Welcome to the Open Thread, everyone! I thought this was the perfect shot to headline our post today, since this conversation between Dong Hoon and Ji An feels like such an important milestone. So much honesty up in here!
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS, before we begin:
1. ZERO SPOILER POLICY ON THE OPEN THREAD
We will be adopting a ZERO SPOILER POLICY for this Open Thread, except for events that have happened in the show, up to this point.
The spoiler tags don’t work in email notifications, therefore, please take note that WE WILL NOT BE USING SPOILER TAGS FOR THIS OPEN THREAD. ANY AND ALL SPOILERS WILL BE REDACTED to protect first-time viewers in our midst (although, I’d appreciate it if you would save me the trouble of having to redact spoilers, heh 😅).
*This includes (but is not limited to) how characters or relationships evolve over the course of the story. Just pretend that this is Past You, on this Open Thread!*
2. SPOILER ZONE AVAILABLE
HOWEVER!! If you’d like to discuss spoilers from a rewatcher’s point of view, I’ve created a SPOILER ZONE for you, where you can discuss all the spoilers you’d like, without the need for spoiler warnings. You can find it here!
Without further ado, here are my reactions to this set of episodes; have fun in the Open Thread, everyone! ❤️
My thoughts
Episode 5
This episode, a couple of things are coming into focus for me.
One of those things, is just how liberated all these ahjusshis feel, as they hang out together, at Jung Hee’s bar. All their troubles – and perhaps more importantly, all their failures – are forgotten, as they drink, and cheer, and just generally behave like a bunch of carefree boys.
When they finally do move to leave, I feel like I can almost see their shoulders start to slump again, from the weight of their burdens and worries returning to their consciousness.
I don’t know that I was this cognizant of it before; Jung Hee’s bar really is an oasis for these men. Hanging out here, together, they can escape their realities for a while, and forget the failures of their careers and family lives.
I thought Ki Hoon’s spiel to Dong Hoon about underwear was a bit off-the-wall, but I do think that underneath that sense of quirk, there’s an aching sense of poignance there.
It tells me that, fundamentally, Ki Hoon is ashamed of himself and how his life has turned out. And, that idea, that wearing expensive underwear would vindicate him in the eyes of whomever was handling his corpse, is such a desperate one, when you think about it. He wants dignity in death, but even that is a false dignity, in the sense that he can’t actually afford that expensive underwear.
The general vibe of acceptance and trust, at Jung Hee’s bar, is so welcoming, when contrasted with what these people face in real life. You can see it in the way Jung Hee has no qualms about getting drunk herself, because she knows that the boys will take care of her and of things in general.
And you can see it, in the way Dong Hoon collects the money from everyone, opens the cash register to take out the rest of the day’s takings, and then put it in her kettle, for safekeeping. There is so much familiarity and implicit trust here; it’s really great.
This episode, the connection between Dong Hoon and Ji An becomes more and more tangible, and I realize that I cheer internally, every time they take a step towards understanding each other better, or helping each other.
I like that Dong Hoon’s so consistent in defending Ji An in front of other people, and I like that Ji An is privy to those conversations.
Like, I know that it’s wrong of Ji An to be listening in on Dong Hoon’s life like this, without his knowledge or permission, but it still gives me a thrill of satisfaction, when Ji An just keeps learning that Dong Hoon’s a very decent person, and that Dong Hoon’s consistent about defending her from getting dragged in idle gossip, even though it’s gossip that she would logically never hear about.
Plus, she’s definitely becoming more sympathetic towards him in degrees, as she observes him at and around the office. It doesn’t escape her eyes when Director Yoon tries to lord it over him, both at the office and at the work gathering (hoesik), and it doesn’t escape her eyes either, that Dong Hoon does his best to keep his head down, and just bear with it.
Over and top of this, there’s how Dong Hoon spontaneously helps her, when he encounters her taking Gran out for a walk at night, to see the moon.
I love the fact that Dong Hoon is so proactive in waiting for Ji An and Gran to return, so that he can help bring Gran home, and I love even more, how respectful Dong Hoon is, when it comes to Ji An’s home. He doesn’t enter any further than absolutely necessary, and leaves the minute it becomes clear that Ji An can handle Gran on her own.
And, importantly, he tells Ji An that she’s a good person, after he sees how she takes care of Gran. I feel like that’s something that Ji An might be hearing for the first time ever, in her life, and the fact that this is unsolicited and basically just Dong Hoon’s natural first reaction to seeing how she lives, must be quite touching to her.
Of course, there’s the thing where Ji An tells Gran, that it’s easy for people with money to be good, so there’s definitely still some cynicism there. Plus, there’s the thing where Ji An’s still working for Joon Young, to get rid of Dong Hoon.
However, it’s also becoming clear, that Ji An’s softening towards Dong Hoon, bit by reluctant bit. In this vein, Ji An’s small concessions towards Dong Hoon give me a thrill. Like when she kicks his foot in the train, to alert him that it’s time to get off.
And what about how she slaps Assistant Manager Kim, for drunkenly talking smack about Dong Hoon, at the tail end of the hoesik? I really hadn’t seen that coming. I mean, I fully believe that Ji An would dare to slap someone, because that’s just how she is. What surprises me, is that she would care enough, to get involved.
And then, there’s how Ji An breaks into a run, when she hears Dong Hoon fall in the snow, but doesn’t hear him get up to keep walking. Again, it doesn’t surprise me that she’s sharp enough to piece together what she’s hearing; it surprises me that she would care enough to run in his direction, to make sure that he’s ok.
Augh. That scene, of Dong Hoon laying on ground, breathing hard, is so full of pathos. It hits me, that he’s miserable enough with his life, that he considers just freezing to death there on the ground, at least for a while, before he tells himself that he can’t die that day, because he’s not wearing expensive underwear.
I’m glad (and relieved) that Dong Hoon’s resilient enough, to pick himself up off that icy ground, to just keep on plodding along.
I realize on this viewing, that I am less repulsed by Yoo Ra. I think on my first watch, I felt grossed out by her habit of throwing up in her stairwell, DAILY, no less, and I also found her statement to Ki Hoon – that she’s so grateful that he’s a failure – extremely insensitive and rude.
I still think both those things are not cool, but this time around, I’m trying to reframe how I see things, in hopes that I can perhaps find her character less distasteful.
For example, while I think that a reasonable person who sincerely doesn’t want to inconvenience her neighbors and the cleaners, would simply drink less, or leave for home a little earlier, from wherever she’s drinking, so that she’d be able to avoid throwing up in the stairwell.
But I realize that that assumption presumes that Yoo Ra is in enough control of herself and her emotions, to actually stop herself, or regulate herself as needed.
Thinking that she is somehow incapacitated, emotionally and mentally, helps. And, Show does hint at that, with how Yoo Ra talks about how working with Ki Hoon had turned her into a stuttering mess who couldn’t function like a normal person.
If her current inability to moderate her behavior stems from the mental and emotional distress she’d felt while working with Ki Hoon, then it does make me feel differently about her.
Meaning, I feel grossed out by her throwing up daily in the stairwell, but I also feel a bit sorry for her, that she’s so incapacitated that she can’t even deal with herself, in this basic manner. Does that make sense?
I still do think it’s a weird and rude statement, to say that she’s thankful that Ki Hoon’s a failure, but I suppose, in the context of her experience, I can kind of see where she’s coming from. That, if Ki Hoon had become successful without her, then it would have proven that she really had been the problem.
From my neutral third party standpoint, I find it curious that Ki Hoon would have cast her as the lead in his movie, if she was such a terrible actress. Did he not get her to go through an audition for the role? Did he just give her the role, because she was pretty?
The way her lack of acting ability is described, it’s shockingly bad. Which begs the question how someone this shockingly bad at acting, could have even secured the lead role in his movie?
We’re not given any answers at this point, but my guess is somewhere in the region of him having some feelings for her. After all, even though he says now, that he’d like to kill her, and that she’d ruined him, he did go back to her apartment and give her his name card, and tell her to call, if she needed someone to clean up the stairwell.
This, despite how gross he and Hyung find it, to actually clean up the vomit, and how they’d vowed to only go back there on Thursdays, no matter what.
Plus, Ki Hoon doesn’t push back for quite a while, even though Yoo Ra says a number of things that I’d consider insensitive and rude. He’s either feeling guilty about how he’d treated her in the past, or he has feelings for her, or both.
Later in the episode, I’m pretty shocked, really, when Ji An tells Dong Hoon that what he’s looking for – a number that can make calls but cannot receive them – is a public pay phone. Honestly, without her tip-off, he might have never made the connection, and he might never have traced the number to its location.
Given that Ji An’s working with Joon Young to take Dong Hoon down, it feels surprising to me, that she’d help him like this – which basically gets him to the very cusp of confirming Yoon Hee’s affair with Joon Young.
It feels like Ji An’s not quite following Joon Young’s direction now, since Joon Young does not want his affair with Yoon Hee to come to light, and has explicitly told Ji An so. I wonder what’s driving Ji An’s actions, and I also wonder whether she’s cognizant of it herself?
Episode 6
This episode, the Main Event is Dong Hoon grappling with the circumstantial evidence that Yoon Hee is having an affair with Joon Young, and then wrestling with his findings.
It’s all very tamped down and understated, and that just underscores just how much Dong Hoon is internalizing all of this, and trying to deal with this, all on his own.
The scene of him just sitting in that cafe, frozen in place, as he grapples with the various pieces of information that he’s learned, is so quietly heartbreaking. I feel like his whole world is imploding on him, on the inside, while his outer expression barely holds it together, to maintain a semblance of normalcy. 💔
I have to give credit to Dong Hoon, though. Instead of jumping to conclusions, he actually tests his theory, by conducting his own little experiments. Like calling Joon Young’s number from the pay phone, just to see what would happen.
Plus, there’s how he sees both Yoon Hee and Joon Young driving into the same apartment building, and then calls Yoon Hee to talk to her, while at the same time calling Joon Young’s phone from the bartender’s phone.
It’s a really clever way to test if Joon Young and Yoon Hee are indeed together in the same place, but more than that, it’s Dong Hoon’s way of giving Yoon Hee the benefit of the doubt, isn’t it?
I mean, part of it, I’m sure, is his denial at work. He doesn’t want it to be true, and so I’m guessing that while conducting his experiments, he’s hoping to prove his own theory wrong. At the same time, though, I do think that he’s also giving Yoon Hee the benefit of the doubt.
Altogether, I do think it tells us a lot about Dong Hoon’s personality. He’s not one to jump to conclusions or rush to action, even when it feels like his whole world is falling apart.
It’s poignant and somewhat excruciating to watch Dong Hoon wrestle with all this, this episode.
And, Ji An’s right there, listening to every tortured, labored breath that Dong Hoon breathes.
I find it significant, that this episode, Ji An finds another reason to worry about Dong Hoon potentially killing himself, and starts running to him, again, so soon after the last incident.
For one thing, it tells us just how badly this is all hitting Dong Hoon. It may not look it, to the casual observer, but the fact that he stands for such a long time, at the bridge overlooking the Han River, breathing all those tortured breaths, implies that he really is toying with the idea of ending it all.
We don’t know how seriously Dong Hoon contemplates this, but the fact that he’d thought about dying in the snow so recently, and then now makes his way to the Han River, which is a known suicide hotspot, and spends such a long time there, just breathing, makes me think that it might be more than a fleeting thought.
I don’t think he’s serious about committing suicide, but I do think that things are bad enough, that he’s wondering whether it would be better to just end it all. Y’know, semi-casual and semi-serious, like people sometimes do.
The other thing is, I can’t get over just how much Ji An seems to care about Dong Hoon now, compared to at first.
Not only is she slapping someone for talking trash about him, she’s frantically tracking his location and running to him, to make sure he’s ok.
And, when she’s listening to him and his labored breathing, she literally doesn’t even hear Kwang Il banging on her door. That says A LOT, because Kwang Il makes such a loud and prolonged racket of it.
On that note, I found that scene with Kwang Il hard to watch. I mean, I guess I shouldn’t be disappointed that he doesn’t keep his promise to Ji An not to invade her space again, because he’s a gangster loan shark who’s not to be trusted, but somehow, I still feel let down, that he went back on his word.
His feelings towards Ji An are definitely complicated, judging from the way he comes to her house on his father’s death anniversary.
He’s like, sad, and angry, and resentful, and wistful, all at the same time. It does feel like he’s there to take it out on Ji An, but in a weird way, it also feels like he’s there to get company, from Ji An. It doesn’t quite make sense, but.. it’s the weird vibe that I’m picking up.
Of course, I hate that Gran gets a fright, and I hate that Ji An feels the need to protect Gran by trying to attack Kwang Il, which only gets her beaten up.
But, it feels so significant, that afterwards, Ji An turns to the recording of Dong Hoon telling her that she’s a good person, for comfort. She looks so sad, as she listens to that sound bite over and over again. It’s like Dong Hoon’s words are a life source, and she’s clinging onto that life source as best as she can.
When Assistant Manager Kim starts yelling at Ji An in the office, I do appreciate how Dong Hoon handles the situation.
He gathers the facts, and then calls Assistant Manager Kim, and, cutting through Kim’s excuses, tells him to apologize, 10 times. And when Kim’s apologies are done, all Dong Hoon says, is simply, “Let’s not live like this,” and that’s it.
He doesn’t attempt to guilt-trip Kim, and neither does he bear a grudge. His aim is to settle it cleanly, and move on. I like that about him.
And then there’s how he then approaches the Ji An side of things.
That conversation where they sit side by side in a bar, feels so raw and honest. Dong Hoon tells Ji An:
“This is so humiliating. I’m sorry. This is all my fault, and yet… Thanks. For hitting him.
If you hear someone talking trash about someone else… don’t tell the other person. Just pretend that you didn’t hear it.
In your generation, it may be the norm to tell people those things. But that’s not the case for us adults. It’s more polite to pretend as if you didn’t hear. If you end up telling them… the person who you told will start avoiding you.
It’s difficult to be around a person… who saw you so vulnerable. And you end up not wanting to see them. It’s fine, as long as nobody knows. Things like these aren’t a big deal. If nobody knows… then it’s not a big deal.”
It feels like such a painful thing, that Dong Hoon’s trying to keep the status quo, trying to convince himself that as long as nobody knows, then it’s not a big deal – even as he thinks about Yoon Hee’s affair with Joon Young. Gah. That’s heartbreaking, isn’t it?
And then there’s how Ji An answers:
“Then… they’ll be scared until someone does find out. In case someone finds out… and they’ll always wonder who might know. And, whenever you meet someone new you’ll wonder, “How long will it be until they find out?” “Or, do they already know?” Sometimes… I wish that I could just have it displayed on the LED billboards for everyone in the world to see… instead of living in such fear for the rest of my life.”
This, as she thinks about how she’s been convicted of stabbing a man. It’s such a brutally honest, raw and vulnerable moment, I feel. This is the most forthcoming Ji An has ever been, in our story, in terms of sharing her inner fears, and it feels very significant, that she shares this with Dong Hoon, and not anyone else.
Dong Hoon’s answer is just as raw and honest:
“I’ll pretend that I don’t know. No matter what I may hear about you… I’ll pretend that I didn’t hear it. So, promise me this. That you’ll pretend that you didn’t hear it. I’m scared…. because I feel like you know everything without me even telling you.”
Aside from the promise that he makes, it strikes me that he’s being remarkably vulnerable, in telling Ji An that, 1, he’s scared (which I think is a huge deal in and of itself), and 2, it’s because she seems to know everything about him, without him having to tell her.
This feels like a very significant milestone in the connection between Dong Hoon and Ji An because you can’t share such personal things with someone, and not have that relationship change.
This episode, I’m less inclined to talk about Yoo Ra, but I did want to say that I was glad that Ki Hoon spoke his piece, informing her that it was partly her fault too. That’s something that I’ve been thinking, since last episode, because the way Yoo Ra puts it, her failure was all Ki Hoon’s fault. And from the sound of it, that’s just not true. It sounds like they were both at fault, honestly.
I don’t know exactly what Dong Hoon has in mind, as he hikes up that mountain, and approaches the Chairman having his campfire time with Joon Young, but what strikes me about the scene, is that while we’d started the episode with Dong Hoon lost in thought and not actually doing a lot, Dong Hoon in this moment, looks poised to act.
And I’m absolutely curious to see what he chooses to do next.
Question about Yu Ra and Gi Hoon. Just how old are they? It was mentioned that Gi Hoon was a prodigy director at 20 and Yu Ra was the star of his first feature film which he never finished. It is reasonable to assume that they are either the same age or she is a little younger. So, she must have been still a teen (even a minor) when she experienced a breakdown. It seemed to me that she was in a worse shape than he was, even though she continued working in the industry (without much success).
Hi Snow Flower, Ki Hoon is close to 40, and Yu Ra is right at 30. It was around 10 years ago that they worked together on their film, if I recall correctly. I think Ki Hoon showed a lot of promise as a young director (perhaps in things other than film?) and then he scored working on that film with Yu Ra as his star.
Thank you! I recall that Gi Hoon directed award- winning short films in his 20s, but was never able to complete a feature length movie.
Yeah, the poor guy never really made it out of the gate in the film industry, did he?
i’ll be short today(simply no time, kids are home for the holidays), but in regards to yu ra and gi hoon. it is human nature that when one is in a tough situation, the world seems less cruel if there are some other individuals that have similar experiences. it somehow makes it more tolerable, and in a way makes it more satisfactory that you are not the only one suffering. i think that is what we see here, at least some of this phenomena. yu ra feels that as she’s not the only one ruined, they are both sort of in the same boat. she does not want to leave the boat, and does not want gi hoon to leave the boat.
she’s a very interesting character, although greatly exaggerated, but it is also a very important part of this show, i feel. it will become more obvious later, but that’s because i know what comes later.
on that note, i want to wish kfangirl and everybody else happy holidays, and that that all your wishes will come true in the new year and in life in general (or most of them, not to be greedy), and to enjoy many more wonderful asian dramas and movies.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone!!
Same to you Elaine! 💖
Thank you kfangurl!!
The first time I watched the show, I was hooked by the end of Episode 4 when Dong Hoon confronts the condo villa owner. By the time Episode 5 rolled around and he piggybacked halmeoni up the stairs, I thought it was beautiful. And in Episode 6, when the show introduces a part of Dong Hoon’s life we haven’t seen yet – his Hugye Morning Soccer Club – and has the coach ask the middle schoolers, “Do you think these men know the rules of the game?” and they all chorus, “No,” I was surprised by the lightness and humor. Then to have Sang Hoon tear his coat on the fence and to have all these feathers flying around was brilliant! That’s when I fell in love with this show and wanted to keep going.
The company dinner is so humiliating for Dong Hoon, so to have Ji An slap Kim Dae Ri is satisfying to watch. And I love how he scolds Ji An and thanks her for doing it, before taking her out for drinks. The way their friendship and esteem for each other grow is lovely to watch, step by step.
I just realized: if this is your first time watching the show, DO NOT click on my avatar above. There are a lot of spoilers there! I need to remove the website from showing up on my subsequent comments here on the open thread (spoiler thread will be OK 🙂 🙂 ). Sorry about that!
OMG I clicked the site and ITS YOU! I remember on my first watch I was utterly devastated and nothing could fill the hole this show left in me so I binged every post on your site, lol. Brings back so many memories of hours reading every analysis! So well done!
Yes! So grateful for this ever growing community of MM lovers. I hope those on the group watch will love it just as we did!
Agreed! So glad Netflix and Viki are carrying it now. Lots of new viewers who get to discover this amazing show. This drama is one of the best there is.
Episode 6
Before starting I do want to ask anyone if they know, but I have lived in places with minimal light pollution and never seen the moon look that gargantuan. Does the moon really look like that in Seoul? Does anybody know?
One of the things about my sense of this being a kind of mash up show is the contrast between the restained and modulated performances by our lead actors and the utterly over the top performances by Jung Jae Sung, about whom I have written in some length already, and Kwon Nara as Yu Ra (a tone to the middle between might be that of the brothers–I am thinking right now of Sang Hoon telling Jae Chul about how Yu Ra met Gi Hoon and (making that funny descending sound) ruins him, and then how Gi Hoon met Yu Ra and ruined her–both hyperbolic and not so much that can have a tendency to ever reduce).
Yu Ra in a show filled with people living out their lives in the spiritual red column, is a truly messed up person. She repeatedly drunkenly vomits on the stairs to her apartment unable to stop herself from doing so long enough to get inside the apartment and go to her bathroom. What’s more she just leaves it there even though her neighbor rightfully complains over and over. And she is too baked to seriously apologize. She apologizes just so her head banging away from hangover won’t have to listen to the high decibel abuse she knows she is obliged to listen to.
That is one messed up human being. Add to that she can put on the trappings of glamorous actress, that is she hides in the skin of the one attribute she knows everyone likes–her youthful vibrance and beauty, legs a hundred miles long, and a sense of style. The crowd she hangs with are all more successful than her, but by hanging with them she continues the inebriated life of movie people. If tabloids were to write about her, she would be one of those tragic, sexy, drug or drink addled former starlets who never quite lived up to what everyone thought was their original potential. As we see her, especially in one sceen with Gi Hoon on the steps outside their cleaning building, she appears also to be a kind of hippie in her sentiments about social hierarchies destroy people, and the need to place in those social hierarchies destroys the human ability to love, She may be clueless as to how insistently it appears she is insulting the extremely proud and ego sensitive Gi Hoon (so ego sensitive he wants to know he will die wearing expensive underwear to leave the impression that he was a man of substance to anyone who finds him in his death), but, and this is what episode six really provided for me watching this show, she is clueless because she isn’t really insulting Gi Hoon at all. She is admiring him.
The folks inhabiting this show are a bunch of messed up people. Seriously. Jeong Hui is a drunk who plays den mother to all the good old boys in their neighborhood, but at the end of the day is left alone without even a home separate from her work to return to. We could go down the list of the situation for so many characters in this show, and none of it looks or sounds very good. Yo Soon is a mother still taking care of grown and educated men, one fifty, the other at the very least late forties. The men in the neighborhood once having held well paying or prestigious jobs are now almost to a man relegated to menial work, The guys in the office…insofar as we can see the young fellas all bachelors married to their work, not even mid level, yet they are all engineers it seems. Our villains are really sleazy without a whit of self consciousness. Yoon Hee for goodness sake seems to have married a man whom she misjudged from the beginning, a kind of old fashioned working class guy, who despite his skills and humane nature, does not really have that much ambition and never will. Nothing is more telling than her ridiculous belief she somehow is going to convince him to quit and start his own business on the dint of her effort. Even as she has failed to change him one whit during the course of their marriage or so Dong Hoon’s flashbacks lead us to believe, she thinks somehow she is going to pull off this bit about getting him to start his own business…and this also under the delusion that she can salvage her conscience if she does so. Top to bottom, Li Ji An, most of all–ptsd no doubt, utterly confused, contradictory, heart of stone with nothing but jelly inside. These people are messed up, and what makes Yu Ra so important is that she appreciates that about Gi Hoon and then the crew at Jeong Hui’s because as screwed up as they all are, there is something decent and humane about their simply getting up in the morning, doing their best all day, and carousing with one another at night, something altogether wonderful about them that Yu Ra recognizes and admires. It is why Jeong Hui in some strange way recognizes her as kindred spirit, and Jae Chul treats her with the celebrity respect that it obvious she so thoroughly longs for.
For me there are two elements to the show that really get me: the first is this growing, strange, intimate, odd coupling between Dong Hoon and Li Ji An–not lovers–for a variety of reasons that are obvious from Dong Hoon’s POV, but from an audience perspective because they may even be a different species from one another, and yet, and yet. Dong Hoon is a man whom we all root for; the inner us who we wish could be as loved as it takes but for some reason it hasn’t worked out that way. Li Ji An is an utterly wounded soul. Dong Hoon seems to have something missing keeping him from being the hero he deserves to be, he is one of those souls seemingly wounded from birth. Li Ji An has been wounded and far more dramatically by the conditions outside herself. Will these wounded people be able to heal the other?
The second is the show’s main theme, being even though people do messed up things, unless they are simply evil for the sake of it, there ought to be some forgiveness in life, some acknowledgement that being warm and kind has its own value transcending material success by which everything is measured. Even if we understand Yoon Hee, for example, wanting her man to be a bit more contemporary in his attitudes about family, about what constitutes a healthy marriage, about having ambition equal to his talent, Dong Hoon makes the point of his sincerity, his genuine goodness towards others, will keep his sympathetic toward him…if for no other reason in the middle of going through this traumatic marital failure he can still reflect on his wife’s legitimate complaints for which he had no answer. There is a sense throughout that love and friendship are the single balm we have against the difficulties of the vagaries of life including our own shortcomings, the vagaries we, ourselves, bring to the table. Jeong Hui’s bar scene looked at from one pov is one sad assed scene, a bunch losers getting drunk, but from another, there is warmth, affection, and acceptance there making life, even a tough, unjust life, worth living.
@BE Beautifully said, and wonderful insights, thank you!! ❤️❤️❤️
BE – what she said. I really love what you’re doing for each episode with these analytical pieces. Really enriching an already beautiful show.
Trent, your comments are very gratifying. Thanks.
Thanks K. Merry Christmas.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, love your reflections! Indeed a key theme is recognising the resilience in getting up to face another day when you are downtrodden and looked down upon by others. I really like how Ki Hoon and Sang Hoon got over the hump of adjusting to cleaning and started to take pride in how they are finally earning an honest living. And yes, comfort in camaraderie, everyone at the bar in the same boat and not judging each other for it.
What I interpret about Yu Ra’s drunken binges is that she is so lost in her emotional pain and self-loathing that she cannot bring herself to care about ahjumma next door complaining about the vomit. She is barely conscious and doesn’t have energy. It is only when Ki Hoon shows her kindness, even though he was once so proud, that it finally brings her out of that cycle, to start to hope again that she might have worth as a human being. That’s… kind of my interpretation for why she glommed onto him like a little annoying pesky leech. Clueless and offensive but she was genuine in clinging to him for kindness and hope.
My feeling and it was just something intuitive, but it happened because she told him that she had to keep coming to their office, was that it not his kindness or his disdain but that he had so unceremoniously fallen and yet had not, as she had, given up. In her walking out on her film pals, she indicated to that he had been a genius, so there was admiration to begin with which is why his criticism must have devastated her, but it also appears to me that while his failing did get her off the hook for her own shortcomings, it was also that he had persisted in spite of that. And that coming down a peg, he offered her kindness as a cleaner, he had not been capable of as a director. Her rap on AI.
Ah yes that is it too, his resilience in picking himself up and carrying on!
Oh, her rant on AI happened between these 2 eps? That was the scene involving the actress lady that made me understand where she is coming from, as most of you have mentioned how she had been a divisive character given her selfish, clingy and rude antics on Gi Hoon, as if he owned her something that he must pay back immediately. Anyway, although the actress lady’s rant is mostly herself wallowing on self-pity and lackluster career as an actress, she made an impressive observation that is fast becoming a worldwide problem, where automation posed a huge risk in overtaking long-established professions: https://willrobotstakemyjob.com/
I guess portraying her antics in a comedic light smooth out some of the prickliness you would feel if someone like her did the same to you, but that scene was the 1st time where there’s no intended comedy. Maybe that’s why it left such an impression on me haha
@BE – I am with them. I am not actively watching MM but I am following all the wonderful comments. Your comments are outstanding BE. So much depth in your words.
Happy holidays compai!
PS – I did finally manage to watch The Book of Fish. So good BE – so good. I hope you get a chance to see this. I had to go to the dark side to see it, but I took that chance and it was worth it.
I will try to find it. Thanks. I will add I did the same to see Sandglass earlier this year. I do not regret it.
BE – same here for Sandglass. When needs must! I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Oh this show! It stands up so well on multiple rewatches because each time you notice different things.
Previous watches I focused on Dong Hoon and Ji An of course but this time what struck me was our Ahjusshis – our “loser” group of morning soccer and drinking buddies at Jung Hee’s. I think in previous watches I just took them as a whole group of background folks but this time they’ve come alive for me – all of their sadness, grappling with “what place is there for me now that I’ve lost my corporate job? and “who am I now?” Men who had lived full lives at their careers and workplaces but now have to start over, kind of, in new jobs that are demotions and having to deal with the stress and burden of holding up families and societal expectations. It’s tough and I can see why they cling to their safe places of Jung Hee’s and the morning soccer.
On a personal level makes me wonder about the lives of the equivalent “coffee shop uncles” in my country, and even the stories and the experiences that have shaped my dad’s life too. I honestly never really stopped? To think about it and I am challenged to spend more time to know my dad as a person and not just as my father, if that makes sense.
This is such a rich show that invites lots of reflection and thought and discussion!
Episode 5
How to speak of it without starting with the final scene. To be honest, I would say after having seen this a number of times, I wish show had done a better job of presenting landmarks around the phone booth, so it was more recognizable to me watching as being across the street from Dong Hoon and Yoon Hee’s apartment building. But watching closely this time, I realized what a wonderful few moments Lee Sun Kyun gives us emerging from the cab. He knows where he is, he KNOWS where he is, and almost dumb with the shock of it, what it implies, as he looks up turning a 360, when he turns to see Yoon Hee walking with someone, all of it now breaking through that shock into a hammer, as he does his best poker face, nailing him–what an impressive register–the restraint and under that the total dissolution of the very last vestiges of his personality. An amazing scene, and then Yoon Hee walking toward him, slowly registering something, what?, something really wrong. A consumately well directed and enacted scene, with oh, Li Ji An walking by off in the distance.
My other impressions of this episode:
first, it continues for me to be a helpful lens to see series as a mashup of Korean dramatic structures and styles. The main story between Li Ji An and Dong Hoon is so strong that for most of us that along with the bonhomie of Dong Hoon’s neighborhood carries us emotionally throughout. But that story and so much of the side issues are propped with archtiecture that assist in at least my willingness to set aside any and all disbelief or disinterest. As I have said elsewhere, the first K Drama that got my attention was Mr. Sunshine, and one of the largest reasons it did so was because while presenting a serious historical drama, there were so many different theatrical elements in the story telling. One of the things one notices on this blogsite and so many others, for example, is the resistance to politics in sageuks and corporate shenanigans in more contemporary dramas, and yet these are such strong features of South Korean drama, one might just as soon take chiles out of Tex Mex cooking or dance beats of Latin popular music as take the politics out of K Drama. This show does not have a framework without the political drama going on at the company store, and that framework seems to quite line up with a sageuk style set up: the elderly, almost absent but still potent emperor; the young, somewhat sleazy current heir to the throne, but not entirely unqualified (he saves company bacon on trip to China, at company meal he not only pooh pooh’s Supervisor Yoon’s ridiculous toasting extravagances, while waiting just a beat long enough to let them occur, but gives the team just the appropriate rah rah speech), the more worthy but scorned for lack of ambition older prince, the two factions–one led by elder wise man, the other by this whoppingly offensive and officious minister hungry for power vis a vis his connection to the young heir. And then, there thrown in how the young heir is having an affair with the scorned, more worthy one’s wife, doubled up by this political battle between the two of them for what the current heir correctly perceives as a struggle for him to remain in power. I do not know about others but in my professional career, I worked at several campuses and each had their own peculiar power struggles–My Mister built as it is with the very strong sageuk foundation does a very good job of demonstrating this oh so common workplace occurrence, the stakes, the venality, the personalities–from Supervisor Yoon to Executive Director Yang Geun to Dong Woon to Director Chang Mo, trying to find one angle after another to promote or save the promotion of Dong Hoon to the three subtly different personalities of Dong Hoon’s crew. The life of work is where most folks spend most of their lives. Most of us like it when politics of workplace are so smooth they are unnoticeable, but such is not the case where there is conflict, and conflict–take any basic literature course–is the basis for plot. Realizing this set up, especially allows me to enjoy Jung Jae Sung’s utterly over the top performance as the combo of totally out to lunch and stupid and half wittingly offensive behavior as the boss from hell. K, you asked about archetypes, while Director Yoon is completely over the top to the point of seeming out of the more profound tones of this drama, not only as satire and hyperbole, nor villainous characterization deriving from sageuk drama, but he is a kind of political and workplace archetype, that despite the hyperbole, most of us have encountered in perhaps finer and smaller doses throughout our lives, at least in politics, but also in the workplacee.
I will talk at greater length about Gi Hoon and Yoo Ra (whom I labeled “Vomit Girl” in my notes, and who, like Director Yoon, plays such a broad and hyperbolic, but utterly memorable character) in my discussion of episode six, but their sub plot, while also discordant in many ways, strikes me as a central feature of My Mister as a mashup of styles, a collage. And they open up this insight to what the brothers are all becoming in the story, Gi Hoon’s struggle with his own internal developments and contradictions, not to mention how the wonderful Park Soo Young as Jae Chul provides in his small role a counter point to the Hoon brothers.
Three comments on Ji An. First, whatever she knows now about Dong Hoon, however sympathetic she is becoming, in this episode she continues to plot and eff him up. She goes to Do and lets him know about the phone list. She tips Dong Hoon off that the phone in question is a pay phone. She does this via her knowledge arising from the bug. Period. What she does is far worse than in a drunken bit spout off that he is an ineffectual personality on the job. Far worse.
Secondly there is how she responds to Dong Hoon–when he tells her she is nice, look at that face–my goodness IU!–it could be the face of a twelve year old. That was a father talking to his daughter, a daughter longing for praise, acknowledgement, love from a father figure. And then, when he invites her to the company dinner, ah the look on her face, a young woman aroused by the prospect of romance, as if he’d asked her out for a date. The complexity of Ji An is really brought to the fore by IU’s uncanny ability to make use of her face.
Episode 6 later.
Just a quick comment, the phone booth was downstairs from Yoon Hee’s office building. Dong Hoon has been to her office many times – we saw him sitting in her office to get her advice when he lost the bribe money. When Dong Hoon got out of the cab in episode 5, the camera looks up briefly at the sign to Yoon Hee’s law practice. She was probably walking with colleagues when he bumped in to her. Agree his reaction was so calibrated. I felt so so awful for him that the worst has happened to his marriage, and yet as kfangirl points out, he didn’t jump to conclusions straightaway, instead very methodically investigated to test the hypothesis. Was he giving Yoon Hee the benefit of the doubt? Or is that just his methodical way?
Thank you. My bad. I have seen show now six times up to this point, and every time I did not recognize the location of the phone booth, thinking she worked, had an office at home. The only difference this time is that it struck me that he knew once he got out of the cab but was still in too much shock to really allow himself the ability to put the obvious 2+2 together…until he sees her face and cannot deny the obvious. He does follow down after, but it strikes me as part of it may well be due diligence, as Dong Hoon is due diligent kind of guy, but there is also a quality of masochism, natural to the situation, or at least common to the situation, in his actions. He does not need all that much more confirmation, and his masochism then goes back to rerunning all the crucial tapes he has in his mind about Do Joon Young, his sleaze ball behavior, how it occurred, when it occurred, and Yoon Hee, all the ways in which he had failed her as a husband. Brave, self punishing, non stop painful reflection on the situation, the players, where he is positioned with them, and what to do. With Yoon Hee, show will reveal things as we go. Nothing more to say about it, except that it will give an even clearer picture than we are seeing now, as one would expect by now from this screen writer.
BE – love the correlations you draw between the modern corporate structure modeled in this show and the archetypes that show up in palace intrigue sageuk (which is to say, nearly all of them). There’s a real correspondence there, isn’t there?
Also, this show has a number of scenes which are prone to make me lachrymose, and that one where Ji-an sits on the front step listening to the recording of DH’s voice telling her she’s a “good person,” over and over again, right after she’s tried to defend grandma and been beaten up for her efforts, is one of them.
Lachrymose is it? Is it a spoiler to say, “you ain’t seen nothing yet”?
Oh, I know. There is much yet to come…
Ep 5 and 6
“You are nice” Dong Hoon said to Ji Ah after seeing her taking care of her grandma… and Ji Ah, looking sad and conflicted, clenched her fist while that Sondia song started to play. My heart… she had just said to her grandma “it’s easy for rich people to be nice” (when grandma had called Dong Hoon “nice” for bringing the persimmons to her and helping her with the trolley) but we know far too well Ji Ah is feeling terribly guilty about betraying Dong Hoon…
And then Dong Hoon brings that trolley back to the shop because… well because that’s the sort of man he is. He doesn’t only runs for miles after Ji Ah to give her a packet of persimmons she’s dropped, or gives the grandma a piggy bank up the hill expecting no thanks or asking no questions: he also returns property to its rightful owner… can this man be any more perfect? 😍
Oh my god, Ji Ah read my mind and slapped that drunk idiot who called Dong Hoon incompetent! Those work buddies are nice and loyal, but they are so judgey, nosey and annoying, particularly when they are drunk.. That guy really deserved that slap.
It’s interesting though how Dong Hoon reacts when he finds out why Jin Ah slapped that twat. He’s thankful for her support and at the same time embarrassed that she knows what people think of him and STILL, he has the generosity of spirit to give her a life lesson about keeping secrets from others in order to not make them feel uncomfortable. This man is such a hero, truly…That scene is also shot so beautifully, it feels like a fever dream, with blurred movements and disjointed audio as they drink in the bar. Knowing that his wife is cheating on him with the man who is making him feel small in front of everyone is devastating, particularly because it is so embarrassing. How relatable.
Dong Hoon is obviously worried about the economic welfare of his son, mom and brothers, and doesn’t want to take gambles by starting a business, like his wife suggests. Very understandable. His wife, although one feels is trying to be helpful, is coming across pretty badly, going on about “working under his junior and being competent” and all that status crap… it’s all about appearances to her. She doesn’t seem to care about his well-being truly. Asking someone to improve their social status or look around to see how other men are more “put together” is not the way to give advice, or support, or tackle mental health issues…A clever and sophisticated woman like her should know that. Also Dong Hoon’s mum saying that he should climb the ladder to have a better job than his wife, although coming from a good place, is just so toxic… the film-director brother is the only one who sees the situation for what it really is: people judge women for succeeding professionally instead of celebrating or congratulating them, because this is invariably seen, and in most cultures I must add, as a threat to men. How disappointing then to have Dong Hoon’s wife, the “successful” woman, using shaming arguments to try to convince Dong Hoon to leave the company… I know that she’s doing it to save him the embarrassment of being fired, but still, she is also assisting Yoo Young to get him out of the company… It’s like wanting to have your cake and eat it.
The disenchanted bad actress is a great character too. She is aware that although she was cursed and cajoled by film director Ki Hoon for acting badly when she was working under him in a film, he is a victim too, as he was blacklisted in the filming world and has lost all his contacts with the industry. In many ways, Ki Hoon is her “mister”, her mentor, someone she admires deeply for his integrity, as she’s surrounded by people that brag and brag, forgetting about talent, and what’s pure and true. It’s the same theme as with Dong Hoon and Ji Ah: the appearance of brilliance is more important than brilliance itself. It’s the fault of a dysfunctional world that is obsessed with success instead of with high standards and true talent.
Netflix translated it as “you are nice”. I was a bit puzzled what to make of it as I watched the episode because “you are nice” can have many many meanings, including some which are not flattering, or meh. The subs cited by kfangirl – “you are a good person”, seem to make more sense in the context of the scene!
Exactly! Every time I heard DH saying “you are nice” on Netflix, I wanted to plug my ears! What a ridiculous translation! This is the second time Netflix translation differs from Vicki’s, and not in a good way.
AJ is anything but nice. “You are a good person” makes so much more sense.
And it more aptly describes why he complements her–it has to do with her taking care of her grandmother. He acknowledges her positively, something she like all of us long to hear every once in a while, but in her case never has, and he acknowledges her for something she deserved to be acknowledged for, something she takes pride in.
I don’t know…DH is not just complimenting JA in a casual conversation. Considering what kind of life she’s lead and things she’s done, I think JA sincerely believes that she is a bad person. And now DH is telling her, that she is not.
I think she values herself in relation to her grandmother. She knows she is there to take care of and protect her. Dong Hoon has deep respect for just that kind of thing. He values that in her. You may be right to think it alters her perception of herself, but I think what is more important is that he simply values her in a way she must, for its absence, utterly long to hear about. It strikes me as a longing from an emotionally starved loneliness that she might have kept hidden from herself under that shell of poor self regard, but the longing is stronger, deeper, older than the shell she has put on to pretend that it does not exist. Mostly I get this from how her face looks to me, so childlike, a little girl in that moment.
Im not disagreeing with you about JA’s longing for someone to value her, etc. I just doubt that Netflix’s translation is accurate. As far as DH is concerned, JA saved him by throwing away the bribe. She also takes care of her grandmother. “You are a good person” makes more sense to me in this situation than “You are nice”.
I agree you are a good person makes more sense in context of show and episode.
Agree, “nice” can be just superficial. Whereas “you are a good person” means you have a good character.
I’ll have to go back and look it up but it would be interesting to know what adjective or noun the Korean used to express “nice” or “good person” when grandma said “he’s nice” (referring to Dong Hoon) and when Ji Ah said “it’s easy for rich people to be nice”, because I think that Dong Hoon saying “you’re nice” harkens back to that first conversation between grandma and granddaughter, offering the whole sequence a full-circle feel. I think that the most relevant message to extract from that whole exchange is that Dong Hoon gets and understands Ji Ah. Also, Ji Ah realises that Dong Hoon makes no judgement about the degradation she lives in and sees the good person she wants to be and fears she cannot be.
I actually checked up the Korean subtitles in that sequence and what Ji Ah and her grandma say when referring to Dong Hoon is 좋은 사람 which means according to native speakers “a good person”, “a nice person”. What Dong Hoon tells Ji Ah after piggybacking grandma to Ji Ah’s flat is: 착하다, which apparently means “you’re kind”, so yes, both expressions are different, but mean the same thing.
It is true that “you’re nice” in English can be “you’re pleasant”, but it can also mean “you’re kind”. The context here makes it very clear it means the later. I wouldn’t be too harsh on the translator 😅.
Thank you for checking Korean subtitles!
Since you haven’t seen the whole show, I can’t explain it yet, but in later episodes there are a couple of conversations that, I believe, resonate with what DH tells JA now. If I don’t forget, I’ll bring up this conversation again.
That’ll be great, MariaF. I can see that this show was very carefully written and all the conversations fill important and relevant.
*feel
Yes, thanks for checking the Korean subtitles. Good to know that they’re different but have the same meaning.
Well, I was trying to get all versions of subtitles for this drama out there (got 4 versions so far) and comparing them. One of them says: “You are sweet” and I like that!
Beautifully said! I agree with you that they share the same values of taking care of family and they respect each other for that (Dong Hoon defending Sang Hoon at the end of Ep 4). Ji An has probably never heard anyone praise her for how she takes care of halmeoni (even halmeoni can’t say it out loud), and it touches her deeply to hear that DH recognizes it in her. The way she replays it over and over again always brings tears to my eyes.
Beautifully said Maria F! And it’s so interesting, we were just having this discussion this week on the Soompi Forum. IU wrote the song “Dear Moon” to be a song about Dong Hoon. And part of the lyric is,
“Oh moon
My moon
I’m not trying to have you
The fact that you’re so dazzling
Is because I’m too dark of a night”
Someone on the Soompi Forum wrote, “she is saying that the moon (DH) seems too bright because she is such a dark night. At first, I think she was very down on herself and didn’t feel worthy to have real relationships with people, so she probably felt like she was too “dark,” and that he seems too “bright” in comparison.”
Even the songs are loaded with meaning 🙂 🙂
Actually “Dear Moon” isn’t a song about Dong Hoon. Although there’s certain lines in the song that seemed to reference Dong Hoon, the song is definitely about Ji An’s grandmother. Whenever “Dear Moon” pops up in My Mister, you would noticed it’s used in scenes involving Ji An and her grandmother e.g. 1st episode when Ji An surreptitiously moved her grandmother out of the hospital. I believed IU had also confirmed this, since she wrote the lyrics to “Dear Moon”, which btw is my most played song of the year.
My Mister really did have an excellent OST, in fact this is probably the 1st k-drama where I genuinely like all the original songs with accompanied singing. It was listening to My Mister’s OST without context and that made me wanna check out this drama properly. I’m glad I figured out the remarkable potential of My Mister this way.
I was surprised to find out IU wrote the song about Dong Hoon, since at first, like you I had thought Dear Moon was about halmeoni. Check out: https://givemeslippers.wordpress.com/2018/06/27/dear-moon-performed-by-iu-ius-inspiration-fan-thoughts/
and then the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KShrXA2810&t=439s
At minute 10 IU says Donghoon is the moonlight to JA.
But you’re right, many times when they play Dear Moon, halmeoni is in the scene so I had thought halmeoni was the moon to JA. In the YouTube video, it seems as if IU is saying instead that the moon gives hope and brightness to both halmeoni and Ji An, since their lives are bleak and dark.
The soundtrack really is so beautiful. Overall I was surprised by how everything in the drama worked together to make it what it was, including the OST.
Yeah, my bad. However, in the video I thought IU was phrasing in a more rhetorical sense, which also makes sense from Ji An’s perspective about Dong Hoon. Even as her perspective evolved throughout the show, Ji An would constantly question Dong Hoon’s motivations, how he would react to situations and how much would he be affected by them. That’s really the essence of the show, isn’t it? To me, it doesn’t have to be Dong Hoon, who filled in the metaphorical being as described in the lyrics of “Dear Moon”, he just happened to fit the role.
“Even as her perspective evolved throughout the show, Ji An would constantly question Dong Hoon’s motivations, how he would react to situations and how much would he be affected by them.” True! Good thing she grew to care about him and wasn’t just messing with him, haha. I think I agree with you, that it doesn’t have to be Dong Hoon…though I can’t think of who would be better in that role for her, with his upright character, personal resources (his mind, social standing, and willingness to help her), and the way the show brings them together and develops their friendship/relationship. But I should stop here before I go into spoiler mode! 🙂
As a non native English speaker who uses English as a lingua franca (and therefore has a multilingual appreciation for the language) “you’re nice” is perfectly understood. But I get your point.
**I posted this before but I just realised now that didn’t do it in answer to your post, MariaF.
Thanks for this too.
As a non native English speaker who uses English as a lingua franca (and therefore has a multilingual appreciation for the language) “you’re nice” is perfectly understood. But I get your point.
Friends, I won’t lie, I was unsure about the show during the first 4 episodes. But… episodes 5, wow. Now all I can say that I don’t only love Dong Hoon, who was a very decent person right from the start, but also Ji An, at last, and even the not-so-much-annoying-after-all brothers. I now get all those feelings from the show, that I think I have finally pierced through the veil of unpleasantness and gloom. It was hard to stop myself from watching the next episodes!
Also, may I say, Yoo Ra is a weird one, but there’s something endearing about her and I think it’s the first time that I find this actress (Nara?) acts well (besides having killer legs…☺).
And it just keeps getting better and better!
Haha it took a while for me to get into this show at the start – but somehow I was drawn to it. Like it was compelling and I couldn’t look away but it was not the easiest of watches. But it’s so very worth it. Glad you’re enjoying it!
And yes Nara has amazing legs lol…never appreciated it in my first 2 watches but I appreciate them now. And I feel so cold for her… brrrr. The problems of being a female actor – they always wear dresses in winter to look good!
Yes, I could also physically feel the cold on her behalf! As you say, poor actresses…
Without this group watch I wouldn’t have made it past the first episode!! Turning point for me was episode 4 definitely. After that I kept watching!
I felt the same way the first couple of episodes and Ep 4 was the turning point. By the end I was blown away. ENJOY! 🙂
Yeah, I definitely agree with you that ep5 onwards is a significant step up from the first 4 episodes (which were already good imo). It’s when we start to see Ji An slowly change, and it’s beautiful.
And the best part about this is that it gets better.