The thread is open.
I hope there’s no last-minute time leap.
If ever BoGyeol and MokHa have to separate so she can accelerate her changeover from castaway to diva, I want the separation to come sooner rather than later. That way their parting can be treated as an interlude and we have more time for their sweet reunion and more time to tie up loose ends. I don’t want a kdrama to feel rushed.
BTW, do you know why I like this director and writer combo?
To make us fall in love with the hero, they don’t have to resort to sleazy shower scenes with the hero brooding under the shower with rivulets of water rolling down his naked torso.
I told y’all that those shower scenes are so insulting to Bitches like us. Like what now? They believe they can fool us into thinking the story is great just because they flash us some skin?? Do I really have to sit through this forced voyeurism which is uncomfortable and icky to watch?
Just give us broad shoulders, big hands, and sincere smiles (and heck, NO smarmy, dimply smiles like Kim SeonHo’s! 🤮) and we’re fine.
Let’s enjoy the show.
@pkml3 Thanks! And Yes! I want the separation to come sooner too and to have many sweet moments towards the end when our OTP and family can get together without the social ‘taboos’ of associating with ‘criminals’. 🙂
🍜🍲🍛🍣🍱🥪🥙🌮🥗🥘🍧🍏🍊🍇🍈🍒🥛🍪☕🍩🧉🌮🫖🍰
BTW, if you didn’t already notice all the emojis in the WAWW in Dec thread… I’m making a request to open a thread for cdrama: ‘Love Me Love My Voice’.
It’s 33 episodes long. At first I was thinking 1 thread for all, but perhaps that’s hard with spoilers… Could we please have five threads of 6 episodes each and the last thread for 3 episodes?
🍜🍲🍛🍣🍱🥪🥙🌮🥗🥘🍧🍏🍊🍇🍈🍒🥛🍪☕🍩🧉🌮🫖🍰
Thanks for the final thread and also for your take on male sexual exploitation. Unless it is needed for the drama, the gratuitous shower scene should go. I’m no prude, but I always wonder if these actors are comfortable or if they feel pressured and can’t say no. Same for actresses. Of course, if they have a show-off personality and have worked out hard so they can feel proud, then it’s fine.
Ep 11, live first watching.
04:00 – Woo Hak helps Mok Ha answer journalists’ questions.
05:30 – Seo Joon’s advice: “You can be a bit of a coward”.
Theme about sincerity. Mok Ha disagrees, prefers to be herself.
We’ll see the consequences later.
Makes me think of the psychological role of the “persona”, the mask that everyone wears depending on the situation. Particularly public situations, work, social groups, etc…
Important: Seo Joon requests that Ran Joo speak at the press conference.
06:10 – They suspect a journalist, who seems curious and vicious. Met him in previous episode, when he was stalking Seo Joon.
AH! I remembered, but since he’s a new character, the writer is kind enough to give us the flashback. Thanks, Mrs. PHR 😉
This guy is here to ask some VERY embarrassing questions, certainly.
Tension: press conference sabotage ahead.
07:00 – Tension builds, Ran Joo weakens.
No press conference for 12 years. The last one was about gambling. lol.
It was in the same room! ahaha. Like a bad omen.
07:25 – The press conference seen in flashback.
Detail: She raises her voice! Ref: previous scene, Woo Hak’s advice, “don’t raise your voice”.
Conclusion: she’s terrible at press conferences.
This increases the tension…
08:50 – They sit down at the conference table.
It’s interesting, with ONE situation that could be quick, a bunch of elements have been set up to make the situation interesting, and risky.
To maintain the unease: a brief glance from Seo Joon to the journalist.
12:20 – The suspicious journalist asks a question! (trap?)
This ends well, but on a difference of opinion between Mok Ha and Ran Joo.
Mok Ha thinks Ran Joo can return to the top. Ran Joo doesn’t.
14:00 – Title: Take VS Give.
14:10 – Waaaahf… The articles say the opposite of what they revealed.
They’re just looking for Buzz.
Twist: the reporter didn’t lie, only, he’s just saying what he spied from Seo Joon.
17:00 – Good scene of a couple (or ex-couple) arguing.
18:00 – Here, subtleties about the title.
Ran Joo compares herself to a fruit tree. “I give.” And laments that she gets nothing, and others just “take” what she gives.
20:00 – Previous episode, Ran Joo’s mother was going to reveal something to Ran Joo. But she forgets. Could it be this? Did she reveal it to Mok Ha?
23:00 – Theme! Ran-Joo tells her mother “you’ve given me everything”.
… and adds “And I took everything”.
Woof! Moving. This scene gives me goosebumps:
Ran Joo has forgotten the words to her mother’s song.
29:00 – The whole family risks jail and losing their house…
30:36 – Mok Ha writes something (I guess: mother’s song).
An idea I’ll use for the drama:
She should write very badly, because of 15 years without writing.
(that said, it doesn’t explain the mystery of doctors who write badly)
31:00 – Hornet attack victim wakes up.
(I bet he didn’t see the attacker…)
A little tip: sick in bed transitions scene with…
(match cut) Ran Joo’s mother in hospital bed.
36:40 – End of difficult interrogation moment…
… chained with storm in the sky.
(Let’s think of the writer as a kind of god, making the weather based on emotional circumstances or story foreshadowing, lol)
Oops, that was just a short scene, back to the interrogation.
Interesting that the father’s classic “psycho-killer” plot becomes legal-drama. (ahem, though classic too).
The father “someone stole my family”… This kind of argument can easily be defeated.
Then “I want to show I’ve changed”. ahahah!!! What about the Ki Ho recording??!
The prosecutor is GREAT!!!
41:50 – Children enter for questioning.
Father (thematic): “I gave my life for my sons”.
44:10 – After the storm comes the rain.
Does this mean the end of the difficult moment? The rain symbolizes something here.
Truth? Relief?
44:35 – Same process, it was a transition, used for the symbolic nature of the weather.
It’s also moving towards the resolution of the hornet case.
Deawong’s testimony shatters. Good logic, 4 months in a coma, so it was the day before for him, easy to remember the discussion.
49:00 – Mok Ha has blue umbrellas for everyone.
Maybe the BLUE umbrella means something.
49:40 – The father, without an umbrella, in the rain.
His ex-wife gives him her umbrella.
51:50 – Ran Joo sings her mother’s song in front of her mother. Nice lyrics. I guess the screenwriter wrote the song lyrics.
1:02:35 – The family receives letters from the prosecutor.
They read. Suspense… No answer, end of scene. YOOO:!!
Ki Ho calls Mok Ha “we have the verdict”.
DITTO, no answer. YOO!!
The father receives his letter…
… Rictus, no answer. YOOO!
1:06:20 – Infamous. Ran Joo discovers that Seo Joon has doctored the sales figures, and that she had already sold her 20 million records.
1:07:00 – Voice-over about people who don’t take responsibility for their unhappiness, and pass it on to others (who make others suffer rather than question themselves).
Result of the verdict: the family acquitted.
The father takes a knife (we don’t know his verdict?). My bet: if he can’t take revenge, he’ll kill himself. I predict his suicide now, or later.
1:08:35 – Hugs between Ki Ho and Mok Ha.
The mood tells me this could result in a KISS!
Let’s see……..
Won !!!!!!!!!!
1:12:52 – After moments of everyone being happy, we guess the father under the blue umbrella, spying on Woo Hak in a pastry shop.
1:13:42 – Mother’s line to freak us out: “What’s taking them so long?
1:14:16 – Really well thought out.
The stabbing moment is invisible, seen from above, just the umbrellas crossing.
(I just happen to have a scene to write with an umbrella seen from above).
Neck artery injury? He’s going to die…
What’s with this crowd of idiots???!
Not one of them is protecting him with an umbrella? When he’s about to go into hypothermia?
Last picture: the “I’ll always love you” cake.
Hi @WE, I just watched Episode 11 quickly. I didn’t bother much with the press conference, guessing that the reporters would make it difficult for the 2 ladies.
Yes, a lot of rain this episode. So much so that I’m not sure of its significance. Probably just saying that when it rains it pours with regards to all the conflict that crops up for all the protagonists.
With regards to Givers and Takers, Mok Ha is happier as a Giver. She makes the choice to give without regrets. She does not bother to count the cost, but goes for what is right and more loving. It’s amazing that a girl who only had a normal life for 16 years and then was alone for 15, could have garnered so much wisdom just thinking on her own. She sounds so much more mature than most of the adults.
Ran Joo was so used to thinking of herself as a Giver that it came as a shock that her mother had given up her singing career for her. So inadvertently she’d become a Taker. But that’s the thing about every child and their ‘good’ parent, isn’t it. Parents do need to give. Although her mum’s sacrifice was big, she was like Mo Ha ie mum gave up her career happily and lived off the success that RJ had. I’m glad that she got to see one concert of RH singing her new single before she died.
The real bad Taker is Evil Jung who is projecting his ‘taking’ on his family. He claims that Dad Kang took his family away and wants to Take them back by force of law, refusing to see that he scared them/drove them away himself.
The other not so bad Taker is Woo Hak. He is fortunately mostly harmless, but he does tend to put his own interests first as we can see from his reactions. He’s become more the big brother now and is less petty and childish with Ki Ho (thank heavens!)
There’s really nothing wrong with being a Taker, as long as one does not take by force. Taking usually does require that others are willing to give. There should always be mutual give and take. Givers wouldn’t be happy either if no one would take from them LOL.
The good example of mutual give and take are Dad Kang and Mum Song, who cooperated to protect the family. There is also of course Ki Ho, who is a good Giver par excellence, since young. Mok Ha is a great recipient/Taker as well as Giver in her own stead. They make a compatible couple.
I have to say that I enjoyed the kisses in this show. The right look and smile by MH/Park Eun Bin to show her total joy and confidence, and the answering assurances in Ki Ho’s slower smile and response kisses. It felt so right to celebrate the right and fair ruling, and the start of their officially becoming a couple. 🙂
@GB, I could only take a few notes while watching.
And when they jump to my eyes, some screenwriting tricks.
But really, we could just take the whole episode and write the transcript.
So many good lines. Like:
In interrogation room, when the father admit:
“I’ll punish them first, then I could show my regrets” (approximatively)
@GB. I commented about the idea of mutual give and Take on the thread on givers. I enjoyed reading your ideas here.
@WE. I particularly noted the line Of dialogue you mentioned. He certainly did not understand the idea of mutuality. He has to take first and only then can he give. Warped mentality.
@MM, about the father, I take him like that:
“I make you believe I give you something, but my purpose is to take you everything!”.
He always does this blackmail. Emotional blackmail. Put pressure on people:
“Hey, I gave you that! SO, now shut up, and let me take you everything you have”.
We can say it’s “fake giving” with purpose “to take”.
But it’s very true. Really you meet people like this in real life.
And going further: question yourself about your motivations when you give.
I did that! Tons of times. To see deep down what I was really doing.
Also, I saw some people, always wanting to be the “good looking people giving, involved in humanitarian causes”, when they were just selfish crap!
So, of course, I’m quite suspicious about leftists of this world… 🙂
I’ve just finished watching Episode 12 and this Show really knows how to give us the warm fuzzies. If ever there was a happy ending, this was it and Show did it right. Not too sweet, but everyone in their element, back where they belong. I liked the Epilogue of sorts and the last shot of Mok Ha.
Episode brought together all the themes and threads of thought of the Writer, such as what makes family and a good dad, the right waiting for wishes to come through and not cutting ties too soon, destiny (they call it fate) which is something worked for and being happy givers instead of being selfish.
Heartily satisfying! 🙂
Mok Ha is such a fountain of wisdom! Loved her attitude and advice. I see the show as a parable of hope, fidelity, and resilience. So well done!
Ep12, LIVE watching.
It feels so good to be about to watch an episode, 99% sure you’ll enjoy it.
01:15 – The family talks for a long time about Deawong in a coma. I suppose this will come in handy later. In his coma dreams: his threatening wife. A joke? Yet, seems true. +his wife would say threats to him during her visits. Would he have heard them?
“Her threats woke you up.”
“I’m more afraid of my wife than of death”.
03:30 – Father (Jung) looks at his family photo, writes a letter. Smells like a suicide note. + Crying. + Close up bloody knife.
03:55 – Voice-over of his letter. Beginning only (to be continued). “My sons, my last gift, you will bear these names”.
04:21 – Voice-over continues during: family in hospital. “If I kill your adoptive father (before he marries), you will bear my name forever”. How rotten!
04:58 – Jung VO: “He’ll die without family or friends”. The irony being that the police find Jung alone (unconscious? dead?). Suicide by medication.
05:32 – Jung VO: “I couldn’t be a good father, but I’m happy to be one when I’m dead”. Even in death, he considers it right to sabotage his family.
Screenplay: different scenes in different places, but flow maintained by voice-over.
06:10 – Ki Ho at the morgue. Unwraps a corpse. He looks, “it’s him”. We don’t see who! But Jung certainly. Successful suicide! (+ kiss on my hand, I guessed he’d end up like that)
The fact that they have to keep Jung’s name upsets everyone. Kang must survive! To adopt them!
08:15 – Ki Ho at Kang’s bedside. “You’re the only father I’ve got”.
Then everyone comes to talk to him in his coma (ref: first scene).
09:50 – Woo Hak cries at Kang’s bedside. More affected than Ki Ho.
General: Woo Hak is more attached to Kang (thanks to his amnesia) than Ki Ho. This was seen in many scenes in the drama.
10:12 – Kang and his wife but… In black and white!
On the funereal side? or for the gray? Idea of a coma dream.
(I use gray in one of my scenes, catatonic character)
Great idea: they’re taking a wedding photo (ref to black and white).
11:16 – Gosh! The scriptwriter (or the director?) delights.
Insert in the dream: the wedding photo in color.
Then back to black and white.
Why color? Since the symbol of coma is gray, the color is an announcement of something that could wake him up from the coma.
His wife talks about her dream, encourages him and…….
12:08 – (ahah!) Back to reality, she finishes her sentence at his bedside.
Conclusion: he hears what is said to him in the coma, and this guides his dreams. (ref: scene 1)
12:28 – Kang’s wife: “Getting married, that’s my dream”.
I appreciate the irony, since we’re talking about Kang’s dreams in a coma. The wife’s dream (figurative sense) becomes Kang’s dream (literal sense).
12:44 – Kang wakes up. No more time for this situation. Hey! Normal. And Mok-Ha the diva?!
14:57 – An assassin’s blow from the scriptwriter!!!
On Jung’s ash box: “No friends or family”.
Irony strikes hard! 🙂
15:02 – Title: Chance VS Destiny.
Strange, we’ve already had a similar title in a previous episode?
15:20 – Mok Ha on the island. Maybe a bit crazy.
Hears fans screaming at one of her concerts.
Ok: foreshadowing for the rest 😉
15:34 – Enchains with her in bed. So, it was a dream.
Not quite awake, she holds out her hand, as if responding to the fans.
A lot of (figurative) dreams in real dreams.
16:26 – Paintings and photo of her room. (already seen before)
Certainly significant stuff in the bunch.
18:00 – Mok Ha works in a warehouse.
Did her Diva project fall through?
She says it’s to feed the family.
19:20 – Woo Hak reinstated at work.
On-the-noze line: “You reinstated me.”
(no time to waste, hence the use of “on-the-noze”).
20:10 – Ki Ho at work (reinstated?)
But under his real first name!
22:00 – Woo Hak “I’ve decided to be more expressive”.
(after saying “I love you to mom dad”)
Tells Ki Ho the importance of expressing his feelings.
Otherwise, causes regrets.
22:40 – Ran Joo preparing lawsuit to get her shares back.
50-50 success. Lawyer: “it’s a question of tenacity”.
24:45 – Seo Joon swapped songs because title “in the light” is too bright for Mok Ha. His new song “we are one”. Mok Ha not happy. Ran Joo “he’s passing the garbage on to us”.
27:20 – Gag! It seems Mo Rae isn’t happy with the exchange either.
27:42 – Seo Joon explains that it’s a rational choice and why. Not an emotional choice (like Ran Joo’s).
28:55 – Amusingly, after an argument (misunderstanding), Mok Ha and Mo Rae become awkward accomplices (since the problem comes from Seo Joon).
29:40 – Twist: Seo Joon isn’t as rotten as we think.
It was Ran Joo’s mother who tore up the share paper because: she wanted Ran Joo to be a singer, not CEO.
30:25 – WooWoo. He sets the bar very high. “if Mok Ha isn’t first with her song, I’ll quit and give up my shares”
33:34 – I note, to be reviewed for scene-order. Before, Mok Ha listens to the song. Then here flashback to previous conversation with Seo Joon. Ran Joo has to promise that she’ll respect Mok Ha’s choice.
33:38 – Mok Ha liked the song.
To respect the choice she says “yes” but “let’s think about it”. ahah.
I have a doubt about the logic of this mishmash, and what Ran Joo wants in there.
34:45 – Woo Hak is simpler: “just take the two songs”. 🙂
Continuation (summary): Woo Hak understands that Ki Ho has been looking after Mok Ha more than him. In short, he’ll be more like a brother to her.
41:01 – Mok Ha (VO): “I liked to think that if I made a very strong wish, it would come true”.
Continued: “Today, I prefer: it will happen unexpectedly.”
Then, the voice-over continues on this theme. Difference between what happens quickly, and what happens unexpectedly a long time later.
Use of banal scenes during this time.
Then Mok Ha listens to a song on the roof.
We’re in the soft, slow part of the episode. T T
44:12 – Nice trick: the lyrics of the song she’s writing are displayed in the night sky. And correlation, one line says “in the dark sky the stars shine”.
45:40 – Ki Ho and Mok Ha. Woo Hak (VO) on the importance of expressing your feelings. Certainly introducing a declaration of love! BUT–
(I was fooled, too obvious) before, theme!
Note: how to make a scene more unpredictable.
“do you think it’s a CHANCE I found you on this desert island?”
Next Mok Ha knows it depends on perseverance (ref: tenacity for Ran Joo trial).
Possible plot-hole: the study of ocean streams could give an idea of where she’d run aground. And the navy could have used that. These are constant streams, since Mok Ha’s father washed up on the same island.
46:46 – Mok Ha, “You’ve tried so hard that it’s not CHANCE, it’s DESTINY”.
Here, destiny is applied to things that are concretely planned, with probabilities of success. We could say that “we provoke luck”.
End of scene: no declaration (or a discreet one).
51:30 – I’m a bit confused about the whole song-swapping thing, who writes the lyrics to what, who wants which song for whom, etc. ^^
53:51 – Mo Rae is pictured on a giant screen, while:
Parents take a selfie in front of a small poster “Fly away”, Mok Ha’s song, and–
A drawing (not a photo) of her on the island.
55:15 – Mo Rae’s manager wants to join Mok Ha’s team because “I want to have fun for the next ten years”. (ref episode where Mok Ha talks about having fun for ten years). Life lesson learned for him. And how to give an extension/confirmation to the narrative.
Mok Ha happy no matter what. Just win a place on the hit parade, or sing at a minor festival.
59:22 – They’re blowing up balloons, not green but blue! Hand them out etc.
1:00:55 – Back to the cooler story. 🙂
1:04:00 – A lot of it revolves around anxious questions about the future. Instead of being serene and acting minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day.
“The ray of sunshine erased all the unanswered questions”.
No need for psychotherapy, just watch this drama. It’s less twisted and less boring, and at least you don’t risk getting ripped off. 😀
1:05:45 – On phone, Ran Joo + Seo Joon.
Ran Joo “let’s wait for the shares, Mok Ha could be number one like you said”.
I’m lost about this part.
I feel this “shares” plot will be without answer at the end of the drama.
1:06:46 – Fan cheers and applause and–
When she takes the stage and the microphone, the director creates a shivering, slow-motion atmosphere with a deep sound-effect.
Followed by typical Start-up “accomplishment” music! 🙂
1:08:20 – Last song of the drama. I’m hoping for something stunning…
Starts with:
“how long I’ve been lost”
Literally (lost on the island) or figuratively (lost in life). I’m not detailing the rest, I’m guessing it’ll be very meaningful, summing up some of the drama’s themes. Or a message of hope.
1:10:35 – Ki Ho in production. I guess he can turn a small festival event into something huge, catapulting her number one.
By the way, I realize it’s not that small, there are 3 big bleachers!!!!
And we see a kind of big arena??!
OH SHIT!!! Back to:
1:10:06 – An AWESOME trick I missed.
Mok Ha raises her hand toward spotlight.
(ref: like when she wakes up from the dream on island)
Next: Flashback island, hand toward the sun then–
JUST when she sings the word “Fly Away” (figurative: becomes the superstar)
The concert hall changed and she’s in a stadium !!!
+The sunray, exactly what she said before, “erased unanswered questions”.
Gosh, it’s screenwriting at the very top!
1:12:08 – The screams of the fans (ref: her dream on the island)
Followed by end title, but– sequel scene.
Shots: 5 trophies, all for “fly away, song of the year”.
So she was number one. 😉
Then photos on the wall. Transition : last one dissolves to real…
Next: A slice-of-life scene, which is nevertheless a pleasure to watch.
I remember that half of the last episode of Pinocchio was this kind of scene (after the drama). Park Hye Ryun is gifted at making them moving to watch.
View of Seoul… THE END.
This kdrama is done but I’ll still do my usual episode write-ups. If a thread is password-protected, it merely means I’m adding finishing touches to it. Just come back later. Thanks. –pm3
I finally finished this drama. As @Wenchanteur says, it was very well crafted. The writer and director left no loose ends – Givers, in the sense that they gave us more than we expected. The morality of the show was spot on and with minimal preaching.
The detective in charge of Jung’s stalking charge interview was more impartial than I had anticipated and I think his eyes were further opened at that interview to Jung’s character.
I was also cheering that the inquiring official for the identity theft interviews ‘got’ the family’s situation in a method worthy of King Solomon. The ‘I do everything to get my family back’ defense was not sufficient as it may have been (socially and legally) 16-20 years before. After the verdict, the children changing their names to match their adoptive father’s was icing on the cake.
I found it interesting that the show explored the differences between the 2 abusive fathers rather than equating them – although both cases were despicable,
one could be pitied while the other could never be forgiven.
We got a clearer picture from Kiho himself of his efforts to find Mok-Ha. He has to spell it out to his brother, but Mok-Ha had already understood all of it.
The future seems set for the renewed friendships between Mok-Ha and her school mate and there is a potential for cordial support between her and her one-time rival Eun Mo-rae.
@packmule3, thank you for the posts of this drama. It was indeed satisfying.