Beanie level: The Goblin’s underpants

Dear Midnight Romance Ep. 8 — Thank you for a master class in how to let a scene breathe. I was cutting onions along with Hye-Jin and her friend. 🥹

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    Beautiful beautiful scene…. it felt so personal, intimate and the way it all flowed so naturally… I don’t even see the actors acting anymore. I feel like I am watching their lives.

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      So beautiful. And what a portrayal of the best kind of friendship — the kind where your friend knows when to listen, when to probe gently, and when to call you out on the lies you’ve been telling yourself.

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    Such a wonderful scene. This week episodes were chef kiss

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Ok, Midnight Romance (Ep. 6) — you’ve got me. I’m all-in. I could watch Joon-ho and Hye-jin verbally dance with each other all day — or night.

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    I loved the ‘you can read between the lines?’. They both know that extrapolating meaning from words both said and unsaid is a fundamental part of teaching literature.

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      Great observation! And I think part of what makes their dialogues so gripping. There is intent behind everything they say and don’t say.

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Anyone who loved C-dramas Meet Yourself or Fake It Til You Make It, run — don’t walk — to your TV/mobile device and watch Will Love in Spring. First 5 episodes are 🥰😍😘 with amazing 🎶

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    🏃‍♀️ Busy running with Sun Sol but how can one resist a Beanie’s call!!

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    I love it too!

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    looks like this FL is hardly ever wrong with her drama choices..

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    I loved Meet Yourself and Fake it till you make it. I’m looking forward to starting this one. I want to watch it once it is finished 🤩
    Li Xian, wait for me!

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      Mature romance, beautiful cinematography, slice of life small-town setting, heartwarming sibling bonds, a goose 🪿 and a great soundtrack. I think you’ll enjoy it!

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Aarrgh … I promised not to watch the Shop for Killers finale without my daughter, but now I have to wait for her and stay away from the hangout too. 😬 I wonder if there’s any way to reset the viewing bar on the app to show the episode as unwatched. 😅

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    I don’t know if it’ll work but you could try watching it in incognito mode.

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      I’ll look into that next time I want to cheat, lol. We stayed up last night and saw the finale. She immediately asked if there’d be a second season. We wish!

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    Did you enjoy the drama. 😀
    What did you like / dislike.

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      Definitely liked it overall. My favorite LDW role (some people are more handsome and charismatic when their roles aren’t centered on their being handsome and charismatic). Thought the opening episodes were amazing — so effective at drawing you into the story and getting you invested in the characters. Bale as a villain was a bit one-note, and I don’t know that the mercenary arc needed as much time as it got. It also wasn’t really clear how the shop expanded so much beyond Honda’s small store (poor Honda). How exactly did all these hardened hired guns wind up with microchips in their forearms? (Maybe that could be explained in a second season.) But that’s sort of nitpicking. I appreciate that the show had a story to tell, a tone to establish and adhere to, and it delivered a satisfying ending. (Please take note, showrunners!) It wasn’t heavy on the philosophy, but it gave viewers food for thought on revenge, loyalty, justification of violence, what we owe family and the morality of the shop’s existence. Thought it was excellent technically as well — cinematography, music, sound design, lighting. It showed that more isn’t always better when it comes to episode count.

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        Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

        What a refreshing take that some actors “look” better when the role doesn’t necessarily require them to be handsome. I really like this and when I think about it indeed that’s so true. K-drama MLs (especially in romcoms) are usually shot / framed in a manner to showcase their unreal angelic beauty. 😍 While that’s not necessarily a complaint it is nice to see a real ML. Of course this drama couldn’t realistically (in the drama world) make LDW look too good but it actually made him look hotter.

        I liked the story, world building, relationships and the extensive shopping mall network. There are indeed gaps if one takes this as a complete stand alone story and we don’t get a season 2 which is clearly set up. I wished we could see little more of Honda. The drama definitely left me wanting more. I resisted watching the end 2 mins immediately after the last two episodes dropped. 😂 I was happy to see the two episodes and get to see the ending which left me very pleased and eager for the next season. 😊

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          Yay! Glad you enjoyed it too. It’s so nice to have a satisfying viewing experience. The end skillfully walked the line between resolution of one crisis and leaving enough unfinished that you still want more. I hope we get it!!

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            While I was looking forward to watching the drama and felt it was better as a binge, I tuned in each week nevertheless. 😀
            Totally agree – it was a very satisfying watch indeed.

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    I think if you go back afterwards and watch the first two minutes, that is what the bar will show.

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For Samdal-ri viewers — timely CNN article about Jeju’s Haenyeo: https://www.cnn.com/style/korea-haenyeo-divers-unesco-last-mermaid/index.html

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Has anyone ever had a dream about dreaming while trying to post on DramaBeans? No? Just me? I can’t remember the topic of my dream post, but I do remember trying to edit it because the part written while I was dreaming about dreaming was full of gibberish pulled from my subconscious. Kind of like some of my college lecture notes. 😳

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Marriage Contract mom has me feeling ranty: I know it’s a convenient plot device but I’m so tired of the succession fight trope and all the plot-filler nonsense that comes with it. Toxic workplace culture. Gossip and fake news. Company directors who are no better than whining Joseon era ministers. Let alone plotting and executing violent crimes. The antagonists in these fights rarely seem to have a goal for the company other than retaining control for their own benefit. How about determining who gets the position by merit? Or using a management professional as PMR’s Yi-Joo so reasonably suggested? What’s so great about being CEO anyway when you’re already richer than Croesus? Maybe your family wouldn’t be so dysfunctional if it didn’t treat life like a battle royale. Here’s a different path: Lead the family foundation and use it as a force for social good instead of a slush fund. Arrgh!

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    I agree with you and I haven’t watched today’s episode yet, but I actually liked the power fight in episode 5.

    I like how their fight is actually helping Yeon Woo achieve her dreams. And I like that the fight isn’t directly between the stepmom and Tae Had but instead, stepmom and haraboji. And I like that both of them are bad.

    I can’t say the same for the other contract marriage show tho.

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    I thought you meant the 2016 “Marriage Contract” (starting Uee & Lee Seo Jin) 😅

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    That’s it. It’s a Joseon era holdover! The boardroom is the modern court—and just as exhausting. Notice how they often also split across the table just like left and right ministers? (OK often not but sometimes 🙂

    But I did like in #6 they actually showed work being done at the office as well. And tying it so neatly to YW’s Joseon era skills.

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LYOL: I would like to send Hyo shim’s mother and niece to the Castaway Diva’s island. 😡 Who would be the boss in that scenario?

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    I have suggested Straw-mat beating (meongseok-mari) for drama characters.

    I have suggested a dunk tank too

    The 1967 prison drama Cool Hand Luke features “the box” , a small wooden booth in the prison yard with limited air and space. Prisoners guilty of any of a multitude of infractions could wind up serving time in the box.
    I can think of many drama characters that need a night in the box.
    A Film clip of new prisoners including Paul Newman as Luke, hear the litany of box worthy infractions.

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Nearly every historical drama — look no further than My Dearest — drives home the point that life in those times was often nasty, brutish and short. Bearing that in mind, what positions in society, for men and for women, had the best chance to live a relatively peaceful life? Between facing famine as a peasant, getting poisoned as a dethroned noble or dying on a battlefield as a soldier … I’m not sure what the best options are. Sailing to an uninhabited island and living under the radar? What are your thoughts?

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    Honestly none no societal position from back then sounds appealing or peaceful – those in the higher socio-economic band might have pretty good financially, but life seems like it’d be rife with politics and absolutely stifling, especially if you’re a woman. But if we played the game of relativism, I suppose some troubles are better than others so maybe being a dude with a lot of money to cushion your life would be the most peaceful out of the lot (but also not royalty or royalty adjacent because as you said, who knows when you’ll get killed or asked to do the killing). I’m with you there on the fact that running away to be off the grid sounds the most freeing though, but then again it’d be pretty isolating too wouldn’t it? 😮‍💨

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      *honestly none no societal position…

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      I did consider moderately successful merchant — well-off enough to be insulated from daily hardship but not so powerful as to be swept up in court-related intrigue as the official supplier of doodads and whatzits.

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      Sometimes I wonder if the reason for watching sageuks must come down to some sort of schadenfreude.

      I mean no one really wants to go back there, so why watch it get played out?

      Do we WANT to see how bad it was, just to feel how bad it was?

      Or, do we want to take some sort of fundamental satisfaction in the fact that—while CERTAINLY not perfect—things are better now on many fronts, and we can be made to feel happy about what we do have?

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        I think there are two main reasons:
        1) We want proper reasons for all those secrets and repressed emotions, reasons like for example starvation, hostage situations, torture, murder and the draconian laws meant to hold everybody in their place. This also forms the background as well as for meticulously laid plans, giving us (if all goes well) the Ocean’s 11 feel of the triumphant twist.
        2) Silk, gold, jewels, ceremonial outfit and men jumping down from the roof.

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          It’s true that the payoff is far greater when the situation is literally life and death, not just a figure of speech.

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            What I mean is, if people do something very dangerous, or if they do “Noble Idiocy”, taking Hong-jo and Shin-yu as examples; When Hong-jo goes alone into the forest knowing that a murderous stalker has her as his special target, I don’t get so much worried as just angry: Stupid girl!
            And the same goes for people who say they don’t love someone that they love – one thing is to be nervous to lose a friend, but if the barrier is broken, you should be able to be honest. But if you lie because the father of your love is at that very moment making ready to take out the eyes of the woman who took you in when you were a helpless orphan, then it is not dumb to lie, even if it hurts.
            So if you are going to pressure cook your emotions, it only makes sense if there’s an actual pressure.

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          I like the way you used Aeng-cho/Hong-Jo to illustrate your point. It’s one thing to be critical of a character for not following their heart or some such, but when loved one’s lives are truly at stake or one’s family faces annihilation, who is truly going to be able to fight against fate.

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        It’s fascinating to see how bad things were, as you put it, and at the same time recognize that many of the root problems remain the same — inequality, prejudice, sexism, incompetent leadership, nepotism, etc. are the same.

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        @attiton I think maybe not to fall into the trap of romanticising the past. I mean the US had MAGA. But I do agree does watching immense suffering help or defeat the purpose?

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          Also sorry I’m still angry at my own country for voting no in the referendum. This was to give Voice to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in our parliament. I guess I was living in my own bubble, thinking that everyone understood the genocide and atrocities that happened to our Indigenous Peoples. That are still occurring today. I wonder if a popular television series depicting this would’ve helped people become more empathetic? I don’t have an answer because I wouldn’t want the pain and suffering of our Indigenous Peoples to be a spectacle or entertainment either

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            Oh tell me about it – absolutely shameful to say the least. I completely tuned out of the news after I saw how quickly they announced it too.

            On the note of whether media might have helped – maybe actually? It shouldn’t be at this point in the first place, but honestly that’s just society for you apparently. There’s also something to be said about the education systems role in this – so many people have no idea about what our country’s history is because they’ve never been exposed to it academically or otherwise. I’m not entirely sure school curriculums are like now across the board but it’s not something that was taught when I was growing up and a lot of the teens I tutor right now are also clueless because history lessons are mostly WW1 and WW2 focused it seems. Some very big changes need to occur I think here in general, because I’ve met more people who are sympathetic to struggles abroad or know US history and politics like the back of their hand – niether of which is wrong or anything, but it says something when a lot of these people are also either completely ignorant or oblivious of what has happened and what continues to happen on this land.

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          To the question of if watching historical suffering can serve as a warning … maybe? But I think its effectiveness, as with many things, depends on the presentation. Does the show transport you to the past and make you feel the characters’ emotions? Or is the brutality so overwhelming that you start to tune it out and it becomes less impactful?

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            @lapislazulii The issue of teaching history and school curriculum in general is a huge one in the US currently, with a loud, activist movement taking over school boards, promoting book bans and trying to silence any concepts or even historical facts they don’t agree with, as well as roll back rights for all marginalized groups.

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            And how much of it is that “in order to feel the emotions that the writers want us to feel” it has to be set in a context of extreme violence?

            How much does the cruelty serve as a necessary backdrop to stage the more uplifing emotions?

            Otherwise stated, can we be encouraged to feel those uplifting emotions WITHOUT the violence and sadness? Is the violence a crutch, perhaps, of sloppy writing?

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    It’s hard to find proper information; I was going to compare life expectancies, but I could only find this:
    “Before the introduction of modern medicine by the Korean Empire government in the early 20th century, the average life expectancy for peasant and commoner Korean males was 24 years and for females 26 years, accounting for infant mortality.”
    From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseon
    but 1) I can’t find anything about the life expectancy of nobility and 2) Infant mortality makes a huge difference; if we talk about how life was, maybe if you were old enough to think about it, your life expectancy would be 50 rather than 26.

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    Wise old sage living in a mountain hut?

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“You look great together” — Destined With You delivered one of the only times that line didn’t make me cringe, since it couldn’t have been directed at a more deserving pair. I hate how it’s usually uttered by some secondary character who thinks the natural order of the universe dictates that the supposed best-looking people must be paired off together, while the “less desirable” half of the OTP has to listen and suffer in silence.

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    Can you believe I watched this just last night, and I’ve already forgotten. Who said this to whom?

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      Shin-yu’s parting words to Na-yeon and Hyun-seo (the Haum construction CEO) after he arranged for them to have dinner together, revealed he knew about their affair and hopefully put an end to Na-yeon’s hopes of reconciliation (gag!) once and for all.

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        Ah right. Thanks. I really enjoyed that scene but forgot his parting line. I hope they take him up on his advice. To paraphrase @ceciliedk immortal words (from last week), Hyun-seo has an ounce of humanity left and he’s willing to spend it all on Na-yeon. Take it girl, take it. 😀

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          She tossed it aside, though, like a fool. I don’t yell at Hong-jo…I yell at Na-yeon.

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        I love how you explained Chaebol Construction Dude’s name, as you rightly assume, there’s no way we’re retaining it 🙂

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    I totally clapped for Shin-yu in that scene.
    a. Wonderful to see his photographic memory in action,
    b. Well planned take down of the SFL,
    c. Awesome punch line – so perfectly apt,
    d. Mic drop 🎤

    Hyun-seo was smart enough to know he had been beaten. 😂 🤣

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      Same!! It was really nice to see him actually really swiftly and confidently take action, after episodes of him being silent and passive.

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        This confidence and swift action really drives home that Shin-yu had no love lost for Na-yeon.

        Which is why it is even more bewildering as to why did he allow her to cling onto him for so long.

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          I’d like to think there’s some profound complexity of character that would explain that, but it’s more than likely just going to be because of inconsistency in writing hey 😭

          But a theory nevertheless: he was so shook by the whole ‘having real feelings’ thing that it took a while for his mind to reboot. And then he got a grip and decided to get back to his old self minus the ‘being a jerk to Hong-jo’ part. Oh and, finding out about Na-yeon’s affair maybe also helped him cut through any guilt based responsibility he felt for her. (even then though, why did it take him so long 😭)

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            🚉  🎟

            Ticket for one please!

            I am totally on board with your theory … and why do I have a sneaking suspicion that it is more logical and well-through that what the drama may (or more likely may not) give us.

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            ** please read it as –

            … more logical and well-thought-out than

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            No no, it’s because his father was in cahoots with the mayor to develop the Mount Onju site.

            He was under serious pressure from his family…I really think that’s the root cause here.

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Anyone have insight into why “The Little Prince” is so commonly referenced in dramas? “Fake It” is just the most recent example. Also “Mr. Fox and Miss Rose” and I think there are others …

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    This and the Little Mermaid are hugely popular reference texts. I’m not sure, maybe they study them in Korean universities?

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      Also, Alice in wonderland. I think I have seen it in a couple of dramas.

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        There are also a lot of references to the Victorian gothic novel. I suspect that a lot of writers study English literature at University before moving into drama writing. I find the Little Mermaid references the most blunt and even annoying, because I feel the writers don’t actually understand the original novel. Less so The Little Prince.

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    I’d love to know too!! The Little Prince has a grip on SK in general I think. Like Gamcheon Culture Village in Busan (that iconic place with all the colourful buildings and wall art) literally had so many souvenirs, shops, paintings, statues, murals etc that were Little Prince themed, he’s apparently like the mascot for the village and one of those iconic symbols also when you think of Busan.

    Apparently there’s a few places like this in Korea but this was one I saw myself and was like wow, they really love this story! Tried to google to find out the answer after but came up blank – if anyone knows the reason why it’s so popular in SK, would love to know!

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I’ll be disappointed if “My Dearest” doesn’t deviate from “Gone With the Wind” in the second half. A Joseon-era retelling would be a screenwriting exercise and not worthy of the actors and production.

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    It will likely deviate .
    Scarlett winds up with Rhett, who is a mega multi millionaire, wine 🍷 and 🍽️ in Europe , mansions in various cities, etc.
    Gil-chae lacks a Mammy character, Mammy plays an important role with Scarlett and Rhett once they are together
    Gil-chae does not have Yeon Jun or the Soldier guy on the brain like Scarlett had Mr. Wilkes on hers.

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    Same. I’m following through the weecaps before I decide if I’m going to commit to the whole thing, and I have such an aversion to Gone with the Wind that if they don’t mix it up, I might just have to settle for watching clips and not bothering with the drama itself. It’s been really disheartening to see all the comparisons between them.

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