The thread is open.
Episode 5: 19 April 2025
Episode 6: 26 April 2025
Episode 7: 3 May 2025
Episode 8: 10 May 2025
Episode 9: 17 May 2025
Episode 10: 24 May 2025
Episode 11: 31 May 2025
Episode 12: 7 June 2025
Episode 13: 14 June 2025
Episode 14: 21 June 2025
Episode 15: 28 June 2025
Episode 16: 5 July 2025
Episode 17: 12 July 2025
Episode 18: 19 July 2025
Enjoy the rewatch!
Thanks once again @pkml3. I hope your life is not overly chaotic. Keeping you and your people in prayer. 🙏🙏🙏
I’m sorry I won’t be able to make it tomorrow. I need to do our shopping for easter dinner.
I hope everyone is enjoying the spring/easter season!
Happy shopping @MM! It’s a rainy and humid Paschal time, but we are bearing up well since we’ve got a/cs 😆😁
Hope to see you next week!
Hi, I just come to say: “I’ll be there”. 😀
@GB aircon? or AC in our vernacular here.
My husband is chomping at the bit to get out grocery shopping. Have an enjoyable watch everyone.
Hi MM, see you next time. Nice (romantic) shopping.
Hi @WE, LOL. “I’ll be There” too!
Never realised how sinister such a ‘lovely’ song can become!
Hi GB, since last week: I rewatched the whole drama. 😉
EPISODE 5 has the title: “Words that Shouldn’t be Trusted or Words You Shouldn’t Believe”
So we look out for the many lies flying around. Both the good guys and the not so good guys lie, while HS depends on Soo Ha to tell her whom to believe. At least the one person’s words she feels she can trust and believe in are Soo Ha’s!!
Hi @GB and @WE, I am here today.
Hellooooo, I am waiting for the bell.
@WE, I’m sure you rewatched the whole series, once you could not stop at Ep 13, you’d have binged until the end. There is just that compelling thing about this drama, despite our having watched it before.
I did the binge watch several weeks ago so I’m a bit more hazy now about the nitty gritties.
Hi @SD! Hi @FF! Let’s start now!!!
Hi @GB, @WE & @SD.
Hi @FF
What makes my list of most rewatched dramas:
– W (12 times? more?)
– Liar Games (jap, at least 10 times)
– I hear your voice (8 times? more?)
– Jang Ok Jung (6 times? more?)
What strikes me as I watch the beginning of this episode and hear how Soo Ha is made to look like the perpetrator, is that being identified as perpetrator or victim is pretty fluid, depending on how it is presented.
This seems to be a foreshadowing of something that will happen in the future.
@FF LOL HS hiccups when she gets a shock and at the time of lying that she and SH live in the same house. The hiccup sort of detracts from her show of authority.
@WE, is it because it’s hard to find other good dramas that you’re so faithful to these few?
Comedy with the “embarassing” call-me Noona situation.
But the writer doesn’t give up after only the first scene, and does it more with taxi-cop (most for background story) and the scene after landing.
The police in South Korea really send civilian home, I read on some travel group that the tourist is unable to grab a taxi due to late hours and the police car on patrol send them back to the hotel 🙂 The policeman in this case is a tat to chatty.
Soo Ha refuse call HS Noona.
@WE I find it actually a good joke that they enter a ‘Noona-doensaeng’ relationship, when actually he wants to be her bodyguard and regards her as his first love. Being siblings cancels out the romance aspect. And he has such a distaste for her messiness.
@GB, yes HS hiccups is a giveaway that she is lying.
@GB, There are probably more dramas I could rewatch, but those ones are just the best. And they are traps, if I watch just one episode, I rewatch all of them, while many other dramas don’t have this “trap effect”. Also, they are not too long, else I would rewatch Empress Ki.
But I have dramas I rewatched two or three times. Psychopath Diary, I rewatched twice for example. Some dramas I don’t want to rewatch fully, but rewatched 3 times first episodes of “I’m not a robot”.
Yeah @FF, he hates the idea of really making her his Noona. After 10 years of considering her his first love, he now has to call her sister!!
It looks like Soo Ha really was abandoned at the park that day with the balloons. His uncle never came back to bring him home! He was alone and bleeding, poor child.
Compared to that time, he is taken in by HS and she even takes care of his wound.
Hi FF.
He learns her self-defense, but it will be for comedy. ^^
SH knocking his head against the door and he pouts his lips hehe we don’t see this expression from Lee Jong Suk anymore. HS is still so unapologetic. She still looks upon SH as a younger brother.
How painful for him, hearing she’s looking for a boyfriend (but not him!!).
@WE, the only one she defended herself against was poor Kwan Woo.
It’s interesting to see how the poster for Mum’s store has a history. Our Writer planned it from the beginning and made sure we noticed the posters to begin with. We know by the end of the episode how it came into Killer Min’s hands.
@FF, HS is still too proud to fully apologise or humble herself. LOL when she meets Kwan Woo later! That’s when she should really apologise.
All the talk about self-defence, those two just walk out of the house with Min Jong Kook looking at them.
@WE, SH is becoming more aware that his feelings for HS are far from being brotherly.
Listening to the twins telling their stories, we know that they are the main reason we have today’s episode title. Their words are not to be trusted.
@GB, yep, it’s all the logical links of the plot, and maybe interlinks when crossed with characters, story, goals, symbolism, CORRELATIONS. It becomes labyrinthic with best writers, with the sens of “the story is so interlinked that’s impossible to change anything because coherence is too high”.
@FF, I can’t believe Kwan Woo skipped around the corner like a kid LOL. Then he gets beaten up by HS, who won’t apologise properly.
Jung Woong plays such creepy bad guys. He has the same aura in Moon in the Day
@GB, I am impressed with the writer for planning the poster thing from the beginning, how the poster shows up in HS’s room, how MJK laid his hands on the poster and how he made use of the information on the poster to seek revenge.
@WE, yes, that’s true. Cannot change anything further to spoil the coherence. What a challenge!
Now we come to HS and Do Yeon… we wonder … can DY’s words be trusted?
Hi SD.
THere is challenging situation HS vs Do-Yeon.
Their perpetual conflict will be of great importance to make the cliffhanger more hitting.
@SD, after watching this actor as villain here, I have difficulty seeing him as anything else! He’s always so creepy.
@FF @WE, now with the cellphone, Sung Bin and SH, we get another lot of links for later in the episode.
@GB, Kwan Woo skipping behind HS, so silly. He deserved it, always surprising HS from behind. This is not the first time he gave her a shock. The way HS apologized so insincere.
JIJIPONG !! 😀
So silly.
@FF, now we continue with HS’s thinking that KW is a pretty boy LOL. She also lies that she didn’t mean to touch his face LOL. Fortunately for her, KW cannot read her mind.
Despite the difficulties when growing, being abandoned by his uncle, SH still turn out ok good student who does not get into trouble and good grades.
@FF, you can look in the script and each time HS says sorry, she’s not much of that. For example this scene:
_________________________________________________________
#13. HYE-SUNG’S ROOFTOP YARD → ALLEY OUT FRONT (D)
Soo-Ha checks if the lock’s secure.
Suddenly, the door swings open, smacking his head.
SOO-HA: Ah!!
HYE-SUNG: (not too sorry) Sorry.
@WE despite being such a silly, KW can tell that HS is nervous and hearing her say that she wonders if she it is safe for her to go home by herself, he generously pretends to not have an umbrella so that she’d accept his help to bring her home.
Everyone knows how proud she is!
I have to say I love the ‘revolving door as a way of thinking’ device. It so fits with the character of HS (to take up the doorway spot for herself) and is so perfect of a metaphor for the mind running in circles. It also provides humor (as when the judges notice her doing it).
@FF SH’s uncle should have treated him better. He would have made a great ‘son’.
Jijipoong!!! @GB, what’s wrong with HS?
@SD, yes that’s the great thing about this writing. One article that is a metaphor has more than one role in the show. It’s so well utilised to give us humour, to suggest what others think about her and to indicate the state of her mind.
@FF, HS gets too lost in thought and unaware of her actions when she gets a crush. LOL.
@WE, I really like that as Sung Bin tells us how it feels to be in a one sided love while the one she loves likes another, we see Soo Ha feeling those exact same feelings as he watches Hye Sung and Cha.
Sung Bin says that her heart hurts and we can tell that SH feels the same as he clutches his chest while watching HS and KW.
Sung-Bin helps Soo-Ha but he leaves quick. Everyone is in a chain of disappointement relating from what they want. Sung-Bin want Soo-Ha but NOPE, Soo-Ha want HS but NOPE, Attorney Cha wang HS but NOPE. A way to keep a perpetual tension.
Then the very good scene of Sung-Bin calling Soo-Ha, while he’s in front of HS home. And the dialog he has with her is damn-correlated with his situation. What she says she live, is what he lives too. This kind of genius writer trick was made in her previous drama, when SML is jaleous and accuses FL to be jalous about ML success on the scene. When of course, she’s just sad because ML will leave (the reason why she’s sad). So, SML just put on her something wrong that is just his own projection.
HS is not listening to Kwan Woo at all, her mind is thinking of how to say goodbye.
@SD, Kwan Woo hums Singing in the Rain as he dances ala Gene Kelly with the umbrella LOL. So apt because he’s happy with his new love.
@SD I wish I was there too. I enjoy your comments and missed you the last two weeks.
Because we had not ordered our ham ahead of time.We have been on an easter ham hunt. We did find one enough to feed twice as many people as I am having over!
I am sitting in the car now because my knee has reached maximum Capacity for walking while my husband does the liquor store Shop.
It is really fun shopping And very crowded In our area at easter because we live in such an eastern european neighborhood.
@FF, HS is in the first flush of ‘crush’ LOL. Her first crush or something.
@MM, so you’re reading our commenets in the car? Pity you can’t watch the episode at the same time.
Enjoy many days of ham in your meals!!!
SH all wet from the raining reminds me of myself this afternoon after being caught in the rain. My hair was wet like SH’s.
They are so funny. After the scene she speaks stupidly to an empty room. (but she’s relieved to do so).
HS just want he helps her with his telepathic ability, while he’s a bit pissed off about her selfish intentions.
@FF It just occurred to me that HS changes her mind to go for the blind date or not, back and forth… while the twins changed their story from both taking on guilt and both saying they are innocent.
Even Mum cannot tell whether she can trust HS’s words about going on blind dates.
@WE now we come to the scene where the judge puts on a performance for the school kids to impress LOL. And because of this HS and KW can guess that they can get the not guilty plea to stick and so to get a prolonged trial.
Dramatic twist: the villain at mom chicken shop, with a sign “need assistant”.. So I will ask for the job. With a smile. EWKKK.
@GB, I don’t know how you are such ahead when I almost didn’t stop video, but i’m in elevator scene.
AHAHAH, Cha does “Jijipong” on her.
BUt she doesn’t find it funny at all!!! 🙂
The judge’s associates are surprised by the judge’s ‘performance’.
Because SH tells HS that Do Yeon does not have any evidence, HS becomes confident.
The scene of both HS and KW taking up each other’s sentences is a clever trick to show us that time has actually passed between each time they stood up to speak, but that they are both on the same page and working as a team.
I like the use of the umbrella’s in the scene where SH watches HS and KW smile at one another on the balcony under their shared umbrella. It is as if they are in their two different worlds. And the phoned in love confession of Sung Bin, also creating distance. And that in this one scene, we have the appropriate age, love interests, as well as the multiple 1-sided love/infatuation chain, like a promise of what should be to come: the males carrying the females, the accidental/not-so accidental touching the face, the shared umbrella– all the romance tropes.
@WE, I forgot that I put on the faster speed and didn’t get back to normal speed. I have sometimes to pause a while to read or type.
HS is so funny, flip flopping in her decision for blind dates, her ego not allowing her to admit that she needs SH, her difficulty apologizing, yet she can shamelessly demand SH to attend her trials at court. And she goes ‘YaaAAaa”, she is like a chameleon.
@MM, I always miss being here when I have to be gone. Hope your Easter goes well. I have only two more services to sing for this year as the congregation is smaller now. Lots of brass on Easter though!
@SD, yes, I really liked the umbrella scenes and the blossoming awareness of romance amidst Sung Bin’s confession. So much was going on and at the same time so much was revealed to us about what SH felt.
Wahaha @GB, I should playback at a faster speed too. Seems like I am behind. Do Yeon pressing the door close button is so childish but that is the relationship between DY and HS, a little childish, friends but not friends.
@GB, right about the court room time lapses!! Done like it in the script:
HYE-SUNG: (confidently starts) I get why the prosecutor went joint offender. Someone died, CCTV caught it. But figuring out who killed was impossible. They’re twins, identical as you see. Letting both go wasn’t an option either. A tragic life was lost.
{Time lapse / diss fades in}
KWAN-WOO: So the prosecutor charged them joint offenders. Tied them with “he knew about the knife.” But both say they didn’t know the other had it. Sure, one’s lying. But that means the other’s telling the truth. And that means!!
@FF, when HS gets the court decision as she wants, she also becomes too over-confident and arrogant. She crows over DY. Her ‘win’ is seen against the background of DY’s lie and how it had cost HS and her Mum the place in school and as housekeeper respectively.
Later you’ll hear that HS did not want to be a good lawyer, but now seeing that she can defeat DY, she’s so pleased to have become a lawyer.
HS vendetta vs Do-Yeon blinds her. 🙂
For once Do-Yeon was trying to take the right decision…
Then, a kind of “genius” idea, put the last scene in the middle of a crossing. A dangerous place with two ways out, but not while the two lanes have rushing cars.
@WE, I find the courtroom scenes pretty good in this show. This is one of the great ones.
Now we come to the scene where HS is crowing about being right while DY had been wrong. It takes place in the middle of the road.
However in her moment of triumph at bringing DY down so that she can get her apology for the 10-year old lie, Soo Ha gives her the unexpected info that Do Yeon was right. Both the twins had been co-conspirators.
The traffic starts moving on either side of them, trapping them in the middle of the road, and it’s a mess like the state of HS’s mind. Nicely done!
@GB, I remember HS used to tell her clients to plead guilty.
@FF, yes, that’s right… what a change in her now that she’s prepared to fight for her clients… unfortunately this time he is guilty. Now she has to extricate herself. What an interesting cliff hanger: alone with SH in the middle of traffic, where she’s losing her mind over being wrong.
@GB, yeah, it’s how good it is. Call it symbolism or correlation (or methaphor?), I don’t know the exact name and would need to look in dictionary. But the effect is:
– Now two lines of cars are deadly, means the two sibbling are both killers.
– A crossing, means a decision from FL going here or there.
– And as a dangerous place, Soo-Ha trying to protect her by telling the thruth.
– A truth she needs a lot because she’s silly and blind, just wanting revenge vs Do-Yeon.
Ok the two of them have to stay in the middle of the crossing until next week.
@WE, well said.
WOW @WE, congrats on finding so much symbolism in that scene of them in the middle of the road with moving traffic on both sides. I guess we can call it a metaphor for the situation HS is in and for the twins (never saw that!), and an analogy of what SH is towards HS (the protector).
Yes it’s true… she is not truly professional in how she works, because her own agenda gets in the way. She does a ‘good’ job outwardly for the wrong reason or else she does not care to do a good job at all!!
We want to watch her improve.
@WE, I agree with @GB, well said.
I am behind, per usual, just when the judge walks into the court. I can never remember where I have seen this actor (except a lot), but he often (always?) is this half-comedic character. He manages to show just how discombobulated he is when seeing the high school students then tries to do the fancy flip-the-robe-back, cool gesture and totally flubs it.
Thank you for insightful comments tonight, see you all next week.
I think the set and “hidden meaning” of this set are so good that even for any audience not analyzing it like we do, it’s just a power strike. Power of symbolism, running downward our consciousness, and so it make this cliffhanger scene really big, while it doesn’t look that much. A kind of hidden emotional power. Then, you have nothing in hands and wonder “why I love this so much ???”. Secret of best screenwriters.
@SD, I thought the judge managed to flip the robe well enough this time: at least the students were impressed. I liked the expressions on the faces of his associates when he starts showing off by giving explanations etc.
I believe, it is possible that if the students had not been present, this judge would have taken Do Yeon’s side. However with the students watching, he wanted to show that the court could be merciful and fair so he gave the lawyers a chance instead. Hence like HS, he wasn’t all that professional in his role either!!
@WE, this writer has the gift of making normal activities take on deeper emotional significance, by placing them in a particular time in the story and creating the Mise-en-scène.
See you @FF, @SD and @WE. I’ll come back to read you if you add more comments.
I did that for last week’s episode thread as well.
@GB, yeah, main judge change opinion for a silly reason, students making “hoooo, haaa”, it’s one of the steps to win vs obstacle. This judge isn’t one of the main characters BUT writer takes care to give him some personnality, qualities and flaws, so it shows him in this way: this guy can be neutral about many things, but: he’s curious (episode 1) and he likes to be considered as the “good jugde of establishment”.
I quit now, and see you all the next week, or maybe sooner if we post here. 😉
@GB, HS and KW knew the judge was more likely to be lenient, and showing off more, with the students there. Hence HS’s comment about ‘Are you thinking the same thing as me’. I am not sure where they got that knowledge; although HS would have known that this judge often made unprofessional judgements since he let her be a public defendant, HS probably assumed it was just her skill (lol).
@WE, I reread your comments about the final scene. The traffic in both ways might just be accidental (rather than implying the twins are guilty), the mirrored scene in the traffic tunnel and their knowing smiles (and that they waited, looking away from one another, for that moment), implies their guilt. Still it is a nice subliminal message. The rest though– the crossing indicating choice, caught in traffic and the danger implied, and the truth HS needs and realizes here — perfect and clearly on purpose. Plus, the close-up of HS yelling ‘Tell me you are lying’; we know at that moment that HS still has that sense of justice, buried though it has long been.
See you all next week.
@SD, I can confirm 100% sure it’s not accidenal. Only blurry things I can say is the writer had diverse choices of location, and this one striked her mind as the perfect one for her story. And to boot, it’s not a situation from nowhere, the writer took care to build it during the episode. So, I see no chance in this, but maybe an unexpected great idea coming on point.
@SD, yes, it was good to see that HS who had been over the moon a moment before for getting the better of Do Yeon, is completely aghast that she’d done her best and succeeded to overturn what should have been a guilty verdict to an innocent until proven guilty one. Now she’s in the unenviable situation of having to contradict herself in front of Do Yeon, and find a way to get both twins indicted for murder.
We look forward to her first ‘collaboration’ with Do Yeon after their break 10 years in the past.
I comment last scenes of the episode:
_________________________________________________________
#62. COURTHOUSE CORNER (D)
Detained defendants board a transport van.
Pil-Seung and Pil-Jae among them.
_________________________________________________________
#63. TRANSPORT VAN (D)
Pil-Seung and Pil-Jae sit apart, blank faces, staring out windows.
_________________________________________________________
#64. LAW TOWER FRONT (D)
Soo-Ha and Hye-Sung walk together, wait at a crosswalk.
HYE-SUNG: (relieved, giddy) Was so nervous in court.. Worried Do-Yeon had some hidden ace. But you said no, my heart settled, words flowed.. Felt like real lawyering.
SOO-HA: (heavy expression) …
HYE-SUNG: (trusts Soo-Ha) You asked about the firecracker thing before?
SOO-HA: ..Yeah..
HYE-SUNG: Someone shot one at Do-Yeon’s eye. Messed up one eye bad..
SOO-HA: …
HYE-SUNG: Do-Yeon said it was me. I said no. People believed her.. I got expelled.. Ten years later, here we are, prosecutor and lawyer..
SOO-HA: …
HYE-SUNG: Didn’t really wanna be a lawyer. Even after, wondered why I was. But seeing Do-Yeon’s face today, I got it.
SOO-HA: ..
HYE-SUNG: (signal changes, walks) Became a lawyer for that moment. (lightened) To see that brat’s face..
SOO-HA: (follows) That happy?
HYE-SUNG: Yup.
SOO-HA: Why?
HYE-SUNG: ‘Cause I’m right, she’s wrong..
SOO-HA: (sad, guilty) What if you’re wrong, and she’s right?
HYE-SUNG: (uneasy, stops near median) What’s that mean?
SOO-HA: (stops) You’re wrong.. Prosecutor’s right.
HYE-SUNG: What?
_________________________________________________________
#65. TRANSPORT VAN (D)
Pil-Seung and Pil-Jae stare out windows, still ignoring each other.
Van enters a dark tunnel.
Pil-Jae slowly turns, eyes Pil-Seung at the window.
Their eyes meet in the glass.
Pil-Seung smirks slyly.
Pil-Jae mirrors it.
_________________________________________________________
#66. CROSSWALK (D)
Signal cuts, they’re stuck mid-crosswalk.
Alone amid rushing cars.
HYE-SUNG: What’s that mean? I’m wrong, Do-Yeon’s right?
SOO-HA: Those twins.. They planned it, stabbed together. Joint offenders…
HYE-SUNG: !!
Hye-Sung stumbles back, confused, Soo-Ha grabs her shoulder, pulls her from a car’s path.
HYE-SUNG: (shaken) Joint offenders? (at Soo-Ha) You’re lying now, right?
SOO-HA: (shakes head) …
HYE-SUNG: (grabs Soo-Ha’s collar, yells) Say it’s a lie!!
Hye-Sung grips Soo-Ha’s collar, screaming..
———————————————-
It starts just after HS vs Do-Yeon confrontation scene.
#62. We first get short cuts on the brothers going in the bus.
Important details: staring at window, blank face.
Goal is to establish back and forth scene transitions, with a progression of the meaning and characters state of mind. For the brothers, going from the neutral case to villainy. And for HS going from “All happy, I was right and got Do-Yeon” to “All wrong, I messed up”.
#64. Soo-Ha and HS ends in the middle of the road.
He reveals she’s wrong.
But doesn’t say the full story about that, because…
#65. We get this in a visual way here!
Progression of brothers looking at windows, but the same one now, with a mirror effect. Saying they are the same team, two complices, smiling at their success to deceive defense team.
+ a setting in a dark tunnel. Can charge the scene with various impressions, like entering dark secret. And also a one-way road, no possibility to escape left or right.
#66. And now HS and Soo-Ha are in the open, but also in a setting where they can’t escape left or right. As we got first a visual clue, Soo-Ha reveals more, and say they are complicit, as a confirmation of what the writer helped us to guess.
HS want him to lie, but of course, no way he could lie, not only because he reads mind, but also because we got the proof with the previous scene.
HS is trapped now!
I find it’s a nice scene order construction. In a basic way, if the writer was less accomplished, the first thing coming in mind was just to show the scene with Soo-Ha and HS start to end. Because you watched it and read the script and know it now, you may think it’s obvious way to do, but it’s not. It’s the kind scene order that always need to be pondered, after writing scenes and situations: “Is there a best way to do it? By cutting? Doing back and forth? Or add a short visual detail from elsewhere? Or a short cut on a villain face?”
Here a change on screen about this scene:
_________________________________________________________
#55. COURT HALLWAY (D)
Hye-Sung and Kwan-Woo sit side by side on stairs, heads together, laptop open with case law.
KWAN-WOO: (troubled) It’s true. Kim Gong-Sook.
HYE-SUNG: Ridiculous. Lumping that as joint offenders?
KWAN-WOO: Lazy, probably. No evidence, both deny it, slapped with contempt too.
HYE-SUNG: What if she does it again?
Downstairs, a dozen middle schoolers in uniform pass, led by a teacher.
TEACHER: This is a criminal court. Know what that is?
SMART KID: Yup! Crimes like murder, robbery, theft, right?
Hye-Sung and Kwan-Woo spot them, light up, lock eyes.
HYE-SUNG: Thinking what I’m thinking?
KWAN-WOO: (pinches Hye-Sung’s cheek) Jjijippong… (grins)
———————————-
It sounds strange to me that the writer didn’t make it in the script, because the end of the scene would be natural with the reaction of Hye-Sung.
If we would write the scene as it was made (in a better way) in the drama, it’s something like:
HYE-SUNG: (complicit) Thinking what I’m thinking?
KWAN-WOO: (pinches Hye-Sung’s cheek) Jjijippong… (grins)
HYE-SUNG: !!… (removes his hand)
KWAN-WOO: ?
HYE-SUNG: … (can’t overact, just embarassed)
KWAN-WOO: (laughs awkwardly)
Here I put almost what is on screen. But even without all the precise reactions, it needed of course at least a reaction from Hye-Sung. I find it’s a good example of how director and actors help a scene being better than what is just on script. A positive change.
@WE I liked your thoughts on the dark tunnel, with t he twins mirrored more clearly in the darkness which showed that they were complicit. They had entered into the darkness/evil together.
And while HS and SH are in the bright outdoors, they are nevertheless in a dangerous situation and trapped by the rushing traffic: a situation that is out of their control.
I agree that directors and actors generally make the script come alive even better and often do improve on it. At least kdrama scripts have an indication of emotion or reaction. Western screenplays don’t seem to say much.
@GB, yeah about choice of sets and meaning, we are in an idea process, and of course we don’t know how it comes. Can be just intuition first, striking idea, then it chains with more ideas for creating a correlation between the two places. After a while, ideas, fixes, all of this becomes like magic, perfectly intricated.
In western screenplay, you need to write an action line for a character reaction without dialog. It breaks the dialog flow, so it’s not used a lot except if really needed. Parenthesis are too short space for doing what korean dramas screenwriters do. And anyway, I remember a testimony of a screenwriter breaking-in (get a first job, what is very difficult): after reading the screenplay, the producer asked to remove all parenthesis from dialogs.
Then, western screenplays are rather dry, and my assumption is korean dramas get more emotion because of the format, among other things. Someone would say that if a western screenwriter is really good, it will do the job anyway. But as I’ve read both, as well writing both, my opinion remains the same: because of the format and way to write, kdrama screenplays are alive, really more than western ones.