The outstanding feature of this show is the well-developed characters. I almost dislike the whodunit mystery because it distracts me for just savoring the idiosyncrasies of all the personalities.
Take for the instance the Police Chief.
He’s the lead investigator of a high-profile, serial murder case but he can’t figure out who his young protégé’s love interest is. He matches YongSik with all the single ladies in that small town EXCEPT for the one girl who’s right under his nose: Dongbaek. lol. What does that tell us about his detective skills? Ha!
There’s this scene when YongSik, tired of his boss guessing the wrong girl, just told the Police Chief who the girl was. I laughed heartily when Yongsik received a blow to the head from his mother.
Police Chief: It’s because of her, isn’t it?
YongSik: What? Who?
Police Chief: Who do you think?
He glanced at YongSik’s mom who was busily going in and out of the restaurant. She seemed to be spying on them.
Police Chief: You just looked at Helena, didn’t you? (Helena is a restaurant helper. She’s blonde.) I’ve great instincts.
YongSik: (sighs in exasperation) Chief Byeon, I like Dongbaek.
Police Chief: (stunned) What?
YongSik: I fell for her at first sight. I’ve been after her ten times a day. And the entire neighborhood knows.
Police Chief: (gasping!) Does your mom know?
And just then the mom walked in, lugging a sack of something, flour maybe? and elbowed YongSik on the head. Of course, she overheard their conversation and was still angry that the whole neighborhood knew except for her — and the obtuse Police Chief.
YongSik: Omma!
Police Chief: She does know. That’s why she used her elbow.
lol. The Police Chief said THAT as if his conclusion required a great power of deduction. Anyway, I must say this of him: he has a good heart. And he’s a trier.
There’s also Dongbaek’s son, Pilgu.
I like how Pilgu isn’t merely used as a devise to move the plot forward. He’s a precocious child. I laughed out loud in Episode 5 when he popped out of nowhere with an umbrella decorated with an angry face at the SAME TIME as thunder rumbled. Good job, director!
But it came as no surprise that he was unhappy to see Yongsik out with his mother. He vetted YS like a father would vet his daughter’s suitor. He asked Dongbaek whether she was close to YS (i.e., dating YS) because YS was walking her home.
YS: (defensively) Oh I live in this neighborhood too.
But Pilgu knew YS was lying, so he asked him where he lived. YS said he was Pilgu sounded like a criminal investigator.
PG: (bluntly) Do you like my mom?
YS: What? (he and Dongbaek exchanged looks)
PG: If that’s the case, stop coming to our bar.
YS: (shocked) Why? You don’t like me?
PG: No, I don’t.
YS: Hey, you even asked me to help your mom out the other day, remember?
PG: I hate all the guys who like my mom. Mr. No Gyutae, Jungi’s dad, and the rice cake shop owner. They all talk casually to my mom, saying that they like her. But they didn’t even do anything when Jungi’s mom was pushing her. That’s what you guys mean by “liking” someone.
BTW, here are Jungi’s mom and dad.
From Pilgu’s encounter with the men who liked his mom, he saw them as disrespectful and useless cowards. Dongbaek felt sorry for her son.
Dongbaek: Pilgu, why are you growing up so fast? You’re so quick-witted. Goodness!
YS: Pilgu-ya, you see, that’s not how I feel about your mom. With me, it’s different.
PG: It’s all the same. (turning to DB) Mom, you told me that Dad is tall and smart. My dad is a renowned scholar. He earned 10 doctoral degrees in China. Even my dad, who’s a wonderful man, he liked my mom but he’s doing fine all by himself in China now. I hate all the guys who are interested in my mom.
Awww…. He thought his father abandoned them. In truth, DongBaek left JongRyul and didn’t inform him about her unborn baby. But I like how DB gave Pilgu a rosy picture of his dad. She didn’t say that his dad was a trash, a good-for-nothing, and all.
Also, it’s very interesting that Dongbaek values intelligence and/or education. She gave Pilgu’s imaginary dad “10 doctorate degrees” from China. And remember how she wanted her English name to be Diana because she was “very stylish and smart. She looked very smart.” (lol. Diana was NOT known for being scholarly.) Pilgu asked her then if she liked to look smart.
Also, remember that her first meeting with YS was at the bookstore. She was browsing through that English book “Harry Potter” and read aloud, “It’s okay.”
Additionally, despite money being tight, she paid for Pilgu to go to after-school or hagwon. So Dongbaek placed premium on education.
They reach Dongbaek’s home. Yongsik attempted one last time to have a “man-to-man” conversation with Pilgu. I like him for reassuring the child, and for taking his concerns seriously.
YS: Pilgu-ya. I don’t know about anyone else, but I won’t do anything you don’t like. (meaning, he won’t treat Dongbaek disrespectfully or abandon her when she’s in trouble.)
PG: Stop coming over to our bar. And don’t say hi to me at the arcade.
YS: I remember going nuts trying so hard to protect my mom when I was your age. I know you’re trying to protect your mom. So why would I deliberately worry and upset you? (I like that he’s telling PG that he was in the same boat as PG).
PG: Don’t lie just to look good. Why try to protect Ms. Kwak (YS’s mom)? She doesn’t need protection.
Dongbaek and Yongsik grinned. After all, Pilgu is still a boy. To him, Ms. Kwak looks formidable.
YS: Well, anyway…what I want to say is just get a good night’s sleep. You’re at the age where you should be eating, playing and sleeping as much as you want to, so just sleep well. I’ll never ruin the fabulous life of an eight-year-old boy.
PG: You’re out if I don’t like you. (Pilgu is using baseball lingo here. “You’re out” means YS is excluded, banned or prohibited from courting his mom)
YS: Fully understood. I’ll just try to look good in my own way.
PG: (looking at mom) Bring in the dumplings. (he noticed that YS had brought dumplings for them).
To me, this whole conversation exposed the worries and the maturity of a young child. He had to grow up fast to become his mom’s lone protector. That’s why I like the scene in Episode 6 when YongSik surprised him by lifting him up high.
His best friend Jungi was bragging how his father’s so strong that he could put him on shoulder…and he weighed 42 kg (or 92 lbs). And Yongsik appeared out of nowhere to raise him up in the air. He then put him on the ground and rubbed his hair affectionately. He asked, “Did you eat breakfast? Did you eat with your mom? What did you eat?” Pilgu and his friend were speechless.
YS: What’s wrong? Did I surprise you? I guess you’ve never done that before, Pilgu. Did I lose brownie points again?
PG: (he was thinking “it was fun” but didn’t say anything)
His classmate: Can you do that for me, too? (lol. He was 92 lbs.)
YS: You?
PG: Go ask your dad. (turning to YS) Me. Do that for me again.
YS: Again?
Yongsik is 30. Pilgu is 8. Had Yongsik married in his early 20s, he would have had a child Pilgu’s age.
Then, there’s Dongbaek’s mother. She was surprising late addition to the story. There are lots of theories about her.
One, she isn’t the murderer. The murderer is male. I already said that it’s that handyman who scribbled and the warning graffiti on the wall.
But the mom was the one who had been leaving that bottle of energy drink in the glass recycling bin. She had been keeping watch over Dongbaek.
Two, although I’d like to think that the mother was the “guardian angel” that night of the last murder, it’s still too early to say so. For now, we can only with what the Police Chief discovered in Episode 5.
PC: Dongbaek, then let me ask you one more thing. Did the fire sprinkler really turn on right when he stood in front of you? He didn’t turn it on to get rid of any evidence? He really ran away because it turned on all of a sudden? Is that what happened?
What the Police Chief was trying to ascertain was who set the alarm because there was no fire in the building. That would mean there’s somebody else who was aware of a crime taking place and tried to stop it.
DB: When the guy was standing in front of me, I heard the fire alarm go off along with the fire sprinkler. And I think someone knocked on the door. (To me, it sounded more like pounding, though)
PC: The door?
DB: Yes, but I’m really not sure. Everything happened all of a sudden. But he was definitely standing right in front of me.
PC: The sprinkler saved your life.
DB: What?
PC: But why did it go off at that exact moment?
In a voiceover, Dongbaek said, “Is that kind of coincidence even possible?”
Three, the mother is the only one who can tell when Dongbaek’s real birthday is.
According to the title, Dongbaek’s birthday is 1986.08.29.
The identification card found at the scene of the crime had 861224 as date of birth, suggesting that that body found in the river belonged to Dongbaek. The camellias bloom in the winter and Dongbaek was born in the winter.
However, there’s still a possibility that the body found in the river wasn’t Dongbaek’s. The corpse’s face was badly disfigured or was already decomposing so a positive visual ID couldn’t be made at the crime scene. The detective had to rely on the identification card. Also, as of Episode 5, Dongbaek no longer wore her germanium bracelet. And Hyangmi was a known kleptomaniac.
Four, the mother does have dementia. She isn’t faking it. To me, she sent her daughter to the orphanage because she wanted her to have a better life, and she couldn’t take care of her. She didn’t “abandon” Dongbaek; she entrusted her to people whom she thought would provide Dongbaek a better life than she could.
It’s also a sacrificial love when a person gives up someone very dear to her in the hope that the other person will have a better life.
There are other interesting characters like the wife of Mr. No. I like her, actually. But perhaps I’m biased because of her profession. lol. Hyangmi is interesting, too.
I’ll continue this later. I’ve to go.
Heh! I’m several days late but still the first to comment on this show. Maybe besides you, @Packmule3, I’m the only one in this group watching this show, or trying to.
I paste my comment from DB here: Since the previous episode the thriller aspect, the comedy and the romance (even the ‘tragedy’) are skillfully integrated so that the shift in tone does not rub us the wrong way. I don’t know how the show manages such a mix of genres, sometimes all in one episode, but it does it so well. It’s been loads of fun just rolling along with the scenes and getting to know the characters.
About the timing of Dongbaek’s mum’s ‘entrance’ into the show. It was carefully planned because it was in the previous episode that Dongbaek and both Dongbaek and Hyang Mi had been talking about mums and how having a mum might have provided DB with someone to have her back. HM had said that with a mum like DB, they would both not have been working as they were. So mum really and truly appears in this episode.
What’s noteworthy is that the mum even with dementia, must have kept track of Dongbaek all along, because she has The Camellia’s telephone number on her bracelet. She’s been keeping tabs on DB and probably has her down as her guardian as well.
Practically every female character is super interesting. Although I don’t like Hyang Mi, I can’t look away from her scenes. She intrigues me by her amazing ability to say the most effective things to each person, to get them to talk, thus getting secrets that she can hold over their heads. She even tries with Dongbaek by asking about her past.
It’s strange that the men (except for 2 or 3, counting Pilgu) are practically nonentities. We don’t know their names and if they even appear on screen, the camera (except for the first episode) does not linger on their faces, so I can’t even recognise them.
The scary thing is that the killer is among them, a nonentity now too, but in the flashback to the OK Aesthetic murder, he was present during the investigation which had shifted to The Camellia. The camera locked on to Dongbaek’s shoes from another person’s point of view, and it felt as if it was the murderer checking her out, right there in the same room as she was being questioned by Chief Byun.
Show is amazing at bringing on the creepy factor, just as it brings in the cute and funny with Yong Shik. He is so lovable as the childlike, tantrum throwing wannabe boyfriend. I just know he’ll succeed, because he is sincere and DB is touched by him already.
The reason I like the last scene at the police station is that Deok Soon and Ja Young both got their ideas sorted out correctly in an instant. It was a scene that killed several birds with one stone, and brought Dongbaek closer to Yong Shik, while eliminating Kyu Tae.
The cut away was masterfully done as well. From DB’s and YS’s emotional (but funny to us) tears over their mutual protection of each other, we are brought hard smack into the present when possibly neither was protected.
After having grown to care for and laugh with these characters, it was a wrench in the gut to be reminded that all is not well with them in the ‘now’.
What a strange but likable, funny, sad-scary show!!!