Edited to add this: Premiere is on Saturday, Feb 12. It’s on Netflix.
The thread is now open for spoilers, first impressions, and analyses.
It’s not open for oppa-worship, though.
I like Nam Joo Hyuk just fine but there’s no need to bore each other by extolling his visuals, height, hands, abs, and “chemistry” (oof! that dreadful word) with Kim TaeRi.
Let’s focus on his acting, and the plot.
source: kdramylove2000’s tumblr
Let’s enjoy the show.
Kalimera @Packmule3,
I do hope you are okay! Thank you for the thread.
I want to watch this and see how it will go!
P.S. See? I didn’t say anything about the Tall Boy! *grins*
😂😂 Cleopatra, I know the oldtimers know what to do. It’s the newcomers who’ll be the death of me one day. 🤪
I’m doing fine, thank you. But all work and no play does make Jack and Jill a dull child.
I hope this drama will be a suitable watch for the Valentine’s weekend.
@Packmule3,
You are right. Since it is your Queendom, we should follow the rules.
Also, I like NJH as an actor. I cannot even call him anything else than “Tall Boy”. I have enjoyed watching him in “The Bride of Habaek”, “Start Up” and “Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bong Soo”. I want to see how he will act after “Start Up”.
I totally get you though. There are times that life is hectic and you don’t have time to relax or even do what you really like / love.
True, I do hope that too! Have a nice day ahead!
Sending some cookies on your way!
Yes, I want to see how NJH will top “Start Up.” Kim TaeRi has a different set of acting skills from Suzy so it should be interesting to watch them play off each other. KTR has a dominant onscreen presence despite her diminutive size. 🙂
Is she supposed to be a fencer in this drama? That’s one thing I like about these kdramas. I get to see women portrayed in sports other than gymnastics and volleyball. 😂
@Packmule3,
I have heard that KTR was pretty good in “Mr. Sunshine”.
I haven’t watched it yet, but everyone who has, told me to go for it.
Yes. From what I have read she is in a fencing team. The story will be in 1997 with the economic crisis and then in 2000. This is something that I like as well. We get to see them to do something else than the ordinary sports!
Hi everyone,
I hope you’re doing well. It’s been so long. I haven’t finished many kdrama since Startup, to be exact, I only finished two; D.P. and The Red Sleeve, and both on binge-watch, but I will be watching Twenty Five Twenty One in real time and pop-in here for discussions.
Thanks for the thread @PM3 and the reminder. wink-wink!
Hello @Cleo and President @Ella! Hope you are all doing well.
Start Up seems like a long time ago… but lots of great writing and analysis by BoD that I still read and go back to from time to time. I hope 25/21 will yield the same. What I’d like to see is how NJH will portray this role and differentiate it with his Dosan character – can i gush on a character? Hahaha! We actually did that and nominated him for ideal BF!
For KTR, love her in Mr Sunshine as Lady Aesin. The roles she choose are usually of strong character, survivor and kick-butt. I already see her doing the fencer stance in some promo videos. It must be fun for her portraying a sniper/shooter and now a fencer and Learn something new with each role.
@packmule3 I agree about KTR. First encountered her in Little Forest (movie). Then in Mr Sunshine (where she held her own against old man Lee ByungHyun (20years her senior 🙄) or at least what little I saw of it. Then of course in Space Sweepers. She has a certain grittiness about her that I like. Quiet fortitude is what I put it down to. Like Han YeRi in Minari. And Shin HyeSun. They can stand stock still and you can feel their mental strength and confidence exuding from their bodies.
And Kim Tae Ri comes across as low maintenance, @nrllee. Shin HyeSun is a great actress but she strikes me as high maintenance. 🙂
Hi @Ella! Glad to know you’re joining us for this show. 🙂 It should be fun.
Yeay thank you queen Packmule for creating this thread.. 🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷
this drama is what I’ve been waiting for since I watched Kim Tae Ri in Mr Sunshine..
and of course I want to see how NJH’s acting grow after his performance in Start Up.
In the press conference, the director even said that the names of NJH and KTR are the strong points of their work. He said that they both had sensibility and readiness. I imagine that they work together as a team, and all of them could influence each other to inspire them to perform well.
I hope we can enjoy this drama well, sharing our thoughts and hopes just like usual.
P.S: have you seen their website for this drama promotion? I like them.. i think they have a great creative team for this project..
https://vr.miceview.kr/ZR070/landing.html
(it’s in korean language tho 😅😅 it’ll be helpful if the browser could automatically translate them to english)
@packmule3 haven’t watched much of Shin HyeSun. I get put off watching anything with her in it because of her fans. But the little that I did watch of her (eg in Stranger), she impressed me. But yes to KTR not being precious. She needed to be to film Little Forest where she got stuck into it Living the rural life.
Thanks @pkml3. And thanks for that link @moonstar 512.
That was a fun interactive experience on set, and in getting the trailer and info on the characters. It took me a while to bring my circular cursor over the circles and then to notice that parts of the set got highlighted. Yes, pity it was all unsubbed.
@packmule
Kim Tae-ri is indeed low maintenance. I read an interview where Joo-hyuk said they were invited to meet the writer, and Tae-ri came riding a bike on casual clothes.
Hi Janey 😉 I’m well. I hope you’re doing well, too.
I really like the director. I checked, and he did TKEM and Mr. Sunshine previously.
I watched Episode 1. I’m soooo amused that Kim Tae Ri (she’s 31-32 years old!!!) really looks like an 18 year old high-schooler while Nam Joo Hyuk as Baek Yi Jin, who is supposed to be 4 years older, is actually 4 years younger in real life LOL.
KTR’s Na Hee Do is such a bundle of energy, I’m a little exhausted after watching her, but boy did she engage my attention from the get-go. A good, plausible start to their getting to know each other.
Extra interest is added by the fact that we see a glimpse of present day Hee Do, and know that we should come full circle to seeing how she has turned out, after that vigorous youth of hers.
Thank you for the thread, @packmule3.
I was amused that Hee Do looked like such a klutz when she runs, but it all changes when she has sword (or umbrella) in hand.
There is a stolid feeling about NJH’s character in the first episode. I don’t feel that he is deeply depressed so much as stymied and enduring without a goal. I like the contrast between their characters which he remarks on at the end of episode 1.
@GB 😂. I love KTR. She’s a pocket rocket isn’t she? She is luminous on screen. You can’t take your eyes off her. NJH is the paper boy. Ahh…I am waxing nostalgic now with all the references to things I remember growing up. When the paper was delivered at the crack of dawn and I run out to collect it in the morning. I laughed out loud after she had that argument with her mom and as walked out the front door, the camera panned in on the Angel pissing of fountain (like a metaphor about how it was piss poor parenting by her mom) and then the paper tossed straight at the the spout of the cherub, stopping the waterworks 🤣 and soaked into the pond. KTR’s aghast expression…and her “Yah!” And proceeded to accuse NJH for ignoring the “no newspapers” sign on the gate and for making the peeing fountain boy a eunuch because he can’t pee anymore. Then they have a conversation about whether a fake statue has the right to complain if it can’t pee anymore. Then she admits to him that she just needed someone to vent all her pent up anger at and stalks off. She’s a breath of fresh air. I can’t help but notice all the red accents in this scene. The red flowers on the arbor, the red mailbox, HeeDo’s red fencing bag.
Ordinarily I would be cringing at the voiceovers and the over the top scenarios as she tries to hatch a plan to get herself transferred to the school which still has a Fencing Club running, but she makes it believable. Both she and KGE have this ability to make cheesy palatable to the audience. When she expressed her disbelief as NJH revealed his age to her, I couldn’t stop laughing. Actually I like this pairing. His acting has improved. He’s a lot more confident. So he’s holding his own. So far so good.
Oh my @nrllee, you and me both! I was laughing so much at the same scenes.
I actually enjoyed the gang fight… something I usually FFD cos I hate violence and I could save some valuable seconds. It was hilarious, the way the girls were going at it and then Hee Do comes up fencing with that umbrella and scaring the guy silly.
Usually I also roll my eyes at the number of coincidences that crop up to get the plot set up, but this time, seeing NJH’s character, Yi Jin, in so many places that Hee Do goes to, just seemed normal.
I like that NJH, has indeed grown as an actor. He has a bit more gravitas, despite knowing that he’s playing opposite someone older than him. I only watched Kim Tae Ri in Space Sweepers and notice that she’s got more movie experience rather than experience in dramas, but she does have a bunch of awards under her belt. I just can’t believe she could be anywhere near 30 years old!!!
This looks like a fun watch and an interesting romance. The question that is raised, of course, is… who’s the dad of Hee Do’s daughter in the present time? LOL.
@GB, I don’t know about the father. Min-chae’s family name is Kim. The only person named in the cast so far as Kim is the fencing coach at the new school. The one who was a former friend of Hee Do’s mother.
The fight scene was very funny and finally frustrating for Hee Do. Her tactics were off. As she said, she didn’t act guilty enough by NOT running from the police. All of her tactics for getting into the new school didn’t work except for speaking plainly to her mother and begging the coach. Interesting that the mother didn’t attend her own husband’s wake/funeral but Coach Kim did. Hmmm.
Coach Kim comes off as kind of blokey and not really wanting to be receptive or empathetic to Hee Do at first. Then she tested her in such a variety of ways – it would have been called mental bullying around here – but Hee Do continues to press for her dream. It does highlight a big difference between Hee Do’s attitude and her daughter’s later, who is willing to cut her losses if she doesn’t win. (Both as a mother and knowing the expense of dancing clothes, I was shocked to see Min-chae stuff them into a public bin.)
Hi there @Fern, you got me looking for people with Kim as their surname, but I saw no one, not even the character playing the coach: her name is Yang Chan Mi (however her real name is Kim Hae Eun), according to Asianwiki. She was really something, actually taking the shoes from a school kid over a game of chance! Not quite the mentor I’d recommend.
Show seems to have set up for us to compare the different mother-daughter relationships over the generations. Grandma Shin Jae Kyung is still living in the same house, and seems to be on better terms with her grand daughter than with her own daughter. I guess that’s quite usual, actually. One is generally harsher with one’s own kids than with the grand kids.
Yes, the non attendance of Mum Shin at her husbands funeral was most unusual. We wait to find out more.
The comment by Hee Do’s daughter about how it’s not accepted by parents for their children to not have a dream points to the source of tension in this Show. The dream of youth that gets fulfilled or not.
Our modern day, young, entitled brats don’t bother to have a dream (yes I was aghast at the sheer waste of throwing away the ballet costume and shoes) and if well off enough, expect to get away with it.
By contrast, we see Hee Do going all out for her dream, and we know that she won many medals in her fencing career. She’s even still recognised by the lady who let the ballet dance contestants into the building, which means she must have been famous.
Yi Jin says he lost his dream, money and family in one fell swoop. Watching him pick himself up, find his dream, and succeed will be another nice arc to watch, aside from the romance. Of course since Yi Jin’s surname is Baek, it seems that he’s not the one who married Hee Do or fathered Min Chae, but we never know!
@Growing Beautifully, I read the coach’s name backwards, thinking her real name was her character name. 🤦♀️ I got all excited over NOTHING. Apologies to anyone I’ve misled.
I’ve just watched the 2nd episode and am really enjoying it.
Well HeeDo was there to watch her daughter dance. She accused her own mother of never being there for her because she never attended any of her fencing matches. Nor was she there to comfort her in the aftermath of a loss. Her mom tore the page of the comic (Full House) with the characters kissing? And HeeDo drew a replica of the page and stuck it back on? 😂. YJ also told her the fountain was fake and the real one was in Brussels. And she tried to “fake” her identity going into the nightclub to get herself arrested. I liked how YJ told her to take her time growing up and warned her that adults and kids “wrong doings” have different definitions. He saved her in that situation. And they had a heart to heart. Yes to the identity of MJ’s father being a big question mark. Maybe HD’s online chat partner? 🤔. I think her username in the chat was Ryder? The same name of her favourite character in the comic?
Ep1 Thoughts
– her chat room partner was InJeolMi and HD’s username was Ryder37 (her favourite character in the Full House comic). Maybe this person will be the father of HD’s ballet daughter. It did occur to me that InJeolMi could be YJ in disguise as well?
– HD’s mom ripped out the page in the comic where the characters kissed? Her mom ripping up the page is ominous and could be a foreshadowing that she will be the one to come between them?
– HD was trying to “right the wrongs of her past”? She was there to watch her daughter dance (with COVID rules!) where her mom failed to attend any of her fencing competitions. Although given how her mom arranged to meet the coach and get her transferred anyway (behind her back), I get the feeling she may have been wrongly accused by HD in this respect?
– her mom was NOT at her dad’s funeral and the lady coach was. I wonder what the story was there?
– not entirely sure I approve of the lady coach’s methods in testing HD. The second test where she took her shoes seemed petty. Given the flashback later which revealed to us that she was already going to do it when HD’s mom swung by to talk to her. Could there be some unresolved hurts/bitterness there? And lady coach took it out on the offspring? Punishing the child for the sins of the father(mother)? 😑
– HD and YJ’s meetings involved “fakes”. The fake fountain of the Angel peeing. The fake identity in the night club to try to get herself arrested. The fake page of the comic. Could this be hinting that InJeolMi (chat room partner) is also YJ? 🤔
O btw, InJeolMi (username for HD’s chat room friend) is a type of Rice Cake
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injeolmi
And this
https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/injeolmi
“Injeolmi is rice cake made with sweet rice (glutinous rice). It’s one of the most popular and common Korean rice cakes and it’s made on special occasions and Festival days. The rice cake is chewy and sticky, so traditionally it was given to newly wedded couples to wish that they get along and ‘stick together’ forever. The bride’s mother also makes this rice cake for the groom’s family in the hopes that her daughter will get along with the groom’s family.
When the newly wedded couple share the rice cake, they say, “let’s stick to each other forever, just like this injeolmi””
I think that the director was trying to lead us into thinking that Injeolmi is YJ in the 2nd episode. Don’t read further if you don’t want any spoilers.
HD and YJ both seem to shut down their computers at the same time after the conversation where they decide to meet. I’ll have to re-watch to see the conversation topics to see if it’s likely. I hope it’s someone we’ve met already and not a weirdo.
There are some assumptions that characters have made about each other: Min-chae thinks that the ‘kid’ her mother went to watch was her boyfriend. Yoo Rim assumed that HD is lacking in ability. HD assumed that she could make friends with Yoo Rim.
@nrllee, I agree about the coach seeming petty, but she grows on me in the 2nd episode. I imagine that she wouldn’t have taken the shoes if she thought that HD really needed them but knowing her mother is a newsreader and has an income, she may have thought she could do it – for a while at least. Rather dodgy, right? Without being outright evil. The relationships between the grown women made me wonder if they had a falling out over a man and how close their relationship was. The mother Shin seems very cold in person although she has a public persona that is very different. I wouldn’t be surprised if HD comes to look to the coach for the sort of support her mother can’t or won’t give her daughter.
Episode 2 was delightful. I’m still breathless after watching the energetic Hee Do.
Although Yi Jin says that Hee Do reminds him of himself, he somehow does not strike me as being all that reckless and playful, even in the times before the IMF crisis. I wonder if he really allowed himself to go a bit crazy, the way HD does.
LOL those old style chat rooms. It would be cute if the ones chatting really were HD and YJ, but show is not giving us clear evidence for this. At the end of the chat, we never got to see what HD’s response was. Did she say that she’d agree to meet up? The response was hidden from us viewers.
We next see YJ dressed for his job interview while HD desperately needs to use the math academy’s toilet LOL. So we are left in the dark. I’m guessing that she never went there for maths, only to use the toilet!!
The theme of truncation of youthful dreams continues. There’s also the theme of how our past may affect our present, but the future is yet to be decided.
We see that in HD’s childhood, she already inspired some kind of fear in Yoo Rim. She seems to be someone lacking in confidence when challenged. This manifests in the form of dislike and avoidance on the part of YR. We see that HD’s dream at least did come true, since she won medals in fencing. HD seems to depend only on being an athlete to get through school, hardly attending classes or studying. She would probably have done well in both academics as well as sports if she’d put in effort.
Yi Jin is old friends with Yoo Rim. His family sponsored her until the financial crisis. He was smart, having got into Engineering in college, before being forced to drop out. He was able to solve the maths puzzle in his head and give HD the answer for the lock combination. He turned out responsible and pretty mature, looking for work to support his younger brother in 1998. So far, in the present, we do not see any news of YJ at all.
@Fern, one more assumption made but which was deliberately not corrected, was that HD’s mother had donated her wedding rings. It’s strange that Mum Shin should allow HD to continually have misconceptions about her attachments to her husband and to HD herself. She allowed HD to resent her, instead of letting it be known that she did bother about HD’s school transfer and that she couldn’t give away those rings. I guess a reconciliation will be in the offing between this mother-daughter.
So far the assumptions made by the characters have been wrong.
@nrlle thanks for the info on injeolmi. It reminds me of our local versions of sweet cakes, some smothered in flour of some kind or other as well. Did someone in this show already mention liking sticky rice cake? If not, we need to keep our eyes and ears peeled to know who likes it a lot, as a clue to who Injeolmi is. 🙂
@GB yup still loving it in Ep2. So much to unpack. Characters are authentic and directing has been stellar. I love how seamlessly they flit between the past and present. So far they have started in the present and then moved to the past.
Other things I noted. Similarities between the circumstances in the past and present. HeeDo lived in the shadow of her very successful news anchor mother. Everyone was pandering to her at the new school. HD’s daughter experiences the same. The lady at the ballet competition recognized her immediately and all the attention stayed with her, not her daughter MJ. Living in the shadow of a successful mother (even if she didn’t really push you much) can’t be easy.
Yes I did wonder about why HD’s mother would choose to keep the sale of the wedding rings from her all these years. Was it a case of self loathing/punishment for what happened in the past with her dad? A case of “well she (HD) hates me anyway, (and I also feel guilty and hate myself) so I might as well perpetuate that myth and let her keep hating me because I don’t deserve her love.” A case of “we accept the love we think we deserve (quote from Perks of being a wallflower).
Mature HD had a workshop of sorts? I couldn’t work out what it was she was busy doing. There were a lot of clamps and vices. Woodworking? She was never academic.
Maybe mature YJ finally did make his dream of joining NASA a reality? Hence his absence in the present?
Gotta hand it to KTR, all the cringey scenes eg the bubblers and fountains (another fountain – and the Angel fountain is no longer there in the present) and finding joy in that alone? She makes the scene. I didn’t cringe at all. I smiled. Her delight is palpable. No wonder YJ falls in love with her. Her joy for living is infectious. NJH is doing a great job here too as YJ. I can finally say he’s come of age and his acting has come a long way. I like how Ep2 ended with them at the mouth of a tunnel. It’s like they’ve emerged from one side (sadness and reality in his life at the moment) and come out the other side (happiness in the moment. A shared secret. Finding joy in the company of an understanding friend who is there to lift you out of your doldrums).
Slushy Date
HD overhears Yi Jin promising 2 creditors that he’d never be happy again, in compensation for the misery they suffered because of his father’s failed business. Yi Jin decides that HD can pay him back the 3,000 won by buying them an orange slushy each. Instead of getting back the remaining 2,000 won in money, he tells HD to just buy him another slushy next time. This is an unexpected slushy date, between almost friends. I like that after the great joke in Episode 1, where HD went all formal with lots of ‘yos’ to the 22-year old adult YJ, they’ve somehow both decided to drop the formalities and are perfectly casual with each other.
She asked what the 4 th word would be My dream is…
She wants to be Yu Rim’s rival.
He had a dream to be an astronaut, to work for NASA.
He’s surprised that he was popular.
HD tells YJ that he was popular in school and that he sounded different in the old radio show.
HD : “Did I speak too recklessly?”
YJ : “I like the fact that you’re reckless. Looking at you reminds me of myself at 18.”
HD : “So you want to turn back time?”
YJ : “Desperately.”
HD : “What do you miss the most?”
YJ : “You know, I miss the things I used to worry about. It was about having too much homework, scary seniors at the broadcasting club, in case I make a mistake on stage during the festival, or what if the girl I liked didn’t like me back. Worries like that.” (He is charmingly forthcoming with her.)
She thinks of some place they can go to be reckless and have fun.
HD : “Come with me for a while.”
YJ : “But it’s getting late.” (The adult in YJ speaks.)
HD : “Hurry up. You said you liked me for being reckless.”
They end up at her old school to turn on the taps to make fountains. She considers making one fountain something exciting and uplifting. Watching the fountain makes her happy.
He decides that just one tap is not enough to make him happy. (Are we seeing the recklessness of YJ here?)
He turns all the taps upside down, to turn all the water faucets into fountains.
HD becomes super excited : “Way to go grown-up!”…LOL “You’ve taken this to a whole new level.”
YJ : “Now I’m a bit excited.”
HD : “Only a bit? This is way more than that!” She jumps up and down: “I’m elated!”
He looks at her and decides to push her into the water sprays. They have a rare old water fight until the security guard comes.
She wants to turn off all the taps while apologising.
YJ : “Stop apologising, we’ve got to run.” LOL. He grabs her wrist to pull her along in a run through the tunnel.
LOL from a Slushy Date it turned into a sloshy date!
The Choice – He lets go of her in the tunnel, thinking to stop running, but she grabs his wrist this time and gets them running out of the tunnel until they practically collapse on the path.
YJ : “Why did you keep running when we could have stopped? Look at us. We are both soaked and panting.” (HD brought them out of the tunnel, a metaphor for the past they had emerged from, and left behind. They stood between the tunnel and a path that led to endless possibilities.)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dnicBKCLXix4dZu8oGfWNn3Z_fRIKAWE/view?usp=sharing
HD : “Still it was fun. Let’s do fun things together from time to time.”
YJ : “What if I don’t want to?”
HD : “Still, you have to. You have no choice.” (She made the choice for him.)
YJ : “Why?”
HD : “Remember what you said to those men earlier today? You said you’ll never be happy again. I’m against that. The times took everything from you. You can’t give up on happiness. But you already gave your word to them. How about this? From now on, when you hang out with me, you can be happy and keep it a secret.”
He starts to give it some thought.
HD : “When it’s just the two of us, let’s be happy when we’re together, albeit temporarily. So this can be our little secret.”
He looks at her smiling face and obviously finds it an attractive prospect. A slow smile appears on his face. (We take that as his ‘yes’. He made the choice to be happy with her.)
The camera switches from the shots of the path to one side of YJ and HD to the perspective where the tunnel stretches on the other side of them. They stand in the middle with choices before them… to be governed by the unfortunate past, or to be happy.
HD’s voiceover : “Whether it was from running or because I was excited, I was out of breath. The green leaves rustled from the blowing wind. It was the peak of summer.” We see these words appear vertically against the tunnel backdrop, above the couple, as they look tiny amid the sound of crickets. (Crickets as a sign of summer and of good luck perhaps?)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mjmQmQm7yfFhRIrK0pczyUxHDDowto0M/view?usp=sharing
Hee Do is the one who initiates, who offers the choices. Just as in the way she was determined to change her situation by engineering a way to transfer schools, she engineered a way for Yi Jin to not lose his happiness.
Heh @nrllee! We both noticed the significance of the tunnel. LOL Gotta run, will be back later. 🙂
Kalimera Ladies,
I have watched both the episodes and I liked it mostly for Back Yi Jin.
In the beginning Na Hee Do was too loud for my liking, but it subsided as the story was moving on.
Ko Yu Rim has her own issues regarding Hee Do and being mean is her defensive mode which makes her a bully.
I think that Hee Doo is actually chatting with BYJ. We saw a scene where YJ closed his computer and opened that closet to pick up his good suit for that interview.
I really like Nam Joo Hyuk so far. He is more mature in this one!
I have to read you for now!
Na Hee Do’s character is so ebullient, loud, high spirited and also very childish. It was a bit exhausting to watch it but I think KTR pulled off the childish antics. She never does things half way, she is all in and sometimes recklessly so. I did not imagine her to be this hilarious. Her attempts to get expelled from school by joining a girl gang fight was epic fail. But her umbrella wielding fight scene was very memorable!
Baek Yi Jin is quite mature for his age. He provides good grounding for NHD but also learns from her. I like the way their friendship is developing. It feels natural and organic.
There were several mention of “the times” which reminded me of Charles Dickens quote “ It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” We’ve seen ups and downs on the personal Lives of the 2 leads, I’m rooting for them to be able to claim their dreams back.
We see the present time where NHD’s daughter gave up on her ballet competition because she felt she will not win. Pressures from having a famous athlete for a mom, I would think. The mother-daughter relationship is not so different with the past though. Daughter is the gateway to the memories of 1998 as she reads her mom’s diary. I like this approach to the story telling and the flow from those throwback memories are seamless.
Quite controversial that NHD’s daughter’s name is different hinting that the leads do not end up with each other? Hmm, interesting…
I’ve been thinking that maybe just maybe Baek Yi Jin might have changed his name because of his father bankruptcy?
We will find out…
Kalimera my agapimeni @Janey!
Good to be online with you! Are you okay? That was a good quote to bring up.
I have been thinking that after IMF entered Greece 12 years ago. We lost a lot. I can say that we are a generation that saw their dreams shuttered. Many of us left the country, but those who didn’t are fighting to make their lives worth living for…
Hi @Cleo, I’m watching Kim Tae Ri and can’t believe she’s the same ‘captain’ in Space Sweepers. I also can’t believe she’s 31-32 years old in this show.
Yes, it’s good to see Nam Joo Hyuk has improved so much and its so comfortable watching him. I’m thinking that YJ will remain very stoic and adult-like most of the time, but he’ll let down his guard and be a kid again when alone with Hee Do.
I’m sure the relationship between the 2 girls is going to be even more complicated because he will be close to both of them, but Yoo Rim unnecessarily chooses to be defensive with HD, when both of them could have benefited from being friends.
@nrllee
Yes, adult HD seems to be into woodwork. There were wooden chairs decorating her wall. So she must have concentrated on fencing and didn’t bother to take the academic route at all.
@Cleo. Sorry about how you had to endure the IMF. I don’t remember much of it. I think I was already working and my type of work wasn’t much affected. I agree about YR. She’s mean because she needs someone to take out her frustration and anger on. Doesn’t make it right but I can understand where she’s coming from. I am glad that HD seems to let it slide and pushes back in her own way. A bit like fencing. Parrying her blows and turning them back at her when the opportunity presents itself.
@Janey love that Dickens quote. YJ’s world turned on its head with the IMF. Actually many of them YJ, HD and YR all had their dreams impacted. One could argue that the scale of YJ’s and YR’s crises outstrips that of HD (where she still has a safe home and regular income from her news anchor mom to fall back on). YR lost funds for her fencing pursuit because of YJ’s dad’s company collapse. YJ seemed to have suffered the worst with his family torn apart and his whole world (including family) disintegrating right before his eyes.
@GB thanks for the transcripts. The conversations are really well written. I like that HD didn’t give YJ any opportunity to wallow. She just problem solved for him and provided him a way out of his misery. In her very blunt and refreshingly honest way she told him she was against him being unhappy ALL the time. She gave him permission to be happy around her (and she was the one who overheard that conversation and knew about his promise to be morose all the time). She became the judge of that situation by deciding it was a ridiculous ask for anyone. So she stepped in and provided a way out. Just like she would take an idea and run with it. When she was told to “get into YR’s world”, she concocted all sorts of hair brained plans to get herself kicked out of school. She’s not one to mope long. I love how she sobbed her answer to YJ about the ripped comic 😂😂😂. She’s delightful. Reminds me of Anne Shirley (of Green Gables). Her personality is infectious. It makes people smile.
@GB Unnie!
I liked her in “Space Sweepers”. Her ministrations and the way she walks or runs here is rather childish and I salute her for that! I just think she was indeed too rude to YJ with that newspaper. She thought she could vent at him, something I don’t like at all. If you are angry just find another way to calm down, vent to the one who made you angry.
Also, her mother is indeed a questionmark. Who would leave her teenager daughter believe until her 40s, that she gave her husband’s wedding ring to the gold collection just because she was a public figure?
I like Nam Joo Hyuk-ssi very much in this one! The scene with his father’s debt collectors was too much for me. He was perfect.
I also don’t understand how someone would harass a young son for what happened to his father’s business. BYJ’s burden was too much. It wasn’t like his father ever wanted to bankrupt! Steel is a very good market. Imagine what happened back then!
I agree that the relationship between the two girls will be complicated. As it seems the gold medalist fencer Yu Rim still feels threated by the memory she has from Hee Do, when Hee Do herself doesn’t even remember it!
We shall see what else it will happen…
@nrllee,
Thank you. The most awful thing we had to go through is hearing libels about greeks being lazy and liars, but this is a big conversation about corruption within a nation and how the world really works.
The most easy thing to do is “to label others” in order to justify what is happening. I won’t say more about the other aspects. We paid more than enough, in many areas of our lives. Let’s focus on our k-dramaland.
I love all of the comments above. @nrllee, yes about the past and present being similar – nearly everything to do with broken dreams/goals is blamed on ‘the times’, so similar to Covid culture right now. Kudos to the show for putting Covid out there.
Someone mentioned the colour red in the scenes. Now I see it everywhere – the roses in Mrs Shin’s garden, the fabric in the neckline of the fencing outfits, the letter boxes. There seems to be a deliberate use of primary colours and green – very bright. Lots of leaves for the green – blue in the roof tiles and even the tarpaulin over the roof of the house where YJ stays – the colours of the chairs in HD’s workshop – bright yellow flowers in the roadside.
I thought that the words that were written in the tunnel scene were exactly from the diary – are we seeing the events as they unfold only through Min-chae’s interpretation of the diary or are they completed by the script into the actual past?
About the mother and the lie about the rings – HD seemed to have had a close relationship to her father. I wonder whether it was due to the mother’s relative coldness or did it help form it? I’m sure we’ll see the reason, but for now it seems that she was deliberately keeping HD at arms length; still letting her feel angry and sad about the rings for years. That’s a long time and unreasonable grudge to hold, imo. It’s the sort of thing one would expect from someone who didn’t care at all about how they were perceived by another who is unimportant to them, but in this case the second person is their child. It makes me wonder how early this unmotherly behaviour began?
There are a couple of quotes I loved here:
HD: ‘Technique and good sense are important but familiarity can really help, too.’ The coach admitted as much when she said that HD’s knowledge of YR’s style helped her to win.
Seung-wan: ‘Good water pressure leads to happiness.’ Self-explanatory. 😆
About BYJ’s family – they seemed very close indeed and YR’s mother admired them for being good people – not only because they sponsored her daughter.
It seems that the Dad suggested that YJ do his military service as a solution to keep him fed and clothed and to keep him protected/away from the situation. It seems very practical, yet he was released from duty when the actual bankruptcy happened. I’m a bit confused about that. I know that some people are released for special circumstances even now, but there must have been hundreds or more young men who joined at that point, whose families were under great financial stress. After the confrontation with the men who found out where he lived, I wonder if he would have been better off staying in the army.
@Fern I agree about being in the military. He was shielded from the outside world whilst there. I thought it was odd too that he was discharged early. The officer said his family needed him more than his country did? Almost as if it was a kindness on the part of the army? In reality it had the opposite effect. He was thrust back into a very different world and no longer afforded the protection by his family or the government. He was very much on his own. Poor thing. 😢. Actually they all were. His brother had to live with aunt. His mom some place else and his dad too? It may have been expedient financially to do that but it meant they were divided as a family. I thought it would’ve been better to stick it out together as a family?
@nrllee, I agree that it may have been better to stay together. There must be a reason, because it seems to have been some typical move prior to business problems of bankruptcy. I think the father believed that if he disappeared and scattered the family, they would be safer. Perhaps relatives could take care of only one person at a time. But I think the younger brother at least could have stayed with his mother…
This reminds me of C-drama ‘Forever and Ever’, when the ML gives a stack of family businesses to his wife upon getting engaged. She wasn’t even aware of the move – simply signed without reading much. I think if there were hard times, they could have divorced and then the creditors couldn’t come after him for those businesses.
@Fern, I too am noticing the extra vibrant colours, especially when we first transition to 1998. The greens of the leaves are particularly garish, but the colours tone down to more normal colours later, although on the whole the 1998 colours are more intense. It seems that despite the sad state of affairs after the IMF crisis, Show wants to paint us a bright and upbeat story. By comparison, the colours of the current dayime are muted and ordinary.
Thanks for the quotes.
@Fern @nrllee Yes, the break up of the family was to protect the wife and kids from creditors. If loan sharks were involved, they’d go for the immediate family members, so YJ’s father divorced his wife and separated the family. I too felt that the better solution would have been to stick together (like injeolmi) rather than to be apart. I pity the offspring.
Thank you for explaining, @Growing Beautifully.
I had to look up the IMF crisis c. 1998 to see how it affected S. Korea and the rest of Asia. I wasn’t personally affected but I remember in our department some labs that had close associates in Asia were affected and tried to arrange things to support the collaborators as best they could.
I also looked up styles. I’m not sure how different it was in S Korea, but many things people are wearing look nearly like what kids are wearing now. Nam Joo Hyuk’s outfits and hair, in particular, look like what a slightly conservative young man might wear, while the high schoolers are further out there.
I like the song ‘Starlight’. The singer has a gorgeous tone.
Enjoyed the first two episodes. I find Hee Do a bit loud, but she always means well. The uneven bangs are endearing.
I like NJH’s character very much. The show is off to a good start!
Hi @Cleo! Thanks for checking how I am doing. I’m well and still very busy with work but I’m making time to watch this alongside all of you. I’m sorry that Greece was also greatly affected by a similar situation that you have witnessed personally and felt the ripple effects.
BTW, I like your theory of BYJ changing his name in the future. Maybe he changes his name when he becomes a reporter. Plausible…
I also abhor the scene when the 2 men harassed BYJ in lieu of his father. That was awful. I know they too have losses but to exact blame on him was not fair. It made me think that BYJ should have moved away from this town because a lot of people know him/his family but he decided to stay – maybe to be closer to his brother. That was brave of him to stay and face the ridicule and failures of his parent.
After ep2, I think I understand why NHD’s characterization is so over the top. It will take something like her personality to shake BYJ to dare to dream again. And in the trailer, it looks like all 5 leads will have a friendship developed during the summer which I am looking forward to see.
I definitely love the nostalgia. Beepers, VHS, cassette tapes, walkman, old style chatrooms. I wonder how the chatmates met and started and if it’s the main leads (Ala you got mail).
@Janey I know. I am waxing nostalgic too. 😂. The VHS, the cassette tapes and pagers.
@GB I think the colours reflect the exuberance of youth. Where everything is just brighter and louder. 😂. As we age, the colours are tempered somewhat because we mellow. Hence the shift in palette between the times. YJ has shifted quickly into the world of adulthood and is jaded by all the responsibilities (he keeps talking about being an adult) that his circumstances have placed on him. HD has this exhilarating energy that’s infectious. In part due to her sunny personality and in part due to the fact that she’s been somewhat shielded from the impacts of IMF because she has a stable family (her mom) to come home to. So when their worlds collide, you can see she experiences his sadness but she opts to pull him into her world (at least temporarily) to lift him out of his gloom.
I never really bother to watch previews etc before a show starts. I only just came across this. It’s good to know that the script was good enough to draw the actors in, in a big way.
Thanks @GB for the preview video.
I have been looking for the song used during faucet fountain and tunnel scene and found out it’s not a new song but same title as the show 25 21. What a melodiously nostalgic song and if I look at the lyrics, I may have to prepare for heartbreak and no HEA. But I’m still going to watch their journey regardless of ending. I’m loving this song and also Starlight which is a contrast (bright and sunny tune). Here’s the link and I hope it works.
https://youtu.be/RCfbMMXf0uM
Thanks @Janey! What a lovely song. So heart-rending. On YT, another singer popped up singing the same song, and I found her voice so amazingly clear and appropriate for this song. I really like her rendition of it, even when she was masked!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR_NXCqy8qc
The singer is Kim Sejeong. I couldn’t recognise her as the same girl in The Uncanny Counter!!!
Oh wow, what a great cover by Kim Sejeong!!! Thanks @GB for the reference to Uncanny Counter or I would not have realized that. Her rendition hits a bit differently than the original, more sad and anguished especially the last part. I for one don’t mind a sad ending, not all first loves turn to HEA. I’ve watch Mr Sunshine multiple times but does KTR always choose sad ending for her drama?!? We’ll see.
Hmmm, maybe the daughter will play Cupid for her mom? Seems like there’s no dad around.
Thank you for both renditions, @Janey and @Growing Beautifully. I think I’ve seen the Kim Sejeong version, but it was before I could relate the song to anything else. She has a very pretty voice. I also saw a live version of the artist Jaurim singing it – very nice. It looks like the song came out in 2013, so already it has a retro vibe.
I’m joining you Ladies in watching this drama. 🙂 I wasn’t sure about it before but I checked the first episode and it’s drawn me in just like how YJ is drawn to HD. I’m really liking it. Sometimes it’s giving me the Reply 1994 feels too.
Besides the loudness of HD, everything is good so far. But yeah, the way she speaks in that loud tone sometimes makes me scratch my head. Really her tone should be put down. heheheh
I like that YJ and HD are just there for each other, listening and being there as a friend. 🙂
HeeDo’s voice! I know, right? Considering her mom is a newscaster, I expected her to know how to modulate her voice. 😂
@packmule3 and @agdr03, at that age, I would expect her to do the opposite to her mother. 😄 Especially given their antagonistic relationship. We hear the person who DOES have a good broadcasting voice is Baek Ye-jin, who was a legend in the school broadcasting club.
@agdr03, v happy to have you alongside.
I took a (permanent?) break from Snowdrop to watch this last night and it was just the remedy from the intensity of that other show.
This show is so charming. I love the framework of the daughter/grand-daughter in the Covid-present looking back with nostalgia at 1997 (which doesn’t seem THAT long ago to me!).
I never took any interest in fencing before (except maybe when Colin Firth did it in Pride and Prejudice…), but now I’m intrigued and want to see more of it.
Glad I have something to look forward to on weekends now!
Can’t believe it’s been more than a year already since Start-Up. After watching the first few eps, I realized how much I missed NJH and going to BOD to read reviews and insights that help my overall viewing experience.
@PM3 thanks again for including TFTO in your blog. ❤️
I honestly have low expectations and is only watching bec of NJH but the story is very interesting. Love the transition from present to past and how each characters are introduced.
Hee-do reminds me of Kim Bok-joo.. her childlike and boyish antics, innocence, honesty, and passion for sports. So far Tae-Ri’s acting is superb.
Yi-jin is already giving us heart ache… that scene when he said he’ll never be happy again! 😭 NJH nailed that scene.
@GB Love your explanation on the water and the tunnel scene.
Hi there @Diane! Long time, no see. Good to know that you’re on board with this show. It’s been quite delightful so far, giving off good, positive vibes. Just the right kind of show to counteract the unfortunate circumstances of our ‘times’. I look forward to tonight’s episode. 🙂