I said “quick” so let me see if I can finish this in half an hour.
1. The older brother’s regrets
He told DoHa that he had two things that he regretted the most.
Brother: When EumJi said she was dating you, I gave her pocket money and told her to have fun. The morning you left after killing EumJi, I let you go on that bus. That day, she texted that she’d die, but you didn’t even flinch and went to Seoul.
In short, regret #1 was encouraging EumJi to date DoHa, and regret #2 was allowing DoHa to leave.
Then, DoHa revealed another truth about EumJi that would add to his regrets. He was the one who encouraged EumJi to see DoHa as her mealticket…errr….dream.
DoHa: I didn’t kill her.
Brother: Are you saying again that she killed herself? I’m sick of it, you bastard. Why would she die?
DoHa: Because I was her dream….
That made brother recall what he told EumJi. His exact words: “Why do you need a dream? Your dream has to be SeungJoo.”
DoHa: But I broke up with her. She said she’d die without me, but I thought she was just saying that. I didn’t think she’d actually do it.
In short, it was the brother who planted the idea in EumJi’s head that all she had going for her was SeungJoo. She could have had her own college ambitions, but the brother pooh-poohed it.
He was now regretting it.
2. SolHee’s father’s hermit life
Too bad her parents are divorced because it appears like the father will soon strike it rich when a tv series (or even just a feature show) is created about his life.
Wait, isn’t he supposed to be traveling around the world?
Heyyyy, props manager!! You forgot to supply Hwang MinHyun and Kim SoHyun with those red-palmed work gloves as they pitched their tent. Tsk tsk tsk. SolHee’s dad wore a pair when he was splitting firewood.
I also like how the story showed the “unbreakable bonds” between father and daughter. Not only did SolHee like soccer and camping because of her father, but it seemed like they were connected by food. The father showed hospitality by cooking bibimguksu to the writers who trekked the forest in search of him, while SolHee showed her care and concern for DoHa by feeding him.
3. GangMin’s last second save
I’m accustomed to seeing kdrama male leads face off with gangsters ala Bruce Lee so I was frustrated with DoHa’s inability to defend himself. C’mon, man! Learn self-defense!
Gangmin’s appearance was a total shocker. I literally didn’t see him coming.
4. The Kiss
Come to think of it, that kiss was another shocker. I literally didn’t expect DoHa’s face to suddenly come on screen because the camera was centered on SolHee’s face the whole time.
To me, when the first kiss is about to happen, the director of photography has plenty of options. I’ll mention two:
He can center the couple so that the kiss is in the middle of the screen, like here in “Hidden Love.”
Centering…
I’d call this a traditional shot.
He can also film a character towards one edge, while the other character is on one edge so OPTICALLY, the kiss happens along the edge. Like here in “King of the Land.”
If you connect his and her frames together, their lips are touching off-centered.
Also here, it’s off-kilter.
BUT the director has a point here. To me, he was mimicking the sensation of kissing for the first time. Everything seems off-kilter, like the ground beneath your feet has shifted, and you’re off-balanced. Get it?? 🙂 The main leads were on the precarious edge of falling madly, deeply, irrevocably in love, and the the cinematography communicated the storyline. (Unfortunately, Yoona couldn’t kiss so Junho carried this scene.)
To get back on-topic —
The director of photography has lots of options when it comes to filming the first kiss. I gave you two examples: the traditional style and artistic/meta style. Either way, there’s always a visual BUILD-UP leading to the first kiss. By prolonging the anticipation, the director optimizes the sizzle between the couple and titillates the viewers.
However, in comparison to those two examples, SolHee and Doha’s first contact just…well, it just happened. Bam! He lunged and kissed her.
I wanted to give the director a yellow card. Where’s the tension? Where’s the slow burn? Where’s the longing and yearning?
Moreover, this hand positioning was awkward and superfluous.
The way it crept up her neck, it reminded me of The Hand from “Addams’ Family.”
Besides, he already had his other hand on the other side of her neck so that creeping hand should have been edited out or redone for another hand position.
The lip action was alright (I’ve seen better though in “Tale of Nokdu”). The execution of the kiss could have been better.
5. The CEO’s shadiness
He accidentally finds out that his wife is having an affair and he does nothing. It’s downright scary when a guy can control his rage like this.
I mean, we saw SolHee’s mother destroy SolHee’s workplace after her marriage plans were scuttled, right? As awful as that scene was, we’ve seen the extent of damage that her fury could do. But the CEO? One must wonder what he’s capable of doing.
That’s it. My Quick Takes.
Didn’t DoHa’s mother seem unimpressed by Eum-ji and her brother at the graduation? I felt like she was judging them hard and didn’t like how the brother manoeuvred Eum-ji into position close to DoHa.
I was ready for a kiss when DoHa showed Sol Hee into the bedroom. I think she was expecting it, but he did an abrupt about-face and said Good Night. Later I think he was ready but she wasn’t and mentioned the noodles getting soggy. So I wasn’t altogether surprised.
Thanks for the comparison and analysis of the kiss scene. ☺️
I have to catch up on the 2 current episodes of this drama. I have to say though that it’s not addictive. 😁
I’m down one episode. I’ll watch Ep 10 tomorrow.
Yes. I still like “Hidden Love” better. I heard there’s a camping scene there, too? I’ll have to compare and contrast, right?
No, Doha’s mother wasn’t very impressed, @Fern.
I hate to say this but I can sympathize with her in that instance. Don’t get me wrong. It isn’t about elitism or class difference, but compatibility, shared values, personal drive, and long-term goals.
Disclosure: I did warn my sons not to date anyone with a humongous student loan, cosign on any student debt or offer to pay down her debt.
Yes! There’s a camping scene in HL too so you can definitely contrast. 😄
That comfortable camping is the sort that I might tolerate except for the pitches being so close to each other. I think my days of remote camping are sadly done. Why was Do Ha cutting the meat directly over the grill as though he were at a restaurant rather than over a plate??? I would have been so exasperated and trying to hold my tongue. Is this just me hating to see tasty food wasted? So mumsy of me, lol.
Pluses with HL’s Living Room camping: good when it’s raining. You could actually shift a mattress under the tent. More privacy. Proximity to a bathroom. No bears, scorpions in boots, snakes, mosquitos. (Maybe this is more about my past.😜)
Pluses with MLL’s outdoor camping: sitting around the grill and cooking outside. A change of scene.
Do Ha’s mother wasn’t impressed with the Tarot Café, either but she doesn’t know about the bullion locked away. 😉
I think I would tolerate a child’s suitor having a student loan *if* they were responsible for repayment and had the grades, drive and personality to do so. Taking out a student loan seems like a commitment to one’s future if the alternate is a talented person missing out on higher education. Of course, student loan situations are different in every country. In the UK a graduate has to reach a certain income level before repaying. Some European countries still fund university education as the UK did when we moved there, but it’s very difficult to get into higher education.
Possible episode 10 Spoilers:
–
–
–
–
–
–
I’m taking it back about Deuk Chan being a good guy, despite his lovely baby. @packmule3, you pointed out his scary ability to hold in his emotions when confronted with his wife’s infidelity. It’s now also clear that he’s somehow working with Do Ha’s mother. Now that Do Ha has expressed a wish to not work with him anymore, Deuk Chan will change. Do Ha is the goose that lays the golden eggs for him. I think this actor is very good compared to some who remind me of a face drawn on a balloon.
Okay, we have Sayeon now ready to give up her selfish fixation with Do Ha, so the way is paved for her fan Baek Chi Hoon to make his move.
Did anyone else feel that Sol Hee’s mother found the father too easily if she, an inexperienced hiker, could find him camped just a few metres away from a hiking trail, probably not too far from the civilisation? 🙄I wonder what part he will play in this.
@Fern, 😂😂 That’s how they cut meat when they grill it in Korea, or in Korean restaurants here.
😂😂
Yes. I used to find it weird, too, when they used SCISSORS ✂️ to cut meat. But now, I use the kitchen shears too to trim fat from the meat.
As for grilling, it depends. If we’re grilling steaks in the backyard, then we do it American style. No scissors. Raw to medium. No over-cooking. Slice it on individual plates. Use steak knives.
But if we do the Korean BBQ indoors, on the dining table or kitchen counter, we use scissors. Medium to well-done. Communal plate. Individual tongs instead of knives. 😂
I hated camping too because I had to share a tent with a brother or two. I never knew what creature to expect to find in my sleeping bag or under the pillow.
When I had sons, I went a few times (who would make s’mores for them??) then I decided only backyard camping for me.
Now, you couldn’t pay to go glamping.
I think Do Ha was confused never having used an outdoors type barbeque with a rack-type grill rather than a griddle. One might let something fall through a grill once, but not repeatedly. Lol. I wonder how much of it was ad-libbed?
I could maybe do glamping, depending on toilet facilities. Most of my camping experience was in wilderness, in the Rockies from Alberta down to Wyoming. How far my tolerance has fallen!
I use kitchen shears for lots of things when I don’t want to use a chopping board, particularly when I want to slice something very finely, whether rolled ham or herbs, also to cut chicken breasts or steak for skewers and to cut grapes into smaller portions from a large cluster. They are particularly useful to cut something that is already cooking, holding it with tongs above the pot, when a knife would be impractical.
I got the impression that much of the tent setup during the camping in MLL Ep. 9 was ad-libbed. The actors looked authentically confused! Considering their relative youth and busy careers, those two may not have had any camping experience. I can imagine the director and props manager setting them loose, calling “Action!” and letting the cameras roll.
I know they’re just in the show to move the plot along, but those documentary filmmakers annoyed me with their whining. Hungry? Tired? Thirsty? Don’t set out on a hike unprepared. That could have fatal consequences. They’re fortunate Sol Hee’s father chose to be gracious and take care of them instead of turning them away.
As soon as I saw the tent home of Sol Hee’s father, I thought of the homeless encampments I’ve seen in cities along the Pacific Coast of the USA. They start with one or two tents, grow as people cluster for safety, then the authorities move in and clear out everyone and all their belongings. That doesn’t solve the problem: it just pushes it to a different area.
Based on the huffing and puffing (and full bladder) of Sol Hee’s mother while hiking with her next sugar daddy target, it appears Sol Hee’s father lives away from, but within walking distance of, civilization. Does Sol Hee’s father own the land on which he’s living? If not, I wonder what his legal standing is. Broadcasting his lifestyle may spark government action to remove him, not that I think Show will take his character arc that direction.
Sol Hee’s mother is worried Sol Hee is dating a good looking man, because her experience is that good looking men have no money. (Huh? That seems to run counter to the Kdrama trope of chaebols–or at least 2nd & 3rd generation chaebols–being both wealthy and blindingly handsome.) The mom admits to having married Sol Hee’s father because she was drawn to his looks. I wanted to scoff when she compared him to Antonio Banderas, but have to say she’s got a point after seeing actor Ahn Nae Sang in ruggedly handsome mode. The mom’s reaction on seeing her ex leads me to guess she’ll divert from her goal of remarrying into money.
As for Chairman Jo’s reaction after discovering his wife’s philandering, I thought he held back an outburst for the sake of his already distraught child. And once he bit back his immediate response, he became calculative. I agree that this is a scary side to him, being able to mask strong emotion. But it does take a toll on him, as we see in another scene that being disappointed with Do Ha causes him to develop a headache.
One of the things I’ve noticed about Chairman Jo is that the suits and shirts he wears are oversized for his build. He looks like a child playing dress up in his father’s clothing. I wondered if his wardrobe was selected to make him look vulnerable even when dressed as an authoritative figure.
@Welmaris, I noticed Jo Deuk Chan’s shirt necks seemed a good size too large. I saw this elsewhere recently, but I can’t think where now. Perhaps in the Cdrama HL because the ML is very slender? It also makes it look like he’s not eating well from nerves or whatever.
Yes to the film makers being strangely ill-equipped considering that their topic is people who live off grid or something like that. No scout training, for certain. Do you think it was true or maybe a ploy, since they seem to have made themselves at home with Mr Mok since then?
@Fern, I also read the filmmakers request for food as another attempt to eventually convince him to be on their show