Another question. This time from @LikesKdramas:
I can somewhat understand DalMi didn’t want to give DoSan explanationg about her feelings while he was nursing a grievance but I think it would have been better for her to admit her feelings for DoSan that night by the cabin. But I don’t understand why was she trying to recruit him the next morning by offering him shares? It’s been stated several times in several ways that his dream is people (her,) does she really think he’s motivated by financial success?
Hmmmm… Do you want the short answer or the long answer, Likeskdramas? You might have to wait till tomorrow for a long response.
So let’s settle for a short answer. 🙂
TARZAN is THE explanation of Dalmi’s feelings for Dosan. I believe I mentioned this before: Since Dosan’s codes were his “love letters” to Dalmi, I suggested that Dalmi should write love letters to the REAL Dosan while he was gone to prove to him — upon his return — that she waited for him.
But Dalmi one-upped my idea, actually. She outdid my suggestion. She made it even better.
She created Tarzan with Dosan in mind. Kinda like how Dosan made NoonGil with Grandma in his thoughts. To me, Tarzan was her “love letter” to Dosan. She’d never written him one, you know.
She was working on the Tarzan project like she was “writing” Dosan a love letter because Tarzan was “their” dream.
Did you see that?
That’s why *I think* she brought the prospectus on Tarzan with her on the trip. She didn’t intend to “entice” him with stocks and bonds. If she had intended this meeting to be nothing more than a business proposal, then she would have been ready with the numbers and stocks options to toss at him.
Dalmi chasing after Dosan.
This shot is called a wide or long shot. Long shots are often a go-to choice of camera work of a director when he wants to create a poetic, lyrical feel to the story. If you asked NoonGil, for instance, to describe what it saw, it would say, “a couple is walking towards a footbridge on a beautiful sunlit morning.” However, in this scene, the romantic ambiance is jarred by the tension between our couple.
Dalmi: What can I do to make you work with us? At least, tell me the terms you want.
Dosan: Forget it.
Dalmi: (thinking) Stock options, ten percent?
Dosan: Dalmi, forget it.
When he said, forget it, it meant he’d already made up his mind to work for her. He didn’t need her to sweeten the pot and offer money as an inducement.
Dalmi: Or do you want shares now? I can try and persuade InJae.
Do you see that? If she chased after him, for the “company’s sake,” how come she wasn’t ready with her proposal? How come she was tossing out inducements without thought? How come she didn’t run a compensation package with InJae prior to her meeting with Dosan?
Dalmi: Can you at least read our business plan?
Again, if the objective of her trip was to get Dosan to join her team, then she SHOULD have done this last night. The business plan appeared to be her last ditch-effort to hold on to Dosan through recruitment.
In my opinion, she attempted to open up a personal conversation with him last night but he shut her down.
Dalmi: I packed this just in case. Looks like it was a good call.
lol. She knew these ramen bowls held a special memory for them. Tarzan was originally a ramen bowl.
Dalmi: (since he didn’t respond) It’ll be ready in three minutes.
Dosan: Go inside and sleep.
Dalmi: No. I’m going to stay out here all night. I have a hard time sleeping at someone else’s place anyway.
Nope. Remember this?
She had no problem sleeping anywhere. Plus she was dead-tired that she actually slept sitting up. The reason she didn’t want to stay indoors was because she wanted to have a talk with him.
Then, Dosan looked at his ramen, and remembered.
Dosan: Why Tarzan?
Dalmi: What?
Dosan: Your self-driving car is called Tarzan.
Flashback of their first date. He asked her if she knew about machine learning. Then, using the ramen bowl, he explained how a computer named Tarzan met Jane for the first time, and offered Jane a rock and a flower.
Dalmi: The Tarzan story you told me…It was fascinating. It was a supercool.
In a fit of pique, Dosan dismissed it as a puerile analogy. “What’s cool about it? It was childish. It was stupid.”
His grimy face reminded me of a sulky kid. lol. He was in no mood to be humored by Dalmi.
Soooooooo…what’s a girl gonna do now? If she intended to use Tarzan as proof of her feelings for him, then Dosan negated it.
Dalmi: (repeating herself) It was cool. Just how much could it learn? The possibilities were endless. That’s why I named the car Tarzan.
Dalmi: What about you? Why did you work with self-driving cars at 2STO?
Dosan: The company made me do it. No special reason.
By the way, this is a good camera shot, too. We were shown Dosan’s back instead of his face as he answered Dalmi. This choice was to reinforce in our head that Dosan was giving her a cold shoulder (literally, lol). He was turning her back on her. He didn’t want to engage in any personal discussion, so he didn’t want to face her.
Likewise, the camera didn’t face him.
I’m sure Dalmi was hoping he’d say that he did it because of “their” dream, too. Remember, when she met him at the office, she saw their car design on the white board. It hadn’t been erased.
She probably imagined that they were both working on the same project for the same reason. It was their way to connect to each other during the separation.
Dosan put an end to that fanciful notion when he said that working on a self-driving car was nothing more than a job for him.
Once she fell asleep though, Dosan admitted that he took the assignment because of her. He couldn’t admit to her face because, well, he was “nursing a grievance,” as I said. lol. He only needed to calm down.
Dosan: Dalmi, your idea fascinated me, too.
He saw her scraped knee and bandaged it. He knew that her trek to see him hadn’t been easy for her, too.
Then he saw the Tarzan prospectus, and read it.
It wasn’t a rock. It wasn’t a flower. But Jane brought Tarzan a prospectus and he liked it. That’s why he kept it.
If Tarzan was “machine learning,” then he must have understood what the prospectus was meant to be.
And these shots? What was the point of giving us several long shots of Dalmi and Dosan crossing the bridge? What were we supposed to see?
That was Tarzan giving Jane a piggy-back ride.
Letters are so out of date. Nothing says “I love you” than a self-driving car prospectus.
John_L, my hubby says technology got it all wrong.
Men don’t mind driving cars so self-driving cars are a novelty that won’t really replace regular cars. Maybe some features would be added to the regular cars.
What men don’t actually like is a BACKSEAT DRIVER. 😂😂 If technology could find a way to eliminate that…
@packmule3 – Install plexiglass between the front and backseats which are in most Lyft or Uber’s now because of Covid. It solves both problems lol.
@packmule3 The way you describe n dissect a drama made me think if you’re in film production lol juz a thought.
I was thinking the same as @John L. The scenes at the hut are probably my favourite so far. The tub of noodles as a wooing meal and a prospectus as a love letter.
DoSan was so angry and frustrated with her. I liked how the sound track changed from the cracklings of the flames to a piano solo that, although slightly melancholy, sounded like a sweet and delicate music box tune — exactly when Dalmi set the noodles next to DoSan.
I liked that Dalmi fell asleep sitting there upright, in her work clothes in the cold, as though her battery had depleted. It showed me that she hadn’t exaggerated her journey; she was as exhausted as he was. She had just declined DoSan’s suggestion to sleep inside because she knew he was pushing her away; she chose to stay where he was. The sleep also gave him an opportunity to look at her and speak his inner thoughts to her.
The music changed again to a vocal when he touched her hair. When he paused after opening the prospectus and drew her head to his shoulder, I thought that her persistence and ability to hear beyond his words had paid off.
I thought the direction of the scene was perfect. I loved the last shot of the hut and DoSan reading and the footbridge seen from the opposite side of the river. They came alone and hurting over the bridge separately but went back in the morning almost as a single person. The shot showing only DoSan’s legs walking across was a slight tease until the viewer sees Dalmi on his back.
Wow. This is good, Fern!
I’ve a writing assignment for all of you, Fern. I can transfer this post over there, if you want. Or you may want to write another one….
Thank you, @packmule3, ☺️ transfer is fine. I’m prepping for an audit so must concentrate on that.
I have never been artistic, but when I started mosaicing i really began to “see” colour and composition and the added depth of a painting/sketch/cartoon.
The same happened when I started reading the comments about the KDramas I am watching. I knew I liked them, but not why or what I was responding to. The comparison of seeing a Shakespear play without understanding is really apt.
Glad I found this site.
jo3edc
Right now, Shakespeare is still way ahead of any dramaturgist and screenwriter. But there’s nothing wrong with having a standard.
BTW, I didn’t have time to mention this in my post.
Dalmi told Dosan the real reason she called her project Tarzan. It was “private” for them — although the Samsan Tech gang might still remember it.
She told everybody else a lie at the launch.
Director Yoon asked her why it’s called Tarzan because Tarzan doesn’t drive a car.
Dalmi: (adlibbing) Oh, it means…well, “tar” sounds like “car,” and I like the sound of it.
Assistant: Don’t you think that’s a little lame?
Dalmi: (gives him the stink-eye)
JP: (jumping in to “rescue” Dalmi from more questions) I think it’s original.
Assistant: (skeptical) What?
JP: (changing topic) You prepared all this food?
Yes, Dalmi kept the reason secret. It was too personal for that moment.
I also was thinking back to the aftermath of the hacking rescue. Then Dalmi was weeping to Jipyeong about what a mess she was and how pathetic when DoSan appeared. One could argue that the situation driving her to the hut was just as bad. She was on the brink of being fired, her ex was trying to escape or make her disappear mentally and physically, and she shows up an absolute limping, disheveled mess. To me the difference was her frame of mind. Her appearance is the last thing on her mind. She is resolute and steadfast in her determination to speak with DoSan, and in the scenes we’re shown at the hut she never cries once. I wonder if when she woke they managed to speak, or did Tarzan do the speaking for her?
@packmule3, I like DS’s code/DM’s prospectus as love letters. @fern, I loved them arriving separately but leaving together, especially when she tightened her grip on him. But, and maybe this is just my feels talking, without her telling DS that she still has feelings for him she comes across to me as a coward and the entire scene falls flat.
@Fern
wow i love the comparison on DalMi’s appearance that you made and the difference between her state of mind
and what to do with a man like DoSan who thinks you are pretty every day, every minute, every seconds and can’t tell if you make an extra effort to be extra pretty for him
@LikesKDramas, yes Dalmi fell so soundly asleep without having that discussion.
I imagined that she thought she’d better get some food into him first, because it’s the sort of thing I do with my family. It doesn’t sort out problems, but at least you’re not dealing with ‘hangry’ as well. I saw how he side-eyed the bowl she set next to him. He was still PO’d, I thought. In the 3 minutes that it took the noodles to steep, they had the conversation about Tarzan and Dalmi effectively passed out from exhaustion.
We don’t see the scenes in between then and the morning so we have to guess at what happened in the gaps. It seemed to me that he perhaps woke first and may have been trying to leave because Dalmi was chasing him in the first morning scene. She may have tried to speak to him that morning but he was still resistant? There was another gap before we see them leave together on the bridge, too. I hope we might get more information about those gaps in the next episodes.
@Ella, what to do with a man like DoSan? You’re smitten. ☺️
I think I’d try to appeal to him honestly in every way. (without falling asleep, lol) I hope that happens. I think parts of the preview may not happen until the last episode.
@Fern
Right on the money there 😁
Elevator Talk is also when you have to make your point and get the message across within the span of an elevator ride (like Dalmi’s Noongil pitch to that lady of Me Group in the elevator), hence, Dalmi’s urgency to get things done quickly and talk Dosan into joining Cheong Myeong. She has to get this business matter out of the way before she can get to more personal things.
However, Dalmi was too exhausted to make her speech in the Hut, luckily her prospectus spoke for her which convinced Dosan to invest in her company and not merely be recruited as an employee. Fitting to his new status, Dosan wants to have a say in the business and not be just an underling again, and maybe also invest in Dalmi professionally to support her although he thinks he can no longer invest in her personally. He also saw the desperation in Dalmi’s eyes.
Many are questioning why Dalmi did not make her feelings known to Dosan in the Hut knowing he was under a misapprehension on the relationship between Dalmi and JP, but given her primary task was to recruit Dosan to the company, I don’t think it was appropriate to bring up personal matters given the sensitive situation their relationship is in; lest Dosan thinks that she is using personal emotions to get him recruited.
This underlines the new maturity both of them have grown to as both tried to delineate a clear line between personal and professional matters. Dosan by initially rejecting her offer and Dalmi deliberately not muddling her company’s recruitment offer with their personal relationship.
Interestingly enough, the two occasions Dalmi fell asleep in unfamiliar places which she adamantly says she is not wont to do, is firstly, in JP’s car which led to the scrunchie lie and now in the Hut with Dosan with JP’s new lie shrouding their relationship. Is there any underlying meaning ? connection ? Oh one more instance she slept was after the hackathon when she confronted JP on why he lied …. hmmmm all tied up to lies. Afraid I’m not as discerning and astute as packmule3 to see if there’s anything more to this.
I truly am thankful for this safe haven. With the homestretch in sight, all clear headed posts in other forums are attacked to be pro Dosan by the rabid fangirls.
I really do not understand the effect JP’s character or is it the actor had on these fangirls. While I appreciate the character’s role in the narrative, he was written to be more of a villainous character wrapped up in sheep’s clothing and that is how his character played out from day 1 to DS and DM’s journey.
The sudden affection for DM was actually a bit out of the blue. The letters which the fangirls religiously claim to be the true connection between two fated characters did not really mean anything to him nor do their contents reflect his true feelings as he either made most of them up or wrote them with Grandma’s input. They are still crying out loud why the letters are not given more attention and importance.
What is truly amazing is how seamless both the young JP and JP’s characters were executed. It is believable that the young JP character grew into the adult JP with their synchronized delineation of JP’s arrogance and his tendency to vehemently react when they feel they’ve been shortchanged. It helps that they have similar features too.
NJH is a revelation in this, his Dosan is a nuanced and complete 3D portrait; while I don’t see any validity to the criticism that Suzy can’t act. She gave an honest and natural portrayal of Dalmi.
Maybe all the criticisms of DS and DM’s characters reflect how realistic their characters are written with flaws and all, whereas JP’s ‘exterior perfectness’ is every bit a Kdrama formulaic character hence the adulation with everything he does but also prompted unrealistic expectations that he should get the girl…. and KSH is also perfect for JP’s role.
One bit of trivia, Dalmi’s scrunchie is made from the handkerchief Director Yoon gave to her Dad in another elevator talk when he shared Dalmi’s swing story (as noted by Drama Addiction of You Tube whose channel was sadly closed due to copyright infringement claim from CJM Entertainment).
@gyal, thanks. I hadn’t considered that Dalmi was purposely not mixing business and relationship. I thought it just happened, due to her being so tired. Good points!
I like that the scrunchie came out of Director Yoon’s handkerchief via her father. ❤️ Thanks for that.
Thanks @fern, just realised it sounded more definitive when it is just a conjecture. We”ll see this weekend ….
So clever 😂 the parallels.
https://twitter.com/fornamzy/status/1333843329860186112?s=21
@nrllee, a bit late from me, but that was a great melange. I think the screenwriter must have seen the animation.
@nrllee – that was such a cute parallelism! Tarzan and Jane for the win!!!
FYI, I read that Apple’s self driving car is called Project Titan. The name is so close to Tarzan, I got triggered! 😂