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From Ep 7
I found this funny because what’s he gonna do about it? Chauffeur her around?
Seoul’s terrain is both mountainous and hilly. The capital is surrounded by mountains, and just walking around the urban jungle, you’re bound to walk uphill or downhill at some point.
Of course, San Francisco still beats Seoul as the hill-ier (and dirtier) city for me.
Let’s enjoy the show.
Cheers, @packmule3. It’s hilly where I live, too, but not mountainous. There’s nothing flat here. I always see the poor neighbourhoods in K-dramas where the steep rise means there are stairs between the levels. We have a bit of that, but not as much.
Yes, @Fern. I haven’t checked a topography map of Seoul but the impression I get from walking from my hotel(s) to the US Embassy and meetings, is that the historic Seoul is built on flat ground. It appears to be in a valley created by the surrounding mountains.
I can walk from the Gyeongbukgong (the main palace in the north) all the way down south to City Hall and then to the cosmetics shopping mecca of Myeongdeong in heels.
But there’s no way I can walk in heels from Myeongdeong to points further south, like the top of Namsan Tower.
And yes, the poor neighborhoods in kdramas would be located in the hilly places. It’s generally like that in urban landscapes, isn’t it? The rich congregate in the flat, central area of the city. Real estate is expensive but they can afford it. Meanwhile, the poor settle in the outskirts. The outskirts have the less desirable terrains: hilly, rocky, swampy, etc. These areas wouldn’t be considered outskirts if they were central, convenient, or accessible places to live in. But that’s what the poor can afford. Sigh. Even in real estate there’s a divide between the haves and the have-nots.
Wow, I have nearly given up on heels altogether, unless there is minimal walking. I am impressed.
In many places in America, the hills have become the more desirable areas because of views. It was certainly like that in the parts of Seattle and Montana where I lived. The Chicago area where I was raised is extra-flat, so any change in altitude is still interesting to me. (Lake front property is the big thing there, or for families, the suburbs with the best schools or best historical architecture.)
I had the impression that Bo Gyeom is indeed going to chauffeur Mok-Ha around as much as possible in the way attracted men do in K- and C-dramas. It may not be the safest thing if Mr Jung finds their location.
Episode 7, first viewing.
Lots of mystery solving, how the mother meets her new husband. Since he’s a civil servant, he could have changed the names. Revelation of the family that disappeared (at the bottom of the pond) 20 years ago.
Rather than a frontal revelation, Mok Ha first gets a clue about Bo Geol.
As we guessed, he founded the ecology club purely to find her. Now that he has, he doesn’t give a damn about ecology. LOL. Only, this detail should sound like 1+1=2 in Mok Ha’s mind.
Just as Ki Ho planned Mok Ha’s rescue, I think he also chose his career path for her. He could have been a drama producer, an investigative program, a commercial. No, he chose a variety show about singing.
When it comes to Ki Ho, there’s no such thing as Fate or Coincidence. It’s all about preparation and probability. Hence his line:
“Things happen or they don’t, it’s 50-50”.
Woo Hak passes Mok Ha in the corridor without recognizing her (she’s become too beautiful). However, the scriptwriter makes him go back, he sees her and stays…
… completely stunned by her beauty !!!!
The guy must be severely in love by now.
I admit, it’s fun to guess a scene in advance…
20:19 – Flashback, when Bo Geol finds Mok Ha on the island.
His expression was seen as neutral (or indecipherable).
But… the scene continues, and we see him smile slightly, deeply relieved.
22:38 – Unexpected fall!!! Just when Bo Geol happens to arrive. And of course, saves her from the fall. AHAHAHAH, this cliché will work until the end of time.
24:20 – Bo Geol changes the background to Ocean.
As Mok Ha watches. The ocean triggers a flashback with Ki Ho.
This is one of those incredibly moving scenes, introduced by a visual.
For the set-up, see previous scene where Mok Ha gets a clue.
Ditto, no frontal revelation, the screenwriter leaves room to breathe to draw out the emotion of the characters before they talk to each other.
28:40 – SUSPENSE!!!!
Will Ran Joo read the script and reveal the truth?
Or play it selfish?
As I write this, I don’t know… Let’s see…
GOSH… The writer knows how to keep the suspense going.
Even when she starts to say “I’m sorry”…
… but we don’t know the rest… ARRGHH.
OK OK OK… She confesses, and it turns into a moving scene. 🙂
I note the screenwriter’s technique of emotional manipulation:
First create anguish and discomfort to get better relaxation later.
BIG BUDGET. I forgot to note this kind of detail.
– Open space for journalists (Woo Hak).
– Production room (Bo Geol).
– Crowd of show audience (Mok Ha).
There are a lot of extras in this drama.
33:27 – Conversation with Seo Joon.
Interesting, underlines the blindness of the fan (fanatical) mind. They vote for Mo Rae without hearing her sing, without even finishing listening to Mok Ha.
Mo Rae’s vocals: I appreciate the effort made to make this believable. She has to sing well (because she’s a good singer) but still sound bad or inferior to Mok Ha. To that end, her style is made uuuuh… more stylistic. The kind of annoying style with lots of “ahOoa whAaaWaoo”. 🙂
Whereas Mok Ha’s singing is grounded, simpler, pure.
35:20 – Although Seo Joon is shown as the antagonist, the character is coherent. He guesses the result of the votes and admits the obvious: Mok Ha is a much better singer than Mo Rae. He wants her phone. I suppose he’d like to exploit her? Mmmh. We’ll see. It seems a quick decision, but he’ll have to resolve the conflict with Ran Joo or try to brainwash Mok Ha.
35:44 – The eyes of Seo Joon!!! Sparkling with the desire to make Mok Ha’s talent his own.
36:19 – The suspense is kept to a maximum. Even when she takes the stage, we can’t see who it is because of the spotlights.
NOTE: I was worried that the drama would be too short with 12 episodes. But the end of episode 6 (revealing the playback lie) just accelerated the story greatly!!!
37:35 – Moving parallel between Ki-Ho and Mok Ha.
On the beach… and in the control room.
The song’s lyrics are relevant to the situation. (of course) 😉
To reinforce the emotion, various shots on various spectators (Bo Geol, the parents, Ran Joo, etc.). However, Woo Hak is missing. The screenwriter has eliminated him! Why do you think that is? To avoid the viewer involving him in the positive emotion?
39:40 – Isn’t this the first time in the drama that Bo Geol smiles openly, happily?
40:00 – Continuity and reuse of meaningful content.
Mok Ha says “now I can die in peace” (ref, episode 1).
40:40 – Since Mok Ha was rarely seen on the island, many people joked about: “the drama shouldn’t be called Castaway Diva but Who’s Ki-Ho?”
Here we have the reason why the drama is called that.
The audience naturally refers to Mok Ha as “Castaway Diva”.
Woo Hak leaves the office, angry, instead of happy for her?
41:25 – Ran Joo had shown Mok Ha her technique before.
She uses it here: always be in the toilets after the broadcast!!!! 🙂
Very funny, Mo Rae also knows this technique.
Surprising way to enrich the scene.
44:40 – A touching moment as Mo Rae embraces one of her fans.
The scriptwriter suggests a theme at 33:27.
She gives a point of view, blind fans. And offers a counterpoint, on the sincerity of fans (emotional bond with the idol).
46:10 – The assistant has a good idea (and so does the scriptwriter, Wow!): the first autograph is a stock market investment. Shamelessly, Bo Geol steals the idea and rushes to get the first autograph for him. He’s confident it’ll be worth billions one day. So he’s confident she’ll succeed.
46:55 – SUSPENSE in front of the elevator.
Will the screenwriter use the cliché: he gets on his elevator while she gets off hers, and they miss each other?
NO, instead she uses: Mok Ha has escaped up the stairs like a little mouse…. and by chance can spy on a serious scene, which should reveal a lot of truths.
The argument between Bo Geol and Woo Hak.
Again, no direct revelation, Mok Ha learns who Ki Ho is alone.
49:00 – After a superb sequence of scenes, flashback to “you’ll attract the crazies”, leading to Mok Ha seeing Ki Ho’s father in front of the building.
51:45 – Flashback. Still in the spirit of “Ki Ho assumes his role behind the scenes”, he had arranged for Mok Ha to live on the roof. We see him smiling too.
53:30 – Mok Ha turns off her phone. ARGH. What does she want? Protect Ki Ho? Take matters into her own hands? Damn-it.
53:45 – Yeah, she’s going it alone. The nerve. Reckless.
55:10 – AaaahhhRG. It was SUCH a bad idea for her to talk to him. He uses advanced interrogation techniques and traps her easily. He can certainly read the lies out of her so easily. First his experience with people who lie. And then she’s socially inexperienced from 15 years on a desert island. On the other hand, it’s remarkably well thought out script-wise and coherently.
56:45 – There, now in the cab, she’s devastated and realizes she’s totally screwed up.
Just small details, but so good, from a scene-writing point of view:
The cabbie asks “where are you going?”, and in her panic attack she asks “where am I going now?”.
57:45 – Another excellent sequence of scenes.
Ran Joo looks at her smartphone, astonished (but we can’t see, SUSPENSE). Then we see the message, linked with voice-over and Mok Ha’s situation at the station. THEN it goes on like that, back to Ran Joo, then back to Mok Ha (the next day, it’s daytime), still with the voice-over of the smartphone message.
1:00:35 – Castaway again… “He won’t find me here”.
Was there a bug indicating her position on the smartphone?
1:06:10 – Mok Ha had lied. She was forced to eat her friend the seagull’s eggs. The scene is moving, though absurd, because– have you ever cried while eating chicken eggs? But the context makes it important. I don’t know about the lives of seagulls, but laying eggs should be easy and regular, shouldn’t it?
The parallel is drawn between the seagull and Ran Joo. Top writing! 😉
The crying scene could take place with Mok Ha alone. But it takes place when a granny asks for her autograph. I don’t know what to call this technique. It transmits emotion to the audience via a witness (who is often moved too). A quick identification process with the witness?
1:07:50 – Bo Geol finds Mok Ha. How?
Series of flashbacks. It’s because of his fans photographing him everywhere.
AWESOME!!! Genius idea, and very much in line with one of the episode’s fan themes. “Surprise first, reveal later” technique, often through a flashback-montage like this one. With the luxury of a first transition: photo on the smartphone, flashback to the real scene.
Additional visual effects, with smartphone pop-ups.
1:08:55 – This episode is huge!!!
Granny asks “your boyfriend?”
He replies “just school friends.” Like he’s revealing he’s Ki Ho!!!
1:09:22 – Scene where Ki Ho reveals to Mok Ha who he is (but she already knows).
Just, I’m salivating to watch this. How is the screenwriter going to shoot this? for emotion and unexpected ideas.
For starters, he follows her into a field of purple flowers. I don’t know why, but it reminds me of something. An earlier analogy in the drama?
Yes, the scene is well-crafted. Woo Hak arrives at the end and sees them kissing. Classic cliché that works until the end of time.
The reconciliation scene is sweet, because the screenwriter first revealed the truth little by little to Mok Ha, distilling emotion in several places. She wasn’t aiming for a cathartic final scene, but rather for tenderness and gentleness.
Oh my….I’ll watch it later while I’m preparing dinner! This I have to watch! I was on episode 6 yesterday and was a little disappoined to find that i had to wait till night time for episode 7 to come out! Finally the reveal and @pm3 was right about who the origianl Ki-ho is!
Great recap, @WEnchanteur. I had the same thought, that one of the brothers had put a tracker app onto Mok-Ha’s phone, but no. They could see approximately where she was, but not exactly. Perfect for Ki-Ho/BG to come sit next to her in the cafe’! “I’ll have what she’s having.” Lol.
I thought the purple flowers looked familiar, too. Were they on the island, too?
As to the seagull’s eggs, I was thinking, if they are like hens, they will lay eggs even if they aren’t fertilized, so if MH ate them, the gull would just lay a few more until it had enough to consider a brood. But I’m not a seagull expert, so I don’t know if they stop after 2? But still, it was a great metaphor.
@Fern, Hi.
The auto-translator made mistakes I didn’t see.
Not “kissing” but “hugging”.
And replaced some “her” by “him”.
Mok Ha could have look for various seagull nests since the beginning, to eat eggs on regular basis. I wonder what other animals were on the island.
Thank you for the review of this episode. Now I want to rewatch it and see all the details you noticed.
Thank you for the review of this episode. Now I want to rewatch it and see all the details you noticed.
I am duplicating this comment so that I can check the right boxes to get the email coming in.
@WE
I lenjoyed reading your breakdown and notes. And I remember you calling flashback to his emotions when they found MH 👏🏼
This was my favorite episode yet.
I really liked how they made the clues MH received—ecology group no longer meeting, BG choosing ocean scene specifically, what BG said to her in his pep talk- as final confirmation for her to know BG=KH without her even questioning it. Those things could still be coincidence but she knew it wasn’t. the official reveal, him saying they were classmates her running and then “I am ki-ho”, was not how I expected it to go but I loved it. He knew she knew and all of that felt like a deeper understanding. She’s been searching for all this time and she finally finds it and then has to say “no! You’re BG”. Fun and interesting to watch and glad it ended in a pretty hug with pretty background.
Just a note on BG actor, I think I may have even written it out during one of our comment discussions on the show Love all Play. He was in that and he smiled a lot and I remember thinking about how @PM always called out the 2ml on start up actor on his smarmy smile (even on variety shows) and noting that this actors smile is so nice and opposite of smarmy. I’m glad they used it as part of the show-the parents were so happy to see it and it had such an effect seeing it finally when he was watching her perform.
Oh and I forgot to mention the seagull part.
I think I’m going to require a breakdown from professor @pm3 because I don’t think I took from it what I should have. First, Gull as a name is a letdown. Scuttle, from The Little Mermaid is how I’ve been referring to him. Second, when she told the story to RJ, all I could think was how did you survive 15 years if you couldn’t eat eggs after 10 days?! Yes, I get having something to attach to (Wilson in castaway) is important but…eggs. So I was glad when she revealed she did actually eat them. But to me, the eating of the eggs was already done. It wasn’t some later betrayal but MH going onstage and singing in the lip sync reveal—what they had to do since their lie was about to be exposed.
@WEnchanteur, auto-translators are diabolical sometimes! I make mistakes even without such apps.
I was mentally yelling at the screen, ‘Mok-Ha, don’t interact with Mr Jung.’
Yes, about eating gull eggs. In reality she would also have to be careful to not decimate the population of gulls or they would die out or move and she would lose another food source.
Out of interest, I have been looking for information on wildlife on the islands south of Korea, but I don’t find any unexpected species. If there were potatoes, surely someone must have lived there or farmed there in the past and they could have left some domesticated animals behind.
I wondered why a storm would have destroyed the potato crop because it is a root after all. If the top is destroyed, it would re-grow. But perhaps it was the amount of rain saturating the soil – it could make them rot. Also, any edible seaweed near the shore might be ripped out by a typhoon. I’ll just have to believe the script.
At the end, I wondered why Mok-Ha simply didn’t tell Ki-Ho/BG why she had run away. To me, at that moment she had no reason to pretend she didn’t know he was Ki-Ho and it would be for his and his family’s safety to tell him.
At birdie007, yes, Ki-Ho/BG’s smile when it finally happens is such a great event.
The mention of the missing family and the pond in episode 8 has now made it very obvious. The question is now how much trouble will the Ki-Ho’s family get into? Will they get convicted of identity theft? Will the deaths of the Kang family be blamed on them. Finally, when the forensics data is revealed, what really happened to the Kang family – accident or murder? It would be an amazing coincidence if the Kang family were somehow killed by Mr Jung. I suppose dash-cam’s were available 15 years ago, but I don’t know if they were common in South Korea.
@Fern, it’s quite a classic in kdrama: people never justify themselves, giving excuses, even when it’s the truth and they have valid reason why they make a mistake, or even when it’s not their mistake but coming from someone else.
@Birdie, to intensify the force of the final hug, we have a IMAGINARY scene. How Ki Ho imagine how have should been his first meeting with Mok Ha on the island. It resonnates a lot with the hug he can finaly gives.
Like you, I think he knows she knows because he prepared that, with the ocean screen, then the small sentence to the granny.
There is such a density of good ideas in this episode. I’m blown away.
Episode 8, first watch.
And of course, LIVE! I don’t know what happens the next minute.
02:16 – Flashback, Bo Geol + Woo Hak.
We go back a bit, in the car.
And Flashback within Flashback, more mysteries revealed:
What happened after he lost his memory.
Bo Geol + Woo Hak continue to speak in voice-over during the flashbacks.
– Some of what they say is omitted. (told through a flashback)
– Another part is heard (often as a transition between flashbacks).
Father assigned to Chumsan Island and goes there with Ki Ho. The mother has to stay in Seoul to look after the brother, as there is no hospital on the island.
About the father, and why he wants to find Ki Ho. We saw in flashback episode 7 that he has a certain pride in his profession “I can catch criminals on the other side of the world”.
Pride blow #1. And here he is, deposed, assigned to Chumsan, THEN dismissed from the police force, turned security guard.
Pride blow #2. He can’t find HIS OWN FAMILY. Even though they’re not criminals, but civilians unprepared to hide.
03:48 – Excellent transition, during Ki Ho’s voice-over.
It gives the impression that it’s the same scene at the same time:
We’re in the room, progressive zoom to the window showing the pier, it’s snowing.
“She told me to come in the spring, but my father caught me every time.”
Still in the same zoom until we go outside and…
… Several months passed, no more snow, Ki Ho walks on the pier.
Such a transition can be:
– Suggested in the screenplay, although camera movements are rare.
– Created by the director, after realizing that the two locations are close.
Continued, Ki Ho after his escape from the island.
A large number of scenes, with superb cinematography. Use of reworked lighting. While drama uses few blurs, here we have some, and not just Gaussian blurs. Also surface blurs, and other types of image processing.
07:08 – I find it strange that Ki Ho isn’t worried that Mok Ha is just dead. That he plans to find her, as if he knows the rest of the script, and that she’s bound to be alive on an island. Yet, right here, he’s building a pyramid out of stones, which is normally a tomb (ref: in Alchemy of Souls).
Reuse ep1, Ki Ho in front of the station, but this time we see his face!!!! We’d already guessed it was him. But the scriptwriter adapts to any audience, even those who wouldn’t have guessed, and shows the explanation.
08:32 – Conflict between the two brothers. Woo Hak wants to hide Mok Ha, so she’ll give up her dream. No way for Ki Ho. As in Start Up, the screenwriter gives CLEAR and EVIDENT signs that Woo Hak won’t get the girl (but a plot twist is still possible, lol).
This sheds light on the situation seen in episode 7 in a new way: they go looking for Mok Ha in the town, as if the first to find her would impose his point of view on her destiny.
11:00 – Oh Shit! Plot-twist. Ahahaha. Woo Hak changes his mind and forbids her to give up her dream. T T… But really, NO? The scene is so well done about Woo Hak’s confusion. By the end, I don’t know what he wants anymore…. 🤪🤪🤪
It’s something I’ve seen before in a kdrama: He wants to forbid her to do something, but she’s already of the same opinion and it destabilizes him. It’s as if he absolutely needs her to be against it, so he has to convince her. Or just because he’s afraid of being wrong, or hopes he is. I don’t know, please, is there someone to explain this to me?! 😂😂😂
13:05 – Ahh, so good. Ki Ho asks Mok Ha to give him some money. Back to episode 1 🙂 +Use (finally) of the autograph (stock market investment).
The acting is really good. I feel like I’m watching the same Ki Ho and Mok Ha as their child versions from episode 1. And of course, the script, able to maintain the coherence of the characters.
15:00 – How to capture interest at every turn.
Ki Ho asks her to write whatever she wants on the autograph.
And of course, we’re dying to know.
She writes… skritch stritch strich… but we don’t see.
15:30 – Dishonest process, jump to another scene. T T
So, we still don’t know what she’s writing. ARGH!!!
I note the screenplay techniques:
– Create a hook in a scene.
– Cut the scene short (mini cliffhanger).
The resolution may take place soon after, but here they’re in the car (continuity), so the revelation seems to be postponed until much later. (at a moment when it’s going to go BANG in relation to what’s happening at that moment)
16:45 – Reuse of the picnic-camping scene seen in flashback earlier. But this time Ki Ho’s dream comes true: with Mok Ha. Just as his dream of cuddling her on the island has come true. The situation evolves around Ki Ho’s dreams, one of which is for her to become a famous Diva.
19:00 – Woo Hak reminds us of the safety rule about their names (yeh, just before, Mok Ha reflexively calls Ki Ho “Ki Ho”). The first thing to sort out is coherent, but the second… sounds more like jealousy! Ki Ho blows him off: “what kind of nutcase is looking for someone he doesn’t care about for 15 years”.
Later, song. It’s a good thing they’re camping alone in the area, because her voice really carries!
24:45 – The mother builds a pyramid with stones. I don’t know what it means. He says it’s for prayers. So, not a tomb?
Flashback of Mok Ha on the island. Superb image, with the tormented sky. No prayer can stop a typhoon. So, prayer is used to find the strength to face the typhoon. Or other difficult events. Here, Ran Joo’s departure. We naturally arrive in Mok Ha’s room at the end. Supported by voice-overs.
Scene order: Camping, Flashback island, Camping, Room, Flashback island, Room.
28:02 – Close-up of Ran Joo’s message:
“Congratulations on your debut – your first fan, Ran Joo”.
BANG!
And so, transition to another message…
28:08 – Mok Ha’s autograph to Ki Ho:
“to my first fan, thank you – Seo Mok Ha”.
BANG!
28:28 – Main title (this late?!)
First fan VS First fan.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
28:50 – Damn-it!!! So Brutal!!!
The barber shop customer is Ki Ho’s father!!!! (Bong Wan)
He stabs the other father (Sang Doo), BUT–
It was a dream. Thanks for the heart attack…
Gives him the idea of removing the family portraits from the barbershop.
It gives me the idea that the scene could become:
BONG WAN: (suspicious) You don’t have any family photos where you work?
SANG DOO: (no matter what he says, he stammers, and fails to lie)
35:52 – Mc Donald product placement.
Bo Geol on Chumsan Island. Hook: what’s he doing here?
37:45 – Hwang Byung Gak [CEO of Suga Entertainment].
Help Mok Ha choose a production company.
39:25 – I thought the grandmother was Ran Jo imagining herself older, but she’s a real person! Her mother? Aaaand YES! But seems to have Alzeimer’s.
42:45 – Ki Ho in the restaurant (former fishmonger’s).
Reveals he’s Ki Ho to the owner. The same guy who told his father off in episode 1. So, I suspect Ki Ho is setting a trap, knowing that this guy is going to do the same thing…
43:55 – … Contact Bong Wan, Ki Ho’s father. 😉
Aaaand YES. He gave false info to the snitcher. He would be a photographer, going all over the country. Making it difficult to find.
But Bong Wan is clever, does he suspect a trap?
47:30 – Mok Ha at Seo Joon’s house. He’s quite friendly.
Of course, as expected, Ran Joo’s situation causes conflict.
Seo Joon uses a well-known persuasion tactic, “hurry up, the opportunity won’t last”.
When Mo Rae waits for Mok Ha at the exit, use of the Fan VS Fan theme.
50:15 – Product placement. Samsung Galaxy.
Ran Joo pummels Mok Ha by doing nothing like this. MOVE!!!
Theme: circumstances change relationships. But not for Mok Ha! Not a matter of circumstance, but of choice-personal change.
52:20 – The restaurant guy admits to having chatted with Ki Ho.
He smiles, yep, it was part of his plan. “What did my dad say?”, the resto man recounts…
53:12 – … Flashback transition and he says it in person. Series of Bong Wan – Ki Ho shots… giving the illusion that the father is telling him face to face. And, yep, the father is clever and has guessed the trap. What a creep!
54:12 – Consistency. Ki Ho does legal research. Nope. No way to get rid of him. He goes so far as to look for “conviction for parricide”.
55:32 – So embarrassing! 🙂
Mok Ha hears the recording of her crying 15 years ago.
58:20 – Genius idea. Ran Joo’s mother answers, but…
… She thinks she’s Ran Joo herself (due to her illness).
1:02:35 – Ran Joo’s mother is used as an opportunity to reconcile Ran Joo and Mok Ha.
1:03:40 – Woo Hak on the phone with Daewong’s wife, in a coma due to the hornet assassination. This plot could lead to a way of getting rid of Ki Ho’s father.
Hey! that woman is Mok Ha’s friend from episode 1! I realize a little late.
Use of the Typhoon theme. For Mok Ha – Ran Joo, and Ki Ho – Bong Wan.
1:08:25 – Wow! Using the previous theme “Circumstances are just an excuse, it’s people who change”. But this time against Mok Ha!!! Mok Ha was proud of not being affected by circumstances and not changing. Ran Joo told her “You won’t change, and will run away again (in other circumstances that scare you)”.
Ran Joo gives up the 20 millions record sells and Parts of the company?!!
1:10:30 – Gosh, the end of the episode hits hard!!!
Ki Ho goes straight to his father!!!
Well ok, now he’s bigger and beefier than him obviously.
(note: an earlier scene I forgot to note highlighted how much taller Ki Ho is than the adoptive father. Really, nothing gets lost in this drama. Extreme density).
Cliffhanger: Ki Ho closes the door, and it gives a feeling… “Let’s avoid witnesses, because now, it’s me who’s going to beat the shit out of you.”
@Wenchanteur, thank you for the recap and your impressions. I haven’t watched yet, but I am looking forward to the points you raised.
@WE, thank you for a great recap and comments.
Did you see the epilogue scene? (Episode 8)
@SnowFlower… NO…… what a damn idea to do epilogue scenes.
I always miss them, SooOOooOOoo painful!!
I see the title, I quit quickly before be spoiled by a preview.
So I watched: it’s a two way dialog.
– Mok Ha speaks about erotic websites.
– Ki Ho takes that about what he was really looking on computer.
VERY GOOD!!
He shouldnt make a mistake a kill his father.
@WE, I liked that epilogue! She is saving him from doing something that will ruin his future.
Darn, I deleted my reply. Yes, what a good episode.
@WEnchanteur, I thought the camping scene in the 7th minute was like a prediction. The tent – a temporary type of home – gets blown up into the air. This could be a prediction of their relatively ordered life getting blown apart. I wondered if the winds were from one of the typhoons remembered by Mok-Ha later in the episode, in addition to the links between people that you mentioned. I liked that idea, that the longer the typhoon stays at sea before making landfall, the stronger it becomes. This translates to misunderstandings and time before they are cleared up. Of course, because it’s a drama, Mok-Ha apologises but doesn’t explain the circumstances to Ran Joo.
The towers made of small stones are a Korean tradition that pre-dates the modern religions. They were meant to invoke the protection and benefits from the mountain gods. I read that even today people will add a stone if they come across one of these constructions out of cultural habit.
It was good to see that the meeting between Mok-Ha and the brothers in the park also gave her a chance to explain to Ki-Ho that she met ‘That man’ – Jung. But Ki-Ho had already recognised him from his back in the internet photo, so he wasn’t surprised.
The money given by the mother to Ki-Ho might be what he used to buy his phone and his video recorder. I had wondered if Mr Jung had given it to him, but perhaps not.
I like the sweet relationship between Mr ‘Kang’ and the two boys. He wants to protect everyone and says it’s the heart, not the size that matters. But he stands on his tiptoes as he says it. What a good character!
It is awful that the statute of limitations for domestic abuse is 5 years, therefore far too long ago to press charges or ask for protection. As to the promise Ki-Ho makes to Mok-Ha about the computer site, I wonder if he is also promising that he won’t commit patricide – the topic of the site that he is hiding from her.
Finally, Ran Joo’s mother. What style! While it’s unlikely that she could so easily motor away from the care home, I enjoyed every minute of her escape.
@Fern, Good point!
I watch the scene again: it makes sense with what’s happening, as a sign of Ki Ho’s inner turmoil. But it also speaks to the theme of the typhoon in the rest of the episode. We could also add the meaning of “uprooted home”.
This kind of element interests me creatively. Because we see that this screenwriter, like my other favorite screenwriters, is an idea machine! When I do the recap, I mention these links when I find them: Local link (intra episodes) or general, hyper-links (inter episodes). I don’t know the official name for this. I call it “correlations” and it’s not necessarily related to plot or cause and effect. It reinforces meaningful coherence and increases density.
It’s the kind of idea that comes naturally by inspiration. For example, if you have a “tormented character”, you’re bound to have a “gust of wind”. Likewise for a sad character: “It’s raining”. This illustrates a meaning of the scene, which after analysis also makes sense for the overall story.
It can also come from a conscious action, once the scriptwriter has worked out her episode. Like asking herself the question “How do you announce the idea of a typhoon?”. And she finds that precise moment, doing double duty.
What’s incredible is when the idea is connected to several meanings, several links. And if you take the whole episode, between the logic of the plot and this kind of idea, you arrive at a coherent whole that seems impossible to create, so complex is it. The story crystallizes.
I often come across this kind of phenomenon. The kind of ideas that come from inspiration, and carry a wider meaning, which I only understand afterwards. And sometimes, the inspiration comes afterwards (so it’s a scene modification), because I ask myself the question “How can I enhance this element better?”. Right now, I’d like to be more inspired to use this after writing. (i.e., in the revision, editing or rewriting phase).
I’ll give a striking example: I have a character who is sprayed with water three times, episodes 5, 6, 9. It’s a rather strange occurrence. Here’s how it happened:
– The first time seems logical, in terms of the plot. I needed the character to fall from a height, but without being hurt. It’s natural for him to fall into the water.
– The second time is haphazard. A friend plays a cruel joke on the character: he empties a bottle of water over his head to wake him up. And I ask myself, why would he do that? I don’t even know why exactly. I can think of one reason: the friend is tired or has a habit of teasing the character (big-brother – little-brother relationship). It makes sense locally (intra-episode). But when I review the script and look to remove what’s unnecessary… I’m about to remove that. But I can’t, some kind of intuition tells me not to.
– The third time is an even crueler joke. The heroine sprays the character with water from head to toe! Immediately after I get the idea, I think of dismissing it. It’s too excessive. But I find various reasons to keep the idea: the heroine is excessive, it’s shocking so surprising so good impact for a scene, she needs it for a “personality test”. It makes local sense. (intra episode).
So much for the local sense. But plot-twist… Several months later, by chance, I read an article on the symbolic meaning of water. It’s the meaning of baptism, heralding an important inner change in someone.
FLASH in my mind, I make the connection with this bizarre use of the character being sprayed with water three times. I reread the script, and made this frightening observation: every time this happens, it’s just before an important change in the character, the kind of event that turns his life upside down.
There, I’ve got the general sense, the hyper-link. A major correlation.
I say it’s magic, because our minds contain a great deal of symbolism. And dreams, by the way, are essentially a symbolic language. In this way, even when we don’t know the reason for an intuitive choice, it’s likely to be a meaningful one, as long as it comes from deep inspiration, and not a quick intellectual choice.
I often say that a story is a portrait of the soul because of this. But not all stories are like that. Mechanically conceived stories don’t have that power.
@WEnchanteur, yes absolutely to the idea that some writers are idea machines and we as readers or viewers are so grateful for the density of correlations or themes, plus clues and subtleties that inform us. There is no need to spell it out when the writer has this ability. When beautiful language or unforgettable dialogue is added this increases the impact.
I have to admit that I over-think dramas sometimes, but the details are part of the enjoyment for me.
When you say mechanically conceived stories, so you mean stories made with AI?
@Fern, not AI but formulaic and without inspiration. Well, the result would be like AI, so your comment make sens. Human producing story like AI would do.
@WEnchanteur, I have no doubt that somewhere on www there’s an app that writes or drafts stories given some standard themes. What a strange world, eh?