(Updated)

My review is coming. I see that some of you have been pulling up my old posts, especially my impressions on Episode 1 and 2, so I’m assuming that there’s interest on what I have to say about this show.  (hahaha)

Will edit this for my review.

Let me attend my morning meetings, and I’ll catch up on Episode 8. I think I’ll just post on EVEN numbered episodes from now on. I didn’t post anything on Episodes 5 and 7 either.

I’ll leave this here. I  think his new code number was 5959 then an asterisk. From what I heard, that number 5959 has a special meaning among Koreans. It sounds like cooing “ooh-gooo-oooh-gooo” because 5 is pronounced as “oh” and 9 is “gu.”  Very cheesy.  To me though, 5959 reminds me of XOXO which indicates “Hugs and kisses!” in teenspeak. The Xs are two lips kissing and the Os represent an embrace. 🙂

Later, gater! In a while, crocodile!

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I understand why people of the feminine sex would gush over this show. It’s straight-up fairy tale with a modern setting. But as sassy bitches and smart bitches, I expect my readers and my 8 followers to both enjoy a show for its entertainment value and EVALUATE it for the cultural and societal norms it poses.

Take for instance this Episode 8.

As much as I find GgiBbeum cute and MaSung princely (I think that’s the effect the costume director is going for with the suits, especially the white suit), I can’t help but be turned off by the persistent infantilization of GgiBbeum – and that KiJoon.

I noticed this earlier. Observe in the beginning of Episode 7 when GgiBbeum was crying in the café. She was sitting at “her” table by the window (bought by MaSung) looking outside at the rain. I remember thinking, “Why can’t I cry prettily like her? She whimpers like a baby while I howl like a hyena. She hiccups cute, too. Awww….”

But in Episode 8, her childishness really bothered me when she waited for him for hours but didn’t even attempt to text him or call him up to ask what was going on. What the heck?? Any grown-ass woman would have taken her cellphone from her purse and called up to check on him. Why on earth was she sulking there like a toddler who missed out on the ice cream party?

I know psychologists would call this behavior “learned helplessness.” She was ditched and let down before so she assumed she had no control over this crisis AGAIN and she began to respond HELPLESSLY – that is, she was incapable and powerless to solve this problem herself.

I also know fans of this drama would protest and say “But she’s so plucky! So optimistic! Look at all the hardship she had endured with a smile.”

My response is this: Having a positive OUTLOOK in life counts for nothing when an ACTUAL course of action and a positive PERFORMANCE are required. Just do it, girl woman!

In fact, her “positive outlook” quickly went negative when MaSung was a no-show to their date. She trudged back to the shop all depressed and dejected.

To her best friend, she wondered if her situation was all due to “bad luck.” Really! She should take her lucky stars that her best friend wasn’t harsh like me. I wouldn’t have blamed poor Fate for this. I would’ve blamed her passivity and inaction.

That’ was why I became doubly irritated with her reaction when she encountered MaSung on her way to throw out the trash. She exchanged heated words with him, and then threw the trashbag at him. There goes maturity! I thought, what good would that do?

For sure, the writer and director want us to believe her action is cute and socially acceptable behavior. Her tantrum was done “for laughs.”

MS: (after the trash landed on his feet) What are you doing? Are you crazy?
GB: Yes I am! Wouldn’t you go crazy? I was waiting there for hours. Would you go crazy?

MS: Why are you dropping honorifics? I’m your Oppa?
GB: Oppa? Don’t come to my house again.

See that?

She looked cute but…. as a grown-up woman myself, I’ll have to pass. Her tantrum just reinforced a stereotype that women are hysterical when they’re angry.

Even though, GgiBbeum had VALID reasons for getting angry,

1) MaSung ignored them by distracting her. Sure, he looked handsome when he insisted on the honorifics and played the “Oppa card.” But it was very patronizing of him.

2) the writer and director trivialized her anger, loneliness and insecurity by making her appear cartoonish. Notice GgiBbeum’s screechy voice and her tightly shut eyes. She looked like a little girl.

Then, she looked CUTE when she left in a huff. How could she expect her words to be taken seriously after THAT?

3) MaSung’s take from her outburst was that she had a vicious temper. But he said it in an indulgent tone. He wasn’t  concerned that HE did something wrong and that HE needed to tell her the truth about his memory loss because it was affecting his relationship with her.

Moral lesson from that scene: Act like a baby, be treated like a baby. 

His silence about his amnesia and his reticence to confide in her about his illness also bugged a lot of viewers.

I don’t know how the writer intends to explain his lapse but to me, he hasn’t revealed anything yet because he doesn’t regard GgiBbeum as mature enough to deal with his illness. He doesn’t want to burden her with his problem because-he-doesn’t-know-whether-she-can-handle-the-news crapola.  It’s similar to noble idiocy except in his case, he’s a noble idiot in relationship with a rug rat. lol.

He views her as a child to be petted, cajoled, and cherished, NOT as a equal partner or a companion in life to depend on.

It shows whenever he talks to her. He deliberately towers over her, so she has to “look up” to him. Visually too, for us viewers, we’re left with the impression that he’s high and mighty, and his words must be followed because he stands head and shoulder above the rest.

Then, he tries to tease her into a good mood. Strange, isn’t it? He knows whenever SHE’s in a foul mood but she doesn’t know when HE’s in a bad mood.

And even when GgiBbeum’s in a snit and she whips him into shape, the image I have of GgiBbeum is a cute puppy trying to rein in a Doberman twice her size. He may chase contritely after her or act scared that he’ll be caught with Ha Im, but his real fears and anxieties remain a tightly guarded secret from her.

I thought his new passcode to the door was revealing. His password was ohgoo—ohgoo, a cooing sound you make when you see something cute.

Like this cutie-pie. 

I hope though that he grows to see her as something more than an amusing child to be coddled and cossetted. In as much as it satisfies him to see her emotionally dependent on him, he shouldn’t confuse tenderness for a helpless creature with real love for a grown woman.