Cinderella at 2AM: Episodes 7-8
by DaebakGrits
Our Cinderella has never been one to celebrate her birthday, but as her big day arrives, she finds herself missing a particular someone even more than usual. Will her prince charming finally manage to sway her feelings, or will he play hard to get just when she needs him the most?
EPISODES 7-8
If you’re like me and feeling emotionally fatigued by our OTP’s long, drawn out breakup, then you will be disappointed to know that our penultimate week is mostly more of the same — keyword being “mostly.” Yes, we’ve got to slog through some more filler (good and bad) while our OTP navigates their breakup, but, I’m happy to report, we’ve finally reached the other side of the swamp with a happy ending in sight — but first, that slogging I mentioned.
When we last saw Joo-won, he’d spotted Yoon-seo and Seong-min, and from afar they looked a bit flirtatious. Yoon-seo immediately realizes how the scene must look to Joo-won, and even though she’s single and knows making Joo-won think she’s moved on would further her initial goal of getting him to fall out of love with her, her lingering feelings for Joo-won make her instinctively guilty. Before she can explain the truly platonic nature of her interaction with Seong-min, though, Joo-won — His Highness, The King of Jealousy and Adorable Bed Head — surprises her, Seong-min, and us with his nonchalance and business talk. Okaaaaay… where’s the meltdown?
Come to find out, Shi-won, who is disappointed that his use of the company helicopter was wasted on Joo-won, is back at his love coaching. This time, he offers up (what he believes to be) a foolproof plan to help Joo-won lure Yoon-seo back to him — but really it’s just a bunch of reverse psychology and mind games intended to make Yoon-seo miss Joo-won enough to take him back. In short, he advises Joo-won to use several pick-up artists’ tricks of the trade — like negging. (Ugh.)
Shi-won ain’t got no business dolling out love advice when he’s still struggling to communicate with his wife, but at least the Joo-won’s execution of his brother’s tactics are made less offensive by a comedic tone and, more importantly, Joo-won’s overall struggle to be anything other than genuine when around Yoon-seo. Joo-won, cutie-patootie that he is, absolutely balks at Shi-won’s suggestion that he should go on a blind date for the sole purpose of finding a woman to use as a prop to make Yoon-seo jealous.
However, Joo-won accidentally follows his brother’s most controversial piece of advice when he escorts Mi-jin into the office so she can surprise Shi-won with some macaroons — the same dessert she featured in her last social post that Shi-won accidently liked from his alt-account. Yoon-seo sees Joo-won and Mi-jin as they cross the lobby together, and in the moment it takes her to recognize Joo-won’s sister-in-law, she feels a pang of sorrow — not jealousy — at seeing Joo-won with another woman. Logically, she knew there would eventually come a time when he’d move on from their relationship and either date someone new or enter a contractual marriage, like his brother, but she wasn’t prepared for the unexpected gut punch — or the wave of relief once she recognized Mi-jin.
Yoon-seo’s birthday rolls around, and it’s on this day that she finds herself missing Joo-won the most. She’s not usually one to make a fuss about her birthday because of her family history, but when she was dating Joo-won, he enthusiastically celebrated the day of her birth because he was thankful she existed and was a part of her life. (Dawwwww!) This year, despite their breakup, she’s still in anticipation of him doing something to acknowledge her birthday — but he doesn’t. Because he’s still following Shi-won’s dumb advice. (*facepalm*)
Of course, once Shi-won finds out it’s Yoon-seo’s birthday, he tells Joo-won to abort his idiotic schemes and do a 180. Joo-won, now isn’t the time to ignore Yoon-seo! No, it’s time to go all in and lay on that Prince Charming charm, and Joo-won is amped up to do just that. Except, there’s one problem: Yoon-seo left work unexpectedly and isn’t answering her phone. For most people, this isn’t exactly a reason for concern, but Joo-won knows Yoon-seo well enough that he instinctively suspects something is amiss.
Sure enough, on her birthday of all days, Yoon-seo found out her mother, who was slightly less abusive than her father, had passed away. The last time Yoon-seo had seen her mother was when she was in college. She’d contacted Yoon-seo to let her know that her father had caused a car accident and died while driving under the influence. She’d expected Yoon-seo, who was about to graduate and start a career, to do her filial duty and pay off her father’s debts. In response, Yoon-seo had told her mother to go kick rocks.
There’s obviously no love lost between mother and daughter, but Yoon-seo feels some sort of way after hearing the news, and her mood is exacerbated by her longing for Joo-won. She refuses to acknowledge she’s affected by her mother’s death or act on her instinctive desire to seek Joo-won out. So she does what every forlorn K-drama heroine does and overindulges in alcohol while pouring her heart out… to Seong-min.
He just so happened to be passing by the restaurant where she was drowning herself in soju — because dramaland is that small and because their connection has been built entirely on coincidence, so why stop now? But Seong-min sees that there’s no room for him in Yoon-seo’s heart (romantically), so he steps into the role of Fairy Godmother/wingman and calls Joo-won when Yoon-seo passes out.
Joo-won takes Yoon-seo home, and patiently waits outside his car while she sleeps off the soju in his passenger seat. When she wakes up, there’s ten minutes left until her birthday, and instead of caving to his curiosity and pressing her to explain why she was so upset and drinking with Seong-min, Joo-won apologizes for ignoring her on her birthday and for his behavior (while following Shi-won’s advice). Although this would have been a good time for Yoon-seo to sway just a wee bit, she — yet again — insists that they should keep their distance. As annoyed as I am to hear Yoon-seo repeat her breakup mantra, I appreciate that our drama takes a step back (this time) to allow Yoon-seo to process her mother’s death and acknowledge how her abusive parents have affected her and Ji-seok, who is adamant that she not attend their mother’s funeral.
Against her brother’s wishes, she takes a day off work, but once she arrives at the funeral hall she can’t bring herself to approach her mother’s memorial altar. As she listens to staff judge her and her brother for not doing their filial duty, her eyes well with tears. She refuses to cry, initially assuming that the tears are for her mother, but as she watches the other mourning families around her, she realizes she’s grieving for the home life she never had. There’s also a sense of relief that, with her mother’s passing, the nightmare is finally over. The loss of a parent — even a shitty one — comes with its own host of complex emotions, and in that moment, she’s bereft to find herself alone — but that’s when she looks up and sees Joo-won.
Ji-seok called Joo-won and asked him to be there for his sister, and Joo-won immediately raced to Yoon-seo’s side to give her a much needed shoulder to cry on. After she’s finished crying, he builds up her self-esteem by praising her strength, and then, for some crazy reason, he decides it’s the appropriate time to — wait for it — propose to her. I can’t decide if his decision was wildly off base (for obvious reasons) or a rather ingenious way of diminishing her mother’s death — and its impact on Yoon-seo — by replacing the negativity of the day with a more positive memory.
Either way, Yoon-seo is surprised by the sudden proposal, and even though her instinct is to tell him no (because breakup), she agrees to take some time to think about it. As she tells Yi-rae later, marriage isn’t just about romantic love. It’s about family, and she’s worried that a marriage with a chaebol would inevitably result in people gossiping about her family history. She’d rather sacrifice her romance with Joo-won than have Ji-seok be hurt by all the negative comments directed at them.
The longer she ponders her decision, though, the more she feels herself being swayed. She recalls her earlier drunken conversation with Seong-min. Yoon-seo had compared herself to Cinderella at 2AM (cue: title sequence), after the magic had worn off and the impracticality and improbability of living happily ever after with Prince Charming had settled in. Seong-min had disagreed with her comparison, having previously been on the receiving end of her tenacity. She’s not a Cinderella who waits idly for her prince; she works hard for a happiness that isn’t guaranteed.
While Yoon-seo slowly comes to the realization that she wants to bravely fight for her relationship with Joo-won, the man himself waits impatiently and takes his own steps towards ensuring they find happiness by telling his mother in no uncertain terms that he will marry Yoon-seo. Chairwoman Kim is not pleased. She threatens to send him to Spain, and, not for the first time, I wonder why she’s so adamantly against our OTP. She obviously cares for her children and is pleased that Shi-won and Mi-jin are beginning a post-arranged-marriage romance, so what gives? Does she have a reason for disliking Yoon-seo that will become more apparent in our finale, or is this just a sign that the writing team has struggled to create a redeemable antagonist?
Rumors that Chairwoman Kim is sending Joo-won to Spain begin circulating around the office, and it’s the jolt Yoon-seo needs. In a classic rom-com move we haven’t seen much since before the TSA was given carte blanche to cavity search anyone and everyone, Yoon-seo races to the airport. Even though, as far as I can tell, she doesn’t know his departure time, she manages to track him down before he checks in with his airline, and she’s able to tell him how she feels. It’s all very romantic — until she realizes Shi-won is watching and that Joo-won is only going to be in Spain for five days.
It’s a long five — make that four — days before Joo-won returns, showing up unexpectedly outside Ji-seok’s school on the day of his college entrance exam and casually demonstrating how he’s ready and willing to join her and Ji-seok as a member of their family. Aside from Chairwoman Kim, it should be smooth sailing for our OTP at this point, but we should never underestimate a K-drama writer’s asinine attempts at keeping us in suspense — or annoy the hell out of us.
I don’t know about y’all, but I was ready to throw Jang-hee through a window. A good chunk of Episode 8 is dedicated to his caterwauling after he is seemingly passed over for a promotion, and he places the blame on Joo-won. Now that Yoon-seo is secretly dating Joo-won again, she tries to run interference between her subordinate and Joo-won, which prevents her from going on a much-anticipated date with her on-again boyfriend.
Even if you remove the unintentional cockblocking angle, his behavior is extremely unprofessional (more so than usual), which begs the question: Why exactly is Joo-won planning to promote Jang-hee to Yoon-seo’s position once her resignation is finalized? Honestly, Jang-hee’s behavior is so off-putting that I have a hard time enjoying the subsequent romantic scenes between Joo-won and Yoon-seo — not that the awkwardness of Joo-won and Yoon-seo’s make-out session did the scenes any favors either.
But whew, I’m glad Yoon-seo and Joo-won are back together. I like their characters, and I want them — and our story — to find their fairytale happily ever after. But, and maybe it’s because we’ve been held in suspense for so long, I found their reconciliation lacking. In hindsight, I think it all stems from timing.
As I’ve mentioned multiple times, the breakup has felt unnecessarily long, a feeling that I suspect could have been alleviated by delving more into Yoon-seo’s backstory and concerns and then pacing them more steadily. Instead of coming off like a broken record and repeatedly telling Joo-won “no” until she finally said caved to her feelings at a rather emotionally charged and sensitive moment in her life, I wish we could have seen Joo-won overcome each of her misgivings one by one until her mother’s death, when she finally realized that — chaebol status or not — he would protect her and be by her side in ways her parents never had been.
Although this week’s episodes had a more somber tone, they weren’t without their fair share of comedy — and no, I’m not talking about Jang-hee’s cringy, slapstick behavior. I’m, of course, referring to our secondary couple. Shi-won and Mi-jin stole the show for me in these latest episodes. I’m so used to seeing contractual marriages used as means to put characters in close proximity and to create opportunities for pretend intimacy that it’s rather novel to watch an arranged marriage couple fall for one another without the usual gimmicks and tropes.
Of course, this couple isn’t without their own breed of over-the-top shenanigans, and I got a huge kick out of the whole social media debacle. However, even though Shi-won and Mi-jin have their share of misunderstandings, they overcome the fact that they’re practically strangers with their open communication and mutual respect. They’re not perfect, but they’re trying. And that’s what’s important. Plus, you know, they’re hella cute together.
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Tags: Cinderella at 2AM, Moon Sang-min, Shin Hyun-bin, Sojin, Yoon Park
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1 Seon-ha
September 18, 2024 at 5:29 AM
I grant a lot more to this show than @solstices, although I do agree with a comment made a few weeks back by @marcusnyc20 that there seem to be two separate voices...which finally sent me over to check out some facts. I make note that according to MDL the "original creator" of this work is the director of Alchemy of Souls, What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, and Because This Life Is Our First (among other faves), but the screenwriter is someone he worked with on his first (and no-so-well-known-or-beloved) drama. I don't know the backstory between these two, but there is indeed a little support for there being two sets of ideas about how to make this story come to life.
No matter why, though, this show remains desperately uneven. After this week, I now honestly wonder if that's somehow the key to why I spent 25 straight minutes at the end of episode 7 heaving and sobbing in blubbering tears. Starting with that utterly amazing scene in the restaurant where Yeon-seo is talking to an incredibly attentive and caring man but who, is patently the WRONG MAN to be hearing her story...all the way through to the funeral hall courtyard where Ju-won takes her into his arms because that is what she needs and he simply cannot help but comfort her. I did not find their reconciliation lacking at all, nor did I find his proposal odd--he'd had the ring prepped for her birthday even before his brother changed his tune. He just couldn't wait any longer.
But would have been as effective if this show were just scene after scene of punch-in-the-gut emotion? I'm not saying I love the office pair (definitely not) and the silliness injected into our second couple was also unwelcome. And yet, I rarely, if ever, get as caught up in the moment as I do during certain scenes of this show. I think I've decided that it's something to do with the fact that in the "silly scenes" the characters just out and say what they're thinking, but in the punch-in-the-gut scenes you're offered a moment to infer what those feelings really feel like.
As for the mother, she seems like the type who can't let her sons go. It's a cliché, but a common enough one in real life, although not necessarily played out so forcefully. Here in fairy-tale-land it means she doesn't want them to be happy with other women...So-jin's character sees it for what it is--her utter loneliness--and we see it too as she wanders around her big, empty house. I think it's being done really well, at the 50% accuracy we've come to expect from this drama.
At any rate, I'm glad our couple is back together and, for some secret reason known only to fairy tales, I am absolutely sure that these two will never deny their feelings for one another, for even one single second, ever (after) again.
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Seon-ha
September 18, 2024 at 12:49 PM
Sorry, @daebakgrits ! I had @solstices stuck in my head as the recap writer and didn't look...boo.
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Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
September 18, 2024 at 9:15 PM
My brain knows Ju-won is end game, and the lead couple have convinced me that they love each other no matter how much some more equal, objectively 'better' pairing might be - but my heart is not over how natural and at ease Yoon-seo and Seong-min looked in their painting-therapy scene at the end of ep. 6. Lee Hyun-woo’s face throughout the restaurant scene was a master class in microexpressions, and part of the reason Moon Sang-min seems bland is the contrast. His voice is doing 3/4 of the work.
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Seon-ha
September 19, 2024 at 4:30 AM
Sigh, I'm going to justify this drama again. Why, you ask? I don't know, I answer.
Anyway, I completely agree that if *I* were picking between these two men, our artist, Seong-min, would have more a more attractive depth of experience...but I also think it's important that he seems to be a viable alternative for Yoon-seo. In that painting-therapy scene, I fully believe that she comes to care and respect him as a man who is, in many ways, like her.
But she has to have a relationship with him--a real one, just not romantic--for his words to have any affect in his studio this week. She needs to have taken him into her life at some pretty deep level for her to believe him when he tells her that she is valuable. If he were just some hot guy, it wouldn't hit home like it did.
Said another way, he is able to help her change her mind about herself because she cares about him. Over-dramatic though it may be, she helped him see the value in his own life and he returned the gift.
I get that lost of folks are preferring the artist to the chaebol, but the story stands firm: Ju-won is who Yoon-seo favors--she doesn't even waver for a single minute of this drama--and in the end that is all that matters.
That means more Seong-min for the members of the audience, I guess 😆
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Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
September 18, 2024 at 9:17 PM
And my gosh, it’s SO uneven. The comedy is not hitting for me, mainly because it relies too heavily on the office minions being complete effing idiots. It’s hard for me to suspend my disbelief because they would be fired in a hot second in any real office. Neither of them deserved promotion. I am unreasonably stuck on this. 😂 And much as I love Sojin, I wish we could see her character developing interest in her husband they way we’ve seen him falling for her. The poor guy is so pathetically starved for affection, including from his dragon mother. That’s an underdeveloped storyline. Another problem I’m having with Yoon Park's character, besides the silliness, is that he’s too much “it’s all about me” for someone who was raised to believe nothing is about him or his wants.
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2 Nefret
September 18, 2024 at 6:12 AM
Ten episodes are definitely enough for this drama. Still, I like it, I find it relaxing and quite cute.
It's not just because of the second couple, I've also grown fond of our ML and FL, even if ML is sometimes very clingy, but apparently that's exactly what FL needs.
FL's backstory actually moved me to tears at times. It explains her decisions and behaviour very well.
While I thought her colleagues were okay last week, this week the male colleague got on my nerves with his fuss about the missing promotion. He didn't deserve a promotion just because of this childish and unprofessional behaviour.
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3 Isa is always time travelling
September 18, 2024 at 6:38 AM
Thanks for another great recap!
Jang-hee is the most annoying and unnecessary character I have found this year (or ever) in Dramaland.
This drama would have been better without him.
However, I love the secondary couple. They are cute and fun to watch. I agree: they stole the show this week. I appreciate the way they are speaking and clarifying everything to avoid long misunderstandings. I see now they are quite comfortable in the company of the other.
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Minnie🫘👩🏻🚀Pioneer and Teacher 👩🏻🏫🌱🏹
September 18, 2024 at 9:39 AM
IKR?
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4 Minnie🫘👩🏻🚀Pioneer and Teacher 👩🏻🏫🌱🏹
September 18, 2024 at 7:57 AM
@solstices: Thank you for being such a dear and making sense of this drama, which is a drama in a drama in a drama...
I think my biggest struggle has been that I don't find FL consistent or deep. I understands her scars, and I have nothing against a clingy ML but I just can't understand what keeps them going. I stuggle to find their common gounnd - if that makes sense?
I have seen chewing gums have less elasticity when stretched.
But it's cute, I have to give that.
The second couple though.....I just keep falling in love with Yoon Park.
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tabong
September 18, 2024 at 3:38 PM
Why do I feel like y'all are watching Bad Memory, and now everytime you read a recap that makes sense of a messy drama you guys think it's written by @solstices 😂😂😂
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Minnie🫘👩🏻🚀Pioneer and Teacher 👩🏻🏫🌱🏹
September 18, 2024 at 4:21 PM
Dang! @daebakgrits So sorry! Kudos to you for sticking with us. Thanks Tabong 😂
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5 hacja
September 18, 2024 at 10:15 AM
Given this is only 10 episodes, and therefore every episode carries the potential of big developments, I'll wait and see next week before making a final assessment--although like everyone else, I hated the work colleague character especially because, as is often the case, the writer lazily relied on drunkenness to have him behave in ways that were supposed to be funny. (I actually have no problem with the trope of drunkenness removing inhibitions in rom-coms, but the success of that trope depends totally on how extreme they make the drunken behavior, and in this case, it was way, way too much.
I also find the male lead underwritten--although the female lead is beautiful and appealing, his utter devotion in the face of demands to break up is a little hard to account for. Still, unlike @daebakgrits I didn't mind the reconciliation and did not find the kissing particularly awkward by kdrama standards. (Although come to think of it, I have to say the kiss scenes have been really substandard overall. Unlike last year, no sprinklers have been set off by the smoking passion.)
As far the disappearing love triangle, I found that more abrupt and unconvincing. Sorry, unlike a certain commentator whose name begins with "S" I still see no reason to believe that because he called the ML in one scene that the artist was playing the role of "fairy godfather" or that he had a revelation that he was mistaking gratitude for his affection--his behavior even in that the drunk scene was that of a love rival, until the moment he nobly called the ML. I appreciated his consideration in this case, but not the writing of his character from semi-stalker to self-sacrificing phone-caller.
Continuing my writing critique,the same goes for the Mom--more time spent on her motives would have helped the story. The secondary couple was more to my liking in these episodes, although I think they repeated the pattern of of the husband misinterpreting his wife--first hopeful that her actions meant she was interested, then disappointed when it appeared she was just doing things for Instagram promotion, then being reassured that there was indeed something to it, was repeated one time too many.
But after all these criticisms, let me just say that I continue to like the female lead character, and I find her more interesting than a lot of rom-com FLs this year--and maybe the last 2 episodes will wrap things up well and alleviate some of the criticisms I have so far.
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Seon-ha
September 18, 2024 at 2:58 PM
Look, just say my name if you need to say it. It's not like making me out to be Voldemort is gonna be rhetorically useful for ya. Or is it?
What is the role of the "fairy godmother" except to demonstrate to Cinderella how beautiful she is? That speech Seong-min gave in his studio, mirroring back to Yoon-seo all that is attractive and valuable about her-mere-person, is the epitome of this work. Yoon-seo herself is worried about not being worthy--because of all the reasons we've come to know--but he says, "You absolutely are because I can see it." And after Yoon-seo heard...no believed...him, she up and changed her mind about her desire to drop this charade of breaking up on the spot. Like magic.
As for the ML, I don't think I can remember a time here on DB when you've even come close to wanting to hear more about an ML's inner monologue...and I think that is another thing worthy of note. I've never had a drama that makes me empathize so much with an FL!! There is something real going on here about the character work that a bland, ever-faithful, Prince Charming is doing. I think it may be actually quite remarkable here that Ju-won is so, well, naive and young. Yoon-seo is not picking him because he's the sharpest tack in the box or anything sort of extrinsically interesting. He just loves her, wants to support her, admires her, and...also has his own thing going.
In terms of ideal fairy-tale Prince Charmings though, he's sort of got a new corner on the market. When Ju-won says he "missed her" during the kiss sequence, it's not because he's not seen her every day since their "break-up," because he has. It seems much more like he physically missed committed attention to him. And that's all she needs to give him. He wants for nothing else.
Just sayin'. We have different opinions about this drama!
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Mr Everything
September 18, 2024 at 3:24 PM
I also think it was an interesting twist on the typical helping hand that pushes the two leads together. Most typically, it is the family or best friend that pushes the leads past a sticking point. This seems very consistent with communal cultures. Sometimes, it is an enchanted cat or other nonsense, which fits within the love of supernatural things in dramas (but which I don't particularly enjoy). Is this the first time the catalyst is the second male lead? Is this meant to signal some kind of fate? Or, is this simply as Seong-min says, to indicate that even when they were broken up, there is no room for anyone else?
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hacja
September 18, 2024 at 7:14 PM
I have to admit, I hadn’t thought of Voldemort when I used an initial—that book is more my kids generation, and the only reason I’m familiar with those books is that I read them aloud to them at bedtime. I was instead thinking of nineteenth century literary battles between critics, or I guess, in contemporary terms, the arch tone of Lemony Snicket’s “Series of Unfortunate Events.” But, now that you mention it, your fanwall shows you as something of an evil genius, whose interpretative powers are only matched by…uh, trying to think of a Harry Potter equivalent here…MissVictrix?
Of course, if you’re Voldemort what does that make me: Moaning Myrtle? Argus Filch? Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank?
Anyway, enough of that, because its my DB motto to remain on topic at all times!
I think our only major point of disagreement is the role of the artist-love rival here. We completely agree about the empathetic Female Lead, and probably about most of the strengths and weaknesses of the drama. My point about the ML was not that we needed more internal monologue from him, but rather some more external details, that would show the reason he needs her so much (obviously, family troubles of his own could be the sole big contributor, but if they had shown that more, it would put them on more equal footing.) But still, as far as the way you characterize the relationship, I pretty much agree with that as well. So we’re on the same page, just not the same young adult fantasy book series.
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Seon-ha
September 19, 2024 at 4:36 AM
Cornelius Fudge.
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6 Mr Everything
September 18, 2024 at 12:04 PM
Now that the main couple has got back together and we are in the second to last week, I think I am finally able to make my main critique of this drama. As @daebakgrits mentions, the show is kinda swirling over the same material over and over (like in a toilet). Usually in dramas, this is to provide some tension in the plot (in this case, will they or won't they). However, in this situation, I find the swirling to be a lot more meaningful. The best use of narrative swirling is to allow the author to peel the onion of an idea, which is, the real reason why they broke up and each layer provides an additional clue about the complex nature of a breakup. (Really, this show is about the rough patch in a relationship when it goes from having fun to planning a life together. But, the Cinderella theme is a metaphor not for breaking up but challenges in deciding to commit)
In the first week, we have external challenges in entering a committed relationship. Mother, work, class... All relationships have external factors outside of the couple that the couple has to deal with and accept if they want to stay a couple.
The second week was about family struggles and past struggles. Balancing family needs with couple needs is another thing that the couples will have to deal with. And, everyone has past trauma that must be dealt with when deciding to become a committed couple.
The third week was about personal struggles. The FL realizes that she is being selfish and afraid and this is the real reason she doesn't want to commit and deal with the external and family issues of the previous two weeks.
And, that brings us to this week. It turns out that it wasn't even the personal reasons from last week that scared the FL. It was the reason that inspired the title of the show. Shame. A poor cinderella who decides to get into an infamous public relationship will be exposed to public scrutiny and she has to accept it before going into a committed relationship.
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Mr Everything
September 18, 2024 at 12:20 PM
CONT. It turns out that her personal struggles were not really about defending the familial peace that she struggled to create with her brother or about the challenges of breaking Joo-won's familial peace. What she is really afraid of is being exposed as someone who is weak and poor and being victimized again by the public.
At this point, I think it is important to note that in Korean culture honor is very important. Exposing yourself to criticism is a big taboo, which seems foreign to westerners like me who regularly see their celebrities acting like entitled fools all the time. This is also evident in the Korean idol culture where netizens feel free to criticize idols for even the smallest infractions. It is part of the honor culture.
So, in Yoon-seo's mind, exposing her shameful past is an attack on her identity. (I welcome disagreements from others about this point) I think the key turning point of their relationship is where Joo-won explains that he thinks she is cool for enduring all the challenges. This turns her shame into her glory, which is the central theme of the story. When the ML accepts the FL, she can truly commit to him and deal with all the challenges that are brought up in previous weeks.
So, it turns out that I was wrong. The real solution wasn't to fight his mom. The real solution was to have a heart to heart with Yoon-seo and love her tragic past.
My only criticism going forward is that Joo-won's story is lacking. I wish the writer gave him more issues to struggle with in committing to the relationship. He is like a puppy. See stick, chase stick. I love puppies, but given the tragic nature of the FL's past. I wish the writer would have let him struggle with it a little more. At least give my boy a flashback montage where he regrets some of his prior behavior as being insensitive.
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Seon-ha
September 18, 2024 at 2:42 PM
I am very fond of this idea that the narrative keeps swirling back around to the same "set-ups" but showing us different variations on a theme. I also see that too and it goes some way towards elucidating some of the narrative decisions...and perhaps, effectiveness of this drama (when it it actually IS effective).
I would say, though, that we maybe don't need to reach for "shame" on Yoon-seo's part (although it's possible)...she could also just "not feel good enough" for Ju-won...or even just in life. She says herself that she doesn't know what SHE offers Ju-won when it's quite clear to her what he offers her; although I might argue that it might have seemed to her/us that what he offers is all the "prince charming/chaebol crap," but that it's only when she realizes that what he offers her is his full and complete empathy, support, and love...that she realizes she can give that too, and it is enough.
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Mr Everything
September 18, 2024 at 3:10 PM
If I understand your disagreement, I think we are talking about the same thing. So, to avoid a semantic argument, I was using shame in the sense of the shame-honor culture theory. And, in this sense, any lack of virtue can be considered a shame including being poor or coming from a humble family. This is particularly true for Confucian societies where hierarchy is determined not only by personal achievements but by family/clan reputation.
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hacja
September 18, 2024 at 7:37 PM
I would just add that while your interpretation makes a lot of sense, the other factor that she mentioned had nothing to do with her shame, but rather a practical sense of how the disparity in wealth would affect their relationship. This is something that I was quite sympathetic with, because as I mentioned in the first week, I personally know of two relationships where that disparity was enough to inhibit, if not squelch the chance of a deeper connection. The idea that if one person is enormously wealthy it makes the relationship really easy for the other is not always true, even though the idea is that a rich partner is always desireable.
Minnie🫘👩🏻🚀Pioneer and Teacher 👩🏻🏫🌱🏹
September 19, 2024 at 5:57 AM
@mreverything @hacja
I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
Cultural views of shame and practical concerns both play a significant role in shaping relationships in an honor driven societies, especially when self-worth, identity, and self-respect are involved. In Confucian or shame-honor societies, factors like family background or poverty don’t just influence social status—they can profoundly affect how a person views themselves. This often leads to an identity crisis, where someone’s sense of self becomes intertwined with societal expectations (for eg having a deadbeat parent). For someone like our FL, who values her self-respect, these cultural pressures can feel even more intense.
But it’s not just cultural norms that come into play. In modern relationships, the practical challenge of wealth disparity is a real factor. Even if societal values have shifted, a significant difference in financial standing can create tension. It’s not simply a matter of status or shame, but rather how those financial differences affect the balance of power, self-respect, and equality in the relationship. Navigating these imbalances can be tricky, especially for someone like the FL, who is fiercely independent and self-respecting.
So in this case, it seems to be a mix of both cultural and practical concerns. Our FL isn’t just worried about how society perceives her; she’s also grappling with how these disparities impact her identity, her sense of self-worth, and her ability to maintain equality in the relationship. This is why it’s more than just about shame—it’s about her finding a way to honor her self-respect in the face of these pressures.
PS: Mr Everything - Your observation about honor driven societies and how that shapes current personalities is quite on point.
Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
September 18, 2024 at 9:30 PM
It seems to me that what these two offer each other is room for authenticity. They are terrible at playing games with each other. They can’t not be genuinely themselves together. The repetitive break-up scenarios that have her, and eventually him, pretending not to want to be together show that. They’re each other’s refuge from the need to put up a false front. But, but, but - that’s ironic considering that Ju-won hid his background from her for three years. I was worried that there would be some dumb plot twist that he's really not a chaebol, but I think you're right that we're meant to see that he’s not one at heart, or at least that *his heart* is enough.
Nowhere can I see how this mother could have raised these two sons, though.
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7 Kurama
September 18, 2024 at 12:18 PM
Hum... The original idea of the FL taking the money wasn't like I pictured it in my head. I was more imagining her enjoying a new style of life with this money... But instead, it was more like a very sad break-up between the characters that didn't make sense because they really cared about each other. So now, I'm happy they got back together.
The colleagues never showed any competences at their work, so I didn't understand how he dared to complain. Did he forget he abused his power on the new member of the team?
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8 Mr Everything
September 18, 2024 at 12:43 PM
On a personal note, I really like the idea that being overwhelmed was linked to feeling sorry for yourself. It resonates with me and gives voice and perspective to a feeling I often have. I empathized with Yoon-seo's struggle with her past suffering and trying to live a dignified life in spite of it.
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9 too_much_tv
September 18, 2024 at 5:53 PM
Thanks for the recap! I agree with @attiton: this show is very uneven! The sad parts are great. The writers are onto something: people who had really bad relationships with their parents tend to have a harder time, not an easier time, when their parents die. They have to mourn the relationship they never had. I am trying to recall a k-drama that has done as well with this idea as this one.
The problems are, I do not vibe with these leads as comic actors. They just aren't very funny here. Yoon Park is hilarious in his role as the brother. He's also good at a soft, lovey-dovey face. Park So-jin is killing it opposite him. They are a lot of fun to watch.
I feel like we're still missing a sense of the ML's family or past. We know his parents don't live together and his mom is lonely. She thinks of arranged marriage as a business deal. We don't know whether he ever had a trauma or anything like that--just that he's been raised to work hard and have expensive tastes. (Opera is not cheap!) Part of the reason they seem unevenly matched is that the actor is 24 and was given zero backstory. You know? Can we have one in the last two episodes, please? I was going to say, "It's a tall order," and of course it is, they hired him and said, "be tall and have a pretty face." That's his jam, man! But seriously, it's not fair to the kid to do that to him. Of course the second lead seems like a better match--he isn't so flat!
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Isa is always time travelling
September 18, 2024 at 10:53 PM
In fact I like the second lead (I mean the artist, Lee Hyun Woo) more than the ML. As a character, as an actor and even phisically 🤔
But this is a short drama and I'm afraid he has already done everything he had to do as a "Fairy goodmother".
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too_much_tv
September 19, 2024 at 8:51 AM
Oh, I really love Moon Sang-min! He is handsome and tall, but he can act too. In The Queen's Umbrella, he was supposed to be a swashbuckler, but he was able to do that thing I love of showing emotion to the audience & not the other characters. It's just that here, he's playing a cardboard cut-out of a good boyfriend! Let the guy realize his potential.
I mean, maybe they expect the actors to make up their own backstories? Pretty nearly every other character in this show has revealed more details about their background. I know more about best friend with the restaurant, the artist, even the annoying coworkers, than I do about the ML. All I know is that he's a quiet person who went to college in Korea. (With the second ML, thought Lee Hyun Woo is IRL 7 years older than Moon Sang Min and looks older that 31 for some reason.)
Maybe the plan is to reveal the backstory at the end of the whole thing, which would be fine. I just think the casting here was based on how cute they would look in the promotional materials. Which they do! I bet they are also fun in the little promo videos.
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Isa is always time travelling
September 19, 2024 at 9:09 AM
I watched Moon Sang Min in Duty after School and Wedding Impossible, and I'm looking forward to starting Under the Queen's umbrella.
I think he has potential, but needs something more meatier to work with.
I think his character in Wedding Impossible had more layers and than Ju Won, even though both characters started being basically identical (a hard working "hidden" chaebol).
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Isa is always time travelling
September 19, 2024 at 9:10 AM
*more layers and "complexity" than Ju Won.
too_much_tv
September 19, 2024 at 9:12 AM
Yeah, he did well with Wedding Impossible but I honestly didn't like the character. I did not blame him. I thought he was great at showing emotion there, and you could see on his face that he knew the character's story.
Minnie🫘👩🏻🚀Pioneer and Teacher 👩🏻🏫🌱🏹
September 19, 2024 at 5:42 AM
Part of the reason they seem unevenly matched is that the actor is 24 and was given zero backstory.
Yes, that's a great point. I think the other problem is that while they are really good for each other, so far there has been no real address to her fears which are not unfounded.
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10 AmnesiaYawns
September 19, 2024 at 7:12 AM
In defense of Prince Charming … let's take a quick detour to the origins of "Cinderella", long before Disney got a hold of it. The Grimm brothers first recorded it around 1812 in Germany, but it's probably a lot older and there are several slightly different versions in all of Europe.
It's Her-story (like most fairy tales). It's Cinderella's story, a woman overcomes all adversities of her extremely bitter and sad life and wins a prince.
In the Grimm version, he doesn't even have a name, he has no description other than being "young" and maybe even "handsome", he has no personality, no story, he happens to be there at the right time to give the heroine whatever it is she needs most - he is the ultimate reward.
And Joo-won fits that profile quite perfectly.
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Seon-ha
September 19, 2024 at 7:37 AM
Love it. Fits perfectly here. But...do tell us more! Was one of the adversities in the original Cinderella's life supremely annoying work colleagues??? Perhaps it was!! May we soon overcome these two dolts as well. 😂
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Isa is always time travelling
September 19, 2024 at 7:49 AM
Cinderella's problem was her supremely annoying stepsisters. (But Yoon Seo colleagues are almost as insufferable as them).
At least our FL has a quite decent brother 😄
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AmnesiaYawns
September 19, 2024 at 7:56 AM
Jepp, her stepsisters were pretty bad, but they did get their comeuppance, they both hacked their toes off trying to fit in Cinderellas shoes … that's almost a Joseon style punishment. I wouldn't wish this on the colleagues, but they are very annoying.
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Mr Everything
September 19, 2024 at 9:41 AM
young, handsome and foot fetish... In the Disney version, wasn't she friends with rats?
too_much_tv
September 19, 2024 at 8:53 AM
Good point!
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bong-soo
September 20, 2024 at 4:48 PM
Thank you @amnesiayawns for your comment. You provide some literary context (re Prince Charming) that our writer(s) may have unintentionally followed. The drama really has been more about ‘her’ than ‘him’. Can you blame Prince Charming if even the Brothers Grimm didn’t give him much of a backstory.
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11 daebak dramatist
September 19, 2024 at 12:58 PM
I have almost completely lost interest in this show. It's like the writer had one good idea - twist the offer-money-to-break-up trope - and then had to try and build a whole drama around it. So we have a bunch of scenes strung together until we can get the leads back together (when it's so obvious they should have just stayed together in the first place). I feel bad for the ML - this is his second drama in a row (after Wedding Impossible) that fell apart after a good premise. I hope his next show is a better one!
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12 bong-soo
September 20, 2024 at 5:16 PM
Late to the party. Thanks DAEBAKGRITS, @daebakgrits for the recap.
Great comments from the faithful few so I won’t repeat but a few random thoughts as we come into our (hopefully not crash) landing:
1. Both FL and ML have given beautiful performances with the material/script they were given. Yoon-seo had the heavier lift dramatically. Ju-won less so, but when things got serious both actors rose to the occasion;
2. The comedy between the Ml, FL and coworkers was pretty awful and the blame goes for how the coworkers’ roles were written. The production must have brought in ringer writers for Yoon Park and Sojin’s parts because those two shined.
3. So as not overlook. 2 of the actors in the drama with maybe the toughest parts to act were the young actors: So A-rin (playing the young Yoon-seo) and the (other) Kwon Yul (playing the young Ji-seok).
They were in one scene of abuse after another and gave terrific performances. (Once again I am in awe of kdrama child actors.)
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13 JH LOVES KDRAMA
September 23, 2024 at 8:57 PM
I have to say that this drama is really not working for me. I have no emotional connection to any of the characters and I just don't feel any chemistry between the main leads. I was looking forward to this show, and it is very hard for me to jump ship, but I'm not sure I will be able to finish it. Thank you for these recaps, @DaebakGrits; I'll enjoy your final thoughts on this one, but don't think I'll make it though the episodes.
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