This will be quick because I need to write reviews for the other shows.
🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
The title has three interpretations.
The first is the obvious one.
Namsoon was depressed because one of her coworkers at Doogo died from over-exhaustion.
Heesik: Everything was caught on his dashcam. He died from the energy drinks he kept drinking to stay awake.
Namsoon: How can one die from working too many hours? That shouldn’t happen to anyone.
Heeshik: The fact that there are rich people like your mom means there are others who are very poor. Capitalism is like gambling. There’s a fixed pool of money. Someone must lose for someone to win.
Namsoon: Capitalism.
Heeshik: Like light and shadow. When there is light, there is shadow.
I think it’s a hypocritical that this kdrama has indicted capitalism as the source of all evil in Seoul when the female lead, GeumJoo, is using her wealth and resources to do good and rid the streets of illegal drugs. But then, I don’t really expect much from this screenwriter’s worldview. I remember “Strong Girl Do BongSoon.” The plot was frivolous. To me, it became a blockbuster solely by virtue of its fan service. The fans lapped up all the romantic aegyo of the main leads. I gave it up before my brain atrophied.
The second interpretation is Namsoon’s.
Namsoon: I…I want to run into the shadows and be the light for people.
And she’s doing this already. She’s entering the shadows aka the “underworld” where ShiOn operates his business to bring light to his criminal dealings.
Namsoon: (continuing) I’m going to make that happen.
Heeshik: Go ahead. I’ll be there to help you.
Namsoon: (smiling) There’s a good boy.
Heeshik: Jeez, you’re being cheeky again.
Then he handed her a driving instruction manual. He wanted her to study it.
Heeshik: Get your driver’s license. I’ll teach you to drive.
Namsoon: There are so many words.
Heeshik: Having rosy cheeks…makes you look pretty.
Namsoon: (smiling) Do you like girls with rosy cheeks. There are lots of them in Mongolia.
Heeshik: Is that so? Then, I should visit sometime.
Namsoon: Why would you go there when you can just date me?
Heeshik: You’re being cheeky again.
Namsoon: (in Mongolian) I love you. I love you.
Heeshik: What does that mean.
Namsoon: I love you.
And that’s my third interpretation. There are two many side plots in this drama, e.g., her grandma’s indecorum, her brother’s diet, Bread Song’s shadiness, and GeumJoo’s number game with the office assistant. While they may have comedic value, these threaten to obscure the true light of the show for me: Namsoon’s courtship of Heeshik. This is the role reversal I’m looking for. You see, in the original series, “Strong Girl Do BongSoo,” I couldn’t shake the feeling that the male lead loved the girl more than she loved him. He chased after her, was clingier/needier than she was, more patient, more thoughtful, more attentive, more giving, and so on.
I’m hoping that my perceived imbalance in that relationship will be corrected in this sequel, and that this time around, it will be Namsoon to go after the guy she likes, instead of “settling for” somebody who’s offering himself up to be her forever-slave and doormat.
🙂 One of the first comments I made about this drama is:
I feel like I’m loosing brain cells.
You mentionned the scene about capitalism, but what hit more my attention here is when they say young people work a lot. Conditions of life are difficult in South Korea. Legal minimum working time is 52h/week. What was an improvement from the previous years. But prime minister was about to vote 69h/week recently. This wasn’t done, people mobilisation was quick. Add to that the high pricing of the houses and certainly some others problems. That’s make the birdthrate is now 0.7 children per woman. Yeah, 3x less than needed to just perpetuate population.
As I think about it: often you write dialogs from the drama. And in korean screenplay writing style (even with parenthesis). What I like a lot.
I’ve no idea how you do that, and it could be time consuming if you rewrite it. But you can find that on this website:
https://subscene.com/
Oh yeah! TOO MANY side plots! And some are boring. Loooong scene with grandma and her new boyfriend. Taking a lot of screentime watching them dancing on a bridge.
Tons of time about Mr Bread and mother. Even the ex-bum have a scene here.
Clownish moments with Namsoon make what I like in this episode. There is even the imaginary scene about her in super-spy, when she’s desguised as a ghost. I think there was a way to do something more funny with that, as she lift a screen. Like making an illusion of her going out of the screen like the ghost in “The Ring”, to scare more the bodyguard.
There is one romantic scene with piggyback, however my feeling is the romance is dead now, and I ship no-one with Namsoon. It’s drowned in the mass of other things.
Namsoon is mostly a tool for Heesik and his mission. Even if he cares about her, when she drink the narcotic. I was expecting it have no effect, but the screenwriter was clever and makes her fall on the ground. It was just a diversion to surprise better with the funny scene later. People often comment the number of superpowers she have is too much (super strengh, super vision, etc). Let’s add this one, not affected by poison. However, it makes sens when she tell she eat a burning stone by accident. I suppose the muscle of her stomach have super strength too. So she eat the stone, chew it easely (without taking attention), then swallow it. 🙂
Thanks, @WEnchanteur. My response to you is on the blog.
Thanks for this thread. After taking a break from K-dramas for a few months, I thought I would enjoy this since I liked the first series, but dropped this spin-off after episode 6. Too many side stories and the characters don’t develop.
Except for our ML and SML, the other male characters in this show are weak, and the mother and grandma get the same, if not more screentime than our FL. at first her mannerisms were cute, but then they seemed childish and immature for a 22-year-old. Was really hoping to like it…