I’m opening this thread so you can all post your opinions, interpretations, theories, raves, and rants here without having to wait for me to post my analyses.
Some housekeeping notes:
We’re all qualified bitches here. None of you requires babying or spoon-feeding from me because you’re all more than capable of thinking for yourselves. But do please help each other.
credit: parano1d’s tumblr
As usual, all perspectives are welcome; the funnier the better. I’m snarky without coffee in the morning.
Since this isn’t an echo chamber, it’s to be expected that we won’t agree on everything 100%. But I certainly value the time, care and courage it took you to express your opinion here. Especially those whose native language isn’t English, kudos!
Walking away is an option. If you don’t like what you read, please you can always ignore or exit.
credit: dviantxsoul’s tumblr
No getting butthurt if/when I criticize Hyun Bin or Jung Hyuk. He’s not my oppa. Same goes with the other cast and crew.
credit: belsmultifandommess’s tumblr
Except for politics and law, there’s no such thing as off-topic. I often reveal factoids about myself, because, while they’re irrelevant to the topic, they humanize me. These are the seemingly irrelevant tidbits that we regular posters share here, like my recent struggle with the dragonfruit, @agdr03’s hubby’s purchase of Walker cookies, @nrllee’s fondness for research, @grace’s homeschooled kids, @barbrey’s daughter, etc. These details help all of us understand where the other people are coming from. I’m discovering that personalizing the blog is one way to fight off the trolls and fangirls. Anonymity on the internet is a double-edged sword. While it allows for free speech, it can also unleash juvenile, trashy, and vile thoughts which are better off left unexpressed.
To wannabe-posters, I apologize ahead of time if your comment doesn’t go through. I do not monitor my blog all the time, so I’ve set some “parameters.” Your post might not have gone through because of the word-count or word(s) you used in the post.
Hint: if all you wrote was “I heart you, Hyun Bin” or “Dimples!” your post would have been spam-blocked. To be honest, I didn’t have time to notice his dimples in this kdrama because I was paying attention to the dialogues and acting.
Me channeling Jung Hyuk:
credit: thingskateknows’ tumblr
Anyway, I’m leaving these housekeeping notes of mine here because this show is a popular one and a new kdrama fan might wander in.
Let’s enjoy the show.
credit: astronautika’s tumblr
“ like my recent struggle with the dragonfruit”
The plant or the fruit? Isn’t it one of those HUGE let downs in life? I remember my first taste of it was so underwhelming I felt cheated? I was expecting this massive explosion in flavor I was so accustomed to in tropical fruit and aesthetically it promised SO much? Shocking pink with ruffles and with a name like “dragonfruit” you would’ve expected fireworks… and even when I sliced it open it looked encouraging…but…🙁…it…was…so…bland…
So she remembered him… she was looking for him all along… Seri can play the piano thus can read notes… she remembered him even wayback ep2… after all it was Jun Hyuk’s music that has kept her alive ❤️❤️❤️
Seri remembered him… she was looking for him all along, could be the reason she kept dating those connected with arts… Seri can play the piano thus can read notes… she remembered him even wayback episode 2 when she came across the piano sheets… after all it was Jun Hyuk’s music that has kept her alive all these years ❤️❤️❤️
She does??
I haven’t watched the episode but I don’t mind spoilers.
Aaahhh… is that why none of the guys she dated looked alike?
I noted earlier that Ex 1, Ex 2 and Ex 3 looked nothing like JH. They even looked different from each other. Sooooo… all along, she was looking for was someone who knew how to play Jun Hyuk’s music, or who was familiar with the music?? Interesting.
Thanks for sharing. I’ll have to watch this episode later.
I was busy taking down and packing away all Christmas lights, decorations, and china all day. I only left the Christmas wreaths and candles on the windows.
Hey…are you watching this show? Why aren’t you watching this? I need you bitching with me?
I need your eyes. Should or should I not hate this second lead, SungJoon?
Con
He’s a conman and as slick and devious as the come.
Pro
He makes me laugh at the most unexpected moments. It’s the way this actor (I saw him on “Euchalala Waikiki”) portrays his character. SungJoon looked pathetic when our hero crumples him up like a soda can in the elevator. Then he sounded suave when he spoke English to the North Korean patrol checking for his patriotic lapel pin. That was quick-thinking of him. But he made me laugh when he threw his blanket at his sleeping sidekick/handler because he felt a sudden compassion after witnessing Jung Hyuk cover up Seri. It should have been a kind act but it still came out churlish. 😂
I know humor is just “reason gone mad.” But I’m liking this guy. But I want to box his ears, too.
The dealbreaker will probably be his selfishness. Can he put it to good use? Will his self-preservation inadvertently help Seri or not?
I now am convinced she remembered him based on @packmule3’s write up on that though I am not sure she remembers his face? OR did she remember parts of him, in particular the song he composed for his brother? When she heard the song she didn’t know it was him who wrote/played it, but it was the song that saved her life. Like @fangirl said she knows how to read sheet music, could she have discovered the tune when she saw his sheet music?
Sungjoon…I don’t know what to make of him. Cunning for sure, but I have moments when I thought he acted out of good will but only to figure that he had some ulterior motive, mainly self preservation. The red and black coat he wore when he proposed to Seri so reminded me of a devil’s costume. Still, his evil-guy level is far from Cheol-Gang, the ultimate evil guy in the show.
@nrllee you must have eaten the white flesh dragonfruit…yeah..not an explosion of flavours, not sour either! Usually i would go for the red flesh ones, at least it is sweeter!
@packmule3
“ Hey…are you watching this show? Why aren’t you watching this? I need you bitching with me?”
Is this a question for me? I am currently watching Hot Stove League only. Busy trying to pack and sort out the house before our trip. Was planning to binge watch on the plane but daughter dear decided she wanted to binge on Hotel Del Luna instead. So I will try to carve out time to start.
@grace yes it was the white flesh one. My expectations were just too high. I eat it now with no expectations and mixed in with other fruit so it’s not as disappointing 😋
Did Jung Hyuk finally compose the song for his brother but never could share it with him? The scene with the piano was beautiful 🙂
For the second lead, he’s funny but I don’t like how he’s trying to use Seri’s feelings.
Yes. JH composed it for his brother, but never got to share it. It was on my post on “Trope Alert, part 2.” Under Episode 3.
I knew that the song was going to be important so I took a screenshot of that moment when his hyung mentioned it to his driver. It was before the truck of doom hit them.
Foresight, my friend. Foresight.
I’m not yet done with Episode 7 but I watched the ending of Ep 8.
I am not so good in words but I love the scene where SR confessed to JH on the phone that she loves him then the gunshot. The “dead silence” that follows after was hmm I dont know how to put it in words but poignant if I could say so. No words uttered but I could feel a great sadness in JH whilst trying to understand the whole thing that just happened. I teared when tears flowed down his cheeks. Ah sappy me!
I understand the actors really know how to play the piano though not that good….i hope they would give us at least 4 episodes in a week….it is killing me in suspense!
I think she saw his face while he was playing the piano. The director is trolling us with that “did she or did she not see his face?” But unless a big wave of water came out of nowhere and slap her face so she had to close her eyes…or bird poop from a seagull landed splat on JH’s face as he played the piano, there was no way, she couldn’t have seen his face. She had clear line of vision and plenty of time to gape at him.
However, she didn’t know his name, and she only had that melody. After asking around, she realized that none of her musical friends has heard of the piece so…if I were her, I would assume then that the piece was an original composition.
She wouldn’t have time to go through the music sheets. Plus, read musical notes is not like a reading a book. With a book, we can read a line or two, and immediately identify if it’s something you’ve read before. For instance, if you read, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” you know that it’s the first line from Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities” because it’s a popular quote.
But it’s not like that with reading piano sheets. For one, it’s hard for a beginner to spot-read a musical piece and know how it sounds like without playing it on the piano. Me? I usually have to hum it. Like, I go, “C–G–A–B–G–G” to even get an idea how the the melody sounds like.
So for Seri to find those 5 to 10 musical measures in his musical library, in 5 minutes or less, is like finding a needle in a haystack. 🙂
But then, she could have seen the face (or profile) of the pianist and NOT connect it with the man who saved her on the bridge. Personally, I highly doubt this scenario because Seri is very smart…but oh well, if the kdrama writer wants to troll us some more and keep us guessing, then so be it. 🙂
I comment a lot in soompi, but since I smell indecision with Seung Joon here I shall just say that when the actor calls Seri’s name multiple times over the episodes..
Yoon seri .. Yoon seri..
Yoon Seri?
Seri-shii?
I curl my toes in laughter. Such swag, and yet such exasperation. Love his acting and the many different ways of calling her name. No wonder he likes her, she’s as multi-faceted as his intonations.
🙂 What am I? Am I a safe haven and a “sanctuary” blog for soompi’s dissidents?
I’ll have to pay attention to how SungJoon calls Seri. Thanks.
He’s the second-male lead so I’m predisposed to cut him some slack. He can’t be entirely evil if he’s going to be a contender for Seri’s heart (or Dan’s heart, more like it). Besides we already have one evil guy, the commander Chul Kang.
As for the actor, I want him to do well. I heard that he had to quit “Time” (or some other kdrama) because of health issues. Hopefully, this project would ease him back in with veteran actors like Son YeJin and Hyun Bin to serve as role models or guides. It wouldn’t be as stressing for him as it would have been if he was the lead role.
Of course, he’s not a fit for Seri, but I can see him and Dan working out. Their personalities match, and she’s not frigid with him. I like that she offered her hand for him to shake. That was a first. As far as I can tell, she’s never hand any physical contact with JH. And I scanned briefly through her interaction with SJ in the car. She was normal…playing with the app, not minding that he was in her personal bubble, being snarky if she wanted, and so on.
She would never have behaved like that with JH. She was herself with SungJoon in a way that she could never be with Jung Hyuk.
“What am I? Am I a safe haven and a “sanctuary” blog for soompi’s dissidents?”
Yes. For the thinking audience who are desperate to discuss plot and dislike having to wade through pages of ogling about his “dimples”. 😂. That thread is over 100 pages long.
“As for the actor, I want him to do well. I heard that he had to quit “Time” (or some other kdrama) because of health issues. ”
Yes warning signs were there at Press Con. He was not in a good headspace. And the fact that his character in Time was morose and taciturn didn’t help. I am glad he’s back.
To each his own, @nrllee. To each his own. 🙂
I believer these veteran actors would like to be taken seriously at their craft, and the best way to appreciate oppa/ahjussi is to attribute a working brain to him, and not just see him as a hunk of meat to ogle at. There’s nothing wrong with admiring fine eyes, dimples, and muscles (Remember Mr. Darcy’s “I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty women can bestow”? hahaha) but you can’t decide the merits of a kdrama on eyes, dimples, and abs alone. There has got to be more than physical attributes of the male leads.
It’s a waste of brains of the viewers, the readers, the lurkers to go on forever about these physical characteristics. The bitches in this blog are like guests I’ve invited at a soiree at my home where we can exchange opinions on the characters, the theme, the performance, the OSTs, and the 1001 details of kdrama-du-jour over a glass of wine or cup of coffee. If they’re going to be juvenile, they’ll feel out of place here anyway.
In general however, I think most viewers want to make sense of what they’re viewing. And kdramas, like any visual arts, are going to be influenced by the writers’ and directors’ knowledge of books, philosophy, tradition, art, music, photography, politics, theater, history, to name a few. The more viewers are steeped in these various disciplines, the more they can appreciate the creative energy and ideas put forth by the writers and directors in their works. 🙂
My two cents.
Loved the piano scene in Episode 7. Se Ri must have an excellent ear and memory. She memorized the piano melody after hearing it just once. Later, she must have figured how to play it on the piano. She is probably not as good a pianist as he is, but his music has been with her for years.
Se-ri must be decent enough on the piano, it is very hard to repeat a melody after just one hearing, and she must have perfect pitch too to start with the correct key. It seems to me she is extraordinarily observant and has incredible memory. But if I remember she didn’t quite remember where she saw him when she saw his picture on the music program in his closet.
I read a l l your CLOY entries, and they’re a total pleasure to read. I laughed, grinned, and thought. I have 1001 boring things to do, and your insights and humor are just the right inspiration for me to get through the 1001. Thank you for all your efforts!
This Yoon Se Ri character, I love her never-say-die / fearless / can do attitude, which is a total opposite of her mindset when she went to Switzerland. Not once did she say that she will die in NK, but she always spoke of taking the seat her father assigned her; and reunification, even.
Now that she’s “a bit afraid” (her words), I’m curious how she will tackle the challenges ahead. She was always so sure of her choices; how will fear shape her future decisions?
I also like how hard-hitting Seo Dan is, especially when she never flinched when Ri Jeong Hyeok told her that he fell for YSR, or when she told RJH that they should work on developing affections for each other.
Then there’s Jung Ae-Ri (RJH’s mom) who asserts to her husband (especially in the hospital scene in Ep7).
I love Hyun Bin, but it’s a bit jarring for me when Ri Jeong Hyeok acts cute. I prefer his subtle smiles, grimace, annoyance because they’re more congruent to his phlegmatic character.
Good comments. I’ll respond to you on the blog…after I finish my drink. 🙂
melancholic character*