The short explanation: 

If you like Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” then you should watch this.

The long explanation: 

Here are the five reasons why I’m liking this drama so far.

5. It’s short and straightforward.

If you’re still reeling from “Alchemy of Souls” like I am, then this makes for a nice change. There are only 12 episodes, and each episode runs 30 minutes. The drama is six hours long. Three episodes are released each week, so the show will be done by the end of this month.

Moreover, the characters are easy to remember. You don’t have to needlessly stress yourself over the gazillion variations of the same sounding names like in AoS (the Hong sisters were downright sadistic, lol).

Here are the important names:

The hero: Han JiYul, a veterinarian from Seoul
The heroine: Ahn JaYoung, a junior police officer in Huidong village
The second male lead: Lee Sang Hyun, the son of the peach farm owner in Huidong, or the “chaebol” in the village

Easy-peasy.

4. The three-member group of the Huidong Women’s Association remind me of Mrs. Bennett but a whole less annoying.

They’re nosy like the stereotypical ahjummas found in hometown dramas like “When the Camellias Bloom,” and “Crash Landing on You.”

On the day of JiYul’s arrival, they dropped in unannounced at JiYul’s house, foisting all sorts of side dishes on him. There were perilla leaves in pink-lidded container, lettuce kimchi in blue-lidded container, radish kimchi in green-lidded container, and eggplant in plain plastic-lid container.

This food scene reminded me of the time when Mrs. Bennett arrived at Netherfield, purportedly to visit her ailing daughter, but she brought the rest of Bennett daughters in tow. Although in the book, Mr. Darcy was able to hide his annoyance at this imposition, our kdrama hero JiYul was quite blunt in expressing his displeasure over the ahjummas’ invasion.

He told them that they couldn’t just barge in “without any prior explanation.” He didn’t mince words when he brought up the police, saying, “If this happened in Seoul, the police would have charged you with breaking and entering.”

Naturally, the ahjummas felt offended.

But just like JiYul cited his Seoulite conventions, the President of the Huidong Ladies’ Association pointed out the social conventions in their village. Her parting words to him were, “If you say you don’t need something, we give it to you. If you say you do, we give you more than you need.”

Frankly, to me, this sounded more bullying than welcoming. He was being told that he had no choice but to give in to their kind of hospitality.

Thus, the prejudice between JiYul and the ahjummas of Huidong began. JiYul thought of them as nosy, and the ahjummas thought of him as snobbish and antisocial. This is pretty much what happened in the Jane Austen novel when the upper-class members of Hertfordshire were dissed by Mr. Darcy and they turned against him.

However, there was a rivalry between Huidong and the nearby village of Majeong, and the ahjummas of both villages wanted JiYul on their side since he was the local vet.

To earn his allegiance, they thought they could match him with their local beauties.

Rival Majeong ahjumma: (speaking to JiYul) Are you seeing anyone by any chance? I have a niece who’s really pretty. She’s so pretty that…
Huidong ahjumma: (cackling) Oh my world! Seriously, your niece? Are you talking about that niece who we’ve all seen? You really have no shame.
Majeong ahjumma: Hey! What’s wrong with her face? Watch what you say!
Huidong ahjumma: I mean, why would he go all the way there to find a woman? Huidong has plenty of beauties, right?
Majeong ahjumma: (not giving in) Where? Let me see one.
Huidong ahjumma: Somewhere very close. Right here! (grabs Ahn JaYeong and pushes her towards JiYul) First, we have Officer Ahn.
JiYul: (exchanges glances with JaYeong who’s looking embarrassed)
Majeong ahjumma: She’s nothing compared to my niece!
Huidong ahjumma: Your niece’s face is a total wreck! Just like yours!

Then a melee ensued with JaYeong caught in the middle.

To me, this was a hilarious scene because it was so “Pride and Prejudice.” To paraphrase Jane Austen, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune – or in this case, in possession of a handsome face and a veterinarian practice – must be in want of a wife.

Naturally, JaYeong was mortified by the ahjummas’ catfight because

a) she was being paired off to a guy who patently didn’t like her, and

b) she knew that JiYul was judging the ahjummas and found all this fracas distasteful.

JaYeong’s reaction is not unlike Elizabeth Bennett’s shame and mortification when she heard her mother matchmaking her and her sister Lizzie to the rich visitors of Netherfield.

3. The countryside scenes are very panoramic.

Of course, it isn’t English countryside, but the rural areas of South Korea have their own distinctive bucolic charm.

Note: the composition of these landscapes in Episode 3 are parallel.

In the first screenshot, the mountains and skies are in the background, and the green fields are in the foreground. In the middle ground, there’s a blue pick-up truck being driven by JiYul. (Can you see it?) The pick-up truck is heading east…or towards the right side of the camera frame.

In the second screenshot, the background shows hills and skies while the foreground shows the green fields. In the middle ground, if you look closely, JaYeong in a blue shirt is riding her bike. The bicycle is heading towards the left side of the picture.

These two screenshots of the ending in Episode 3 impressed upon me that nothing pretty much moves in this pastoral scene except for our hero and heroine.

Visually, they’re heading towards each other, like two pieces of a puzzle.

I went ahead to check the director’s previous work because I was curious. I learned that he’s the director who created “Bossam.” Although I don’t know whether he employed the same cinematographer for this kdrama, I must say that this director put in the same amount of attention to his camera shots that he did in “Bossam.” The footages aren’t just artistic; they’re also helpful in conveying the story.

Let’s take another example in Episode 1: the scene when JiYul bandaged the dog.

It was a stray dog that was killing the chickens. The farmer had trapped it, and the trap injured its leg. JiYul wanted to bring the dog in to the hospital to treat its wound. When the farmer objected, he told the farmer that it was a violation of animal protection laws to set a rat trap to catch a dog.

JaYeong interceded for the farmer and offered to bring the dog to an animal shelter after its treatment. But JiYul refused because the dog would be euthanized there.

JaYeong: I’m sure you want to help the pitiful dog since you’re a vet, but I’m a police officer here. So I have to think of the resident who’s lost his property. Whatever the case, the dog destroyed his property.
JiYul: So are you saying that dog deserves to die?
JaYeong: What? That’s not what I said. Do you think we should release that dog after it’s been treated then?
JiYul: Pitiful or not, chicken or dog, I’m just saying it would be wrong to just leave them to die. It’s not the dog’s fault that it got abandoned.

Sidenote: at this point, JiYul hasn’t realized how much impact his words had on JaYeong. She was abandoned by her mother.

So she ceded to him, and he took the dog back to vet hospital to keep for the time being. Later that night, he returned to the hospital and bandaged the dog’s wound.

To me, it’s visible from the camera shot that we’re being set up to see the connection between the JiYul and the dog.

For one, the overhead lamps in the room spotlighted him and the dog. Like the dog in the chicken farm, JiYul was set loose on the people of Huidong. He knew that he didn’t belong there. He couldn’t help clashing with the villagers, especially the Ladies’ Association, since their ways weren’t his ways. To them, he was barking mad.

For another, JiYul and the dog were the only ones confused to find themselves in that vet hospital.

Think about this for moment: everything else in the room had a function: the fixtures, equipment and materials. These all served a purpose in the daily operations of the hospital. But the wild dog didn’t belong there. And the city-slicker JiYul didn’t either. They both were out of place in that environment.

That’s why I like this shadowy shot of the dog and JiYul in the middle of the room. It conveyed that the future for them both was bleak and somber.

The director of cinematography did a few other “thought-provoking” shots in Episodes 1, 2, and 3. I wish I’ve time to discuss them. But I need to move on.

2. The hero is sympathetic.

Although at first glance he appears to be a snob, it’s understandable that he feels resentful because he was duped by his grandfather into taking over the practice for two months.

Here’s a short list of things that go in his favor:

a. He rescued the stray dog. This alone earned him 100 brownie points. He planned to look if it had a microchip. If it did then it was a registered pet and could be returned to its owner.

b. He tries to do a good job despite not being familiar with the care of livestock. Since he landed in Huidong, he attended to a turkey’s broken leg, a chicken faking death, a stray dog with an injured leg, a buck with bleeding horns, a colicky baby goat, a sick cow, and the vaccination of 150 pigs.

c. He can read the room.

He told JaYeong that he hated the village because of the lack of boundaries. He just wanted to be left alone.

JaYeong: Why do you hate this village so much? You hate it when we give you things or try to be nice. Your grandparents live here, and I don’t see any reason to hate it here. I mean, it’s not your first time here. Don’t you maybe have one or two good memories?
JiYul: I never said I hated it. But come to think of it, I do. I do hate it. (approaching her) I hate this village and I have no good memories of it. I just want to have some boundaries, but no one here seems to understand that.

This emotional outburst was brought about fatigue. He had a long tiring day and to cap it off, the ahjummas were matchmaking him to JaYeong. He pushed back after she pricked his conscience about being grateful for people’s attention — which he didn’t want in the first place. He prided himself in being self-reliant and self-sufficient.

The next day, he accidentally bumped into JaYeong. Before he could misconstrue her presence there as disrespecting his boundaries, she explained herself.

JaYeong: For your information, I’m not here because of you. And I didn’t cross any boundaries. I’m just helping him get to school, okay? (gesturing at a kid sitting on her bike)
JiYul: What?
JaYeong: Have a good day. (riding off)

He knew that she was still hurt because her usual cheerful face was gone, and unconsciously, he was searching for her as he went about his business that day.

Later, he overheard JaYeong being pestered by the ahjumma from the Majeong village. The ahjumma was droning on and on about JaYeong’s pitiful circumstance, ignoring JaYeong’s obvious discomfort.

Majeong ahjumma: Gosh, I guess not. I can’t believe her. How could she live her life after abandoning her child. I just don’t understand. She won’t even come looking for such a pretty daughter…. I figured she’d at least drop by once things got better. But if she hasn’t shown up yet, it must mean she’s still struggling. Don’t let it bother you. You’re a tough one, aren’t you?
JaYeong: I’m not bothered. Everyone in the village treats me like I’m their daughter. I’m not sad at all. Thank you for your concerns.
Majeong ahjumma: Good. Who wouldn’t want such a nice daughter like you? (spotting JiYul) What? Doctor Han, you were here too? I don’t know if you heard me, but don’t get the wrong idea.
JaYeong: (humiliated)
Majeong ahjumma: It’s not her fault that her mom hasn’t come to see her. Isn’t that right, Officer Ahn?
JaYeong: I have to get going.
Majeong ahjumma: Okay, don’t let it bother you!

JiYul read the room then. Here was a prime example of the villagers’ lack of boundaries but JaYeong took it all in stride. She didn’t resent the ahjumma’s nosiness. If he had been in her shoes, he would’ve have lost his temper already.

So he chased after her and offered her a ride.

JiYul: Get on. It’s hot out.
JaYeong: It’s okay. I can walk.
JiYul: It’s too far.

He emptied his cargo to make way for her.

JiYul: I can just carry this backpack, and I can carry this too so get on.

Lol. How was he going to steer the bicycle if he was carrying the bucket as well? This tells me that he was determined to make amends for his harsh words.

JaYeong: It’s really fine. I’ll just walk alone. (bowing)
JiYul: (calling out to her) That’s not the way!
JaYeong: (not looking back) There’s a shortcut. Bye.

To me, it’s important that the hero can perceive and analyze the general mood since the village is a tight-knit community. But this skill (or ability) becomes even more imperative because the heroine is a much-beloved daughter of the community.

JiYul will have to learn to love the village and its way of life when he falls in love with JaYeong. It’s not unlike Mr. Darcy learning to deal with Lizzie’s wild sister and Mr. Wickham all for the sake of Lizzie.

But I also liked JaYeong here because she showed pride. In “Pride and Prejudice,” the sister Mary said that “Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”

In this context, JaYeong wasn’t vain enough to take offense at the words of the ahjumma. But she was proud enough to reject JiYul’s offer of an olive branch after he accused her of being interested in him.

Nice cinematography there. Not just because of the beautiful panoramic shot, but also because the camera shots effectively relayed the message: JaYeong was literally and visually turning her back on him.

1. And finally, Joy’s character, JaYeong.

Acting-wise, she isn’t at Kim GoEun’s caliber. But this idol/actress Joy lives up to her name. It gives me great pleasure to watch her onscreen. Aegyo suits her and it doesn’t rub me the wrong way like that other idol/actress Seohyun.

Gifs from irxne’s tumblr

source: irxne’s tumblr

More gifs from imyourjoyy’s tumblr

source: imyourjoyy’s tumblr

How cute is that? She looks adorable even when she’s dressed in a hazmat suit.

Now, enough about her looks. Here’s my comments about her character.

a. JaYeong knew who he was the moment she asked for his identification. That’s why she looked distracted here,

and why she was checking him out here.

Gifs from @imyourjoyy’s tumblr

Source: imyourjoyy’s tumblr

It’s possible that she’s checking to see how much he’s changed from the last time she saw him. But it’s also possible that this is their first actual meeting IN PERSON and she wanted to see if he was like how he had described himself to be.

b. Every time he got upset with the villagers, she would silently plead with him to show forbearance.

Here, she wanted him to just take the kimchi offerings.

And here, she was telling him to ignore the ahjumma fawning over him.

Lol. Her eyes.

She knows what will trigger him, but she’s begging him to just go along to preserve the peace. In a sense, she acts as his mediatrix. She wants him to like her people, and her people to like him back.

c. I liked her quick realization that she had romanticized their whole childhood friendship.

JaYeong: I can’t remember everything, but I remember really happy moments and really bad ones pretty clearly. But apparently, people can remember the same moment very differently. Maybe it’s just me.
Lee Sang Hyun, the 2nd male lead: Are you talking about your mother?

No, she wasn’t. She was talking about JiYul. She was disappointed that JiYul didn’t remember her when all this time, she wove fantasies about him. Most likely she even waited for him to return to his grandfather’s village.

JaYeong: Ah. That too. I guess I’m mostly happy by myself. I’ve held on to those happy memories when the other person doesn’t even remember. Maybe I’ve lived on too long in a village that never changes. It’s kind of funny.

No, it wasn’t funny. I think it’s poignant. She was realizing what it meant to have a one-sided affection. But I like that she was being philosophical about it rather than weepy.

d. I also liked her resolution. 

JaYeong: Do you remember? My secret friend from summer break when we were 12.
SH: (quoting her) “You don’t have one? I do.” You never stopped talking about it. Secret friend, my foot.
JaYeong: A secret gains its value when it’s shared, okay?
SH: So why are you suddenly bringing this up?
JaYeong: It turns out that he’s that secret friend.
SH: Who? You mean that vet? Is that why you were going on about memories last night?
JaYeong: It was such a long time ago, and as you can see, he doesn’t even recognize me. At first, I was a little irritated because I was the only one who remembered. But what can I do? To him, it was only that much of a memory. I don’t want to act like I remember when he doesn’t. And I won’t be seeing him after two months. I just want him to feel comfortable while he’s here. That’s all.

This part reminds me of “Pride and Prejudice,” too. Lizzie had to keep secret that it was Mr. Darcy who helped their family out in time of need. Mr. Darcy was her “secret” friend and benefactor. As far as her family knew, she still hated him because she couldn’t tell them when her feelings for him changed.

In comparison, JaYeong disclosed to SH that JiYul was her childhood “secret friend” but she couldn’t tell SH that her feelings for JiYul had not changed. Of course, she had pride and she didn’t want to look pitiful clinging on to JiYul. So she put on a brave front and claimed that she only intended to make JiYul’s short stay pleasant for him. By all appearances, she was closing the chapter on her childhood fantasy.

But since the theme of this drama is fairy tales (note the title, “Once Upon a Small Town.” That’s a sure giveaway), her “secret friend” will eventually end up as her Prince Charming.

That’s it for now. Gotta run.