The thread is now for spoilers, comments and analyses.
I’ll try to catch up later.
Enjoy the show!
56 Comments On “L.U.C.A.: Eps 7 & 8 Open Thread”
Comments are closed.
The thread is now for spoilers, comments and analyses.
I’ll try to catch up later.
Enjoy the show!
Comments are closed.
Thanks @pkml3. I’ve actually sort of stopped watching, but I keep an eye out for what opinions there are and for reviews. I may pick it up here and there, if I can manage the time.
Kalimera from my part of the world! The following words are written with a humourous touch, because I loved this episode so very much. Thank you! 🙂
So, Episode 7…
After the fiasco in Human Tech, we see that new alliances are arising.
The Cult Crazy Lady and her Second in Command have started fighting each other.
Who is going to be in charge? New coalitions are forming. Who is going to follow whom and why?
Move #1 : The Cult Crazy Lady approached Yi-Son and Yoo-Na, while Kim Cheol-Soo approached the Crazy Scientist with the God Complex.
At the same time, Go Reum was framed for all the killings and the Media prepared the public that she is indeed guilty.
The only person Go Reum was trusting was her Captain, but unfortunately: The Captain was Team Kim Cheol-Soo all along. As it seem, Captain dearest was indeed so obsessed with his case that he killed the wife in his case that he believed was the killer. Something that KCS knew and was blackmailing him from the very beginning.
Captain told to Go Reum: “I told you not to get caught.”
He even tried to kill her, because that was the order he got. The Bad Guys are quick though. They erased any evidence from the Human TEch building. So, there is no entrance for the basement where the test lab was.
The Captain also revealed that KCS controls the government, the police and the media. He has fabricated each thing and framed Go Reum for everything.
In all that mess, the only person Go Reum has is Ji Oh. I left that part in the end deliberately.
While at the Human Tech lab, Yi Son was fighting with Ji Oh. Ji Oh took the upper hand, then Yi Son ejected himself with a solution and he went to find Ji Oh.
The fighting was epic. Ji Oh protected Go Reum at first from Yi Son. Who seems like he cannot stop himself. I feel pity for him, because he wants that arm so badly that he cannot understand that he is in the wrong. He wants to kill Ji Oh desperately. He is obsessed as well.
(Obsession is one of the themes of the series as it seems.)
Go Reum even found some babies subjects that were crying. The Monsters scientists and Co. left them in the lab in that havoc to die.
At some point, Ji Oh had enough and he created an electrical vacumm. He did hurt Go Reum, but he didn’t want to. It was just his powers + the feeling that I had enough mate. Just let me be.
When Ji Oh came to his senses, he saved Go Reum and the babies from the smoke.
He was frantic, but he took her to the hospital at once to be treated. He even asked from the doctors to save her numerous times, like a prayer. “Don’t let her die. Not Her.”
Later on, JO saved her again. After he heard the news and saw that the Nurse called the Police to come and take an unconscious Go Reum, he fought the doctors to take her away.
So far, Ji Oh has been vocal and honest that he doesn’t want Go Reum to die. He wants her to be alive. He is afraid that she will die and he doesn’t want that.
He even confessed that to her while they were talking.
Translation in the awkward communication skills Ji Oh has:
You are too important for me to let you die. I will save you no matter what.
Go Reum is being stubborn so far. She doesn’t want to be saved from Ji Oh – he took a bullet for her, saving her from the Captain. Still she thanked him.
Translation in the awkward communications skills Go Reum has :
I cannot admit even to myself that you have become important to me. I say that you cannot be trusted, but so far the person I trusted betrayed me.
Still, you are the only one who have saved me numerous times and even hid me when everyone was looking for me. I don’t know what to think about you.
To be continued…!
Thanks for this @Cleopatra.
I was looking for spoilers because I didn’t want to watch more fight scenes. The actors must be bone-tired after filming.
So, the sympathetic Captain is on Team Bad Guy because he’s being blackmailed? 🙂 I’m not surprised. I said this actor takes on roles like this: the morally ambivalent guy. He can’t just be a normal bad guy. He has to be PUSHED, blackmailed, entrapped, coerced, or driven by an external evil force or a set of bad circumstances to be a bad guy.
JiOh going all Tarzan on Gureum? I’m not surprised either.
I’m glad they save the babies. Those goons — the scientists, the cult group, the businessmen, the army mercenaries — they all view those infants as research organisms instead of humans. There’s not a single ethical person in that bunch.
You are welcome @Packmule3!
The first half of the episode had a lot of fight scenes. I mean Ji Oh managed to escape after they held him for three weeks doing experiments on him. They were pretty awful on him. They brought him on the brink of death several times over to succeed creating the perfect cells to make them embryos.
The Crazy Scientist is his biological father while the Cult Leader is his biological mother in terms of their sperm and egg, it was revealed on Episode 6.
Still, Ji Oh got better on the fighting scenes. Thank goodness in the beginning he was being kicked in his ass several times over.
He saved the babies, but because Goo Reum was unconscious with a head trauma he left them behind. The Bad Guys took them. They cleaned everything on the scene and Yoo Na planted the dead bodies from the underground lab to the ground floor.
Yes, Ji Oh is going all Tarzan on Goo Reum. Check what I wrote on the previous thread about their relationship – with the things that were known up to episode 6.
I think the reason Goo Reum is not being honest with what she feels about Ji Oh, has to do mostly with what her late Professor told her.
When she found him on Human Tech, she was relieved that Ji Oh was alive.
Hence my point :
“Both of them are holding each other as the sole reason to continue living.”
Is TRUE!
She also tried to calm him down before he became a weapon, but he was so wired up from the fight with Yi Son to listen to her. Hence, he became frantic, and when he took her to the hospital, he asked from the doctor to save her and not let her die.
Subconsciously, she is attracted to him. I mean let’s be serious. He is Tarzan indeed. His social skills are in a Tarzan mode, but he tries his best to help her in his own way with all the things he has learned by himself. He also has saved her numerous times over and over again. He even took a bullet for her. Any woman would be wooed from it alone.
At the same time, it was revealed on Episode 6, that Goo Reum’s father took Ji Oh in order to sell him. Even though Ji Oh remembered the incident and later on his Crazy Scientist Dad confirmed it as well, he didn’t disclose such an awful truth / information, so as not to hurt her.
–> Ji Oh indeed has feelings for Go Reum. <–
Goo Reum on the other hand, doesn’t let her guard down or to be precise she doesn’t want to show him that she does care for him. As I have stated in the previous thread, she grew up alone and she doesn’t trust easily.
She has abandonment issues, because of her folks. And the only way she has learned to survive is to hide. So, for her emotional sake, her vulnerability is being secured behind huge walls. Ji Oh brings them down little by little.
As for the Captain, what is the most awful thing? He convinced the whole team to think she is bad. Although, Kim Yoo-Cheol – the second in command – might help her in today’s episode. We shall see.
So far, they are all regrouping. From today’s preview, Ji Oh will swear to Goo Reum that he will do anything in his power to clear her name, because he doesn’t want her to live like him – being hunted down.
If that is not love, what else is?
Yes, so far we see that the unethical ones are winning the ones with Ethos.
P.S. Lee Da Hee did an unplugged version of “Your Eyes” that was part of yesterday’s episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aisAePX3OLY
Here are the lyrics: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/your-eyes-your-eyes.html-8
I stopped when you wrote, “The Crazy Scientist is his biological father while the Cult Leader is his biological mother in terms of their sperm and egg, it was revealed on Episode 6.”
Ewww.
I thought the Cult Leader was just being megalomaniac and narcissistic as usual when she gushed that JiOh had her eyes.
Is there a deeper meaning there, though? Like, the marriage of crazy science and crazy religion produces a monster? Or is this like multiplication: multiplying two negatives makes a positive?
Yes, I can see why Gureum would find JiOh sexy. To some women (and men, of course) there’s something alluring, tantalizing about a man who can go bestial and can kill them in a heartbeat but chooses to protect them instead. I guess, there are remnants of our caveman/woman ancestors imprinted in our genes.
As for JiOh, the endgame here is fusion of his dual natures: animal and human. Like an injured animal, he’s full of rage and fury right now, because he discovered that he was manufactured in a lab, and was experimented on like he wasn’t human. But he can also be a protective person, just like the Red Haired girl and the Hired Assassin-with-the-bad-arm protected their own men.
If he can tame this animalistic nature and extend his protective instinct to other people, then perhaps he can find a way to use his “extraordinariness” for the greater good and find peace with himself.
That’s how I see the endgame of this drama: how to integrate him, given his dual nature, into society.
I think you are right to both statements.
What matter is the POV of the person who is going to answer to that statement.
For instance, the late Professor who was an Orthodox one, would believe the first sentence as to be correct. For him, Ji Oh was a monster, that needed to be eliminated. He said so to Goo Reum some hours before his death.
Other people, like Goo Reum, would choose the second statement as true.
You are right about your conclusion as well. The thing that he saved the babies means that his protective instincts do exist. Not only for Goo Reum but for everyone who need his help.
As for his animalistic nature. Most of the times, he goes berserk, when people are treating him poorly: i.e. when they are trying to kill him or even torturing him.
That’s why I am Team Ji Oh from the very beginning.
He might be a Hybrid, but he has ethics. Which is rare to his Universe from all the characters we have seen so far.
I was happy that the babies did not die, but they are still in the clutches of Mad Scientist.
Gu Reum must have supernatural powers because she is still alive and well after all the beatings. This was going to be a sarcastic statement, but it just occurred to me that her own father was also on team Mad Scientist. It is possible that she had been experimented on too…
Lee Da Hee sings well.
@SnowFlower,
This theory was first introduced by @Juriel in a previous thread and I agreed with her. I also believe that she is genetically enchanced. Only the Crazy Scientist – Dad would know for sure, since he was working with her Dad.
I also agree about Lee Da Hee sings well. I love this song very much and I have send it to my V.Coach to work with it after the quarantine.
@Cleopatra, you sing in Korean? Cool!
@SnowFlower,
I am trying to. Hopefully I will start learning Korean this September.
Mostly I sing in Greek and in English. I want to learn some French and Italian songs as well. I am looking for songs that I really like in order to sing it.
I was on hiatus for many years and I started over taking singing lessons, but the quarantine for the pandemic made us stopped rehearsing. So, I need to concentrate on my technique.
As for the song, basically I am listening to this piece non stop and I have printed the romanized version of the lyrics.
So, I was just focusing how Sunwoojunga was pronouncating Hangul. Later on that I would be able to practice with my Maestro, I will find a teacher to work the pronouncation together.
And they KISSED!!!!!
The first 30 minutes things are evolving super fast!!!
Let is squee all together now! *Super Excited…*
@Cleopatra, I dropped LUCA after ep2 but I still read the posts. “Your Eyes” sounds so soulful, the acoustic version of the FL was really good. Have a great time learning it. That’s awesome you’ll be able to sing Korean. There are so many good OSTs from
Kdramas out there.
Episode 8 was the best episode ever! *raw material*
The Short Edition
We get to see how our fugitive couple and the Bad Guys are doing at the same time, for one year from the Human Tech incident.
Nature VS Crazy Science Match!
Who do you think that scored first?
Nature scored from the locker room! 1-0 *cheering*
So, the Bad Unethical People impregnated three women via in vitro fertilization. The pregnacies were in the third trimester but the fetuses where super strong for the mothers, so everyone died.
At the same time, we got to witness the loving of Ji Oh and Goo Reum.
You witnessed above my excitement when they kissed, that I had seen so far…Little did I know though… *winks*
The result was a pregnancy and the birth of a healthy baby girl.
He made her a decent woman before the birth, they got married as well!
*Team Ji Oh*
Unfortunately, the schion was completed. The Cult Lady and the Crazy Scientist wanted to make a weaker embryo, while the Second in Command made his minions to look for Zi-Oh.
So he orchestrated to be found the long lost car with the deceased parents of Goo Reum, in order to make her reappear.
(I mean Goo Reum – you were a cop. It was a trap obviously!)
That made Goo Reum to call the detective Kim Yoo-Cheol to find information, because of course they would frame Ji Oh for the incident, so as to make her question him.
As a result, the Captain found her gps signal and Yi-Son and Tae-O went to the Hospital and kindapped both her and the baby. They don’t know who the father is, but Yi-Son asked her if it was Ji Oh.
I wanted to hit Yi-Son so very hard. He is a f**** moron working for those people. No, he doesn’t have my sympathy at all. He is Hell-bound.
So, we are left to the point that Ji Oh aka I am Tarzan went berserk because they took his Jane / Goo Reum and his -yet unnamed- child.
He is going to kill everyone…
To Be Continued…!
We have four episodes until the end of Season 1! *Crossing my fingers for Season 2!
Thank you @Janey!
I have a list of OST songs from K-dramas and I will choose wisely!
I do hope you are okay!
I love L.U.C.A very much. Today’s episode was the BEST in the whole series…
The subs for Episode 8 are not completed. I don’t want a Season 2, but I hope that the main characters are not killed off. I did see the kiss though, did not need subs for the scene!
@SnowFlower,
Those where the words of the Director. He hoped for a Season 2. The Series are already wrapped. I posted a link in the previous thread from the Press Conference.
I will definitely rewatch this episode…
P.S. I haven’t been happy for a kiss from OTP for a long long time. LMAO!
I am happy that our main couple has a baby, but I am also alarmed that Ji Oh may be expendable. I don’t want an ending where he is dead, and Gu Reum raises his baby alone…
I don’t think that will be the case.
If that happens that would be awful. I agree with you.
I am thinking though, that he won’t die. He will save them.
Thanks @Cleo! Before I knew about the kiss, I went back to do a quick skip watch of Episodes 5-7. When I watch it like that minus the fighting and the pain/suffering, it became more fun LOL. And yeah, I noticed JiO’s soulful looks and that he was getting attached to Gu Reum. I have nothing but hopes for poor JiO and Gu Reum to not end up alone. So now I can watch Episode 8 and look forward to the kiss!!
I have a soft spot for stories about lost souls finding hope and love, so I try not to get too upset by the creepy cult story line…
@Snow Flower, Me too … I’ve always had a soft spot for stories where kids have suffered and carry trauma, stigma or some other great burdens with them, are all alone, have every reason to want to rage against their lot, but still remain humane. When I ignore the violent and twisted evil plotlines, I see that story. I so want JiO and Gu Reum to have a better life and not be alone.
Kalimera Ladies from my part of the world!
@GB I am glad that you continue watching it with us!
I was so hyped yesterday with the plot twist!
So, let me comment on some things that I didn’t yesterday after watching the Episode.
First of all, the fact that Goo Reum had a successful pregnancy indicates that she is indeed genetically modified as well.
Yes, the conception happened naturally, but at the same time, Ji Oh is a hybrid, that means the baby might have super powers as well.
We saw that the implanted fetuses were modified by the Crazy Scientist and they were more lethal than Ji Oh. I mean they even electocuted their moms in the womb.
Hence the experiment failed when mothers and babies died.
Since Ji Oh is L.U.C.A., then the baby is indeed something unique.
She is definitely is a new kind of Homo Sapiens. For my argument’s sake, let’s just name it Homo Sapiens Hybrid.
If they find out that she is indeed Ji Oh’s daughther from now on, if they managed to escape that is, they will look for her in order to make experiments on her.
I think Ji Oh understands this better than everyone and he won’t die.
Let us remember the scene with his “Dad” at episode 6 :
“Why do you insist on making easing choices? Don’t you have reasons to live?”
—> Ji Oh is thinking about (his promise to) Goo Reum <—
"Live. You must live on. Live to find the answer to that question.
The elevator is at the right end of the hallway. Run. "
I think the time he had with Goo Reum made him find his answer.
Which is his family is the reason to live. From that scene I don't think that Ji Oh will die trying rescuing Goo Reum and their baby.
That makes me mad though is the fact that Goo Reum should expect that Bad Guys are evil. They knew all these time where her dead folks were but they were not disclosing the data.
The Media according to NFS, stated that the inside of the car was burned. That means that Ji Oh was there.
What Goo Reum doesn't know that her father was with the sellers and they were trying to test little Ji Oh in the van and he exploded. From that scene I didn't remember Goo Reum dad's car to explode as well. If that is the reason, then they just put the dead bodies in the car and got rid of it.
Ji Oh told her a half truth after they spent the night together. He knew that her father wanted to sell him, but he didn't share that information, so as not to hurt her.
So, Goo Reum, you don't start question Ji Oh's loyalty. Be smarter than that.
@Cleo Kalimera to you too!
I watched Ep 8 more or less fully. About Gu Reum: while she may be genetically modified, I feel that the child being more natural and not tampered with (ie not made stronger by Crazy Ryu) was less likely to … er … explode. Baby did give mum some shocks but not so much that they were unbearable.
Yes, we’re all expecting that, and no one more so than JiO who now knows that ‘Crazy Grandad’ will be the number 1 person who’ll take baby apart. He’ll definitely try his best to survive and restore his family.
It was so lovely to see him, so proud and happy to be a dad. Kim Rae Won is doing a fine job in pulling on our heartstrings.
About the Bad Guys: Bad Kim, as expected, manipulates everything so as to get his loyal minions. He gets Yi Son and Yoo Na in trouble so that he’ll be their rescuer and he promises them an arm and a leg (literally) to keep them faithful. Yes, he probably had a lot to do with the death of Gu Reum’s parents but he hid it until the news of it or the kind of death was useful for him to leak to the press.
Presumably they wanted to flush out Gu Reum with the news of her parent’s remains being found.
I thought that was very considerate of him. Actually, I’m not really sure we should believe everything that Crazy Ryu told him. It might have been the case that Gu Reum’s parents wanted to save JiO, but were caught and killed.
Hey my lovely @GB,
Since the baby girl is the first in her kind, we don’t know her abilities yet.
Her genome would be different, because she got her one X chromosome from her Appa, while the other one from Omma.
Yes Kim Rae Won is perfect for the role. I read somewhere that it was offered first to Ji Chang Wook and he declined. I believe that was a right choice.
The Bad Guys are an part of a shady Organization. In the last scenes we got to see the mysterious and elusive Attorney Jung (Jung Eun-Chae our Prime Minster from TKEM) who revealed to Yoo Na how she was framed in order to become their Assassin.
Yoo Na wants to save Yi Son but I don’t think that would happen in the end.
Yes, they wanted to flush her out. Goo Reum was a cop and she did a foolish mistake. I mean she called her ex colleague from her pay phone? *face palm*
Let’s blame that to the labor for now on.
No. Goo Reum’s parents were greedy for money.
Goo Reum’s dad, we saw a flashback, where he did take little Ji Oh to some people with black suits to sell him and they started taking blood and skin tissues.
Hence, Ji Oh oppressed the memory, but he was afraid and put up with all the probing and testing he’s got. That’s why he left the impromptu lab with the Late Professor.
When Ji Oh smiles, I forgive him for the perm…Will the super baby have a perm too?
I sincerely hope that Bad Kim and Creepy Cult lady turn on each other.
I thought the perm was because of electricity ⚡️ like the perm of the counters in Uncanny Counter.
Wait! They’re having a baby already? Life sure came at them fast. I’ve to watch this week’s episode.
Hey @Packmule3,
They did and Episode 8 was perfect in its own way…
(Check above my reactions while I was live watching it! LMAO )
@pm3, I also think that the perm is a result of the super powers. The baby was born already, and is currently in the clutches of Burned Arm.
I feel bad for the sheep at the idyllic sheep farm…
I’m fascinated by the unfolding of narrative arc for L.U.C.A. It’s precise and classical in its shaping, and at the end of Episode 8, we are approaching the point of climax (probably more physical stuff as Ji-O rescues his woman and child in Episode 9), after which, I imagine, we’ll have the denouement in Episodes 10-12.
At the beginning of Episode 7, in what I think is his best fight with Yi-Son up to now, Ji-O violently closes down the Human Tech operation, forcing it into hiding, as it were, and afterwards he finally begins to fully identify with the world of the species Homo sapiens sapiens. I mean, the man’s fathered a child; what can be more grounding than that? What species he himself is turning into still remains to be seen, although @Cleopatra’s suggestion of Homo sapiens hybrid is good.
I was interested to see Ji-O identified with the Christian character of Jesus in his caring for the sheep in Episode 8. But one particular lamb (analogous, perhaps, to Ji-O himself) dies. He refers to the world of genetics when he sorrowfully tells Gu-Reum about the dead lamb: “He was weak from the day he was born and couldn’t even drink his mom’s milk. They brought him here and got him strong enough to go back, but he couldn’t adjust to being in a pen. No-one took him. Same as me.” But after this moment of despair, Go-Reum discovers she is pregnant, and Ji-O’s world joyfully changes.
I think his reconciliation with his erstwhile betrayer Won-Yi is a high point. It speaks for screenwriter Chun Sung-Il’s sense of appropriate balance. It gives Won-Yi the opportunity to redeem himself, which he does, and more. But I feel it’s right for Ji-O not to drink with him and certainly not to let Won-Yi anywhere near naming the baby. Goodness knows where that might lead.
@Cleopatra points to the emergence again of the shadow within the shadow; another adversary for Ji-O to encounter and overcome. It appears he may be becoming some sort of arch-angelic figure, and I don’t like the idea of that.
This brings us two-thirds of the way into the story (at the end of Episode 8), where Ji’O, rudely awakened from his beautiful dream, destroys the pastoral idyll. It’s played its part.
Hurry up, Episodes 9 and 10.
Kalispera @Juriel!
I was waiting for your comment! I agree with your thoughts. The fight in Episode 7 was indeed the best in the Series so far.
As for Won Yi you might be right. I cannot fully trust him, but I leave a little space open. He is one character who can fully redeem himself.
I wanted to write it earlier, but my thoughts took me somewhere else in the morning.
I think that Ji Oh wants to name his daughter “Hope”. I think is appropriate.
The second name thay came into my mind is “Dawn”.
Lastly, I read a comment on YT about the opening scene of L.U.C.A.’s Episode 1.
The woman the Minions are after is not Ji Oh’s mom, as we have previously thought, but Goo Reum with their daughter.
I rewatched the whole sequence and Ladies, the woman is definitely Goo Reum. Check her shoes.
The Director did an amazing job because we hear a crispy female voice and Ji Oh’s voice over.
I need to write down what they say to the baby.
I cannot accept their hypothesis that this scene foreshows that Ji Oh is dead and Goo Reum is left alone with the baby trying to escape the bad guys.
Sure thing: The baby has superpowers. She creates the same electrical bubble as her Appa.
I believe this Scene is part of a bigger Sequence in Episode 12 and we don’t know all the facts.
Oh Writer-nim, I do hope the ending won’t be that sad…😕😟☹️🥺
@Cleopatra, how do you know that Gu Reum’s mentor/friend from NFS was Orthodox? Just curious…
Personaly, I found their couple super creepy. I don’t really feel empathy for the characters, they were not really well developped, it always was action – reaction. In one episode, they kissed, had sex (the FL didn’t look super happy after), never thougth about the consequences of their acts. I mean during 7 episodes, everybody repeated how the ML wasn’t human because of his ADN so the fact there is a healthy baby it’s kinda lucky.
I agree about the first being their child and not the ML.
I understood @cleopatra’s usage of “orthodox” as non-religious. 🙂 I think she meant his views of science are conventional or traditional. They conform to the norms and standards of his profession and the scientific community. Hence, orthodox with a small letter “o.” Not Orthodox.
The bad guy is unorthodox though. And that cult leader is unchristian.
@SnowFlower,
What answered @Packmule3 is totally true.
@Sayaris,
I don’t find it creepy for only a reason alone.
I remember as a kid a tv show about a spacecraft with some aliens that landed on Earth. After twenty years of their integration in Earth, some aliens fell in love with humans. Some humans were bullying the mixed couples. I remember that one couple endured it all.
Is that creepy? No.
Why? Because it is a possibility.
Since we are living in the 21th century, possibilities like these can happen in the near future. I believe that everyone should love whoever they want.
Goo Reum was sad because her whole world collapsed within an hour. It is not easy to be betrayed by your Captain and at the same time forget the life you had and start over.
The Ji-Reum couple are fighting up against a powerful and evil opponent who controls many aspects of their society. She was traumatized. As Ji Oh is as well.
As I have said in a previous thread, their pain brought them together. Sometimes things like that happens. At least they are more humane and honest with each other than all the rest.
Do they love each other? Yes they do. Their love started as desperate, but I think it evolved into a very deep and true love between them.
Hence the song “Your Eyes”. The lyrics cover this emotion pretty well.
Oh, the cult leader is definitely unchristian.
I just thought of a musical representation of this drama: It is like a flashy piano piece by Liszt. Liszt’s music is very demanding and rather physically exhausting for the pianist. It is very emotional but not always subtle, and sometimes kind of predictable. Still fun to listen to, but only in small doses.
@Cleopatra I don’t find it creepy because he’s not 100% human but because the characters didn’t have the development that let me believe in their love story. It was rushed and out of place for me.
@Sayaris,
I get your point. I guess I kept in my mind that the story is not a romantic one though. The primary arc is about the genetic experiments, the greed and how some have a Mackavellian way of destroying lives, like it is nothing for them, in order to achieve their master plans.
The ethical questions are kinda loud and clear. It is like the writer-nim wants the viewers to focus on that.
As for the development of the characters. @Juriel did a marvelous explanation about Ji Oh above. I have written my thoughts about Ji-Reum couple on the previous thread, but also in this one.
I am glad that we share our thoughts on the matter. 🙂
🙂 I went through our stash of piano pieces a couple of weeks ago, and I saw “La campanella.” I used to play it but with my arthritic fingers I can’t do those jumps and trills anymore. I envy you that your fingers can still tickle the ivories!
So Liszt is emotional for me but not in the way you mean.
L.U.C.A. is emotionally draining for me if I have to watch the fight scenes. I skipped most of Ep 6 bec the torture scenes. But if there are more dialogues between the leads then I don’t mind. If you notice, I live for the dialogues. I need to see and hear the characters be attuned to each other.
@Sayaris, your comment got me thinking about why our OTP together does not bother me. I find that somewhere in the earlier episodes, Gu Reum had moved from totally mistrusting JiO to being ambivalent about it. She might still ‘say’ that she didn’t trust him, but her behaviour was not all anti-JiO. She already showed compassion for him in the church when it was on fire and I believe again when they realised that they had only each other or else they’d be virtually alone against their ‘world’. They did have that conversation about each of them not ever having been in a relationship or loving another person before.
Their conversations (reflecting their emotions), were, as @pkml3 says, attuned. She was thinking that she should leave and not be in hiding, but at the same time she felt as he did that there was no clear solution, and so she remained.
Living with him for 3 months had enabled her to see that she could after all trust him. It was an attachment that grew out of necessity, perhaps, but was/is no less valid. Many good marriages began with much less! What I liked was that they never had to speak of love, but everything that JiO, especially, chose to do, was coloured by his love. Gu Reum responded to this, although she might never admit it. By the time the baby came, she was happy to be reaching out to him, depending on him and wanting him always by her side. Pity he had to go get their new identity cards, instead of stay with her as she wanted.
Well that was the usual good kdrama conflict before the end to leave us on a cliffhanger. (ɔ◔‿◔)ɔ
Kalimera !
@packmule3 Someone answered to your thought…
A fan made video with dialogue from Ji Reum Couple.
https://youtu.be/j5d-qmQkd7Q
Thanks for the link, @Cleo, those were pretty good edits from Felicity Queen. Yeah, I like their dialogues, their thoughts, and rationalisations. What they do is understandable and relatable.
Kalimera my lovely @GB,
I am on the road atm. I will read your previous comment and answer later on!
Are you okay?
Hi @Cleo! I’m doing great, thanks for asking. I’m making time to watch episode 3 of Hello Me. There are also lots of posts to read. So many interesting theories about this show and others. Let’s see how that goes. Have a good and safe commute!
LOL, @Cleo, I wanted to add but hit the Post Comment button too soon … how are you yourself? (❛‿❛✿̶̥̥)
@GB,
I am good. Things are pretty hectic around here, but we are healthy. I feel like I am drained at times and I am trying to rest whenever I can.
I am finishing tonight: “What is wrong with Secretary Kim?” It was light and made me laugh. I will continue like this, maybe with “Mr. Queen”?
As for L.U.C.A. I am glad I started watching this. I had a hunch that it would be good. I haven’t encountered both Kim Won-Rae and Lee Da-Hee before. So, I am impressed.
As for Kim Won-Rae I also like that he is handsome, but not in a common way.
Hi!
I just caught up on LUCA, with episodes 5 to 8.
Episode 8 was really something!!!!
Best episode, both most sweet and most terrific.
Also, this is the episode where the drama has upset his usual plot, and makes him addictive again.
Thanks to the time gap!
I had lost the excitement of the drama for various reasons:
– The plot is repetitive: he runs away! Catch him! Combat LUCA vs. Captain! LUCA make blues eyes and electric explosion! (Then go back to the beginning of the process, and start again 7 or 8 times).
– The female character was a copy-pasted from The King Eternal Monarch, or a lot of female cops from other dramas.
– Some elements don’t make sense and are cliché: why would the organization systematically kill its members? Who wants to work with them after that? Killing a whole team of researchers to replace them is absurd. It is not easy to find high level researchers, capable of working on futuristic projects, who moreover accept to do it illegally.
– The way the plot unfolded made one think of something quite childish (except for the gory and terrifying scenes). It reminded me of a lot of American series from the 1990’s or 2000’s, also featuring characters with special abilities. The tone, the sequence.
The drama also diminished on one of its strong points from the first episodes: the action scenes.
The director no longer uses the same type of combat. For example, the fight in front of the entrance to the underground lab is more reminiscent of the fight in the apartment in Jason Bourne 2. An avalanche of short shots and a great difficulty to read the action. In compensation, it’s supposed to be more nervous and punchy. It looks like the director wants to try a little bit of every style.
Otherwise, the rest of the direction is always so solid, a pleasure for the eyes. Everything is perfect at this level.
And as for the background music, it’s a real treat! Always well placed, well composed, at the ideal volume. Whatever the theme, shivering, enigmatic, or action drums. Just with that alone, I can compensate for all the flaws of the drama and stay focused on the episodes.
If as a unitary character, the female lead is unremarkable, on the other hand, she’s very good in terms of the relationship with the male lead. It’s solid, credible, at the right speed, and moving, which is no problem when the drama plays this overpowering song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUTmfYCDuBE
I’m also interested in the side-love story between the Captain and the red-haired girl 😉
@Cleo, actually I didn’t care for Kim Rae Won in Doctors in that I felt his character smiled too much or was too suave or something… but in this show, with him looking sad, dishevelled and not confident or arrogant, I like him better.
Lee Da Hee I recall in The Beauty Inside and in I Hear Your Voice. Again I prefer her character here, not all dressed up to the nines and arrogant, but more vulnerable.
I just noticed that real age-wise they are most appropriately playing opposite each other. He’s 39 and she’s 35.
I’m also like you hoping for a happy ending, although my husband seems to think the man will have to be sacrificed for the child to survive.
༼(❛)㇁(❛)༽
@GB,
To be honest with you I am not expecting a happy ending.
If they are talking for Season 2, I don’t know how they will end it.
Still, It is unfair for someone of the good guys so to speak to die, while the evil others are doing whatever they want with no repercussions.
Ji Oh, didn’t hold his daughter and didn’t even name her and that is sad…
@WEnchanteur I’m really watching this show now for the relationships, yes … the 2 couples. I expect that the rest of the time it will be the hiding of and chasing after the latest McGuffin (Gu Reum and baby or at least just the baby). Baby will be wanted for her DNA of course, so JiO will have 3 and a half episodes of electrifying his way into getting her back.
Yes the initial episodes’ violence and the chase was repetitive and exhausting. I FFDed those scenes. I hope the chasing after the McGuffin will be less repetitive.
I also hope we have time to develop a bit of the Yi Son-Yoo Na couple relationship. I actually want them to get away (maybe sans an arm and a leg) from the L.U.C.A. project, and from being minions, and to just live a natural life. The actors Kim Sung Oh and Jung Da Eun have managed to make them interesting and sympathetic characters in the short time we had to watch them.
@Cleo, Oh dear! A Season 2?!? I need closure for our poor, suffering good guys. Sigh … maybe I should pretend everything ended happily up to three-quarters of the way into Ep 8. Well curiosity will keep me watching even if I lose hope!!! (҂◡_◡) ᕤ
In the Press Conference, I posted the links on the previous thread, the Director hopes if the numbers are solid for a Season 2
I think that they have talked about it.
As for JiReum couple. I like the their actual ages. Not everyone is on their 20s. We need couples also in their 30s and 40s.
That’s why I loved “Chocolate” as well…
@pkml3 Gentle reminder: please put up the next OT for Episodes 9 and 10.
Have a great weekend!