Sorry for the delay. There was chaos everywhere….
I did a rough timeline here: When the Phone Rings: Ep 4 My Commentary, Part 1
Let’s continue.
5. The interview
Since @GB doesn’t have access to the subbed episode, I’ll just go over what transpired during the job interview of HeeJoo (HJ).
SaEon (SE) doesn’t plan on personally attending the interview; he intends to watch it behind closed doors. However, as he watches the taped interview, he notices that HJ’s sign interpretation is uncannily quick – almost in-sync with his prepared speech. So, he decides to go into the interview room, and confront her about it.
His unexpected arrival flusters the staff and the test-takers.
Sidenote: this director has a trick which is similar to the “Goblin” effect. Remember when Gong Yoo walked out of the smoky tunnel in “Goblin”? Viewers were all entranced. Well, in this kdrama, the director also makes SE’s entrance dramatic by showing him striding into the room in slow motion. The slow motion gives his entrance a regal air. He only requires a crown, scepter, and fur-lined cape, to appear as if he’s about to proclaim a royal decree to thundering applause.
This director’s slo-mo trick brainwashes the viewers to view SE as a force to be reckoned with. He’s the man who always gets a standing ovation.
In stark contrast, HJ enters the room like a ghost.
In the interview room, SE begins to grill HJ.
SE: Candidate number 24, interpreter Hong HeeJoo, I want you to answer the questions I ask honestly.
Note the way that SE addresses HJ as a number. Here, he calls her 24. On the phone, he calls her 406 after the area code on the blackmailer’s phone. Calling her by a number highlights their impersonal relationship. It’s no wonder that at the end of this episode, HJ expresses bitterness since she regards herself as nonentity in his life. However, as 406, she can – at least – exert control and wield some authority over him. As I’ve said before, HJ suffers from an inferiority complex all her life.
BTW, 406 is the area code for Montana, a state known for its national parks, wildlife, and rugged nature. I’m not surprised when the killer was shown in Episode 3 gutting a fish. It’s in keeping with the character/personality the storyteller wants to project about SE’s would-be assassin. He’s untamed, brutal, and cold-blooded. If he could, he’d ripped apart SE with his bare hands.
To me, the implicit message here is that our suave and civilized hero is dealing with vicious enemies, so he has no option but to become savage like them in order to protect his one and only weakness, HJ.
Anyway, I digress….
SE: Did you know the script in advance? It wasn’t simultaneous interpretation. I noticed that you signed before I even spoke sometimes. How will you explain this?
HJ: (signs) I practiced to these videos.
SE: If that’s the case, can we test you with a different video?
We already know that she’s been practicing to all his videos. Thus, whatever video is thrown at her, she can interpret with ease. In no time, she impresses everyone in the room. Everyone except SE. Instead of being awestruck, he’s thrown for a loop. He thought he knew everything about her after all these years. So, he continues to interrogate her.
SE: Why have you memorized all the videos?
HJ: (signs) I practiced a lot with your videos.
SE: (skeptical) They were chosen at random, regardless of the year or content. But your hands move at the same speed and timing as my voice. Is that a coincidence? It’s not just once or twice.
HJ: (confused by his accusatory, almost aggressive, line of questioning)
SE: Interpreter Hong Heejoo, answer my question.
HJ: (signs) …
The interpreter whispers HJ’s reply in SE’s ear. Why? Because the word HJ signs is “micchyeosso” and it isn’t a polite word used in formal settings.
Sidenote: Viewers have wondered about SE’s ability to do sign language and speculated that he’s feigning ignorance. I think this moment confirms that SE truly doesn’t know sign language.
SE: What did you just say?
HJ: (stalls)
SE: Interpreter Hong HeeJoo!
HJ: I said I did it because I was crazy.
In English, the word “crazy” is an anodyne word; it’s acceptable in everyday conversation. Although “miccheyosso” can be properly subbed as going crazy/loco/mad and we won’t blink an eye, in Korean, it lacks decorum. It would be equivalent to saying that she went “bat-shit” crazy.
That’s why the room is stunned and begins giggling.
HJ: (signing again) I was obsessed with your briefings, Mr. Paik. I’ve dreamed of becoming a sign language interpreter for a government agency. That became excessive….
SE: This is the result of intense practicing?
She then explains how his upper lip and upper teeth move in particular during his talking points. Lol. She sounds very technical, but if I were him, I’d be embarrassed to know that my wife-in-name-only is studying my lips, especially when I did this to her mouth the previous day.
Remember this scene from the Episode 3?
She goes on to say that she can predict the consonants from the sounds his tongue made against the roof of his mouth. Lol. I don’t know if she’s aware that she’s revealing to her husband-in-name-only that she’s obsessed about his mouth. It sounds a bit…Sexy? Weird? Carnal? Improper? Creepy?
SE: So, as soon as I open my mouth…no, wait… your hands move faster when you predict it? And you studied it that obsessively?
Do you hear that? He’s momentarily distracted because lips and mouths are considered sexy parts of the body (unlike say, feet and elbows).
It’s awkward for him to learn that she’s been obsessively studying his lips because they live as a couple in a sexless marriage. He must be feeling exposed…like finding out that his next-door neighbor has a view of his bedroom from her living room. But since he must maintain his professional image, he redirects the focus from the movement of his mouth to her hand gesture.
HJ: I mimicked, practiced, and dug into it.
SE: (looking down) But… can you not speak at all?
His question is the reason that most viewers believe that he’s already a) dropped by the police station, b) seen the tape of her in panic mode, yelling to be let out of the car, and c) discovered her secret.
But as I said in my previous thread, he couldn’t have time that morning to attend to her father’s move to the new retirement home AND visit the police station as well. Also, unless the costume director made a big mistake and/or there’s a continuity error in the filming, SE was wearing a different suit and tie at the police station.
To me, SE raises the question about her ability to speak because he’s grasping at straws. He’s trying to look for a disqualifying factor in her employment. If she’s to be hired as the interpreter for him, then the office needs to hire still another interpreter as he doesn’t know sign language.
But his chief of staff (COS) promptly sticks up for HJ, saying that she passed the initial review.
SE: (doggedly) If you get the job, how will you communicate with the spokesman’s team?
At this point, his COS texts his colleague waiting outside to inform the rest of the interviewers of a delay. He texts, “I don’t know why he’s fixated.”
I agree. To casual onlookers, SE’s interrogation appears nitpicky, biased, even hostile. He’s been shooting off question after question. Though he sounds like he wants to expose her as unsuitable for the job, I think the reason he’s relentless is because he can’t believe that he’s been that clueless about her all along. She caught him off-guard, and he’s forced to see her in a different light.
HJ: (placatory) Can you use sign language? If you can’t, I’ll teach you. You need to learn so you can see whether we interpreters are conveying your message properly. If the nuance is off, you can correct it right away. Sign language isn’t difficult. If you learn it, there won’t be issues communicating with me either.
The COS nods in approval. SE responds that they’ll discuss that if she gets the job. For now, he wants to test her one final time.
SE: Finally, I want to test you on something. I’ll read a document that you’ve never seen before on the spot. Can you do it?
HJ: (signing) Yes.
Then, he reads a document.
SE: Couple’s Day is a national observance established to remind of the importance of marital relationships and to encourage the building of harmonious families. There’s a couple here now.
He closes his eyes. The scene cuts away from the interview room to a dark and private room with only the two of them.
SE: The two have lived without being able to open to each other. Would things have been different if they had been more honest and shown their true feelings? If they try to make an effort now, could they live like any other ordinary couple? Yet again today, like how a mind game is played, the couple merely tries to read each other’s mind. The ironic thing is that their behavior is surprisingly similar.
As expected, HJ has no problem keeping up with him. They finish at the same time. He stares at her intently after ending his speech.
Then, like bookends, she closes her eyes, and the scene reverts to the well-lit interview room. There’s a tense atmosphere in the room.
SE: That’s enough. Let’s stop here.
My comments:
1. I like how the director cut away and transported the couple to a different room. On one level, we get that SE and HJ are going through the motions conventionally. That is, he’s delivering a speech while she’s signing. But on another level, we know that he’s communicating to HJ his innermost and unrevealed thoughts about their relationship. I hope that HJ is clued in that he isn’t merely discussing the problems of some hypothetical couple, but is, in reality, talking about the challenge they face as a couple.
2. I also like this scene because there’s another *fun* way of interpreting it. To me, it’s entirely possible that SE doesn’t actually say those words out loud. I mean, he reads the text that HJ has to interpret, but as he’s reading the words aloud, IN HIS MIND, he’s delivering a totally different message for her.
The closing of his eyes signals his entry into his private “headspace” – or mental universe. In this headspace of his, he can express his frustration about their marriage. Also, in his headspace, HJ is attuned to his words. And in his headspace, he can breach the wall between them.
But then, HJ blinks and closes her eyes, too. That’s when the spell is broken, and he’s returned to reality. HJ appears unmoved by his words because he only uttered them in his imagination, in his mind, in his headspace.
3. To me, this is the third time in this episode that SE learns something new about his wife. In the beginning, he’s surprised that she can make sounds. Then, at his parents’ dinner, he learns to empathize with HJ’s plight. His parents are unprepared when he comes to her defense and defies his own father. And now, he’s stunned to know that HJ has been studying, mimicking and absorbing him for ages. His fourth shocker is that HJ’s selective mutism has ended.
4. I get how HJ plays a mind game with him whenever she calls him up. Originally, her blackmail is her attempt to divorce him without needing to pay him the monetary penalty. But lately, her blackmail seems more like a call of attention. That is, she wants him to treat her, his wife, better.
But I don’t see how he’s playing a mind game with her.
5. Lastly, I don’t see how their behaviors are ironically similar unless he means that they both are introverted, reserved, cynical, and distrustful.
Moving on.
He walks out of the room and reflects on what HJ told him earlier. She said that there was no one better than her when it came to working as his sign language interpreter. She could read a person’s expressions. She could tell what’s going on in his mind, and what he’s about to say. She could mimic him because she practiced and delved into him.
Piecing together all the things she said to him, he can only wonder, “Hong HeeJoo. What are you…?”
To me, *if* he already knows at this point that she can speak, then he should do more than just wonder what she’s really up to. So far, he’s been remarkably forbearing with her — or should I unnaturally uncurious about her.
He realized that HJ was really abducted, but he didn’t wonder why she acted as if nothing happened.
He was told she was having an affair, but he didn’t want to verify it.
He wanted to check the mole on her leg, but he restrained himself.
He found out about her dad’s situation, then he simply assumed responsibility.
He demanded to know if she was hiding any secrets from him, then backpedaled because, according to him, they weren’t close enough to share secrets. (Dude!)
He discovered that she lied to him about not being able to speak, but he didn’t confront her. about it. Maybe he’s going to let it slide because of the interview.
To me, HJ and SE communicate so sparingly that I enjoyed this interview session. It’s his longest attempt by far to get to the bottom of things.
🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
I’ll try to finish part 3 tomorrow. @GB will want to know what the phone conversation before the cliffhanger is all about.
Many, many thanks @pkml3 for taking the time and effort to ensure that I know what’s going on I truly appreciate it.
This is such an interesting depiction of the issues of communication. In actual fact, with writing as an option, there should have been no problems in exchanging many conversations.
I recall the Jdorama, Silent, where writing worked in the early stages, before the girl learnt enough sign language.
Our Phone Couple choose not to communicate. SE strangely does not want to know, as if he’s afraid of some truths. HJ has already come to her conclusions based on the stiff front SE puts on, and his and her terrible parents. So she toes the line to be silent. What a relief for her to have that phone.
She is finally able to let loose and express what she feels to SE.
The sooner our couple start talking face to face, the better. That’s the scene I look forward to.
Hugs to you @pkml3.
My pleasure, @GB.
Maybe that dorama “Silent” is better-conceived than this kdrama. I find that “When the Phone Rings” is teetering on the brink of the makjang but the melodramatic plot and over-the-top reactions of the lead characters are engrossing. It reminds me of “Little Women.”
True. SE doesn’t want to know some truths. (Where’s the gif of Jack Nicholson shouting “You can’t handle the truth!” in a courtroom?)
For a blunt spokesperson, he’s afraid of facing reality in his married life. Meanwhile, HJ has been coerced and raised not to tell the truths so her mother (and her father) could benefit from the advantages of being super-wealthy. She’s afraid of returning to the impoverished life her family once had, of playing second fiddle to her classy stepsister, of being found out as an imposter in chaebol clothes.
So the time “when the phone rings” has slowly turned into the time when HJ and SE can communicate with no holds barred.
It’s interesting to note that when SE called up his ex-junior colleague, the news announcer (SE was a famous announcer, too, before taking up the job of presidential spokesman), he only gave her three minutes to talk. That’s because he was expecting HJ/409 to call at 10 on the dot and he wanted to take that call. So, from blocking his blackmailer’s calls, he now waits for his 409’s phone call.
The junior ex-colleague was happy to take the call even if it was just for three minutes. She had set three minutes on her phone anyway for her cup-of-noodles to cook.
@pkml3 I find that SE seems to be in 2 minds about knowing HJ. On the one hand he wants to be in control and intimidating, and then he backtracks and leaves before HJ responds, saying he’ll leave it up to her.
By contrast, HJ’s phone calls are direct and provocative, revealing to SE what he will not admit. It’s no wonder he’s intrigued by the Caller. If the Caller’s identity remains unrevealed, SE will be eagerly waiting for the call every night.
@GB, you might have missed this.
Back in Episode 2 (timestamp 28:00) SE was reflecting on the advice that his mother had given him during breakfast.
Her mom casually observed that she taught him that impatience is a barrier to communication. But whenever he got those phone calls, he looked like he was ready to go on a rampage.
So he asked her to give him advice as she was the country’s “first negotiation expert and a former criminal psychologist.” This is his mother’s reply.
Mother: It’s a misconception that a strong stance increases your chances of winning. and a weak one does the opposite in negotiations. Getting a serial killer to talk ultimately relies on building rapport. In a negotiation without trust, there’s no victory. What about you? How well do you understand your opponent?
To me, it works both ways. Yes, SE awaits for the 10pm phone call because he’s intrigued by his blackmailer/assassin. But he’s also eager to chat on the phone call because he’s gathering information about the individual. His mission hasn’t changed; he still wants to get his hands on the blackmailer/assassin and kill him for daring to hurt HJ.
But he’s being sneaky about it — by trying to gain the killer’s trust and “building rapport,” as his mother told him.