Ignore me please. I’m just taking notes in case I want to visit Jinju in the future. I learned so much from this episode.

1. JinJu means pearl.

Yes, I remembered this. The name of the young sister of Go KyungPyo’s character in “Reply 1988” is JinJu.

2. What’s the place famous for?

I’m seeing three reasons for its fame from this episode: their resistance to Japanese invaders, the Lantern Festival, and the students who graduated from their elementary school.

The resistance to the Japanese:

During the Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592, the governor of Jinju Kim Si Min and 3,800 soldiers fought against 30,000. All of them were killed but they won the battle in the end so it was recorded as the siege of Jinju.

Is this like the Battle of Thermopylae? 300 Spartans led by King Leonidas faced the massive Persian Army circa 400 BC and were annihilated. They were outnumbered but they sacrificed themselves so that the rest of the Greek troops had time retreat. The Greeks lost at the battle of Thermopylae but this heroic “last stand” so boosted the morale of the Greeks that they ended up winning the war and ending the Persian invasion.

3. The name of the fortress is Jinjuseong Fortress.

Dindin got that right.

4. “Nongae hugged a Japanese general and jumped into the Nam River (taking the Japanese general with her).”

The Japanese general had captured the Jinjuseong Fortress from the natives. Nongae killed him by an unconventional method.

Who was Nongae? I’m assuming she was a gisaeng.

5. Nam River crosses the city.

Nam cuts through JinJu like the Seine crosses Paris.

According to Inwoo, you always have to cross the bridge.

6. Name of the director is Lee Jeong Gyu.

I have to remember this. He lent his personal credit card to the gang. 🤦🏼‍♀️

7. If there’s a choice between mul naengmyeon or bibim naengmyeon, go for mul naengmyeon. I guess that’s beef pancakes with naengmyeon.

Naengmyeon = noodles

The naengmyeon from this area is famous. According to the writeup, if there Pyongyang naengmyeon in the north, then there’s Jinju naengmyeon in the south. By “north” they mean North Korea. Pyongyang is the capital of NK.

Korea’s three best naengmyeon, according to the show:

a. Hamheung naengmyeon with seafood broth and has beef pancakes as garnish
b. Jinju naengmyeon with nicely cooked beef pancakes
c. ??

To eat this dish, you have to chew the beef and noodles together, per Dindin.

This show always make me crave for Korean food!

8. Lantern Festival

There’s a Jinju Nam River Floating Lantern festival starting October 10. Per the show’s write-up, the festival originated from the tradition of the city folks to float lanterns as tribute to the spirits of the patriots who gave up their lives in the Jinjuseong Battle.

The River Lantern Festival is an annual event in October. According to show’s write-up, the people of Jinju had used floating lanterns to stop the Japanese troops from crossing Nam River (because the boats might catch fire from the lanterns???) and to send their regards to their family.

The festival looks better at night. Obviously.

I like the show better under this new Director than the previous PD Bang. I like the emphasis on tourism, food, history, and culture.

9. Under the second bridge of JinJu, there are two tube-looking structures.

They symbolize the rings of Nongae.

She wore rings on her fingers – all 10 of then – when she assassinated the Japanese general. She lured the general to the cliff, hugged him, then threw herself off the cliff bringing him along with her. She sacrificed her life for the greater good.

She had put rings on all of her fingers so that her fingers would lock together. The rings prevented her fingers from slipping and coming loose. She didn’t want the general to escape her deadly embrace. Acting like a heavy stone, she weighed him down, and made them both sink to the bottom of the river.

The shrine for Nongae is in front of the Chokseongnu Pavilion.

The rock where she dove into the river is called Uiam Rock or “righteous rock.”

She sounds more interesting than Mata Hari.

10. The city is also famous for an old school, the Jisu Elementary school.

There’s pine tree, called a “buja” pine, in front of the school. Its claim to fame is that the tree was planted by the students who later would become the founders of L Group, S Group, and H Group. What a coincidence! Was there something in the water?

I don’t know what/who the L Group, S Group and H Group are. For now, I’ll assume that:

L Group = LG (or Lucky Goldstar)
S Group = Samsung
H Group = Hyundai

The tree has become an attraction. Visitors come to partake of the “energy” of the rich.

More trivia: According to PD Lee, among the top 100 rich people in the 1980s, thirty people went to this school.

What??!

Hence, the school is said to be “filled with the energy of the rich.”

The school building behind the pine tree is the original building. A new school with the same name was constructed about a few miles from here. The old building is now an administration building, used by KOSME or Korean Small and Medium Enterprises and Startups Agency.

Jongmin had his picture taken in front of the tree to get some good luck so his stocks would stop dropping in value. Same with Dindin. He took a picture of the tree for his social media. He prayed to the money-making tree that his stocks would stop crashing.

The funny thing is, on their train ride to Jinju, they sang depressing songs about their falling stocks with Moon Seyoon’s guitar. Jongmin adlibbed the lyrics. I just like how the show just gelled together serendipitously: the pine tree made them optimistic about the Korean economy again.

End of notes.