I'm Jessica and this is Tabaki Rambles, where a couple of
friends review Korean dramas. And we're back.
We're back for another episode on a key drama.
For this episode, I am joined by Sarah.
Hi Sarah. How are you?
I'm good, Jess. So lovely to be back.
I love having you here. Sarah from K Drama this slash
the Co host of Afternoon to Ask podcast.
I love having you on. It is such a great time when
you're here. I think the last time you were
here was a bit more serious. We were here for DP we.
Were. Yeah, and then unfortunately, I
don't, I don't think this is any less serious.
We're gonna be talking. About the Smile has Left Your
Eyes, which is firmly A melodrama with a swing gook and
Chong Soo min, so we are gonna really have a time here.
I have to be honest right out the gate.
I was unable to rewatch this drama before this recording
because they've removed The Smile Has Left Your Eyes from
Vicky from the Vicki library and I couldn't find it anywhere.
And I was like, Oh my God, that sucks.
I always pride myself on rewatching the drama before
recording, so I also was extremely busy, like my car
broke down. I fell like it's been a crazy
couple of weeks here and I did not have a chance to read the
recaps of all of the episodes too on Drama Beans, which is
what I love to do as well if I cannot get a hold of the
episodes. And so I haven't been able to do
that. What I did do was reread my
original blog review from 2019, and I gotta say, I don't know
what the hell I'm talking about. I'm talking specifics in my
review in my blog review. I don't know what's going on.
So we are in for a treat today. I am flying blind.
I'm going to be leaning on Sarah heavily because Sarah is which.
Is, which is unfortunate, you know, because I also have the
memory of a goldfish. I'm just so I'm just so old now.
Like I had two kids. They took my brains.
I haven't recovered. It's nearly 10:00 at night here
in the UK. So and we will be good.
We'll be good. We're going to just have fun
through this. We might talk a little more
broadly about the show than usual, but it's all in good fun.
We're going to review. We're going to talk through it
as much as we can with as much specificity as we can muster,
but without further ado, I'm just gonna go through some
housekeeping if this is your first time listening.
Thank you. What a great episode to jump in
on. Go ahead and subscribe on your
favorite podcast app. We're on Apple Podcast, Spotify,
Google Podcast and many more. If you like us, please give us a
five star review on Apple Podcast and Spotify and come
check us out on social media to stay up to date on our latest
episodes and reviews. You can find us on X formerly
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok at Tibak Pod, DAEBAKPOD.
And lastly, if you're a fan, please consider becoming a
patron. It is a great way for you to get
involved and show your support. You can check out the page on
patreon.com/always Critic Pod. And thank you to our patrons,
Janet Curtis, Baio, CD, Alana, Grace, Lorna, Sammy Caitlin,
Julia of Michelle, 10, May E, Aaron, Martha, Delphia, Camila,
and Kayla, Thank you so much for being patrons.
I love you guys. All right, so we'll get started
with the My Drama List synopsis, which is actually a very good
synopsis. When I was putting it in here, I
was like, hold on, this is pretty good.
I need this. You never know, right?
It's kind of inconsistent. It's considerate, so here's the
My Drama List synopsis for The Smile has left Your Eyes.
It reads ATV series centered around the unfolding
relationship between free and unpredictable yet dangerous Kim
Moos Kim Moo Yong, who is called Monster.
He is the first assistant in a Korean beer brewery who becomes
a suspect when a woman's suicide turns out to be murder.
His life begins to change when he meets a kind, warm
advertising designer named Yujing Kang who wishes to be Moo
Yong's safe haven. She bears as many emotional
scars as him. Yujin Kang also has a brother, a
homicide detective named Yujin Kuk with 27 years of job
experience. I don't know why they gave his
job experience though. He could just say like he was on
the 4th for a long time, 27 years of job experience.
He strives to reveal who Moo Yung really is and attempts to
keep his sister Jin Kong away from Moo Yung, with whom she
begins to know and fall in love with.
I just added the Fall in love with because I think that's
important. This show aired from October
2018 to November of 2018. It is 16 episodes long.
It's actually a remake of a Japanese drama from 2002 called
Sora Karafuru Ichiyoku Nohuhoshi.
I hope I didn't butcher that too much Or 1,000,000 Stars Falling
From the Sky, which is the alternative title for this show,
A Million Stars Following Falling from the Sky.
It is directed by UJ One. This guy is actually, I guess
one of my favorite directors because he's directed High
School, King of Savvy, Oh my Ghost, Tomorrow With You, Abyss,
Hi by Mama Hometown, Cha Cha Cha, Crash Course and Romance.
And he is also the director of the upcoming Mom's Friend's Son,
which is will be a 2024 release. It is one of my most anticipated
cage dramas of the year. It will start Jung So Min and
Jung Hen in his first ROM com. Yay.
Which we manifested. Jess, let's take some credit for
this girl. Let's take this some credit for
this we. Talked at length about how
Jungian has not done sort of like a romantic or I should say
ROM com light hearted show, and how when you went to his fan
meeting that was something that he specifically said he wanted
to do. And lo and behold, we're getting
this drama this year. So we we manifested it.
We did. We started with a link.
With a link actually, because obviously then you know this
female Lady Chung, Soo Min, and that's just going to be great.
Like, I'm so excited about them two together.
I know. And she does such good.
I mean I think they're both such great comic actors but also do
the Emotion so and I loved hometown Cha Cha Cha.
So I'm really hoping like this is a director that knows ROM
coms and doesn't screw them up in the second like, half either,
right? But he does like really packing
the emotion because he, the second-half of hometown Cha Cha
Cha was was good for. That I think he knows about tone
really well. Yeah, and even though I hated
Abyss and Oh my Ghost is not my favorite drama at all, I really
respect some like some of these other shit.
Like Tomorrow With You I think is so underrated.
Hi by Mom. I've heard nothing but good
things about that show. Hometown Cha cha cha Who hasn't
freaking heard of that show and love that show.
Crash Course a really nice solid show from 2023.
So I really like this director, like All Things Considered.
So good on him. Yeah.
Writer is Song Hey Jin. I'm not sure if this is a female
writer. My guess is yes, but this writer
really doesn't have that much to their name, about four or five
TV credits. And I really haven't heard about
any of these shows before. Sent from Heaven from 2012.
My Sweet Soul from 2008. And then they also have a
Netflix show coming out from this year to Women I.
So we got to keep an eye out for that.
I don't know what that's about, who stars in there or anything,
but when it says Netflix, I kind of feel like there's budget
behind it. So might have some big names in
that. They've also written movies
including Love Lies from 2016 Love Lies.
I reviewed it for the Patreon feed.
It stars Han Yoju and it is heartbreaking and frustrating.
It's a period piece with the Japanese occupation kind of
happening, kind of tearing friends apart.
It was it. Hani Oju plays a villain,
essentially, and you're just like, Oh my God, like you have
no idea. Like the lengths that some of
these characters will go through go to.
And it's very surprising. It's not a nice comfort movie at
all. It seems to track, especially
when you pair it with the smile has left your eyes.
You're kind of like, oh, of course it was.
It was written by the same person.
Absolutely. She.
Likes axed. Yeah, yeah.
So we had this cast, which I'm only going to list the top three
people. So we have Soy and Gook, who
plays Kim Moo Sung. The monster quote, UN quote
monster. He's been in so many things.
He's really worked his way up through the ranks and he's been
in stuff like love Rain from 2012, reply 19897, sorry 1997
from 2012. That is when I bought all my
stock in Sewing Gook. That's when I fell in love with
him. Like madly in love with Sewing
Gook. Like that's the the show Master
Sun, which I think you just watched.
Recently I just finished that. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. Oh my God.
High school king of savvy. So he's worked with the director
before the King's face, Shopaholic Louie, which I don't
remember laughing as hard at a drama as I have with Shopaholic
Louie. He was so good in that he is
such a comedian. Oh.
My God, it's hysterical. You know, like my our sister Pod
Afternoon Delight has just done an episode on K Drama Himbos and
how much they love them, and he is the archetypal K Drama Himbo.
He's so good. It's so good.
But then he also flips and plays like super smart savant kind of
characters, right? Which is what he plays here as
well. And he just has such range.
Such range. So he's been in doom at your
service, which a lot of people like to.
I think that's a very polarizing show.
And Cafe Minam Dong and Death's Game most recently, which is one
of my favorite shows that I've seen in 2024, Period.
It is #1 so far as far as 2024 goes, but he's excellent in
that. How do you feel about towing
good? Are you going to the band
meeting? Did I do I have that right?
Oh my God. I feel like you're like helping
me manifest like my, my, I just need to come on my podcast and
just tell you like everything I want to happen in my life.
Because I think yes, that was it, right.
So our first podcast ever was we we talked about do you like
Brahms and for some reason we started talking about fan meets.
I don't know why. But anyway I said I I really
wanted to know what happened in fan meets And then circumstances
happened and I I managed to get ticket.
I was in Hong Kong when John he in was in Hong Kong doing his
fan meet. So I got to do his fan meet.
I did a whole podcast on it. So if you do want to know what
happens in fan meets, check it out on afternoon.
It asks. And then you asked me onto this
PERD a while back Now and then I saw that sewing Book was doing
fan meets in just DC and in LA and I was like, oh, I really
wish I could go. And then, you know, you have
just one of those moments when you're just like, do you know
what? Like maybe I could make it
happen. So I looked up like the Air mile
offer because I knew I couldn't afford it money wise or I
couldn't justify it. Obviously I can't afford it if
I, you know, stopped eating and stuff.
But anyway, I I kind of could. I justify going all the way to
DC to to see him on Air Miles and then that stars aligned.
It was really cheap. And yeah, so I'm going next.
Oh, so exciting. I'm so excited.
I'm sewing. Sewing Gook is one of my he's in
my top five. I don't really rank them, but
like he is in my top five of K drummer like.
I love it. Yeah, and he sings as well,
because I really think of fun meat where like the actor sings
as well. Is always really enjoyable too
because they can mix it up and. My ovaries can't take that.
OK, Like, honestly, them singing and they're actually good.
I don't stand a chance. So sewing gook in this show,
What did you think about him? I think it's one of his best
roles. Like, I think it is absolutely.
You say what you think about the drama.
I think there are mixed feelings.
I think generally about this. Drama.
Oh. Absolutely.
But no one, no one would ever kind of contradict you if you
said that this is shows you what an amazing actor he is.
He is so and he's so charismatic.
He's really mesmerizing. He's completely red flag.
Oh, oh, so, so, so. Sad question, though.
Yeah, he's so. He's so captivating.
Exactly.
And he's the reason why you just keep wanting to watch it because
you feel like this is a all the way through the drama.
I mean it's I'm not going to miss Spoiler to say it feels
like it's a train wreck that is about to happen but you can't
stop watching what is going to happen.
And he does amazing things with his eyes.
Like that's my main thing with this drama that might take away.
I remember thinking like he can make his eyes do so many
different things like he has it's kind of like dead eye look,
do you know what I mean? Like he looks like he is dead
inside and you can't read him. And he's unreadable for a large
swath of the show. And that's part of his thing,
like the part of the character. Exactly.
But also just he injects it so well and so he becomes this
thing that you can't read. And then at other times he is
just so raw and so vulnerable and he just he decides which of
these things you're going to see.
And I just think that's such a talent.
It is because he feels like he's in complete control.
Yeah. And that is, I don't want to
shit on other actors or other names in the biz.
I'm not going to name names. We all we all know who you mean.
Jessica. No, it's your AMA episode.
I won't. But when he he's he's a like,
what can he dance as well? That would make him a triple
threat. I think so.
I mean look, if you look at those early because he obviously
he won the singing show. This is so in goods background
like he won a singing show. He wasn't actually an actor to
start with, right? And then obviously got casted.
So in the beginning shows, he did more singing shows, didn't
he? And he also always does a track
on a pretty much every OST of his dramas.
So and he still releases single. So I still like I still follow
him on my Apple Music. So I kind of add his music in.
But yeah, in the early, early days, like his reply 1997 days,
he does do a bit of dancing as well.
And he doesn't now, I don't think, but he did back then and
yeah. I think that he's a powerhouse,
yes. And it's hard to find talent
such as his where he can just sort of command the room and
he's got such a presence about him in the show that keeps it
even if you're sort of on the fence about the plot or you're
just kind of confused about where things are going.
And that's part of the think of it as well, like part of the
sensation of watching the show is that you're kind of like,
what is going on? I don't know if he's good.
I don't know if he's bad. I don't know if he's a murderer.
Like, who is he? But that's the whole thing, is
that he is a slippery character, slippery persona, and you can't
quite guess what he's thinking. And then there are glimpses of
vulnerability that are so attractive that make you think,
Oh my God, you just want to wrap him up in a hug.
And you're like, I totally get why Chung Suman is fighting for
this man. Yeah.
Totally or. Actually, initially.
Yeah. Or initially the Sangha is drawn
to him because he's just. I mean, he is, he is everything
that you would want your daughter not to date, right?
Oh. Absolutely.
If you see this man and you're a parent, you'd be like,
absolutely not, no, no, no. No, no, no.
But you know, all of us have fallen for a guy like this.
We've all fallen for a guy like this.
It's a. Prototypical bad boy without,
like, all of the that. Boy with emotional wounds, yes,
but but like he you're you're going to love him and heal those
wounds. And yeah, you're like I can.
Fix him like you can fix it? Yeah, exactly.
You're going to be his salvation.
That's the character. Yes.
Yes, absolutely. It's like drama crack, honestly.
It's so is. It's.
So is, Yeah. And then the whole then watching
the drama becomes quite a visceral experience, because all
the time you're like, should I even root for this guy, right?
Does some really, actually bad shit like some actual bad shit?
It's. Super questionable.
And you're like, that's absolutely criminal.
Yeah, I can't support that. But but if he.
But he didn't do this, we got to count our blessings here.
On the levels here, he's kind of lower down on the totem than I
thought. Like you're kind of making
excuses. Yeah, justifying the whole time,
right? You're like, oh, but he has a
really, really traumatic past. Right this is.
Why he's doing this. But he is, you know, like
there's always this list of like K drama, Red Flag male leads.
And honestly, most of them seem quite tame because.
It's totally, totally, I agree. I agree.
Because they don't have like he puts his money where his mouth
is. Yeah.
OK, he's actually doing some crazy.
Shit, yeah, yeah. And he's really treating people
badly. So this is this is the rich girl
right at the start. Like, I'm not going to spoil,
not spoil his section, but what what he ends up doing to her is
just. It's so cold.
It's so. Cold.
It's so cold. And that's the thing.
It's not even like he's like a cat with a toy, yes.
And I Oh my God, I said that in my review in my OK, we'll leave
that for. She just doesn't.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
We'll leave that for wait, but absolutely.
You're totally on the money there.
I I agree with you. So his Co star is Chung Selman,
who plays Jing Kong. She's been in mischievous kiss
from 2010, which is where I remember her from.
Talk about toxic male leads back then.
That was one of those where I was like, I cannot rewatch this.
Can we get married? My father is strange because
this is my first life, which pay attention to the podcast feed
because we'll be covering it this.
Season that was. That was my first Chung Summin
drama. Oh, oh, that's a good one.
Yeah, so Chung Summin also was in Alchemy of Souls Season one.
So we won't go into Alchemy of Souls.
We won't. We've left it all on the dance
floor. That's just scroll back in your
podcast feed. There's a couple of episodes
there for you, so. What do you write episodes, by
the way? I haven't listened.
I can hardly recommend them. It's.
Point by point. So Chung So Min, what did you
think of her in this show? And you know her as an actress
as a whole. I mean, I love Chung So Min so
I'm not. I'm not I'm not going to sit
here be unbiased because I just really love her.
Yeah. I'm totally biased and I just,
but she's so good in this. I mean she brings it all like I
think she's such she's similar to sewing, cooking that way.
She can do comedy. She can do really, really good
emotion and she brings you in. I think she's such a warm.
So whatever character she's playing, even, you know, even
when she's, I mean, she's not in this drama.
She is quite warm in this drama. But even when she's like a
colder kind of assassin kind of character, like an alchemy of
souls, she still brings you in and makes you feel.
And there's something always just very warming about her.
I feel as an actress, yeah, I love her.
Yeah, I just think of her as this sort of baby faced person
with a very quiet innocence about her that has never left.
And it might be because I watched her in mischievous kiss
many years ago when I was first watching K dramas and that show
she is very infantile and she was paired with like a Sundar
Elite. So it's like she was banging her
head against the wall and she was very ridiculous and so I
almost feel like I can't push that out of my mind.
She does have a very like cute face like she's not, doesn't
have severe features like sewing Guk does.
So I feel like it's proper casting to have him be this
sociopath and then she is much warmer as you said.
Yeah, they had great chemistry together.
Really good chemistry. Like, really good.
Chemistry, Yeah. So they have really good enemies
chemistry at the start, like they're really sparky, you know?
But then obviously as the drama aggressors, you know, they just
have more, even more like different kinds of chemistry.
So really well cast together I. Think because they seem to be
connecting on a soul level. Yes, really.
Believably. Throughout the show and you're
like, how can we let that go? He's such a red flag, but like,
look what they have. Yeah, yeah.
It's hard. It's difficult.
So that's Chung Suman. And then her brother is Pak Sung
Hoon. Who plays Jane Cook, the cop
slash brother. OK, this guy has been in
everything. He's been in like 51 movies,
including the great battle from 2018.
I just watched this movie several weeks ago for the first
time with it's got toinsung in it.
It's got Namji Hook in it. Let me just say right now, Namji
Hook not a period piece person, OK?
Like you put him in battle armor from like medieval Korea and
you're like maybe not. Perhaps not like that man knows
what an iPhone is. OK.
I'm sorry to say so. And you're you're saying that as
a fan of his, right? Like oh I love yok I.
Love Namju Yok. I love him.
That man should not be in period pieces.
Oh, that's hilarious. So that's the great battle he
was in. Love lies with Han Yoju you just
mentioned. Yeah, POC.
Sunun Wong played, I believe a Japanese like Commander or
something like that. Just vile, right?
Vile dude. And then he was also in
commitment, which I always like to mention from 2013.
That's TOP from Big Bang, right? Playing a North Korean spy.
Right. Who's in South Korea on a
mission and he gets implanted into like this fake family and
Paxongoon plays his fake father in South Korea, like while
they're on this mission and I'm like, whoa wow, what a
throwback. So those are just a few of the
movies that he's been in. And then he's been in 27 TV
shows including, and I hate to even say it, Snowdrop from
2021-2022. There is a very painful episode
of ours up for Snowdrop if you want to listen to it.
I had someone DM me the other day and say I got up to episode
5 of Snowdrop and I just couldn't finish.
I went and listened to your episode and decided to just skip
and watch the finale. So thank you so much for
reviewing that show and I didn't have to endure it and you did
the hard work for me and I decided made the decision after
listening to you guys to just skip to the.
End I have I have to, despite being a big Jungian fan, have
not started Snowdrop just because there's just so much
noise about it. That just makes me think it is
easy. I don't.
I don't want to hate watch something, but.
He is brilliant. You haven't.
Well, this is the worst thing. I think it's even worse.
You know when I'm one of your faves is this is happening to me
right now in like, the impossible air.
Oh God, really like someone. And you're just like, I really
want to watch this drama because of you don't.
Do it. You don't do anything.
No, I know, I know. But anyway, So anyway, I drop.
So sorry. Joke.
So you ended up dropping impossible error.
I've dropped, I've dropped, yeah, yeah, I couldn't.
Couldn't happen. Yeah that's that's a
conversation for a different day.
So maybe maybe later. But anyway, so this guy has also
been in good or bad Dong Jay. He'll that will come out later
this year. I don't know what that's about
at all but it's a 2024 release so we'll see about it.
The Killing vote Bloodhounds Unlock my boss, Life on Mars,
Man to man, just so many. Also Cain and Abel from 2009,
which I remember mentioning on that episode with you on
Afternoon, asks. Yes, it's one of your underrated
dramas. I love Cain and Abel.
I just love it. It is so angsty.
And it's with Toji Sub, which is one of my first crushes in K
Drama Land. Like that, man.
Anyway, that's a whole another thing.
But. Yeah, I've just.
I've actually just seen him in unluck.
My boss. OK.
All right. Which is a drama I cannot
recommend so despite despite Che Jong Kop TE Jong Kop.
Is a delight, isn't he? He.
Is so cute and actually they share.
So the actress that say Sung Ah is also in in from Smilers Left
Your Eyes is also in Unlock My Boss.
So she's actually yeah. So it was fun to see both Parson
Wong and So and so in Unlock My Boss when I just finished like
Smilers Left Your Eyes. But yeah, yeah, sadly, sadly
disappointing. OK, well what did you think of
this guy and his character? Because I think a lot of my
frustrations in rereading my original blog review came from
his character a lot. So the actor himself playing
this role loved him, I thought. He was.
A great, yeah. He was a great older brother.
I think he had this really great.
In fact, I needed more of him and tack like his fellow police
officer friend that had this thing, unspoken thing that they
never kind of like did more with, which is a shame I think,
because they had really great chemistry.
So all of my issues with him hard to do with the character
and the logic fails, yes, with his art, which I guess will go
into the spoilers. So I as an actor, I think he did
really great, I think. He right, I don't.
I it wasn't the acting at all. No, it was the decisions that
they had him doing. Yeah.
Which like didn't make sense. No, no.
And that bothers me. Yeah, even now I'm kind of like
feeling the frustration without knowing why.
I'm frustrated because I can't remember the details.
They might come back to you. They might come back maybe.
Interesting to see if yours look the same as mine, because I
haven't read your blog, so we'll.
OK, Oh, perfect. OK, so with that being said that
that's the end of there's more cast members like Komen Chi as
well is in it. Sun Tzu plays Sanga, that
character that we keep mentioning, the rich girl who
gets done dirty. You know this cast is a little
more extensive, but those are the three main players.
What did you think of this show? How was your experience watching
it? And without giving any spoilers
away, like, how did the ending sit with you?
I hated the ending. I'm going to be completely
frank. I love the show.
I still, I still would watch this drama again purely for the
performances, especially from SO and Gug and Chun So Min.
I still feel like it was a rewarding watch for me.
I found it frustrating because it could have been amazing.
Like it could have been like it had so many of the ingredients
to be an amazing show. And the things that didn't make
it amazing were completely fixable.
You know, They were like, they were not, They were not
circumstances or things that you couldn't change or whatever, you
know, or like drama, you know, like a director that created
really saggy drama. It was none, none of those
things. I think it was mainly for me in
the in the plotting and the ending that they chose.
How do I put this? Well, I'll just say it's not a
happy ending. Yes.
And we'll leave it at that. We won't say what the what the
hell happens at all at the end, but you enjoyed the process of
watching them the show. And I remember when you were
because you post updates on Instagram, like when you get
through a few episodes, you'll say like, you know, update and
you'll say what your thoughts are.
And you were kind of enthralled with the show.
I was, I was, yeah. I really felt like it knew what
it was doing and I felt like, and I think this is it, yeah,
you're kind of bringing it back now.
I felt like I felt let down because the ending, which we're
not going to talk about, just didn't unfold narratively for me
in a logical way. So I'm not.
There are some people that can only handle dramas that have
happy endings and no shade on them completely understand, you
know, why some people feel that way.
I'm not one of these people. I can.
I'm totally happy with a happy ending.
But it has to make sense and it has to be built up throughout
the drama so that when I get to that not happy ending, I'm I'm
maybe like sad, but I'm like OK, I get it.
Like I get it. I don't want to spoil other
dramas, but there are plenty of dramas in K Drama Land that
didn't have happy endings for me but still worked because I kind
of got why we got to where we were.
And that's not how this drama left me feeling.
And I'm annoyed because I think in the first part of the show I
really felt like this writing and the directing was really
self assured and I felt like this drama knew what it was
doing and so I trusted it. And so then in the end when it
happened, I was just like, OK, that is, that's not that.
That was that was not where you were leading me.
And now I feel really cheated because I trusted you.
I thought that you knew what you were doing.
Right. Yeah, and and I'm annoyed doubly
because I was really invested at that point.
And so at the end, what the emotions I want to feel are
about the character and the drama.
I don't want to feel frustrated and annoyed at the drama.
Yeah, because it kind of really took away a lot of those and
it's like super powerful performances in the end.
You know what? Those.
I remember. Episodes are just, you know, and
that's what I want to be left with the feeling that those
actors kind of, well, like those powerful, powerful scenes,
that's what I want to be left with.
Not with this, like, oh, you want to Chuck something in the
TV? I will read you what I said in
my review, which I evidently wrote 5 minutes after I finished
watching the show. I said honestly, like what the
fuck just happened? I'm 5 minutes removed from
catching that swift Shakespearean ending and I'm
just stunned, emotional, angry. And then I said a lot of stuff
in a paragraph which I'm not going to read and then I said in
all caps. However, I did not see that
ending coming. Not by a mile.
So I remember getting to that ending and not feeling that it
was that it was going to going to happen at all, like it was
came out of nowhere. But what I said at the end of
the review was that it. I said I've maybe had an hour to
process this because I guess it took an hour to write this and
I've concluded that this drama was simply a tragedy and as such
I can only accept what happened as it was always never going to
have a happy ending. So I kind of took it as from day
one this this was never going to be a ride off into the sunset
story. So and it this sucks because I
couldn't re watch the show and I didn't have time to read the
recaps to to jump in this with my full chest.
But basically, we don't see eye to eye on this ending like me
five years ago and and you now don't don't see eye to eye on
this ending because I kind of feel like even if I didn't see
it coming, even if it was extremely crazy and sad and made
me angry, it's the same anger that you feel at the end of a
sort of Shakespearean tragedy where you're like, but why?
Yeah, but like. Yeah, but for me, not like So I
didn't expect a happy ending. I kind of felt like we couldn't
get one quite early on in the show, actually.
So you were. Not.
Expecting. So I wasn't expecting a happy
ending, and I was expecting a reveal that would mean that the
happy ending couldn't happen. And so then I.
Was resolved. Sort of Resolved a little more
of a fizzle. Yeah, not a fizzle.
But just like there is a reason why they can't be together.
Like I and I get it. And then that reason, which had
been foreshadowed, wasn't which we can discuss more properly at
this point. No, absolutely.
We're dancing. Around.
Yeah, we are. Yeah.
So, so yeah. We're not going to stick in the
non spoiler section that much longer, but but I see what
you're saying that like you didn't expect it to be a happy
ending, but you didn't expect it to be.
That end. Fireworks on the 4th of July
type deal. Yeah, yeah.
OK, fair enough. OK, So what I want to do right
now is just have you rate the show out of Five Soldier bottles
and we'll just get into this, the spoiler section.
Yeah. OK.
So it's yeah, it's interesting because I I went back to look at
because I rate my dramas after I finished them and I actually, I
think because of that ending rated it lower then I actually I
think it deserves. So I went back and I re rated
it. Oh OK.
So I do a rating up to 10 and I do point fives as well.
So I'm quite like there's a lot of nuance in the rating anyway.
So when I finished it was a six and it's been re rated.
It's been re rated as an 8. Because actually having had.
Yeah, yeah, actually as having had it sit with me, I'm kind of
like actually do you know what the performances, the actors,
some of the things that it made me feel were like I was really
taken with it. You know.
So that's what's that's the bulk of the the and and like I just
said like I think if they had tweaked certain things for me, I
could have loved this show. It could have been a 10 for me.
It had the ingredients to be a 10 because of, as I said, the
performances and things that made me feel and like I can.
I can not like an ending of a show so like my dearest but
still love the show. So you know, like I because
because of everything it made me feel like up until that point.
Right, I'm totally following you.
OK, so for me, I'm looking at my rating on the On the Blog
review, which I'm leaning heavily on.
I gave it a four out of five. OK, so we've actually ended up
in the same place. We're in the same vicinity.
Yeah we are in the same vicinity and that star is probably for
all of the nitpicks and possibly the the resentment I feel
towards the ending. But yeah I think we're we're in
the ballpark you know with our ratings.
So four to five sold you bottles.
I had the rewatch value cuz I gave a rewatch value on on my
blog reviews down at two out of five stars and I would say
that's very accurate because I have not rewatched it in the
last five years so. I would not watch rewatch this
drama, right? That's good.
All right. So we're just going to, we're
going to get into the spoiler section.
We'll see how much we spoil because again, I have the memory
of a hamster. It might just be a little more
talking about the ending and some characters and leaning on
on Sarah's experience, having watched it just a few weeks ago.
So without further. Ado last year, actually, just.
Oh yeah, was it last year? My God, my memory.
But it was the end of last year. So yeah, it was the end of last
year. So, all right.
Hopefully still more recent. Than, yeah, all right, spoilers,
spoilers right after this. Excuse me, I can't chat.
I can't chat, yeah, no. I'm sorry.
Discoursing shit. What?
All right, we're on the other side of spoilers, so we're just
going to maybe jump back in on that ending, possibly, and talk
through why Sarah feels the way that she feels and maybe how why
I feel the way that I feel, if I can articulate it with any
possible memory that I have. So why don't you just kind of
walk us through it? So I'm going to start with
saying, did you watch the Japanese drama, the original?
And did you know anything about it when you oh?
No, no, no. Yeah, so me, me neither.
Oh, OK, perfect. That was my next question, but I
read the synopsis and I looked at the poster for the Japanese
show. Identical.
Yes. Not, not that the poster was
identical. The atmosphere and vibe of the
poster was identical to this one.
Yeah. And the synopsis is the same.
Except for the ending, right? No, I I didn't.
I didn't see. Anything.
OK, so did. You look up the Japanese ending.
Yeah, so my understanding. Oh, good.
Oh. Tell me so.
My understanding in the Japanese drama is that they are
biological brothers and sisters. Fuck out of here.
Yeah. No.
Yeah, No. Yes.
So that's why the Japanese drama, for me, the ending makes
more sense that it is logical. This is why they can't be
together. This is why, you know people
does all of the stuff that he does to keep them to part.
That makes a lot more sense. And that's where I I mean I kind
of was warring with myself because I was a bit like this is
seems to be what you're suggesting to me because they
spent like him and tack have multiples like conversations
where they're both like they can't be together they can't be
together and you're like why why can't they be together unless oh
they can't be together And then you know when like evil person
that was like the evil Princess in my dearest like she's always
the evil person she's she's telling the the very rich like
Chebol sister was saying she's your sister.
Yeah, she says. She's.
She says You're you're. And that's when I thought, fuck
shit, she. Says she's like a fellow, like
sociopath. She says that his father was a
murderer, which is true, and that they're biological brother
and sister, which in this the K drama that's not true, but in
the J drama it is true. Yes, which kind of makes more
sense, right? It makes way more sense.
Part of me a bit like an. Incestuous relationship and he
can't be together. Yeah, exactly.
But then I was really like, is K drama really going with incest?
Like, really like, I just couldn't see it, right?
Like just couldn't see that they would do incest in a in a in a
actual studio network. This isn't that.
Like, this is before. Like streaming could do like
ultraviolence, like stuff that, you know, you wouldn't show on
like network TV. This is proper network TV show.
So I was like, are they really going with the incest?
It was really strong with my brain.
And then I felt like, so to me it felt like the show bottled
it, right? So it bottled doing the incest.
Or maybe it didn't bottle it, but it couldn't for cultural
reasons do incest, but that it still then wanted to stay in the
style of the show or wanted to keep like faith to the original.
But then in so doing like didn't change the logic enough, you
know, so they didn't change enough like.
So I wish that basically two things either say, screw it, we
can't go with the incest, so we need to do something different.
Let's just actually give them a happy ending.
Like let's just like let's let's try and do a happy ending or you
fix the logic of the rest of the show to make it make sense.
So then key things like why the why the fuck is he stabbing this
guy? Like why is he walking across
this like this, this, this heart, this road.
And just as a policeman stabbing this guy like I just, you know,
like it made more sense, I guess.
If he knew who he was, but he knew that he was, he knew all
along who he was. And he knew all along he was not
the biological brother of Jin Gang.
OK, so then that's what? So I have.
So I have here in my, in my review, a whole paragraph.
A lot of it doesn't make sense to me, but you're touching on
something that I said in this paragraph.
So I have literally Burp. I'm just going to read it.
It's verbatim. It's not that long.
I'm going to skip over the bulk of the melodrama involving 1.
Mooyoung recovers his memories. Moo Mooyoung.
I need to make sure these characters are all lined up just
in case, because it's hard to. So that's Sewinguk's characters.
So Sewinguk's character recovers his memories. 2 Jinguk stabs
Sewinguk's character in the freaking St. like a psycho.
This is All in all caps. That's what you're referring to?
Yes, yes, I. I was reeling as well, like this
is an all caps for me. I don't know.
I that that's melodrama that I didn't.
I was just skipping over. I was like, I don't even want to
talk about that necessarily in detail because that's fucking
wild. Three Moo Young, which is sewing
this character, confronts Jinguk at gunpoint about him killing
his father. Yep.
And then I already read this part, say it on the fellows like
sociopath tells MU Young about his father being a murderer and
Jin Gong Jin Kong being the biological sister, which is
false in this case. But all of this melodrama just
compounding and it doesn't make sense.
It doesn't make sense that the cop brother what's what's to
happen in the street? Yeah, and also because what
doesn't make sense, right, is that they spend so much of this
drama building up his back story that he is a dedicated cop that
he's looked down upon by everybody else in the police
station because. He's so straight laced.
Because he's so straight laced, he's dogged.
He's determined he has to find the truth, but he doesn't find
the truth about this thing, and he's so he needs so he is
dedicated to finding out secrets, but then spends all of
his drama keeping secrets from the sister that he apparently
loves more than anything else in the world.
He is dedicated to unearthing secrets and to finding out
information about things. But he's a.
Liar, But yeah, but is himself a liar?
And then also like doesn't find out everything about so Ingall's
character before stabbing him in the.
Just like This is why I got to the end of it.
I'm just like basically this whole thing could have been
prevented if if Jingle could just been honest from the
beginning and that kind of that being the reason why they both
end up dead is. Just.
I can't do it. I can't do it.
I'm just like, you know, if fate.
If fate meant that they can't be together, I can handle that.
But if they can't be together because this one guy didn't tell
them, like, basically communication is the reason why
they're dead. I'm just like no, but it's but.
I see what you're saying that if they went with the J drama, it
would make sense that if he was trying to keep the secret that
their brother and sister maybe, maybe, Yeah.
Again, I would. I would probably lead with that.
I'd be like you can't be together because you're brother
and sister. But hey, isn't it nice that
you've got a real brother and a real sister?
But. Hey, family reunion.
It's If you can't already tell and you've never watched the
show and you're just in the spoiler section for shifts and
gigs. This is it's a melodrama.
It might have a little mock Jang elements in it.
It's it's just it's an adaptation of AJ drama that is a
little unhinged. OK, obviously, but it's really
well done up to certain points. OK is I think the point we're
trying to make and we're trying to make sense of some stuff that
they changed and some stuff that maybe they didn't change.
We're not sure, but it literally because the character, it has
been set up in such a way. The cop brother has been set up
in such a way when he does certain things later on in the
show, it's going against character in such a way as to be
like you're murdering the character.
Yeah, yeah, Because I really liked him.
I really liked him. I thought, what a great adoptive
brother basically, right, Because he's not her real
brother. What a great brother.
He's been like he's brought her up.
He's done such a great job of bringing her up.
She's such a, she's such a lovely, warm person despite, you
know, that awful up, you know start of her life.
And he's like I said, he's got this great relationship with
Tack and he's like really, you know, he's he's like the
underdog in the police station. So I was really rooting for him.
So then in the back of the drama, when he does all these
things, he's just like what? Why have you done this to this
character? Because the other thing that
really annoyed me with him was that he just like he just really
hated Mooyong to. It was a it was a loathing.
Yeah, it was a loathing and and I think I under thought, sorry,
I thought I understood the motives for him hating him so
much. But then as more stuff gets
revealed, the more you're, like really puzzled.
Because thing is like, he feels really sorry for Jinggang
because of everything that happened with her parents.
But basically the same thing happened with MU Yong.
So why do you not feel sorry for him?
You know, like, it's like he got his life wrecked, you know, for
no fault of his own. But she deserves, like all of
the sympathy in the world, and he deserves, like nothing but
your hatred. I just couldn't.
He It's uneven, the application of his pity.
Yeah, it is. And also because he was the one
responsible for Jin Gang. So she she got an amazing life
and became the person she was because of him.
We're sewing guok. He he's like, what would have
happened to her had she not had him in her life, you know,
because he had no one in his life.
And so it's not, it's not surprising he's ended up where
he's. I mean, if anything, he should
be congratulated, actually, for being still kind of, like kind
of sane. But he gets no sympathy, just
gets stabbed. It's so unhinged.
So I have here in this review in episode 10.
So first of all, there's 16 episodes, so this is a little
little after the halfway point. In episode 10, Jing Kong, which
is Chung's woman's character, again tells Jinguk, the brother,
that she won't break up with MU Yong Sawinguk.
And when the brother starts on another rant to make her feel
guilty, she unleashes her true feelings about how she's felt,
suffocated by his mere presence since her adolescence and so
sorry toward him because she owes him so much.
Thak later tells her to apologize for hurting his
feelings, and Jean Kong, Jung Soo Min's character agrees that
she was in the wrong. And I said in my review what?
Why is Jing Kong at fault for telling her true feelings and
saying some hurtful things for a change?
Jing Cook spouts whatever the hell he wants.
It's true, Yeah. Yeah.
And I vaguely remember this. I don't fully remember this part
in the show, but these feelings that I felt are still there
where this like unevenness between them, where he can
basically use her as this emotional battering like a an
emotional punching bag. That, and also guilt, Alea,
right? Yeah, she's, you know, he's
allaying his own guilt. For, for.
For. For pulling the trigger.
Yes, but she can't call him on his bullshit and sort of
question the validity of their relationship.
Yeah. In fact, she agrees with the
the, you know, sidekick tack and says, yeah, I do need to
apologize because I was wrong to to say all this truthful but
hurtful, hurtful stuff for once in my life.
And I was like, I don't agree with that at all.
Yeah, I think it bothered me less because it's probably quite
a confusion thing. Very good point.
Because he's because he's our older brother.
So you you kind of like in a Confucian relationship.
That's the way it goes. Like your mum can tell you
whatever the hell she wants about everything that's wrong
with you, but you can't do that to your mum because she's, you
know, older in the pecking order than you are.
And so if you do ever say something that upsets or is too
truthful and not diplomatic, you are expected to apologize.
That is the way it goes. You you have to kind of take it.
That is kind of your role. That's an excellent point.
And if you haven't listened to, I think it's two episodes right
now that you guys have out on the Confucianism.
Yes, yes. On Afternoon to Ask podcast,
please go and listen to them 'cause they are so informative
and really fun and entertaining to listen to.
Thanks. Jess Yeah, I had a great time
listening to them. So that's a excellent point that
I'm an international fan and you're of Asian descent.
So like you have a a different experience to Confucianism than
I do. And so you probably felt
differently about this scene in episode 10 and the fallout of
the scene than I did. Although, although why the fact
specific thing didn't bug me in that way, I do feel the same way
as you in that like we're still supposed to celebrate him as a
really great brother despite the fact that he he doesn't allow
her to herself really. And she is suffocated and she
is, she must feel like she's constantly having to be grateful
to him. Yeah, so, so again, this is that
kind of thing with this, this unevenness of this drama where,
you know, like I started to like I started off really liking this
character and then the back off just began to really just like
him. And that kind of annoyed me as
well, because I felt a bit like the drama still wanted me to
like him. That's a great point, that the
drama was on his side, the writing, the spirit of the drama
was on his side, and as an audience member, you're like,
but why, yeah. But why?
Because logically. Why doesn't?
Yeah, so we talked about what Moo Yung so Sewinguk's character
does vaguely. Do you want to talk about?
Because I don't remember the details.
I just remember the broad strokes, what he does to the
rich girl Sangha. Yeah, I mean he basically, I'm
not going to go into the detail either because I don't know, I
don't know that I would be able to do it justice.
But effectively he decides, I mean, we start off right.
She's engaged to a really rich Chebol person at the start.
And he overhears the conversation between them.
And I think at that point, I guess we he just decides, do you
know what? Like, I could, I could get this
Chebol girl. Like I could get her, you know,
I could get her away from this fiance.
And he just does his womanizing tricks like he you feel like
this is not the first time he's done this, you know, he just
thought it's a challenge to see if I can get her to like me.
And it was really easy. And I remember one of the things
like, because I think the drama sets him off as a red flag.
But you like we discussed right at the start, you want to find
the reasons why he's a red flag. And you want to find like,
reasons to sympathize with him and and find the goodness in him
really early on, right? Like really early on the drama
does this. And then I remember she's in the
car and she tells him, I looked up your friend that you said
went to this college and he's never been there.
And then Sewing got like, he just, he's been caught out,
right? He has lied.
His friend didn't go to college and he's just like, he just
blinks. He's no reaction whatsoever.
Like, it's no big. Not only that, but he throws it
back on us. He gaslights her, basically
throws it back on her, gaslights her and says you're wrong.
He does go to that college, he goes to this college, this other
college. I don't know what the difference
is, but anyway, he gaslights her and he does it really calmly,
really cruelly. And I that's like kind of why I
like the drama. Because it never let me settle
into deciding whether or not this character, this main lead,
was somebody I could or could not root for.
Because all the time they're like wrong footing me because I
was just like, oh shit, that's a really horrible thing to do.
Like it's a really psychotic thing to do.
Like, you know, lie so much and then gaslight her so, so you
could see also you could really feel like why someone as
sheltered as her, she's lived such a sheltered upbringing
would fall so badly for this guy and he was just constantly
giving her a little bit of rope and then tugging, tugging.
This is why I said, like, he's a cat with a toy.
It's like every time she kind of rolled away a little bit, he'd
be like, I'm going to do a little bit to make you come back
a little bit and then I'm just going to ignore you again.
And it was just that constant backwards and forwards and
backwards and forwards and then in the end they're in this car
together, right? And it's not completely obvious
to me that he didn't she she, no, she's not sorry.
They're not in a car together. They're they're basically,
they're all involved in the car crash together.
She's driving like a lunatic and because of him, because of
emotions that he's wound up in her and she ends up, she
doesn't, she ends up dying, right?
She dies. Yeah, yeah, Yeah.
Yeah, and a lot of it is, you know, because he's been kind of
puppet stringing how long? I have here, this is my this is
my review. So I said here song as death I
this has to do with the specificity here and I was
wondering if you were going to mention it.
So hopefully this will trigger something and you'll maybe
you'll answer this question for me because I it's almost an
unanswerable question. So I said Sunga's death.
I couldn't understand the line. Don't get caught.
Moo Young says this to Sunga and then they immediately crashed.
Did he say this to her to distract her from driving?
Did he say this more to himself? Did he tell her this sincerely?
It was top of mind again when the evil said on the other.
Like sociopath in the show said she was just tickled by his
statement when she heard it on the black box footage.
Why did he even think to tell her in that moment not to get
caught? What was up with this?
We'll never be taken alive mentality.
Am I missing something? So that's it.
What it What do you think of that?
I don't know. I don't know.
What to say? I agree with you.
I think there was a real ambivalence to what he meant by
that line. I think it was kind of similar
to his whole role through the drama, right?
It's a lot of ambivalence of like, what did you actually
mean? What did you actually think?
I mean, for me, I felt like he it was just the final winding
her up, like keep driving like so fast and erratically.
Don't you don't? Yeah, in the rain.
Don't get caught. Like, please keep, Because his
whole thing, his whole shtick, I think from the beginning was
like, you're some sheltered rich girl that doesn't know what real
life is. And so you need to kind of live
outside of your comfort zone and know what it's like to be in the
real world. And I felt like that was him
goading her to just be like, stop being so safe.
Don't be that safe girl again. I know.
Live, live your life. Like take risks.
And that's for me. What?
So that's why that is the most red.
One of the most red flag things he does in the whole drama is
his relationship with her and what he did to her. 100%, Yeah,
100% Because he's not. He doesn't date that girl with
any real sincerity at all. No, not at.
All at all. That's.
And that girl, that that song character that we keep
referencing was Jean Kong's best friend.
Yes, well supposed best friend. Supposed best friend?
Whatever. But she and that girl was likely
infatuated with him. And you know, there's a lot of
stuff that flies in the face of K Drama Rules like Sewing Gook's
character has sex with her and that's like a no no, right
that's kind of edgy in K Drama Land.
And that's way before you know this entire relationship blows
up in their faces with the car crash in the rain.
And obviously MU Young, that character survives.
I say here he signs a non disclosure from her family as
soon as he recovers and easily walks away with some cash.
No remorse, no regret, no mourning.
Like it was nothing for him. And actually also like Ching
Kong as well, like, so I found it really confusing because the
drama seemed to like they were kind of acquaintances.
I thought at the start and then in the middle of the drama when
all this kind of like mini melodrama was happening, they
were supposed to be really good friends.
And then and then it. Was like, what are we?
Yeah, but then she dies, and Ching Kong's not really that.
I felt like she wasn't really that.
Right, right, right. Yeah, it's not that deep.
No. OK, but this whole thing made at
night. My review.
I'd say he was basically a clinical sociopath, and I don't
even think they use that term anymore.
I think they medical professional or, you know,
psycho. Psycho.
What do they call it? Psychiatrist.
Psychiatrists or psychologists or medical professionals, they
use the term antisocial personality disorder and that is
what he had. I feel like some of the
behavioural traits of antisocial personality disorder are
antisocial behaviour, deceitfulness, hostility,
irresponsibility, manipulative, manipulativeness, risk taking
behaviors, aggression, impulsivity, irritability or
lack of restraint. And some of the mood traits are
anger, boredom or general discontent.
And this matches Moo Young to AT.
That is basically his character. That is his character to AT the
first thing that Jean Kong, which is Chung Soman's
character, teaches Mooyong is how to feel and how to be human.
And even despite the fact that he spent his whole life
observing people, he's removed from all of his remote emotions.
And what I say in my review is anything that caught his
interest, he pursued until he got bored again.
And it's a little game he kept playing until Song LA's death,
which is when basically this romance sort of gets going with
him and Jung Selman's character. Yeah, so I, you know, I actually
really. So putting aside the Sungai
thing, which to be fair, the drama makes us do anyway.
So he's like, oh, she's you know that?
Yeah. Yeah.
They're like, we'll close the book on that.
I had to be fair, like I was happy to follow it because I'm
just like, oh, I kind of want to like this guy.
And I can't if I dwell too much on what he did to her anyway.
So I did really like that they went from this really snippy
enemies kind of like relationship to this gradual and
I felt pretty authentic falling for each other.
And although we don't get a lot of, I mean, this is not a
romance drama by any means. Right, I don't consider this
somehow. Yes.
So although we do still get, you know, plenty of their scenes
together and they're really lovely, they're really some of
them are really. It's magical.
Yeah, it is. And they really feel like, I
think you said it earlier, like they're soul connected and they
really made us feel that way and they have some really great skin
ship. It really felt sexy scenes
together. Yes, in a in a way that you
don't even see in today's dramas, I feel.
Yeah, I definitely. And actually, for me, of all of
I mean, I've only seen Johnson in in this, and because this is
my first life in the alchemy of soul, I actually feel like this
is her best chemistry and her best sexual chemistry with
somebody. I can agree with that.
I can. I can get behind that statement.
For sure. And I feel like she turned it on
specifically with SO and Gook as well because I also really liked
in contrast because she has this, she dates this other
policeman. Right.
This other policeman called Chorong for a while.
He's he's basically introduced by the brother as another tactic
to try and get her to not. That's right.
He was like, why don't you,
like, meet this guy instead? And she actually does.
It yes, she does. And they have these dates, but I
love that she has just so zero chemistry with this guy, right?
Zero chemistry whatsoever. There was like, no zinginess.
There's just, it's just beige. And I really liked that
contrast. Like.
I really thought, like, it was really skillful acting on her
heart, on her behalf because you could see the difference in, you
know, how Moo Young made her feel because, you know, whether
she hated him or loved him, he made her feel all the time.
Whereas with the with the other policemen, she's just like she's
just behind, you know, a a glass.
Yeah, she's really polite. Yeah.
She's really like she's not moved at all in either way.
Yeah, yes, I said. I'm just like, I can't believe I
wrote this. I said I actually looked at a
non existent camera office style.
When sewing. Good.
Delivered the line. I want to sleep with you.
Yes. Do you remember that line?
OK, OK. What a great like, 'cause they
have sex and their foreplay is super sweet, 'cause they're like
playfully. I could see it in my hand.
They're like sitting on the bed and they're playfully removing
each other's clothes. Yes, yeah.
And it's so there's so much like intimacy and chemistry.
And it's like, it's like you said zinginess between them and
you're just like, this is like amazing.
It's so good. It is, yeah.
So. And then all hell breaks loose.
It does. I can't.
Oh, I have a a nice thought here again because I'm like using me,
my thoughts from five years ago to like power through this.
I apologize. But I also said that MU Young
shows her this family portrait that he drew in crayon as a
child, saying that he imagines himself as a lost boy instead of
an abandoned child. Yes.
And I found so much meaning in that because the distinction was
very poetic to me. I said to shield himself from
further heartbreak. He keeps hoping that he's just
been misplaced, lost, instead of actively abandoned by his
parents, his father especially. And then I'm I start musing at
the end of this and I'm like, damn, I don't know if I can
write that like this now. I say, if he's lost, if he's a
lost boy. Is he the Peter Pan variety?
The ones who have a ton of agency and choose not to be
found? But I digress.
Interesting. Yeah.
So I don't know if you've had any thoughts about the family
portrait and him like shielding himself from a little bit of
that feeling aspect. Definitely.
I mean, I do think that's what the drama, and it had to, in a
way, right? To to keep us in this
ambivalence of wanting to love this male lead but not being
able to love this maldeed was so much about fleshing out that
emotion, that huge emotional crater of a wound that he's
carrying around. And we see this crayon picture a
lot, right? It's used a lot.
It's it's in lots and lots of scenes.
And we are in typical K drama style, but done very well given
lots of partial flashbacks as we piece to, you know, together.
And he pieces together because obviously, as you said, he lost
his memory, his background on what happened and what really
happened. And and I think they do this so
well because they really. Yeah, they really just show what
a broken boy he is. And and I think especially when,
you know, she discovers that his, that, like scabby rooftop
apartment that he lives in has got like, no cooking utensils.
And so then they have this supermarket shopping scene where
she's basically. Just buying stuff, Yeah, and
then you're drogging my memory when?
You, Yeah. And then she says this line
about something like you, you have to have rice in your house,
You have to eat. You know, you have to like home.
Creation of home is about having a home cooked meal and is about
having rice in your ice cooker ready to eat.
And and I think that's the first time he's had a home, right.
So it's really, really, really it just creates such an
emotional feeling in you. And then when they have their
breakup. So you know when he, he says
he's going to split up with her and he does that kind of like
kind of sacrificial thing of like, I'm gonna break up with
you and pretend that I don't love you anymore, but actually
I'm doing it for you type thing. And then he's kind of like in
his apartment, with all the cooking utensils that she
bought, and he just. She's everywhere, yeah.
And you're just like, oh, when you just want to give him a big
hug Because by that point, by that point, you've kind of
forgiven all of his red flagness.
You're just like, he's just a walking emotional wounds.
You're like he couldn't help it. He's like a yellow flag.
Now I maybe, I don't know. So I don't even remember exactly
how the bad guys end up at this Cabin in the Woods type thing at
the end of the show. But they get shot and die
together and that's the ending that we get versus their brother
and sister or some other version that was not written.
And they never get to live the rest of their lives together.
They die where their parents died, and it's just a lot of
like, murder and sociopaths. I'm sorry, antisocial
personality disorder and glimpses of redemption and a
very depressing ending. And I don't know if you had any,
like other thoughts about the ending or any other
clarifications that you wanted to make.
Yeah, yeah, I think, I think for me there.
Were a few things. Like I felt.
I remember when I was watching it feeling like I think as soon
as he shot the rich chaebol sister, that's when I thought
OK, like I had a little bit of hope that there might possibly
be a happy ending for those two. And then when he shot her, I was
like OK that's done. Like, we're not getting one.
And and to be honest, like the post, that post, that scene, the
scene when he's the scene where she's planted the seed, that
Jing Gong is his real sister, are some of the best scenes that
Sewing Book has ever, ever done. Like he is in his rooftop
apartment and he's just broken, devastated.
And so you can kind of see also when she's goading him and
goading him because she, she has a great set of lines, the
chaebol rich sister, where she's really winding him up and then,
you know, obviously ends with a bullet in her.
You can totally see why he got to that point, you know.
So even at that point when you're just like, it's bad, he
shot someone. I think we as the audience were
like, oh, that was your chance. Like you you've now, like, we
totally know why you did this. But now you've lost your chance
at at being with her now, right. This is this kind of, this is
when this kind of heavy cloud of dread started to kind of descend
on the show. And you brought it.
But I remember feeling like right at the end, even when
they're in that cabin and he's already shot this chaebol
sister, and he's like a wanted criminal now.
And there was still like, a little bit of me was like, well,
maybe she could wait for him, like after he gets out of prison
and they're really old and they could finally peak, you know
what I mean? Even then, even then I was like
there was a little bit of me despite, as I said, starting
this drama pretty much thinking there would not be a happy
ending. I think by then I was still even
like, maybe they could. And then cushioning the blow a
bit. Yeah, cushioning the blow.
And then no. We had to have this kind of like
RJ, kind of it. It was very Romeo and.
Giulietti. Yeah, he's died.
Therefore I should die type thing.
Because even then I was like, you don't have to die,
Chinggang. Like you, I I get that you're so
connected with the sky, but you're still, you know, an
independent, feisty woman in your own right.
So that was another thing that I was a bit like, I'm not
convinced she had to die. Like, I felt a bit, oh, sorry.
And then the other thing to remember that Jarred me as well
was that post finding out that Che Boris's rich sister has died
and there's question marks over who killed him.
I remember Xin Gang is like, no, it's not Moo Yong.
It couldn't be Moo Yong. Oh, that's right.
She was like, in denial. Yes, she's in denial, but Gomin
Shi's character. Like Moo Yong's friend, the one
that was also like a fellow psychopathic or sociopath
rather, that both went to this, you know, psychiatrist.
She's basically like, she knows who he is and she gets like that
he could be this person. So then I remember it feeling
like it Jarred a little bit with me because it was a bit like, if
he's someone you love so well, so much and a soul connected
with, like, why do you not also know that this is, this is his
personality too, that he's capable of being this person?
Like, it's like you fell in love.
Did you fall in love with The Mirage?
Like, did you fall in love with somebody that you had made-up in
your mind, actually, that you could be so vehement and adamant
that he did not kill this woman, when clearly throughout the
whole drama we've seen, he could actually totally, completely
murder someone. That is exactly who he is.
Yeah, I. I don't know what the answer is,
but I I see where you're coming from that she it's almost like a
disconnect with the character because the character of John
Suman, because someone's character showed her exactly who
he was throughout and there was no question that he could have.
Killed. Someone, I mean, kind of already
did like. Indirectly, right, Right.
And there was like a clean up job.
That he had done earlier in the show as well, like he didn't
murder somebody, but he cleaned it up.
Yes. As what?
Like that was like the. Intro to the whole show and.
It's like, OK, if you can clean up a dead body and stage a
scene. Like you can total stage a scene
to make it look like a suicide. Yeah, yeah, you could.
Totally. Murder somebody dude.
Like that's. She knew all of this and she was
still like, Oh no, I can't be. Him.
No, I just found like, babe, I just just just.
Jarred a little bit for me like I could I could see you know,
like if her character had just been about praying that it
wasn't him praying that, you know it had to do with him like
that I get. But this whole like, oh, it's
not him. He didn't do it thing.
Was it like she was like, too? Sure, it was just.
Yeah, it was just, it just Jarred.
It was like. Do you actually know who you
fall in love with? Because we do.
Yeah. We're we're still cheering.
We're still cheering. You guys on?
But like, we know exactly who he is.
Yeah, that's the the. Cabin in the Woods scene is very
heavy. This is basically the last scene
in the whole show. She pleads with him not to kill
himself. She uses herself as leverage,
puts the gun to her own head. He tells her to just go, and I
have here in my review. She says Go where?
And he replies to how it was before me, and she tearfully
says, but you were with me from the beginning, and that I felt
was very heavy. That was very telling that she
almost can't envision herself without him because he was there
always. Yeah, well, she said that quite
a few times. Like, I think when you know,
when her brother Jingle was trying to tell her to not be
with him anymore, she'd said quite a few times.
I'm I can't live without him. I can't live without him.
And you really, really began to feel that.
I think I do, too. Like, I believe her.
Yeah. They did a good job of showing
us why. She felt that way, yeah.
There's like a codependency between them, yeah?
That they develop and then she. Realizes who?
He is. And their history together and
stuff and it just sort of clicks and then they just died.
Like they get killed like the Jiang family henchman secretary
dude, who like, shoots them both dead.
And that's the plot device. That's it.
Like they? Die.
It's just not it's. I don't think that.
I don't think this. Drama's for everybody at all.
I think if you're you know the for for if you're the hometown
Cha cha cha person, don't watch this show at all.
That's not, this is not for you. But if you're the Love Lies girl
or maybe into some tomorrow with you, maybe is is a better, a
little closer in tone to this this show.
This is not light at all. It's definitely a melodrama and
it doesn't have a happy ending. We just said like they die.
It's just it's just tragic. Like they have a tragic back
story. It's it's all the things.
And the guy's toxic. He's a red flag.
He said that over and over again.
It's all the things, but it's incredibly interesting and it's
a lot of K drama. Like this is like a very K drama
Y show. It doesn't have a lot of Western
influence, I would say like a lot of the shows we see today,
OK, this is not a. Netflix output.
At all. Yeah, it's very mellow.
It's. Very mellow.
And. It it just permeates the whole
show. And if that's not your vibe, if
you're a mood watcher, you got to wait, wait until you kind of
feel it to watch this show. But I do feel like there's some
merit in it. I feel like there's something to
it. I feel like there's something
about this pairing and the the machinations and the
relationships of the show are just kind of like you can't look
away at the train wreck of it. So I would.
Recommend it, but it's not for. Everybody.
No, I remember. When I first started it, I'd
have forgotten who it was. Sorry, somebody commented on my
feed and said I love this show but I never recommend this show
because. Because.
Because of what it is. So I'm really looking forward to
seeing how you feel about it. And I remember thinking like,
how does that work? That you would love a show but
you can't ever recommend it. I feel that statement deeply.
Yeah, yeah, but. Afterwards I was like, OK, I
totally. Got it.
I get it. I get it.
I mean, I have.
Actually recommended it, but it's to people.
Whose drama tastes. I know already.
You know like I've. I'm kind of.
I'm feel confident that that they will like what I liked in
it and that would be enough. Absolutely.
Oh my God. It's worth noting I love.
Angsty shows, and so do you. Yes, yes, we're angsty bitches.
So this. Was like kind of in our
wheelhouse. OK, if you're not an angsty
person in any way, shape or form, this ain't for you.
No, this is super angst in fact, actually.
Right. So I actually went on a Reddit
thread. Oh no.
Of somebody? No, no, no.
It was. It was for.
Drama. If it was drama, Rex.
So it was like, can someone recommend me an angsty drama?
And then literally about 10 replies in a row was smilers
left your eyes. It's perfect.
I was like just a ticket. Yes, it's so true.
It is full on, Full on. Angst.
Well, it's. Full on.
Angst there I. Mean there was a there was a
chance that they could be brother and sister.
It doesn't end up happening in this show, but in the J drama.
Lo and behold there. If there's incestuous in there.
Not in this version, though, no, if that.
If that's your ick, it's not in here, yeah, yeah.
And then if it is then. Jay drama is where to go.
And then they watch a dray drama.
Yeah, yeah. Where?
It would logically make more sense, right?
Right. Anyway, I think I've come to the
end of like, my memory and the end of what I had in my original
blog review. So I guess that's the end of my
notes. Do you have anything else you'd
like to add about? The smile has left your eyes
before we get out of here. No, I think that's I got to wrap
it up as. Well, yeah.
OK, perfect. I'm so glad we.
Got to go through everything with as much detail as we could.
And if you have anything else you'd like to say, if you're
listening to this and you're like, they didn't talk about
this, I swear to God, we just didn't remember it, OK?
It's just the fact, the simple fact that a lot of things just
didn't line up and we didn't remember.
OK, I'm sorry, but feel free to reach out to us, OK?
Reach out to us. I'm more than willing to look
things up and actually read the recaps after the fact.
I don't give a shit. I'll do whatever I can to to
appease you guys. I feel terrible that I couldn't
do the homework, basically for the assignment.
I don't know. I feel like you're, you're,
you're. I think you do feel bad about
doing it, but I do think we've kind of done most of it justice.
I do think I am OK. I think anything that we didn't.
Cover would have been. Kind of smaller details.
That's what I feel like anyway. Perfect.
Hopefully.
That's how. Hopefully that's how people
feel. Sarah, where can people find you
online? So I'm on Instagram at K Drama.
This and I Co host a podcast afternoon at Asks.
So we're at afternoon asks on Instagram and on Twitter.
And yeah, check us out. So we are actually, we're going
to slightly drop a new Confucian episode on My Dearest Suit.
So that was a ton of fun. Oh my grace, yeah, we just
really picked that drama apart. It was so fun.
God, I came from a confusion point of view.
I can so much. Confusion.
It's war to war. Confucius.
That. It is, and I remember mentioning
a lot of that. In in our review as well in the
Pivot review about the values and how like it was just that
was a big part of the show and it's it was a really good, it
was a really good episode. Oh, thank you, thank you.
So I can't wait to listen to that.
Episode from you guys. I'll I'll be first in line to
press play. Absolutely.
So Afternoon asks for their podcasts and K drama lists on
Instagram and the socials without.
I think that's it. That's been our show.
I'm Jessica and this has been the Tabaki Rambles podcast.
The, the,
the. The.