Oh! Young-shim: Episodes 7-8
by Unit
Our penultimate week comes with a slice of makjang, as our characters get some very unexpected replies to their confessions, and their variety show is hit with a plot twist that none of them saw coming.
EPISODES 7-8
We resume from where we paused last week with Chae-dong’s love confession, and Young-shim’s slip into his arms. From afar, they give off the impression of a couple in a cozy hug, and that’s exactly how Kyung-tae misinterprets the scene. And with an episode titled “Jealousy is my strength,” there is enough jealousy to go round among our characters. Starting from Kyung-tae who heaps blankets on Chae-dong during the night, leaving poor Chae-dong with nightmares about being strangled. Tsk.
Wol-sook is the next on the jealousy queue, and her radar goes up when she notices the tension between Kyung-tae and Young-shim as the temple stay shoot begins. Wanting to get closer to Kyung-tae, Wol-sook asks Young-shim for some help. But first, she wants to know if Young-shim also likes him. Young-shim denies it, but it’s obvious that the lady doth protest too much.
For a variety show shoot, Love Mark is incredibly boring (even more boring than this drama is turning out to be), and the crew has a hard time getting exciting footage between their guests — the guy with the unrequited love for his colleague, and the colleague in question. For some skinship, the crew arrange a couple’s yoga session, and interestingly, Chae-dong chooses to pair up with Wol-sook rather than with Young-shim. Unfortunately for the crew, couples yoga doesn’t go well, either, as Mr. Unrequited Love gets a muscle cramp. And I can’t tell which scenario is worse in front of your crush: getting a cramp, or having your heart rate spike and setting off the alarm on your smartwatch — as is the case with Kyung-tae. Lol.
As a last resort, Wol-sook suggests Operation Jealousy to set things off between the show’s guests, and for the first time since the shoot began, Ms. Colleague seems to be affected. She tells Mr. Unrequited Love that she wants to speak with him beside the wishing rock, and the crew wait in anticipation for what they expect to be the climax of the shoot. Yunno, when she finally accepts his feelings.
At the wishing rock, Mr. Unrequited Love is all pumped up and ready to confess his feelings, but Ms. Colleague asks to go first. And this is where things take an interesting turn. Ms. Colleague confesses that she knows how Mr. Unrequited Love feels about her, but the only reason she came on the show was to make good memories with him for the last time. Why? Apparently, she has already decided to walk the road of asceticism, and she’s leaving for Tibet soon. What!? Now it makes sense as to why she’s into Buddhist activities.
This is definitely not the story Love Mark intended to tell, and the entire crew is perplexed. But no one is more upset about the plot twist than Mr. Unrequited Love, and he vehemently refuses to broadcast his embarrassing story to the country. Despite Young-shim’s plea, he insists that the footage be erased, and when she doesn’t bulge, he grabs her laptop, hops into the crew’s van and speeds off — with Young-shim barely making it into the vehicle as he drives away. Okay, what in the makjang is going on here?
Young-shim manages to send an SOS message to Soon-shim before her phone goes off (no surprises here), and Soon-shim rushes to inform Kyung-tae and Chae-dong — who are in the middle of a childish brawl — about Young-shim’s “abduction.” Luckily, Young-shim is with Kyung-tae’s smartwatch, and the guys — who get into another round of arguments before kicking off Operation Save Young-shim — track her location.
Mr. Unrequited Love is about to throw Young-shim’s laptop into the river when Kyung-tae and Chae-dong arrive, and Young-shim passes out in the ensuing struggle for the laptop. Kyung-tae and Chae-dong take turns in trying to diffuse the laptop hostage situation, and Chae-dong turns on the waterworks. Apparently, Mr. Unrequited Love wasn’t the only one who got dumped, as a flashback reveals that Young-shim had turned down Chae-dong’s confession.
Things escalate into a battle of who has it worse: private dumping versus public dumping, and having to face his crush everyday at work versus not getting to see his crush when she moves to Tibet. *Sob, sob* Both guys end up in a consolatory hug, and Chae-dong uses the opportunity to rescue the laptop. So dramatic!
Kyung-tae drives Young-shim and the laptop back to the broadcasting station, and Young-shim gets an apology text from her abductor. In an all’s well that ends well situation, Young-shim spots a comment under Mr. Unrequited Love’s public entry to the show that states that his steadfast commitment to his crush is what she (commenter) looks out for in a guy, and to contact her if his crush rejects him. Young-shim reaches out to arrange a blind date between Commenter and Mr. Unrequited Love, and things end on a happy note for him.
While editing Love Mark’s pilot episode, a happy Young-shim comes across footage of Kyung-tae at the wishing rock. And we see that he made a wish for Young-shim, but we won’t get to hear the rest of the wish until next week.
Outside of Love Mark, it appears that Kingvely is in a bit of legal trouble, and I wonder what that side plot is all about. Hopefully, the finale wraps up all loose ends like it did with the love triangle — which wasn’t even a triangle in the real sense of it — because as much as I like him, Chae-dong never stood a chance with Young-shim. I was upset that the show made him join forces with Wol-sook last week, but thankfully he made a U-turn this week by respecting Young-shim’s feelings and giving up on her. “You don’t own her heart. It’s up to her to decide what to do with her feelings.” Preach to your fellow second male leads in dramaland, Chae-dong, preach!
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Tags: Donghae, Jung Woo-yeon, Lee Min-jae, Oh! Young-shim, Song Ha-yoon
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1 vienibenmio
June 8, 2023 at 9:49 AM
If this drama has taught me anything, it's be nice to the nerds who have crushes on you because they may grow up hot. Kidding, obviously.
Anyway, this drama is still... not good, but I'm enjoying it. If nothing else, it's giving me swoony cliche moments that other romance dramas seem to be lacking lately, like the classic "reaches out to touch her but withdraws at the last second" or "she falls asleep in the car and he watches her sleep with tenderness in his eyes." I'm curious how they're gonna wrap this romance up in two eps, though!
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2 Unaspirated
June 8, 2023 at 10:46 AM
I'm still following your weecaps, @unit, so thanks! It's entertaining to read about, but bummer that it's getting boring to watch.
Starting to wonder if this drama would be best watched as a highlight reel after the fact... It certainly wouldn't be the first time I gave a drama that treatment *coughdodolalasolsolcough*
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3 OhSoEnthusiastic
June 8, 2023 at 11:31 AM
This drama has given me plenty of laughs. I definitely won't pretend it hasn't. But I still can't help being disappointed that they didn't make any effort to elevate the storyline. I'm perfectly happy to watch a tropey drama, but I wanted something that used its tropes in more interesting and creative ways and that wasn't so low-effort. It's like they couldn't be bother to actually write a story.
I'm also disappointed by how little they've actually used the original source material. Surely there were more scenes from the cartoon (or even the manwha) they could have pulled in. Why bother even using the cartoon if they were going to use so little of it?
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vienibenmio
June 8, 2023 at 12:34 PM
Right? I actually watched some scenes from the cartoon and there were other characters that would have been interesting to pull in (including a romantic rival for Young-shim). I feel like either they should have made this an original story with original characters, or gone all-in on the comic thing.
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OhSoEnthusiastic
June 8, 2023 at 1:19 PM
I would love to watch the full cartoon and read the manwha (or is it manhwa?). It looks like a really fun/cute story. But they've done almost nothing with it. In fact, I totally forgot until just now that the second female lead is supposed to be the frenemy in her friend group with the male lead when they were kids. They could have really brought that into the story more to give the second female leads sneaky behavior more purpose and believability.
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4 CDF
June 8, 2023 at 1:38 PM
I just can not come into terms with Young-shim putting her life in danger for a laptop. The footage is kept in a single laptop? There is no back up? Any one who works with digital media knows to keep back ups of back up. Don't these people have any idea about backups and all?
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vienibenmio
June 8, 2023 at 2:15 PM
The whole storyline in general, like did the show not realize that this outcome could happen? Of course there are going to be couples that don't work out. The woman didn't even seem like she was interested in him, I thought.
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snancy
June 8, 2023 at 3:43 PM
And isn't stealing the laptop a crime? And kidnapping? And we're supposed to root for Ki-ho to find a new relationship? So.Many.Plot.Holes.
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beffels
June 9, 2023 at 12:33 PM
I know, has no one heard of the cloud 😅
In the same vein was no one concerned when Youngshim was still unconscious after the laptop was returned? Take her to a hospital and not to work, and stop touching her hair while she’s out of it!
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5 Kurama
June 8, 2023 at 1:45 PM
I watched the episode 7 and I'm not motivated to watch the 8... There is no character that I can like. They're all childish and not in a good way. So it's a drop, I guess.
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6 Kathryn51
June 8, 2023 at 7:21 PM
Me? I like romance. I like comedy. I like this drama. I like nerdy rich guys who build their own empires (unlike chaebol Kang Tae Moo and Lee Young Joon)
Do I love it?? Will it ever be on my Top 10 k-drama Rom-coms? (that, by the way, includes "Playful Kiss"). Resounding No.
But it's filling a void right now until "King the Land" (which might feature another chaebol heir??) and "19th Life" arrive later this month. So, it has some value to me. Nothing more or less.
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vienibenmio
June 9, 2023 at 8:07 AM
Sounds like we're in the same boat, although I actually love chaebol male leads. Is this drama pretty bad? Yeah, but it's an ACTUAL romantic comedy.
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Kathryn51
June 9, 2023 at 12:49 PM
I don't dislike chaebol male leads - in fact, I enjoy them. Almost all rom-com Male leads start from the same premise - the ML is "cold" but the charming FL somehow softens him up and helps save the day, whatever that may be.
But I REALLY like the nerdy/eccentric ones who created something (not necessarily wealth) on their own. My Halo Love and Crazy Love come to mind.
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7 ♡Peach_Mochi♡
June 8, 2023 at 8:28 PM
The storyline with the younger couple whose relationship mirrors that of Kyung-tae and Young-shim looks promising. Maybe we'll get more insight into why Kyung-tae left without word -- can't believe how long that question has gone unanswered. I feel the drama has spent too much time showing how their childhood relationship has left them unable to behave like functioning adults around each other, and not enough time showing how this reunion might *eventually* trigger some healing and growth.
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8 beffels
June 9, 2023 at 11:48 AM
There’s a lot that’s by the numbers in this drama (which is fine) but I actually really appreciated the second male lead here -
He asked out his crush, she said no, he accepted that it wasn’t up to him and he doesn’t get to have her just because HE likes her because she is also a person who has feelings of her own. And he’s sad about it but that’s also normal.
(I also laughed quite a lot when the male lead completely fails to get the laptop but second lead comes in and cries all over Mr Unrequited Love and smoothly gets the laptop while Kyeongtae stands there looking bewildered 😄)
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