Welcome to the Open Thread, everyone! I loved this scene on the rooftop, and so I had to have this screenshot headline our post, to commemorate it. 😍😍
SOME IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS, before we begin:
ZERO SPOILER POLICY
1. 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.
We don’t want to spoil anyone’s watch experience with spoilers. 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 develop, later in the show.
We need to protect the innocent! 😉
SPOILER ZONE
2. 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! ❤️
Healer OST Album
The OST’s hitting me harder this set of episodes, and I thought you guys might like to listen to it, as you revisit this set of episodes. Please enjoy.
My heart’s aflame.. And it’s burning in your name.. ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
My thoughts
Episode 9
Ahhhh!! This is the point of the show where I find myself involuntarily grinning goofy grins at my screen. The crack has arrived, my friends, and I am slurping it up with a spoon. 😍😋
I love that we get to revisit the rooftop kiss, and get to see the pinkness of Jung Hoo’s ears (like, is he cold? Self-conscious? Blushing? Whatever, it’s cute. 🤩).
And then, we have that moment when Young Shin reaches out to touch him, and Jung Hoo instinctively backs away. This feels like such a defining moment of their relationship right now, honestly.
Young Shin now wants to know Healer, and quite desperately too, and yet, Jung Hoo can’t reveal himself to her, even though she clearly means the world to him.
The resulting angst is bittersweet – with the emphasis on sweet right now, because, gosh, how can you not drown in the feels, right? 🥰
There’s so much yearning between these two, more so right now than ever before, and I love it, so much.
Also, this has been brewing for a while, but it’s only really clicked in my head now, that even though Young Shin had first confided in Bong Soo, that she has two crushes, one on Moon Ho, and one on Healer, right now, she really only has eyes for Healer – well, in a manner of speaking, since she hasn’t exactly seen him yet.
When Moon Ho rushes to her, and fusses over her, and does caring things like touch her on the forehead, and hug her to himself, it’s very significant that Young Shin doesn’t seem to even really respond at all, even though she’d once had serious stars in her eyes for Moon Ho.
Things have definitely shifted for Young Shin, and that realization thrills me, no lie.
We’ve known for a while now, that Jung Hoo’s personally invested and interested in Young Shin, but it becomes even clearer now, in the wake of the elevator incident.
The moment Young Shin’s safe with Moon Ho, Jung Hoo busies himself with getting Ahjumma to trace the perpetrator and retrieving Young Shin’s phone for her.
PLUS. There’s that beat where Jung Hoo tries to walk, and kinda goes soft in the knees. We’re not told explicitly what that’s about, but it’s safe to conclude that Jung Hoo’s probably more in shock than he’d realized, from Young Shin’s close brush with death.
Ahhh. He cares. I melt and flail at any and every indication that Jung Hoo cares about Young Shin. I can’t help myself. 🤩
Of course, knowing what we know about Young Shin and her PTSD from having been abused in the past, it’s not surprising that she’s quite affected by this recent attack.
What I love about her, though, is how she refuses to succumb to it.
Even though she does have an instinctive aversion to taking the elevator after the attack, she doesn’t crumple in the face of it. Instead, she reminds herself of how she’d learned to trust again, thanks to Dad, and finds a different, more acceptable way to leave the building – via the stairs.
There are two things I want to say right now.
1, What an amazing flashback we get, to how Dad had so patiently waited on Young Shin at the orphanage, and had sat with her, and sung to her, until she’d felt comfortable enough to come out of her shell and actually interact with him.
That was utterly beautiful, and I love Dad even more, knowing how sweet, understanding and patient he’d been, to love an abandoned and abused little girl. It makes my heart so full to think about it. Gurgle. 😭❤️
2, I love that Healer’s never far from Young Shin, in the wake of the attack.
That shot of him smiling down at her in the stairwell, in spite of himself, is so cute.
And then I love that as Young Shin makes her way home, the camera often has both of them in the shot – even as Young Shin’s oblivious to Jung Hoo’s carefully concealed companionship and protection.
I love it even more, when Young Shin calls Bong Soo from the payphone, and Jung Hoo talks with Young Shin, while watching over her, all the while.
I don’t know what it is; this thing of him silently watching over her without her knowledge, to protect her, just melts my knees. 😍
And, of course, I love how easily Young Shin confides in Bong Soo, and basically tells him everything.
I love to watch Jung Hoo’s face, as he hears things from Young Shin like this, like how the cell phone that she’d lost, had been her mother’s, and how it had literally been her heat pack, to keep her warm on cold days.
And also, even more significantly, when she tells him that she’s actually waiting and hoping for Healer to show himself to her.
The way his face falls into this very sober expression, makes me feel like reality is hitting home more clearly now, that Young Shin’s in love with him, but he can’t reveal himself to her.
Ack. Like I said, the sweet angst of it all.
But what is this thing, though, that Sabu and Ahjumma talk about, that Jung Hoo’s dad had been convicted of killing Young Shin’s dad? But.. they were friends, right? That’s why Young Shin and Jung Hoo had played together as kids?
My gut tells me that this must be fake.
As in, Jung Hoo’s dad may have been convicted of it, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that he actually did it. After all, there are many shady people in our drama world, who are more than happy to frame someone else for their dark deeds.
Speaking of whom, what an interesting reveal, that Moon Sik hadn’t been aware that Ji An is alive. Does this mean that he hadn’t been the one to abandon her, then?
Could it have been Secretary Oh back then as well, I wonder? And had it been at the orders of the Elder then, too?
I do find it intriguing that Moon Sik, whom, from what we’ve seen, has been habitually accommodating of the Elder, actually kinda threatens the Elder right back, in his own way.
He’s basically saying that he will be destroyed, if the Elder messes with his weaknesses, and so, to best leave his weaknesses – Myung Hee, Moon Ho and Ji An – alone.
Innnteresting. Perhaps Moon Sik isn’t as bad as I’d originally thought?
ALSO. I am so displeased with Moon Ho right now, for basically reminding Healer in that stairwell, of their longstanding relationship – and then turning right around, and selling Healer out to Detective Yoon, by tipping off Detective Yoon to Healer’s assignment, and thus upping the chances of Detective Yoon actually apprehending Healer.
That’s so.. amoral, isn’t it? To appeal to Healer’s sense of relationship, to protect himself, and then throwing that relationship out the window, for his own gain?
Gah. This is why I remember feeling conflicted about Moon Ho as a character.
In this case, I seriously doubt that Moon Ho’s counting on Healer’s impressive abilities, to save himself. That aggressive glint in his eyes tells me that he’s ready to throw Healer away, if it will get him the outcome that he wants.
Ugh. I can see why Moon Ho would do this, but still. UGH.
Poor Jung Hoo. The fact that Sabu doesn’t show himself to him, really does seem to put him in a funk. I mean, he sleeps in and doesn’t go to work on time. And he doesn’t even answer his phone, even though he can see that it’s Young Shin calling him.
I really think Sabu affects Jung Hoo more than he’d like to admit. And for good reason too, since Sabu had been the key adult figure in his life for so long.
I just wish Sabu wouldn’t be so withholding with Jung Hoo.
However, I’m guessing that at least part of the reason Sabu ups and disappears, is because of his realization that Jung Hoo’s father had supposedly killed Young Shin’s father. Maybe he’s off to investigate that..?
I’m grasping at straws, I know. I just hate the idea of Sabu toying with Jung Hoo’s feelings, y’know?
I do love where we end off the episode, with Young Shin and Jung Hoo getting glammed up for their undercover assignment.
I mean, it’s low-key amusing to see Jung Hoo being all jumpy as the fashion assistants try to measure and dress him, but really, that closing shot of him and Young Shin walking arm in arm outta there, is fit for the Oscars, no?
It makes me suuper excited, to see how this undercover assignment goes down, for our newly sparkling pair of reporters. 🤩
Episode 10
Augh. What a great episode. I’m suddenly so wistful that we’re already at the halfway point of our watch, because I already don’t want to say goodbye to this show. 🥲
There’s a heist-like flavor to how our Some Day guys infiltrate that press conference, but that’s completely in line with the comic book flavor of how superhero-esque Healer is, so it fits seamlessly into our drama world, I feel.
And while I hadn’t loved the lesson on interviewing that Moon Ho had given Young Shin in an earlier episode, I do really like the callback this episode, when Young Shin uses the same principle, to get Kim Eui Chan’s attention, after being roundly ignored after her first attempt.
It’s quite perfect that her version now, of throwing a shoe to get the interviewee’s attention, is to stand out in that killer red dress, while putting herself in the center of the room. In a sea of everyday reporters, you just can’t ignore the glamorous lady in the fire-engine red dress.
I kinda love how the makeover comes in useful in an actual practical way.
After the team successfully pulls off Moon Ho’s live broadcast, it feels quite momentous, that every single person involved, literally needs to just stop and soak in the wonder, for a long minute.
It’s not just the Some Day folks too; even Moon Ho and Jong Soo, who’d worked together at the news network, need a moment. It feels like they are all struck by the purity of a true journalistic spirit, and simply can’t focus on anything else, but the awe of what they’ve just been a part of.
Really nice.
It’s interesting to me that Elder is more amused than anything, at the heist that Moon Ho and Some Day manage to pull off. I guess when you’re an all-powerful gazillionaire, you don’t ever end up losing much, and that’s why you’re able to laugh at things like this?
The way he simply laughs it off, declares that they need to abandon Kim Eui Chan, and asks Moon Sik if he’s interested in the position, says a lot about how powerful Elder is, I think.
To Kim Eui Chan, this whole thing is a career ending development. To Elder, it appears to be not much more than a small bump in the road.
Also, how interesting, that we finally get some backstory in terms of how Moon Sik came to work for Elder.
Context really is everything. Now that we see that he’d basically been practically forced into it, for the sake of getting Myung Hee the best medical help possible, I can see why he’d agree to it. We’ve known since the beginning, that he’s loved Myung Hee for a long time.
I can believe that he’d forsake his moral compass, if it meant that he could do something to save Myung Hee.
It does make me wonder how Moon Sik feels about everything now. Does he regret having said yes to Elder?
When Moon Ho calls Young Shin to commend her for a job well done, and Jong Soo adds to it by telling Jung Hoo that he’d like to court Young Shin, if she’s not in a man-woman sort of relationship with Moon Ho, it feels like Jung Hoo’s becoming cognizant of jealous feelings, perhaps for the first time.
In fact, during this stretch of time, as Jung Hoo becomes more personally involved in Young Shin’s affairs, it feels like he’s coming across a whole spectrum of feelings that he might not have been exposed to before.
Even that moment, when Young Shin and Jong Soo had both needed a moment to just sit with what they’d just done at the press conference, Jung Hoo had been all bemused and perplexed at why they were being weird like that.
Clearly, he’s never encountered similar emotions before, either on his own, or in the people around him.
In that way, it feels like Jung Hoo is actually in the process of acclimatizing himself to what it really means, to be human and live among humans.
Which, really, is one of the big reasons I love Jung Hoo’s confession to Young Shin on the rooftop.
Before I talk about that, though, I just wanted to pause to have stars in my eyes a little bit, for the stealth badassery of Jung Hoo getting Young Shin to safety, and then backpedaling and telling her that he just wanted to have a “hoesik” (ie, work gathering) with her.
Well, ok, fine. It’s not very stealth at all, really, in the sense that Jung Hoo’s actually not very much in Bong Soo mode at all, when he pulls that stunt of getting Jong Soo to turn the corner, then drags Young Shin out of the car like that.
Thankfully for him, both Young Shin and Jong Soo appear to still be enough of a daze after their heist, to not notice his change in personality too much.
It says so much about Young Shin, that even though she’s still terrified of taking elevators, she’d close her eyes and face her fears, because Jung Hoo tells her that he wants to show her his secret place.
She could have said no, and insisted that they go elsewhere, but for Jung Hoo’s sake, she just gets in that elevator, even though she has no idea how she’s going to get through the ride.
I love that about her.
And I have to admit, that moment when she grabs Jung Hoo’s hand, is so great. His startled reaction, followed by his instinctive desire to lean in towards her, made me hold my breath with fangirl anticipation.
Jung Hoo’s so instinctual, when it comes to Young Shin, I feel.
He may never have felt any of these feelings before, but he’s so clearly led by those feelings, when they have to do with Young Shin. 😍
I do love that moment when Jung Soo watches Young Shin pick the lock, because the way his eyes bug out of his head in surprise and awe at Young Shin’s lock-picking skills, is so great.
I love that.
Most of all, though, I love how he gets serious in that little nook, and asks Young Shin if he won’t do, rather than someone who might never show up.
The fact that he tells her, that he’s willing to live the way she wants, if she’d allow it, is so profound to me.
I mean, he’s literally telling her that he’s willing to forsake his entire life as he knows it, and live as a regular person, if she’d be willing to accept his feelings for her.
That’s huge, particularly for Jung Hoo, who lives in a man-cave and whose goal is to move to an island where he can keep a leopard as a pet.
He’s saying that he’d give up everything, if only she’d accept his heart. Guh. That is so, so swoony, seriously.
Flail. Puddle.
Of course, it’s so ironic and sad-funny, that Young Shin basically turns him down, because she’s already in love with Healer.
Jung Hoo’s basically in a love triangle with himself, and it’s such a ruefully funny moment really, because Young Shin apologizes that his competition is just too fierce and too amazing.
HA. If only she knew. 😂
In the meantime, it looks like Elder (or maybe Moon Sik) has had President Hwang killed, to offer up a culprit for Go Sung Chul’s murder within the time frame demanded by Ahjumma. Well. I guess that at least means that Healer’s no longer a suspect?
However, Detective Yoon is suitably suspicious at how neatly President Hwang’s suicide is explained, with supporting evidence and everything.
While he’s on the right track, I don’t actually want him going back to targeting Healer as a suspect.
Also, Detective Yoon might be distracted for now, with President Hwang’s death, but it’s only going to be a matter of time, before he sees that information, that Some Day’s Park Bong Soo absolutely doesn’t look like the Park Bong Soo in the identity papers that have been pulled up.
Unless.. Ahjumma’s able to hack into the system and replace the real Park Bong Soo’s face with Jung Hoo’s picture..? Maybe..?
ALSO. We finally get the backstory between Sabu and Jung Hoo, and, it’s.. complicated.
Now we see that Sabu had taken Jung Hoo under his wing, more as a good deed to help out a boy with nowhere to go, than anything else.
In that sense, it’s pretty admirable that Sabu dedicated so many years of his life to make sure that Jung Hoo would be able to fend for himself, before going off to live his own life.
At the same time, the fact that he just takes off like that, the minute Jung Hoo’s officially an adult – on Jung Hoo’s birthday, no less – is pretty heartless, I hafta say.
I mean, this is when Jung Hoo’s happiest, and it’s also when Jung Hoo’s finally settled into an affectionate sort of relationship with Sabu, and Sabu just takes off, without a second glance.
For Jung Hoo, this is abandonment, all over again, and it’s gotta hurt.
It’s no wonder he’s held a grudge against Sabu, all these years.
And now that Sabu’s finally back to provide answers to Jung Hoo’s questions, it feels like a kick to the gut, for Jung Hoo to hear that his father had been labeled a murderer.
Gah. Poor Jung Hoo. It feels like he’s been through so much, his whole life, and he’s receiving fresh wounds, even now, despite his father having died so many years ago. 😭
What’s even more heartbreaking, is that moment when Jung Hoo admits that he’s afraid that he’ll just kill himself one day, like his father had done, because he can’t find a reason to live.
Sob. That’s the saddest thing I’ve heard Jung Soo say, honestly. 😭😭
It breaks my heart that our superhero-esque, gloriously badass Healer, is actually so lost that he is afraid that he’ll commit suicide one day. 💔
Now that Sabu tells Jung Hoo to find out who killed his father, though, perhaps that will be part of Jung Hoo’s reason to live, at least for now?
Eep. It feels like everyone’s closing in on the truth, as we close out our episode.
We’ve got Moon Ho finding Young Shin’s broken cell phone in Jung Hoo’s coat pocket (does he know what this means?!?), and we’ve got Young Shin reaching out and asking Healer for a meeting (will he say yes?!?).
And, we’ve got Jung Hoo himself, finding those tapes and those Healer papers, at Moon Ho’s apartment, too. That’s certainly going to ping his interest more than ever before. HE’s Healer, after all.
Who’s going to find out what first, and how? Ahhh. TENTERHOOKS, y’all.
so i want to go back to the discussion of what caused healer to stumble and have elevated vital signs in the scene on the roof (extreme danger from the elevator or the hat kiss, which we were discussing). i said it was the kiss, as it was a first for him.
[Ep 11 spoiler which used to be in this space has been redacted] ~ KFG
that’s what love does to you, who did not experience “weak in knees” like this?
@eda – NOT YET! You can’t discuss ep11 stuff on these threads. Wait for KFG to open the thread for Eps 11-12. Because the threads never die on KFG’s web site, that means if years from now someone wants to read along with these threads as they watch for the first time, they’d expect them to be spoiler free still.
so what do i do? should kfg transfer it if she considers it wrong?
Don’t worry, she’ll get it.
@Beez @Eda I’ve just redacted your E11 spoiler.
Edited to add: You may post it again, when the OT for E11& 12 goes live in another 8 hours!
Hello everyone
Just wanted to pop in to say that episode 10 was the best for me so far. All the emotions of Healer (roof-top romance confession and the longing in his eyes, the confrontation with his Master about his father, his fears of taking his own life) in this episode was spot on and heart-breaking. JCW acting was superlative in this particular episode and I still don’t understand how he never won even a Baeksang nomination for this role. I haven’t seen other dramas that year except for Pinocchio and comparatively I empathised with Healer lot more than I could for Pinocchio though both had similar storyline.
And I am really enjoying the group watch of Healer as it gives me more time to delve into the story/emotions on a weekly basis rather than doing a straight-up binge-watch (done it 2 times in the past for Healer).
For plot confusionists like myself, sometimes it takes a while to really catch on to a show and this week’s episodes finally sealed the deal for me. There was just enough explication and background so that I finally feel as though I know what’s a-going on (more or less) – the flashbacks really helped.
A while back I mused whether Jung Hoo’s Bong Soo persona was really a reflection of his innate personality and this show confirmed that for me. Such an interesting character – although I still have no, no, no idea as to why he’s called “Healer”, in English, no less. Is it kind of like he’s a “fixer”, when you can’t get Christopher Walken?
Finally, dontcha think that Bong Soo and Young Shin strutting into the press conference is a pretty reasonable approximation of how Ji Chang-wook and Park Min-young are in real life?
haha! @j3ffc – I don’t know about Park Min young, but since JCW is one of my biases, he dresses on the red carpet with a bit more flair. Not as flamboyant as the Kpop idol boys, but he always tries to wear something that gives a bit of ummpf to men’s styles. Let me dig up a pic
***
@j3ffc – I loved that scene when they strut into the press conference! The whole makeover sequence is so cute, funny, and glamorous. They definitely look at each other with new eyes at the end of all that.
@j3ffc – the funny thing is, it seems to me, they both would prefer being in jeans and especially turtle necks 😆.
They don’t seem like “high brow” people. My impression is if it were offered to them – or if they become rich & famous reporters – that they would reject the trappings of a house like Moon shik’s or a penthouse like Moon ho’s.
I also thought that Young shin picking that lock made Healer feel even more like she’s the right fit for him. 😆
Oh yeah, he was totally impressed.
Shocked, even.
I think you’re right – they wouldn’t need much luxury like Moon Shik or Moon Ho. But if they got rich and famous I wouldn’t want them to stay in Healer’s cave, either. It’s way too cold, and there’s too much concrete. 😀
Speaking of which – Healer is already independently wealthy, right? With the fees he charges?
Not wealthy enough to buy that island, though.
@j3ffc @the_sweetroad – that’s what I was wondering too. I posted an article about a guy who bought an island in the previous threads but it is only 1 acre square and the cost wasn’t near as much a you’d think it would be. And that started me wondering just how rich (or not) is Healer and Ahjumma? I’m sure they’re better off that someone like Young shin’s adopted dad but I doubt they’re anywhere near Moon shik’s level.
1 acre square! That’s a tiny island. 😄 Guess you could still build something on it though.
I think you’re right – working for the Elder has made Moon Shik a pretty wealthy guy. I don’t think Healer and ahjumma are there even though they have some nice toys. Doesn’t Healer say in one of the early episodes how much he still needs to save before he can buy the island?
@the_sweetroad – Yup, he did. But I almost always ignore the subs regarding money and that’s because half the time they’re wrong. So even if I did the easy calculation to dollars, it’s pointless because – I own Healer on streaming, I own the box set dvds, and I’ve watched it on That Place Which Shall Not Be Named, Viki (back in the day when it had subs done by fan volunteers), OnDemandKorea, and Kocowa (which is now the subs Viki uses) – none of them agree on the translation of the amount. 🙄 This is so common when translating money but I don’t know why. Maybe because some subbers try to do the exchange rate and maybe they get it wrong but I really don’t know why that is that dramas can’t seem to agree when they translate money. (Although I must say that Korean numbers frustrate me and maybe that works in reverse for them too. Koreans use one system for counting things (and time), another for counting Korean won, and still another when they count U.S. dollars (but it’s not Arabic numbers for the dollars. It’s another set of Korean words). It has something to do with Chinese counting system also being used for counting certain things. 🤕
Yeah, in Chinese we use all different ways of counting things, so that makes sense….but that’s too bad the numbers between all the translated subs can’t at least be similar, with the same show! That’s interesting.
And – you really, really like Healer 🙂 .
Obsessed. I admit it.
Beez – How are you doing. Looks like you are having a riot with this group watch and being so prompt in replies and comments. Keep it up 🙂
Any particular reason why you like Healer so much. For me as mentioned earlier the story of Healer is similar to that of my personal life story and hence the connect and the love.
@Princess Jazz – I never really thought about the reason before other than that Healer felt like a complete story rather than how most Kdrama romances only concern themselves with the OTP with no real compunction toward giving us a tight story surrounding them. In most shows, if they want a scene to happen with the OTP, even if it defies the previous logic of the story that’s been laid out to that point, situations and characters must turn on a dime to fit whatever nonsense the writer came up with to force the scene – sometimes just to please some Netziens who commented that they like something or like another character more than the lead.
Many Kdramas give us great second couple romances but then don’t bother to finish their storylines. Why? Because the second couple only serves the purpose of giving the lead actors some much needed rest so if it comes time to wrap up the show, those second leads stories are completely forgotten about by the writers/directors/whoever but not the audience. Yet we’re left hanging.
Healer just feels like there was a story to tell from beginning, to middle, to end with no meddling story interruptions to please (brown nose) the audience. Much like the character Healer himself.
That’s a great assessment of Healer, @Beez, and I totally agree. I love that Moon Ho, Moon Shik, Myung Hee, Young Shin’s dad, ahjumma, etc etc all have robust characterizations and storylines. In kdrama world, Moon Ho might technically be considered the Second Male Lead, but in Healer he really isn’t playing that trope-y kind of role. At all. In fact, in Healer the 2nd Male Lead is actually Bong Su, as KFG said above! Which is really funny and entertaining if you think about it.
haha! I didn’t think of it that way, even when KFG commented that Healer’s in a live triangle with himself. Actually, from now on, I’m going to think of Bong soo as the lead and Healer as the second lead (at least as far as Young shin is concerned even though she doesn’t realize yet who she’s really falling for). I mean, she doesn’t really know anything about Healer (he’s just a fantasy) but she spends every day with, and tells Bong sookie everything!
Hehe, isn’t that the role the 2nd male lead plays in every kdrama? The “comfortable” one that the female lead can talk to but never falls for? I think I’ll still think of Bong Soo as the 2nd male lead for now.
This re-watch has reminded me of just how stinking CUTE Healer and Young Shin are together! GAH!!
Yes, @the_sweetroad – so cute they stank! 😁😁😁😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
beez, excellent description, i could not have explained it better. but of course, you are so much more experienced in korean dramas.
@eda – Well, as you’ve gotten to know me – I could very well have did that JCW is my bias and Healer is my type of alpha male and I’d still have been telling the absolute truth! 😆
@beez, is jcw or the character healer rugged-manly enough for you? (to be your alpha male). he’s kind of “polished”. don’t you require a beard, dirty long hair, sort of like helian zheng (the prince and later king of that tribe that he took feng zhiwei after marriage, in trop?) do you remember him, he was your favorite, which i can not understand till today. he sure is my favorite, in any kind of way, but the absolute alpha mail for me now is ju jin-mo.
LOL. Eda, you crack me up. I haven’t watched TROP yet but your description is quite colorful, especially “which I can not understand until today.” LOL.
Male got turned into mail again. 🙂
I think a bug got worked out because I can Edit now on these threads, hurray!
Male got turned into mail again.
shit, either me or my computer must be admitted to the psychiatric ward, that’s it. is this a Freudians slip for me, or the computer is playing games with me?
and i do not know how to edit.
If you hover your cursor in the general area of a comment you just wrote, a little gear shows up on the bottom right of an imaginary rectangle. Click on it and it says “Edit.” Click on “Edit”, then you can make changes.
Don’t be intimidated by the idea of an imaginary rectangle. Just try it. 😆
i hovered and hovered and nothing comes up. but… most here know already that i am electronically challenged (or better yet – electronically retarded). sad reality.
but an idea just hit me, may be such male can be delivered to me by mail? wouldn’t that be fun?
@eda – then you’d be in a drama! 😆 Check out My Absolute Boyfriend (Kdrama and J drama versions. I think there’s a Cdrama too but I think it has a different name).
@beez, are you suggesting i look into robots? i am afraid that my lack of any electronic abilities will bring a very sad end to such an encounter. but interesting idea.
@eda – oops! I forgot! I can see the poor robot now bent over with only one arm swinging back and forth and stream coming out of its ears. 😆
@beez, you got it girlfriend!
Just write to healer@moebius.com! 🙂
hahahaha! Good one @the_sweetroad! Unfortunately Ahjumma will probably send it to spam!
should i request a date? don’t mess with my head, i am seriously into healer.
Look at the red circle in the image. I think it only shows up if you look for it within a very few minutes after you’ve posted your comment.
beez, i do not know why, but i am missing that part that you show. doing something wrong?
It’s only there for a few minutes after you hit send. You still don’t see it?
Are you on a phone or lap top or tablet or what?
just old computer.
@eda – I can’t look right now. But I’ll charge up my laptop and try to see if I can tell what’s going on a bit later.
LOL.
Oh no# Don’t say that! If typos are what gets you carted off, then I’ll be right along side you.
sweetroad, i get the impression that you are chinese or from a chinese speaking country. so i would definitely encourage you to watch trop, even that it is 70 episodes, and even that the ending is royaly screwed up, but the journey encompasses everything, and i mean everything – colors, tears, swooning, out of this world costumes, scenery, intelligence, sophistication, best otp ever, acting and production as high as it can get – you get it. it is truly my absolute favorite historical chinese drama. i probably seen it 7-8 times, lost count. and am missing to see it again. if the number of episodes scares you, consider it like 3 dramas, wouldn’t it be the same?
You are a very good saleswoman, Eda, I still have Nirvana in Fire on my list and you told me not to be scared off by the number of episodes. I DO want to watch NIF and TROP! Especially because I’ll understand more of them than I do watching kdramas! But alas…the number of episodes scares me off. Haha.
I once tried to make someone promise me that plotlines aren’t repeated and it doesn’t drag in the middle episodes, and she said that that stuff was in the eye of the beholder. LOL again. But one day I will.
Right now I’m watching Healer with you all and re-watching My Mister for “research”.
On April 9, My Liberation Diary (penned by the same person who wrote MM) and Our Blues (penned by the same writer as Dear My Friends) start up. Ack! Too much to watch!
@the_sweetroad – there’s always too much to watch but let me tell you this – I don’t like anything but Korean dramas but Nirvana in Fire is excellent. And I hope that when you get around to watching it, remember that we did a rewatch of it here on KFG’s Verdict so you can watch along while reading her short episode recaps and the comments. The threads are never closed so people will still respond to your comments.
sweetroad, yes, i am waiting for our blues too. but chinese historical dramas are something else – i love that they incorporate ancient sayings, poetry (o, this poetry), philosophy! i can just go back again and again to ponder their vast wisdom and the depth of the beauty. i am sure, you as a chinese speaking person will be able to appreciate it ten times more. i so envy you!
Well, don’t envy me yet because I haven’t watched them yet! I’m sure you, after watching them so many times, are much the wiser for it. Plus my ancient-Chinese vocabulary needs some brushing up (I think it’s pretty non-existent right now). Haha. 🙂
at least you have a chance, if you choose so. but still, go to your roots, you have such a rich background in china, although the battles and the blood is horrific, but that is what all countries went through.
I’m grinning ear-to-ear as I read this. 🤣🤣🤣. But no. I definitely do NOT favor facial hair. (I’ll be so glad when this trend for beards is over!) Only certain men look good to me auth facial hair. Choi Siwon in She Was Pretty is one of the few.
The Beast in TROP was just everything. *siiiiiigh* I can’t explain it. Whereas your favorite (ML in TROP) was all gloom & doom and Interview With A Vampire-ish, The Beast was alive and full of sunshine and vibrancy and manliness. *siiiiiigh*
EDITED TO ADD: I forgot to give you a pic of Choi Siwon with his beard. Oh. I guess it won’t let me add it here because I’d closed it. I’ll do a new comment
Choi Siwon in all his bearded glory in She Was Pretty
wow, i am so relieved – i used to like facial hair, many many years ago, but not any more, anyway i am glad we agree on that issue. ha ha. and my favorite in trop was super intelligent, unlike “the beast”.
@eda – Intelligent but dull! lolololol I’m ducking in case you virtually throw something at me! 😆
Give me the guy whose been out in the sun with a robust tan and muscles who can sweep me away on his horse. Not the super moross, intelligent, probably weakling guy, who’ll talk me to death in those dark hallways of his Transylvania-like castle! (I’m rollin’ laughin’ at what I think your reaction will be 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@eda @ladies & gentleman – I call for a vote! Intelligent and pale or tan and robust?
🤣🤣🤣
Wait – are these our only two choices? And is Mr. Tan and Robust lacking in intelligence?
beez has chosen a very unfavorite picture of chen kun, who’s one of the top chinese actors. i am not able to post here pictures how you guys do, but go to netflix, episode 3, at 42.28 – watch for a few minutes and judge. you can also go to youtube and watch a short video about him. he’s on the top of my 4 chinese mail actors: hu ge, wang kai, chen kun, wallace hue (although he not always delivers the best, usually because of choice of productions to act in and characters he takes on). but chen kun is truly spectacular, exotic, different and a devilishly good acting actor. i like and interested in a human body the most – the eyes and hands. chen kun has the most beautiful hands. and this drama trop brings out all of this.
Eda, I was completely tracking with you on all of this until you wrote 4 chinese “mail actors” again! And then I just died laughing. I don’t know why I find that so funny, that it keeps coming up.
OK. Back to what you’re saying. OK. I will look for Chen Kun.
yes, that’s chen kun. but what was funny?
That your computer just cannot write “male”!
sweetroad, I don’t know why I find that so funny,
now, this was a joke this time. sorry you did not appreciate it. i am starting to find it almost cute to call males as mails. it kind of works.
They’re your love letters. 🙂
Ha! Didn’t realize you did it on purpose. ML -> mail lead is pretty funny.
@eda @the_sweetroad – okay. I’ll help @eda out. Here’s a very nice pick of her man in TROP at the point where she said stop. But anybody can look good from just the right angles. You can grab any picture of The Beast and he looks good.
BUT @eda I didn’t purposely pick a bad pic of ML in my previous post. I got his pic and The Beast from just Googling “characters in The Rose of Phoenixes”. 😆 Also which picture did Mail Lead spend more time looking like throughout all 70 episodes? 🤣
EDITED TO CHANGE “ML” TO “MAIL LEAD”😋😋🤣
Thanks, @beez! I was still dead from “mail actors”. Omo.
@Beez – I just love this shot – one of my favorite. It is superb. Brava Miz B!
@phl1rxd – credit goes to eda harris. I just went to the exact spot that she instructed. 🙂
@beez, EDITED TO CHANGE “ML” TO “MAIL LEAD
if you can’t defeat me, join me. so now the ML’s should be officially MAIL LEADs. here, we are doing something creative. (and i sincerely do not know who or what is screwing with my image of a “male’, my computer or my brain. this will remain a mystery.)
I can’t help but add my 2 cents. Yes, Chen Kun is absolutely spectacular and mesmerizing. He’s a big drama queen in TROP (and in other roles that I’ve seen him) but it gives him such character. I’m not big on the other top actors around his age that were previously mentioned (although I know Hu Ge and Wang Kai from NIF1). But yes, Chen Kun is among my favorite cdrama stars too!
@the_sweetroad – Yes! Those are your only two choices. 😆 And frankly, I don’t remember if The Beast was intelligent or not 🤔 But does it really matter??? 😂😂 Okay, okay, whew. He was smart enough to be there for FL and most importantly he took her mind off her troubles and made her laugh. He wasn’t afraid to make himself look foolish (even though he’s really cool) in order to make her laugh.
@Beez – As incredibly good looking as Zhang Xiao Chen is (and the more hair he has on his head the better he looks), I just gotta go with Chen Kun. He smolders in TROP.
Note – Lee Junho is another one that def smolders.
@phl1rxd – that pic of ML from TROP would scare me to death. I would drain my own blood and leave it in a cup on the nightstand for him in hope that it would preserve my life. 😖
@Beez – 🤣😂😅😃😆
@phl1rxd – I haven’t seen a post from merij1 in what seems like a very long time. Have you? Maybe I’m just so Healer over focused but I know he really liked this show so I’m surprised I haven’t seen him here (or on any other of KFG’s posts.)
@beez and phl1, i am also kind of concerned about merij and also BE – such a long absence, not typical.
Eda – BE is just taking a break and doing painting. Some very fine work too, I might add. He is a true creative. I miss him as well.
I love how we think of the other fans on this blog, and miss them when they do not post regularly.
phl1, thanks for the update, i guess everybody can get a bit tired even of a good thing. i wonder when my time will come, he he.
@Beez – He did post over at Patreon very recently. If you send FG an email mention I miss him as well.
phl1rxd, Chen Kun. He smolders in TROP.
thanks. i knew i can count on you. but i have to add, “he smolders” not just in trop.
@eda – what show is it that you told me Chen Kun has a dual role? If it’s a movie, I’m kind of in the mood to watch it right now. (Not if its a series though.)
o, it’s a series, lost in 1949 but so well worth it! you MUST see chen kun for what and how he really is. i am sure he will charm you in this one, it has the funniest moments in asian comedy, but it is also full of very serious topics. watch it slowly, parallel to other dramas, may be that will make it more palatable.
but if you are fishing for a movie, how about escape from mogadishy and the king. and then i would love to discuss it with you. actually, dying to discuss it, especially the king. if one wants to know about south korea, it’s politics, it’s judicial system, it’s gangs, it’s dirt, it’s power plays – no need to go any further than this movie. seriously.
@Eda – yes, he most certainly does.
@beez, this robust tan man was nurturing his ballooning ego, but when the shit hit the fan, he ran like a miserable puppy with his tail between his legs to ask the “intelligent” guy to save his wife. thank you, but no thank you, who needs such a wuss, such a coward., weakling, wimp in his heart and brain. and he always looks dirty, sorry.
@eda – I can thank my poor memory that I can’t remember that. I did remember thinking “The Beast loves her enough to put aside his pride and ask for help from his competition for her heart.”
I really don’t remember but I thought it was more like there was nothing he could do to help her?
@beez, you are finding excuses for him. he had his army not too far from there, if ning yi (alone) could come up with a solution, that means a solution existed. you just needed brains, that your favorite lacks.
@eda 😁😁😁😁 I never said he was a genius! He was probably off living life while Vampire Mail was stuck imprisoned in his castle thinking deep thoughts.
I am cracking myself up! 🤣
ok @eda. *whew* I’ll stop teasing you now because I know TROP is close to your heart. You know I only watched it because of you. And I totally ❤ FL and you know that doesn’t happen often with me. They usually annoy me.
@eda – one more thing – you know, actually Healer is a not so “polished” and is actually a scary guy. I think we all look at him through eyes similar to Young shin’s. She’s romanticizes him. She instinctively sees his hurt (just as we’ve actually seen his back story). But his anger when Teacher talks with him about his dad’s situation and he actually throws his elderly teacher and ends up taking out the rest of his anger on the trash bin. He is really angry. The fact that he would put his hands on someone older than he is, someone who raised him, in that society is unheard of!
Then there’s other things but we’d need to move over to the spoiler thread to discuss them. But yeah, Healer is one dangerous namja/hombre/dude – I admit, that is going to keep him at the top of my list of alphas.
@beez I gasped a little to hear to refer to Healer’s teacher as “elderly”…I feel positively ancient in comparison! 🤣
@j3ffc: Ha!
He’s not that old, is he? And he’s still pretty catlike. May we all be like that as we get older…
@j3ffc @eda @the_sweetroad – in our assessment of the characters, we need to take into account how they see things. Teacher is Healer’s elder. The young version of Teacher looked older than the rest of his friends. The older version of Teacher looks far older than Moon shik and Jian’s mother. But aside from how the actors look, it would be appalling if Healer even slightly pushed Teacher, much less threw him!
I liked how Teacher isn’t surprised by Jung hoo’s outburst nor does he make an issue of the disrespect (because that is what it is regardless of our sympathy with Healer for his understandable anger. In Korean culture that is disrespect.) But Teacher patiently knows to wait out the outburst. It tells us a lot of what raising a teenaged Healer must’ve been like.
Seriously, Healer Sr had to tame little wild Healer junior. Where would Healer be if Healer Sr hadn’t dedicated so many years to him? I still wish he had left in a better way, but I can appreciate how much he invested and cared about this lost little boy.
my eyes teared up just then, just thinking about that small boy and then the teenager. 😥
We can infer a lot, too, about what Healer must’ve gone through by being in reform school. OMGoodness! Here come full on bawlin’ tears 😭
What type of trouble was he in to end up in reform school? Was it only fights? Or was he involved in petty crimes? Here’s a young boy, full of anger, with no one but his grandmother. It’s probably good that Healer is such a loner. If he’d had friends, they probably would’ve been delinquents and troublemakers. Then it could’ve been car theft and purse snatching and who knows what else. I’m only assuming that it hadn’t gone that far because he does shut people out so was probably alone.
Good questions @beez! In a way he was protected from getting into even more trouble, OR EVEN COMING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE ELDER! What if the Elder and Moon Shik had found him?! One more person to force into doing dirty work. Thank goodness he came under Sabu right after reform school and no one else found him.
@beez,
it would be appalling if Healer even slightly pushed Teacher, much less threw him!
but that’s their history, their past, that is how teacher trained him, that is how they interacted. that is how healer learned and is now able to beat up 9 big fat gangsters and win.
and healer has all the rights to be beyond pissed with teacher and let it out.
Not so, eda! Martial arts is all about being in control while sparting. If Healer swings at or flips Teacher while they’re sparring that is an altogether TOTALLY DIFFERENT situation.
@beez, Martial arts is all about being in control while sparting.
but from what i understood, both healers used not just martial arts techniques in their fighting, i believe it was a combination, and that is how old healer taught young healer. you need to use all that is available and more in order to win in situations like 9 “well fed” gangsters attacking you.
@Eda – anytime you are sparring, in whatever style, and you’re not wearing protective gear – each strike must be controlled. One of biggest scolding and punishments you can get from your master is for strikes that are too hard when unprotected (i.e., uncontrolled).
My son would walk by as I was on the phone yakking with my girlfriends and throw a side kick directly to my face but stop an inch from my face. He’d hold it there with me looking at the bottom of his foot until I would say “Boy! Move your foot!” 😆 He was 6-7 years old. I don’t think it would’ve been cute if he’d done that when he was older. 😆
But irregardless, even if Teacher let Healer go all out (which neither would do except maybe when Healer was so young and inexperienced that there was no way he could hurt Teacher) – even if they went all out – it is totally different when you are not sparring. Like I said, even the slightest shove would be considered totally disrespectful even in their somewhat unorthodox relationship.
@beez, again, you are taking it from the position of knowledge of the strict (here is this word again) rules of martial art, or any other form, but teacher and healer are not in a match, do not have to follow any rules, except not really hurting each other, which i think they do.
@eda – even if you believe that about their fighting, are you not going to accept that Healer – in anger – while they’re NOT sparring – threw Teacher across the room and that is not acceptable in their culture? In any culture that practices martial arts, but especially Korean culture, where you’re not even supposed to talk back to a person that’s more than 2 years older than you. Here’s a video of the main teacher at Talk To Me in Korea explaining at 3:18 https://youtu.be/J3wy_d9Jczo
If you still can’t see how disrespectful Healer’s action is, I won’t argue the point with you. That’s your opinion – it’s wrong – but if you can’t see the difference, I can’t change your mind. So be it.
@beez,
If you still can’t see how disrespectful Healer’s action is, ,
well, i do see it, i guess i am so pissed at what teacher did that i feel that he deserves it. but of course, i am judging it from my european standards on this issue. although i know what YOU are talking about, and many times i was beyond myself watching like the older people (and not even by much) would abuse the younger one, and they would not
even answer back. i definitely seen this phenomena. but healer senior was his teacher, so may be he did not really paid attention to bring him up with this kind of acceptance of abuse from an elder like himself. that’s also a possibility.
@beez, ok, so i listened to Here’s a video of the main teacher at Talk To Me in Korea
and thank you for that, i basically know what you are trying to drum into my head, and of course this video says the same. but now i am thinking that healer does not really follow these rules, he often goes from formal talk to the less respectful way of talking to young shin, and she often reminds him that she is the sunbay, (don’t remember the spelling, but you know what i mean) and he needs to talk to her this way, but he goes back and forth. so may be teacher did not really install it in him.
But it’s the way to talk. (I can really explain that.) It’s not like there is a choice. You learn it from birth because that’s what the language is. My take is that Healer is just messing with Young shin as he goes back and forth because she is his age. True, she’s his superior at work but he obviously is not taking Someday News seriously. And he can see that Young shin is basking in her role of being someone’s sunbae.
Even if Teacher were some oddball (odder than he is) Korean person who didn’t harp on levels of speech with Healer, he wouldn’t need to because just learning to speak as an infant, it is what it is. (It’s hard to explain without giving Korean language lessons.) It’s not like how we might be raised at home to know the difference between “How are you?” versus “How you doin’?” and then mistakenly use the informal one to our parent’s boss.
Only Koreans raised in America or somewhere might forget and slip because it’s not as ingrained depending on how close their parents steeped them in the culture, maybe they did not speak Korean in the home. If Korean was spoken at home, then they too would automatically have the levels of speech ingrained without it being something that has to be taught. It’s just absorbed the way children absorb language and begin to speak. I know I’m not explaining that very well.
@beez, so what is it with healer and this particular behavior? is it because he’s beyond upset with the situation and the teacher and all other issues that are suddenly coming to the surface, that he simply can not control himself?
@eda – well, it’s as you guys have said – his anger is justifiable. He has so much to be angry about and it’s been bottled up. I’d be very surprised if someone whose been through as much as he has doesn’t have anger issues.
But no matter how justifiable, putting his hands on Teacher while angry and not during practice is not acceptable.
And because it is so out of the norm, I think our Healer Puppy really does need therapy for all that’s happened to him.
@beez, when i say “polished” i mean in appearance and acting. not a specific character.
Thank You Beez for taking time to reply back to my query. Glad to know your reasons. It is indeed a well-written story and well-made drama (sometimes a good story gets lost in translation into visual medium). I read somewhere that JCW actually felt happy that he did this drama and after watching it fully he had felt that he was quite cool as Healer. (Self-complimented him a lot :-)).
Finally kudos to the writer as well. She wrote a great story.
sweetroad,
you really, really like Healer
SO DO I. one of the very best korean dramas, if not THE BEST.
YES! It’s in my top 3 for kdramas. Enjoying this re-watch for sure.
Count me in as well 🙂
beez, that sounds insane. (the counting practices). but thanks to bringing it to our attention.
@eda harris, you might hear some of this in your cdramas! For example, one piece of meat is yi kuai rou, one person is yi ge ren, and one hand would be yi zhi shou. So depending on what it is, the descriptor (the second character after the number) changes. It is pretty complicated!
wow, don’t the chinese have enough problems in life, why do they need more complications.? and how do people from the lower class able to comprehend this? or people that do not have very high iq’s?
Ha! It’s actually just drilled into you from when you’re a small kid. I learned it at the same time I learned my numbers, just through normal conversations. For example, I could never say anything but “kuai” when referring to pieces of meat – anything else would just sound wrong (and be wrong). So I’m not sure class or IQ has anything to do with it, as it’s just part of the language itself.
@eda – that’s what I say about the high IQ’s. I’ve bought children’s story books that say “for age 3” and I’m like WTHeck???? Are they all geniuses! 😆
Whatever happened to “See Tommy run”? Or in this case, “See Min ho run”.
I’ve also watched the Korean equivalent of Sesame Street and from the video, they had adults dressed as red corpusles (which i can’t even spell right in English) – they may have been red blood cells, and they seemed to be demonstrating the endocrine system as best as I could guess. (Again, WTH????)
What?! Oh my goodness! The endocrine system! Korean Big Bird has very high expectations for what 3-year-olds can learn. Good for them!
that’s how the asians get to be one of the smartest and best educated people in the world. at least that is what i read.
@Eda – yes. Although I didn’t mean exactly like Sesame Street. I know that sometimes you do see Korean shows that lift the same characters, etc. But this totally different. I just meant it’s a children’s learning show for 5 year olds but I think even if it had subtitles, I would’ve been hard pressed to follow along Ruth the science. 😆
@the_sweetroad- you just reminded me of “counter words”! Omo! Words that in English, we only have a few of like “loaf” or (I can’t think of any others right now). But Korean had a LOT of them! And the Korean counter word must be included. For example if you’re counting people, the appropriate counter word must be included in the sentence. And even mote bizarre – the very same type of action has different words like there’s a word for putting on a hat but a different word for putting on pants and still another for shoes. But in English you’re just “putting on”. Why must there be so many different words for the same concept/action???
That’s right! In Chinese we say putting on a hat differently than putting on shoes. Good reminder. Now I’m trying to think about English, like what you mentioned about loaf. I guess we have phrases like “a handful of __” or “a jar of __” but those don’t seem quite the same as what Korean and Chinese mean.
@the_sweetroad – a native Korean speaker provided me a list of all the “counter words” of which to use with which type of thing you’re counting. It was so big and long I almost gave up as soon as I saw it.
Yeah, that’s definitely one of those things that comes easier when you’re younger and learning the language more natively. As an English speaker moving to learning that kind of a concept….it’s rough.
Kind of like non-native English speakers learning to use “a”, “the”, and “to” in their sentences in English.
He said he still needed to save a lot. And that he also needed to buy a yacht.
YS tried to get her dad to lend her $10K: she wanted to pretend she was requesting Healer’s services. She hoped to interview him instead. She said he sometimes charged 6 figure fees (in dollars). How accurate the translation is anybody’s guess. Also, I assume there are expenses, other than fees.
@MariaF – I missed that. 😆 Did her dad ask her what she needed it for? 😆
Oh, yes. He knew what she wanted the money for. He didn’t give it to her though.
If I thought for one instant that my daughter wanted to meet someone as nefarious as Healer (is believed to be), I’d lock her in her room!
@MariaF – yeah, keeping his technology up-to-date would take some money. Plus his wigs and costumes. 🙂
By the way, now that you mentioned the eyeliner, I can’t not see it. It’s subtle, but it’s there.
beez, just the amount of electronics, devices, sophisticated glasses/cameras they have can probably be converted into a small island. ha ha.
@MariaF – very spiffy.
@beez,
want to hear something funny? in empress ki, our favorite has eyeliner on one eye, and nothing on the other. how on earth did they NOT notice it when taking a close up of his face???
haha! Maybe JCW was in the makeup chair and the director called for the shot RIGHT NOW because the sun was setting. You never know with the Korean “live shoot” system.
maria, ouu, do you want to spoil my “pleasure”? such an opposite to the other picture by beez.
just like in healer, he can be outrageously flamboyant (beez’s picture) and somewhat quietly elegant but toned down. it only proves (may be) that he can be multidimensional, like in healer. well, i still love all about him.
@beez, LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!! thanks. i am glad to see that this guy does not disappoint, on screen or in life.
@eda – yup. It has just enough pizzazz without being over the top (imo)
I still have no, no, no idea as to why he’s called “Healer”, in English, no less.
not to worry, this will be explained later, but i do not remember which episode, since i have seen it some times ago. and of course i can not reveal it here right now.
Healer had its roots in the fantastic five’s journalistic guide from the 1980s, that presumably also influenced Kim Mun-ho’s journalistic ideals in the two decades of his career. The Healer guide’s longer title is “Journalism for diagnosing and healing society’s illnesses.”
The acrobatic martial artist of the fantastic five, Ki Yeong-jae, went on to start this night courier business, called Healer, after he and his four friends (Choi Myeong-hui, Yeong-sin’s late dad Oh Gil-han, Jeong-hu’s late dad Seo Jun-seok, and Mun-ho’s evil hyung Mun-sik) got separated by a tragedy compromising their ability to continue their activism. Yeong-jae is the original Healer and Jeong-hu’s Sabu (Master or Teacher).
The name Healer is a nod to the “journalism for healing the ills of society” guide, reinvented into an amoral, apathetic “do no harm” kind of above-the-law business catering to self-serving under-the-table clients. Everyone has been affected by whatever they perceive to be the ills of society, meaning different things to different clients, and the Healer business helps them “heal” their pains through clandestine impossible missions, no questions asked.
Given the tragedy and the years of being criminalized as a journalist activist, I could see how a service like the Healer night courier might be something Ki Yeong-jae had always seen himself using to serve his interests, if only he had the means to. I think he would have used it for the benevolent purposes the fantastic five believed in. But that wasn’t possible for journalist Ki Yeong-jae so once he gained the technology and a capable partner, he became the service provider himself and apathetic of the clients he’s serving.
As we can see, Ki Yeong-jae has retired from the hands on operations of Healer, but not before equipping Jeong-hu to succeed him. Not before “healing” the boy just enough to be able to make something out of himself once he’s a man. While undeniably Sabu ripped his fair share of fresh wounds when he walked out on Jeong-hu’s 20th birthday, I think in Sabu’s eyes these are a fraction compared to what he has done for Jeong-hu. The proverbial baton has passed, and now Jeong-hu is the Healer. Yes, it’s his secret handle now, but there is so much history in the Healer name that surpasses Jeong-hu’s current position and even his Sabu’s founding of the business.
Those are my two cents about why Jeong-hu calls himself “Healer,” and not “Fixer.” Or rather, how he inherited the title from his Sabu.
PS I think you are right, given his dark past, Park Bong-soo does represent Jeong-hu’s timid inner child and bewilderment of how the world of human relationships work—basically who he really is underneath the heroic daredevil persona of the Healer. I love that contrast between a Healer that fights entire gangs and breaks into houses, with the awkward scaredy-cat Bong-soo who takes orders from a sunbae who mispronounces his name.
Thanks so much for this, @Caroline Gabriela! Terrific analysis. As the show went on, I saw Healer’s job as more of a force for good – this was helped a lot by learning Ahjumma’s back story and of course Subu’s. With all in bare relief, the overall story was better than ever. Yet another show I’d probably not have checked out except for the blog….
Corrections as I’ve come to understand the show a bit better:
Also, fyi, regarding one of your earlier comments, Moonshik was not a reporter. He did drive for his friends but the others all went on to become real journalists while Moon shik ran the family junk yard. Moon shik made a claim (later during his public on air battle with Moon ho) that was much more than how much he actually participated.
Thanks for the updates; I think thee show was a great example of mysteries that were satisfyingly explained as the show went on (although I am notoriously confused along the way). Are you watching Ji Chang-wook in “The Sound of Magic”?
I just finished The Sound of Magic, @j3ffc! Did you watch it? What did you think?
@the_sweetroad I am half way through. So far, it’s a bit of a mixed bag but I am enjoying it. Depending on how it goes from here, it could end up anywhere from “solid watch” to “wow, that was cool!” I have asked for a while where the musicals are in K-dramaland, so that element is really nice.
I was just defending Moon ho a couple of hours ago but here in ep10 – what he did to his ex girlfriend was truly despicable! That’s her career! She should be glad they broke up or she’d be dealing with him treating her and the things that are important to her as second to his desires. What a jerk!
@beez
Moon hu was truly in an impossible situation. He had to go after that criminal organization and Elder, especially since he ordered to kill YS. And he couldn’t have warned his ex, could he? She worked there and partially participated in a cover up. Very unfortunate situation.
Not warn her, but not sabotage her either. He used her feelings for him against her. I’ll probably have more to say on this in the spoiler thread later.
@beez
I see your point. But the stakes were too high. Considering how far that criminal organization was prepared to go to stay in power (they didn’t mind killing people. They just tried to kill YS, for god’s sake), I can understand why he did what he did. His choices were: possibility of a ruined career vs chance of wounding/ruining that organization and saving lives (literally). His ex works for the company that participated in coverups, after all.
maria and beez, She worked there and partially participated in a cover up.
and even if moon ho would have disclosed his plan to her, she would not have agreed – we saw her before objecting to all the things that moon ho wanted to report and being on the side of her superiors. her career was more important than justice or her best friend’s issues and/or requests. if he needed to do this, there was no choice, it had to be done this way. i do not think we can blame him.
I can!
😆
I’m with Eda this. I suspect it wasn’t easy for MH, but it was the right thing to do. By the way, it was risky for him too. And everyone else, who was involved in that interview.
@beez, you asked me where did i perceive you being “strict”. right here is your answer. you follow exclusively your convictions, which is fine, but one must consider the situation at hand, always and in every case.
here more than anywhere, the evil of the elder and his army of trained evils had to be taken down, or it would cause more evils and deaths to more people, some of them being very close to moon ho. moon ho simply had no better solution, not available.
@beez,
i am not defending moon ho, but sometimes one has to balance what is most important at the moment. and he chose to bring out the DIRT out in the open more important than his or hers personal world, plus he knew that her career will not suffer greatly – she will be forgiven. plus, he needed to do it for ji an and the victim that was so important to ji an. so it is complicated as many other issues in life.