@Growing_Beautifully says the other thread is getting too long so let’s open a new one.
Part 1 is here: Our Beloved Summer: Open Thread
Let’s enjoy the show!
107 Comments On “Our Beloved Summer: Open Thread, Part 2”
Comments are closed.
@Growing_Beautifully says the other thread is getting too long so let’s open a new one.
Part 1 is here: Our Beloved Summer: Open Thread
Let’s enjoy the show!
Comments are closed.
Thank you dear @pkml3. At least for readers who have yet to watch Episode 9 onwards, they will know they can read the first thread without spoilers for the 2nd half of the show.
It’s a terribly wet new year for me. The rain came on and off and on again throughout Jan 1. It rained at night and again now in my early morning, and it does not seem to be stopping anytime soon! Happy Sloshy, Swimmy New Year!
Happy sloshy new year @GB! We always count rain as blessings so there you go, more blessings in 2022! We had a very wet Christmas and unprecedented snowfall in the mountains (we are a bit far from there). California definitely need these. We are rewarded with New year’s Eve and day are bright and sunny but still cold!
Still on the fence if I will continue watching this drama. I hope the relationship is getting better and mature to a satisfying conclusion. Glad you’re still enjoying it!
Cheers from our side of the world!
Hi there @Janey! I’m glad to know that your day is bright and sunny. We’re also cold (by our tropical standards!) since the normal 29-34 degrees C temperature is replaced by a low 24 degrees C. I’m in 3 layers right now!
I know what you mean about wanting the relationship to get better in this drama. It’s frustrating watching adult behaviour driven by kiddy emotions. I give them a pass, because they never explored being in more relationships, to have learnt anything much yet. It never occurs to them to ask CU’s dad and mum how they stayed together.
I’m waiting to see the ‘kids’ grow. Although Show is light enough that we can expect a happily ever after, I don’t think I’ll mind if they don’t actually end up together. I’d be able to accept their not being together, if they could be mentally healthy and happy apart.
Happy New Year and thank you for this new thread! Quite fitting for the show’s second act. 🙂
Practicing JOMO and “Our Beloved Summer” is the only show I’m watching at this time. I did finish “The Silent Sea” but found it just OK. Haven’t started with my 3rd kdrama for December “Bulgasal” but might try a few episodes later.
The title for ep 8 “Before Sunset” is from the second movie of a “trilogy”, set 9 years after the first one. In the first one (Before Sunrise), the lead characters Celine and Jesse met on a train and spent a night walking around Vienna and getting to know each other. At the end of the movie, they decide not to exchange contact details and just meet again at the same place in 6 months. We find out in “Before Sunset” that they did not meet, Celine’s grandmother died and she was not able to go to their meeting place. Nine years after, Jesse writes a novel about their time together. Celine attends a book reading during Jesse’s book tour and they reconnect.
In the series, YS and CU have reconnected because YS decides to return to their old neighborhood and contact CU for work. Their friend Sol Yi thinks that they have not changed at all and in some ways they haven’t. If they haven’t changed though, won’t the end result be the same? But I think that YS swallowed her pride and made the first step for them to reconnect. She was used to CU always giving in to her and she might have been waiting for him to go to her after their final breakup. But CU didn’t. She knew what she was getting into when she decided to enter CU’s life again. CU, on the other hand, has changed in a way that he is more assertive and more open with his feelings to YS. He is no longer just waiting and accepting. So I’m looking forward to how they’ll handle their relationship this time around – more maturely I hope. And also hoping for great story lines for NJ and Ji Ung where they don’t need to turn into bad people because of unrequited love. 🙂
Hi @Laura zZZz, I hope the subtle changes in our OTP are enough to get them past the immature running away habit quickly enough so that they can have proper talks… and I hope the ability to say what the other party needs to hear also improves with these two. Sometimes they seem to be able to say what needs to be said, and then they back pedal or get distracted or separated and we don’t know what the status is all over again.
@Cleo and @ Laura, thanks for the info on the ‘Before Sunrise’ / ‘Before Sunset’ / ‘Before Midnight’ trilogy. I watched ‘Before Sunset’ without knowing about a trilogy. Thanks for the link to the song and lyrics for the 3rd movie, @Cleo. I like the melody and the singer’s voice. Yes, I trust that we get a happy ending like in ‘Before Midnight’! 🙂
Episode 9 – Oh this is rich! What a super twist. I’m gonna enjoy what happens with this double triangle.
The illusive mum of Ji Ung makes an appearance. I feel so sad.
When she used the word “friend” like 17 times and increasingly pointedly 🤣🤣🤣. It reminded me of Dam calling Mr Fox “Uncle” repeatedly after he likened his feelings towards her as “family” “like a niece” in My Roommate is a Gumiho
Happy New Year, everyone! Been awhile since I posted here but can’t help but resist seeing an open thread for Our Beloved Summer!
I’m enjoying the drama very much though I admit the last couple of eps didn’t feel as fresh or thrilling as the first few eps. Episode 9 (Just Friends) episode was quite an enjoyable watch, though!
I do adore our leads and would love to see them get back together. There are some things that I would like to see happening though, before that happens! Such as
1. Yeonsu to swallow her pride (though @Laura pointed out that she already did! I haven’t seen it like that but it’s a good point!)
2. Ung to tell her he loves/likes her, which I think is what she’s also waiting for (is this what she meant when she said she has a plan of her own?)
Seven more episodes to go, and I really wish the drama continues to be the charming little gem that it is.
Episode 9 (Just Friends) – Once again, the ending scene had me LOLing – loved the surprised look on their faces when Ji Ung “caught” them together at CU’s house late at night.
Once bitten, twice shy. Our boy CU is scared. “It’s okay to be alone from the start. You’d be used to it. But being alone after being with someone isn’t something I want to experience again.”
Looking forward to episode 10…
Kalispera everyone!
I do hope you are okay. I am practicing JOMO these days.
I will propably comment tomorrow at one point.
Hi @Cleo! Yes, JOMO is good and healthy from time to time. Are you preparing for your Christmas on 7 Jan?
I’ve just watched Episode 10. This little show really gets me in the feels for everyone…. Ji Ung, Yeon Su, NJ, Chae Ran and Choi Ung too of course but his feelings were more reigned in this episode, except maybe at the end.
I believe he had an awakening at the end. Love the friendships. Love the sudden deluge of friends for CU, LOL. I feel sad for all those lonely young adults. Why aren’t their lives happier? I sort of know and then I don’t. And I have thoughts about family relationships too now.
It’s strange … the child I’d expect to have nightmares where he’s abandoned is not CU but JU. I wonder where that nightmare comes from.
@GB-I finished episode 10 as well. I really wanted this show to be a cute romcom…it is definitely NOT THAT. Thankfully, it’s being done so well that I don’t mind being dragged around in my emotions. I have a love/hate relationship with dramas that do characterization so well in that there’s no clear villain and/or hero—you just feel for everyone and want them to somehow find their happiness and still all be friends in the end…and be healthy.
And about the abandonment issue…that was surprisingly surprising for me. In hindsight, I feel like it should’ve been clear to me by the way he answered all her hypotheticals- “I will never leave you and we’ll always be together BUT if you leave me I’ll never forgive you” because being abandoned is his greatest fear. I wonder if this is a situation where he got lost in the crowd or maybe he was adopted??? I’m hopeful it’ll be explained.
things I liked in this week’s episodes:
•Seeing them interact without arguing—felt more like healthy banter.
•The grandmother calling her puppy and actually even the dinner where she said mean words but ultimately showed kindness even though she thought he was the one who broke her heart
•the epilogue showing ji ung and ung in the past and how some things haven’t changed. Their friendship feels so…understanding.
Hey @GB Unnie!
Our Christmas was on the 25th of December like the rest of the world.
We are not following the old calendar.
I agree with @birdie007, Ung was lost somewhere and he has abandonment issues. I was not that surprised since Ung has decided to be alone, except his time with Yeon Su.
Now that NJ told Yeon Su, in the preview, that they are indeed dating, I want to see what will happen next. We have 6 episodes and I have not a clue how this is going to end.
I wish they could just talk to each other and have a talk everyone together. Ji Ung should talk to Ung and Yeon Su. Ung to NJ and Yeon Su to Ung.
Hi @Cleo, I’m with you about wishing they’d really talk to each other instead of bicker or lose the thread of what they should be saying. Each time someone asks a good question, the full answer ends up not being forthcoming. Of course this is the way to make the drama 16 episodes long as well, while we get to learn more backstory of each of our 4 main protagonists. But I do sigh a lot when the communication keeps going awry. 😉
I actually wrote notes some time back, but decided not to post them, and just as well, because Episodes 9 and 10 have brought more revelations. I got the idea after a commentor somewhere mentioned that the character in front of the camera was not necessarily the same behind it, ie each had things to hide or were different from how they portrayed themselves. It got me thinking about what an obvious theme that was, which I’d not explored.
We have cameras, cameras, all around in this show. The ones behind them and the ones in front of them each have their own stories, but we wonder what is hidden while something else is revealed. Are the revelations deliberate or unintentional. Which is the true persona? I don’t pretend to answer these questions but I’ll just put down some ad hoc thoughts.
Choi Ung – In Front Of and Behind the Camera
CU never wanted to appear in front of the camera. He didn’t want to do the School documentary but was forced by his parents. CU, who had no ambition, except to live at rest next to his loved ones, didn’t care to be seen. He was one person who didn’t actually have anything to hide except that he didn’t want people to know he was Ko-O
Except for this and except where he had to defend himself against YS, CU was a rather genuine person through and through. He remained his rather slow-thinking, butter-fingered self LOL even in front of NJ whom he should have wanted to impress since he was her fan.
While NJ said that his charm was that : “You’re quite easygoing and humourous, so I can go on all day about the most ridiculous things.”
CU : “Is that a compliment?”
NJ : “But you also have a serious and sincere side to you. So you tell me what I need to hear at times. You’re quite charming. You have many layers.”
But I fancy the charm that got her so invested in getting him to like her was that although he’s her fan, he was always honest in his feelings towards her. He turned NJ down politely over and over again; something most of her fans would never have done. He was true to what he wanted or didn’t want in every area of his life, except when it came to YS.
Where his feelings for YS were concerned, CU changed from being open to hiding his emotions, even lying to himself and his friends. As an adult, he pretended to be indifferent about YS, but to no avail. Everyone (except YS?) knew that he was still emotionally attached to her.
By the end of Episode 8, his duality of liking YS but pretending to dislike her confused his observers, like JU. And by the end of Episode 10, he had succeeded in deluding himself that he could continue as just friends with YS.
As the ‘scandal’ of him dating NJ blows up and determines what is shown on and off camera, CU will need to re-think what kind of friends he wants NJ and YS to be.
I was thinking of the current state of the OTP relationship.
Friendship Dating
By Ep 9 and 10, CU had successfully concluded that he could not date YS again, however, I feel that he had not reached the next conclusion to be friends, until pressed by YS’s leaving him, when she said she’d never see him again. I felt that it was a decision made on the spur of the moment, because CU had lived in that ad hoc way all his life, without much planning. He suddenly realised that since he could not bear to go through life without her, he’d keep YS at least as a friend. It was a selfish move but at a same time a totally comprehensible one and relatable. I feel like I thought of doing the exact same thing before!
Where his relationship with YS was concerned, even away from the camera, CU as an adult kept deluding himself, and unintentionally misleading YS.
YS laughably, I felt, wanted to prove that he was deluding himself and took it as a challenge to make him admit that he felt more for her than a friend would feel. I loved her installing herself in his house for a day of unofficial ‘dating’ that CU lapped up happily. (Of course the irony is that she only proved to herself, that she could never be just friends with CU).
We know that one of the big mistakes in their young romance, was that CU and YS jumped into dating from a contentious relationship, without understanding each other. They had failed to ever have been friends. On the one hand, although it seems like a good idea that they might restart their relationship, as adults, from the level of friendship, it looks to be too late for that, because too much emotional baggage was in the way .
YS and CU are 2 lonely people who actually want to be together rather than apart, and the pretense of friendship gave them the excuse to spend as much time together as they wished, without the ‘dating’ stress. It was sad, yet heart-warming to see how much they enjoyed each other’s company.
It was so much fun to watch them together. They did all the stuff that friends do, but because of the emotional investment, they were dating without admitting the fact. I loved watching it and am sad that it could only happen once. While their being pleasant to each other was lovely to see, the ‘friendship’ was not a situation that should be perpetuated, since it was founded on delusions.
Still those scenes of them together in the same frame were the most engaging on the romantic front, and I hope Show will give us many more without them bickering only.
Deluge of Friends (and other Relationships)
Episodes 9 and 10 amused and touched me a great deal. It is interesting that the quiet, un-ambitious CU, seems to be the pivot around which many individuals revolve. He began as a veritable loner with just one friend, to suddenly find himself with a deluge of friends, much to his own surprise.
@Good Twin, I agree that hearing the word ‘friend’ said 17 or more times, mostly by YS, but also by CU and once by JU was similar to My Roommate is a Gumiho’s ‘uncle’. It so clearly pointed out that the friendship being discussed was questionable.
I laughed at the jealousy joke as applied to friendship:
CU : “And since we’re on the topic, since when were you so close to Ji Ung?”
YS : “Really?”
CU : “You two were never that close.” (CU probably recalls the time that JU seemed to dislike YS.)
YS : “Are you being jealous right now?”
CU : “Yes.” (CU is always seems more honest when he is not thinking too hard.)
YS : “What?”
CU : “What?”
CU has to think quickly : “What I’m saying, don’t steal Ji Ung away from me. He’s my friend.” (LOLOL. Great comeback! But not the entire truth, because the unmentioned jealousy was that he didn’t want JU to steal YS away from him.)
It is very apt that the end of the evening has Ji Ung stopping by to take YS’s place in staying over with CU. He maintains his position as CU’s closest friend.
NJ’s sudden desire to be interviewed as CU’s friend was a sneaky way to get close to CU. Just as he could use the word ‘friend’ to keep YS close, so too could NJ and anyone else for that matter, use that word on CU.
YS did the same thing. She tells Sol Yi “I slept over at CU’s place. He wants us to be friends.” YS does not look too happy about it and SY snorts.
SY : “There you guys go again.”
YS : “Right? This is weird, right?”
SY : “That weirdo does not deserve to be with someone like you. What’s his deal? So, what did you say? Did you say yes?”
YS : “Yes, for now.”
SY : “Oh, for now? So, what’s your plan?”
YS : “I’m going to find out how he really feels while being friends.” (So while NJ tries to find out if liking CU would last more than 2 months, YS was out to find out if CU feels more for her than friendship.)
YS : “I’m going to make him admit it.”
SY : “Admit what? How he feels about you?/Get a love confession?”
Perhaps we, the viewers, are asked to consider what a friend truly is. It’s true that we try out a relationship to see how it goes, but those try outs may be far from what friendships are. They may give friendship a bad name LOL. Although our characters use the word ‘friend’ to indicate ‘friend-zoning’ as opposed to seeing the other party as a romantic partner, I feel that the characters in this show need to redefine what true friendship is.
The best example of true friendship would be JU with CU. JU’s putting CU first at personal cost, when he himself was lonely and had to let CU go off with YS, or when he himself liked YS but never allowed himself to get close to her, was a wonderful model of a true friend. CU putting aside his desire to work to go back upstairs to listen to depressed JU, was another example of true friendship at work.
There were some aspects of self-sacrifice and other-centredness between YS and CU, but these were overwhelmed in YS’s case by the need to compete, to win, to protect herself and in CU’s case by his abandonment issues. He forgave YS everything except her total abandonment.
I wonder if both CU and JU as boys, had experienced serious abandonment. We know JU’s mother practically abandoned him all through his childhood onwards. CU’s nightmare of being lost among strangers seems to hint that he, too, was traumatised by abandonment in his past. His parents were concerned that CU was not sleeping well: might his insomnia have started even before the time of YS, because of a past trauma? These 2 boys share similar history, a similar allergy, and everything else of significance (except YS). They, I feel, are the soulmates in Episode 10.
Aside from friendships: I feel that JU and CR have an interesting relationship. We are never given CR’s backstory but we know she admires JU. JU thinks he regards her only as a sunbae with hoobae, but he has been concerned about CR’s well-being on more than one occasion. He offers to protect her and won’t let others ‘use’ her or abuse her. While he is distracted by what he thinks are his feelings for YS, he might not be aware that he has deeper feelings for CR than he thinks he has. Perhaps only in a situation where CR is no longer with him, will JU realise this.
The kind of exchanges that Sol Yi and Eun Ho have, are closer to leading them into a friendship. Since SY has friend-zoned EH by saying she won’t date a younger guy, they are free to hang out as friends and they seem to do so every day, even inadvertently.
The irony and the sadness is that for JU, he is closer to his friends than to his only family member. They matter more to him than his mum.
JU to his Mother : “Is there something you want to say?”
Mother : “You should come home. Don’t sleep elsewhere. Or do I need to leave?”
JU : “You’re going to leave anyway.” He turns around but does not face his mother squarely nor look into her eyes. “I have a favour. I really care about those people, so I don’t want to show them this side of me. Be your usual self. Ignore them and go on your way.”
JU’s mother looks hurt but is silenced.
It was so sad to see that his mother didn’t even remember that peaches could kill him. It cannot be said that she didn’t try, since it seems she returned to spend his birthday with him, but it lacked sincerity, since she planned to always leave when it suited her.
His rejection of his mother was his way of punishing her for leaving him practically orphaned, but his anger is hurting himself as well. If ever anyone needed to befriend their family, it is JU who needs to be healed.
@Cleopetra & @GB, So many times have I felt like they should talk it all out but the essence if this drama is in what they say and not say. If they had gotten an counsellor, maybe there will be no drama. 😛
I am just watching the drama and enjoying but not going into too much. I love your notes @GB, esp the part about what CU shows in front and behind the camera. I think at some point he is not the most conscious about himself with the camera, YS would tend to have a outside part to show. I agree that if he doesn’t think too much, he just says things that are really his true feelings, hurtful or not.
Following the movie title stories: Episode 10 title is Hello, My Soul Mate. I think it is based on this 2016 chinese movie called Soul Mate about 2 girls who became friends in high school and were unseparable. Both of them fell in love with the same guy but one decided to leave because she felt she was dangerously attracted by her best friend’s love. (Doesn’t that remind you of JU and CU?) The movie ends with both girls meeting again years later when the couple were about to get married. The ending is quite a twist but I don’t think this drama is following it. Adding this to my list of movies to watch!
Btw, there is going to be or has already filmed a Korean remake of this movie starred by Kim Dami, what coincidence! But no news of it coming out even though it has been a while already
https://www.soompi.com/article/1413169wpp/kim-da-mi-jeon-so-nee-and-byun-woo-seok-confirmed-for-remake-of-chinese-film-soulmate
I’m continuing a bit more on my thoughts on ‘In Front Of and Behind the Camera’
Yeon Su – In Front Of and Behind the Camera
It’s ironical that in front of the camera, YS prattles on, as if she’s very open compared to the super silent, ‘nothing-to-say-for-himself’ CU, when in reality she hides a lot more than CU does. Her words hide the fact that she is trying not to reveal anything. But perhaps those who observe her see something of what she is hiding.
We note that CU, when he watched the footage of YS in the editing room, was struck by something he may not have noticed before. On camera, on the screen, in scenes where CU was not present, YS was different.
The image YS projects both in front of the camera, and in front of her friends, continues to hide her reality. From the beginning, outwardly cold, successful, and confident, she was likened to Jang who failed to empathise. Show suggested how similar they were on the outside even to the extent of having the same design shirt and same model car, but it was an illusion that she had created. In reality she was a warm, vulnerable, insecure person. As evidence of her insecurities, she asked many ‘What if’ questions.
She lied most of the time by her behaviour, but when she got drunk, she became honest. We see this when YS drank in Jang’s presence and she revealed the truth about finding Ko-O and that they had a personal relationship.
We also see that it’s in her tipsy state that she confronts CU about the kiss.
It’s good to see that by the end of Episode 10, YS has let her defences down so much, that she cries in front of SY and Granny, admitting that she cannot sincerely have a ‘just friends’ relationship with CU.
She also prattles again, but this time to JU (poor JU) about CU. Her thoughts flow out of her showing that CU is the only thing on her mind. The thing is, that she needs to do these sort of open revelations in front of CU, camera or no.
Hi @grace!
You have a point about “what they say and not say”. I was thinking that the camera catches more of the non-verbal communication, and that what is not said, says a lot more than the words that are used to hide the truth.
I’m struck by the fact that it was the old footage when YS and CU were guileless youths that got both PD boss and JU to decide to do the Documentary.
I mentioned above that CU saw something when he looked at footage of YS, that seemed to strike him with some awareness or surprise.
I was thinking how YS’s duality in presenting one image while knowing that she’s not what she appears to be has taken it’s toll on her. What she is not saying is killing her slowly.
Yes, if the OTP had a relationship counsellor to hand, we would have no drama LOL. The frustration in watching these two, is one of those ‘hurts so good’ type of things, but it’s still frustration!!!
Thanks for looking up the Show from which we get the title of Episode 10. Yes, it sounds like the right show. It shows what we have already seen so far and suggests to us what may come to pass with JU and CU. Maybe I’ll pick it up to watch if it ever comes online. 🙂
Ji Ung – In Front Of and Behind the Camera
Ji Ung never gets to be in front of the camera, but maybe he should be given his chance. He would have had a lot to say about CU’s and YS’s relationship from an observer’s point of view.
His, is a lonely character, who can only look in upon the main players, while never able to take up the main role himself. Partly his gratitude and loyalty towards CU keeps him taking a step back, where their friendship is concerned, but surprisingly, when YS asks what kind of date he would make, he sees himself as a homme fatale. (This I would like to see. I wish he’d notice Chae Ran.) In other words, the desire to be the male lead, and the one that women would fall over, was not alien to quiet JU.
Perhaps he has more grandiose ideas of himself than he lets on. At least we know through Chae Ran and his boss PD that he is highly regarded in his work, and that there are admiring female eyes turned towards him, but he puts on an aloof image that keeps admirers at bay. He seems to have carried a torch for YS for years.
I’m wondering what he saw in the school Documentary. I was guessing maybe the liveliness and joy of CU and YS of the past struck him, because this is missing now. He may have wanted to reawaken that exuberance.
We know that it was JU who witnessed CU’s emotions blossoming into outright happiness when he announced that he had a girlfriend, and that he likely also saw all CU’s lows at every breakup. Perhaps as a soul mate and true friend, JU might want to give CU a chance to achieve that happiness again.
However separately, he may have wanted to connect with YS again, and the Documentary was a good excuse. He, too, like CU and YS, seems to have been stuck in his emotional journey. He, too has the same few friends, he hardly dates and we see that he’s still attracted to YS, so much so that he fails to notice Chae Ran. He might be trying to relive his own journey to see if it might take him to YS.
I agree with @pkml3’s point that JU was envious and often resentful of the good life CU effortlessly enjoyed. In spite of this, he tried his best to be a good friend, when it came to avoiding YS, so as to be loyal to CU, and he even went an extra mile to help in CU and YS’s reconciliation:
‘At the Art Gallery JU speaks to CU after his blow up at YS at the party.
JU’s thoughts [[[I shouldn’t have butted in.]]]
JU : “You’re avoiding her because you’re sorry. You weren’t that bothered by what happened yesterday. You’re not the kind of person who gets upset over things like that.”
CU : “What do you mean?”
JU : “You were mad at her, and it had nothing to do with work. You also know that Yeon Su wouldn’t have done that on purpose. You were taking it out on her for what happened in the past.”
[[[I didn’t have to say that.]]]
JU : “I can tell you still have feelings for her.”
[[[What did I expect him to tell me?]]]
CU : “Why are you so interested in us all of a sudden?
[[[It wasn’t because of the shoot.]]]
JU : “I don’t think this is out of the blue.”
CU : “What do you know?”
JU : “What don’t I know?”
[[[What was it that I wanted to check?]]]’
Even JU didn’t know his motives for saying what he said, but he was being a friend to both CU and YS by pointing out CU’s unreasonableness. Probably, he wanted CU to once and for all renounce ties with YS, so that he, JU, would feel free to pursue her himself.
Whether in front of or behind the camera, JU had only one main thing to hide, and that was his envy, which was the ‘Secret That Must Not Be Told’.
NJ – In Front Of and Behind the Camera
It was NJ’s job of always looking perfect for the camera, that should have gotten me to consider the theme of the true self as opposed to the image, because no one is perfect, and no relationship is either.
NJ is another lonely character, especially behind the camera. Despite her delightful smiles, she admits to being unhappy. Buying CU’s drawings to look at, comforted her, and meeting the quirky, rather inept-looking CU, intrigued her.
We see that away from the camera, she’s perfectly natural and still in control of the situations with fans and anti-fans alike. She has no illusions that the public’s idolising her was tantamount to really having a regard for her.
Despite living so much in the public eye, she remains true to herself. For eg. when she tells off the cyber bullies, or when she seeks CU out for friendship and more.
I may have mentioned before, that YS could take a leaf out of NJ’s book, in knowing how to express her true wants. She has never dared to state clearly what she wants in her relationship with CU. If she keeps this up, NJ is going to outrace her for CU’s attentions (I believe it happens next episode?)
Living in the spotlight for years, NJ is remarkably adept at making use of the camera to gain advantages for herself. She used the publicity of photos, to make Ko-O/CU famous, by connecting him to herself.
She shamelessly explains that it was to make him notice her, and be appreciative of her, so that she could wrangle a meal or two out of him in an effort to grow close. CU, whose only (non-YS linked) subterfuge was to punish others by punishing himself at the same time, is caught totally off guard by this.
I was thinking that JU also made use of the camera, to buy him time with YS. As long as he held the camera, YS would happily spend time with him.
Although she is the one often in front of the camera, NJ has the ability to notice people, as if she’s the one behind it. Like JU, and Chae Ran, she has caught on to CU’s feelings for YS.
Hearing that CU and YS are now just friends, NJ will make her move to take CU out of YS’s orbit if she can. It’s only a matter of how cleverly and tastefully she manages this, while maintaining her sweet idol image.
Always idolised, put on a pedestal and hardly ever refused anything, NJ is at a loss to deal with CU whose childlike honesty (only when not related to YS!) is almost laughable, when he refuses to see her because he has to move the cabbages, LOL. She will find to her chagrin, that although she likes her fan, her fan only likes her as a fan.
The pity is that being with YS, is not really good for CU. Being with one’s soul mate should bring out the best in one, but YS has made the childlike CU insecure, and therefore calculating, cynical and dishonest. If ever there was a sign that they are not good for each other, it would be this.
There are a whole lot of hurdles to get over before we can fully get behind this pairing. It’s true that the emotions/longing run high and for that alone, we want them to be together. But we know the reality of the rate of divorce, when marriages take place based on emotions alone.
If nothing else, NJ offers a great foil to throw up the weaknesses of our OTP. She remains a relatable and sassy character both behind and in front of the camera. Whether she keeps being likable, remains to be seen.
How was your holiday everyone? I wish you all had a great holiday.. I just came back from a long holiday too , and hopefully we are fully recharged to face this year’s challenges, the ups and the downs.
@GB, thank you for writing each characters in front of and behind the camera beautifully. 🌷🌷
I also wonder about what JU saw in the old documentary footage. The films that never been aired. What story that JU want to create for the next documentary. I believe that as the person behind the camera he already knows that YS and CU still have feelings for each other. But what exactly is that JU wanted to see between them.
And they will have the last shooting too probably next episode. So I don’t really have any idea what would the documentary be like..
Finally, after watching eps 11, I could finally get to know what CU had in mind. 😅
I didn’t understand about his suggestion of being friends with YS. But because of Jeongjeong who now brave enough to walk outside. CU now got the energy to finally told YS what’s really on his mind.
As GB’s note, the abandonment issue CU has is quite serious. It is a traumatic event, I remembered when I was a child, my parent kinda forgot to pick me up after school. It was long ago but I could still feel the anxiety inside me, I was scared and I was sad. I imagine how hard it is for CU to continue living while he hasn’t been trying to heal that scar inside his heart.
It seems that even though YS and CU were in a relationship for that long, but CU was not completely show himself to YS. There were still layers inside himself that he kept just for himself. It is also the same for YS.
I got teary eyed when YS’s grandmother told CU to not hate her. Because if YS had hurt and had been bad towards CU, it was because of her. Ohh.. halmeoni.
Regarding JU’s issue with her mom. I think it kinda affect his action towards love too. He actually had many opportunity to show his love to YS. Or just simply confess. But he didn’t. I don’t think he realized about CR feeling too because he built so much wall inside his heart. Maybe, he could be brave and he could see the love for him after he try to forgive his mother first..
And next, I am curious how these not-so-mature couple would act around their friends and family. Can’t wait for tomorrow’s episode..
Episode 11 offers reveals all around. Individuals start taking a chance and there is plot movement. Our characters remain consistent and some very crucial stuff is finally shared. I’m glad to say that we, the viewers, can congratulate ourselves. 🙂
@GB Unnie,
I watched Episode 11 as well! I happy because we have discussed some patterns for our main leads.
Also, I am happy because some things were said, some where implied and some where finally out…
So loved episode 11!! And cried so much when he revealed it was not is current dad who said about seeing the top of the building. CU may not say so much but all his introspective looks, thoughts, actions say so much. As much as I wanted him to say something at the restaurant where YS found him initially, I am so glad he finally spoke his heart. I guess her revelation that she doesn’t want to be just friends, and her tears gave him courage.
I’m not sure if he really needs to verbally say he likes her. Actions speak louder than words. I believe all of us knew how consistent and one hearted CU is towards YS, the way he is in a way loyal towards her is unbreakable and unmistakable.
I am also glad about the NJ incident. It reveals so much about both of them. Gives YS a kind of push towards claiming CU back…that bit of jealously so that she doesn’t keep thinking she can ignore CU by pushing her feelings about him away.
Now we know the origins of his fixation on drawing buildings. Honestly I could have done without a childhood trauma plot – simply because it is such a trope and the writing and acting in this drama have been so stellar so far. Let’s see what the writer does with it . . . @Moostar agree regarding the dog! I loved that the dog is a reflection of CU – the dog as coddled prince, whose lassitude and fears are indulged by the protective owner. When he sees that the dog has become brave, CU takes it as permission/inspiration for himself to be brave and makes his confession to SU and also to perhaps begin to come to terms with his own abandonment. Notice that their relationships began again on what was supposed to be the last day of filming the drama just like it began on the last day ten years ago.
The title apparently refers to a French film – I need to look it up to see if there is any parallels in the plot.
Ugh the film to which episode alludes – sounds pretty grim and very French. Let’s hope “Our Beloved Summer” stops at two damaged souls find and redeem each other. (No need to walk into the sea together like in the French film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Nights_Are_More_Beautiful_Than_Your_Days
@GB, As always, thank you for your brilliant analysis. I’m inspired.
I watched ep 11 last night and it occurred to me that the reason CU participated in the documentary shooting might quite different from what I thought in the beginning. CU and his foster parents wanted him to be seen, as sending a message to his father who had abandoned him a long time ago. And the reason that he loves YS is that YS is very busy surviving. He felt safe and happy because YS has no friend and the best she spares her time for him only. YS is like a shining star him. She is brilliant, hard working , providing herself and her grandmother unlike himself depending on his foster parents accomplishing nothing, but hanging around. He must have detested himself. Poor thing. Can not wait to watch tonight’s episode.
Episode 12 gave me the all the heart flutters, this renewed couple in the honeymoon phase. Those innocent happy smiles, the feeling of wanting to see the person all the time. It is a happy episode and the part about the exhibition is ❤…there was no doubt about ChoiUng’s devotion to her.
Except that they will have to iron out all those issues for them to be able last. Too happy feelings so early also means a conflict happening down the road as we see in the preview. I wonder how and what will their journey be. It has kept me on the edge.
Yeah @grace, I’m both happy to see them together and terribly stressed because it’s only Episode 12!!! LOL. We know there’s lots more conflict to come.
I like the dog analogy in Ep 11, and now in Ep 12, CU looks like a puppy with the bag in his mouth and 2 corn dogs in his hands LOL. I guess the ironing out of all those relationships will not be exactly smooth sailing. Even the great relationship with his parents, where they never speak of their own son to CU, could be perhaps improved if they don’t have to hide where they go each year.
Well, when the going gets rough in the next episodes, we can always come back to Ep 12 to soothe our nerves! 😉
Hahahaha reading grace and GB notes above.. made me laugh..
I think we, the viewers, here have the same thought about the episode 12. Of course we are happy because their dating back scenes are so sweet. I smile too when they smile. But as GB said, it’s only episode 12!! Omg. I am afraid already looking at the trailer for next episode 🥲🥲
However GB made an important point here: we can always visit this sweet episode 12 for our own consolation. Lol..
What I notice about CU is that he is a really great friend for JU too. I wonder whether he already knew about JU’s feeling towards YS or not. In some previous scenes, I kinda saw that CU had “a feeling” about this, but he decided to push that away. I don’t know since I couldn’t really read CU..
Anyway, I really hope there will be more sweet scenes before the sad parts coming in the way..
Kalispera Ladies!
I also watched Episode 12. I was happy with how the things were going and then I watched the preview.
In the beginning I was feeling that I had a deja vu with how Yeon Su reacts in those scenes and got agitated.
Then I thought about it some more, calmed myself and realized that Choi Ung made a huge step in order to set himself free, but this is not the case for Yeon Su.
Yeon Su hasn’t come into terms with the big elephant to the room, that is her inferiority complex. Although she has empathy towards Ung and his trauma, she hasn’t faced her trauma in order to heal.
Even her own friend Sol-Yi told her she needs to be mature. Although, I disagree with her notion that Ung has a mental problem. The problem here will be Yeon Su, IF what we saw in the preview is right and she keeps repeating her old patterns all over again.
I will be waiting her road towards healing will be short and we won’t have that much angst for our OTP. As @GB Unnie said above and many of you embraced, we will always have Episode 12.
P.S. My favorite sequence is the last 15-18 minutes of Episode 11, though. 🙂
@cleopatra, I agree with you about CU’s growth and that YS needs to grow to for this r/s to grow better.
From episode 11, I get the feeling that the reason YS broke up with Ung then was that she wanted him to go pursue his studies without her as she needs to stay and support her grandma. Was it noble idiocy? He wanted her to go with him but instead of saying that she can’t go with him, she broke up with him?
My favourite is the last parts too 😍😍😍 in particular when they went to the museum.
WooShik is growing on me a lot as an actor. How did I not watch any of his shows??? Or not remember him 😅 I’m looking forward to Wonderland that is coming out on Netflix this year
@Cleo, I too really liked the ending of Episode 11. In Episode 12, I really liked how they could not hide their smiles.
I laughed at the scene of CU drinking the jujube tea.
He hates it but gamely drinks it by alternating it with coffee LOL. One is to help him sleep and the other keeps him awake. Crazy fellow. No wonder Eun Ho wonders : “What’s the matter with him now?”
Drinking the jujube tea while hating its taste, is a testament to how he wants to do what YS wants him to do. He compromises by drinking what he likes as well.
In a way it demonstrates CU’s ambivalence or wanting to have both his cake and eat it. He wants to sleep but he also wants to stay awake. He draws best at night, but he wanted to be at YS’s place early to see her in the morning.
Although the majority of the public are awake in the day time, CU still wants to hold an all night solo exhibition. It’s a bit risky, and if he’s paying the gallery for the space, it’s more expensive at night, surely. He wanted the works to be seen at the same time of the night they were drawn. He says to himself that every stroke of his pen, included Yeon Su.
Was it an indirect way of revealing himself and his love to those who’d be prepared to view his work at night? I wonder if in the end, he does not include any person in his work, because it was all Yeon Su. 🙂
Kalimera Ladies!
@GB Unnie, I really like what you have written.
Ung is true to his feelings, always. Not once or occasionally. He was expressing always himself via his art.
In his Art, while he was drawing alone at late hours, some could think that he was lonely, but since he was loving Yeon Su and hadn’t forgotten her, she was following him everyone.
This idea reminded me of the following poem by e.e.cummings, which I really really like:
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
Credit: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/49493/i-carry-your-heart-with-mei-carry-it-in
Ung dealt with his trauma by himself. Even his own parents didn’t tell him the truth that they were mourning a lost child, his brother. They might not be biologically related, but he was his older brother.
So, Ung slowed down his pace and he just wanted to enjoy life, because he had found since he was little that people can let you down and abandon you. He also started drawing buildings because that was the last part that connected him with his biological father. I agree with someone who said that it was also a signal to his “jinja appa” that said: “Here I am. Here where you left me.”
In a very specific way he was saying to everyone, I can trust you up until a point, but I am afraid that you will let me down. So, I will make myself around me a solid structure that will hide me from the outer world and he was staying hidden until the time Yeon Su came back into his life and wanted to participate in that event.
I am very curious, about his parents though. How could not they realized that Ung was having nightmares? Didn’t they question that something was off?
As for Ji Ung and their friendship. We can see that Ji Ung is so biased by his own life, that truly cannot see that Ung was truly suffering. Ji Ung is jealous by Ung’s “perfect” life, when in reality that is not the case.
I am not talking about the break up here. When you are growing up with someone, you just know when they are okay or not. You know because you were there. Even when you are younger and you don’t know much, you have memories that can give you hints, you can think about when you are getting older.
As for Yeon Su, I will write more in order to answer to @Grace.
@Grace,
Yeon Su is a time bomb for me. She will burst and it won’t be pretty.
Yeon Su broke up with Ung, because she has a inferiority complex.
She was poor and she couldn’t do what her friends did back in primary school.
She had to work in order to support herself and then she had to paid a debt her Samcheon left to her Halmeoni.
So, she had to grow up pretty harsh and because her Ego and Pride were in the way, she didn’t talk with Ung about the difficulties she was facing when they were dating.
Instead of having a long conversation where they would say what they wanted to say, i.e. Ung that he wanted to go to the UK for studies and being with her there.
Yeon Su that she had to stay behind because she had to help her Halmeoni. She took a selfish decision, because at that time she believed that she could live without him. She learned the hard way that was not the case…
Yeon Su’s problem is bigger that Ung’s.
Ung will always have abandonment issues. It is not something you can forget but you can work with a therapist in order to shimmer it down.
Yeon Su grew up very fast, became responsible and successful, but emotionally she has been petrified in a child like state where she hasn’t been able to breath and still doesn’t know how to do so. She is an adult who doesn’t know how to truly connect with someone else and I am not talking about her Halmeoni or her friend Sol-Yi who told her that she has issues to deal with.
I am pretty worried that Yeon Su will hurt again Ung and now it will be worse than before.
That’s why I was telling to @GB Unnie in the previous thread, that if they don’t deal with their problems seperately with a Specialist, they will continue to be toxic for each other. Hence my argument that shouldn’t end together if that is the case.
Next week is not that far away. We will soon find out.
@Packmule3,
Kalimera! I have written something but it didn’t show up. Can you please check your spam folder?
Ahh GB, i thought the same thing too. With how he explained about the process of his drawings. All this time, it was all Yeon Su.
I also agree with Cleo and Grace, now CU has overcame his issue. Now for them both to meet in halfway, YS has to overcame her inferiority complex too. I wonder tho, if her situation now (has a stable job, good position in her office) would give her the confidence booster. I was intrigued by what she whispered to CU when they’re in a fight. That when CU came to her again, she will never let him go. I hope that she will remember her promise..
My favorite part from episode 11 and 12 is the moment when CU told YS that she gave her comfort already by being beside him.. because even though he has a trouble sleeping, but whenever YS beside him, he could sleep soundly. I saw that based on this, their emotional connection actually has gone deeper than what they might think.
@Cleo
Thanks for posting the lovely poem. It’s so touching. I’ve read Cummings’ poetry before but now I no longer know if he wanted officially to be called e. e. cummings or E. E. Cummings LOL. I was just reading up about it.
I feel the line
is reminiscent of the episode title ‘The Secret That Can’t be Told’, except in this case, it is a secret that can be told. Unfortunately we, the viewers, alone hear CU’s thoughts. He does tell her that he missed her all the time, but he does not say that he had her in his heart so that every stroke of his pen included her. I hope she figures that out, anyway.
Ad Hoc Thoughts
With Ung – Now that we know the story of how CU was abandoned (at least, for now, we trust that his memory is accurate), and that there had been another child who died, the names of all the restaurants ‘Drink With Ung’, ‘Seafood Soup with Ung’, … the names of all the ‘With Ung’ stores takes on a greater poignancy. His adoptive parents were adamant that they would not abandon this child. They would always want to be With him, and by naming their restaurants after him, they were in a sense inviting their clients to also include Ung in their meal times.
Although they did not press CU about it, they always noticed that he was not lively, excited or energetic, until YS entered his life. All along, he’d just been placid, boring, just keeping his loved ones by his side. YS awakened his capacity for living joyously, but she also kept reopening his old wound of being abandoned.
What CU had been doing all along – which looked like nothing much, but which was a lot because of its significance – was just being With whomever. As a child he sat and waited because he was told to, but sitting or lying down, he was With himself, he was obedient and therefore With his parents. Where YS was concerned, he only wanted to always be With her, mostly physically within reach. When she broke up with him, he carried her in his heart, so that she was always With him, even though she didn’t know it.
There was also his friend, another ‘Ung’. CU didn’t mind sharing anything With JU. We see that he put aside his work time to spend time with JU. CU even offered to let JU live With him, and to treat his house as JU’s home. A place where he could sleep. Being With, was a big deal to CU.
Sleep – A repeated motif is sleep, or lack of it. Sleep as an indicator of one’s state of mind is quite normal. We saw that YS could not sleep when she was bothered about CU. And she did not sleep well when she took care of him as at the time she brought him jujube tea. He asked her to sleep over, but it was he who slept well, while she ended up sleepy the next day. She was constantly bothered that he could not sleep well. He could not sleep because he missed YS, and took up art seriously instead of as a hobby, probably in order to find some peace.
@Cleo was saying that CU’s parents should have known about CU’s nightmares. I believe that they did. They knew that CU didn’t sleep well from before in their conversations with JU. I did think that they were referring to the time even before YS was in CU’s life. His lack of sleep probably explains why he slept so often in the day time even in school. It was an unfunny joke that 80% of the 2nd documentary footage, was of CU lying down, sleeping.
Both CU and JU were abandoned by their parents. It’s interesting that CU works through the night as a rule, and that JU, when he’s upset with himself, does all-nighters in the editing room. When JU was upset by his mother, he didn’t want to sleep at home. He spent nights at work or with CU. He got himself drunk so that he could sleep.
CU normally did not sleep well, but when YS was with him, he would sleep soundly. The night he shared about his abandonment and confessed that he missed YS, she sat with him on the couch. However it seemed that he may not have slept. YS was afraid to wake him up with a call the next morning, and though she was ecstatic that he was waiting outside her gate, she said he shouldn’t drive because he had no sleep. Was her presence not able to give him a sound night’s sleep?
A funny thought is that now that YS is with CU again, his work time may be badly affected, since he may sleep soundly instead of work. Either his productivity will plummet, or he will have to work in the day time.
Seeing the top from the ground – After watching Episodes 11 and 12, I wondered if our OTP are trying to have a relationship the way they were trying to see the top of the roof from the ground. They are not yet in the right position to make a relationship work, although they are emotionally ready to Begin Again. They are still on the ground looking up, when they ought to be on a higher building looking downwards upon the rooftops.
So to clarify, we think that ung’s parents had a child that died and then they adopted Ung after he was abandoned. They never had a conversation about it to acknowledge it. What are we to make of Ung asking his mom if he can go with them to the countryside next time?
I also theorized and then discarded the idea that their son abandoned him and Ung was their grandchild.
I like and it also makes me sad that Ung must’ve felt it was never rightfully his to begin with so that’s why it was so easy to share with Jiung. He didn’t feel or act territorial about his parents. However, I feel when it comes to yeonsu he’ll be more prone to claim “ownership” since she was something HE wanted/got on his own vs something that came with the adoption.
I think he just smelled the coffee to trick his mind while he actually drank the tea. He’s figured out how to deceive himself into doing what’s best for him even if he doesn’t like it. What could this represent?
Next weeks episodes don’t look fun but now I’m convinced the show has decided to give the OTP a happy ending. Hopefully they’ll have their issues healthily resolved.
I hope ji Ung and nj both find happiness and don’t want to see them become the ‘villains’. Even though they already feel like they are the bad guys to the “precious couple”
@Cleo
I only just got to read your comment to grace. Yes, MS has a lot more growing up to do, although she’s been putting on the impression that she’s more mature than CU. CU seems to be quite consistent. He appeared immature, but he may not have been. The fact that he’s doing so well on his own, is able to pay Eun Ho and to turn out full scale drawings constantly, plus have solo exhibitions (what a lot of work he must have done) indicates that he’s not a ne’er-do-well.
It says something that although YS had put him down repeatedly as someone lazy, he never took it to heart. He may have changed his hobby into his career, to show YS that he could succeed, but I felt that his objective was more to do some self-care in a stressful situation. After 4 months, YS still did not return to him, so he did something for himself by doing what he was good at and liked, and excelled at it.
@moonstar512
You mentioned being intrigued…
. I hope so too, however, technically he did not go to her this last time. She was the one who turned up at his door. And it was she who found him this time in Episode 12.
In Episode 11, CU asks her point blank to love him and not let him go. I believe he was repeating the words that you quoted. He was reminding her that she’d said it and so now, to carry out what she promised.
YS : “Well, I…About how you wanted us to be friends. I gave it some thought and I don’t think I can do that. So I don’t mean that I don’t want to be friends. I just …”
CU finally speaks as if her words (on top of Grandma’s apology) had given him a final push to speak.
CU : “I missed you Kook Yen Su. I’ve always missed you. I missed you.”
YS’s eyes fill with tears.
CU : “When I saw you again, I kept feeling angry for some reason even though you were back. And I resented you. But I think I know why now. I guess I wanted to see you love me. I wanted to see you love only me. Yeon Su-ah.”
YS : “Emm/Yes.”
CU : “Please keep loving me. Don’t let go and keep loving me. Please”
YS nods tearfully.
My favourite parts are all the times when they make real communication LOL. But yes, I like how CU says that YS is comforting him, just by being with him and listening.
@birdie007
You wrote: ‘What are we to make of Ung asking his mom if he can go with them to the countryside next time?’
My guess is that he was giving his mum a hint that he possibly knew about and was ready to speak about the foster brother they’d hidden from him. My guess as to why the parents never told him he was adopted or that he had a brother is that 1) he’d been too traumatised when they first received him and so never got around to telling him 2)they might have thought he’d remember on his own that they only had him when he was about 6 years old and 3) that they didn’t want him to think that he was merely a replacement for someone else.
I’d like to know the name of their dead son. Was he also an ‘Ung’? Was Choi Ung named by his adoptive parents or by his real father?
If he was named by his adoptive parents then they really doted on him by naming all their restaurants after him. But it would have been even more poignant if they also had named their dead son ‘Ung’.
You have an interesting thought that CU did not consider anything his own, except YS. It’s possible. There might be some research on adopted children and if they have this kind of attitude.
Yes, CU smelled the coffee and drank the tea. To me it was something like the reverse of taking sugar after drinking bitter medicine. He smelled the coffee so that he could tolerate the tea. In the end he took a sip of coffee instead LOL.
I didn’t see it as deceiving himself. He always knew it was tea. It did however show that he was prepared to ‘suffer’ if it was good for him, (especially if YS advised it or prepared it), but that he’d like even that to be more palatable.
Good point that although they have done nothing ‘bad’, both JU and NJ feel as if they may have tried to come between the couple and felt bad about it.
I expect most kdramas to end up with happily-ever-afters for main and side characters.
BTW, did anyone catch why Chae Ran asked Ji Ung if something good had happened? Did she see him before or after he met with NJ? I was thinking maybe what we saw was not in chronological order and that JU had met NJ before he saw Chae Ran. If not, then why did CR notice that he looked happier. Did he look happier?
Loved reading your thoughts, I will process it slowly (4 more days to episode 13! excited!) But I have to ask something here:
Did anyone realize that CU’s artist name Ko-O is part of YS’s surname, “Kook”?
I know Netflix translates it to Go-oh but other sites write Ko-o or Ko-Oh. Anyone knows if there are similarities in the hangul for CU’s artist name and YS’s surname?
Episodes 11 and 12
Choi Ung and Jjongjjong
Child CU was like Jjongjjong in that they both sat where they were put or told to sit, and both didn’t want to budge from home. CU thought Jjongjjong a kindred spirit, because it had been abandoned outdoors, like himself.
He felt justified in spending his life hiding indoors, behind his art, because it was a natural instinct for survival, as demonstrated by Jjongjjong. LOL CU uses a dog as a role model.
After the discomfitting questions of JU, which threw up things CU didn’t want to confront, CU runs away. He visits the stationery store since he has been thinking more of Jjongjjong lately. He expected to find the dog sitting placidly in the store, unmoving. Instead Jjongjjong runs in happily on its four legs.
CU to store owner: “Didn’t Jjongjjong hate going outside?”
Store owner :”That was a long time ago. He hates staying inside now.”
CU : “Since when? How did you do it?”
He wants to know how long ago Jjongjjong changed… wondering maybe if 5 years should have been enough for him, as it had been for the dog. He also assumed that the owner had done something to aid Jjongjjong become braver or more comfortable walking outdoors, as if he should find help.
Store owner :”I didn’t do anything. It was all him.”
CU calls the dog ‘traitor’ LOL. He’d grown braver, leaving CU behind.
Jjongjjong had changed and was able to go outdoors happily. He did it by himself. So CU takes his cue from the dog who had once been a kindred spirit. If Jjongjjong could do it, so could he.
Choi Ung and Grandma Kook
When CU ran away again to avoid the final interview, YS and EH looked for him. They reported to each other that they could not locate him at all the usual places.
YS guesses that he’s not at a regular place but somewhere unexpected. LOL little did she guess that he was at the most unexpected place of all – at her home, with her scary Grandma!! No wonder she didn’t locate CU.
CU had helped Grandma and carried her shopping home for her. He sees the jujubes being dried in the yard, and recalls the trail of jujubes that led to and even entered his home.
Grandma : “Who knows whom they’re for. YS bought so much and put them there. She keeps making jujube tea. I don’t know who it’s for.”
CU knows it’s for him. He recalls how YS had brought jujube tea to his place. He’d picked up more than a handful of jujubes on his way home and had been drawing them the previous night.
Grandma makes an apology of sorts to CU.
Grandma : “If Yeon Su did anything bad to you, it’s all my fault. So don’t hate her too much. We were poor, so I made her grow up to be selfish. It’s my fault that she talks so harshly. and has a nasty temper too. So if you’re upset at her about something, blame me for it, and don’t hate her.”
CU : “Yeon Su’s not like that, Halmeoni. That’s not who she is. She’s a good person. She’s so brilliant I feel like I don’t deserve her.” (Grandma probably agrees heartily to the ‘don’t deserve her’ part!)
Grandma : “If you know that then what are the two of you doing?” (Her blunt way of encouraging CU. She does not approve of him, but she also wants YS to be happy. She’s disgruntled at having to encourage someone she considers a loser LOL.)
CU : “You’re right, I knew I was pathetic, but I guess I’ve hit rock bottom today.”
Unlike Jjongjjong, he’d not made much progress in communicating with both JU and YS. Instead he’d run away again. However, this encounter with Grandma had given him the green light that he’d never received from her before.
Episodes 11 and 12
Choi Ung and Yeon Su
By the time Yeon Su found Choi Ung, he’d been ruminating about Jjongjjong’s progress and Grandma Kook’s words of encouragement. These were already bolstering him for his unexpected meeting with YS.
It helped also that YS, this time, did not spew a whole lot of nagging. She sat quietly more than once, waiting for him to speak. She says she always wanted to drink face to face with CU. We remember that she is usually truthful when tipsy. They each have a drink and stare at each other in silence for some time.
YS : “You’re not avoiding me now? You’re not even telling me to leave.” (She’s testing the grounds with CU.)
CU : “I never avoided you.” (CU does not see his running away as avoidance perhaps? Maybe it was his reflex action for survival.)
YS : “Then did I just imagine things?” (We do see that YS over-thinks and adds a lot of her own interpretations to complicate situations.)
CU pours his own drink. YS waits.
YS : “You’re quiet, Choi Ung.”
CU shakes his head a little : “What should I say?”
YS : “Anything besides beating around the bush, avoiding the topic or something that would hurt me.”
He remains silent not knowing what to say. (We can understand how frustrating it can be.)
YS : “You must have decided to keep quiet again. I’ll do the talking this time then.”
When CU hears that YS does not want to be friend-zoned, it gives him the courage of Jjongjjong to come out and say what he’d been keeping to himself.
CU : “I missed you Kook Yeon Su. I’ve always missed you. I missed you. When I saw you again, I kept feeling angry for some reason even though you were back. And I resented you. But I think I know why now. I guess I wanted to see you love me. I wanted to see you love only me. Yeon Su-ah. …Please keep loving me. Don’t let go and keep loving me. Please.”
It was very difficult for CU to put all that he said into words. Unlike YS, he preferred to show love rather than put it into words. Making himself this vulnerable was tantamount to Jjongjjong’s taking steps to go outside.
With all these words, one would think it was clear that he was saying that he wanted them to date again, but typically, YS still needed to get more verbal confirmation the next day.
The next day YS asks CU if they are dating again.
CU : “Did you think we weren’t all this time?” (He probably considered that they started from the scene transcribed above.)
YS : “I mean, I just wanted to be sure.”
CU : “I thought it was obvious enough.”
YS can’t keep back her smiles. She waves at him : “Ung-ah, I hope we get along.”
The issue is not that he can’t get along, it’s more she who cannot accept CU being so different from her. Her love language might be to say it and hear it in words. It’s true that in the past, she was the one to say that she loved CU. She has to accept that CU shows it in action, rather than in words.
Choi Ung and Ji Ung
JU remembers what Writer Lee said about his boring documentary that lacked focus. She’d rightly guessed that JU liked YS himself and so was dithering about what to show in the documentary :
Writer Lee : “I get the reason for this, …but come on. Why don’t you follow the gaze of the cast?” It was also she who said that his filming was full of emotions.
The cast actually includes the un-objective or rather the subjective PD, JU. His presence and editing, coloured the way the documentary turned out. When YS was with him, she was brighter and more at ease. It showed in the footage, and even CU noticed something.
JU was trying to hide the parts that he did not want the public to see ie the gaze of the cast, the fact that CU and YS had been and still might be a couple, hence the documentary was lame.
A drunk JU comes to CU’s home to talk : “Someone told me that everything I shoot is full of emotions. And that it shows even when I try to hide it. Do you think so too?” (This is a prelude to his next question.)
CU : “I don’t get what you’re saying.”
JU : “You saw everything. Didn’t you?” (He’s referring to CU knowing that JU likes YS too.)
CU : “Well, I’m not sure.” (If he knows, CU prefers to play dumb. He probably had guessed from the footage of the documentary that JU had stopped at.)
JU : “Oh, you’re telling me not to mention it.” (JU is able to interpret CU’s non-words ie what he is not saying.) “Right?”
CU : “You’re drunk. Just go to sleep.”
JU : “You’re telling me to shut up, because you don’t want to hear. Right?” (JU recognises CU’s usual way of avoiding difficult truths..)
CU walks towards the basement stairs. (Sometimes his going to work is also a form of running away.)
JU snorts : “I knew it would be like this but I do feel pretty upset.”
Chae Ran is fed up that CU has run away again. She chides JU for going too easy on his friend. However JU is both grateful and feels guilty towards CU. This time he feels responsible as well.
JU : “I kind of feel like maybe I chased him away.”
Since JU had said he felt upset with CU, avoids confronting a person when the feelings are not amicable, this time it was JU who had initiated CU’s disappearance.
With things not sorted out with CU, and evidence that once again CU and YS were dating, JU’s emotional stress manifests as physical illness. It’s CU who comes to check up on JU. He’d put JU before YS this time. He had not seen him for days, and he wanted to tell him that he was dating YS again.
I do wonder if CU ever caught on sometime in the last 10 years, that the reason JU had seemed unfriendly towards YS was because he didn’t want to be the third wheel.
However when he saw how YS on camera responded warmly and happily to JU’s interviews, he realised that JU may never have disliked YS at all.
By staying on to make sure that JU’s fever subsided, CU was showing by action, not words, that he valued JU’s friendship. It was only when his news about his relationship was settled with JU, that CU went to meet YS on an impromptu date.
Poor JU needs to get out of the funk he’s been in for over 10 years. I wonder if noticing Chae Ran, will help. He needs to stop feeling like the bad guy, with CU. It’s lonely enough for him as he is, but to have this added stress with his best friend is so hard. No wonder JU never looks fully happy and alive himself. He really needs to forgive his mother and to recognise how lovable he is.
@GB thanks for writing out the dialogue. I read that some of the translation was too simplified. If anyone speaks Korean perhaps they can weigh in. When NJ and JU talk about their “crushes” this would have been better translated as “one-sided love” or “unrequited love” which sounds like something more substantial than a crush. When YS said “I hope we get along” – I read that the better translation would have been “please take care of me” which we drama watchers know is what Koreans say when starting a new job/team etc. It was a cute thing to respond and that is why CU said “she is so adorable” after.
I really liked the documentary writer’s drunken truth telling – “follow the cast’s gaze” telling JU him not to focus on what he is obsessed with (i.e. YS) but at the two lead’s gaze. Much like the earlier documentary revealed the chemistry between the two – their interactions In the new documentary also subtly revealed their feelings. And then not so subtly when they were both asked where they would be in 5 years and they coyly smiled at each other
Hi @Good Twin, I agree… I too felt that ‘crush’ should have been translated as one-sided or unrequited love. It has more impact than a mere ‘crush’.
Ah, so YS said: “Please take care of me,” which means they are on the same team. No wonder CU was so pleased.
I felt that JU’s documentary had too many separate interview scenes. There was not much footage of CU and YS together, so not much chance to catch the direction of they gaze. Despite this, the emotions of the two came through. Not only that, the emotions of JU, were able to come through as well.
@GB I agree with you that CU is a guy who shows with actions more than words. So many instances when he initiate things. YS tend to think long and hard about whether to call him or not, then she will be indecisive and ponder too long, in the end only not to do anything. Not that YS doesn’t initiate things at all but CU’s actions are quite certain and clear to him, he doesn’t vacillate. When he wants to do it, he does it. I like how he is so certain about what he wants to do or not do. When he decided he was going to spray water and throw salt at her after not seeing her for so long, he kept to his word.
I hope YS doesn’t have to insist on him having to say the “i like you” or “I love you” to be satisfied because actions speak louder than words. You can lie with words but harder to do that with actions. Though I wonder if the final episode may end with CU saying the words YS so wanted to hear.
@GoodTwin, I loved that part when they “coyly smiled at each other”! It was so obvious.
Do you find that a few times, one character doesn’t get the cues.
Hardware store owner – CU’s dad have to keep asking him to go because he doesn’t get that filming the hardware store isn’t quite erm…purposeful?
JU – the intern and director could tell that Ye-In likes JU but he can’t see it at all
CU – I thought he was kinda dense to not notice that NJ was being really over friendly to him to the point that she had to say she likes him for him to realize that…in shock 😛
@grace You wonder
I’m wondering if he’ll finally relent and include a person in his drawings. LOL. He said that all his drawing was YS, probably because he missed her all the time and drew to relieve the stress of it, but I’d like to see him do something different from his usual ie include something that changes faster in his drawings.
His explanation was that he drew buildings and trees because he didn’t like things that changed (because YS kept changing her mind) but trees grow and buildings age over time, so that do not remain totally unchanging either.
It would be nice if YS could stop needing to hear assurances of CU’s love. It would be a sign that she’d reached a healthy level of security and trust.
You have a point there about so many characters not being able to read non-verbal cues. It’s kind of an inside joke that we, the viewers, get to see that the people who do the observing, notice things that the main subjects (those being observed) do not. At the same time, they may be subjects of observation themselves, and not be self-aware.
The best example is Ji Ung. He caught on and asked Yeon Su if she still liked CU. But despite Chae Ran’s telling him that there are people who admire him but can’t approach because he’s too prickly, and her concern over his health, or her wanting to eat with him, JU still does not see her interest in him. His boss is so frustrated with him.
In Episode 4
CR tells JU in the car : “You are popular. It’s just that you seem unapproachable. You probably don’t know this, but I bet many women have a crush on you.”
He laughs, finding her words comforting.
CR : “I wish more people knew this side of you.”
These words are reminiscent of what CU says of YS. She hid a side of her that she only showed to CU. CR is saying that there’s a lot more to people than what meets the eye (but the camera may reveal it), and she’s hopeful for a closer relationship with JU since he shows a different side of himself to her.
Sol Yi is another observer, but she’s pretty sharp. She tells Eun Ho not to fall for her. That may still not stop him, though.
NJ prides herself on being quick to tell when others like or are indifferent towards each other. Yet she cannot tell that CU’s not responding in any special way towards her means he’s definitely not interested in her. She has assumed for some time that because of her idol status, she’d be welcomed anywhere, her company would be desired and she could get any guy she paid attention to. CU was proof against her.
However NJ was at least not delusional and asked YS point blank if she (NJ) was coming in between CU and YS. She also caught on that YS said ‘Not at the moment’.
Not seeing the true meaning of cues is one thing, however I find refusing to interpret the cues correctly even worse. I think sadly of how Ji Ung refuses to forgive his mother. He surely knows that she’s apologising in actions if not in words. She comes to him on his birthday which shows that she has not forgotten him. However her giving him peaches again, is a terrible sign of what a negligent mother she had been. Still, if he’d given her a chance and even told her off for forgetting about his peach allergy, they might have had a chance for rapprochement.
Hey everyone,
I always thought CU is a lucky kid and have everything given to him. He has loving parents, he has enough money and fame found him. I thought he has enough, so he doesn’t need to try too hard. I thought, because everything was easy for him, his biggest trauma would just be YS leaving him.
I thought he is so full of love from his parents, he grew up with a positive view of life. He never needed to worry that JS would be jealous of him. He wasn’t starstruck with a superstar, didn’t see the need to worship NJ and treats her somewhat normal. He attracts NJ, a bit like Hugh Grant in Notting Hill.
I thought He has everything that JS ever wanted.
However, in last week episodes. I realised he was abandoned, and he pretended not to know he was adopted for all these years. He wasn’t entirely shocked or surprise and didn’t want to know when JS almost told him he has a one sided crush to YS all those years. I suspect, he knows it all along. He doesn’t want to rock the boat and just play the roles people assign to him to play. If his parents don’t want him to know about the dead brother, he follows. If JS doesn’t want him to know about his love for YS, he follows. If YS wants to break up with him, he follows, even though he never stopped loving her.
CU, has a lot more depth that I gave him credit for. He is observant and considerate. He works harder than I thought to keep people around him happy. He just plays along with the roles people assign to him and doesn’t rock the boat. Pretending not to know is tiring, and somewhat, hold that loneliness and burden to himself. Accepting other people decision without working out what he wants won’t give him happiness. I hope, in the coming episodes, he can find a way that keep people happy but not at his expense. I hope he can find a way for what he loves.
Hey @Viva,
Welcome to “Our Beloved Summer”!
For me, Choi Ung is a very well written character and one of my favorites in k-drama land. Choi Woo Shik has given Ung a very specific way of portraying that help us realize that there are many things under the “I am lazy” label.
Choi Ung has a trauma that he hid pretty well from everyone. As NJ said, Ung is like an onion with many many layers. Even Yeon Su didn’t realize it.
As I have written above, Yeon Su has a bigger problem than Ung and hopefully she will come into terms with. If not, I will continue to say so, she shouldn’t be with Ung again. She will be toxic for him and she will hurt him even worse than before.
Let us see what will happen tonight…
Hi @Viva
Your point about CU pretending not to know and just going along with people, is quite profound. Yes, you may well be right. Afraid to be abandoned again, he made sure that he did not rock the boat.
He may have been cognizant of Ji Ung’s liking YS after a couple of years. Certainly he may have guessed as an adult, and at their trip to the mountains for the interviews. He saw it in something of the footage of YS as shot by JU. He didn’t want to hear JU confess it, which would change the status of their relationship. I did wonder if as an adult, he wanted JU to be the first to know that he and YS were dating again, to nip any possibility of JU’s being ‘dumped’ in the bud. He had to catch it early so that his relationship with JU could be unchanged.
He always wanted things to be status quo. That could be the reason why he didn’t seem to have ambition. I felt that he drew to relax, to keep himself busy while still thinking of YS, and that he didn’t want fame. Fame and NJ came to him without him doing anything, so he was never certain what to do about these.
If what he says is true, then all he needs for his happiness are to have his loved ones always nearby, and him to be able to do nothing much but draw and lie down to relax, if only those around him will let him. LOL.
I feel that all the 4 main characters, and even the side characters, are layered and interesting. There’s more to them than meets the eye.
Episode 13 was the sweet, delightful episode that gets us worried about episode 14 LOL. But I enjoyed it a lot. Funniest scene might have been Sol Yi’s reactions.
Poor Ji Ung and NJ and Chae Ran too. *sigh*
I expected the Sol Yi developments in advance. That will be cute.
@GB Unnie,
I just watched the episode myself. I liked it. It made me laugh especially when YS was trying to be someone else. It was awkward and Ung caught it at once.
Let us see if YS can come clean about what made her break up with Ung.
Things are sweet for the couple but also weird for the other characters…
@Cleo
*POSSIBLE SPOILER*
I was sadly thinking that it begins to look
like the breakup was a bigger mistake than
we were aware of because it was probably
not even needed. Someone made a unilateral
decision in error. This could be what is a
truly, truly idiotic, noble idiocy. Thinking
about it gets me so miffed!
In the film, ‘Love Actually’ (I only watched snippets but read it up) the relationship that seems to be depicted in this episode is the story of the love triangle between Juliet (YS), Peter (CU), and Mark (JU). Mark video recorded Juliet and Peter’s wedding.
From Wikipedia: “Although the couple believe Mark dislikes Juliet, he is actually in love with her. When he evades her requests to see the video he shot at the wedding, she shows up at his flat. Juliet insists she wants them to be friends, but when she views the wedding video Mark recorded, she sees many extreme close-ups of herself and few of Peter’s face. She realises Mark’s true feelings towards her. After an uncomfortable silence, Mark blurts out that he acts cold out of “self-preservation”.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Actually
So in this Show, instead of YS seeing the significance of the close-up shots, it’s CU who does in the earlier episode.
That was the meta reference to Love Actually where the character even calls it out. But I believe YS didn’t see that version of the edit, only CU did. What she saw was the edit after the writer told JU to follow the leads’ gaze (not his own). YS even commented on him catching her expression towards CU. She is still a bit oblivious to his crush. The movie Love Actually istarts with the narrator observing how “love, actually, is all around”. And I think we also see that in OBS in the pairings and potential pairings all around, also in the friendships, and the familial love. We even see it at YS’ work where her needy boss cultivates a warm relationship with his employees. So love, actually, was all around in this episode.
@GB Unnie,
FYI, I just finished watching “Train in Busan”, I took an extra dose of Gong Yoo and Choi Woo Shik LMAO!
I truly liked it and the zompies were not that scary!
Back to “Our Beloved Summer”. I agree with you on that. YS made a decision based on limited knowledge. Taking a decision, listening mostly to her pride and inferiority complex and the fact that she had to pay for that debt. Also, she was jealous that Ung got a chance to study abroad, even though he didn’t want to, that part she heard when Ung was talking to his professor.
This time, she saw a brochure and while Ung talked to her about it, in her mind her mechanism will make her act the same as before. Because she will copy the only things to know and that is to run away from Ung.
That’s why I was repeating non stop in the first place that she needs therapy. When she was younger we can say this is a truly idiotic, noble idiocy as you wrote above, but not anymore.
She is in an age that has to deal with her baggage in order to be free. Ung shouldn’t be dragged into this. If she is willing to drag him and she will, then she doesn’t deserve him.
Ung is a very beautiful uncut gem for me.
As for “Love Actually” I have watched the movie when it aired. I remember that specific story, but it was not the only one…
Also in our case, Ung does know about Ji Ung’s feelings, while in the movie the man didn’t.
@GB, I hope it is not noble idiocy. But if it is she would have felt so so embarrassed about her mistake. I believe if she explained herself, and be honest about it and expressed her regrets, CU will definitely forgive her eventually.
@Cleopetra, yes I love how you say that CU is a “beautiful uncut gem” where do you find a bf like that???
Dear @Grace,
If you believe that this kind of man exists, you will find yourself one. 🙂
Just have your eyes open and do what you have to do in order to be able to recognize him!
Welcome to the club: “A Beautiful Uncut Gem IS OUT THERE*! *winks*
There is a lot of plot to resolve in the next two episodes:
JU’s mom
JU’s loneliness
NJ’s loneliness
Soli and EJ
YS grandmother
CU architecture school
CU parents’ dead child
CU’s abandonment
Anything else?
When CU was talking to his Dad about the fishing pole we saw somebody watching them – Is this CU’s biological father? Someone else?
I liked the part of the episode where the YS and CU happiness expanded to their relationships with those around them. CU to his parents and YS to her coworkers. It was an extension of the Love Actually theme.
Regarding the title Life Is Beautiful – ugh – that’s a difficult movie. (The movie is about a father who insulated his son from the horrors of the holocaust by treating their experiences in a concentration camp as an adventure.). I am not going to read too much into it except perhaps it is a segue to resolving the parental issues amongst JU, CU, and YS. Perhaps, similar to Life is Beautiful, we will find out that some form of parental love drove the decisions and the various abandonments the leads are now facing.
@GoodTwin,
La Vita e Bella or Life is beautiful is a great story. I have seen it when I was younger and it deeply touched me. It won many Oscars back in 1998.
I also love the Soundtrack by Nicola Piovani.
Here is the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CTjcVr9Iao
As for tonight’s episode,
We get to see Yeon Su being completely vulnerable. I understood that her Halmeoni is willing to go to a hospice. They didn’t translate that part with the brochure at all.
I do hope she will get to talk to Ung about the past. You cannot walk in the present, if you haven’t solved / accepted / forgive the past. It will always come and bite you in the b*tt…
Hi everyone.. hope you had a great day!
@Cleo Regarding Life is Beautiful, it is one of the movies that I love in my beginning era of being a movie lovers. It is memorable for me. And sure it touched me as well.
I cried on the scene when YS talked to grandma. I mean, I kinda understand how she feels. She doesn’t have many friends and grandma is her anchor. I believe that she understand too that one day she has to let Grandma go, but her saying “let’s live together” was so poignant in my eyes. She knows it would never be possible. I think she is in a denial phase.
So actually YS had told CU the real reason why she broke up with him, but his phone suddenly fell. Ohh God. Lol. I wonder has Grandma told him already when CU came to YS house. I thought not huh?
@Cleo, when do you think YS will tell CU about her inferiority complex and about her vulnerability? I hope in eps 15 so we got to see more happy scenes in eps 16..
@Goodtwin, You got that scene too when CU gave his father the pocket money. It’s like someone is stalking him (I was afraid that it would be someone who hate him or want to do bad things to him, I hope it is not the case) With the documentary being viral, it is possible that his real father see it and want to reconnect to him again. I wonder how CU would react if it is his real father..
About JU mother. We as the viewers don’t have any idea why she didn’t present for JU. But I hope JU agreed to shoot a documentary about her. It is the only way for him to be able to understand his own mother.
About NJ and her loneliness: when JU has Chaeran beside him. The one who understand him and care for him. I guess that NJ only has her manager. Hopefully, she will open her heart to let more people in. So that she won’t be too lonely. Even though she hates the script, convincing herself that she didn’t really think about friends everytime she eats, I believe that connection with other human beings is needed for everyone to feel happier in life. I hope she will realize this later.
@Cleopatra and Moonstar – I too liked Life is Beautiful but it was also devastating – it’s a weird film for the writers to allude to. That’s why I think it is foreshadowing a theme of parental sacrifice/devotion. I think some of the secrets that are to be unveiled will involve the parents and their sacrifices for their children.
I don’t envision a scenario where CU and YS aren’t a couple – there have been too many pronouncements by CU, by his parents and even YS to herself that they love each other. Earlier in the series, either them ending up together or not would have been fine with me because the documentary offered each of them some coming to terms with their relationship. But now I feel invested in them as a couple. I look forward to seeing how the story concludes. This has been such a good show.
Episode 14 – Life is Beautiful
This episode, we focus on family relationships.
If the title relates to the Korean Musical (2020). It’s about how a wife asks her husband to find her childhood sweetheart as her birthday gift. ” Life Is Beautiful is a story about tracing one’s first love and finding real love in the process.” https://mydramalist.com/43845-life-is-beautiful. I’m not sure that this episode title pertains to this movie or not. I feel not.
If the title refers to the 1997 Italian film which managed to portray the Holocaust without the worst of the horror, it’s an interesting show to choose as a parallel for parent-child relationships. The harsh realities are muted by a ‘let’s pretend’ and watered down by one party or another, to protect the other party from fear/anguish upon knowing the terrible truth. In the end the most tragic circumstances can be spoken of easily, and even laughed at, without emotional burden. Perhaps this attitude of protecting one’s someone else is what the episode wants to convey.
The scenes of Yeon Su and her Grandma kept making me tear up. Among YS, CU and Grandma, everyone is trying to protect someone. CU won’t press YS to reveal her true situation. YS won’t let Grandma feel bad about the past. Grandma wants to ensure YS will be happy with CU in the future and wants to keep out of their way, by getting herself into a home.
I wanted Ji Ung to forgive his mother, and it seems he will need to make his closure with her sooner than expected. I can’t imagine the pain of filming one’s dying, estranged parent. Is it too selfish of her to ask Ji Ung to do this? But at the same time it is effective. He has to ‘catch every detail’ as he himself told CU’s dad when he was filming him.
CU finally begins to realise that he could do something about his irresponsible and unreliable image. He at least steps up to give his dad something after breaking his fishing rods in the past.
I actually felt a lot for NJ. Her expression when she admitted that she has no friends, and could not use the script, got me in the heart. It’s interesting that JU could give her advice, but I’m not sure he can take the advice himself. Can we keep pretending that life is normal so that in the end we do not need to pretend anymore? Does ‘let’s pretend’ make it easier to come to seeing that life beautiful? Is it a state of mind so that life really is beautiful, despite the pain, because we choose to see it that way?
@Good Twin, I agree…
This seems to be an in between episode, preparing us for a lot of conflict.
You’ve listed the many areas that could still be resolved. I guess, I’d like for CU’s parents to also include his late foster brother openly into their lives, for YS to be able to admit the true reasons for her decisions (like @Cleo, I’d like her to stop burying her insecurities), for CU to get closure over his own abandonment and for JU to stop feeling like the bad guy in his relationship with CU.
It occurred to me that I really like the smart, non-violent, and respectful way that Eun Ho dealt with the scheming ex-BF of Sol Yi. I expected him to give the guy an earful and maybe even push him out of the shop, but he cleverly used the BF’s own bad attitude to work in SY’s favour. The minute deluded ex-BF thinks that he can’t make use of SY, he’s off, and she’s saved without being upset by his callousness while Eun Ho gains the approbation of ex-BF. That was an intelligent move. It saved hurt feelings or a hurt body, and achieved the desired result.
It’s funny though, that although EH has not expressed any overt interest in SY, except that he keeps helping her out, she’s found that his interest in her, has gotten her interested in him. I don’t normally care for noona romances, but I’m in full support of this one. LOL she only caught EH’s words where he tells ex-BF that she’s not his any longer. I guess she now assumes that EH considers that she belongs to him instead. LOL also that she’s getting all bashful and aware of EH. I don’t know if it will be cute or just embarrassing.
Actress Park Jin Joo, deserves to get a big role, and a romance of her own.
Kalimera Ladies!
How are you today?
@Moonstar512, Yeon Su has a different kind of abandonment issues. I can assume that her parents died (?) when she was young and the person who raised her is Halmeoni.
Yes. Yeon Su’s anchor is Halmeoni and she is afraid that the inevitable will come and she is not ready to face it. Mostly because she copes in life by not addressing the problem at hand. She knows pretty well how to bury any nuisance instead of trying to understand herself and the situation.
That’s why from the very beginning I was saying she needs to see a Specialist. She has to address all that feelings she bottles inside in order to make amends with everything.
@Moonstar512 about your question. I think that Ung with Halmeoni’s help realized what the YS’s problem really is. He has Halmeoni’s words and explanation, but not Yeon Su’s.
Ung wants to hear it from Yeon Su in order to understand her better. He wants to listen her because she has to be completely honest with him. That is the foundation for a good relationship. Being completely honest and fragile in front of the person you love and loves you.
It is like a switch and someone has to press the right buttons. This doesn’t happen automatically. Most of the time, a lot of self improvement is needed, going to a therapist, talking about your traumas and then taking a step to address to others what is bothering you and start making boundaries.
@GoodTwin and @Moonstar512, the guy who is always there, is Ung’s friend that has the tools shop. If that was Ung’s dad he wouldn’t remember him?
@GoodTwin, for me Yeon Su needs to come clean with everything and she needs help, as Ung does, but he has started his healing journey.
@GB Unnie, I think that Halmeoni realized WHY Yeon Su broke up with Ung and that made her sad. I feel that she doesn’t want to become a burden to Yeon Su because she is a young woman who should have a life of her own.
The thing is that Halmeoni has to talk to Yeon Su and try to reassure her that she needs to break free from the mechanism she has put as a front. I do hope we won’t get to see that Halmeoni will pass away in the next two episodes.
I also think that Ung isn’t “irresponsible and unreliable” as people think. They think he is like that because Ung doesn’t fit to the norm.
In general, people get to label others according to what they think they know, in order to feel superior or better. Simply put, we project our failings to others because some people are like mirrors. The more we look at them, the more we can see clearly what we are. Most of the people though, are not ready to see what they are, so they are accusing the other person who is mirroring back at them, that he / she is what we are!
I like that we get to see that everyone will learn a bit of information about their parents that will change their perspective. I truly believe that the next two episodes will be pretty good in giving us closure to the story!
P.S. I really liked the “It’s okay to not be okay” cameo. I laughed so very much!
I would like a show where they are the main leads! I also agree that Eun Ho did a great job protecting Sol Yi!
Kalimera!
Ooops…My comment wasn’t posted. @Packmule3 can you please check your spam folder?
Thank you!
Done!
@Packmule3,
Kumao! 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪
Hi @Cleo,
Yeon Soo is interesting. She seems to be self-aware. She buries her issues in front of others, but she seems to know herself, since Show gives us her thoughts. However to reach the stage where she can be totally vulnerable before others, will be hard.
Her thoughts [They say the more you try to ignore the past, the more you get trapped in it.]
[That’s how I was.]
We see YS as a child in the playground, rejected by other girls, and then in school, about to be rejected by friends.
It was a great visual comment when the sand mound that YS made, collapsed with an empty hole inside it. It reflected her social life, her hopes, … any grand dreams.
[Even though time passed and I became an adult. I was still that same little girl who was at that playground.]
[That’s how my life has always been. To avoid getting hurt, I hurt the people I loved I disguised my low self-esteem with a breakup.]
[I pretended like everything was fine and hung onto the hope that I would get used to it. That was when it happened. The day that CU doesn’t remember. The day CU called me for the first time after our breakup.]
In the present CU asks : “Back then, why did we break up?”
YS says it was because she was exhausted, taking on extra work, etc. CU can tell that she’s not giving him the full reason.
[That’s what the past does to you. The more you try to run away from it, the more it traps you in, so you make the same mistakes again.]
The camera focus shifts from YS and CU in the background to some focus on a brochure with CU’s letters on the shelf. The brochure seems to be the one for the architectural school. It is again something that CU is looking at but not yet discussing with YS. It looks like a repeat of what happened 5 years earlier is being hinted at.
About the man who was not shown us clearly. When Chang Sik came as usual to disturb the Chois, a man was in the background looking at them. CU later turned around and noticed him, but the man slinked off immediately. I believe that we are all guessing that he might be CU’s real father. I don’t know how he could recognise him again after 20 years, and surely CU’s name would have been changed after the adoption, but maybe he’s been keeping tabs on CU, enough to know where he is. Now that CU is famous and rich, maybe he’s popping up (like SY’s ex-BF?) to see what he can get out of CU.
@GB Unnie,
I need to re-check that scene. I missed that man in the background! I remember Ung’s movement though!
As for Yeon Su: She knows herself, because all these memories of the incidents that happened in the past are what pains her. The good thing is that she knows where her pain comes from.
I don’t think in the two last episodes we will get to see her getting that vulnerable. That’s why I wrote to @moonstar512 that needs time and a therapist and to take baby steps to get there.
I have a very good friend* that he/she was not expressing himself at all. I was waiting for him/her to talk to me, to truly speak his/her mind, for five (5) years! I can still recall the day exactly when he/she started talking. It was like a stream of words that were coming out of his/her mouth, structuring sentences. He/She was finally able to breathe. He/She still is socially awkward but he/she is a great person. 🙂
* I am keeping the gender neutral. *
Hi @Cleo
You can see the blurred image of the unknown man at 34:43 minutes and again at 34:55 minutes when CU turned around. 🙂
Episode 15: ‘Three Idiots’
Another amazing episode. Our 3 idiots get a chance to re-start but they will have to go through a tough time. Looks like there’s a lot of wrapping up to do in Ep 16. I really like how there’s no filler. Every scene counts.
Although rather late in the Show, we get the fuller back story of Ji Ung, and we can understand his complex feelings or lack thereof.
I guess I never saw it that way before, but it looks like YS always had to choose between Grandma and herself. It’s going to be tough for her, going into Ep 16.
It’s beginning to look like Sol Yi may end up disappointed, and the study abroad is something CU actually needs.
The title is probably taken from the movie ‘Three Idiots’: the 2009 Bollywood movie. The movie review I chose is…
https://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/3-idiots.html
I quote from that review …”the film is about self-actualization, or the simple fact that it’s a wake up call in this rat race of a world that we live in, that we lose sight of things that matter in the pursuit of success.” This, I feel pertains to all our 3 idiots, CU, YS and JU. 😆
Anneyong!
It is snowing and we have 0 degree C!
I just finished watching Episode 15 and I found the same info on the movie @GB Unnie.
I like tonight’s episode. I think that they need to overcome their boundaries in order to move forward and find their self-actualization.
Ung needs to be off his comfort zone as an artist so studying architecture is a step in the right direction.
Yeon Su needs to find her own place in her life without thinking about her Halmeoni,
and Ji Ung needs to stop being numb.
What it will happen in the last episode?
BTW, we are also going to see “Our Beloved Summer” The movie this Wednesday!
Hi @Cleo! Thanks for the news.
I looked for it and only saw it in allkpop
https://www.allkpop.com/article/2022/01/our-beloved-summer-to-be-produced-into-a-special-movie
I’ll watch the movie too if it’s subbed before I fall asleep! 😆
Watching Episode 15, I’m aware that we are seeing the backstory from Ji Ung’s point of view. It’s painful, but we have yet to hear it from his mum’s perspective. From his angle, she was a negligent, resentful mother. She seemed to show him no warmth. JU feels sorry for himself, in that others had their mother’s love, but that was the missing piece in his life, which should have been his ‘work of art’.
He grew to feel numb, but that was to keep out the pain, because he never got used to everything. His mum kept coming back and leaving. This kind of persistent, repeated abandonment, of a child, without communication or even a pretense at being interested or loving, must have damaged JU a great deal. He hid it behind over-compensating in politeness. He made sure that others thought well of him, even as he could never obtain the only approval that really mattered to him, from his own mother.
I agree with @Welmaris (who made a comment about choice in the Ep 7 thread), that similar to YS, while JU was stuck in the situation as a child, he is not without the ability to change his circumstances with his mother, now that he is an adult. He does not need to keep making the same choices to ignore, hurt and punish her. The opportunity has arisen, now that she has asked to be filmed by him, for him to know the story from her point of view.
He needs to see that by continuing to hurt her, he is hurting himself the most. It’s a pity that it’s only in the face of death that a change becomes urgent and mending bridges is broached, but better late than never. He needs to get out of the rut, make the choice and add the missing piece in his ‘work of art’. I look forward to the finale, the episode of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Hey all 🙂
Thanks @Cleo for the explanation of the movie. So this is the turning point for them. In this episode we saw them applying their usual coping mechanism when things are not going their ways. I think, going with the tile, this time, probably is the last time for them. It’s time to change.
For Ung – it has always been OK to have people to “walk over” him, or just take life as people give him. Accepting passively. Didn’t go for what he really wanted.
For JiUng – it is OK to have his mum not showing him her love. He has stopped trying because it has been too disappointing.
For YS – choosing her family because she has to solve the problem. There was just her and no one else. Even though she rather be with Ung and which was very important for her. She didn’t get to do what she wanted in life.
Looking forward to ep 16 that they will have another go to live the life the way really want.
Ahh thanks @GB for the movie title!
You’re welcome @Viva! I’m so excited for tonight’s finale. Maybe I ought to take an early nap so that I can be up to catch the Episode with subs when it comes out an hour or so later!!! 😬 🤪
Did you all notice that Ung, with Yeon Su, drew the dog JJ at the beginning of the episode?
Hi @Wreckgirl,
Yes, they had a Jjongjjong drawing competition, and CU couldn’t stop laughing at YS’s drawing. I thought her drawing was pretty cute.
An indirect foreshadowing of the dog motif… at the playground with CU, NJ says that she likes CU, perhaps because he looked like her dog, Tofu. Then we know that CU took Jjongjjong as his role model LOL.
We also see that CU has that dogged faithfulness towards his friends. He is certain that he will never abandon them. Like a good guard dog, he’s awake at night and rests in the day. He even has the calm demeanor of the well trained pet, who patiently and happily stays home the whole day. LOL.
I don’t know that I have watched a kdrama that had such a well done ending. Everything wrapped up neatly but it never seemed rushed. Brilliant writers! Brilliant actors! Beautiful show! Perfect ending!
Loving the ending too!! I wished they could have shown more snippets of the 2nd documentary even though we saw the whole filming of it.
I have to say overall it was a slow drama but I have the mood of it, the dreamy feel of it and honestly towards the end did you realize a lot of it was winter? But I guess it reflected the summer that got them started was able to weather through all the winters of their life. They are such a cozy couple I so so love the last part when CU found the book he doodled in of her. A beautiful full circle. *screams internally* even though I know it would be a good ending.
So true @Good Twin and @grace, that’s what I call a finale that offers the greatest satisfaction.
I wrote somewhere that the sign of Choi Ung’s growth, would be the time that he’d draw a person. That drawing was of literally about the first time that he’d looked long and hard at YS, in the hall where she collected her award. And he remembered it enough to draw it. I don’t think he found the book with the drawing, @grace, because the books donated were all brand new. So he had supposedly drawn it right there and then as YS nagged him about their high school days, and he remembered the first time he’d seen her.
What was it that NJ was supposed to have done or said in her uncensored video? I have to re-watch that part.
I like the realistic way Show dealt with Ji Ung and his mum’s story. It felt real and right.
I like what you say @grace, about how our OTP was able to weather through the winters of their life, because they had their beloved summer.
And how great it is that they’re literally making or have just made the movie called ‘Our Beloved Summer,’ which will air on 27 Jan 2022. So it’s the other way around, at the end, they are basing the movie on the drama. What an interesting way to complete the loop of dramas and movies!!
Kalispera!
What a beautiful ending! I agree with everyone!
It gave me a warm feeling inside my heart. Everyone got mature the way they should and it ended in a full circle as @grace wrote above!
@Viva glad you liked it! 🙂
Tomorrow we get to see the full movie! Yeah!
@GB Unnie, I am glad everyone had their HEA…
This has become one of my favorite series. Don’t you love the fact that they didn’t mess with our minds during the last four episodes? Instead, any time something would come up, each would handle it using the maturity and insights they had developed over the course of the show. The writers need to be commended for respecting the story, respecting the cast and especially for respecting us.
The chemistry between our leads was extraordinary, CU and YS really were the lovers we knew they could be if they were able to get over their pasts.
This is one I will be watching multiple times in the future.
I’m happy to hear that the show concluded well and strong. What will the movie be about? Will it be a recap or a continuation?
Hi Everyone!
What an amazing wrap up. 😁
Didn’t you just love how so many things came full circle and everyone starts afresh, looking more alive and happy?
I noted that CU’s last sentence in his thoughts [[Everyone has unforgettable memories from a certain year of their life. They cherish those memories so much that it lasts a lifetime. And our year …hasn’t ended yet.]] This means that he considers their beloved summer is still continuing from that certain year, and will continue all of their lives. And it’s true, since we carry our unforgettable memories with us, both good and bad ones, but how we choose to live past them, is up to us. We can maybe make our winters into summers.
The wonderful detailed loop backs (not an exhaustive list so please add on!):
– Ji Ung who used to stand behind the camera alone, gets to be the main character in front of the camera, with his mother. He gets to make more cherished memories with mum, offsetting the years of abandonment.
– CU who refused to draw people because he didn’t want to draw things that changed, had finally drawn the one person who’d changed the most in his life, Yeon Su. He showed by the image he drew, that he’d an unforgettable memory of her, the first time he saw her. So it was CU who’d never changed how he loved her from Day 1.
– Such an intentional, thoughtful loop to the series title ‘Our Beloved Summer’ by having CU draw in the book, entitled, ‘I Love Early Summer’ by Lee Na Eun and to have a ‘real movie’ made called ‘Our Beloved Summer’ because of this drama. This is the best-test meta full circle ever! Since summer is our whole life, ‘Early Summer’ means that we are still in the beginning of our lives, each time we start afresh.
– Then of course the loop back to starting a 3rd documentary as a married couple. It was absolutely essential to give everyone closure after the first 2 documentaries LOL.
JU says : “Let’s shoot a documentary.”
YS : “What? What did you just say?”
JU : “You have to.” (He’s saying the same thing that he said before)
CU : “Are you crazy? Why would we?”
JU : “Your last documentary is trending again. Why did you have to get married? People want to watch your married life now.” (Their ordinary life is so enthralling.)
YS : “Are we not allowed to have any privacy?”
CU : “Hey, do you think we’re a pair of pushovers or something?” (Yes!)
Cut to them sitting close beside each other, bowing to the camera (Hah!) as they start the new documentary with confident smiles. (So different from the first time!!)
CU and YS : “Hello. I’m Choi Ung, I’m Kook Yeon Su. … (and they timed their announcement in union) …We’re married!”
(This is extra sweet because we may remember how they sniped at and contradicted each other as kids at every joint interview.)
@pkml3 It’s like the ‘When Harry Met Sally’ ending when both were on the couch for their interview. LOL. I’m super chuffed.
This series held out a sweet theme of being able to choose to change and of valuing our ordinary lives. The desire for an ordinary life was mentioned by NJ, by JU, by YS and CU. Their traumas left them insecure, messed up, stagnated, empty, unable to see their endless possibilities or what great people they were.
By series end, they each were able to confront what wounded them, and to choose their own path to resolution, self-actualisation and happiness. I love how they did this, not entirely alone, but with friends, family, or with each other, quietly beside them or cheering them on.
The best thing was that the path of happiness for each, still led to their ordinary lives. What a lovely message of hope and joy, because all of us viewers are also living our ordinary lives, and we too can make our paths to happiness or maybe we’re on those paths right now and this Show is a great reminder to be thankful for our lives.
Cheers and congratulations to Our Beloved Summer and all those who made this amazing Show and cheers to all of us with our unforgettable memories, in our ordinary lives!!
Hi @Cleo @Robert @Janey
Yes, I like how the Show makers didn’t go the usual route of frustrating the viewers, but chose the realistic movement of plot over unnecessary time-wasting tropes.
I was sooooo happy that we did have the 2+ years separation and time-jump without the silly sudden, silent disappearance, without the endless days of non-communication, only to suddenly reunite 2 years down the road. I always found that separation-time-jump cliche utterly ridiculous in our day and age with the Internet and easy flights across the world. CU’s returning to see YS, because he missed her, struck closer to home, because I know of people who do that, (pre-Covid times!) just to see a loved one for a day or two before flying off again.
There was no more time wasted in endless bickering or misunderstandings, standoffs and tantrums. It was such a relief!!!
Instead we get to see the much needed resolution for JU and his mum, and even for CU and his real dad. Unspoken throughout, they must have somehow made contact, and kept in touch at least from a distance, because ultimately they knew how to find each other. It’s lovely that even this is hinted at instead of being brushed aside for the main stories.
@Janey, we do not know what the Movie will be, but I believe it might be a culling together of the documentary bits and hopefully hints as to the future of our leads and side characters, or a summary form of the show with background stories that were not included in the series. I really hope the news on the Movie is true. 🙂
Kalimera !
@GB Unnie Unnie, I think we felt happy like this after DAYS concluded, no?
I am glad we had no drama at all. We get to see that Life indeed takes care of people’s lives.
Yeon Su finally realized by herself that she was the one who was miserable, but she had no point in doing so. She had a bestie that was always there for her, her Halmeoni and she managed a lot by her own.
I totally get her though. There are times that when you are repeatedly do something leaves you unsated. Like something is missing in your everyday life. Like you are fed up.
At those times, you cannot see that you have succeeded in so many areas, mostly because some are not tangible. It is not a big house or clothes or jewels that count. It is more who you have around you, what knowledge and experience you’ve got.
As for Ung. I was elated that he took the blows both the critic and Nu-a gave him and decided to take his life into his hands. I am glad he talked with his mother and he find peace that she knew, he knew…
He also reached to his father and as @GB Unnie wrote above, he came at peace with him and the past. It is not easy to forgive, but once you do a burden that chokes and puts you down is lifted from your shoulders.
Poetically I could say that Choi Ung managed to open his broken and unused wings and fly.
As for Ji Ung. I am glad he decided to make bridges with his mother. I am glad he found the courage to contradict her and tell her what HE wanted. I am also happy for Chae Ran who found courage after 3 to 4 years to tell her she likes him.
We didn’t see much about NJ. I am glad she decided to have an ordinary life.
The theme of the last two episodes was ” to live in the fullest an ordinary life.”
But what is an ordinary life?
Is it plain? Not necessarily.
Is it dull? Not necessarily.
It is THE LIFE, we are all living, while trying to do our best with all the gifts that we have. Sometimes it is burdensome, othertimes it is elavating, but most importantly it is ours and ours alone.
If we are lucky enough to have found someone else to walk this life with us, then we can be more at peace. If not, we should try to make the most of it. We need to find our Happiness and InnerBalance first, in order to live better and fullest.
That was “Our Beloved Summer” for me.
P.S. Age is insignificant. It doesn’t matter if you are in your late 30s, early or late 40s. You can also be in your 60s. As long as you want to live in the fullest, no one should stop you. 🙂
P.S.2 Ella made another fan made video for Our Beloved Summer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNIUUe6jyp0&lc=z22agd5xqljmdpal5acdp431dae0bugy2tfsw4yvcntw03c010c
Enjoy!
Thanks for the link @Cleo. I enjoyed that video.
@Cleo, you reminded me of DAYS and I went back to check what our reactions were. I feel that OBS has even exceeded the satisfaction level for me, because there was nothing that irritated us by leaving us hanging in OBS.
In DAYS we were wondering about the significance of the signs in the sky, the cryptic words of the girl deity and the open ending. In OBS we have realistic closure. In DAYS we felt that there were insufficient kisses LOL. That is something we cannot complain of in OBS. I’ve lost count of the number of kisses that YS and CU gave each other. In DAYS, the role of the girl deity was sometimes too obscure and not everything was cleared up by the end, but in OBS everyone had a role that made sense.
Maybe the only thing that was not clearly told to us, was who it was who called CU, that night YS was drunk after the live drawing. I still think it was JU. Maybe the OBS Movie will enlighten us.
Anyway, the other reason why I feel OBS trumps DAYS in it’s feelgood end, is that Ep 16 got me in the heart over and over. I cried at every one-on-one conversation with the main leads. And in the convos between Ji Ung and PD Park, Ji Ung and his mum, CU and his Mum, YS and Grandma. I was a totally, happy, sobbing mess and smiling like an idiot to boot. LOL. That’s more than I felt during DAYS.
Separate thought : One of the inside jokes, I feel, is how Show sometimes makes CU out to be a faithful ‘dog’. He waits outside YS’s home, he comes to YS, he follows her around, he even carried a paper bag of food in his mouth. I mentioned elsewhere about how he reminds NJ of Tofu (her dog, actually I can imagine him caricatured as a doggy) and how he looked up to Jjongjjong as his role model. And then in this episode, we suddenly find out that Jang disabuses YS of his image as a sociopath, because he leaves to walk his dog. We may recall the scene of YS doing her morning run and trying to get CU to keep up. LOL. YS too was thought to be a sociopath at one time, so with CU beside her, she loses that image. 🙂
I really like the ending! I particular like YS’s decision. It is very relatable to me. Very often we don’t have that many choices in life. As a result we live a life based on the options we have. We somehow felt they are not our first choices. We may feel like we have to live so we go along with it. We thought we are trapped. Seeing YS makes me think it is not as bad as we first thought.
In the limited choices we have in life, what we have chosen is indeed our first choice. If we throw away the “ifs” and make the best out of it, it is not that bad after all.
I had teary eyes a few times:
What JS’s boss to JS over the beer is very touching.
What YS said to granny about the decision
Other thoughts:
NJ said She must love you very much because she chose your life over hers. I immediately thought of DI from TRS! Lol.
JS’s mother is harder for me to understand but I will accept the explanation. I like that they didn’t force JS and his junior together. The drama left it a 2 years gap, it is certainly very realistic and in a good space given JS’s face is quite happy and relaxed after hearing her confession.
Indeed, this first love story is beautifully told. To me, it is about:
1. Not making a choice when available and should make a better choice
2. Not having the first choices available but we have indeed made the first choice. We of course would have “What ifs” in our mind. However even with the options right in front of us again, we probably would make the same choice again.
Maybe I am a sucker for sad endings so it doesn’t give me the same emotional impact of the TRS and Sisyphus endings. However, this have a special place in a new category in my heart. It is such a beautiful, fitting, and comfortable ending. I would look back at this drama fondly and happily listening to its beautiful OST. Knowing such a good ending, I am not afraid of re watching this again in the future.
@GB lol the dog image is so spot on! Somehow reminds me of a couple in Singles Inferno where the guy says that he is Ji-A’s puppy 😛 Loyalty is what we see here. And I love that about CU.
What I love about this drama:
– We are presented with all the problems these characters have, they are complex, deep and painful. It concludes with a resolution that came out of struggles, talking with others, finding inspiration and comfort in others (especially for NJ), and then taking the step of courage to change oneself and finally enjoying the fruits of that change.
– The beautiful illustrations
– The full circles @GB has mentioned; and the full circle I love most: CU saying “I love you” finally. Remember we mentioned somewhere that he will hopefully finally say “I like you” he did better with that all sincere “I love you” the words YS really wanted to hear from him.
– It is a drama of memories and reflections. I think that translates to that dreamy feel of the drama.
– I loved all that sweet interactions of the couple, like all those hugs, sincere heartfelt conversations.
– So many kisses! (But compared to You Are My Glory, OBS kisses are a lot more tame, heartfelt and cozy)
Thanks @cleopatra for highlighting the theme of the last two episodes about living to the fullest in an ordinary life. A wonderful reflection for our own life.
I’m listening to the OSTs and enjoying the soothing tunes.
Hi 5 @Cleo, @grace and @Viva, same for me!
@Cleo, @Viva – Getting away from the ‘ifs’ and accepting our limited choices in our ordinary reality is definitely what makes us happier ultimately. Since we can afford to chat about our fave dramas here, we are in pretty good company and our lives are not that bad. 🙂 There’s so much to be grateful for.
Yeah @grace, I too liked that there was a learning curve. It was pretty steep and rocky, but when our leads could tell each other that they were in pain, and accept that from each other, all the character development, all the joy they had and the kisses, felt so earned. I really liked that CU told YS to tell him when she suffered, and she really did, and although he, himself was reeling from harsh criticism, he comforted her, and comforted even Ji Ung.
I liked it so much that YS was able to be vulnerable with CU at last. No longer was she saying that she was fine and that nothing was wrong. It was such a big change in her, that I was so pleased!
I laughed that in the end, CU accepted the endless ‘what if’ scenarios that YS spouted. That was a true sign of his growth. Not only did he not get fed up with her or leave her hanging, he found good responses that counteracted her insecurities. He no longer saw those questions as a troublesome waste of time, but as a means to shower attention upon her and to address YS’s concerns.
The most grand, romantic gesture, was of course CU flying back to SKorea, just to tell YS face-to-face that he loves her. He’d actually been showing that in his choices and actions, but he had never felt the need to say it. Maybe the ‘what if’ questions had really worked on him after all, so he came back to end her doubts by telling her he loved her in person.
I count it as a great blessing that we’ve watched such a well made Show, and best of all, that we enjoyed it together. 🙂
A bit busy with life and work but just wanted to chime in and say the ending of “Our Beloved Summer” is just beautiful, the show stayed true to its theme until the end. Thank you @GB and everyone for all the insights you’ve shared. I have appreciated this show more because of all these insights.
I will eagerly await for @packmule3’s take on each episode and re-watch the episodes as they come.
You’re very welcome @LaurazZZz, as always I’m glad my thoughts contributed anything at all, to your viewing pleasure.
Re-watching with @pkml3’s comments sounds like a plan!!
I’ve checked and YES!! It looks like the Our Beloved Summer movie is about to air soon. It’s going to be another great movie night, tonight!
:O movie!!! It is raw now so I’m hoping it will be subbed! Looking forward to watch it!!
Hello Everyone!!
I’m so happy with Our Beloved Summer..
Yes just like @Robert and @GB said..
It is so refreshing that the writer didn’t take the usual path of Kdrama (which was usually suck in the middle of episode 12 to 15/16)
I agree with all of you about what we see in this drama. Such a mood booster for new year right? It gives us this energy to give our best to face this year’s challenge, somehow.
If I may add my highlight for this drama:
1) The story is simple and relatable to our ordinary life. The conflict seems so simple (about misunderstanding and communication problem) however, the show gives us the perspective where I could somehow put myself inside their shoes and I understand how painful it is for everyone of the main casts.
2) I like YS’s final lesson that she mastered. That all this time, she thought she was all alone. But that wasn’t true. That was what I thought before. But the cinematography and the scene where YS told this to her sleeping Halmeoni were so beautiful. It touched my heart as well.
3) I think I shed a tear when CU told his mother about his fears. I always like his mother personality from the start.
4) yes about YS finally being vulnerable towards CU. That was pretty scene too for me.
5) I was wondering who was the one that CU waiting for in his exhibition. He kept calling someone but we didn’t know who is it. And suddenly someone called him and he was there with JU. I somehow glad that JU could tell CU about his mother. Something that he’s been building inside his mind finally came out. It’s just what I am curious… did CU know about JU true feeling to YS or he didn’t have any idea at all.. 😅😅
6) The way how Chaeran told JU that she likes him. I don’t know why but it was so smooth for me.. hahaa.. I really hope that the Movie will give us more scene of them both…
7) After all, I am started to give Kim Da Mi and Choi Woo Shik a special place in my kdrama land .. hahaha.. I wish to watch their projects more in the future. And because of many many romantic scenes between this cute couple, I secretly wish could watch their variety show/promo more .. maybe for The Movie?
Thank you everyone for watching this drama and sharing your thoughts.. it really means to me.. 🌷🌷
See you on packmule’s OBS thread !!
Hi @moonstar512, just to let you know …the movie did not address anything other than the main OTP’s arc, but it was cute. It was the series edited to fit over an hour, in documentary-interview style (not subbed yet) with voiceovers.
I did find on YT a couple of the interview portions English subbed. The interviews are sweet. The characters talk about each other, and their relationship and sound like there’s role reversal going on. We even get an update from JU about himself. I hope the whole movie and all the voiceovers get subbed.
Hi Everyone, as hoped, here’s the linke to the movie with English soft subs *WARNING SPOILERS*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIatixj0tvY
Enjoy!
As it seems the movie is not yet subbed… 🙁