The thread is now open for our Healer rewatch of Episode 5.
Join @Growing_Beautifully, @Cleopatra, @FGBxx, @Janey, @WEnchanteur, @Sayaris, @Fern, @OldAmericanLady, @nrllee, @Viva, and @Juriel.
13:00 UTC
09:00am EST
06:00am PST
09:00pm Singapore, Philippines
08:00pm Indonesia
03:00pm Greece
12:00am Sydney (Sunday)
08:30pm India
The schedule according to @Growing_Beautifully.
1) Episode 1: For the intro to the characters and their dreams
2) Episode 2: For some cool Healer action
3) Episode 5: For the dynamics of relationships and a getaway
4) Episode 8: For the elevator rescue and you know what happens after that
5) Episode 9: For the telephone convo and makeover
6) Episode 10: For the rooftop convo
7) Episode 11: For the movie date
8) Episode 14: For Healer’s turn to be ‘rescued’ in his lair
9) Episode 20: For the finale
gifs from kdramasforever’s tumblr
source: kdramasforever’s tumblr
Enjoy the rewatch!
Hello!!!
Despite working hard on my screenplay, I’ve been able to move forward with the episodes.
Just now, I’m in the middle of episode 9!
The historical past is recapitulated (episodes 7 and 8), so it’s not so complicated to follow.
Of course, I don’t remember the names, but I see the faces and who did what.
Things are clearer now!!!
@WE – that’s great! I hope that Healer was a good respite from your screenplay work. Chat with you tomorrow!
Bravo, @WEnchanteur. I hope that your screenplay is going very well, too.
@packmule3, thank you for the post.
Thanks @pkml3! The Power Rangers gifs always give me the giggles. I guess we’re persistent and enthusiastic that way!!
Congrats @WE, I trust that the show is getting more enjoyable for you as you progress in your watching.
Good to see you here @Janey and @Fern, it’s such a nice, fun and relaxing time to look forward to, rewatching Healer here with you.
In case we don’t have time to do a rewatch of the in between episodes…
Brief summary recap of Episode 3
We see the backstory of Moon Ho as a child and his trauma over the loss of little Ji An. He is racked with guilt over the crime of silence, since he knew that his brother had a hand in the loss of Ji An. He had witnessed how his brother was jealously resentful, and upset when Ji An was born, and he had had to buy the flowers on behalf of Gil Han to give to Myung Hee. Moon Ho had been enamoured of baby Ji An when she held on to his finger.
YS and Dad take Joo Yeon Hee into their home and Dad takes on her case. Healer sneaks into YS’s home, planting bugs to wiretap Dad’s office. He notices the photo of YS as a child with her adoptive parents. He’s almost caught in YS’s room but YS fails to notice him under her bed as she kicks her pajama bottoms onto his face. LOL.
Healer has figured out that party A who hired him is Jaeil News Company and that they are framing him for Go Sung Chul’s murder. He also notices MH outside Coffee Bay. He parkours/rides across town to find out where he goes, discovering Moon Shik’s home.
Upon breaking and entering into Myung Hee’s bedroom, he finds another photo that surprises him. Before it was a photo of himself on YS’s wall, now, it’s the photo of the 5 friends, the same as the one he himself has. (However he does not quite notice a photo of Yeong Shin as the child, Ji An next to it).
What he says to Ahjumma is telling of his attitude towards life : “Since I was born and up to now living life was just whatever. Nothing was all that fun. Since I was born, I might as well live. That was how I felt. Each day felt like a chore. But I think, right now, things are starting to get exciting. (He holds up the photograph). My heart is getting real tingly. This is a first for me.”
Healer starts working for Someday News as Park Bong Soo, against Ahjumma’s warnings and gets YS as his supervisor. MH hears the recordings of YS’s conversations with Dad and Yeon Hee from the wiretaps. He ‘stalks’/watches YS near her office, noticing Park Bong Soo.
Sang Soo and company is hired by Moon Shik to be his errand boys/henchmen.
YS says to Yeon Hee, “I believe in those things. Fate, destiny, that stuff. If it didn’t exist, why would words for it exist, right? Even if I wanted to run, it’s too late. Fate has already made our paths cross. Destiny has already begun.” – The same goes for her crossing paths with Moon Ho and Healer since they were children. Their destiny continues.
Brief summary recap of Episode 4
Healer has a hard time getting himself up early for work at Someday News. He still thinks YS is bait to get him, and notices that she has also drawn Moon Ho’s attention.
We hear YS repeat to her boss, what she’d grumbled to herself, ie that she cannot sleep with another person in the room with her. She can’t get her boss to agree to publish her story of Yeon Hee’s case.
Det Yoon is still out to pin the murder on Healer. He informs the other detective that the train on which Go Sung Chul had travelled had been hacked. Det Yoon thinks the police station is safe from hackers, except if it was an inside job. (We know what happens later LOL.)
Ahjumma finds out that Det Yoon has released the video of Healer in the train with Go Sung Chul. She gets Dae Young to locate and watch Healer since he switched off his tracker.
We get the backstory of Healer/Jung Hoo as a child. He was abandoned by his mother into the care of his grandma. Little Jung Hoo had asked sadly if he should go and look for his mother. (This is just so sad.) We find that he did look for his mum because now, as an adult, he waits to see his mother outside her home, to ask her about the photo of the 5 friends. He keeps buying her red bean dessert, which she likes, when they meet, even when he dislikes red beans himself. (He’s such a sweet kid.)
As Park Bong Soo, Healer brings a very drunk YS home, followed discretely by Dae Young. He asks to spend the night at Coffee Bay. Dad Chae tasks PBS to ensure:
1) that YS does not drink alcohol. When she starts speaking of dinosaurs she would cause trouble.
2) that YS does not open cans
3) that YS never sees violence taking place or it will cause a panic attack where she can’t breathe properly.
YS in her drunken bravado, posts the story and causes trouble for Someday News, and unknowingly, for herself.
Healer knows that Dae Young has been watching him, so he gets her to follow MH instead.
We get to see YS’s nightmare of being threatened by a step father with a metal stick. PBS pretends to be asleep on the couch outside YS’s room, but YS comes out sleep walking, takes his couch, and grabs on to his arm, while still asleep. PBS is forced to sleep with her in the sitting room. He wonders how come she can sleep in his presence when she can’t sleep with another person in the same room.
More backstory from Jung Hoo’s mum’s perspective: She recalls how the families had gathered for dinner, and they had found Jung Hoo and Ji An as children, sleeping peacefully with his arm in her hands.
Moon Ho sees that YS has put herself in danger by exposing Yeon Hee’s story. He goes to Someday News to see her. She is elated to meet him until she finds out that he wants to take the story away from her. She is unaware that he is protecting her from his brother, who sends the SS Guards after her.
Park Bong Soo accompanies YS home and becomes aware that SS guards have surrounded them. YS bravely tells PBS to run away and call the police, while she delays the SS guards. He makes his escape, at first to save himself, as Ahjumma advises, but changes his mind when he remembers that YS had seen violence at the hands of the SS guards and would probably be having a panic attack. He returns as Healer, to stop them from taking YS away. I love that he makes use of one of the guy’s jacket first as a weapon and then to cover YS’s head, so that she does not see the violence.
And so we continue with Episode 5.
@Growing Beautifully, thank you very much for the recaps.
Hello dear @Fern, you’re welcome! Anyone else about? I’m here!!!
Annyeong! I am here!
Thank you @Packmule3!
Congratz @We!
@GB thank you for the lovely recaps!
@Everyone I do hope you are okay!
Yay @Cleo! So glad to see you! Is your afternoon hot still? I’m having a very humid night now. am trying not to turn on the a/c… but I might just cave so that I can concentrate on our rewatch instead of on the heat.
Hey @GB!
Yes it is still hot and I took a nap, because I was out and about today.
Anyway, do whatever it takes in order to be in comfort!
I am waiting for everyone else to start in 6 minutes!
Yup, there’s thunder outside so we’ve closed the windows and put on the a/c.
Even if it’s just the 2 of us, we can start and the others will join us as and when they can.
@GB,
Oh! You did well. I read that in some areas we will have storms later on.
If it is going to rain today after the heat when I don’t know…
Yes, I agree!
Ready!!! =D
Hello @FGB!
Hey!!
Hi everybody.
Yay!!! FGB you’ve made it!!! 1 minute to start!
Great! @WE too! OK everyone, let’s start now!!!
Hello @WEnchanteur!
Shall we start?
Start with gymnast perf. ^^
I feel that Healer was trying not to be violent in front of YS who could still see… so he was doing more gymnastic stunts than fighting, until he put the coat more over her head and covered her eyes.
Hello, all! I’m here. Still trying to wake from the nightmare I was having when my alarm woke me. It had something to do with cleaning an attic or barn loft and falling with arms full of junk. Do you think it’s my subconscious telling me it’s time to declutter my house?
I’m going to start, since I always run behind while typing comments.
The fight scene with the pipe scaffolding: great choreography. And who’d have thought a yoyo could be a weapon?
And a kind of yoyo henchmen…
I really like that scene! WE have YS having a panic attack and Healer is fighting those guys while protecting her!
That Yo-Yo is deadly!
He had to manage so much without YS seeing and then to take care of her at the same time while holding the gang back, until the police came.
Ah, she say “2 pils”. Later, healer (but as hidden identity) will give her also 2 pils. Why ??? He have to say anything. “ha ah, people always take 2 pills”. But I didnt remember the 2 pills was at beginning of ep05.
Ok it’s a silly comment. 🙂
It seems I have downloading problems again D=
@Welmaris,
I do hope you are feeling okay!Nightmares yikes!
I love that he is holding to her until YS calms down, then he leaves because the Police officers are in the scene.
Hi @Welmaris, glad you could wake up and join us! Hope your eyes are feeling fine.
Love how the first thing YS thinks of is Park Bong Soo. What a great mentor/sunbae.
Healer is Park Bong-Soo. And it make me think in W, there is the character who name is Park Soo-Bong. Look like the same but the 2 surnames are inverted. Weird.
@GB,
Do you remember later on, he had suffered an injury with that yoyo…
She is looking for Bong Su! Oh…
Oh dear FGB, sorry to hear of your download probelms. Don’t worry we’ll still be online after the show ends, for several more minutes.
Yes, @Cleo, she’s such a good sunbae. She always thinks of him first. Like the way she told him to run away while she holds off the gang.
MoonHo tries to start a conversation with Myung-Hee about JiAn, I think she will have a seizure?
Noona has a sort of big crisis. Scary!
The pills…So much care shown by Healer for YS during her anxiety attack. And immediately after her nasty experience and hyperventilation, YS puts her energy into caring about Bong Soo and Yeon Hee.
Myung Hee and Moon Ho… she feels so bad that she’s alive when she thinks Ji An is dead. MH testing the waters to know if he can talk to her about Ji An.
So sad the daughter has panic attacks and the mother has seizures when she gets upset.
@GB,
Yes she cares about him. Little she knows that he was there for her too…
Welmaris, yes the mutual caring for each other even before they knew their shared past was so warm and lovely to watch.
Nice way to start a flashback, first a voice over of the first sentence from Ji-Ha. I wonder if it’s in the script. Almost sure, but I should check it.
Moon Ho is trying to be careful, but he triggers the seizure anyway. She says that she would know if her daughter were alive in her heart.
YEAH! it’s in the script, check that :
_________________________________________________
#6 Moon Shik’s house garden / night
Dae Yong still chews his cheeks and jumps over the wall using the terrain. I’m just about to pass. Lay flat on the wall. And a place where you gently raise your head. In one of the gardens there, Moon Ho. He wanders around the garden, immersed in thought. // Moon Ho suddenly stops walking. audible sound.
YEONG SHIN (OS) – So… I’m not going to be able to protect my articles and reporters? (I don’t seem to understand rather than ask.)
_________________________________________________
#7 Inside the recall cafe
Yeong Shin looks at Moon Ho across the table in disbelief.
YEONG SHIN – ..that’s why… that… can I call you senior?
MOON HO – (Just looking. I wanted to see you so close.)
………………
Here’s YS being disappointed in MH, thinking that he stole stories from his hoobaes and took the credit.
He makes her feel bad because he says she does not know what a mess she’s made and how now her source needs protection.
This calming voice that MoonHo is using with YS is so swoony!
@WE you have time to consult the script??? You’ve really done your homework this time!!!
“Come to your senses!” I’m sorry, but when someone is having a grand mal seizure, their body is out of their conscious control. I’ve witnessed someone have a grand mal epileptic seizure, and he was not responsive nor able afterwards to remember anything.
@Cleo, yes, it’s the uncle voice LOL.
I’m pausing my watch here and there to slow it down so FGB can catch up a bit.
Hey @Fern!
YS’s hero has crashed from his pedestal in her eyes. She doesn’t realise he wants to protect her and why. If only she could hear his thoughts.
@GB, there is 2 scenes in episode 10 I want to read. I wonder how it is. Main one is when YS do her interview. The end of the scene. It’s well done with music, song, etc. But I wonder how the script bring this kind of achievment emotion over time (4 or more differents scenes).
@GB,
I know. That Uncle’s voice is great.
I understand. Do you want me to pause too?
@Fern, so true. We do not know when we are being protected and resent the interference/controls, etc.
Here are the brothers about to have their altercation.
Today is not my day so far, downloading wise. Well, I have the (then) excellent Dramabeans recaps by Javabeans herself, so I will do my best 😉 . Also I watched the pertinent episodes.
It still feels like cheating XD
@WE, I thought you didn’t like how the music was used over and over again in this show.
MH remembers his meeting with YS. YS had some harsh words for MH when he asked her to hand over her article to him, and her idol worship of him came crashing down. She’s opposite of him: not silent.
MoonHo wants to find out more about the past, while MoonShik is messing up with him. He reveals to his little brother that he knows that he was being wired!
From that time and unwards I couldn’t stand MoonShik even in the slightest!
He is gaslighting MH and messes with his guilty conscioussness.
Ha ha! I’m reading the script while watching.
And there is some additional dialogs on the screen !
True Welmaris, YS is not the silent type at all. She’s amazingly resilient, when we remember that she didn’t speak at all at first when she was found. The last words her mum had told her was to make no noise and to hide, and so she never spoke for a long time.
I like how Ahjumma is messing with Healer.
She says to him to stay away from YS, but he will go running to her!
Okay, in this scene Ji Chang Wook looks swoony!
@GB, No, there is only one or two BGM I don’t like because they are to close to “A team” style. But otherwise, BGM are ok.
Healer theme is sometimes invasive. Example : ep9, it start at the end of elevator scene, but at this point there is too many sounds, so it make a weird effect.
@Cleo
Ahjumma to Healer: “Don’t. You’re a wanted suspect. You became a suspect for murder not long ago. I thought you’re going to buy an uninhabited island and leave this country. If it’s not a girl who would follow you, then don’t do it.” – At first the advice to only care for himself.
She too only wanted to care for herself … but in the end she cared too much for him and he for her.
Now we learn why Moon Ho has been looking for Ji An: he found out her grave was empty. Moon Sik’s words, “Ji An can’t be alive.” Moon Ho immediately senses that Ji An is in danger because of Moon Sik’s ambitions.
Moon Sik pokes his brother in his most sore spot: You knew everything I was doing in this room because you were spying on me, yet you’ve done nothing. Yes, MH’s greatest source of guilt is his silence.
Hi, Everyone. Oh, Moon Shik’s barefaced lying is atrocious. And saying that Ji-an CAN’T be alive. Then he tells Moon Ho that he is an accessory to any crimes he has recorded or knows his brother has done because he hasn’t reported them. What a scumbag.
Poor Moon Ho, his brother is terrible!
MS to MH : “That’s because you too are on the same side as me. you and I, since that day in 1992 until now, we have been on the same side. You still can’t acknowledge that?” – MH despises himself because he thinks he’s like his brother whom he despises. So much anguish!!
@GB,
The Netflix subs were kinda different!
STill, we know that Healer likes YS…
The panther reference!
#17 to 19 :
3 flashback scenes. The script make 3 scenes for that. But it’s more cool to make a montage scene, so we don’t loose track from the situation (on the roof).
😉
Healer toughts in voice over.
Hah! both Ahjumma and SS are separately saying the same things but SS is too dumb to figure out the conclusion himself LOL.
@Cleo, Kalimera from Caracas!!!, I have downloading problems so opened Dramabeans’ recap to follow you 😉
#24 Moon Shik’s Library
Sang Soo is OS (out screen) on the script. But the director made a split screen instead. 😉
Hey @FGB,
Good to know you are here with us! I’m waving hi from our capital too!
OK FGB… we are more or less at the conversation between Ahjumma and Healer about whether SS will use torture on YS or not to get info on him.
Ahjumma’s question …”Is YS all that pretty?” LOL
Sang Soo has sold his soul to Moon Shik. I almost feel sorry for him.
@GB,
The “Sexy” reference made me laugh!
Love this voiceover:
To the song “When you Hold Me Tight”
Voiceover of Healer ” When people look at chimps or tigers they just say “It’s just a chim” or It’s just a tiger. Among those, it’s hard to find a slightly prettier chimp or more handsome tiger. In my eyes, humans are the same. They all look the same. But among the similar humans she is quite different. if you ask me how different she’s like a leopard I saw from a documentary. It had hurt its legs, crossed paths with a pack of hyenas. It was obvious that it definitely wouldn’t win, even more so because it was injured, but that leopard attacked first, and did not back away.”
He’s so attracted to YS not so much because of her looks but because of her attitude, and how she confronts her fear and puts others first.
Hello @WE, @GB and all of you, @WE thanks for being here. Having someone who knows about scripts enhances the viewing =D
Well… the SS guards doesn’t seem the brightests of the bunch.
Healer is trying to assess the danger to YS, and Ajumma only attributes his concern to a shallow attraction to a pretty girl. In fact, Healer is attracted to YS because of her bravery, which also makes him fear for her safety.
I like how Healer’s thought process is revealed to us as he thinks about the leopard documentary.
More voiceover from Healer: “That girl was the same. It’s not that she wasn’t scared because she did not know better, but she was brave, despite knowing how scary it was. …. Anyway, I’m like that too. Running away and hiding … That’s not my style.”
“When savage beasts are pitched against each other, there isn’t anyone that isn’t scared. Everyone of them is scared. But the one that show fear first loses its life. That’s why before the enemy, who is out to catch me, grasps my weakness, I will attack first.”
This explains why he does what he did.
@GB,
I have different subs on Netflix!
I love YS squinting at the Healer photo in her room, then wondering why did he help me? And Bong Soo turns up sleeping on the bench.
#30 Chi Soo’s shop 1st floor
Lot more dialogs in the drama version here too.
FGB The detectives too are only a bit smarter than SS guys. Ahjumma seems to be the smartest and she and Healer will be pitting themselves against MS.
Minion calls podcasts and internet chatter trivial. He’s still of the era of big media. Things have changed since Healer was created.
Chi-Su acting the outraged father, but wearing his flowered pinny!
@Fern, I love the visit of PBS to YS that morning…
She thought he had gotten hit a lot. To her credit she never blamed Bong Soo for being a scaredy cat. She was a good sunbae, who put her hoobae’s welfare first.
Jung Hoo has not had a female taking care of him so gently in 23 years. So poignant.
@GB, I get him about YS. Even if she is very unprepared and bumbling, she has potential. She is not only brave but she also has her heart in the right place: at the end of the day she lost an exclusive to save a life.
Welmaris, Yup how things have changed with social media and the Internet. Big news companies are not doing so well.
This dish brings out so many memories for Healer…
The best joke is that not a single SS hit got Healer. He only injured his hand because he protected YS’s head from bashing against the stone wall.
It’s been a very long time since he’s had a family meal. He’s touched by the number of side dishes, because he has only been ordering in 1 dish meals. It’s so poignant when he gingerly eats the braised potato.
His mum had used to make it for him as his favourite dish and this time it’s YS who’s made it.
Hello rewatch Rangers! Forgot to set the alarm because it’s long holiday weekend and woke up late. I’m normally up before this time. Will catch up in a bit… enjoy!!!
…………
YEONG SHIN – I’ll eat well.
JUNG HOO – Well… (there is probably no next one)
While everyone is eating, Chi Soo sees Jung Hoo. Jung Hoo. He is just looking down at the table with the salted fish.
CHI SOO – Why don’t you eat it? Are you a bread person? Then go downstairs Because Chul Min is making toast with bread.
JUNG HOO – No. There are so many side dishes..
Then he picks up a potato dish. Put it in your mouth and eat it. That’s the taste I remember. I feel like crying for a moment.
—————————-
Potato scene : the editor put a sensistive piano music on this. ^^
Emotion of the scene is difficult to get in the script, except at the end, we know healer is sad while eating potatoes. Then, the scene in drama take that and put the piano music a lot before.
@Welmaris, good point. Temerity can be an issue for YS.
Yes, she acknowledges that he is a scaredy cat but doesn’t care. She is grateful that he called the police and that saved her (as far as she could tell.) Then the hug, the bandage, the meal. And the potatoes that were his childhood favourite. I expected him to tear up.
MoonHo will resign!
[Resignation letter/
–> there is voice over of the letter in the drama. But there is only the text is the script. The screenwriter forgot to say “the text is hear in voice over”, lol !!! 🙂
Should be obvious, but it’s easy to forget.
That’s so true @FGB. She lost her scoop because she cared.
@Fern, IKR!!! Dad Chae looks so cute in that apron but so stern in the face LOL.
@WE, the potato eating scene was pre-empted by previous episodes when we saw Healer’s mum leave it for him … last meal before she left.
Healer/Bong Soo may be able to fight gangsters with confidence, but now must face the angry father and judgmental uncle. Then his discomfort continues with being invited to join a family meal. Bless him: the first bite he takes is from the potatoes that remind him of the day his mother abandoned him.
Such a sad thought the Healer hadn’t had a home cooked meal for years.
@Fern, yes, precisely… the first home cooked meal in 23 years! (Don’t count Sabu’s meals LOL.)
Here too drama is different:
——————–
MANAGER – Then second.
YEONG SHIN – I will do anything.
MANAGER – Do it right.
YEONG SHIN – That’s too… Yeah?
MANAGER – Whether you write articles or present them as evidence in court. Get something you can put to good use. So… we live.
Yeong Shin I can’t believe it. Other reporters are amazed. The chief executive still looked at Yeong Shin with a serious face
MANAGER – Just remember my line. It’s hard to get out of my mouth. It’s a good line.
———————–
Some more dialogs. It use more time because there is healer music coming in, it need to take effect. ^^
It’s fun to see how and when editor choose a music for a scene.
Resignation letter on a disposable coffee cup!! LOL
He does actually care for Min Jae… one of his only friends.
LOL I love this scene of YS with Boss and getting an earful for her causing trouble.
YS : “I promise I won’t do it again.”
Someday Boss : “What? Which thing?” (LOL She’s done so many wrong things.)
YS : “I uploaded a news item without Chief’s permission. Although it was a scoop that nobody else could dare to touch, and it reached the highest number of hits in the history of Someday News. No matter how much it dominated the top search list, how dare this mere reporter…”
LOL, is she apologising or boasting about her wrong doing?
“Ahjumma!? Min-Ja? Yeobu?!”
He is good!
@WE… my subs…
I love how Someday Boss suddenly changes tack from finding fault with YS to supporting her in bringing Kim Eui Chan to justice.
SBoss :”Do it properly. … Writing an article, or finding evidence to be submitted for the trial, do it properly and find something that is useful (to us). That is how we live. Remember what I just said. Because those are fine words that come out of my mouth with difficulty. Oh my stomach hurts.” – LOL. Boss was so cool but almost had diarrhea at the same time over doing something so daring.
LOL Healer is trying to sweet talk Ahjumma into a good mood so that she’ll stop the silent treatment. I love his aegyo and seeing Ahjumma with her feet on the table, in those garish socks. And she’s winding yarn around her feet LOL.
JH : “Ahjumma. Ahjumma. Min Ja-shi, Yeo-bo/Darling (aegyo!!)”
A : “This crazy jerk.”
Well @GB, as we will see she lost her scoop to a small scandal. But after that her decisions ended up giving her the original family she came from, being teached by one of the best journalists in Korea and gaining her own fame. So her act of selflessness and bravery made a path for a better future 😉
Ahjumma to Healer : “You should keep this in mind. Whether you get arrested by the police, or your identity gets revealed to somebody else, I will be throwing you away so quick.”
-He knew better than to believe her. He also never threw her away. He never abandoned anyone he considered family or friend.
@FGB Well said! She is well repaid for a warm heart.
Poor JH thinks that Sabu is out of reach, but Ahjumma can reach him. Sabu should not have abandoned JH the way he did.
I thought it was only WatchAsian but even if I can download, after that I can’s play… and I tried Youtube…
@Cleo, I love Ahjumma-Healer relationship, eventhough at first Ahjumma is thinking that JH as Healer needs to be replaced. It is a business decision. But person-wise, she cared about him.
Ahjumma is so funny. I like Healer/Bong-Soo’s little crowned heart coffee mug.
Boss gives YS a hard time, but ultimately backs her.
Ajumma gives Healer a hard time, but cares about him, seeking help for him from his teacher.
@GB,
I know. She was always taking the necessary distance from everyone.
Even her maknae in Police, that’s why he was trying to find her out.
Still, she cared enough for him, when she let YS know that Healer was missing for almost a week, after you know what happened…
@FGB4877, how frustrating! I hope you can find it online. Kissasian? Dramacool?
The Hwang scene which I hated because of Hwang’s hateful behaviour but which I also loved because YS and Healer saved each other, and she didn’t even know what he did. And he just was so full of admiration over what she did, in ‘saving’ him. LOL
Yoyo seems to recognise Healer.
Hitting a woman, just because he can. He is such a coward this guy.
President Hwang scene.
Here short recall and flashback are made as a scene (could be small inserts instead). It’s not clear kscreenwriter choose to put inserts or not. SJJ use that, but healer screenwriter prefer to split in many scenes.
But after, anyway, there is a lot of differents scenes. The situation is complicated because there is people doing thing everywhere. in the greenhouse, ajuhumma, henchmen at the entrance. What a mess !
Poor YS sees violence again. Hwang is so mean, he does not stop hitting the poor girl.
We see YS’s flashback as a 5-year old at the mercy of a big, strong adult. Poor child.
It is a problem with my browser (using Mozilla). Last night it was OK. Someone here recommended the “Brave” browser and it is downloading and playing there. Regrettably my bandwidth is 1 Mbit/sec so normally I start downloading half an hour earlier, so this time it wasn’t meant to be 🙁
Poor little YS alone on the dark main road. Fortunately Healer already has Dae Young in place to run interference.
It made me wonder if he was the person who adopted her back then. He is so awful. Even the SS men seem shocked.
How scumbags are those in SS. I mean they look at a man hitting a woman and they don’t say a thing…
I like that Dae Young’s people run up against guys in suits by spraying them with water and flour LOL.
And DY gets to make the car into a ghost car with Ahjumma. So cool!
@FGB4877. I hope you can join next time.
@WE, it’s such a mess but it works!!! Loved it for the ending of this episode.
Yes, I should look up the script to see how it was written.
Yes, DY is clever. She did well there.
@Fern,
She wanted to be Healer!
The sound of dragging metal on the ground brings back her trauma.
Hate Hwang!!
Healer uses his eyes to measure how things will fall … domino effect with just 1 or 2 moves.
This escape, where YS is holding BS /Healer and Healer smiles victorious at her, but she cannot see it!
@Fern and @Cleo yes, in the end DY did become Healer.
@GB,
For a while though…
@GB : 43 to 58. Take 15 scenes on the script. A bit more on the screen maybe. Very interesting. There is many split of the situation.
Also, look like the writer know how is this kind of greenhouse. Or at least, have a precise idea on how it should be for the action. When healer hit the shelf.
Love that look on Healer’s face too @Cleo. He’s so full of pride and admiration, while pretending to be a wuss, and he’s so pleased she’s still in the dark about it. Love it!!
YS and Bong Soo drive right into the lion’s den.
I like how we see that it wasn’t easy for YS to make the decision to pursue the interview. She was frightened, and it made her waver. This makes her more human and believable. But even when she’s frightened, she doesn’t allow herself to be intimidated.
Hwang is slime, pure slime.
I appreciate Healer’s efforts to protect YS from seeing violence while still staying in character as scardy cat Bong Soo.
Healer’s battle plan in ingenious. The distraction caused by the bikers in the alley, then the out-of-control “self-driving” car are strange enough to the henchmen that they don’t resort to lethal force in response. And once again, we see that Healer can size things up quickly and utilize objects on hand to give himself an advantage.
True bravery isn’t lack of fear, it is pursuing a cause in spite of fear. YS is truly brave.
The collapse of the garden shelves caused by Bong Soo kicking one pillar is quite a Rube Goldberg machine. Good job, props department! I doubt they had the luxury of multiple takes on that.
Sorry, I wasn’t very concentrate on the comments. I was curious to look at the script while watching. 😉
YS is so scared that she can barely get the words out, but still call him a piece of trash. I love how Healer calculated how to break the shelves holding the plants. Then he pretended to be afraid, so YS would think of him rather than of her fear. His smile as she’s pulling him outside is great.
@GB,
I know! Here is the gif:
https://gifs.com/gif/healer-episode-5-english-subtitle-korean-drama-vqdXqk
We need to remember this look! LMAO
Loved what you say about that scene @Welmaris!
@WE, that’s ok, you must enjoy yourself and scripts give you joy!
What a great ending!
The script is short on this one, 968 lines, 70k characters.
I guess it’s why there is more additionnals dialogs in the episode.
Lord I want to see that director with his bone counting quadrupled… A fracture or two would be a great pedagogic method.
@WE, yes it is a mess, but it also shows that chaos has arrived but there is no time to freeze. Where are we going next?, what would be the place to start declutting all that mess?… we will see in the next episode 😉
That’s a good point @Fern, Healer may really have not only hidden his identity by his ‘fear’ but made YS forget her own fear in the process. Ingenious!!
@Welmaris,
Great analysis indeed.
You are right about bravery. It is not absence of fear, indeed.
I really like this Nelson Mandela’s quote: “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
@Cleo, when I think of the frightened child that YS was, I’m amazed at how great Dad Chae’s (and wife’s) parenting must have been, to help YS become such a confident young woman.
She is so resilient, so persistent, she comes back fighting bravely precisely against the violence that is supposed to break her.
@FGB, well, my choice of word isn’t the best. It’s mess, but not really mess. It’s a way to say in the script, it make a lot of differents scenes, very short ones. So we have the split of the action on the screen after.
And I enjoy to see that, it’s very interesting way to show the action, instead of a single scene in a closed room (greenhouse).
The writer don’t always make the same choice. I remember in episode 1, she write a scene when we see throuhgt healer glasses. But here, she didn’t write like that.
The more I dig, the more I feel most of the things are choices.
@Growing Beautifully, Healer recognises what is important to her and uses it. She immediately started worrying about him and he took advantage to get her back into a good mind set to escape. And judging by his smile, he is really happy with her and with himself, too.
This was a lot of fun. I would like to see the script, too. Thank you @WEnchanteur for showing us the inside story. Thank you, @Cleopatra for the private smile gif.
Have a great weekend everyone. I hope to see you next time.
@Fern, I can send you the script if you like.
Thanks too for adding more joy to our rewatch. See you!
Thanks for a fun rewatch everyone! It will be Ep 8 next week. See you then!!
@Welmaris, yes, it’s like a domino chain. 🙂
Have to be right the first time.
See you soon, bye everybody!
@GB,
So true. They are / were great people to achieve that. It would need tremendous effort and counseling.
Bye @Fern, @WE, @FGB and @Welmaris!
Thank you all for the great rewatch party!
@Fern, yes I will 😉 .
It wasn’t mean to be for me, but it was a pleasure to read you all. I followed the DramaBeans recaps that were really good back then. In fact this episode was recapped by JavaBeans herself.
It is not the best solution but a solution nonetheless =D
@WE, it baffles me that an almost 1000 lines script can be made TWICE a week (and you say it was short!!!). I guess scriptwriters will need a lot of help D= . It must be interesting to see the differences (and complementarity) between the visions of the directing team and the writing bunch.
It was a pleasure to read you!!! =D
Hello Everyone,
I’m here (10.00 pm Western Australia), getting ready for a whole week of rain, with some storms to come.
I’ve followed the thread comments (lively and fascinating as usual)and I’ve come to the conclusion that Episode 5 contains some important structural features in preparation for a fundamental shifting of ground:
(1) Moon-ho confronts Moon-sik and basically tells him that henceforth he can be considered to be his brother’s adversary and the reporter will be leaving the boys’ insider club. I think the writer was clever to include Myeung-hee’s epileptic seizure in that it became the trigger for the confrontation between the brothers.
(2) Jung-hoo reflects on his situation and his growing relationship with Young-shin. This is an important moment because it’s part of his breaking out of his years of heroic isolation and it’s no accident that he finds himself participating in a family meal that can only be seen as a reflection of the meal he ate before his mother left for the last time. As I understand this scene, I take it that Jung-hoo’s mother was in the grip of some fatal bodily condition and was going off to die, leaving him in the care of his grandmother who did not approve of the little boy’s not being told the truth of the situation. If anyone can help me with a different interpretation, I’d be grateful.
I think Ji Chang-wook handles the meal and the unexpected emergence of his bitter memory quite brilliantly. His facial expressions, small and apparently insignificant (except to the viewers) tell an almost unbearable story of anguish. I’m really growing into JCW. His depiction of the bumbling, hesitant, naive Park Bong-su is completely convincing while all the time the Healer’s darkness can be detected beneath the appealing surface.
I’m also appreciating the ‘Minion’ Kang Dae-young(Taemi) and Park Sang-wook who must have spent quite some time perfecting his yo-yo technique. Weren’t there once battle-standard yo-yos used as weapons in China?
Hi @Juriel, I’m glad to know that you came to read us!
Good point about the “preparation for a fundamental shifting of ground.”
Yes, MS and MH’s ‘enmity’ comes out into the open.
Jung Hoo’s re-admittance into family life is a good point! His mother left because she was re-marrying. In Korea, it seems pretty common that the stepfather does not accept the children of the previous marriage. It’s strange, but seems to be the case. If you read my summary recaps of Ep 3 and 4, you’ll see that JH did meet up with his mum after she left. If you watch those episodes, you’ll see that she has another son by her 2nd marriage.
Besides these that you mention, Ahjumma suddenly finds that JH’s changed interest in his own past requires her to recall the original Healer, who is JH’s teacher (Sabu). So there’ll be another set of relationship dynamics to see.
Plus, Ahjumma herself starts to consider that she may need a replacement for Healer, since JH is getting entangled with a girl, and this could compromise his secret job.
YS too now has a hoobae to take care of, and whom she confides in, like towards a ‘sister’ LOL. (The irony is that Dae Young treats Healer, like they are brothers [she calls him hyung], but YS treats PBS like they are sisters!!! [Later we hear that she calls him in relation to herself, ‘chamei’ which means sister.])
YS gets a different view about her scaredy boss and about her idol, Moon Ho.
Moon Ho breaks off with the TV station, and in a sense, with lady boss, Min Jae.
So you’re right, there was a lot of developments and prep for more changes in the show.
Yes, this was one outing where Ji Chang Wook really showed his acting skills. It’s a pity he chose projects that were not great after this. His next good role was ‘Lovestruck in the City’, 6 years later!
Tae Mi was already a Taekwondo expert, I believe. Yes there was great skills required of the actors that they had to pick up. I didn’t know the yo-yo was used as a weapon as well!
Thanks, @Juriel and @Growing Beautifully for your parting comments. It seems that the correct episode was chosen – not that any of them are bad. I’ll watch through the next ones to get my self ready. Such a good show!
@FGB, the script is writed before (sometimes not entirely). Of course, it’s Korea, and they are crazy about “pale pale pale”, but 2h/week look too much. Even with all the preparation done. My max is 1h/week. It’s also the max of most of the people reporting writing series episodes, on screenwriting forums. Most of the time, you have testimony of screenwriters (for cinema), taking months to write a 2h movie. -__-
About all the weird things I find in kscreenplay, probably time is important. They have to be perfect at first try, almost. So, there is bugs. Like I said, even in a very accurate script like “W”, you find the same extra with a different name, or you have a choice of how it’s writed “recollection insert” or a scene for the recollection. I prefer the “insert” when it’s short, so we don’t loose track of the main scene. We get the case in episode 5 of healer, when the heroin have 2 flashback in the greenhouse. Also, if it’s a serie of flashback, I prefer the “montage” method, like Song Jae-Jung use, and was not used in Healer. But because the bugs, in W, there is also series of flashback without montage. It’s a bit crazy. The writer do something in a way one time, and in another way next time. I wonder if I miss something or what. Why ? For now, I don’t have any answer, except choice and urge to finish the script.
What I know: they write at least half the drama before it’s shot. Then shooting begin, and the writer write the last half. I can’t say it’s the same all the dramas, but the dramas with 16 episodes. I have no idea how it’s done when it’s a drama like “Giant”, 60 episodes. Now, if someone say me korean screenwriters can write 2h/week, I can still believe it. So, they work so hard than they almost don’t sleep. Like other people on the set. ^^
The drama “on-air” is nice about that, the protagonist is a screenwriter, it’s the alter-ego of the famous writer Kim Eun-Sook. A character very childish, lol !
@Juriel, about yoyo…
Movie James Bond “octopussy”, you have a killer with a giant yoyo.
Movie “the night come for us” (very violent), you have a woman killer with a kind of yoyo.
In a manga I saw that too, but I don’t remember which one.
Overall, it’s ok, there is not too much yoyo killers, there is room for one in Healer. ^^
@Juriel, in South America the bola is used: two balls connected with a string. It is thrown to tangle in the legs of an animal and bring it down, so used by vaqueros on cattle.
I read an article about the military flail (spiked iron ball on a chain, attached to a handle) being a myth, not a weapon actually used in Medieval Ages. There are too many flaws in the design of the military flail for it to have been widely used as a weapon of war. The chain is a point of weakness. Controlling it in a crowded battlefield is a problem: swinging it would as likely hit a friend as a foe. Being hard to control, once in motion, it could bounce back and hit the wielder.
@WEnchanteur, Healer aired December 2014 – February 2015; W aired July – September 2016. If anything, the similarity of the names Bong Soo and Soo Bong was a nod from the writer of W to the writer of Healer.
About names … when we see them romanised they look like inversions of each other, like Soo Bong / Bong Soo. I believe, however that each could be a word with it’s own meaning, and a different character entirely in Korean.
From kdramas I learnt that Mi Rae means future, and Jang Mi means rose.
We learnt from DAYS that Dong Kyung means longing.
It would be nice to know if Bong Soo had a meaning too.
And of course the joke is that Chae Young Shin insists on calling Jung Hoo, Bong Sook … which I believe changes his name to sound like it’s a girl’s name. She wickedly considers him a ‘sister’ whom she can comfortably confide in.
There are again names that sound exactly the same and which are used by both men and women, although more often attributed to just 1 gender, and the Koreans themselves are surprised to hear it used by the opposite gender.
I recall Yoo Ji Ho (the FL’s name) in “Because This is My First Life” was thought to be a man’s name.
Ji Soo seems to be given to both men and women. Even Hyun Bin as the first name of our Dr Jang Gyoeul in HP (Shin Hyun Bin) and of course our handsome Hyun Bin (where it’s a family name and first name)!
The fun in Healer is watching Young Shin fall in love with Jung Hoo after sister-zoning him as Bong Sookie LOL.
@GrowingBeautifully, although it is a trope in Kdramas, the ML and FL discovering they knew each other as children, I think it is done well in Healer. YS thinks she doesn’t have any memories of her childhood with her parents, her earliest memory being lost along a dark, busy roadside; however, we see she has “muscle memory” when she falls asleep holding Bong Soo’s arm just as younger Ji An did with Jung Hoo’s arm. Moon Ho says the two youngsters cried when their playtime ended and they had to be separated. They were close from birth until Ji An was lost at age 5. The first five years in a child’s emotional and social development are incredibly important, and since Jung Hoo and Ji An were integral to each other’s lives through that period of development, I believe they retained in their subconscious patterns of interaction that they subconsciously recognized when they met again as Bong Soo and Young Shin. The foundation of emotional and social interaction between them had been laid, and building on it felt comfortable for them even if they weren’t aware of why.
It is likely the eros love between Jung Hoo and Ji Ann could flourish when they were adults because they had been separated for so many years. Children that grow up together, behaving like siblings, often think “ew!” when there’s a hint of romance.
@Welmaris you bring up points I haven’t considered. It’s true that this is a well done childhood meeting trope. It makes so much sense. Nothing feels off in how this OTP gets together seamlessly.
BTW Happy Independence Day!
@Growing Beautifully
Thank you for clarifying what happens with Jung-hoo’s mother in the past. I went to check, and discovered that she lived with a constant regret and unhappiness about abandoning her first son, and my personal response is “serve her right”. Obviously I don’t understand the Korean culture as well as I should, but from a westerner’s point of view…
I remember telling my own son that I’d abandon him one day if he didn’t control his adolescent stupidity. He laughed like a drain and said something along the lines of “All right then, do it, abandon me,” knowing perfectly well I never could. Whatever the full story of Jung-hoo’s mother may be, it results in a thoroughly traumatised young man who acquires a mentor who takes him through to adult-hood – but then one day calmly disappears. Poor Jung-hoo doesn’t stand a chance of proper emotional development, until he meets Young-shin, and they can begin to grow together, with a shared childhood background.
@WEnchanteur
Thank you for your insights into the screen-writer’s art. I have a nephew who has just begun to write scripts, and he has taken to sending excerpts to me for appraisal, thinking that because I’m a novel/short story-writer, I will be able to help. He couldn’t be more mistaken. After reading your comments, I know why. How many actual hours each week would you spend working on a script? Lots and lots, I imagine.
@Welmaris,
You make an excellent point about the military flail; it just lacked the element of controllability, although if you did get hit by one, you’d be pretty well incapacitated for the duration. However, basically unsatisfactory as an effective weapon.
And you’re also so right about how the years of separation were necessary for the eros love to grow between Jung-hoo and Young-shin. I hadn’t thought of this.
I love this re-watch thread.
@Juriel Just letting you know that I’ve read you, and I agree, our rewatch threads are daebak!
About JH and proper emotional development, LOL, he’d have father-in-law Chae to bring him up to scratch, and likely even Myung Hee. The great thing is that he kept up an affectionate relationship with the mum who ‘threw him away’, albeit mostly from a distance. He didn’t even want her to feel too guilty, therefore he accepted the gifts that she wanted to give him. My heart goes out to the young JH each time I recall those short scenes.
@Juriel,
You can still give feedback about understanding, intensity, if you are caught up in the story. And even give ideas about the sequence of events or the logic of the scenes.
About the writing itself, it’s actually hard to advise, even if you write novels yourself. It’s a very different way of doing things.
How many hours? Most of my free time. But a lot of that time is taken up by photo editing. So not really writing. But before that, during 3 or 4 weeks, I corrected 10 episodes (so the writing was already done). By devoting all the time I could, it took me that long to get a final corrected result. It’s not a small investment. It’s normal that when you do that, you end up a little obsessed and talk about it a lot! lol!
For episode 11, I spent 4 days in text corrections. And a week of photo editing. I’ll be done in… 2 or 3 days I think. The result is very good for the moment. I have a scene such as I had never made before. A huge montage of 51 sub-sequences, with reality-manhwa transitions. Even in W season 1, there is nothing like this. ^^
@WEnchanteur, I knew someone long ago who adapted stories for films, but it’s not at all the same as writing a screenplay from imagination. I admire the investment you are making to produce something so delicately crafted and yet large.
@Juriel, I understand what you mean about the difficulty understanding the throw-away children trope. I think it happens in RL in the West as well, but it’s not acknowledged or accepted as a practice. Having adopted children, it’s not even something I could joke about without causing damage. Fortunately in this drama, you have people who are the opposite as well as @Growing Beautifully says: Myung-hee who still celebrates her daughter’s birthday after 20 years, Chi-soo and his wife who waited and waited for Young-shin to come to them, and the more periferal ‘parents’ Ahjumma, Teacher, the mother who was pressured to relinquish Healer by Lawyer Oh, and all of the ex-cons. We can have faith that JH and Ji-an will continue to develop well.
@Fern, adapting a book to a movie is a real screenplay job.
Compared to creating from scratch, the only difference is this:
When creating a story from scratch, everything is very abstract and confusing. There is a huge difficulty in visualizing and making concrete what is in the imagination, which is very vague. So using actors, for example, for the characters helps to give materiality. In my case, my script is based on an existing concept. Even if I develop it in a big way, it helps a lot. However, apart from a few settings and characters, everything else is new. So the problem is still there.
Sometimes a scene is very fuzzy in the imagination. And by connecting the scene to the rest of the story, it becomes more precise. Then finally, very precise, you can perfectly imagine the scene, the details, the setting, every reaction of the characters. This does not come in one go. What comes instantly are the most important details, the meaning of the scene. Of course, this is the essential point, but there is amplitude until it becomes more real. The transition from preparation to writing makes it definitely real. And the correction phase even more so. As I create photo montages (the equivalent of “directing the drama”, with photos rather than a camera), it all becomes even more real!
When I did the Alien Surgeon test, it was like my previous stories. Starting from nothing. But with enough development of ideas, it eventually takes shape. There’s a ripening time. Like fruit that ripens. It takes time for the story to become real.
This process of transitioning from a vague, fuzzy visualization to something concrete is difficult. Just in Healer, we see that the writer has a strong imagination and her screenplay is already real, even before it is filmed. It’s perfect from that point of view. I’ve been aware of this important issue for a long time, since I’ve been making up stories. The main reason was that when I was young, I didn’t write novels but RPG scripts! And players need to materialize places, they even need maps! I’ve read interviews with several former RPG players who have moved on to screenplay writing. It doesn’t surprise me that this is natural and that these authors have a good foundation.
The more concrete you can make the story before you write it, the better. Especially for a screenplay! The only Korean screenplays I’ve been able to study are “W” (the main one) and “Healer” (some parts), and the writers have crystallized their stories. On the little I’ve read of other screenplays, like “Oh My Ghost” or “City Hunter”, this is also the case. So I’m going to assume that it’s talented screenwriters who achieve this. A lot of western screenplay does it too. You can read “Terminator 2”, “Whiplash”, “Alien”, all of that has gone from imagination to reality on paper, even before filming.
@GB, if you read this…
I’m watching ep12.
Around 5:00 to 7:00, Confrontation scene Moon Ho and his brother.
On this, the whole editing and BGM team should be fired !!!
AAARRRHHHGGGGH, listen this ugly BGM, it’s crazy baaaaaaaad. Atrocious !!!
🙂 🙂 🙂
Episode 12 is on the rewatch list, mmmh ? We’ll have fun. 😉
@WEnchanteur, I have no personal experience with screenwriting, so it sounds fascinating. I can only compare it to art, where some artists like to make sketches or take photos of a subject and only after that is done, will they paint or sculpt. Other artists will take the brush or chisel and simply commence the final work. Since you don’t work from someone else’s book or story, you are more like the latter in my mind.
Rewatching some bits of Healer, I have to agree that some of the BGM seems incongruous. Perhaps the words more appropriate but the tune or arrangement is not so to our ears? This was the case for me for the episode 14 ‘rescue’ scene. The music sounded a bit too jolly or lively. I would have wanted something to match the edginess and suspense of the scene.
words are, not more.
Hi @WE, yes I get email alerts whenever anyone comments on the threads that I subscribed to. So I read you and went to check it out. I agree that the background music is most unsuitable for that scene. Silence would have been better.
The previous music for when MS deliberately let little Ji An remain lost, after she left the car, was OK though. It highlighted the darkness of his mind and heart.
@Fern, I forgot one important thing, unlike a book adaptation.
Even the most important thing: the story doesn’t exist yet.
When the story starts to exist, it’s very vague at first. I don’t like this feeling of vagueness, but it’s inevitable, while it’s being structured.
This sequence of events can be more or less flexible. But the stronger and more complex the story becomes, the less flexible it is, and the more complicated it is to structure. Ideally, it reaches a point where nothing can be changed in the chronology. Everything is too intertwined and there are hyperlinks everywhere. This is not the case for all stories, but I fell into this. These are often the stories I like in dramas too. No wonder. There is a little room to change things, such as: adding a scene, shortening another one, moving a scene forward or backward (using a flashback).
I’ve talked about this process of catalysis before, a bit like an alchemical reaction. The story organizes itself. The author has much less power than we imagine. So even if you don’t like a story and you criticize it for various reasons, there’s not much else one can do about it.
Everything takes place in the preparation phase. The story should become solid from there. But the problem is that the story becomes solid when it is actually written! This is a big problem for a drama, which lasts from 16 to 24 hours on average.
For example, for people who write movie screenplays, some prefer to write the whole movie directly. There is even an expression about that “vomit the script”. It helps them to solidify their story. Of course, then you have to rewrite the whole thing!!! I don’t do that because two problems. First: a drama can’t be rewrite, it’s too long. Second: lack of structure. Even if you write it again, it will be missing. So, you have to prepare. And for a drama that takes months of intense work. But also ideas storm (Fortunately, it’s not work because the ideas come by themselves).
Prepare and structure, establish the chronology, as best as possible. As you have to make it more real at the same time, there is no choice, you have to write bits and pieces too.*** Character sheets, background of the story, but not only: scenes. Of course, there are ideas for scenes and you have to at least write them in draft, because it helps to make it less abstract. That’s one thing I value, I don’t know about others: having key scenes, iconic scenes. Something visually stunning, or emotionally strong. They’re kind of like beacons in the story. Points that must be reached. When a twist is too good, it has to happen! It’s useful to have this, because it forces the rest of the story to come together, and even the characters to be defined differently than the simplified idea of them at the beginning.
That’s one of the reasons I don’t use a linear method. Like:
“My characters are defined. A happens, then B happens. Since the character is defined that way, C happens instead of D, etc… until the end of the story, Z.”
Chances are that the events from A to Z will be boring. Or even expected, except for the surprises caused by the characters’ personalities.
By structuring in a non-linear way, it’s different. I can start with A, G, Q, S, W, Z. But not the rest!
You can imagine a chemical solution filled with isolated strands of DNA. These strands consolidate with each other. Some stick together. To an explosive point, where by magic, all the strands will connect and create the DNA chain of the whole story. It’s an unstable process, the characters are redefined several times. In the end, you get consistent characters as well, in terms of reactions to events. The same goes for the situations. The logical chain is not broken, but it was designed afterwards. From the consequence to the cause. And in the process, there are also feedbacks, from the cause to the consequence. It is a bath of ideas fluctuating like this, always with logic, but in both directions. This huge abstract package is difficult to hold at arm’s length, especially at this moment when the story lacks materiality.
In the end, it is almost certain that the story will be thrilling, with striking and unexpected twists, very strong scenes, crazy cliffhangers.
Moreover, the story is thought as a screenplay, we have to take this into account too, there will be flashbacks for sure. The way the information is delivered is not the objective chronology of events. In mystery or investigation based dramas, the background is important, there are many things that happened before the drama! Revelations and twists are scattered afterwards because of this.
@GB, the scene I mentioned made me laugh, because of that out of context music. I think we’ll get a laugh out of this during the rewatch ^^
*** : I deleted my preparation files while I was writing. There were on it so many lines ready, for a so huge number of scenes. Almost all key dialogues and meaning of scenes. I deleted because it helped me to keep track of what is put in the script and it remove the mess on these files. Keep in mind these files are alive and modified a lot, even during writing, not only preparation. Ideas storm don’t stop once preparation is done, it continue during writing. So here too, there is structure work on what happens next. It’s endless. Now, I think I should have keep some backup of this, but all the mess made me so mad, I needed to clean up while progressing.
Mon cher ami @WE, I may be saying something terribly ridiculous, but if I wanted to write a script, I believe I’d write the story first (from scratch) and it would have to be a complete story, with the twists already included. Then I’d write the screenplay around it. I was of the opinion that this was the usual way. The way you describe it when there is nothing… to then create something with just the script/dialogue…adding and changing with a twist is decided … it sounds too monumental for me. Would a complete story reduce the amount of preparation (as you put it above) and reduce the re-writing?
Yes let us “écrire nos réclamations” and throw our hands up in horror or else laugh cynically at that moment in Ep 12 of Healer. We must elicit as much fun out of it as possible!
@GB,
The fact that the story is conceived before the screenplay, yes.
The writing of the screenplay doesn’t start until after that is done.
But how detailed is the story?
If you’re writing your story, ask yourself these questions:
– How many pages will it take?
If it’s short, it’s a synopsis. This is something that many people recommend! Write a synopsis first. About ten pages, for example. That doesn’t work for me. I get trapped in something that doesn’t allow the best scenes and twists to appear. The synopsis makes premature decisions that are barriers. But if you’re free to change it completely, then that can help. You should not hesitate to destroy it almost entirely if necessary.
– If you’re planning your story in more detail with plot twists: how detailed is it going to be? How many pages? How will it look?
This is starting to look like prep files…
– If you have ideas for scenes while creating the story, what are you going to do?
Write them down on draft, of course! And there you have it, you’ve entered the mess!
At first, rather than writing the story, I prefer to proceed by strata.
A stratum : it’s elements, ideas, anything. Character, background, scenes, sequences of situations.
Each layer defines a little better the theme, the actors, the style, the chain of events.
At each stratum, you can ask yourself the question:
– What are the coolest ideas I can use with this? Ideas for scenes, characters, twists, interactions, locations. Anything.
That noted, it creates a new stratum, with added elements. So some that are in the hypothesis state!
Then, we start again that. Each time, new ideas, all that is built little by little so.
Example, I write a story, and after the first stratum, I manage to define this:
Stratum 1.
– The hero is an outlaw, but he doesn’t commit serious crimes (not murders!). He is lonely and selfish.
(hey hey, does that sound familiar?)
Let’s say I’m really starting from scratch, and that’s the only idea I have right now. It’s meager for a story, but I really want to have a hero like that. It motivates me enough to do a story with it.
Right now, I’m looking for ideas (or rather, I’m waiting for ideas to come…).
Stratum 2.
I have several ideas.
1 – My hero punishes corrupt rich people and steals their money in the process.
2 – My hero has a weird profession, on the fringe of the law. Something like “the transporter”.
3 – My hero is a surgeon for bandits.
At the moment, I don’t know what to choose. But I’m waiting for some ideas on that.
Stratum 3.
– Choice 3, no, it’s already done in Yong-Pal! ^^
– Choice 1, it’s too dark. I don’t want to write something sordid.
– Choice 2, why not? Because I just got a new idea! A super-classy hero who does acrobatics, roams the rooftops. I can already imagine some spectacular acrobatic scenes with that.
Stratum 4.
What does this hero do for a living? Is he a guy who carries important objects or mail for rich people for example? Why not?
Or is he a kind of bodyguard but who stays away? Like a ghost to protect people from a distance?
Stratum 5.
What are some cool scene ideas to do with this?
Oh, great idea! The hero saves someone in an elevator! I don’t know who or exactly or how. But I have an idea for the scene… The hero hanging on a cable, the elevator falls into the void. I note the idea. It’s really cool, I want this to happen in the story, but I don’t know when, or what will lead to it.
Additional note: it would be nice if the hero saved his girlfriend in this way. So, he will have to have a girlfriend, or there will have to be romance in the story.
Stratum 6.
Wait… I have a f**king idea! The two ideas I had in stratum 4, maybe I could use them together!
The hero is a courier. But he’s going to protect his girlfriend from a distance. Very cool. I’m writing down the idea.
But why is he protecting his girlfriend from a distance? Doesn’t she know what he does for a living? Yeah, that could be cool!
Stratum 7.
Wait, I have a goddamn idea!!! The girlfriend knows the hero is protecting her, but she doesn’t know who he is! So… he has a secret identity? Yeah, probably, I’m writing the idea down.
Why this idea is super-cool: because the hero and the girlfriend will have a romance without him being able to reveal who he is. And wait….. In that case he has to hide his face?
Bloody idea that falls!!! He kisses her while she must be blindfolded! Ok this looks a bit like spider-man, except that here the hero doesn’t have a mask but it’s the heroine who hides her sight.
I note the idea!
Next strata…
The way Healer is designed could be just that! These few ideas and nothing else. I didn’t even get yet the idea that the hero would have high-tech glasses or that he would be helped by a hacker!
Here, you can see that I defined the story first by twists and turns and super-cool stuff. I want that to happen! And so, this will give me ideas to define who the hero, the heroine is. What are the steps to get to those scenes.
Just multiply that by 1000, and you can see a little bit how a story is organized like that.
If I had written my synopsis wisely, I might never have had the idea of the elevator scene and a kiss with a stranger. Or I would have a story, but nothing that leads to scenes like that! If I want cool things to happen, I need to think outside of a restrictive timeline. At each stratum, imagine the best scenes or ideas based on what I already have. I have to force the story with that. By forcing the story into later elements, it leads it to develop from the earlier.