I’m responding to @ulanlagi’s comments here so I can access this easily.

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.

I wasn’t too wild to hear that Son YeJin was going to be in this with Hyun Bin because I believe that aegyo is a perishable quality and has an expiration date. To guarantee its freshness, it must be used by actors before Age 30. To be honest, none of the young women I know – my nieces, interns, my son’s girlfriends – behave with the sort of aegyo ubiquitous in kdramas. They’ll ridicule this cutesy act as infantile and demeaning to their sex.

So thank goodness Seri doesn’t do much aegyo. That “heart-finger” was definitely cringe-y.

But for the most part, I’m enjoying her tartness and her caustic attitude.

What I do notice is that she’s learned to use a different tone of voice when speaking to JungHyuk.

Like here.

And here.

Listen to those scenes and you’ll hear her version of a tender voice. Lol.

Although I’m happy that she’s become fearless, I’m also glad that she’s discovering this gentle, caring side of her. It’s audible in her tone. She’s less abrasive and less strident.

Additionally, I noticed that while SHE’s gotten over her suicidal thoughts, JungHyuk, on the other hand, has become stoic about his death. He’s become open  to meeting his own death.

Dan asked him if he’d mind being facing death. He replied, with unblinking eyes, “To be honest, I don’t want to be killed. Who would want to die? But I just have no choice.” For him, “It would be better to die” than to lose a loved one again.

Listening to that dialogue, it struck me that if Seri had gotten over her suicidal thoughts, then it was now JungHyuk’s turn to entertain this suicidal thought. That’s how I viewed his last rescue effort in Episode 8. It was a suicidal mission.

He braved the cold, and SungJoon’s guards, as if he was a one-man commando. He was impervious to death because he thought that Seri was waiting for him to rescue her.

Same with that whole motorcycle vs truck of doom scene in Episode 6. That’s suicidal, too. He was determined to go down with guns blazing (literally),

and he was willing to take a bullet for her (again, literally).

Part of me cringes because that moment was preposterous. But since this heroic trope is kdrama’s convention,

I just got popcorn.

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?

This is exciting, isn’t it? I like the unpredictability of this show.

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.

Yes. I like her composure and denial here. She said, “You think you fooled me? No. I didn’t fall for your lie so you can’t say you fooled me.”

By all means, she has to maintain her dignity. She couldn’t appear to breakdown or show sign of vulnerability. I like that about her because that’s what I would have done, too, if I were in her shoes.

In contrast, she always appears green and unsophisticated to SungJoon. Their interaction is on an entirely new dimension. I like it when he teased her about fixing her hair,

when she wouldn’t lend him her iphone game,

And when she slurped her soup, inelegantly. SungJoon probably thought that she was such a country bumpkin because Seri wouldn’t do something like this.

She isn’t afraid to lose her dignity with him. Meanwhile, he’s prepared to be indulgent with her. He behaves like an “oppa” around her, and that’s bound to make her fall for him.

I can’t wait.

Then there’s Jung Ae-Ri (RJH’s mom) who asserts to her husband (especially in the hospital scene in Ep7).

I was surprised when she burst out in anger at husband and told him off. My first impression of her was she was a cuckoo, especially when she kept ostriches as pets instead of guard dogs because they were noisier. But I also knew that the ostrich was an indication of the elite status of JungHyuk’s family since they own an exotic animal, as well as a subtle dig at North Korea’s purported scheme to raise ostrich to solve their food shortage.

http://koreabizwire.com/ostriches-highly-valued-in-n-korea/149594

I thought she was another one of those brow-beaten women in kdramas when he barked at her to stay out of it. So, I’m glad that she bared her teeth and growled back,

“Don’t tell me to stay out of my own son’s business! He got shot. He almost died. He is our one remaining son. We should be thankful that he called us to a hospital, not a funeral house. We should be proud that he is alive! You should ask him if he’s hurt and console him. Why do you keep hounding him? You should side with him, not the State Security Department.”

He could only stand there speechless as she dressed him down. My take here is that JungHyuk is used to seeing his mother assert herself when she needed to, and his father back down and listen to her when he was in the wrong. This, to me, augurs well for his relationship with Seri, who we all know has a strong personality.

I thought his mother presents an interesting contrast to Seri’s mother. Considering that they supposedly live in a more “liberated” society, Seri’s mom’s chaebol world is more inhibited and restricting. Except for the time when she had her outburst, she kept her feelings and resentments inside. She visibly didn’t like her husband’s statement at the board meeting.

He said, “I’d like to clarify a few things regarding the rumors about my family that have been spreading in the stock market recently. Yoon Seri

(the mother looked away here)

the CEO of Seri’s Choice who is also my daughter, has been missing since an unfortunate accident. We searched for her for a month while keeping it confidential but could not find her.”

See that? I don’t understand this move. This tells me that he prioritized the company stocks over their daughter’s search and rescue. She was lost, in distress and imminent danger, but he didn’t exhaust all efforts to find her.

His actions contradicted how a normal family would react in situations like this.

Remember Seri’s coffee talk in the hotel with JungHyuk? That time, Seri told him that her family was probably happy because they thought she was died. JungHyuk immediately dismissed that as foolish thinking. “You’re being foolish. This is about a life-and-death matter, and you’re their family.”

To JungHyuk, in life-and-death situations, the utmost priority is always the loved one. You do anything for your loved one.

It was exactly this sentiment that his mother voiced out in the hospital.

There’s NO CHOICE when it comes to survival. There should be no question who the father should side with. He should protect their only child against the State Security Department.

When we think about this, JungHyuk’s father was actually under more pressure than Seri’s father. In a worst-case scenario, Seri’s father could lose his chairmanship of the company should the public find out about Seri’s DISAPPEARANCE. But in JungHyuk’s father’s case, all their lives could hang in the balance should the STATE find out about Seri’s APPEARANCE.

Now… do you see what I wrote about “Seri’s Choice” earlier? We need to all see and understand that choices and decision-making are integral subjects of this kdrama.

😊

Meanwhile, back in the board meeting, Seri’s father was trying to impress his board that he had been a responsible steward of his company (i.e., working to avert a stock crash) rather than a distraught father whose only daughter went missing.

This was Seri’s mother’s reaction when he declared Seri’s missing. Her sons were all looking at their dad; she was the only one looking down.

And this…

She couldn’t look at him.

He continued, “Hence, according to Article 90 of the Family Registration Law and following the guidelines for certifying deaths…”

He paused here and looked down. To me, he didn’t look “choked” with grief. He paused as if giving his proper respect to a death of a colleague.

Meanwhile, Seri’s mother closed her eyes. She looked in pain.

The father continued, “We have completed registering her death.” He looked up and he nodded his head.

To me, this body language — this head-nodding — was telling. He was reassuring his board to have confidence in his actions… because he followed “procedures.”

He’s done his job. He turned in his paperwork. He registered her death.

Seri’s mother looked at him.

Now did those eyes look relieved to you that her husband’s lovechild was finally dead? And look at this shot of the father? He was backlit so he was in the shadows.

To me, that shot was a director’s choice. The father was made intentionally shadowy, shady. In contrast to Seri’s dad, JungHyuk’s father seemed to be on the up and up. That’s why both his sons are like that: incorruptible. They had their father as a role model.

Anyway…

Is there anybody else who thinks that their mothers resemble? They have the similar aura.

It would be EPIC if this trope about secret illegitimacy end up being a trope about long-lost relatives. Old-style kdramas always toyed with the idea that the lovers were secretly related to each other. Now, I could tolerate most tropes but if JungHyuk and Seri turn out to be related by blood, I would definitely LOVE that trolling.

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.

+1000

credit: doradoradoradorawa’s tumblr

This pout is hideous. 🙂

But since it was fan-service and it was still much better than a shower scene, I’m giving it a pass.

As I said elsewhere, his squinty-eyed face should be a trope.

I bet he can even make a Vespa scooter look like a fierce Harley-Davidson with that squint of his.