The thread is open for spoilers and discussions.
Gifs from yesdramas’ tumblr
Updated: 3/6/22
I didn’t realize that Ahn Hyo Seop is a favorite actor at SBS.
He was in “Entertainer” in 2016, “Still 17” in 2018, “Dr Romantic 2” in 2020, “Lovers of the Red Sky” in 2021, and now this in 2022. Not bad. There’s also “Dr Romantic 3” coming soon.
Let’s enjoy the show.
Kalispera Ladies!
@Packmule3 thank you for the new post! I have watched back to back Episodes 1-2 and I laughed so very much!
I have also read up to the point the mangwha and it is good!
Now, let me go back to your older posts and read them…
Thanks @pkml3. It’s getting to be more fun as we go along.
Hi @Cleo! It’s nice to just relax with a manhwa, although I’m not reading this. It’s interesting to see if there are any similarities with ‘W’, the other manhwa show that we’re watching. 😉
😂 I’m sure WEnchanteur will go ballistic if you compare this drama to his beloved “W.”
But that’s okay. This show doesn’t claim to be high-brow. It doesn’t take itself seriously.
I’m a new fan of the actress Kim Sejeong.
Here she is trying to speak English in a variety show. She’s adorable — although she must be feeling awkward in those skimpy shorts. Sigh. I’d hate to have my imaginary daughter pursue a showbiz career. I’d hate her parading in skimpy outfits just to “establish” herself.
https://youtu.be/NAuyWn8BMas
I fell down a Kim seojeong rabbit hole last year during the uncanny counter and the release of her solo album. I watched her old and most recent appearance on Home Alone—it was so fun to watch her go to the hardware store, bank to manage all of her savings accounts, and the pride she took in her tiny fist apartment. She then had an appearance on Sketchbook. I find her to be very endearing, relatable and immensely talented. She’s stated many times her admiration for IU. I also started watching her YouTube channel a few months ago-She filmed herself while she was going on a diet for this role and it was so funny. Anyway, I just enjoy her as a human and I’m happy she’s doing so well.
@birdie007,
In this clip, Ahn HyoSeop was asked what song would he like to listen to in springtime. He answered “Flower Path” which was a song sung by Kim Sejeong. She was pleased with his sensible answer.
Timestamp 2:01
https://youtu.be/8TkdrjFJNS4
I YT’ed the song. It was an impromptu composition by some idol named Zico, and she had to sing it, too, without much practice. She did well.
https://youtu.be/4aWditu_D8I
You’re welcome, @Cleopatra. Yes, I think many of us here didn’t expect how funny this was going to be. Especially the interaction between the hero and heroine. Crossing my fingers that the show delivers. 🤞🏻
Episode 3 was good. Tae Moo displays some evidence of consideration.
As this is a short 12 episode series, it’s not surprising that the suggestion that Tae Moo dates for real, instead of wasting time with a fake relationship comes up. He seems to be thinking about it.
Poor Ha Ri gets hurt in her face a couple of times, so won’t the wound give her identity away? That’s our cliff hanger of the day. 😉
Kalispera @Packmule3,
I agree ! Although there are slight changes from the manga, I am waiting to see how this will go!
@Cleopatra @GB, @PK3, @OTHERS – Joining you ladies with this light hearted drama.
Enjoyed the first two episodes.
@Cleopatra – where are you reading the manga? Is it in English.
@Tae moo is a bit reserved for my taste. Maybe it will get better. On some instances, he looks better, like when he was looking at the dolls that HR gave him as a gift. Maybe it will get better or I might warm up to him.
I love Grandfather Kang wearing his tiger face mask while watching dramas. He already likes Ha-ri, although in her Geum-hui persona. They may have more in common than Ha-ri and Tae-moo. She couldn’t stop making technical comments about the food, even the steamed buns – which looked pretty darn tasty, imo.
Ha-ri sincerely thanks Tae-moo for the ‘date’. It was a bit of a rough day for her, but she found things to appreciate nonetheless.
How did she recover her phone? 😆
@Fern, I’m not sure but maybe she called the city’s public works department. That’s by google. 😁 That bump did look like it hurt A LOT!
I liked episode 3. Taemoo is showing that he can be a gentleman too. Two handkerchiefs now right? 🤔
I’m not sure how I feel with the dolls, I’m not sure it’ll give me comfort. 😬
A whole insecticide spray? Really? 😁
Hi @agdr03
Did Tae Moo give her a handkerchief before as well? I wasn’t paying attention.
Yeah that cockroach killing scene, I felt, was rather long drawn-out. For just 1 roach, he sprayed non-stop! I wonder if they used real insect spray… they were poisoning their air. Just use a slipper and smash the critter LOL. Much more environmentally friendly. Even better if one buries the critter in the soil. That adds nutrients and gives back to the environment.
What a hoot, with desired-boyfriend-to-be living right next door, Yeong Seo will still have a hard time winning him over, because she chose to hoodwink his boss. It’s kind of her comeuppance. 😉
Hi @GB! I’m thinking too about the handkerchief but maybe I’m confusing it with 25/21. 😂 Maybe it was only on this episode. It’s HD that has 2 handkerchiefs. ☺️
I agree to everything about the roach scene too. It dragged and yes, the smell would not be good health wise. But I liked what Taemoo’s assistant said to her. Why would he get to know her when she refused to get to know his boss. It’s definitely what you said, a comeuppance. ☺️
I’m rewatching it and poor Hari, she got hurt three times on this episode alone. The car window, the bump from the man at the bus stop and the baseball bat. 😬
@agdr03
Oh yes, she was hurt 3 times! I guess they add the expected kind of ‘whoosh! splat!’ scenes that manhwa will have. Poor Ha Ri.
I always worry when characters masquerade as someone they are not. How will poor Grandpa take it when his much-liked ‘Geum Hui’ is actually Ha Ri. This reminds me of the sad falling out in My Girl… same premise. The couple lied to Grandpa and he was so upset. But as this is a fun show and short, I hope that nothing too painful will take place.
And oh dear… although I really paid attention to 25, 21… I don’t remember a first handkerchief given by ML to FL in that show either LOLOL.
Oh dear 🤦🏻♀️ @GB. Don’t mind me. I’m watching 3 kdramas so I think I’m confusing the handkerchief in all of them. 😂 There’s only 1 handkerchief scene in 25/21 and it was after HD accidentally goes to the men’s toilet. She washed her face and YJ gave her his handkerchief.
Hopefully it won’t be too painful @GB once grandpa finds out the truth. On the teaser it looks like he’ll figure it out though that Hari works in the company. But teasers are a tease. 😁
When grandpa commented honestly about the way Hari was dressed for the occasion, it reminded me of Shengnan meeting Lu Jin’s Mom for the first time in Dating In The Kitchen. She was dressed very similar. 😁
@agdr03
I do think it is important how we dress for the first meetings anywhere, with anyone. So much involving perception and attitude towards one, takes place in observers’ minds. It’s hard to shake off the ‘wrong’ first impression.
Oh I absolutely agree @GB 😊 First impressions lasts and it stays long in memory even after the wrong one has been corrected already.
Hello @angelwingssf
It is in english and I am almost in the middle of it!
I found the link on MDL: https://vinload.com/manga/bmaccc-a-business-proposal/
There are serious changes regarding the plot that are different in the kdrama version! If you want to write them just tell me!
Three injuries for Ha-ri – head on window (The imprint left by her make-up! 🤣), knee, baseball in face. Two handkerchiefs (one at concert, one at time of last injury). Two dolls, three cans of roach killer (and that b/ was still alive. He could have just stamped on the cup, right?).
I think that she dressed similarly to the dates perhaps because those are the clothes she has. They look trashy, but were probably very expensive. I’m glad that the grandfather could look past those by the end of the day – it gives me hope.
@Fern, I’m embarrassed I made this handkerchief hunt. 😂 Wait, Taemoo had more than 1 handkerchief in him? Here I go again. 😂 The last injury of Hari, Taemoo gave her a closed cup of ice.
Maybe Hari was given a few date clothes by bff. She still had her cc then. 😁
I’m off to 😴
@Fern,
What episode was the first hanky? I can’t remember. 😂😂
Ok. About that cockroach…
I’m also one of those people who’d run to get a bug spray instead of simply stepping on it with a shoe to kill it. I don’t like to see its entrails, or roach guts, on the sole of my shoe and on the floor. Plus, I don’t like the feel of its bones scrunching as I step on it. And the worst part is — what if I miss it and it’s now heading toward me seeking revenge??
That’s why I like the bug spray better. I just nuke the little bugger. Then I come back later, sweep away its dead body, and wipe the spray residue. No mess, no fuss.
I was wrong – it’s the same handkerchief, same evening. She said she would wash it and return it. I guess I should watch episodes all in one go, rather than stopping and starting. 🤦♀️
I liked her imagined cute-meet in New York. Everything was in black and white except her yellow mac. Then when they spoke, all of the colours came in, starting with the umbrella, the two of them and finally slowly the rest of the frame.
@Fern @agdr03
I just assumed that Ha Ri and Young Seo decided on her persona as some kind of flashy bimbo, to fob Tae Moo off. So all the wardrobe that they chose was of that ilk. So too the overdone makeup and the coloured hair. Each time she has to play the part of Geum Hui, she brings along one of those outfits that Young Seo chose for her.
LOL. No one remembers the first handkerchief!!! LOLOL. Like @agdr03 says, it might have been another show that had it. 🙂
@Fern,
I really liked that yellow rainbow! Mostly because it also reminded me about “Doom at Your Service”. Do you remember the scene where Tak Dong-Kyung entered Myul Mang’s world? *winks*
@Cleo, I remember DAYS and the beautiful colouring of Doom’s world. These colour ‘tropes’ are always lovely to watch.
True @GB!
I loved that scene so very much!
@GB and @Cleopatra, even the dead flowers came back to life!
Here’s it is Ha-ri’s imagination and perspective – and perhaps her experience watching dramas – that she starts as the only bright point and gradually colours Tae-moo’s world. He and his grandfather can’t see what her romantic imagination and the viewer sees. They can only hear her words, which were enchanting enough.
Episode 4 has loads of development. We find out why Cha Sung Hoon is so loyal and see Tae Moo’s consideration.
A lot more gets revealed, hence it’s going to be a manic episode next week for Ha Ri/Geum Hui!
And yes, it does look like Min Woo may not be pleased that Ha Ri is not hankering only for him.
In the side story of Young Seo, one wonders if one ought to be concerned for her. Perhaps Sung Hoon will be needed to help/rescue her next episode.
@Fern @GB @PM3 – we get hankies featured also in 25/21. We got 2 Hankies there, one to be washed by HD (YJ lent it to her after washing her face in the men’s restroom!) and the other was used to wipe the ice cream. YJ said his dad taught him to have a handkerchief ready as a gentleman should. Glad to see it with Taemoo, too.
My hubby still brings one with him. I found it weird and endearing when we dated.
@Janey, same with my husband. He is the only man I know besides my grandfather who used them. He only stopped when Covid started because they were considered unsanitary – here’s the phrase that was used:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/south/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2017/09/catch-bin-kill.pdf
Now I have a small cache of brand new handkerchiefs that may never be used, and if I’m not careful to check pockets, tissue lint allover the wash. 😬
Just saw episode 8. Busted. I’m surprised it took so long, given Tae-moo’s ability to join the dots.
@Janey, my dad always had handkerchiefs. I just accepted that without knowing that it was part of a gentleman’s ‘dress’. Unfortunately that didn’t seem to go down to the next generation since none of the guys my age had a hanky between them!! In fact, they expected us girls to provide the tissues!
@Fern, IKR… I kept thinking he’d have put 2-and-2 together after seeing her in the lift, but he still hadn’t! Now he’s going to make life ‘hectic’ for her in petty revenge. *Muahahaha!*
@Cleopatra. – Thank you ❤️
@angelwingssf
You are welcome!
Thoughts on the Suspicious Guy
Young Seo finds a strange man trying to put her mail into her mail box. He claimed to live in unit 622 and to have taken her mail by mistake.
Young Seo meets Sung Hoon at the gym and then the strange/suspicious resident. He hangs around YS. Sung Hoon notices her getting on with the suspicious resident and does not look too pleased.
In the guys’ shower and restroom, Sung Hoon is surprised that suspicious guy can see the time on the wall without his spectacles. “Why is someone who can see just fine wearing glasses?” (He could be long sighted or he might want to look learned or he could be a pervert trying to look respectable!)
Suspicious guy insists on giving Young Seo a standing lamp, which she does not want. Might it have a hidden camera?
The Meta in the Show
It’s fun to see a soap opera within a Show, and to hear of the PPL in the soap opera, which is also evident in the Show. Grandfather and now HR’s parents note how it didn’t make sense that the chaebol family in the soap ate cheap and bought cheap t-shirts. The meta comment is that they were PPL for stores willing to sponsor them. LOL.
This nicely leads into Geum Hui and Tae Moo’s fake date at a real expensive chaebol store and doing the real chaebol things that the soap failed to do.
Following on Grandfather’s style of doing things, (like a soap with a male chauvinist ML) TM does all the choosing of the clothes for HR to try without asking first what she’d like.
She seems to think it’s very like a soap opera : “What’s with the cliché lines and vibe? I think you’ve seen way too many TV shows.”
TM : “Not me. It’s my grandfather who’s seen too many.”
HR : “What?”
TM : “If we don’t do this, he’ll hear about it. So do your best. As if this is real, not fake.”
By the time he’s seen her in the 4th outfit, his admiration of her seems to be real and not fake LOL.
The next bit of meta was when Young Seo’s rich Cousin comes into the same store demanding to have the dress that the actress, Kim Se Jeong wore to the press conference for her new show. LOL. Well, Kim Se Jeong as Geum Hui really was wearing the dress that Cousin wanted, however, the dress that she wore for the press conference for this show was this other white dress (I believe).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DdYs0vPgBWyIIbCJbiQA0DLcOOXRykHH/view?usp=sharing
I’m not sure that Cousin would have been able to fit into the dress that Geum Hui found too tight… I’m not sure but she looked shorter than KSJ, so not the right height? Even the other white dress, might not have been suitable, because the broad waste would have cut a person into 2 or 3 and made them look shorter. I felt it would have looked better proportioned, if the skirt had been longer for Kim Se Jeong.
We’ve had more tropes in episode 3-4 as well. Wrist/elbow grabs, saving from a passing motorbike, pretty fireworks over the river with the pretty girl, we nearly had another fall-upon with Grandfather, but Ha-ri couldn’t do it and protect her face as well…
I like that the characters wear believable clothes. For example, Grandfather Kang’s dressing gown looks extremely expensive. I’m glad that we have seen it more than once. When Ha-ri came back to her parents’ restaurant and saw the chicken leg slap in the drama, she was wearing a comfy but well-washed sweater that had lint bobbles from use or washing. She wore loose-fitting granny print work trousers when she was in the field for the video. I really dislike when ‘poor’ characters have a different designer outfit/winter parka/coat every week.
Mostly, I like that Tae-moo likes Ha-ri doing her real life job. He liked her ideas at work, her presentation went down well, her team won with their chef and recipe, her attitude of respecting the vegetables in the behind the scenes video impressed him. He appreciated her palate when they had a date, even though she was being Geum-hui then. They have a lot in common and he is getting more and more attracted to her. It’s like the chutes/snakes and ladders game. She got more than 1/2 way up and then took the big slide down. The work place torment will remind us of My Secret Romance again.
@Growing Beautifully, Tae-moo and the sales lady should have listened to Ha-ri about the dress. It was pretty while standing but too tight to be worn as we saw.
Ah, we had another Cinderella slipper trope, too. This time, Ha-ri had the swoons.
But Fern, Taemoo didn’t hear Hari complaining about the dress. He went off to pay for it. She only told the sales lady about it.
I’m guessing that he’ll torment her at the Awards Ceremony by making her attend it as GeumHui. As Hari, she must attend it anyway.
Based on the preview, she looks frazzled. Maybe from changing in and out of her outfit? I don’t know. But it should be funny.
More on the Meta
Episode 1 – Now that I’m going back to check on what I missed, I see that show has enjoyed being self-referential from the beginning. When Ha Ri is ruminating about the concert tickets that she got from from Min Woo at the bus stop, the poster there is of this very manhwa.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CEuy9_pb6O_mNkgm1joPqZI3YWRaLy9y/view?usp=sharing
========
While the Cinderella trope has cropped up twice, there’s something that happened 3 times: she dropped her purse.
In Ep 2 she dropped it when Young Seo sprung the surprise meeting with TM on HR and she had to quickly put on her wig. He picked up her family’s restaurant coupon and kept it for himself.
In Ep 3, she dropped her purse when she was with Grandfather and he found the tickets to the concert.
In Ep 4 she dropped her purse during the anniversary date and her dress ripped when she crouched to pick it up. That time TM picked her up and covered the back of her dress. He was also intending to at least pretend to marry her and keep her for himself.
Okay, I’ll open a thread for the meta references and tropes found in this show later when I come home.
I’ll transfer everybody’s input there.
Thanks!
Off to battle some ogres now. 🦸♀️
You are right, @packmule3. She didn’t complain to Tae-Moo. When the sales lady told her it was the only dress available, she wanted to please him. She agreed to it because she wasn’t used to that sort of thing, was conscious of wasting time and because she didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth. I think it was significant that the dress he chose for her was white. He had the same transfixed look MLs have when they see their beloved in a wedding dress.
@GB, well spotted! Ha-ri also left her purse in his car at the end of the episode, which is why he went back to her and called her. Something bad always happens when she drops her purse or pocketbook.
@packmule3, I think you are correct about Geum-hui/Ha-ri at the awards ceremony. We’ve already seen her go down the subway stairs in one outfit and come out in another in ep 4, 39.44. She’ll be going back and forth’ to the restroom.
I hope that you win against the ogres. 👊🤺
That’s true @Fern! You’re spotting things too! This show has certain little motifs that are repeatedly used. I don’t mind if that’s not a sign of lazy writing/lack of ideas but a creative thing, because each time the same thing happens, it leads to greater developments.
So Ha Ri left things behind + drops her bag + got bumped and dropped her phone and notes. Each time this happens, the other party got to know something more about her.
She had multiple disguises as @pkml3 pointed out.
She ran away several times too… Ep 1 she ran to the toilet when she realised her blind date was her CEO, and she said she’d run away but ended up sitting at table with him again, she ran on the street and into his car, she ran after the slipper flew and hit him but was caught in the lift, she ran from Grandfather in Nam Hae because Archaeopteryx called her, and she crawled-ran away in Min Woo’s restaurant. There might have been other times.
I’m glad btw that TM’s nosebleeds have stopped. I was afraid that each encounter with HR would bring on a nosebleed. However her presence has lifted the stress of going on blind dates, and TM was beginning to look forward to seeing her.
The other repeated aspect of his nature that I like is how although he made use of her knocking him out to get her to sign the contract, he forgives Geum Hui/HR for other things. He didn’t take issue with being hit in the head with a slipper once he hears HR ran because of his nosebleed. He said Geum Hui didn’t have to pay for the torn dress and that she’d get the money he promised her anyway. Although he hated wasting time, he never complained about the time it took him waiting for her when she had to come out of her home to meet him.
Maybe in future Episodes we’ll see more repeated motifs. I’m looking for more Meta. Please add on if you notice more repeated stuff! 🙂