You may not realize it, but just by living like this, you should know you’ve done a great job. We feel thankful to you. And we wish you a good night. And we wish you a good night.”
It’s really quite late in the game, I feel, to put a spin on what seems to be the concept of Difficult Happiness, but this last parting shot does work to acknowledge, lift up and encourage, and we could all use some of that, I think.
THE FINAL VERDICT:
Much stronger in its initial episodes than in its later ones, but Show manages to wrap things up nicely, despite its late-stretch wobbles.
FINAL GRADE: B
TEASER:
MV:
I just finished the series. LOOK AWAY; HERE THERE BE SPOILERS.
So much of this series was so very good. It hit all the right notes for almost 15 full episodes. But beginning when HW breaks up with ES, the show lost me. Nobody these days who experiences the things HW and ES have simply assumes it’s over because one of them has to move away. I mean, does Face Time not exist in this show’s universe? The fact that HW didn’t have a cell phone for most of the series was a clever way to create more tension. But once she gets it back, the story should reflect modern technology, just like how the series was careful throughout to show cell phones that matched the year of the events taking place. It felt so unrealistic that they couldn’t just Face Time during the week and then travel to see each other on weekends.
Ultimately, the breakup felt contrived, like it was the thing you’re supposed to do before the finale of a romantic K-drama. The series had marched to its own beat for the entire time, subverting expectations and especially gender stereotypes. Then it became like every other K-drama in its closing stages. In any story, you have to nail the conclusion – “stick the landing,” to use a gymnastics metaphor. And this series didn’t. It’s still very good. But it was almost great.
Hi @Feminist Asian Dad
I was apprehensive about starting a show that the majority had labelled as a slow-drag, not-much-burn either kind of story and pace – BUT I’d watched Seo Kang Jun in “Cheese in My Trap” and absolutely loved his intense act; of course the fact that he was DELISH to look was 85% of the magnetism ;-p
I am so glad I watched it. Did NOT FEEL any drag at all .. so wonderfully paced ..
I 100% agree with you that the 15 episodes were beautiful and in flow .. I too got irritated with that sudden break up, there needed to have been a more convincing reason for why they (actually she – he didn’t seem to want that separation at all) wanted / needed time apart!!
About the Cellphone: it would have made SO MUCH more sense had Seo Kang’s character not had a cellphone (I watched the show so long ago I cant recall – though I recall her having thrown her’s away ) – he’s kind of NOT into tech-gadget-y stuff and loves his off the grid life (growing up in the wilds it would been easy to believe that choice of his – there’s a landline). There could thus have been a scene where he buys a phone for the first time – cuteness hyper.
About the move back to town : a “you know what .. this is not going to work .. I need to move back” sort of scene – some stiffness and distancing of the relationship may have worked better. Her city life needed some “mopey scenes” .. some serious “missing him” scenes. Etc.
Quite unsatisfactory ..
Otherwise it was SUCH A BEAUTIFUL SHOW!
@KFanGirl
Hi I’d read this review long ago right after I watched the show – and happened to come upon it again when a new post by @Femimist Asian Dad popped up.
I scrolled up and found this segment 😀
“In episode 7, Eun Seob’s (Seo Kang Joon) oddly frozen reaction to Hae Won’s confession that she likes him, and the continued act of pushing her away, while looking like a deer in headlights, is left to us to interpret, without much to go on, and the episode feels like we’re frozen in time, with nothing much happening. It’s only when we see Eun Seob’s blog post entry at the end of the episode, that I feel like a sense of closure and balance, and coherence, is brought to the episode.
“Irene told me, “I like you.” I froze in that spot and couldn’t say anything. Is this what you call a time that feels like an eternity? With those words from her mouth, the whole universe, including me, came to a stop. I barely pulled myself together, but all I could say was “Okay.” What on earth have I done? It’s such a bitter night.”
When I read that, my heart goes out to him, as I feel his angst over botching his reaction to Irene’s confession. But without reading that, I only am able to conjecture, while I wonder what he’s really thinking. World. Of. Difference.”
This is a thing in Korean Drama – a majority of them “speak out” “explain” their actions and motivations – and it works fine for some genres .. However (and this is a personal opinion and preference) the sensitive, slow flowering genres jars, loses its beauty with “explanations” … The above is an excellent example of why it was the “perfect” in sync with character reaction for Eun Sob – it was such a well crafted scene.
IMO if the format of the show was not built on “journal entry” at the end of each episodes it would STILL have worked, and we’d have inferred the EXACT feelings he expressed in his writing. Besides allowing us to colour in ourselves all accompanying shades we may wish to add to it.
MOST of the stellar – almost reaching “art cinema” level dramas are good at trying it, by leaving it for the audience to infer (adds that texture and fineness to a show), rather than spelling out each and every motivation of the and action of the characters. Takes away the concentrated pungency of the script / direction / acting.
However this does not mean leaving things hanging badly in the air at the ending of shows works the same way – and it looks like a last minute wrap the show half baked incongruous end!!
The most interesting take away for me (am almost 100 dramas old now – started end May 2020) from reading reviews is just how different our reactions are to drama techniques – direction – screenplay – character development – storyline – acting.
The WONDERFUL JOY of THIS BLOG: Finding in the blog, and amongst drama commenters echo-ing our own thoughts and feelings; such joyous frisson of delight that!!!
The “YAYAY .. you FELT THAT NO?!” feeling.
Priceless.
😀
Wow, 100 dramas in less than a year! 😱 Please teach me your ways 🙏😂
Kfangurl, you did such an amazing job on the review of this series. Kudos to your efforts.
There were some parts that I really enjoyed, almost all of them have been listed by you. I also found your review very organized and loved the way you categorized the different important aspects of the series. I wish this series was a novel, wherein we could have read the ongoing thoughts of the characters real time during the various scenes.
I liked how the aunt in the end looks like a little bit of herself as maybe a little bit of the guilt has been lifted off after confessing on paper and talking to Hae Won and her sister, and we can see a glimpse of her bossy nature coming back to life with the Editor, when she asks him to pick her luggage.
The romantic build up between the main characters was super cute and adorkable.
I also liked how like a true teenager Hwi’s crush changed when the new transfer student joins, and that she has remained relentless in the pursuit of her crush till the very end.
I loved the poems recited in the book club. Truly touching. The music was great and probably did a lot of the heavy lifting during the emotional scenes.
I liked how after Hae Won and Eun Seob become a couple, Eun Seob could sleep better and his insomnia was going away and after Hae Won left him, his insomnia came back.
However, towards the end, when Hae Won feels that she was the victim and has grudges against her aunt and mother. I kind of understood her point of view. Even though, the dad was abusive and deserved to be killed in the way he died. Hae Won would’ve wanted her dad to be alive, though separated from her mother. She must have felt that if the sisters had been more honest to the police about the incident, maybe the sentence on her aunt, would’ve reduced, as the sisters accidentally killed the dad for self defense. Hae Won could’ve then spent all those years with her mother and that could have saved her a lot of the anguish. Not knowing the truth behind the killing of the father, caused the rumors at school feel more real for Hae Won. I felt that the show shifted between the points of view of the mother, aunt and Hae Won in the last episode so frequently, that we did not know whose side to take and that was frustrating. I feel that the show tried to show the Aunt- Hae Won conversation in the last episode from Hae Won’s point of view. And realistically, everyone finds their own grief more than the other and since the scar of the truth was so fresh on Hae Won she wasn’t wise enough or collected enough to understand the pain and sacrifice of her aunt and her mother or understand that she wasn’t the real victim. I would have appreciated if the Show showed the growth of Hae Won’s family in the years after aunt confession incident.
Some parts that I would have changed were.
When Hae Won talks to her aunt in the end and asks her to bear her guilt for another 10 years, I felt that Hae won could have added better reasons for her to do that.
For example, Hae Won to aunt- You were my family when mother was in jail, and though our relationship hasn’t been great, you have been the “mother figure” during the tough times. I understand that the guilt has been crushing you, but going to jail will only cause more pain to our family and my mother’s sacrifice would have been in vain. You have suffered enough all these years with your feelings and your eye- head pain. I would like to start my family and I would like my child to have the childhood that I did not have, to have you, mother and me together. I know that pain will not go away, but if we stay together maybe we can work towards a more normal family.
Since the neighborhood is so nice and friendly, maybe they could’ve rubbed off on the sisters, like Eun Seob ‘s warmth rubbed off on Hae Won. We do see in the last episode that, when Hae Won finds police at the aunt’s house, she genuinely becomes scared that the aunt has turned herself in to the police, which shows that Hae Won genuinely still loves her aunt and doesn’t want to lose her. Hae Won, may also be thinking about asking aunt to wait out, as she knows that the aunt needs proper medical care because of the eye-headache, which she wont be able to get in jail.
They could’ve showed the relationship of Hae Won and aunt while Hae Won was still in school. I guess, the aunt would’ve been more sensitive to Hae Won’s needs in the beginning, because she must be guilty of stripping Hae Won of both mother and father, and how over the years the distance between Hae Won and aunt increased due to their own pain; aunt becoming more reclusive and Hae Won being ostracized from society. This would have shown the journey of the characters better.
I wish they added a little more Eun Seob’s thoughts when Hae Won went away. I would have also appreciated another 5 minutes of the love and future plans of Eun Seob and Hae Won in the end, so that the end would’ve been more uplifting and more healing for the viewers. I felt that the “happy ending” was highly rushed.
Hae Won could’ve changed the guest house to a music school for all ages. We see a glimpse of Hae Won teaching the wife of the Book store landlord how to play the piano. This way both Eun Seob and Hae Won could’ve managed both the book store and the music school. Also, since we see in the beginning, Eun Seob sleeping to the piano that Hae Won played in the school, I would’ve liked Hae Won to play piano to Eun Seob live.
The mom was supposedly scary in the beginning, but towards the end the show gave up on showing Mom as the scary person.
All in all, I loved how heartwarming this series was and I would like to see more dramas of this kind. Thought provoking, philosophical, romantic and self-discovery.
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First thought. Can kfangurl get some sort of script review job for dramas? I feel like so many of them would be so much better if she had a go at them before production. The review nailed everything that was good and bad about this show.
Two shy people quietly and slowly fall in love in small town bookstore surrounded by adorable cast of small town folks. Yes! So good. And all the endless and excruciating drama with both of their sad backstories – meh, could have been done differently, and done far less. I think I enjoyed the show even more – A or A minus – myself because I fast forwarded shamelessly through most of this. So I watched a shorter but more enjoyable show that you did. 🙂
If we could subtract or minimize the bad parts, then could have added more adorable small town moments, and given her some kind of arc where she perhaps decides that being the local music teacher could be more rewarding than teaching entitled rich brats at high pressure music academy. I think this would have been an easy arc to write in (she gives a few lessons while there to get extra money, realizes how rewarding it is to teach the humble small town kids compared to her earlier job, perhaps develops some empathy for her students, etc.)
Ahaha!! I would love to be able to approve scripts for the good of all drama-loving fans out there! 😆 I don’t think they’re looking to hire someone to do that though, so this will be tricky! 😉
Very savvy of you to fast-forward through all the parts that weren’t working for you, Eric!! I didn’t do the same, since I was hoping to be able to speak to all that Show was trying to do, instead of only the parts that I’d seen. But, that’s great to know, that the FF-ing trick works with this show. This should serve as a good tip for other would-be viewers, BEFORE they embark on their watch! 😃
I like your idea of having Hae Won realize that there is much meaning and satisfaction in teaching cello in the small town. I think I would’ve really enjoyed that arc! Guess the drama-writing folks could benefit from some consultation with you too! 😉
Thank you for the detailed review.
From my perspective Ms. Park had the most challenging character to portray in this drama. She was cast as late teen and late twenty something (or thirty something) in the same show and it wasn’t like couple of shots in her late teens but multiple hours on screen as a teenager. I was amazed at how she pulled it off. So, liked her better in this show than the male lead (natural order of things have played a little part too). I thought both leads performed very well.
I enjoyed the laid back lifestyle of a quaint town.
However, while watchable and enjoyable, the show is so slow moving. You have to have a lot of patience to get through it and we did. ‘B’ grade seems to be quite apt.
WOW!! As usual a fabulously detailed review of the show .. and am glad that KFanG’s short verdict gave me confidence to dive into the show.
(These days I’ve taken to testing Episode 1 – 2 for hook-ability .. so I am pickier with where I invest my time)
I LOVED every inch, nook and cranny of this show ..
Slice of life .. realistic acting .. strong well woven side threads of the main story line ..
no constant, compulsive labelling and explaining of motivations which removes the between spaces for viewer’s to fill in with their interpretation ..
No “whining-cringeworthy, doe-eyed, weepy Pity me” overacting actress performance .. no wrist grabbing .. I’ll be macho man and take care of you, stay by your side pronouncements from lead actor ..
Poetry poetry .. story story .. fables .. folktales .. forests of the Grimm Brothers .. journals .. authors, books ..
delightful side characters who successfully capture our attention and emotional investments ..
complex, dark, inscrutable women who damage themselves and the people around them .. Do I need the script / director to label them with explicit explanations?? NOPE!!
damaged, dark, wild, outsider men .. complex in their twisted world view yet tinged with unexpected ‘giving-ness’ .. do I need explicit explanations in the script to hammer it in .. no .. we’ve seen real people in real life who fit these character types to infer our own logic or motivations for it ..
The Drama is RICH .. because unlike the Studio Line produced Kdramas .. this show foregoes the easy explanations .. instead sketches in the shadows for dimension building ..
This Drama had a very ‘inde’ feel to it (independent cinema) .. more like a 16 hour long film .. than a drama – this could very well have passed off as an “EDrama” ;-p European Drama ;-D
At first I had baulked at the “slow burn” label and wondered if it would KILL me with boredom ..BUT in Episode 1 itself the show tendrils started to twine itself around me, my heart and mind .. putting me into a gentle binge-watch slouching in sofa fixation ..
I kept wondering how such a gentle pace, haunting OST, silent yet aware soundtrack was making my heart race .. my stomach churn .. my anxiety rise .. my chest heave and my eyes prick and my throat choke ..
A rare gem of a show in the top of my list of favourites from my 3 month old life as a Kdrama Fan. Am roughly 34 dramas into KDrama Land
;-p
which include a spectrum from Healer – Empress Ki – CLOY – SITR – OSN – Master’s Sun etcetera etc.
It ranks right up there with
– Empress Ki
– Healer
– What Happened in Bali
– OSN
– School 13
– Backstreet Rookie
Aw, that’s great that you ended up loving this one, Bosuji! Thanks for trusting my Short Verdict! 😀 This one definitely feels different than most other dramas, with its slow, measured pace and very deliberate focus on things like sights and sounds. I liked it a lot – until I got mad at it. But I’m glad that it worked for you so well! 😀
Lol…
I found the excess time spent on the sisters story dragging…it should have been spent on the main leads..
Her move from Seoul back to country was too flimsy – if she was determined to break up.. She did come across as a person who sticks to it when she makes up her mind..
I got mad at the last scene freeze on them standing at 6 ft social distance apart…
Cummon…where’s the cute cuddlies!!? They’d gotten there.
Sigh but I was in thrall of Ji Kang Joon.. And his lid on his pain and his missing.. So evocative in his to die for eyes…
😁😁
I’ll stop here.
Did you do a “pretty” page on him??
🤪
I’m sorry to say I haven’t got a Pretty page for Seo Kang Joon at the moment. I haven’t found myself in the mood to make a Pretty post in a while. But I will keep your request in mind! 🙂
Aww please don’t apologize.. So thankful to have found such a well curated photo page..
It’s a rare find.
Will wait with plate fork and knife when you do get to prepping such a page – LOVED all your PP collations.
It’s a great de-stress place to hang in..
BTW I found you did a Song Joon Ki page…yay..
He’s another actor who I wasn’t paying heed to by just looking at random stills (the other being Lee Min Ho) but their onscreen liquefaction into hot alive roles blew me away at first sight.
Then all those stills come alive 😁😁
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Hi Kfangurl, I watched this show when it came out in February, but I still have lingering feelings of aversion and yes, anger when I think back on it. Hae Won stated somewhere in the show that your ability to forgive is linked to the amount you liked someone and that is exactly how I feel about this show. I loved the first 13 episodes so much that I’m just incapable of forgiving them for the last episodes which I really chin cha, chin cha hated!!!! I can’t forgive Hae Won for just packing up and leaving in such a selfish manner and I just don’t know what she accomplished by doing so. I do feel that he grew a lot and by the end could withstand the selfishly inflicted hurt that she unnecessarily fousted upon him, but why did he have to? I did learn to like Hae Won throughout the show, but rather like you, by the end I really disliked her. Her little comeback in the last five minutes just didn’t cut it for me. Even though I was happy for Eun sub and his final words did bring some comfort, I still was left with a feeling of frustration and irritation at what the show could have been. The main leads hardly featured in the last two episodes and it just descended into an anxt fest. I had such a warm feeling from this show and from Eun sub and the other villagers. It had a bit of a Gilmore girls vibe to it and I loved it. All in all, the warmth I felt turned to frost and unfortunately the ice is cemented in my heart and won’t melt anytime soon. I’m not as analytical as some of the commentators here, my attention span doesn’t allow for it 😁, but allow me to give you the shallow verdict on this one which is primarily based on how I felt when the final credits rolled: Irritation, frustration and dissatisfaction.
Angst
Based on the way that you talk about it (the slow pace, the initial meet-cute, flawed female protagonist, the early sweetness followed by drama in the back half of the show), it seems like When the Weather is Fine is a lot like Pretty Noona Who Buys Me Food or One Spring Night. Is that a fair assessment? If so, how do you think this one compares to those two?
Hi Scott, I wouldn’t make an immediate comparison between Weather and SITR / OSN because this show feels different from the other 2, but now that you mention it, it’s possible to use them as a frame of reference. I’d say that Weather is more similar to OSN in its first half, because it’s slower, more measure and thoughtful, and doesn’t reach the same giddy heights that SITR reached in its early eps. In Weather’s last stretch, I’d say it’s more similar to SITR because both shows made me upset, but I’d also say that Weather manages an ending that feels warmer and more genuinely hopeful. I hope that helps! 🙂
HI KFG and Jesse, here I am bringing a little bit of chaos in these interesting topics!
As usual the KFG review is a delightful novel per se and makes me want to watch WTWIF again (some scennes, not everything because some parts, as I will explain, were disturbing for me).
I feel brought into paly in this discussion as a psychotherapist because the drama refers to people’s motivation to act or not to act and for the issues of abuse and developmental trauma (how abusive or neglectful parents affect the way their children will live relationships as adults).
Please, consider these two premises:
1) It is very clear to me the ontological disorder of reality for which neither I nor the spectators expect extreme realism in the narratives: indeed, if this were the case, novels, films and drama would be very boring.
2) But when it comes to motivations that push the characters to act (or not to act) spectators demand a certain consistency that I would explain with an example: in the beautiful k-drama (seen after the review of KFG) Money Flower, the male protagonist Kang Pil Joo gives up on love of life because the motivation of revenge is emotionally more urgent and also because he meets his love of youth when the machine of revenge is launched like a train on its track. We as spectators feel that his behavior is completely consistent (though morally frightening) and we follow his journey with emotion and angst.
i come to WTWIF and some objections raised by Jesse and read in the comments.
EUN SEOB
1) Jesse writes:” As far as leads go, he got off pretty easy. I know he didn’t see his parents as bad influences, but they were also never a huge part of his life-particularly his mother. I can understand him having some reservations and pain after losing his real parents, but after they passed, he experienced nothing but amazing, loving relationships. Why exactly is he so terrified of being happy?”
It seems to me that EUN SEOB’s character is the most successful one in the drama: he’s hyper sensitive and wild and naive because he lived with his father in the woods and learned late (with school?) some relationship skills, even if he had really warm adoptive parents
I understand him well as a character who can or could give love but has a lot of difficulty accepting love and emotional intimacy with a woman.
Yes he is a wounded healer as KFG says: these people can give warmth (because they are the ones who decide it) and their sense of self-agency (or control sense) is not affected
so make sense to me that he is contradictory: wild but loving, scared but attracted.
The scene in which he remains totally frozen by HAE WON’s scenic confession feels consistent.
But as I said in premise 2) human beings’ motivations are very strong and no one, not even a wounded healer can stoically renounce love (and the redemption it always promises) in exchange for emptiness.
So I find it much less coherent than in the penultimate episode (as pointed out by KFG) HAE WON can leave as if nothing happened and Eun SEOB lets her go…
2) The theme of the abusive husband: in the drama is treated in a very strange way
I find it hard to follow it because HAE WON’s father is really very violent and in the episode of his death in(which i see action in self-defense) he seems to want to kill his wife, no less, and yet he is represented as a loving father. In addiction HAE WON seems to know nothing about this dark side of his father. this is totally unrealistic! I say this because if HAE WON had known, he would have been able to understand well the mother and aunt’s defense actions and she would not show all that disturbing disdain towards the aunt in the last episodes.
Another very disturbing thing for me is the alternate film editing of the terrible violence of HAE WON’s father and his violent death and the OTP bedroom scene
What did the writer-nim or the director-nim want to tell us: “viewer don’t relax too much because this terrible episode of the past could destroy this delicate love? it is too much! 😉
Hi deliaerre! Thanks for sharing your insights on this! 🙂 You make excellent points, that 1, we don’t expect extreme realism, but 2, we do expect consistency in our characters. That second point in particular resonates with me; I find that I really struggle when characters don’t behave consistently, even though I can rationalize that people in real life can be inconsistent just like these characters. So to have you articulate that we as viewers actually want – perhaps need – our characters to be consistent, in order to feel fully on board the journey with them, feels liberating to me. Thank you! <3
And yes, I agree it was very weird that Hae Won was completely unaware of her father's abusive ways, because of the extent of his violence. Hae Won's mom often had all these wounds and bruises, and also, the house would be in disarray and things broken; how did this escape the notice of Hae Won in such a complete manner? Especially since she was not that little when the incident happened. That was a weird narrative choice, and I agree it was unrealistic.
I also have to agree that the editing which alternated the domestic violence with the OTP's bedroom scene was a very strange choice. I could maybe rationalize that they were going for some kind of poetic statement of how beauty exists in the midst of chaos and ugliness in our world today, but that's me grasping at straws, honestly. 😝😅
I’ve been reading all of your reviews of shows with Seo Kang Joon in them, and I love how your opinion of him has evolved. (Probably because he’s grown as an actor.) I was wondering if you had seen “Watcher”? I’m not sure if you’re into that kind of show, but I thought that his performance was really good in it and I look forward to seeing in more roles other than romantic. (Then again, I really like him, so there’s the slightest chance that I’m biased! XD)
PS: Your reviews are, as always, a delight to read!
Hi Fae – I also thought he did very well in Watcher. I enjoyed that drama and Ahn Kil-Kang, one of my favorites, is in it.
Hi! I’m glad that you also liked that show (I’m kinda hoping for a Season 2). Ahn Kil-Kang was very good in it! I haven’t really watched any of his other stuff, but I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for him from now on =D.
Thanks for enjoying the review, Fae! 😀 You’re right, my opinion of Seo Kang Joon as an actor has been evolving; he’s definitely grown as an actor! After Are You Human Too, I’m convinced that he’s MUCH more than just a pretty face! 🤩
Thanks for the recommendation on Watcher.. It’s definitely not my usual cup of tea, but I’ll keep it in mind, for when I need a fresh dose of Seo Kang Joon on my screen! 😉
For me, Weather was a delight for a whole range of reasons. It was steadfast, poetic and understanding. In fact for me, it had a dual purpose or meaning: you always take the weather with you (as per the Crowded House song) or your journey is complete when the weather is fine (or it may not be – as per their other song – Four Seasons In One Day). Ultimately, the message is: you need to settle on the season right (applicable?)for you.
The great American poet Claude McKay in his poem “After the Winter” expressed the following:
Some day, when trees have shed their leaves
And against the morning’s white
The shivering birds beneath the eaves
Have sheltered for the night,
We’ll turn our faces southward, love,
Toward the summer isle
Where bamboos spire the shafted grove
And wide-mouthed orchids smile.
And we will seek the quiet hill
Where towers the cotton tree,
And leaps the laughing crystal rill,
And works the droning bee.
And we will build a cottage there
Beside an open glade,
With black-ribbed blue-bells blowing near,
And ferns that never fade.
He is on the money, I think – I believe our OTP will build their “cottage” there.
I absolutely loved everything about the book club 🤗 Hwi is phenomenal. As for the parents, I liked them.
In terms of the truncated storylines e.g. the Uncle, it was as if Writer Nim changed direction as there was not enough room to accommodate these sub-plots any further.
I thought Hae Won, Mum and Aunt were a fabulous trio of ladies when together and were able to resonate that family vibe and similarity. The acting in these moments was superb. I know a number of families where this is certainly the case re the mums, aunts and daughters. On the matter of domestic violence – sadly this is how it is. As for Aunt, what a contrast to the manipulative and deadly CEO she was in Vagabond. She’s a fine actress. I certainly wanted to see more unfold re her life. To sum it up, Cha Yun Taek has the best line in the final episode: “I guess you’re not a clingy family.” 😂
Regarding small towns, for those of us who have been there, Weather seems to resonate what you find the world over. People like to put you in a box and then keep you there. For those of us who have experienced this – the minutiae of your life is always up for grabs 😊
Hae Won is an immovable object. It is only the weathering over time that we get to see the veins of rare minerals become exposed. Did I like everything she did – no. But, I understood her. As for Bo Young – I agree with Jesse – there are people similar to her. Life is an elastic band (or a nail to the heart, which we all have – as stated in the latest episode of Kingmaker) and will pull you back to those earlier, fateful moments that lock you into a pattern of repetitive behaviour or thought, unless you are able to work out a way to stop the elasticity from occurring, or at least, minimising it’s effect.
As for the lyrics from Goodnight Irene, I guess we can say Hae Won was always in Eun Seob’s dreams. I don’t think he could have been played by any other actor.
Overall, Show reminds me of the times my family has spent sitting by a fire talking, eating (drinking some of the best wines) or reading a book in the forests of the Margret River region – before it became too commercialised – but it’s still fabulous all the same.
Writer Nim has shown us some extraordinary insights – perhaps, something they are familiar with – and very brave to share. Well done once again kfangurl on such a thoughtful, and as phl has said re a blow by blow, almost photographic like, review 🤔😊
After the Winter is so beautiful Sean! Thanks for uplifting my spirits by sharing!
I am so glad for you re my little share of happiness, phl 🤗
Hi Sean, thanks for enjoying this review, and thanks for the kind words – I love the thought that this review was almost photographic in its reading. I’m encouraged! 🥰❤
I concur with phl, After The Winter is a lovely poem, and I agree, I can see our OTP building their cottage there. Thanks for sharing! <3
Yes, it does seem as if Uncle was supposed to have been a bigger, more meaningful arc, and then got truncated. I kept waiting for him to come back for Eun Seob, after Eun Seob left him to come back to the village. I guess it's just not very usual, in our drama worlds, for a character like Uncle to show, and to make that kind of proposal, and then get turned down – and that's that. I rationalize that it could happen that way in real life, but it's one of those drama things, where, if you put so much effort into introducing the character, it leads us to assume that the character is meant for more narrative significance than what was given. So I would believe your hypothesis, that writer-nim had other plans, and then changed direction.
HAHA. Yes, they're not a clingy family at all! 😂😂 I do think you're right, that there are some families who are just that gruff with one another. I guess as a viewer, I was hoping for a little more indication that they'd grown closer as a family. But what we do get, while subtle, does suggest that things are relatively less frosty now among them, than when we first met them.
Oh yes, I do agree that I can't see anyone else but Seo Kang Joon in the role of Eun Seob now. He made Eun Seob come alive in all his awkward, dorky, thoughtful glory, and I really grew very fond of Eun Seob during my watch. He was always so empathetic and giving towards others, though it pained me to see that he struggled to receive love and kindness himself.
Also, that's a great metaphor for Hae Won, that she's an immovable object that only weathering makes a difference in. Perhaps this should've been titled "When the Weathering is Done." 😆😂
When the Weathering is Done
Immovable stone
When the weathering is done
Metamorphosis
Tah dah 😉
🤣🤣🤣 This is freaking BRILLIANT, Sean! You deserve a standing ovation. *wild applause* 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I bow, most humbly, kfangurl 🎭
Bravo Sean, just bravo! I shall now dub thee thee “Resident Artiste and Troubadour Extraordinaire”.
Gracefully accepted, phl 📖🎶
WOW!!!
Loved your take on the show .. as well as the inference of Hae Won and Bo Young’s character complexity ..
Hae Won’s inability to forgive Bo Young, her lack of empathy for her family came across so “realistically” since most of us have been through relationships and friendships where these exact things happened ..
“Misunderstanding” – a lifelong falling out and carrying the baggage of that unhappy falling out and never healing.
The inability to see the flaws in our parents and parental figures as very human even when we have become adults .. many of us land up at therapists to heal those hurts .. because we couldn’t forgive or put ourselves in their shoes .. as though because they gave birth to us we have the right to continue hating / begrudging them their mistakes and unloving moments, hateful behaviours .. even when we are adults and reached the age they were when the hurts were inflicted ..
Great literature and novels are written not always on the likeabilty of characters .. but empathy and/ or understanding of their flaws .. I found that this drama pulls off the difficult task with great success.
Thank you for the lovely poem you included – in sync with the feel of the show ..
A final add on to your comment below :
~ “As for the lyrics from Goodnight Irene, I guess we can say Hae Won was always in Eun Seob’s dreams. I don’t think he could have been played by any other actor.”
I watched this show because I was blown away by Seo Kang Joon’s second lead act as Baek In Ho in Cheese in my Trap – I felt aah here is an actor I need to explore and follow .. So I looked up his shows and chose this one because it’s the most recent and Viki had a 9.3 audience rating from almost 18000 viewers ..
He SHINES!!! His show career as main lead is taking off .. I think if he continues to pick good scripts and talented directors (or vice versa) we can expect him to join the BIG league actors on the Korean Drama stage.
He has as stunning and unique a face and physicality as Ji Chang Wook / Kim Woo Bin.
The last time a second lead leapt off a Kdrama to nudge out its own memorable spot – was Kim Woo Bin in Heirs / School 13 and Chen Xiang in Whirlwind Girl 2 (ok Chen X in Chinese and WG2 a CDrama).
Thank you for your comments, Bosuji. I think Weather really resonated with me 🤗 Seo Kang Joon does have a bright future. However, his next two dramas look a bit so so too me (but, I wouldn’t rely on my judgement too much re my opinion on shows 🤣).
Viki ratings and rankings are always interesting. However, I will always look the surface as much as I can because Viki ratings can be far in excess of other sites.
I do have some of Ji Chang Wook’s future shows earmarked. I quite like Kim Woo Bin, sadly life has imitated art for him re how ill he has been the last couple of years. He is lucky to have Shin Min Ah in his life, I think. I will take a look at Whirlwind Girl – it looks interesting 😊
sean, I did not see the first Whirlwind Girl, but, of course, I watched Whirlwind Girl 2. (I assume no explanation is necessary, right?)
Even JCW’s presence could not hold my interest. This could be entirely my fault though. Whenever he wasn’t on the screen (which was far too often), I just couldn’t handle the story or actors so wound up fastforwarding far more than is probably conducive to getting anything out of it.
No explanation required, Beez!
Hullo KFG! 🙂
As I suspected, I enjoyed your review of the show much more than I enjoyed watching it myself. 😀 I desperately needed a different lens for this, as my own perspective proved unable to appreciate the more subtle moments and enjoy most of the characters. It’s been a few months since I parted ways with the show, so I may have missed or forgotten some details–I kinda actually hope I did, because right now my recollection of the events isn’t making a whole lot of sense. Your beat-by-beat review did help me recall many of the moments, although they had much more warmth in your retelling than they had during my viewing. 🙂
Like you, I was pretty stoked going into the show; the rural setting and winter seemed like the perfect backdrop for a cozy, ponderous, character-driven piece that could really escape from the typical career-based shenanigans of city life. Billed as a healing drama, I committed to liking it as long as there was…well…notable healing and reconciliation among the affected characters. It never occurred to me that a show with nothing to do except focus on development would depict virtually no growth whatsoever in sixteen hours!
Maybe my expectations were too high. The setting and numerous points of initial intrigue made me think there would be some considerable payoffs at the end, and they just didn’t show up. At least to my eyes. I was okay with a ponderous pace, but I thought that pace would eventually take me somewhere. Despite all the stuffs happening, I pretty much felt like most of the characters, and all but two of the relationships, stayed exactly the same.
Since this is a character-driven show, I figured it’d make sense to use them as key points to move through this as efficiently as possible. And please note, I’m not saying any of these make the show “bad”—they’re just why I ultimately didn’t care much for it.
EUN SEOB’S PARENTS
As far as I’m concerned, they had one job to do: be as sympathetic as possible so that I feel Eun Seob’s pain when they pass away. We never got to know much about them, and they don’t really factor into the story too much, so why not make them cool peeps that we wish we could have seen more of? Not sure, but Show went a different route.
Mom abandoned Eun Seob and Dad for some reason, then pops back into her son’s life to drag him out of school so he can take care of her while she dies. I may be missing a key reason why she left, or why she felt that she had a right to burden him with her care after she ditched him as a child, but as of right now, I’m completely bewildered that a mother could treat her child that way. “Here, have some abandonment issues, son! Oh, and now that your education and future are on the line, step away from all of that for three years to help me out.” Aish!
Then there’s Dad. I don’t care how Show tried to spin Eun Seob’s childhood—he was being debilitated by his old man, living as a virtual recluse in the mountains. If Eun eventually decided the hermit life was right for him, that’s fine—but his father wasn’t giving him a choice. Had Eun continued to be “raised” by his pa, he would have had no social skills, no real education, and no world experience except living in a tiny house and doing vagabond-ish stuff. Sorry Show, but a few awkward flashbacks of Eun Seob and his dad laughing for no apparent reason doesn’t sell the life for me.
But we’re just lucky that Eun eventually wanted to mingle with people at all! –Sorry, not “people”. “Animals”. In what is perhaps the most self-righteous, jaded, judgmental short story of all time, Eun is taught that everyone in the world are actually animals—except him of course. He’s human. But, how sad, everyone else is a poser. They can’t be trusted, and they’ll never understand him. They’re all fake and putting on pretenses. Great way to look at the world and the people in it. *Shrug* We can be wise and discerning without thinking the worst about others, but I guess it’s easier to just write everyone off.
And as a side note, I just want to point out the irony that the only people who screwed Eun Seob over were his family—including the guy who taught him the story. I don’t remember Eun Seob being tricked or betrayed by anyone else, so any empathy I was perhaps supposed to feel for him via the telling of that story never emerged. When I heard it, I thought, “Ah, so there’s more to his tragic backstory!” But there wasn’t. More on that later.
In short, Eun Seob’s parents were the source of his pain and issues, and yet somehow they represented “happiness” for him. That’s a head-scratcher for me. There are many kinds of abuse addressed in this show, and the way Eun’s parents treated him was a very subtle but sinister form of neglect that he still apparently can’t see.
EUN SEOB’S UNCLE
Ah, the first set-up with no payoff. This guy gets almost an entire episode to try and carry on his brother’s toxic brand of parenting, only to vanish for the rest of the show. I thought for sure he’d pop in again later on and play some kind of role in how the final conflict goes down, but nope. He just came in as what seemed to be a huge vehicle for exposition and then vanished like a fart in the wind.
To showcase his ignorance, he tried to use a mangled quote about blood being thicker than water to get Eun Seob to go along with him. I was waiting for someone to point out the fact that the whole quote is: “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”—which essentially means that the relationships/bonds we choose are stronger than the ones we are born into. Apparently Uncle had the same education as Dad and unknowingly argued against his own advice. Fortunately for him, Eun Seob, despite getting some proper schooling, wasn’t able to call him out on it.
Overall, a nuisance of a character with too much screen time to be a one-off…but I’m not complaining. Eun Seob’s blood family is bad news, so having the last of them vanish is a blessing for him and the audience.
EUN SEOB’S GHOST MOM
Payoff failure number two. Seemed to be some mystery behind this “woman’s” appearance. Was there some superstition around her? Is there a trigger for her appearance? Is there some devilry at work that made Eun Seob follow her into a frigg’in forest? What part would this afflicting aberration play later on in the story? Was this some kind of trauma he would heal from?
Nope! Best as I can tell, Eun randomly had a fever-induced vision of his mother, and his pursuit of her was apparently just ’cause he was kinda out of his mind thanks to being sick. I mean, that’s a thing that happens to all of us at some point or another, right? His foster parents talked about it as if it was a common/regular event (Ah, “that woman” appeared and led him into the middle of nowhere again!), but that was the only time it happened, and it never came up again.
I didn’t want this show to stray into some kind of supernatural thriller, but I expected there to be some reason why that element was introduced. Like the hallucinated ghost herself, it came from out of nowhere and left without a trace.
JANG WOO (AKA “Elmer Fudd”)
I’ll admit, I initially enjoyed Jang’s awkwardness, and found his mannerisms and relational buffoonery amusing. But by the later episodes, I began to tire of his perpetual bumbling and inability to speak coherently. Maybe if he was the only guy who turned into a complete puddle around the woman he liked I could have tolerated it more, but Eun Seob already had that role locked down. In spades. The last thing I needed to see was another guy who had a brain freeze every time he got within six feet of his crush.
He literally couldn’t talk around Eun Sil, who herself seemed to have taken a page from Aunt’s playbook by being a primo source of rejection and “playful” disregard. By the time these two got together at the very end, I’d decided Jang was a much better and more competent human without Eun Sil, and she was altogether unlikeable anyway.
If Jang had grown a backbone at some point, I would have celebrated his growth and maturation, but it never happened. He was a fun character outside of his interactions with Eun Sil, and I think he could have retained the essence of his personality while becoming a bit more communicative. As it was, I started yelling, “Spit it out, man!” in a flurry of fury every time he got into a stuttering/stammering spree. It’s a schtick without a lot of miles, and Show just ran it into the ground.
HWI
Nothing but love for this girl. 🙂 Figured it was time to throw in something I did enjoy, and that was pretty much anytime she was on screen. Perhaps just a little too wise/self-aware for her years, but believably innocent and direct. Ah, youth! I don’t know that I’ve seen a character—particularly such a young one—given such a wide range of endeavors and emotional adventures. Her pluckiness, perseverance, and random spurts of (somehow) uncharacteristic immaturity combined to create some humorous and touching moments. I sympathized with her struggle regarding how she was treated compared to Eun Seob; she definitely loved him, but at times the preferential treatment got to her. And it got to me as well. I understand the point about a wounded person needing more TLC than a healthy one…but if the healthy one is continuously overlooked and neglected, they gradually become wounded as well. (Besides the fact that I didn’t buy into how wounded Show claimed Eun Seob was—but that’s for later.) Hwi didn’t show a lot of jealousy or bitterness considering she was often an afterthought, but a short lifetime of that and a normal gal would be acting out.
I did find her ability to drop the guy she’d been fighting for all this time a bit disturbing. Instead of getting a nice payoff for all her efforts, being happy together for awhile, she loses interest and flits off to another guy. That kind of fickleness and flightiness brings to question the authenticity of her affection. I was rooting for her to get the guy ‘cause I thought she genuinely wanted him. But Show makes it seem like she just moves on to the next new thing without a thought. …Again, abandonment makes itself a theme…
BAD BOY
Don’t know his name, not gonna worry about it. Another dead end. He shows up for like one and a half episodes to hit on Hae Won, and then also vanishes. Never seen so many irrelevant characters thrown haphazardly into the show before. What was his purpose? I expect that kind of character to show up in an episodic/procedural western show (ie “This week, Hae Won is courted by a former classmate—will she succumb to his complete lack of charisma?!”) but not in a kdrama. I’m used to characters having purpose and being woven into the story, but this guy seemed to show up just to be summarily rejected without a thought. Hae Won looked right through him from the jump, so there was no tension, no will-they-won’t-they dynamic. We just got to see how cold Hae Won could be when she wasn’t in love with a guy. …So I guess there’s that…
BO YOUNG
Okay, so I’m apparently in the minority of people who sympathized with Bo—and that’s okay! 😉 I found her loathsome in the final episodes when she seemed to have a mental breakdown and tried to seduce/lull Eun Seob by getting lost. Honestly she seemed a bit too bonkers for believability, but if Eun Seob can run after his mother’s faux ghost, I guess Bo can completely lose her mind and try to get herself injured.
But up to that point, I actually felt sorry for her, and did see her as a victim of sorts. I get it, friends shouldn’t tell their friend’s secrets. But in her defense:
1. Bo never showed any pause or conflict when Hae Won confided that she was the daughter of a murdering mother. She didn’t judge Hae Won, hate her, shun her, or even balk. She just accepted it and carried on. Why would she think every kid and their parents would turn into hateful turd muffins when they found out? Had she known that her classmates were that disgusting and biased, she might have thought twice about divulging the secret so readily.
2. We all do stupid or ill-advised things when we’re in panic mode. Despite being told never to
swerve to avoid hitting a squirrel or other animal, many drivers instinctively do just that when a critter steps onto the road, and a good number of drivers end up dead or severely injured as a result. Bo Young saw an immediate threat to her best friend’s reputation and panicked. Had she been able to hit the pause button, consider all her options, and calmly choose a course of action, she may have consulted Hae Won first or chosen a more discerning route. But she’s a high schooler for crying out loud! Everything is the end of the world for those young people, and her instinctive reaction was to protect that squirrel in the middle of the road. Can’t blame a teenager for making a poor decision under pressure. Well…you can, but to hold that against them forever is a disproportionate response.
3. Bo Young disclosed a secret to protect Hae Won. The brats she told disclosed the secret to condemn Hae Won. Same action, very different motive. Bo was guilty of being too trusting and making a bad judgement call. As a friend, I could live with that. If she’d told Hae Won’s secret to try and increase her social status or become the center of attention, Hae Won would have every right to shun her. I expected to find out that was the case: Bo was approached by all the popular kids and was asked what Hae Won’s deal was. Overwhelmed by the sudden attention and the euphoria of popularity, Bo betrayed her friend, thinking it was no big deal. —But that wasn’t what happened. There was no selfish motive for Bo telling the secret. She naively believed her friends could keep their mouths shut and shared a secret to prevent a potential scandal. Telling the secret was wrong (in principle—there most certainly are times when keeping someone’s secret is actually irresponsible and dangerous), but the spirit behind it was one of defense, not selfishness or malice.
4. Bo Young isn’t responsible for how the rest of the school treated Hae Won; her misery was the fault of the parents and children at the school, not Bo. There was no inherent correlation between the secret and how Hae Won was treated. If the secret had been that she had lice or bedbugs, then being shunned and ostracized would be an unfortunate but understandable consequence. But blaming Bo for Hae Won’s misery would be like blaming the friend of a drunk driver for said driver getting in an accident and killing someone. Yes, ideally, friends don’t let friends drive drunk, but ultimately the friend is not responsible for what their drunk friend does. Should they hide the car keys, hire an Uber, tie them to a chair, or cram high-carb food down their throats until they sober up? Yes! But if they don’t, or if they try and fail, they are not responsible for their friend’s actions. Same holds true here. Yes, Bo could have done more to avoid telling the secret, and yes she screwed up by letting the proverbial cat out of the bag. But the hellish years Hae Won endured are not a direct result of Bo’s actions, but rather the choices of her classmates to become complete jerk faces.
Hae Won was Bo Young’s best friend—practically her only friend. Losing that because of a moment of indiscretion was a painful thing, and I don’t fault Bo for trying repeatedly to get that relationship back. But Hae Won would have none of it. Heck, Bo could have been pressured to divulge the secret at knifepoint for all Hae knew, but she didn’t bother to find out. (And, knowing her, Hae Won would still have shut out Bo Young even if it had somehow been a matter of life and death.)
When Bo says that the friendship clearly meant more to her than it did to Hae Won, I felt the burn. It was accurate. Hae Won straight-up discarded their relationship because of her pain, just as her own mother discarded her because of her pain (more on that later). It’s a very treacherous way to handle relationships, and it really gives the impression that Hae Won sees relationships as disposable. Had Bo Young done something that showed she was using Hae Won or didn’t really care about her as much as she claimed, then it would be understandable for her to distance herself. But it was, in essence, a mistake made with good intentions.
On the plus side, Bo Young gets to be part of the only real reconciliation we see in this entire show! In fact, the title is referenced in Hae Won’s early dismissal of Bo’s attempts to bury the hatchet: “I’ll call you when the weather’s nice”. It was mostly a blow-off, or at least appeared to be, with a slight hint of sincerity. At that moment I believed Hae Won would come around and eventually give Bo another chance, but it would be at the very end of the show. And she did, and it was, but it happened!
Bo/Hae is the only broken relationship that gets mended (somewhat) by show’s conclusion. Both women are different because of what happens in the story, making small changes to their way of thinking about the past and each other. It’s not an explosion of reconciliation and good will, but there’s enough to suggest a corner was turned.
If I was Bo, I would have given up on Hae Won in high school. If she wants to harbor hatred and withhold forgiveness for a mistake (much different than a willful act of pettiness, malice or jealousy), that’s on her. Let the spiteful twit wallow in her animus and go find a friend who deserves the effort.
Ultimately though, Bo’s clinginess and need for validation did get old, and the way she handled things later on definitely put her in the center of Crazy Town.
Regarding her infatuation with Eun Seob, I agree she didn’t really do very much to get his attention—particularly considering she had him all to herself most of the time while Hae Won was in the city. She seems to be someone who bonds to people very quickly and deeply, which can be a blessing and a curse. When it’s mutual, it’s amazing. When it’s not, it’s excruciating. And when a relationship is torn away from her, it’s devastating. There are people like that in the real world. They tend to be codependent, which doesn’t make for a likable character, so I understand why most folks didn’t care for Bo.
However, in defense of her feelings for Eun Seob, I’ve seen romance take root when a five-year-old girl gives her playground pal a lollipop fer crying out loud! Dude pines after “the girl who showed him such kindness” for 20 years, finally crosses paths with her again, gives her the soggy stem of the lollipop he kept for all those years, and the two go on to live happily ever after. Yes, those are fated lovers, but we’re the only ones who know Bo/Seob isn’t the OTP of this story; she has just as much cause to be swept off her feet by his small, kind gestures as the FL. 🙂
EUN SEOB
Uh. Now we’re getting into it! First, lemme just say that he was one of the coolest MLs when he and Hae Won were actually in a relationship. Firing on all cylinders, he’s a causally intense guy with a deep heart, soft confidence, and a never-ending, gentle smile. I can understand why he would be well-liked as a character, particularly in the later episodes.
However, to get to those episodes, you have to watch him make dumb excuses and thin denials—but that’s only when he actually manages to talk at all. Good gravy, that was a maddening process! The first time he completely shut down around Hae Won, I got it. Totally. He’s been in love with her for so long, and suddenly she’s very real and very interested, and he’s freaking out. Didn’t even need the journal entry to understand what he was going through, and I could empathize. Found it adorable and kinda endearing, not to mention pretty darned funny.
But after the second time of him turtling, I started getting a little agitated. The third time, I wanted to punch him in the face. Stop clinging to solitude, embracing fear, and wallowing in self-pity you irritating bookworm! You want to be awkward and skittish when your crush is in your space? Okay, you get a pass the first time. Shock value and all that. Second time, not so much. But then to practically reject the focus of all the love in your sweater-swaddled heart when she says she likes you?! Unforgivable!
Now, had the show done a decent job of making me feel his pain, I might have still been okay with it. But that was another payoff that was DOA. I kept waiting for the big reveal as to why he’s so afraid of happiness and love, but it never came. Long story short, his mother and father died. That’s it. I know it sounds calloused to put it that way, but k-dramas are rife with very tragic backstories that usually involve a great deal of suffering. For someone as protected and closed off-as Eun Seob was, I expected a far more tragic history and a lifetime of pain. But his birth parents were the only harmful people in his life, and they left the picture when he was young.
After that, he was embraced by two very doting foster parents, a foster sister who loved him as her own brother, and by-and-large, he became adored by a whole village of people. Aside from some early hiccups caused by his lack of social skills (thanks again, Dad!), he had a rather pleasant trip into adulthood, even managing to land a sweet gig running a cozy, kitsch bookstore that he hardly had to pay for! (Which was good, ’cause with the scant amount of foot traffic he had, there was no way he could keep the lights on, even with some odd online orders.)
As far as leads go, he got off pretty easy. I know he didn’t see his parents as bad influences, but they also were never a huge part of his life–particularly his mother. I can understand him having some reservations and pain after losing his real parents, but after they passed, he experienced nothing but amazing, loving relationships. Why exactly is he so terrified of being happy? He’s had more than 20 good years with good people who have treated him well. Where the heck is his desire to run away into the woods coming from? (Honestly, there was a point where I wanted the story to be some kind of supernatural horror piece where his mother’s ghost leads him to a cave where he realizes he’s part werewolf and terrorizes the hapless townsfolk. That at least would have made some sense out of his wild tendencies.)
I just didn’t buy it. If this was a fluffy drama, I’d say his backstory was almost (but not quite) tragic enough. But this seemed very melo to me, and in that context, his history is rather vanilla. Where was all the trickery, deceit and betrayal he allegedly suffered through? Where was the hardship of growing up an orphan in a cold world with only faint, idealized memories of warmth and happiness from days long gone? Where were the years of him living alone, scrapping by to make ends meet until he managed to cobble together a living? Where were the half-hearted parental figures or teachers that made him feel like he was worthless? What about classmates who used him for their own ends then left him behind once they got what they wanted? Aside from the first several years of his life, what happiness did he cherish that was so brutally torn away from him?
I could very well be missing some key points that make Eun Seob’s story heartrending, and that would actually make me feel better. It would mean I’ve misunderstood him all this time, that he deserved my sympathy, and his fear of losing happiness was rooted in legitimacy. But as it stands now, he is far more emotionally stunted and closed-off than many other characters who haven endured far worse.
And I frankly didn’t care about his development because he didn’t care. Show made it quite clear that he was content to love from afar, court his fear, and never try to reclaim happiness. He was checked out, defeated, done—and altogether pleased with himself for being in that state. He wasn’t struggling to overcome, trying and failing to conquer his resignation. It took a plucky, highly self-centered girl forcibly breaking into his life to get him to even try. And even then, he went into it with a defeatist, self-pitying attitude: “One day she’ll leave me”. The result is that she does leave, he doesn’t follow her, and had she not come back because the city was a bust, he would have died alone in his rent-free bookshop/house.
HAE WON’S MOM
Didn’t get her at all. She didn’t seem to be particularly likable in her youth, and as an adult, she had zero personality. She was a lump of unfeeling coldness and jarring aloofness in every scene, and she managed to maintain that for the show’s duration. I didn’t understand her indifference to being imprisoned, or her cold attitude towards her daughter and sister.
Why did she refuse to allow the court to give her any leniency? She came across as very uncaring and ruthless during the trial, and she repeatedly refused to answer questions in a way that would explain her actions. Did she want to go to prison for the maximum term? At first I thought she may have been in shock, as the wounds her husband inflicted on her were still relatively fresh during the trial (making the absurdity of her going to prison when she was obviously fighting for her life all the more stark). But the flashback made it clear that Aunt was the one in shock; Mom had the presence of mind to stage an elaborate deception. Her lack of emotion, reaction and defense was intentional.
She committed perjury to spare her sister–you’d think she wouldn’t have a problem embellishing the truth or speaking out about what she’d been through and how the murder was completely done in self-defense. But instead of making a plea or taking any of the potential outs offered during her questioning, she just sat there like a stone and said, “I killed him. On purpose. Not sorry.” Maybe she thought she deserved it for some reason?
Why did she reject all the letters the Old Dude sent her? Why did she actually give them back, unopened? Isn’t that unnecessary and rather spiteful? I mean, I get that she’s an automaton who sometimes forgets how to not give a fig about anyone, and can largely be counted on to be dismissive of pretty much everyone…but still.
And of course, her arc wouldn’t be complete without offering a mystery with no payoff. Several times, Aunt begged her to write Hae Won a letter. I was expecting this thing to shed some light on her inner thoughts, on what turmoil was going on beneath her hardened exterior. But no. The letter basically says, “I was a jerk because I was unhappy”.
That’s it. No hidden agenda, no well-intended-but-flawed attempt to teach her daughter a life lesson. No bribe or blackmail. No misguided attempt to shield Hae Won from scorn, no selfless act of pure love that only seemed cruel at the time.
The letter said nothing that we as the audience didn’t already assume or know about. No “ah-ha!” moment or punch to the feels. Just, “I ignored you because I was having a hard time”. Well that explains it all, mom! Thanks! Most mothers would be desperate to connect with, and console their daughters, after being separated, but not you! You just abandoned me and pretended I didn’t exist…because you weren’t in the mood. Aces!
I can’t relate to a mother who doesn’t even talk to her daughter, and her letter did absolutely nothing to explain or remedy that. Their relationship was nonexistent at the beginning, and it was nonexistent at the end. Nothing that was written showed repentance or a desire to change moving forward.
I got very tired of seeing her on screen; aside from the car-accident-murder scene, she had zero emotion, zero humanity, zero charisma. Like Eun Seob, she was content to be miserable, embracing her craptacular life with pitiable stoicism. It could be argued that her husband’s death weighed on her that much, but again, the degree to which she shuns her daughter and sister is disproportionate. And, in her tell-all letter, she doesn’t say, “The murder of my homicidal husband has crushed my spirit beyond repair, and I no longer feel anything for anyone”. As hard-put as I’d be to buy that reasoning, if the show provided it, I’d have to swallow it. But fortunately, it wasn’t offered. 😀
Ultimately, if young Mom seemed kind and likable before the abuse began, and then acted vaguely human afterwards, I could have gotten on board. She could start off just as cold when she walks into town, but she needed to drive away having turned away from…whatever it was exactly that had converted her to a lump. Something. Anything. But the fact that she had to be begged to write a very lame letter and only managed a silent meal with her daughter revealed that nothing in the show had any impact on her. She wasn’t looking for healing, understanding or forgiveness, and she didn’t get any.
HAE WON’S AUNT
Mostly ditto what I felt about the mother. Very hard to be sympathetic to a character when she willfully avoids any and all help. She clings tightly to her guilt, managing to fend off Editor for the whole show. She started off treating him like crap and rejecting him, and that’s pretty much the way the show ends. Yes, she let him give her a ride, but that’s because she had no choice. She’s homeless. There was nothing there to give any indication that she wouldn’t push him away again as soon as his chauffeur services were no longer required. She hadn’t changed. Same sombre, dour expression behind the same glasses. No healing, no progress, no new direction.
Thanks to Hae Won, she has even more guilt and shame, and since she’s convinced that the only way she can possibly be happy is to come clean, she has resigned herself to a life of misery. It could be argued that the relationship with her niece and sister is actually worse at the end of the show, but at the very least, it didn’t change.
HAE WON
Happily, most of this is covered in the review. 🙂 As much as I grew to dislike this character, after seeing her Aunt and Mom, I at least understood why she was self-centered and tenacious. Once she realized she loved Eun Seob, she clung to him as tightly as her family clung to their guilt, bitterness, and angst. I admit, I was totally rooting for her when she told Eun she liked him; as much as I booed his retreats, I cheered her advances. If he wasn’t going to push through his pretense of being content without her, she was going to push through to him. I dug that.
But then it was all downhill from there. Sure, get pissed at your aunt when your mother was the one who convinced her to lie. Cling to that grudge against your childhood friend because she made a mistake—after all, you’ve got a lot of other friends to…oh…wait. You don’t have any other friends. And your students hated you. Huh. Wonder why?
Ugh.
And I too checked out when she up and left the town because she couldn’t “look at her aunt” anymore. It’s not a big town, but there are other places to go. Aunt isn’t exactly a social butterfly—Hae Won could have easily avoided her with minimal effort. But no. The right thing to do is leave behind the guy she’d gone full-intimate with. They weren’t casually dating. They confessed. They were in it to win it. And she abandons it without hesitation. …And Eun Seob, being the sad sack he is, puts up no fight. Doesn’t pursue, doesn’t engage. Just takes it, ‘cause he saw it coming and leaned into it.
When it comes down to it, the OTP didn’t care if they got together, so why should I? Hae Won came back only because the city was bogus…and then had the audacity to get jealous when she saw Eun Seob with a random girl (another empty role).
The title of the show should have been: “I’ll Leave You When the Weather is Nice, Then Come Back When the Weather Is Still Nice and Decide I Shouldn’t Have Left Because the Job Market in the City Sucks”. —I’m sure that was the working title, but it was a bit too ambiguous. ;P
So…yeah. Based on my understanding of the show and its events, that was my takeaway. Or at least part of it. I initially thought of it like a bowl of plain oatmeal: warm but bland with no real distinction or quality other than filling time. But as I read this review, repressed memories started bubbling to the surface. I think the key was that all my qualms could have been assuaged by some payoffs and a solid ending. I was hoping and believing that there would be healing or reconciling or redemption or even a satisfying explanation right up to the last minute. I put my observations on the back burner to give Show a chance, and when the end came, I just closed shop and moved on without thinking about everything in retrospect.
Now I’m here…with my can of worms. They’re all over my desk and keyboard.
…Pretty grody. 😉
Regardless of my personal beef with these characters and the distinct lack of healing in this “healing” drama (I think pretty much every single drama I’ve seen up to this point had more healing than this one—with characters that were far more likable to begin with), it did have its moments early on with many bright spots.
Thank you, KFG, for highlighting those spots, and for really digging into the moments that made you believe in this show. To be fair, I think I started checking out at Ep 10 with the uncle debacle. I was already souring on Eun Seob, suspecting that there was nothing more to his happiness allergy than his parents passing away when he was young. Again, not something to be brushed off lightly, but in Drama Land, dead/missing parents are par for the course. And considering he’d been loved and pampered ever since, I found his disposition…annoying.
Once I got there, and kept seeing unlikeable characters being unlikeable with irksome consistency, I stopped noticing the redeeming parts. In a sense, your review allowed me to rewatch the show without the bias, and I could nod in appreciation at the moments that made you tear up, or got ya in the feels. 🙂 They were definitely there…just camouflaged. At least for me. The few episodes where the OTP was together were solid and enjoyable, but I totally forgot they existed until I read this post!
Oh! And thank you for the shoutout! 😀 It was very kind and greatly appreciated! I wish I could have followed it up with an amazing comment here, but fate, it seems, had different plans. 😉
I have to believe this would be the kind of blabbering I woulda done with SITR if I’d somehow managed to make it past the first two hours… XD
Great comment, Jesse – you pretty much wrote up why I could not like anything on this show, even before the elephant in the room aka the abuse storyline. Except I didn’t care for the little sister either, as I find moochy, spoiled, boy-crazy girls aggravating (and we are meant to smile at her because she is a silly young chick, but her behavior is borderline stalkerish… would it be still endearing if it was a boy obsessing about a girl the same way?) Anyway, to get me interested in teens I need them to face actual problems rather than those oh-so-important puppy crushes… give me The Hunger Games or at least Extracurricular to make me care. 🙂
And just for the records, though SITR rubbed KFangirl the wrong way, in my opinion it is nothing like WTWIF with its toxic family bonds and stagnant characters. SITR is every bit as subtle and realistic as its sister show OSN (I’m pretty convinced that the two were conceived to be two sides of the coin), so the character developement isn’t flashy or dramatic either – people in their mid 30s don’t change abrutly, not even for a hot new boyfriend/girlfriend, because decades of habits and coping mechanisms are hard to break. But the Jin Ah in the beginning, evasive as long as she can then blowing up when cornered, is very different from the one at the end, calmly and frankly telling her mother she won’t ever be able to forgive her how much she hurt the Seo siblings, yet never throwing the blame on mom for her failed relationships or unfulfilling life. Even the mother, the embodiment of domineering Asian parents, shows some remorse at the end, though it’s not in her nature to ever admit she was wrong, especially not to her child.
And they still manage to part with a hug, unlike the frosty nonchalant goodbyes of WTWIF… I kinda understand why Hae Won keeps saying how warm the not-actually-very-affectionate Eun Sob is, though by the fifth time I heard that line I stopped thinking “rule #1: show, don’t tell” and started yelling “he’s not a corpse, of course he is warm”. 😛
Hey Jesse – just “Wow” for that really fine bit of writing!
Hi Jesse! 😀 I do think that if you’d watched SITR, and felt close to the same way I did about the show, that you would’ve written a comment very reminiscent of this one! 😆😆 Your comment reminds me of my review of SITR; a blow-by-blow, detailed, disgruntled exposition of exactly what didn’t work for you in the show, and why. It’s probably a blessing in disguise, that you didn’t manage to watch more than 2 eps of SITR! 😂😂
I’m glad that you enjoyed this review more than you enjoyed your watch; I do feel bad for suggesting Weather to you, since you might not have given it a try, without my suggestion. 😛 Note to self: only recommend shows to Jesse that you’ve actually finished and can vouch for as a whole. 😝😅 From what I can tell from your comment, it would’ve probably been a better experience for you overall, if you’d dropped out of this one, rather than commit to it to the bitter end. It feels similar to what I did with SITR.. that show stopped working for me by the time I hit its halfway mark, and instead of dropping out, I decided to stick with it, just to see what Show was trying to say. Unfortunately, this meant that I viewed the rest of the show with a pretty critical lens, and that only served to amplify all of Show’s shortcomings. I kinda think the same thing might’ve happened with you and Weather; because it wasn’t really working for you, you probably saw all of Show’s shortcomings, amplified, and that only served to make you more upset with the show as you got deeper into your watch. An unfortunate outcome, but one that I’m also all too familiar with! 😛
Generally speaking, I think to enjoy this show to its maximum, given its shortcomings, one needs to be quite forgiving in terms of Show’s shortcomings. The Uncle arc was one; Sean suggests that writer-nim had other plans for the character but changed direction, and that sounds quite plausible to me. I also think that Show doesn’t take it upon itself to explain the dysfunctional behavior of the parents in this drama world. Show doesn’t seem to want to make a statement about Eun Seob’s parents who abandoned him either through death or by leaving the hut in the mountains, nor does Show seem to want to make a statement about how Hae Won’s dad was terrible for beating his wife. Instead, Show seems to want to focus on the effects that these things had on Eun Seob and Hae Won. How they’re scarred and handicapped from having grown up under such circumstances, and how it’s such a slow and difficult process, for them to attempt to heal from their wounds. Sure, Show doesn’t do such a fantastic job of actually giving us the progress that we’re hungry to see, but I do want to acknowledge that this seemed to be the focus that our story was trying to have.
As for Bad Boy, he was there just for comparison, it looks like. A counterfeit that Hae Won could identify, in comparison to the true love that she knew and recognized. I didn’t think or expect that he would have more significance to the story than that, honestly.
As for Eun Seob, I concur with deliaerre’s comment above; I found him coherent as a character. And a lot of his suffering was internal; he perceived that he wasn’t deserving of love, even though his foster parents loved him. He never felt like he was truly a part of the family, and when Hwi was born, he felt that difference even more acutely. The gossip by others in the village didn’t help, and even though his parents tried to protect him from it, he grew up with a deep-seated belief that he was not truly their son and therefore not truly deserving of their love and acceptance; he believed that he was more suited to live in the mountains like a beast, as everyone else referred to him. It may not sound like much by Drama Standards, but when I examine how his emotional landscape must be like, I feel like I can understand his reluctance to connect, and his general reticence and isolation.
You make a great case for Bo Young, and I do feel more sympathetic towards her, as a result. That’s a great point that Bo Young divulged the secret in a bid to protect Hae Won, and not to harm her. That makes a huge difference; thanks for pointing it out! I still feel that for a long time, Bo Young was not cognizant enough, of how much her mistake affected Hae Won’s life in school, and I think that’s why I found her frustrating for a good stretch. It’s one thing to make a genuine mistake; it’s another thing to refuse to acknowledge how that mistake affected someone else’s life, and that’s where I think my sympathy for Bo Young stopped short. However, it’s a relief that this gets addressed by the time we reach the final episode.
And yes – Hwi is delightful indeed! 😉
Hey there KFG!!
Naw, never regret recommending something! I mean, yes, I have been somewhat traumatized by the viewing experience, and I may never again be able to muster the courage to watch another drama…but that’s on me. 😛 For real though, your perspective on the first several episodes was spot on–you shouldn’t have to be the only one to experience a derailed experience in the twilight episodes. We suffer together! –Though I seemed to have suffered more than most. 😉
In a way, I did experience this the way you experienced SITR…the only difference is that my animus was born in retrospect. The reason I stuck with the show until the bitter end was because I felt that my desire to see a respectable amount of healing and growth for a slow, character-driven piece like this would ultimately be fulfilled. How could it not? There’s almost nothing else going on! I just needed the mother to crack, to show some indication that she could actually BE a mother at some point. I needed to see the aunt find some measure of closure with what happened, to turn her face to the sun, as it were. Instead, almost the exact opposite happened!
Gah! I’m getting myself worked up again! …Not this time, Weather! 😉
My point is, I felt like I could have appreciated the show even if it was only bailed out in the last ten minutes of the last episode by showing reconciliation in some of the significantly broken relationships we were introduced to. When that didn’t happen, at least to my satisfaction, I shook my head in a quiet rebuke to the storytellers and moved on.
However, when your review came out and I had to re-examine the show with the knowledge of its utter failure to do anything significant with its characters, my admittedly critical observations became hyperactive, and a fierce and furious passion ignited within me. I didn’t realize how much I’d come to loathe the show until I started writing about it.
I think I also am more critical of the characters and their psychology because that’s almost all we have to work with. Other shows require suspension of disbelief with some of the plot points, conveniences, and contrivances, but those points don’t seem to bleed into the relationships. We could have gotten from Point A to Point B in many different ways based on the character’s motivations, but Show chose a somewhat goofy and slightly implausible gimmick to get us there. I can live with that.
But with this show, it presented itself as more…humble. More down to earth. I expected nuance in the characters–aspects of relationships that could only really be seen when a Show puts them in front of a microscope. But there was no subtly, no deeper level to dig into. The history is doled out slowly, but it never amounts to more than the sum of its parts. Sometimes it’s even less.
I’ll admit that I am probably more focused on the “why’s” than I should be. As you say, the why isn’t important; we’re supposed to be focused on how the characters deal with their pain. But for me, it’d be like “Hamlet” or “Braveheart” or any other significant revenge story revolving around someone scuffing our hero’s footwear.
“One day, I will find the man who marred the toe of my favorite boot…and I will slay him with great zeal and gusto for his trespass! For that boot was made from the hide of my beloved childhood cow, and anyone who ruins that hide ruins her memory!”
It could be said that I should focus only on the story itself and the effect that the pursuit of revenge has on the main character, but I feel like I’d always be thinking, “Really? All of this over scuffed shoes? The hero is a goober!”
I dunno. Maybe it’s just that I haven’t had to ignore circumstances before. If anything, some protagonists seem relatively well-adjusted and baggage-free considering what they’ve gone through. Eun Seob…he just has a lot more psychological and emotional hangups than someone with his story should have. There needed to be something else, some edge or extra spice that makes me go, “Oh, damn…I get it now. That’s messed up!” …I suppose I’m a cruel fellow in that way. ;P
I mean, even him going back to his mother when she called–that should have been a big deal. There should have been a ton of inner conflict and a discernible ripple. Resentment over being abandoned by her, nostalgic love from years past, hope at connecting again, devastation of having that hope instantly dashed by the awareness that she is ultimately going to abandon him again–albeit this time not of her own volition. If he was truly scarred and emotionally crippled at that point, wouldn’t he have avoided her with the same befuddling fear and timidity he displayed around Hae Won?
But we saw none of that. What was his motivation for going to her after all the hurt she caused him? Was it pure familial obligation? Was that enough to drive him into a position where he’d be forced to open himself up again only to have a front row seat for his mother’s death? We see no emotion as he leaves his functional, warm family to spend three years with a woman he barely knows, and it isn’t really discussed as anything but an event. That’s why he was MIA during that time. …’Nuff said?!
I guess I was waiting for a heftier third act. By that point, there was no growth or mystery behind the characters. He hurts, she hurts, they get together, everyone else stays in their lane and heads for the exit. Did Eun Seob really get any healing or open up at all, considering the casual indifference he has when Hae Won leaves? He either legitimately didn’t care, or the whole time he was still emotionally in a fetal position. What about Hae Won? There was no moment to trigger any change in her–there was no revelation waiting for her in the city. She entered the story because the city shut her down, she came back for the same reason.
…I think I’m belaboring the point. 🙂
As Sean pointed out, and you referenced, we know writer-nim made at least one course adjustment during the show regarding the uncle. I’m not sure how often that happens, but I think it was a pretty big deal. Not the uncle as a character, but the trajectory of the show, the ground it was supposed to cover, and the nature of the resolution–they could all have been marred or altered by whatever caused the uncle character to be phased out. Whatever Show was going to be and wherever it was headed for those first several episodes, it definitely changed. There’s a chance it literally could just have been writing the uncle out of the story to give more room for other characters, but I suspect the character’s removal was indicative of a broader change to the narrative. If nothing else, it would explain why the first half of the show was mostly enjoyable but deteriorated in the final episodes.
Ultimately, all I can say is that I’m genuinely glad the characters and story worked for you and many many others, providing some very sweet moments and about 90% of a good story. I do agree that my expectations–realistic or otherwise–and the resulting disappointment when they weren’t met conspired to taint this mild-mannered blight for me.
This was, I believe, my first “healing drama”, and so perhaps I needed to go in with a different lens. It didn’t function in the same way as the other dramas I’ve watched. Even if I’d liked it, there were some things that struck me as peculiar…but in all fairness, I seem to be more/less alone in that arena, so maybe it was just some funktastic state of mind I was in while watching. 🙂
I’m definitely with you in chaffing a bit at Bo Young’s inability to really embrace her mistake for most of the show. She seemed to be more torn up about the loss of their friendship, not the pain that Hae Won endured. In that way, it was largely self-pity and selfishness that caused her pain. …Maybe she was/is co-dependent?! She definitely gets her crazy on in the latter beats of the story. Yikes. Well, in any case, I definitely agree with being frustrated by her and only getting some relief at the end. For me, I guess the crux of it was how Hae Won treated her as a result. Much like Eun Seob’s fierce reclusiveness, I thought Hae Won’s attitude and treatment of Bo Young was disproportionate to the events of the story–at least the role that Bo played in them.
The takeaway from all this is: wait for KFG to finish a show first. When in doubt about the outcome, stall like the dickens until the review comes out, mine it for everything but spoilers, and proceed accordingly!
–‘Cause I could sure have used a reliable forecast before wandering into Weather! ;P
Reading the story blurb, I thought this would be right up my alley (slow-burn, slice of life, set in a bookshop – words like catnip for me), but in the end the only thing in this show that worked for me was the pretty shots of Korean countryside in the winter… But it took me quite some time and reading a bunch of reviews to understand what left me filled with rather irrational rage after the finale. Obviously, it is my own take on the story tinged with my personal triggers, but this is what I ended up with: I was repulsed by how the domestic abuse theme was mishandled; trying to be very neutral and matter-of-fact about it, but effectively the show gave a pass to the abuser. By largely ignoring the years of abuse and focusing only on the repercussions of his death, show seemed to say that the characters’ misery only started when mother stood up for herself. As long as she put up with the abuse, daughter was happy, aunt was happy, husband was happy – wasn’t everyone’s happiness worth the bruises after all? If only she had remained the good little punching bag… It didn’t help that we never saw the interactions between mother and husband in a neutral time between beatings; but we saw that aunt was a real bitch to her boyfriend and we were told that her sister was far more crazy than her (and Hae Won is not exactly the nice, considerate girlfriend either – all the women in this family are horrible). Which, if I’m cynical, could be taken as implication that mother also might have been treating her husband disdainfully, aka “she was asking for it”…
There is not a single character, not a single time that anyone says the husband was the only source of all problems and everyone else is a victim. That what happened was not murder but putting down a rabid animal bent on killing two innocent women. That at that moment they had no other means for self defense. That the only regret about his death should be that he got away too easily; justice would have been to have him locked up for many years with other violent criminals prone to go ballistic. And that such a scumbag should not be able to continue wrecking the lives of three women even from beyond the grave.
Also, what the hell was the director trying to say when intercutting the murder story with Hae Won and Eun Sob’s first time sleeping together? It just felt so weird…
Hi Luna – You wrapped up perfectly what bothered me with “There is not a single character, not a single time that anyone says the husband was the only source of all problems and everyone else is a victim.”
You make a very valid point, Luna.. after thinking about things for a bit, I conclude that Show never set out to make a statement about the actions of most of the parents in this drama world; not Eun Seob’s parents in the woods, nor Hae Won’s abusive father. It seems that Show is only interested in exploring the wreckage that these people leave in their wake, specifically in the lives of Eun Seob and Hae Won, and to a lesser extent, Aunt and Mom. I don’t think that Show was trying to say that Hae Won’s father *wasn’t* the source of all their problems, but I think in not actually making a statement about it, and leaving it as a contextual piece of information – ie, abuse happens in the world, this is just a foundational piece of building-block information for our drama world – Show left the way too open, for disturbing interpretations that you’ve described. I can definitely see why this show made you feel so upset. 😛
Hi Fangurl – very thorough review! It is so enjoyable to be able to sit and slowly work my way through every single bullet on all the episodes. It brings the drama right back as I am reading.
There is one particular point you make above that wraps up my feelings about this drama and that is “Maybe what we needed was a drama to first tell Aunt’s story, along with Mom’s, then a spin-off to tell Hae Won’s story, so that each character would get a proportionate amount of focus and attention.” I totally agree with this and here is why…
While I should have remembered this drama for the OTP and their story, instead I will always remember it for the domestic abuse narrative. It may be that I personally feel so strongly about the issue of domestic abuse that it overshadowed everything else once it was revealed. This abuse was the root cause of of the emotional issues with Hae Won and her family and I was extremely frustrated over the guilt these two women felt. Then to have Hae Won not empathize with her Aunt and Mom over the horrific event and instead act the way she did was annoying to say the least. This is a case where bringing this to the beginning of the drama would have been better. I really wish that they had followed that direction and we could see some kind of discussion|therapy|tears|anger|anything – to acknowledge how devastating, life-altering and just plain awful the actions of the father were! It could have been a platform to try to help women in domestic abuse cases. However both women pushed it under the rug and were further victimized – albeit self victimization – and this set my teeth on edge. Granted, the story is about the OTP but sadly I lost all focus on their story when the incident at the garage was revealed.
My favorite scene in the drama was when Eun Seob embroidered that scarf for his Mom. I had to reach for the tissues. Very moving and beautiful scene! I found Bo Young’s story arc very odd, annoying and largely unbelievable. The bright spot in this entire drama was Kim Hwan Hee and her escapades. She was a refreshing addition. I look forward to her future projects.
Thank you for this wonderfully detailed review!
Hi phl1rxd,
I do understand what you are saying but I also understand the way Hae Won reacted. Everything unveiled at the same time. The reason what actually happened (true murderer) and why her life and their relationship turned out this way. And she never witnessed his bad side. Imagine somebody hiding the true story from you until you are thirtyish. Because it had a very big impact in her life too. Mom in jail. Dad dead. But it is also a little selfish of her to only think about what it did to her and not the others.
In the end I feel like domestic abuse was adressed properly compared to other shows. (example: Strong woman do bong soo).
“It could have been a platform to try to help women in domestic abuse cases.” So many dramas have this kind of potential wether it is about domestic abuse, violence in general, bullying or suicide . But I have never seen a show to actually go into that direction. Maybe because it is too real? Who knows… Usually these things still get used to make a show funny. For example when I started to watch Angry Mom I thought: ” Wow maybe an actual show that shows people how to deal with bullying”. Turns out it is not and just another dumb show.
I am kind of sad that this incident threw you off like this. But we all have our sore points.
Hi Larius – you are correct. It did throw me off and I could never get back into the OTP.
Sorry for bothering… :/
No worries! I was not bothered. LOL!
Hi phl, it’s always a pleasure to see ya! <3 Thanks for enjoying this review, even though Show itself was a mixed bag for you.
I do feel like Show tried to encompass too much in its story; I found the focus on the domestic abuse a big distraction to our supposed main story as well.. It was hard to tell what Show really wanted to focus on, since the spotlight on the domestic abuse was so great and took up so much story room. I do like your idea of putting that right in the beginning, to allow more room to explore the repercussions of it on everyone, and really dig into the healing journey. That would have felt more satisfying to watch.
Yes, I loved the scene of Eun Seob embroidering the scarf for Mom as well.. that was so sweet, and meant so much, both to him, and to Mom as well. So poignant and lovely. <3 And yes, Kim Hwan Hee was SUCH a bright spot! I'm curious to see what else she does as well! 🙂
Hey phlrxd! I definitely agree with how much the domestic abuse intruded into the narrative. I think a large part of that was just how graphic and violent it was. This show is more aesthetically mild than most, with a lotta browns, lotta whites, lotta nature, lotta calming visuals and quiet exchanges. Seeing the abuse–dialed back–in veiled, subdued flashbacks would have suited the overall tone much more–particularly if it wasn’t supposed to be a point of focus. I think that KFG is right that we aren’t supposed to dwell on how the characters got where they are, but how they deal with it. That being the case, we should never have been given such a bloody flashback; I’ve seen crime dramas with less emotionally charged and physically violent scenes! All I remember is seeing the husband swinging that iron…and surviving that fall from the balcony. Keep it to fisticuffs and have him break his neck offscreen and it could have been somewhat less distracting. But they kept it going.
There is no such thing as “tame” domestic abuse in real life, but for the purpose of this story, we didn’t need to see murderous carnage if it wasn’t going to be addressed as such. The fact that Mom is in the courtroom looking like she was just pummeled within an inch of her life almost made it a farce. Had they demonstrated his propensity for violence in a few flashbacks, shown her with some bruises, and then had her sister accidentally kill him in panicked attempt at preventative defense, I think the abusive element could have been mitigated enough to allow it to haunt the past instead of impact the present. It could have made the killing seem a bit less necessary (which would also have made it more reasonable to be an accident–as it is now, I think the women were borderline crazy for not actively trying to put him down once it was clear there was nothing stopping him from killing them both) while still allowing the audience to see it as justified.
I think they could have given Mom a compelling arc exploring the thought of her feeling compelled to bring flowers to the grave of a man who was so terrible to her–the notion that he was “good” except for the small fact that he was beating her half to death every so often. I am reluctant to believe that domestic abuse is seen as acceptable by the storytellers, but I remember another show (name eludes me) where a father tried to guilt his daughter into staying married even after discovering the husband regularly abused her. Show did portray the abuse as a horrible thing, and the mother reacts appropriately, but for some reason the father has a broken brain about it and never really seems to see the light. I can understand the abuser not really getting why his behavior is wrong (a mind that condones the violence in the moment can’t be expected to see its own perversion afterwards), but to write a father who essentially tells his own daughter to “suck it up”…that’s unsettling.
But I digress. I think giving Mom a journey to see herself, her sister, and what they did in a right way, see her husband for the monster he was, and part with the past by being free of the guilt would have really given the story some punch. Maybe she wouldn’t be whole enough to reconcile with her daughter, but we would at least know something in her was transformed by the events of this story.
That may have been too much plot for the character, but as it stands now, they could have written her out of the story completely and it wouldn’t be missing anything. Heck, they could have revealed the Mom to be a stone-cold killer who got those injuries while beating her husband to death and it wouldn’t have changed how her character was portrayed. If I didn’t know this was a drama, I might have suspected we’d see her kill again by the end. She seemed to look at everyone with chilling disdain and indifference, and she didn’t do anything that really showed any measurable level of humanity. …Hmmm…
But I digress. Again! –Ultimately I think they should have either presented the history in a more subdued and abstract fashion to keep it from overwhelming the story, or they should have dealt with the brutality and ugliness of graphic abuse. Embellishing on the violence as they did, in stark contrast to the otherwise tranquil (except for Kim Hwan Hee’s antics of course) setting, made it very difficult to focus on the sedate OTP. The main characters should never be upstaged by the supporting cast’s past! 🙂
Sooooooo I have to agree with most of what u said.
Some things is one thing different for me: I really loved the aunt storyline. It was really intriguing. And the blind eye was something new that I haven’t seen before especially with that backstory attached to it.
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Mom was annoying. Same goes for Bo young. Jang Woos crush was annoying (not him crushing but the fact that the girl was kinda dumb). I have to say there were a lot of things that annoyed me but the show and the otp was just tooooo good.
When I saw “Things that were okay: Park Min Young as Hae Won” – I thought… how dare she… but u meant the character itself so it is all good 😀 And I have to agree especially from ep 13 onwards she was quite a handfull. But that was mostly bad writing which is common in korean dramas. 99% of all dramas have that problem. Starts of good but ends bad or the other way rounf or something in between. Never seen a show I liked from beginning to end. For example “Bring it on Ghost” I loved ep 1-12 but ep 13 was so dumb that I dropped it immediately.
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And I get that u swoon over the male lead he is awesome but at times very slow (kind of reminds me of myself without the handsomeness ofcourse). Sometimes it felt like watching a sloth climbing a tree 😀
Love the drama overall. Grade: A
I hope they will more dramas like this one and A Piece of your mind in the future.
Haha! How rare, that we land on roughly the same page with a show, Larius! 😀 Is this a cause for celebration? 😆😆
I think Aunt deserved her own show, to be honest. Hers was a story worth telling, but when she’s positioned as a secondary character, the telling of her story muddies the focus on the main OTP, and I think that’s what I struggled with. It was important to tell her story, but it also felt out of place, at the same time. And yes, the writing in the last stretch was quite patchy for me; I wanted Show to do better.
HA, that Eun Seob reminded you of a sloth climbing a tree! 😂 Aw, I found him sweet and endearing; he was always so sincere and giving, even when his own awkwardness made him uncertain and frozen.
Maybe we should but I don’t want to jinx it 😀
Yes she could have gotten her own show. But I still feel like it added to the overall story.
True I really liked his awkwardness 😀
Um, yes… more or less what you wrote. I loved the early episodes but Show just sort of lost me at some point and I noticed that I wasn’t as eager to watch the episodes as they aired. In fact, it took me a bit to finish Show. I wasn’t all that happy about how Hae Won turned out towards the end but I sort of understood why she had to leave. She did come off as selfish and bit of a drama queen. That sudden shift to Aunt’s story was a rather odd byway that didn’t really contribute much to the overall story.
Seo Kang Joon as Eun Seob was lovely. 🙂 I also really liked Lee Jae Wook, he’s certainly an actor to keep tabs on.
Hi5 Timescout – you put so succinctly, what I took thousands of words to express! 😂 I felt the same way about this show as well; at first, I loved every minute, but somewhere along the way, I found that it took a lot more effort and determination to finish an episode than at first. 😛 And Aunt deserved her own show; her story was big enough for that, and I think that’s why it felt like such a weird tangent, when Show focused on her story so much, towards the end. I guess it’s a lesson not to have a side story that’s bigger than your main characters’ stories? 😅
Seo Kang Joon was SO lovely as Eun Seob; I find him so very endearing and sweet. <3 And I really enjoyed Lee Jae Wook as well; he's so versatile!! 😀
It’s a shame that Drama lost that “something” it had in the beginning. Sadly, not a Korean ‘Yasashii Jikan’ after all. Which, by the way, I got a hankering to watch again. It’s such a seemingly simple, warm drama. I just finished EP1 and it feels just as soothing and lovely as I rememberd. Despite of the slightly melancholy feel of the epi, due to the rather sad story snippets in it. Yasashii Jikan is never maudlin or over dramatically pickled in angst, no matter what the focus of the episodes are. It might just be the drama to kick me out of the drama funk I’ve been in for so long now. 🙂
2020 is shaping up to be the Year of the Healing Romance in dramaland. 2019 was the Year of the Sageuk.
Indeed!! I guess we’re all in particular need of healing, in 2020!! 😂😂