Aside from the mystery of the husband, the other mystery in this drama was who stole the chocolate in Episode 2.
JungBong, the older brother of JungHwan, stole the chocolate.
As usual, when I told the folks at soompi the answer, the stupid (come and get meeee!) fangirls of Ryu Joon Yeol and shippers of JungHyun-Deoksun made a hue and cry about my “theory.” I call them stupid because they allowed their delusions to impair the functioning of their logic. Unless they believed in ghosts, elves, and hobgoblins, my answer was the only logical choice.
Here are the facts:
Inside the bedroom were the five kids: Deoksun, Choi Taek, Sunwoo, JungHwan, and DongRyong. The boys didn’t have time to steal the chocolate, and they left the room together to go to the deokbokki’s restaurant. More importantly, none of them could have operated the videocam.
Sunwoo’s little sister, Jinjoo, was outside JungHwan’s bedroom. She couldn’t have stolen the chocolate and eaten the chocolate. lol. Had she eaten the chocolate, there would be traces of it on her face. She couldn’t have operated the videocam because she was too young to know how it worked.
The parents were dancing in the living room: Deoksun’s mom and dad, Sunwoo’s mom, Taek’s dad, and JungHwan’s (and JungBong’s) mom and dad.
Of the six parents, only one knew how to operate the camcorder: the dad of JungHwan and JungBong. But the dad definitely didn’t touch the camcorder after he laid it on the floor, because he left it running.
Now, as for Deoksun’s siblings, her sister, Bora, was going to an MT and her brother, NoEul, went back to school to escape Deoksun and Bora’s catfight. Neither of them would have fiddled with a videocam because they wouldn’t know how. And the videocam didn’t belong to them anyway.
Now, why am I making a big fuss about the videocamera?
It’s because viewers didn’t notice that the someone had rewound the tape.
🙂
I pointed out that somebody fiddled with the videocam, and the person who fiddled with it was the one who took the chocolate. He obviously wanted to remove evidence that he took the chocolate.
That person could ONLY have been JungBong. Everybody (except me, of course) forgot about JungBong. He had been playing at the video arcade all morning while the kids were at school.
Here’s the time when JB + JH’s dad set down the camcorder on the floor:
9/24/1988
22:51:04
Here’s the time when Deoksun placed the chocolate in the jacket:
9/24/1988
27:26:10
And now, here’s the time AFTER Deoksun had placed the chocolate in the jacket. The timer was working fine. It was going forward.
9/24/1988
27:28:01
Pay attention to the pair of white sneakers in the right side of the frame. Did you see that?
Okay….
Now here’s the moment when the kids decided to go to the deokboki restaurant. They went out of the room together. Notice the timer on the camcorder? It suddenly went backwards in time.
9/24/1988
27:15:06
lol. Somebody re-wound the tape.
Notice, too, that Sunwoo’s jacket and bag were moved and the sneakers were shifted.
JungBong was the culprit. He had the motive and the opportunity to steal the chocolate.
1. Opportunity: He was the only who could have arrived late and disturbed the sneakers in the foyer. The parents were so busy with their dancing that they probably ignored arrival.
2. He was close to JinJoo; JinJoo wouldn’t tattle on him if he took the chocolate.
3. As we would find out in later episodes, he was skilled in technology and handy with gadgets. Operating his father’s camcorder wouldn’t be a problem for him.
4. From Episode 15 (at 50:50), we would see that he copied Deoksun’s style of sending a love letter in a chocolate bar.
5. His Motive??
In Episode 16 (at 54:12), we would learn that he had a grudge against Taec because Taec beat him in Galaga. He knew that the chocolate was for Taec but he took it anyway because he was a — lol — petty, vengeful, competitive kid himself. Dong Ryul said so.
Dong Ryul said, “Kim JungBong and Choi Taek. There’s a famous story behind those two.” (I believe this comment of DR was an inside joke of the director and scriptwriter to explain the chocolate mystery.)
According to Dong Ryul, JungBong was happy that he won first place. He was “J.B.” He didn’t know that “C.T.” was Choi Taek till he got beaten by C.T. the following day.
lol. Here he was, feeling happy that he was #1. He was eating a sausage. JinJoo was allowed to eat the sausage, too.
But his record was defeated the following day by C.T. or Choi Taek.
To me, JungBong must have seen the chocolate bar (because it was sliding out of the coat pocket) and he took it to investigate. He saw it was addressed to Taek so he kept it. 🤪
6. There’s a precedent; this wouldn’t be the first incident of JungBong stealing something. Lol. He also stole a card, a chance card, from Taek’s boardgame in another episode. He liked it so he kept it.
7. The title of the episode was “One Thing You are Misunderstanding About Me.” There were many misunderstandings going on in this episode — which I’ll discuss later — but the biggest one was about JungBong.
Remember: In the beginning of this episode, JB and JH’s father was shown fooling around with his new camcorder. He went around the house to introduce his family. He said, “Now I’ll introduce my harmonious family members which is overflowing with love and happiness. First, in his sixth year preparing for his college entrance exams, an emblem of simple honesty and tenacity, I introduce my oldest son Kim JungBong!”
That’s the first and biggest misunderstanding of all.
For one, JungBong wasn’t really a person of “simple honesty and tenacity.” lol. What tenacity? He had stopped preparing for his college entrance exams and he’d been lying to his parents about studying for it.
For another, he stole the chocolate. What simple honesty? He got upset that Choi Taek beat him at the arcade game so when he saw that the chocolate was meant for Taek, he got his revenge. Never ever underestimate the power of rivalry. There are two geniuses here in this neighborhood: Taek and JungBong. JB was just more devious.
He committed the perfect crime because he got away with it. 🙂
Ha! Brilliant! I’ve not watched the show but maybe I should start because I know for certain I would not have caught the chocolate thief, and to have someone explain it for me would great if it has incidents like these.
I have watched the first few episodes before. Did anyone else play Galaga? My boyfriend and I used to skip school and go to the aracade; Galaga was my favorite!
I got the impression this was a family show and heavy on Korean nostalgia so I wouldn’t get a lot of the jokes and culture. What do you think? Is the pacing slow or fast?
Thanks! 🙂 Why would they think that it’s not JungBong just because he was playing in the arcade? LOL. Even thought they didn’t show him at the party, I would think that his parents made sure that he is there. So yeah, I believe you. I haven’t gotten to that part yet though. I stopped last night when the kids went to buy food that’s supposed to be a treat from Taek. 🙂
I think the pacing is good for me, @Barbrey . I am actually enjoying it and had to suppressed my laugh as my hubby might wake up. LOL. Do join us. Some of the jokes I don’t get but I still find it funny because of the actor’s good delivery.
Is Dong-ryong, the actor from Pegasus Market? Also, Sun-young aka Sunwoo’s mother is the lady from When Camellia Blooms right? I need to get used to the names of the whole family. I only remember Taek and Deok Seon. LOL.
The pacing is on the slow side…like “When the Camillia Blooms.”
I think this was the first kdrama where I totally immersed myself in Korean culture. Some of the things were funny…like the nouveau riche (but big-hearted) mother wanted to introduce Western style of noodles to her neighborhood ahjummas so she served them spaghetti. lol. She used her hands to mix the spaghetti sauce and noodles…pwahahahaha… like she was serving kimchee.
Lucky you. We didn’t have Galaga. 🙂
Lol. That’s what I thought too, spaghetti mixed like kimchi 😄
Maybe I’ll try it again jyst to watch the spaghetti making!. I finished the Expanse and don’t have a show. Nada, not one that’s holding my interest. I didn’t think Camellia was particularly slow, just some of the extended episodes. By slow pacing, I mean not much actually happens in an episode, lots of pauses and scenery and skirting around issues, drawing out plot points. Camellia had lots going on, I thought.
I finished episode 2 last night and just to confirm, Deoksun has a crush on Sunwoo, right? He picked up that jacket where Deoksun put the chocolate in.
So both Sunwoo and Taek said that Deoksun became cute lately.
So sad for Deoksun’s Dad, he waited for his Hyung before he can out pour his grief. It’s interesting to note what happens when a family dies. I think it’s similar to our tradition except for the offering of food.
Arrgh! Those bullies makes me upset.
No. Crush has always been on Taec.
Spoiler:
There’s a montage in Episode 2, right? We’re only shown 3/4th of the montage. The essential part of the montage where it was shown that she had been partial to Taec, even when they were little, wouldn’t be shown to viewers until the end of the series. 🙂
Also, notice that in the interview portion at the end of Episode 2, she was VERY confident that she gave the chocolate to Taec. She had zero doubt in her mind that she gave it to Taec. It was because she had always liked Taec…that’s why she was going to confess.
However, she ASSUMED incorrectly that the jacket belonged to Taec…because Taec wore the same sort of coat jacket. (Look at the scene when he returned home on his birthday and was greeted by his friends in his room; he was wearing a jacket.) When he went to his tournaments or come back home from the baduk school, he was always wearing the same suit jacket that SunWoo wore to school as his uniform.
She didn’t even consider SW until her friends “convinced” that SW had a crush on her.
Wait… I’ll write about this in my Episode 2 review. I just have to finish packing for my trip tomorrow. 🙂
Ok, thanks. I get it. 🙂 She was holding his arm too when they were rushing out of the room to go get some teokbokki. I missed seeing his jacket though. hehehe I assumed that the jacket belonged to Seonwoo because he did picked it up.
Yes, she was confident that she gave it to Taek. I thought that was nice of them to wait for him to celebrate his birthday. 🙂
Take your time. I might have my lunch now. LOL.
The jacket was Sunwoo’s. 🙂
She just mistakenly thought it belonged to Taec. She wasn’t thinking straight. She admitted, in the interview, that of all people in that area, she was the one who inhaled the most carbon monoxide (or whatever gas) thus she wasn’t thinking properly.
Remember the sequence of events:
Earlier that day, she patted his backside and teased him to hurry up and grow so he’d marry her. Then, after coming home from school, she spoke with him to request for comic books. Taec was late to the party because she ordered him to get her comic books. The three boys hadn’t yet seen Taec but SHE’d already spoken with him and gave him “orders” and Taec obeyed. 🙂
When he walked in, Deoksun’s dad teased him as his “son-in-law”. Then he walked into bedroom, got teased about prize money and handed DS her books.
When the guys wanted Taec to bring alcohol back from China, she was going to tattle on the guys to “protect” Taec.
Then when it was time to leave for teokbokki, she rushed out while holding on to Taec. Taec was “hers.” If she had a crush on somebody else, she wouldn’t be doing all this with Taec. She’d feel self-conscious that her crush would get the “wrong impression” of her relationship with Taec.
‘Earlier that day, she patted his backside and teased him to hurry up and grow so he’d marry her.’
Yeah, yeah! I thought for their first scene together, that was what she said to Taek which means a lot. Oh! I forgot about the comic books. hehehe But I did noticed the son in law reference by DS’ Dad. 🙂
What you said makes sense, it has to be Taek. 🙂
Whadddduuuuuup bitches! Peeked just now and OMG you’re talking about Reply 1988. It’s the holidays so I might watch it again!!! 😍
Join us then, lollyminx. It’s a good show to rewatch.
Yes! I’ll catch up! 😊 Can’t wait to see Jung-hwan, Jung-bong and their parents. They’re my absolute faves
I am new to watching Kdramas: I started in October 2019 at the recommendation of my 29-year-old daughter, as I prepared for a visit to Seoul. I’m hooked. I’ve binge watched 23 dramas since then, having the luxury of time because I don’t work outside the home and my husband travels a lot for work. I tell him my obsession is keeping me out of trouble while he’s away!
I just finished Reply 1988 last night. I’d watched the other two Reply dramas in previous months. I was entertained, educated, and moved by all three dramas, but Reply 1988 particularly affected me. The segment in episode 20 where Bora and her father were reading their letters to each other had me ugly crying.
I just want to say thanks to packmule3 for this blog and the insightful analysis. I had previously discovered Dramabeans, and find it helpful to read their posts as I watch dramas to catch things I missed. I don’t speak Korean, and prior to my introduction to the world of Korean dramas, my knowledge of Korean culture was limited. Yesterday I stumbled on Bitches over Dramas, and spent the whole afternoon reading posts and comments on Memories of the Alhambra, which I finished watching just prior to starting Reply 1988. I must say that what I read on this site turned around my thinking regarding MotA from “What the?” to “Now I get it!”
I’m currently watching Crash Landing on You. This is my first time watching a Kdrama at the pace it is being presented to the rest of the world, so I am having to learn patience. I’m trying to work up the nerve to continue watching Mother, which I stopped because it was scaring me so.
Again, thanks packmule3 for all the thought, time, and effort you put into BoD. The thoughts you share help clarify mine, and increase my appreciation of Kdrama.
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