Extra-ordinary You: The Title Explanation

I’m still writing my review for Episodes 3 and 4 (aka Shows 5 to 8). It should be up later today.

Meanwhile, I hereby declare that the correct title of this romcom is “Extra-ordinary You” with the hyphen in the middle.

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You see, we’re led to believe that female lead of this romcom, DanOh, is just an “extra” or a minor character in the manhwa world that she’s living in. She’s just an unexceptional character, “nothing out of the ordinary.”

But this is far from the truth.

In fact, she’s an extraordinary “extra” in the manhwa who rescues bullied classmates and gets the job done that’s required of her by the writer. She’s the “shuttle” for JooDa’s seeds so her flower garden would bloom. And she’s the “love bridge” for the writer so that the romance between JooDa and NamJo would blossom.

What I like about this show is that it’s entirely meta. It’s a romcom show about a romcom character who’s aghast to find herself in a romcom manhwa. It’s self-referential. The plot pokes fun of the silly conventions of a romcom while it itself engages in the same silly tropes.

For instance, DanOh complains that only Jooda the Female Lead is getting the spotlight, and the writer reserves sunlight for her.

but she doesn’t realize that sunlight has been shining on her and Haru, too.

In Episode 1 (at 17:01), Haru is sitting by the window in the library and contemplating the scar on his palm. He lifts his hand to block the strong sunlight streaming through the window.

In Episode 3 (at 26:31), she gets the spotlight while cleaning her locker because she receives a vision. She’s literally and metaphorically “enlightened.”

In Episode 4 (at 9:21), after the stair accident happened ,she can’t see Haru’s face because light is streaming on them and he’s backlit.

She scoffs that JooDa is always rescued by the lead male and/or the secondary male lead because she’s the heroine in the manhwa. But then she doesn’t realize that she too is continually being rescued by Haru, her Backmate,  because she’s the female lead as well.

And this is funny because she already had an inkling that her backmate would save her.

That’s the reason she played dodgeball. She wanted Haru to save her when a ball came toward her direction. She didn’t expect to be sooo good at dodgeball that she became the last person playing for her team.

Everybody was eliminated except her, and Baek Kyung and his partner on the opposite team.

As to be expected, her Mystery Guy/Backmate saved her by using his back to shield her. What do we expect? He was her “backmate” after all.

But the interesting part here was her Second Male lead, aka Baek Kyung, was also LOW-KEY helping her. You see, he dodged. Deliberately.

He avoided the ball and exposed his partner to the ball. He was SUPPOSED to catch the ball and quickly throw it at DanOh so his team would win. Yet he dodged and let his partner get hit.

See that?

She’s very much aware that, in romcoms, the primary role of the leading male and the secondary lead is to rescue the girl,

But she’s very much unaware that she herself is being rescued by her own leading man and the secondary male lead.

Thus, she may be relegated to play the role of an ordinary “extra” in the manhwa but she’s decidedly an extraordinary girl in her real life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 Comments On “Extra-ordinary You: The Title Explanation”

  1. I LOLed when she complained about the lighting during the art class. 😂 It’s funny partly because of the actress’ delivery of her lines.

    The show may be a light romance but it does teach us something about finding or recognizing moments when the “light is shining on us” instead of being fixated on others. 🖤

  2. Yes, the actress is superb here! She’s carrying this. She’s in about 3/4th of the show either doing a monologue or interacting with other characters. And yet, you never get tired of her. Even when she’s chattering like a magpie. lol.

    Her complaint about the lighting was funny. It was petty because she knew she was a minor, but she’s making it seem like the writer is even pettier than she was for being “stingy” about the lighting. Too funny.

  3. Ohhhhh…. that play on the word “extra” is so ingenious. So many ways to look at the title.

    I love Kim Hye-Yoon aka Dan-oh here (she played the ambitious student in Sky Castle), so crazed but determined.

  4. For the light on Haru in the stair scene and the dodgeball one, I thought it was more about the fact the writter didn’t put him in the scene and he always drawn without a face. The light was there to make him blurred. Saemi doesn’t remember him after the stairs scene however it was a stage scene.

    Kim Hye Yoon is killing in this role! The scene when Baek Kyung wants to talk to her about their fathers’s business in the stairs, she acted the Stage scene and the real Danoh in the same time. We really could the both characters.

    The BTS of the cake scene is so cute! They cann’t help but smile.
    https://youtu.be/eNBVLtEG-yE?t=44

  5. Yes, the light was there to make him look blurred. But no, I don’t think he’s just a nameless extra…just like DanOh isn’t just an ordinary extra. He had his own “light” but he could NOT be revealed in this particular story.

    Did you read my First Impressions? 🙂

    They’re two VERY important characters. Although they appear to be extras in this manhwa, they aren’t. Haru is probably more relevant to the whole manhwa world than the Squid Guy. He’s the only one who could prove the Squid Guy wrong when he said that “nothing can be changed, ever.”

    Why do you think there was that back-whacking scene in Episode 7 and then Haru looked it up on the manhwa to see if it was included (Ep 7, at 2:15)?

    Because Haru changed the whole dynamics. Previously, DanOh was known as the girl with a) heart disease, and b) a ten-year old crush. But after the dive into the waters and that back-whacking incident, DanOh was no longer was that poor girl with a ten-year-old crush. 🙂

    That’s the reason he didn’t help DanOh when she asked his help to rescue her from the sea. Hmmmm…. I guess that point wasn’t very clear. I’ll explain in my write-up of that episode. Gotta run.

  6. I saw a behind the scenes clip and they were shooting the cake scene in the classroom. Dan-oh was chattering as usual (the other actors didn’t have any lines, they were just supposed to watch her) and after she finished her lines all the other actors laughed. 😂

  7. “ Yes, the actress is superb here! She’s carrying this. She’s in about 3/4th of the show either doing a monologue or interacting with other characters. And yet, you never get tired of her. Even when she’s chattering like a magpie. lol.”

    I kept thinking GaeTtong should’ve been played by someone like her. Ordinarily I would’ve disliked her character straight off the bat because of her incessant chatter, but this actress just makes DanOh endearing. What’s interesting is that the names of the characters actually mean things in Korean. NamJoo literally means “Male Lead”. I forget what the others are…but I read about it in another forum. This drama is on my to binge watch list for later. 🙂

  8. I do think they are special but for the lights, I think it was just an effect because the writter didn’t give him a face. But he can change things and he’s taking more place in the story and the writter inclued him in the beach scene, it’s why he couldn’t move (for now).

  9. @sayaris, that was my impression too in the beach scene. That he couldn’t move because he’s an extra on the beach, supposed to be there, but he can move on the stage freely when he isn’t supposed to be there at all. Sometimes he seems to do what Kyung was supposed to do, but ameliorates it, so she doesnt get a broken leg, for example. But I like Pkm3’s interpretation too. I have to say, if we get a twist ending, this is one series I might rewatch and I never rewatch.

    It’s really interesting how agency is addressed in this metanarrative. None of them are free agents when caught in the book’s narrative – they’re like butterflies pinned mid-flight to black paper.It’s The Matrix. Self-awareness or ignorance – red pill, blue pill, which makes you happiest? Also, self-awareness frees you but only to a point. I am really interested in where the author takes us from here. Ive watched the latest episode so wont comment too much on specifics till pkm3 catches up.

  10. Did anyone notice the other titles to this drama? The other names are
    1. A Day Found By Chance
    (Now that reminds me of Day aka Haru…which is similar to title no.3)
    2. July Found By Chance
    (Why July?)
    3. Haroo Found By Chance
    4. Suddenly One Day

    This idea of chance and unpredictability seems to be the theme also. In an interview I quote
    ““I believe the strength of our drama is its message,” said Rowoon. “In life, there are times when we lose what’s most important: our sense of self. The drama has a good message for everyone, living in this world where it’s easy to lose yourself.”

    Rowoon revealed his pick for why viewers should tune in to “A Day Found by Chance”: its unpredictability”

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