In the “What Are You Watching” thread for October, I wrote my first impression. @ibisfeather recommended this kdrama.
I noted:
I’m 30 minutes into the first episode of “Ms. Incognito.” So far, it’s moving pretty quickly and I haven’t identified major tropes yet. But then, I don’t often get to watch pseudo-thrillers like this.
My only complaint is the lead actor. Jin Young has never given me the “male lead” vibes. If the camera hadn’t been following him in the scenes as he went along his business, he’d look like an “extra” to me. His ordinary face and bearings make him disappear in a crowd. The title of this show should be “Mr. and Ms. Incognito.”
It should shock no one then that my first impression was right on the money. In the middle of Episode 2, the Attorney chanced upon the heroine discreetly observing Jin Young’s character, and said this about the man:
Attorney: Madam, you know that there are main characters in novels, right? He’s just one of the background characters. He’s not a lead or even a supporting role.
Madam/Heroine: I’m not curious.
Attorney: Oh? You really aren’t curious?
To me, the PERSONA of this actor Jin Young (i.e., he doesn’t possess “male lead” vibes) corresponds with the CHARACTER he’s portraying on screen, that is, he’s neither the lead nor a supporting actor; merely a background character. The actor doesn’t possess the standout looks and charisma of Byeon Wooseok (“Lovely Runner”), Lee ChaeMin (“Bon Appetit, Your Majesty”) and Cha EunWoo (“True Beauty”). He’s an everyday man who blends in with the wallpaper. To be blunt, I hope his acting is superior to his face so it’ll be worth my while to watch and review this show.
Key Plot Points. Henceforth, spoilers abound.
1. Kim Young Ran
The heroine, Kim YoungRan (YR), is a personal bodyguard of the chairman of a food manufacturing conglomerate. She’s a broke 28 years old. Her mother, with whom she has a bad relationship, racked up tens of millions of debts under her name which she’s struggling to pay off.
She was hired for the bodyguard job because she demonstrated a never-say-die moxie during the interview. But she was quickly unhired when her juvenile police record was unearthed. Fortunately for her, the chairman found out that she was jailed for six months for stealing 10,000 won feminine napkins. This offended his sense of justice/fairness that he rehired YR after ascertaining that she was someone with a good conscience.
I think that, from the start, he’s predisposed to like YR because a) she’s everything that his stepdaughter isn’t, and b) she can hold her own against his stepdaughter when the time comes.
The chairman offers her a contract of marriage to a) block his stepchildren from inheriting the company he’s built for 30 years, and b) avenge the murder of his biological daughter. In effect, YR is a pawn and a bait in the Chairman’s scheme.
2. The Chairman
He arranges the contract marriage because he has a terminal disease.
It’s a marriage on paper only. To ensure that YR will follow through with the conditions of the contract, YR will be videotaped assisting in his euthanasia. (Note: euthanasia is illegal in South Korea; YR will be sent to prison for assisting.)
I think he’s in 80s, but his age isn’t relevant because he shoots himself in Episode 2. His suicide is a sign that he has grown fond (in a paternal way) of his bodyguard and doesn’t want to burden her with the trauma of witnessing his death up-close and personal.
However, there’s a theory floating around that he’s only faking his death, so he doesn’t want her in the room to witness it.
Other important details about him:
Unbeknownst to him, his ex-girlfriend bore him a child in 1991.
The child grew up in an orphanage and only showed up when she turned 19.
He believed his 19-year-old daughter was murdered in New York City, 15 years ago, back in 2010.
If his daughter had lived, she would have been 34 years old in the present time 2025.
He was working in his wife’s company as a manager when they married in 1996.
His wife, a widow at the time, had two children.
They looked like they were in their late teens when their mom remarried.
His secret child would have been 5 years old then.
His wife died in a car accident in 1997.
He survived the accident.
He has a trusted attorney, Lee Don.
Lee Don’s hometown is in Muchang.
He suggests to the Chairman that YR hides in Muchang as it’s a remote place: without a train station and four hours away from Seoul by car. Moreover, everybody knows everyone’s business there.
The Chairman has a small staff.
He employs a housekeeper who spies for his stepsister, a driver who’s a stooge of the housekeeper, and a maidservant who claims to be a friend of YR.
He seems close to the delivery guy who brings him strawberries every two weeks.
3. Ms Incognito = YR = Bu SeMi
To protect the inheritance and her life, YR must remain hidden in Muchang until the next board meeting which is scheduled three months after the Chairman’s death. A new chairman will be selected by then. If plans go well, the stepchildren will be out of contention, and the stepdaughter will be in jail for murder.
YR assumes a fake identity of a kindergarten teacher, named Bu SeMi.
The Attorney Le Dong tells her to lie low for three months. He specifically warns her not to date because she gets lonely because “most women’s lives get messed up by men.”
Lol. What is he? An Oracle?
She answers, “There is no romance in my life.”
Hmph. Famous. Last. Words.
4. The Strawberry guy, aka the character Jin Young plays
He’s name is Dongman but I’m going to forget this so I’ll call him Strawberry Guy (SG) instead.
For now, there are four things to note about him.
One, shortly before the Chairman died, he sat down with the Strawberry Guy and asked him about his strawberry farm.
Chairman: I’m curious about one thing. Why do Muchang strawberries taste exceptionally good?
SG: Oh well…
Chairman: Speak comfortably.
SG: Oh yes. For the strawberries to grow well, the weather can’t be too hot or too cold all year round. They need fertile land and plenty of water. Muchang is just the perfect place for that.
Chairman: (looking away) What a wonderful place.
I thought it was dumb lame answer given by an elementary kid. What?! Is Muchang the only place in South Korea with temperate weather? Talk about the variety of the strawberries, the balance of sweetness and acidity, the ripening process, the timing of the harvest, and so on. Ugh! My irritation with this insipid actor AND his equally uninspired character grows….
Two, in the opening scene, when YR was being interviewed for the bodyguard position, the Chairman was in his CCTV control room, eating strawberries.
Three, at the wake of the Chairman, the Strawberry Guy entered the chapel when all the other non-family members were just milling outside. There was only one chrysanthemum placed on the table — presumably by YR — and he laid another one beside it. Perhaps that’s symbolic, i.e., he and YR will join forces because of the Chairman’s death.
And four, I believe he’ll recognize her as the girl from the Chairman’s house because of the scar on her wrist. The scar is the giveaway. He saw it when she stopped the delivery van door from closing on him.
5. New York City vs Muchang; anonymous vs incognito
I like the contrasts.
The Chairman’s biological daughter was murdered in New York City. It’s a large urban city filled with strangers. Hardly anybody knows somebody well there, and most people mind their own business. This enabled a killer to walk in their midst, remain unnoticed and kill in anonymity.
In contrast, the Chairman and his attorney hope that YR will be able to stay alive in Muchang. It’s a rural place in a remote area where the residents foster a tight knit, if nosy, community. Nobody remains anonymous there for long. So if YR wants to remain safe from her would-be killers, she must assume a false identity and blend in with the folks. To be incognito for YR means to hide in plain sight.
🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
I’ll stick around until I run out of patience with the lead male actor Strawberry Guy/NPC.
Thank you @pml3. I am looking forward to next week’s episodes. I would not be surprised if the Chairman faked his death. The first episodes had a makjang-y feel, so I am suspending my disbelief in anticipation of more makjang.
I think that FL did not spend 6 months in juvie just for stealing pads. Most likely she killed her abusive father (or stepfather) in self defense.
I am neutral about Strawberry Guy. We did not see much of him in the first two episodes. I hope he shows some character later on. I like the main actress, so I will continue watching because of her.
My thanks too, @pcml.
My thought about the Strawberry Guy — maybe he is Plan B in the machinations of the Chairman. Or the Wild Card (although he doesnt look very wild).
Plan A is the bait in the trap. The trap is Muchang, that perfect place. The bait is Bu Se Mi.
If the Siblings do not take the bait, or if the trap malfunctions? Is there a Plan B? Why did the chairman sit the lowly farmer down if not to set up — what?
Right, @ibisfeather?
The meeting’s a Chekhov’s gun.
Why would the writer include that scene if it didn’t have a purpose later on. It would be wasting our time, and the director’s time. But let’s wait and see what that old man, the Chairman, is planning.
EP 3-4 Fairytale touches..little miss ballet slippers, Hye Ji, fey and slippery, charmingly embraces the books in the Chairman’s study in despair saying ‘open sesame’, and then a red pen (? is it a wand) opens the door to the magic cave..
What is next? 7 dwarves? The usual team of hitmen, who are probably on their way, are frequently comic enough to qualify.
Thanks for the update. I was on the fence about continuing or not. 🙂
ep5 And off to the races with Plan B.
Ep6 halfway through and a scene by the shore.
Plan B AND the Wild Card. DongMin as expected fights alongside Jeoung Ran against a nice half-a-dozen thugs.
Loving this more and more. I find it calming. It meets my expectations, has a great theme song sung by a new singer (Hajin) and I have mentioned the colors, lighting and framing. Those last three are way beyond the needs of a small show, just my sort of bravura twirls in the parking lot.
A good sense of being on the edge as far as plot; surprises expected because of the people involved.
Hye Ji gets better and better whenever distraction is needed, the Younger Sibling is as out-of-control as expected, and now Con-Woman Mom looks likely to go up against creepy-evil Older Sibling. Excellent.
JinYoung (a composer and songwriter mostly) as expected is an idol-actor somewhat lacking in presence to begin with but with a nice intensity showing in the latest scenes.
He looks very good in flannel shirts, hoodies and a leather jacket.
@ibisfeather,
I stopped watching in the middle of Episode 5. I was annoyed by everyone except the FL and the ML.
@pcml3, I went back to look at yr extensive summary of the setup, and much has not yet been drawn back into the story-line. Unless Lee Don makes an appearance or sim., why was there such a complicated backstory?
There is a theory in the comments that the Chairman will be resurrected, but that would be awkward.
At the half-way mark, DongMin makes an oddly flat proposal — JR/BSM should stay in Muchang (as opposed to running away from the thugs coming for her), and be protected by him. His metaphor is…?”a greenhouse”?
To her credit, JYB (the actress) didnt seem very impressed by the proposal altho inclined to consider her choices.
I enjoyed the surprise arrival of Hye Ji at the village party because it meant that the two settings, so over emphatically separated, had been telescoped into one.
The puzzlingly long walkway that DongMin follows Yeong Ran home on…now what is that about. He follows her, questioning. Then in ep 6 he loses his temper and passes by her to return home first.
I am a little lost but still trust the show to take me home somehow.
I am ruminating on a thought. This show is making me think about an antique set of terms in art and style, remember ‘hot’ (engaged) vs. ‘cool’ (disengaged)?
Taking me back to the mid 60’s (and earlier)under the ever-present looming threat of nuclear proliferation… it somehow reminds me both of that TV series, The Prisoner, and of the Fractured Fairytales segment of Rocky and Bullwinkle (TV cartoon series). …Patrick McGoohan/Number Six, stuck in an innocent seaside village, imprisoned by some invisible possibly malevolent Authority. …The absurdist comedy of the cartoon segment, sometimes spot-on, sometimes just wildly silly. But ‘cool’.
And both of them were oddly relaxing…’cool’.
An odd show, Ms. Incognito. Decent K-TV ratings, appreciated on viki (which probably means Latin America), lots of ranting on mdl abt how it doesnt make sense. Hence this.
In the mdl comments the term ‘black comedy’ is occasionally used because the other styles it can cover for are underappreciated by what sound like some wildly anxious youngsters in English. Older people and the huge number of online watchers of dramas from Latin America have a richer history of comedy under pressure from the threats of politics, or of methods of dealing with an utterly absurd world.
Which is all to say,
1. I am hung up on waiting to see Whose plan will win out in Ms.Incognito, and Who will be the planner?
2. The fey Hye Ji reassures and delights me with her malevolent aura and innocently useful actions, but she scares the anxious ones very much. She really is a flash from the past for me but I think if you look at eastern european tv these last few decades you would have seen her like more often.