Punch: Episode 6
by HeadsNo2
An enormous manhunt takes place when our villain’s beloved brother eludes our heroine’s grasp, prompting a showdown between those prosecutors who consider themselves law-abiding and those who’ve made the law their bitch. But as it turns out, even the most powerful of men can’t do everything alone—meaning that someone must be really missing his partner in crime right about now. Life must be tough when you can’t threaten people into doing your bidding as easily as you used to, huh? We all know that feeling.
Ratings-wise, it’s actually getting pretty close: Punch continued its steady rise, bringing in first place with 9.6% while narrowly edging out former champion Pride and Prejudice at 9.4% and Healer with 8.6%.
SONG OF THE DAY
Taemin – “Experience” [ Download ]
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EPISODE 6 RECAP
A mixture of emotions pass over Ha-kyung’s face when her daughter rushes out to greet her—relief, happiness, and also regret for what’s been sacrificed for their reunion. It’s such a small but well-played scene. Bravo.
In his room at Mom’s house, Jung-hwan shows Ha-kyung the acceptance letter Ye-rin received from the international school he’s been wanting to send her to.
But in an act of defiance, Ha-kyung folds the letter into a paper airplane. Hah. As long as he won’t let her have Chairman Kim’s statement, she claims, he won’t get her seal of approval on Ye-rin’s acceptance letter.
She promises that she’ll investigate the Brothers Grimm and Chairman Kim, to which Jung-hwan fires back, “You think that’s possible to do on your own?”
Ha-kyung does, and warns Jung-hwan that he better prepare—he’s bound to go down with them. When Jung-hwan tells her that the matter would sort itself out on its own with Tae-sub going abroad and Tae-joon resigning, she taps a copy of the constitution on his desk: “The law exists.”
She has to remind him that Tae-sub killed someone and has to pay for it, which has Jung-hwan flashing back to his grim prognosis. “Everyone dies, Ha-kyung,” he finally says.
Jung-hwan flashes back to when he brokenly asked Doctor Jang if he’d live long enough to see his daughter start elementary school, only for the doctor to admit he wasn’t sure.
That’s all Jung-hwan wants now, but he can’t tell Ha-kyung why—though at least she tells him he’ll get to see Ye-rin’s first day after she finishes her investigation. She likely doesn’t understand the gravity in Jung-hwan telling her to please, please make that happen.
It’s an emotional moment for Ha-kyung too, who admits she could never shake hands with him after the divorce was finalized because it would really be over then. But now, she extends her hand out to him, only for Jung-hwan to give her a bank statement.
He explains that he’s already paid in full for Ye-rin’s tuition, but Ha-kyung immediately asks if he got that money by trashing Chairman Kim’s statement—or did Tae-joon promise him the Prosecutor General seat in return?
Jung-hwan gets hit with a stabbing headache, and orders Ha-kyung out so she won’t have to see him in pain. Ha-kyung thinks he’s just weaseling out of explaining himself and continues her barrage of accusatory questions, only stopped when Mom comes in to break it up.
Once he’s alone, Jung-hwan locks the door and all but crawls to his stash of painkillers.
Mom is furious at Ha-kyung for pestering her son when he went through hell to get her out of jail, and orders her and Ye-rin out of the house. Ye-rin is confused to find her father’s door locked, and she quickly begins to cry for Jung-hwan to open the door to at least say goodbye to her.
Her voice sounds muffled and far away to Jung-hwan, as he shakily prepares his medicine and injects himself with the syringe. He crawls for the handle but stops just as Ye-rin says she’s leaving… but he better come to her kindergarten graduation.
Jung-hwan breaks down in tears at her request, knowing he may not be able to fulfill it. Ha-kyung, meanwhile, flies the paper airplane of Ye-rin’s acceptance letter far, far away.
After receiving a one-way airplane ticket to Somewhereistan from Chairman Kim, Tae-sub makes a narrow escape from the building when prosecutors arrive to nab the two of them—and makes it a point not to call and warn the chairman, considering his earlier insults.
While mulling over his retirement speech in his office, Tae-joon comments on on how it took him thirty years to climb to his position, and how it’ll only take hours to fall from it.
He’s interrupted by Kang-jae with news of Chairman Kim’s arrest at the behest of Ha-kyung, who’s now working as an aide to Prosecutor Jung. But all Tae-joon cares about is his brother.
Ha-kyung updates Minister Yoon on the investigation, noting that they haven’t been able to locate Tae-sub yet. Once they get him they’ll be able to find out what connects Chairman Kim and Tae-joon, even if it means Jung-hwan will go down with them.
Minister Yoon asks if Ha-kyung is still okay about going forward, considering that Jung-hwan is the father of her child. “The researcher and the bus driver were fathers too, Minister,” Ha-kyung answers.
Tae-joon crashes the party with his request that they just drop the investigation on his brother, prompting Minister Yoon to have Ha-kyung reiterate that Tae-sub is being charged with homicide, and Chairman Kim is in for all sorts of embezzlement charges.
Tae-joon has a witty retort/underhanded threat for every word that comes out of Minister Yoon’s mouth, because he’s hell bent on getting her to make a deal with him while she’s equally bent on following the law.
Even if it means sacrificing her position, Minister Yoon is unyielding when it comes to Tae-joon’s threats and says that her seat would be a small price to pay while creating a better society. She’ll clean out the Prosecutor’s Office so that people she trusts—like Ha-kyung—can fill her spot if Tae-joon’s antics cause her to vacate it.
When Ha-kyung informs Tae-joon that his brother has been placed on the nation’s most wanted list, he retorts that being on the list is no guarantee someone will be caught. His threat is laid out as such: If Minister Yoon and her trusted allies can’t find his brother within a reasonable time period and solve the case, then Ha-kyung and Prosecutor Jung will suffer greatly.
He compares it to a game of hide-and-seek, where the seeker changes once the time limit is up. Basically, he’s warning Minister Yoon that her time as the hunter will soon end, and he’ll be the one tracking her down soon enough.
Prosecutor Jung reassures Ha-kyung that he’s ready to take one for the team and resign should something go wrong, but she’s the one who ends up reassuring him—she won’t rest until the Brothers Grimm, Chairman Kim, and her ex-husband are all standing trial.
Doctor Jang has got it made with Jung-hwan, because the latter needs the painkillers only he can provide, and he needs Jung-hwan to fix his legal record for him.
He doesn’t even feel sorry if Jung-hwan goes wanting for the drug, since he explains that he only cried for a patient’s death when he was an intern—now he’s so used to attending funerals for his patients that he only thinks about what’ll be on the menu at the service.
Jung-hwan acts as the third wheel on his sister’s date, considering that he hand-picked the gentleman (cameo by Kang Haneul) for her. Curiously though, he witnesses his sister being held back by a man before the date, making me wonder if Hyun-sun already has someone.
Hyun-sun politely rejects Ha-neul on the basis of religion, since he believes in a godlike figure and she doesn’t. Jung-hwan gives him a consolation prize in the form of a promotion, which Ha-neul takes from his sunbae with thanks.
Jung-hwan tells her that tomorrow’s date doesn’t have any religious leanings, but Hyun-sun disagrees with this dating thing on a fundamental level, causing her brother to ask her outright, “Do you have someone?”
The question catches her by surprise, and it takes her a while for her to shake her head “no.” But the answer seems clear.
Knowing that Team Ha-kyung wants to grill Chairman Kim in order to find his brother’s location, Tae-joon calls the chairman to remind him to stay silent and stick it out for a few more days. It’s his right, anyhow.
Chairman Kim takes that advice for as long as it takes Ha-kyung to show him video evidence of Tae-sub running away when he got arrested, proving that there’s no loyalty amongst thieves.
He spills the beans that Tae-sub is staying at a temple in Paju, which the two brothers helped add on to and where they keep their parents’ memorial tablets. Ha-kyung immediately orders Detective Oh and a team to travel there and arrest him.
Tae-joon is already there to tell his brother that everything’s arranged for him and his family to sneak out of the country by sea for a few years. Tae-sub isn’t as enthused about the prospect, but chastises his brother when he says he’ll step down from his position due to the public’s inevitable reaction to his murder case.
It’s clear that Tae-sub doesn’t want his brother to suffer losing his Prosecutor General seat, even though Tae-joon has made peace with it. He shows his brother the money he’s sending him with as he reminisces on how poor they used to be—now, he can afford to give Tae-sub money and seasickness medicine for the journey.
Their brotherly bond shows, but Tae-joon doesn’t seem to be picking up on Tae-sub’s sadness as his hyung tells him he’ll go outside and pick some fresh kudzu for him, a helpful herb he always made sure his brother had even if he didn’t when they were kids. Aww.
Kang-jae bursts in to warn Tae-joon that the police have arrived to arrest his brother, urging him to escape before he can be seen with a wanted man. Tae-joon calls his hyung regardless, but worries when the phone rings from the same room. Tae-sub didn’t take it with him.
We find his hyung digging for the kudzu root like he said he would, only to be drawn to the sight of his little bro and Kang-jae running out the back of the temple, tailed by Detective Oh and his men.
Tae-sub draws the officers’ attention to him so they don’t see his brother, and gives Tae-joon a reassuring look and nod, all, “Go on.” That’s love.
While the police give chase to Tae-sub, Ha-kyung gives updates to Minister Yoon—they haven’t been able to find him yet, but since he’s traveling on foot, they know he couldn’t have gotten far. Minister Yoon promises to lend all the support she can to the chase.
Knowing this, Tae-joon orders Kang-jae to work something out with the chief of police to help derail the chase… which really isn’t a chase as much as it is Tae-sub hiding in the woods behind the temple.
Jung-hwan is pretty much living in his own world at this point, unaware of all the goings-on because he’s working out the purchase of a family plot in a columbarium for his future cremains to be laid to rest, along with his father’s.
He declines a call from Yeon-jin, who’s in a position in the prosecution office to hear everything going on—from Kang-jae trying to arrange a dinner with the police chief, to Detective Oh and Ho-sung talking about the sheer amount of police manpower going into the search for Tae-sub.
She pours her coffee on herself in order to have an excuse to go to Mom’s dry cleaning business so she can catch Jung-hwan when he comes home. Mom serves her and Jung-hwan food, which Yeon-jin seems to snub her nose at as she murmurs under her breath that her maid can’t cook this good. Her maid?
Mom is excited at the prospect of Jung-hwan having a date, even though Jung-hwan makes it clear that he wants nothing to do with Yeon-jin’s self-invitation to his house. But he’s overruled when Mom starts asking Yeon-jin all the questions mothers ask to prospective daughters-in-law while Yeon-jin is all too happy to feed into her fantasy.
Once they’re alone, Yeon-jin tells Jung-hwan that she wants to follow him—not because it’s a calculated move, but because the desire comes from her heart—and that it’s hard when he ignores her calls and doesn’t come to the office for days at a time.
He switches subjects to how he’ll help her climb the political ladder, but she brings it right back by asking him if he still has feelings for Ha-kyung. “No,” he claims. “Ye-rin… she’s grown up missing a father figure. I feel badly enough for that. I decided that there would be no other woman or children in my life on the day of my divorce.”
Yeon-jin has her answer there. Jung-hwan writes down a vehicle’s license plate he wants her to track before adding that she’s never to come to his house again.
Jung-hwan is called to a meeting with Tae-joon, who asks him to put a stop to his wife before he does, insinuating that Ha-kyung will get hurt if Jung-hwan doesn’t handle her.
To his surprise, Jung-hwan relaxes in his seat and says flippantly that he doesn’t mind if his ex-wife gets hurt when he’s more concerned ab out Tae-joon—Ha-kyung is the type to fight back when attacked.
“Don’t touch her,” Jung-hwan warns. “Thanks to you, she went to prison without having to commit a crime.” Tae-joon all but blows up at him as he says that his brother doesn’t even have the protection of prison walls on a cold winter night like this, and orders Jung-hwan to bring him back.
Jung-hwan points out that Tae-joon should use Kang-jae instead of him, which bristles his rival and incenses Tae-joon even more as he threatens to confess everything if something happens to his brother, since doing so would implicate Jung-hwan just the same.
He paints a picture for Jung-hwan, of how abysmal his future would be after he’d get arrested by his wife and scorned by the public. “I know you don’t want to see me. I don’t like you either. Would you like to spend the rest of your life as my cellmate in prison? Or will you bring my brother back?”
As if to punctuate his point of defiance, Tae-joon has Kang-jae order them jjajangmyun… from the restaurant Jung-hwan doesn’t like. Ooooo, I’m sure Jung-hwan will be feeling that burn for weeks. How do you sleep at night, Tae-joon?
Ha-kyung’s face falls when Ho-sung tells her that Jung-hwan and Kang-jae have joined the search for Tae-sub, since it means Jung-hwan is making a move.
And he is, though he and Kang-jae don’t seem to be in harmony. He dismisses Kang-jae’s ideas for one of his own, and pays the town elder to call Tae-sub with the village loudspeaker, using his son’s name as coded bait to draw him in.
Tae-sub, thinking he has friends in the town center, manages to sneak to their location even though almost five hundred police officers are out looking for him. So… no one wants to go missing in that town, because they’d never ever ever be found.
Ha-kyung knows something’s up and orders the police officers on the scene to check every single outgoing car regardless of the driver’s position. Jung-hwan’s vehicle is checked on his departure, but nothing is found.
Kang-jae gets his vehicle past inspection by pulling rank, and successfully smuggles Tae-sub away from the village. If this episode is about police incompetence, they really are getting their point across.
Little Ye-rin calls her father to make sure he’ll be attending her kindergarten graduation next week, which he confirms with a smile as he follows his GPS to the manmade lake where Tae-joon’s parents are buried.
Ye-rin calls her mother to tell her the good news, and thankfully doesn’t pick up on Ha-kyung’s interest in where exactly Jung-hwan is. She happily tells her mother what she overheard from her father’s GPS. Busted.
Ha-kyung knows that Jung-hwan must’ve gotten Tae-sub out of their search radius, and volunteers to go to the reservoir location (Tae-joon’s hometown) to nab all of them at once.
Minister Yoon allows it, knowing that Ha-kyung doesn’t want her ex-husband to be arrested by someone else. How romantic.
After ferreting Tae-sub to a secure location, Kang-jae finds himself needing Jung-hwan’s continued help in getting Tae-sub smuggled out of the country now that his wife has her eye on every outgoing ship.
But Jung-hwan doesn’t care to help, and makes it clear that he’s washing his hands of the situation—if Kang-jae wanted to be Tae-joon’s right hand so badly, now’s his chance to actually shoulder the work.
Turns out the car Jung-hwan had Yeon-jin track belongs to the man Jung-hwan saw his sister with, and he is not happy to find out that its owner is a mechanic. Hyun-sun knows him because he was once a resident doctor, now discharged.
And for once, Jung-hwan doesn’t want Yeon-jin to get out of his sight, since he asks her to stay: “I need someone to stop me.” Wait, is that Hyun-sun playing house with Dr. Mechanic? Oh shit. Run!
Tae-joon is like a kid when he sees his hyung again, eagerly gifting him with warm clothes to help him battle the winter chill. Tae-sub hands him the kudzu root he collected, giving Tae-joon the bigger piece like he always does.
This time, Tae-joon switches pieces with him, so that his hyung has the bigger share. Aw.
Hyun-sun’s face goes pale when Jung-hwan unexpectedly enters the mechanic shop and demands some of the ramyun she’s made for her not-so-secret boyfriend. She knows he is pissed.
Perched on the cliff overlooking the manmade lake that used to be their hometown, Tae-sub and Tae-joon reminisce about how they banded together in the wake of their parents’ death and made do, even when they had no money.
It’s much different now, but the bond between them is the same—though Tae-joon insists he has a ship ready to ferry his brother to safety, Tae-sub doesn’t want his brother’s image to suffer because of him.
No matter how Tae-joon claims he’s fine with enduring a little hardship on his brother’s account, there’s something suspicious in the way Tae-sub sends him back to the car alone.
He sheds the scarf Tae-joon gifted him and uses his new cell phone to call his brother, who turns back toward him when he answers. Tae-sub claims he read up on law when his little bro was taking the bar, and asks, “If the suspect dies, the investigation and prosecution process are put to a stop, right?”
Tae-joon knows what he’s hinting at, and immediately tells his hyung, “Don’t.” Tears spring to both their eyes as Tae-sub cries that he’s going to stop being a burden to his little bro now, “Let go of all the burdens I’ve made you carry and fly high.”
He hangs up the phone, then calls to his little brother from the short distance, “The kudzu was tasty, right? I told you it was the best when it comes from the frozen ground. I was right, huh?” He raises his hand by way of goodbye as his face contorts into a sob…
…Leaving Tae-joon to watch as his beloved hyungnim jumps off the cliff and into the freezing water below.
Tae-joon lets out a horrible scream of grief as he runs to the edge of the cliff, inconsolable as his men hold him back from diving in after his hyung.
And as he sinks to the bottom of the lake, Tae-sub sees (or imagines he sees) the handmade grave markers they made for their parents, and thinks with a smile, “Tae-joon-ah, our parents’ tombstones are still just fine. I was right, wasn’t I?”
With that last thought, Tae-sub dies. Tae-joon can only cry out pitifully for his hyung from above the surface.
COMMENTS
Wow. It’s rare for a show to hinge such an important emotional story beat on a character that’s not the H-word like this—but then again, other shows aren’t Punch, are they?
To add another point in its favor, it’s not even like Tae-joon was being painted unsympathetically as the villain, or humanized with only the broadest of strokes. There was a chance for Tae-sub to become no more than an empty vessel existing only to showcase Tae-joon’s hidden humanity, but the show went way further than that by making him his own character with relatable goals and desires. Who knew that was a thing?
What became clear in this episode was that there was no manipulation going on between the two brothers, something I kept expecting despite all evidence to the contrary. Maybe dramas have manipulated familial love among ambitious people in such a way that it’s hard to believe in it anymore, or maybe I just expected less from Tae-joon when he had more to offer. But once I realized that Tae-joon’s love for his brother was as true as it gets, their backstory was given much more weight, which in turn gave those final moments a surprising amount of emotional heft that I wouldn’t have even dreamed of getting from Tae-joon (much less his bespectacled brother) even a week ago.
The fact that they grew up poor is nothing new, but what I liked about their shared past was the fact that they became closer in the wake of their parents’ death, having to fend for themselves and rely on each other for love and support. It explains why Tae-joon would be willing to sacrifice so much for his brother’s sake, even to go so far as to write up a retirement speech. And when he eventually broke down and asked Jung-hwan to stop Ha-kyung, it wasn’t out of desperation to save his own hide—he just really couldn’t stomach the thought of his brother spending a night out in the elements, or the rest of his life in a prison cell.
It makes Tae-joon all the more dangerous when his moral scale is skewed only toward his favorite people, making it so he either couldn’t see the irony in his struggle to keep his hyung out of prison when he’d condemned Jung-hwan’s ex-wife to the same fate, or that he did recognize it and still didn’t care. How easy was it for him to ask Jung-hwan to keep Ha-kyung imprisoned for just a few more years, yet when he was presented with the same option for Tae-sub, he threw a temper tantrum? And it’s not even like Tae-sub was innocent and wrongly accused. Talk about double standards.
Speaking of, Hyun-sun is in troooouble. In Jung-hwan’s defense, I’d be pretty mad if I went through the trouble of setting a date to make Kang Haneul a member of the family only for him to get rejected. Granted, I’d be setting myself up on that date, but I can see where someone like Jung-hwan would take his sister’s illicit affair as an affront to all his efforts. To her I say: Good luck. You’re gonna need it.
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Tags: featured, Jo Jae-hyun, Kim Ah-joong, Kim Rae-won, Punch
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1 ebay
January 7, 2015 at 3:32 AM
Hmmmm, PUNCH!
I know it's stupid to ask without watching PUNCH first but... The rating just make me think, why it leads the Monday-Tuesday drama in S.K.
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Lirrel
January 7, 2015 at 4:20 AM
It's because of the fast pace story and the acting... Especially the acting, Kim Rae-won... there are no words, just watch the drama and decide.
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ebay
January 7, 2015 at 5:51 AM
Thanks for helping me out! Gotta watch this tonight. :)
Let's have some punch!
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Joleneey
January 7, 2015 at 5:09 AM
Well, I prefer this to healer, but its definitively not an easy taste to digest for everyone, as we are dealing with a male lead who is so flawed, so bad-ass yet we still cant help but root for his happiness and health till the end.
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anotheraddict
January 7, 2015 at 2:30 PM
It's a really well-done production that knows how to create just the right amount of tension, as well as how to pack an emotional punch. (Making it also well-named.)
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Kiki
January 8, 2015 at 3:53 PM
Very well said I'm enjoying the story and it's well written characters wow!!!
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minna
January 9, 2015 at 4:10 AM
Just watch it and decide. watch from the begining :)
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2 Heartoppaya
January 7, 2015 at 5:09 AM
True. I'll also be making myself available for Kang freakin Ha Neul. If my oppa set up me a date with him, I'll kneel down before him and worshig him!
Jung Hwan is looking worn out. His eyes are red, he has dark circles, his posture is sickly. Give this babe some much needed rest. He has to go through 14(?) eps more. We've gotta keep him alive.
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Adal
January 8, 2015 at 12:29 AM
I thought Kim Rae Won is fantastic at nailing this role simply because he looks so ill. And not in an overdone way, of course. It looks like he could pass out any second but is hanging on by sheer force of will.
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minna
January 9, 2015 at 4:50 AM
may be he is acting as a patient who is having brain tumor, or may be he is really exhausted. he must rest indeed. i saw he is bandages on his fingers though.hmmmm
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3 PeepsLeAwesomePotato
January 7, 2015 at 5:27 AM
I don't quite understand why JungHwan is still in Korea... His ex-wife is out (and kicking butts) and he generally has nothing left to hold him to the Prosecutor's Assembly.
If I had two months left to live, I would have been out of the country (with family) and enjoying what little time I had left. JungHwan might even find better medical care in America! (Or anywhere else. I mean, anything beats being under the thumb of THE ONLY DOCTOR IN DRAMALAND.)
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Adal
January 8, 2015 at 12:21 AM
LOL
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4 TJ
January 7, 2015 at 5:47 AM
OK I'm wondering when they're going to give me a reason to feel sorry for Jung hwan because up until now I can't think of single reason for anyone who actually knows him to morn his upcoming demise. He's no realist, he's just a criminal. Don't know how the writer is going to pull off making this guy sympathetic considering that even in the face of death he still thinks it's just fine to be dishonest and self serving right to the last.
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5 CaroleMcDonnell
January 7, 2015 at 8:13 AM
Oh my gosh! The feeeeeels in this episode! I felt so sad for Tae Sub.
It's all so personal. And yes...so skewed towards those we love or towards those we hate because even on the prosecutor's side there is this unbalance.
Right now there are so many other bad guys in the world but there is a bit of the personal vendetta mixed in with Hakyung's search for justice.
Jung Hwan has it in him to destroy Mr Med-Student-turned Mechanic ...so even if he is doing the "right" thing to save his daughter...he's not going to be Mr Righteous goody-2-shoe.
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6 scarlett
January 7, 2015 at 8:15 AM
Oh man
*bawwling*
A show is truly phenomenal when its villains can invoke something other than hate/distaste in a viewer.
It was awesome that they showed other sides of the villains, and made the story even more complex.
Punch is a delight to watch
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7 Tulipsaki
January 7, 2015 at 8:42 AM
A car mechanic in the family would be so useful.
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Jinsphotoblog
January 7, 2015 at 11:45 AM
I'm going through the comments and TS you're comment made me laugh. But it's so so true! Having a car mechanic in the family would be so very useful. Why can't Jung Hwan see the practicality of it?
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museofmanymasks
January 7, 2015 at 11:58 AM
+1
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quirkywhit
January 7, 2015 at 10:29 PM
This is what I've been saying for years! I rejoiced so hard when my brother befriended an aspiring mechanic, only to mourn more than any other when that friendship waned.
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8 August
January 7, 2015 at 8:48 AM
Thank you so much HeadNo2 for recapping Punch!
Wow, episode 6 bowled me over - it's rockin'!
Kudos to writer Park Kyung-Soo. Most dramas tend to take the easy way out with one dimensional characters and by characterizing them as good or bad. But as in life, Punch shows that people are multifaceted. Human beings are flawed. No one is entirely perfect. All of us have our own issues to wade through.
It's so easy to overlook and forget that the people we tend to disagree with personally, professionally, politically, religiously, etc. also have people that love them and they have developed strong bonds with. Oftentimes our opinions of and experiences with others depend on the environment and are based upon the amount of time we spend with a person or persons.
Shin Ha Kyung is idealistic and sees the world only in black and white right now.
Wouldn't be surprised if Jung Hwan sheltered and shielded Ha Kyung from the political realities of what's really going on with her mentors and nemeses in the Ministry & Prosecutor General's office. Once the truth and reality sets in for Ha Kyung, it will be interesting to see how she reacts and responds.
Park Jung Hwan sees the world in grey. Time and time again he demonstrates an uncanny ability to confront the reality of the situation, to adapt, and operate accordingly.
Why willingly bend over to let others kick you in the ass?
Park Jung Hwan wised up and ceased being and easy target. He is Mr. Brain...the brains of the operation.
In order to survive dealing with ambitious, self-righteous, flip-floppers, and ultimately self-serving superiors like he had, Jung Hwan altered his behavior by becoming emotionally detached and changing his priorities, and fighting tactics.
Before this drama ends, little Park Ye Rin may be being subjected to an adverse childhood experience -emotionally traumatized by having to witness the incarceration of both her parents. Having a parent (or parents) incarcerated can greatly impact a child's mental health, social behavior, financial, and educational prospects.
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9 amberscube
January 7, 2015 at 8:56 AM
The main reason I'm watching this drama is because of the writer. Only the Hong Sisters can make me do that. But Park Kyung Soo is making a name of himself as one writer to look up too. Read about the writer here.
http://vaultofdoom.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/the-yeouido-observer-007-leaps-of-faith/
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amberscube
January 7, 2015 at 9:12 AM
Punch have been amazing so far. Thank you for the racap Heads.
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song_manse
January 7, 2015 at 9:40 AM
Thank you! I've been curious about the writer, he's one of the rare ones in the industry.
Thanks headsno2 for the recap.
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10 August
January 7, 2015 at 9:43 AM
Each time Kim Ah Joong (as Shin Ha-Gyung) appears onscreen it's like looking at a splitting image of actress Hwang Jung-Eum (from Kill Me, Heal Me, Endless Love, Secret Love, & Incarnation of Money).
"considering that he hand-picked the gentleman (cameo by Kang Haneul) for her..."
Like HeadsNo2 and others here, I say to Hyun-Sun...
Are you freaking kidding me?
It was ♥♥♥Kang Haneul!★★★
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August
January 8, 2015 at 7:44 AM
It was kdramaland ♥♥♥ Kang Haneul! ★★★
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11 ajummabunny
January 7, 2015 at 9:50 AM
Can I talk about how dissatisfied I am with the obvious character polarization!
I really liked chaser because all the characters were sympathetic even the guy who orders the murder of our lead's daughter because he wants to protect his presidential aspirations. I'm not saying this is right- I'm saying there can be some kind of rationale that connects with the viewer on a some level.
I can't get behind the white-hatness of Shin Ha Kyung and I'm not being convinced that Jung Hwan made the right decision for himself to become a creative or flexible komsa.
As I'm writing this I am aware that there might be back story to come but back story seems wrong at this point in Jung Hwan's reality.
Am I missing or forgeting something everyone?
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CaroleMcDonnell
January 7, 2015 at 12:42 PM
The white-hatness od Shin Ha Kyung is needed in the drama, I think. We need that totally clueless righteous person. There are many people like that in the world. So far, we haven't seen how she could retain this white-hattedness but she has. Could it be because she has been sheltered by life against needing to be evil? Could it be because there was never any good reason for her to stray from the righteous path?
I do find her a bit priggish and perfectionist. And I keep hoping the writer will show that there is something wrong about being so unbending. She has -- for better or worse-- a true prosecutorial spirit. And folks with that kind of personality tend to see themselves as avenging angels or even righteous. She seems downright sinless and merciless at times. And she is pretty limited in her knowledge of what all is going on.
I suspect she has some compassion. Self-righteous types often surprise me by their compassion to the "guilty" but she really is a very hard character to get behind because she seems to be more a symbol than a real person. It could be because we see so little of her..and she is not the main character by any means.
A huge part of me is hoping she learns to be merciful toward people. Perhaps because there really has not been any truly evil crime done. Yes, yes, there was the confrontation on the roof where the guy fell off. And yes, there is corruption everywhere. But I'm willing to forgive even all that.
But then again I'm not a prosecutor. And perhaps prosecutors have to have self-righteousness down. Perhaps they don't have the luxury of saying "no one's perfect" cause the nature of the law, ethics, virtue is (supposed) to be inflexible.
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ajummabunny
January 7, 2015 at 12:55 PM
I think I was trying to point out that the writers were able to make their characters realistic before but now have obvious "right" and "wrong" sides.The closest representation of this would be Choi Myung Gil's character.
But she's also wrong! Her flashbacks are all about how well the white hat served her and disdain for the grey hats.
It's not that I'm unaware of dramaland's penchant for polarization only I think it is out of place and below the expected caliber for the writers.
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CaroleMcDonnell
January 7, 2015 at 1:06 PM
Aniyo, aniyo! I was agreeing with you in a way. I understand the polarization and I see the need for such a righteous character...but I also feel we are seeing the humanity of the bad guys and the righteous ex-wife seems to is so prosecutorial that she seems to lack humanity. It's as if she is so good, I want her to see that everyone is human.
It would be so neat if dramaland showed that she needs to lighten up. If she were to realize somewhere along the line that she has to know how to pick and choose her battles. She says she is doing it for the right reasons and she probably is. But there is a bit of vindictiveness wound up in her prosecutorial righteousness.
I'm trusting the writers will show that self-righteous judgmental people also need to grow.
Anyways..I was agreeing with you. In my own way.Even though I think the writers might be showing that our heroine prosecutor is a bit too self-righteous. So i'm holding on to hope.
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ahjummabunny
January 7, 2015 at 2:23 PM
Chagya, you're so right! All I need is some patience.
The first few episodes The "tae" brothers were just obvious bad guys but the last 2 episodes I started to consider them some more. Thanks for talking about with me!
CaroleMcDonnell
January 7, 2015 at 3:01 PM
We may not get what we want in our heroine...but at least both of us are hoping together for the same thing. ;-)
12 Pranx
January 7, 2015 at 9:53 AM
This amazing show has introduced me to krw. But can anyone recommend one of his more light hearted dramas? After watching episode 7 I had to go hunt for some light hearted stuff to calm myself. I wonder how I will survive 19 episodes.
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ajummabunny
January 7, 2015 at 10:02 AM
I was about to recommend a few different Kim Rae Won dramas to you, but then I remembered you said light hearted.There aren't any I would call light hearted, but the closest to light hearted Kim Rae Won drama would be Gourmet. I haven't seen Patzzi though.
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s
January 7, 2015 at 11:23 AM
KRW's wonderful in Gourmet, but for true lighthearted fare, I'd recommend Attic Cat (or the film A Little Bride). It's a completely different, adorably infuriating KRW that shows his range as an actor:
http://www.viki.com/tv/728c-attic-cat
Can't say I much care for Patzzi personally.
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dokutokunaneko
January 7, 2015 at 10:22 AM
Attic Cat is one of those early hallyu ones with the famous cohabitation premise. I loved him in there :) he was in a lot of lighthearted stuff before getting into more serious fare.
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Pranx
January 7, 2015 at 11:01 AM
Thanks nn and ajumabunny! Will check them out. I read about his last (popular?) kdrama Thousand days promise and NO I am not signing up for umpteen episodes of Alzheimer's.
This drama brings out funny feelings in me, the bad guys are warm and the good guys are cold. HK especially... does she not love her daughter? Using her daughter that way to get JH's location. And shouting at a post-neurosurgery ex-husband who essentially hopped out of hospital bed to get her out of jail. I almost want her to fail for being so naive.
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padmé
January 7, 2015 at 11:16 AM
@kdramaNewbie watch his movie "My Little Bride" he's so cute there. As for drama Gourment was good,too :)
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Megumi
January 8, 2015 at 1:19 PM
Yeah my little bride is so good, I've watched it countless times, there is a movie called 'Sunflower' with KRW in the leading role which I recommend to everyone, I think it is the best movie KRW has ever been in, also the girl who's playing the sister in this drama also plays his sister in that movie, it's a very emotional and heartwarming movie.
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13 Jackeline
January 7, 2015 at 10:03 AM
So yeah, the part where TS got from the woods behind the temple to the freaking town centre under the watch of 500 policemen was a bit ridiculous (though I suppose even then you can make the excuse that the police are searching outward in their 2km radius search, and wasn't there a saying about how it's best to hide in the most obvious place?) but the part where JH smuggled him out was a good psychological battle.
He goes before KJ, without the criminal, and pulls rank first, making sure to let the police officer know how displeased he is that he would be stopped, and deliberately saying and remembering his name to make the threat more real. Then KJ follows that up with an even more displeased act, also mentioning the police officer's name, which insinuates he'll lose his job if he continues to cross all these higher-powers. So I thought it was a brilliant play on JH's part. :)
Thanks for the recap, Heads! Been waiting for Punch since Monday haha.
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Pranx
January 7, 2015 at 11:05 AM
Even more ridiculous was the redirecting flight in storm part. I would be scared for aviation industry in Korea if that really does happen.
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CaroleMcDonnell
January 7, 2015 at 12:46 PM
Rocks are the MOST convenient things in kdramas. They hide much.
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14 museofmanymasks
January 7, 2015 at 11:57 AM
Haha thanks for the funny recap. This show gets better and better. Like you said, what other show would humanize both the "villain" and his murderous brother?
I hope wifey gets some more varied hues as well. Realistically, no matter how upright, even if she was iffy on ditching prison illicitly, would she really turn down a better education for her daughter? It would be powerful if she had that same duality concerning her daughter vs. bad guys that Tae-joon has for his brother vs his opponents.
Interesting about Jung-hwan's sister. I was going to get excited thinking well maybe if she turned down KHN, she's dating Ohn Joo wan's character (though I hope he shaves the rat-stache) but nope. Which wouldn't make sense anyway considering she would have no reason not the bring him home in that case. Ah well. To each her own?
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shountypoo
January 7, 2015 at 5:09 PM
I thought the same thing about Jung-Hwan's sister... but then i remembered there seemed to be some unrequited loveish thing between Ha Kyung and Ohn Joo wan's character.
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15 anotheraddict
January 7, 2015 at 2:19 PM
Oof. Great episode. I really respect the writer for making the love between the Brothers Grimm so palpable that my heart really went out to them, and he did it without downplaying their villainy. (Unlike Pinocchio's writer who makes a serial killer a super sympathetic character, while making the murders he committed seem like they weren't really a big deal).
So many bad guys in this drama, but, surprisingly, the one that I most want to suffer at the end is Doctor Jang. I really hate smug, callous bastards.
Healer has my heart, but Punch is a fantastic production. I was noticing how the music really helped to keep me on the
edge of my seat-- without being too heavy-handed. It feels like a movie to me, and that's a good thing. IMO, it's a great drama-- even if it is a terrible tease for only giving us a few seconds of Kang Haneul's glory.
Brilliant recap as usual, Heads. Thanks!! I especially loved "... those who make the law their bitch". :D
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16 rudi
January 7, 2015 at 4:29 PM
Punch and Healer are both my current crack.
Dr Frost follows closely.
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17 Adal
January 7, 2015 at 8:14 PM
Okay. I'm officially pissed off at Punch for killing off Tae Sub when it seemed so unnecessary. Let's hope he didn't drown and will be resurrected some time in the future.
As for Jung Hwan, it defies logic why he still helped his old boss Lee Tae Joon go find his older brother. I still don't get the reason why he went when he had nothing to lose. Tae Joon's threats were meaningless to Jung Hwan since he is going to die before the investigation is completed. Maybe he helped out of a sense of fondness for his former boss, but whatever the reason I just knew it would get him into trouble!
I sympathized with Tae Joon when he pleaded with the minister that there are far worse people she could be going after than a dirty Head of Prosecution and a corrupt CEO. Still it's not like they are completely innocent, but the Minister's witch hunt does seem a tad personal, in a "I don't like you so I'm out to get you sort of way". I appreciate the writers for layering Tae Joon's character which makes him seem a lot more sympathetic, relatable and human. Very well done. So why does it seem like the Minister and Ha Kyung are the bad guys and Lee Tae Joon, Jung Hwan are the good ones?
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Pranx
January 7, 2015 at 10:45 PM
Tae Sub had to die to protect Tae Joon's chair. I do not that that with this writer's reputation, any copouts like resurrection will happen.
I think JH helped Tae Joon because Tae Joon threatened to spill the beans and implicate JH too. JH, being extremely short on time in which he had to settle family affairs, could not afford to get arrested.
Not sure why Tae Joon blames JH for the suicide though. JH got him out as promised. If there is anyone he should blame, its his new sidekick who set this whole thing rolling by trying to frame Ha Kyung while JH was in surgery.
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18 hipployta
January 7, 2015 at 10:07 PM
I am amazed at how much I'm disliking how naive Ha Gyung is and how she CLEARLY needs to open her eyes to the reality of the politics around her and what they mean
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August
January 8, 2015 at 6:17 AM
I reminded of the following quote when it comes to Ha Gyung:
"If you expect the world to be fair with you because you're fair to them, its like asking a lion not to eat you because you don't eat lions." — Unknown
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19 Cocoboo
January 9, 2015 at 9:22 PM
The brotherly love was so strong!
I felt bad for Tae Sub when he was called a burden. I knew his suicidal plan was coming when he realized how difficult things were becoming for his escape.
I knew it yet that whole ending scene made me cry so hard. T______T
I felt bad for Jung Hwan too. Getting constant reminders about life and how he won't be around for long. Suffering all alone and not confiding in anyone in his family. Yeah, it's his own fault for choosing to hide the truth. But I still can't wait to see the moment when someone finds out and can be there for him.
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20 mary
January 25, 2015 at 7:19 AM
I can't believe I cried for Brothers Grimm this episode. I don't like them, but you can see how strong their bond is and you can feel their sacrifices and grief.
Also, that ending made me go "SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT". Tae-joon is mad now....
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21 Ennayra
February 22, 2015 at 7:08 AM
Wow this show is bringing out the jaded side of me. I was glad when the one brother decided to jump off the cliff because i was really tired of looking at his face. I also would have been glad if they smuggled him away on a boat because again, i was really tired of looking at his face.
Also, I'm tired of how unbending the female lead is. She's the predictable character in a show where the most interesting characters are full of shifting loyalties and surprising actions, although I'd argue that their motivations are constant. Anyway, i can understand our male lead's motivations, which are to be around for his daughter in the last few months of his life and to see that his family is provided for after he's gone. He doesn't have time for jail, so i get why he helped find the annoying older baddie brother who was on the run.
I'm enjoying this show!
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