Things are moving along. In this past weekend’s installments, In-kyong finally cracks! And not a moment too soon – this storyline really overstayed its welcome. Can you imagine your husband or wife’s coworker having an obsessive crush on them, and calling you every other day – not them, YOU – to tell you that you’re not good enough for them, and that you’re not being supportive enough of their career? Well, that’s what this character has been doing to Jin-ju for, I dunno, 20 episodes now. This bitch is crazy! I love how the actress who plays her shows that little gleam of madness in her eye every time she has a moment alone with her thoughts. While I was disappointed that a full-blown catfight never erupted, Jin-ju did have it out with her and forced her to confess that she does in fact have feelings for Jun-wu. Jin-ju finally said what I’ve been wanting her to say to In-kyong all along: you love him so much, where were YOU during the 3 darkest years of his life? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Oh, snap! That shut her up for a few minutes. In a last-ditch effort to win Jun-wu’s heart, she arranges a lunch with Director Min (the trash-talking lady) and gets Jun-wu to show up, hoping they will reconcile and Jun-wu will get his promotion. I wonder if In-kyong’s relentless drive to get Jun-wu promoted is not out of “love” so much as “well, once he leaves his lowly foreign mail-order bride for me, he’d better bring home more coin”. Predictably, it doesn’t work out – within about 15 seconds of Jun-wu’s arrival, Director Min makes some racist comment about Jin-ju. The best part is that after Jun-wu storms out, declaring that he’ll “never work for the likes of her”, In-kyong comes running after him and tries to placate him by pointing out that any “normal person” would be just as racist. Right? Not long after that, In-kyong snaps and confesses her love to Jun-wu – on the roof of their office, the traditional place for private conversations in K-Dramas. When he doesn’t go for it – did she really think he would at this point? – what does she do? She casually drops by Jun-wu’s house before he gets home, to find Jin-ju waiting outside for him (something I always found slightly creepy), saunters up to Jin-ju, and demands that she make her a cup of tea! WHAT?? This might be her craziest moment yet. For some reason, Jin-ju lets this crazy bitch in the house. After seeing Jun-wu’s treatment journal that Jin-ju kept (sure, while I’m here I’ll just go through all your personal things) and hearing Jin-ju talk about that period of their marriage, In-kyong finally starts to understand that there might be something to their relationship. Hopefully now she’ll get over it and move to New York by herself, and we’ll never have to see that pinched look on her face again. Good riddance.
In other news, Ji-young’s mother has done a real number on Se-mi to keep her mouth shut. She has Se-mi believing that the contract given to her father’s rice cake factory by Sung-il’s company was a kind of reparations, brought about by Ji-young out of guilt over what happened with Jun-wu. But if Se-mi blabs and Ji-young gets the boot, there goes her father’s business. In fact, the contract in question IS a kind of reparations – but not for the reason Ji-young’s mother is fabricating. Sung-il himself ordered it to try and help his illegitimate daughter Jin-ju’s family, but no one was supposed to know. Sung-il only recently discovered that Han-suk is Jin-ju’s mother-in-law, so just when everyone was starting to calm down and consider letting Se-mi and Young-su date each other, Sung-il did an about-face and is now totally against it. Now, maybe someone more familiar with Korean culture can fill me in on this, but based on other shows I’ve watched, I have a feeling that Sung-il’s “this can never happen” attitude is based not on a reluctance to get involved with Jin-ju’s family and risk being found out, but on a specific taboo against his daughter and his son becoming in-laws if Se-mi and Young-su were to marry. Is this about right? Anyway, Se-mi starts to give it up, and even tells Young-su to go ahead and go to America –they can always try and get married later. This is after Sung-il calls Se-mi to his office to have a friendly chat with her, and pleads with her to convince Young-su to leave Korea. She tries to tell him about Ji-young – with Ji-young freaking out right outside the door, of course – but she just can’t do it. They manage to get the despondent Young-su to the airport to send him off to Philadelphia (Philadelphia! I love it) but at the last minute he makes a break for it.
Annnnd…. Jin-ju may be pregnant! Or is she? Showing some telltale signs of TV pregnancy, Jin-ju is urged by Grandma to take a pregnancy test. It come up negative, however. This probably means one of two things. Possibility #1: she is pregnant, but it didn’t show up on the test (it happened on Degrassi, it could happen here!) Possibility #2: she isn’t pregnant, she has a horrible disease and will die in the second to last episode. This is a drama, after all. Although given the general tone of the show, #2 might be a little heavy. Let’s revise that – she has a horrible disease but will recover, OR, we’ll all think she has a horrible disease for a while, but it will turn out to be nothing. This happened on Get Karl, Oh Su-Jung (another really great show that I’ll write about another time) where for a couple of episodes everyone thought Su-Jung had cancer, and much rethinking of priorities was done. Since that show was a comedy, of course it turned out that she just had indigestion or something. I’m betting something similar happens here. Besides, how could Jin-ju be pregnant – those two can’t possibly do it. In every scene where they’re in bed, they’re wearing matching his-and-hers polka-dot pajamas, for crying out loud. In fact I can’t imagine ANYBODY on this show doing it with anybody else, married or not. That’s one of the things I like about Coffee Prince: actual acknowledgment that occasionally, real people screw. Except for Eun-chan, that is… so far.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Coffee Prince: Twelfth Cup
Awwww. They made up. It’s pretty freaking adorable, even I have to admit. I’m always on the alert for this show veering into too-cuteness, but for the most part they keep it respectable. Even the mopey, indie-rock-style songs that accompany every emotional montage on this show don’t bother me that much. All they have to do is cut to that dog and I’m like, fine, Coffee Prince. You win.
So, we’re about two-thirds of the way through this series – there are 17 episodes (or “cups”, if you like) – and the cat’s out of the bag. Everyone knows Eun-Chan is a girl, but is everyone happy? Fun-loving Ha-Rim suddenly got all uptight and righteous as soon as he found out he and Han-Gyul were being deceived. Clearly he’s had the hots for him/her all along. As for Han-Gyul, don’t you think he’d be relieved to find out that the person he’s in love with isn’t a guy after all, and he’s not gay? Instead, he spends an entire episode storming around, furious because Eun-Chan was dishonest and “didn’t believe in him”. I’ve noticed this happens in a lot of K-Dramas – characters get really upset when they find out they’ve been lied to in any way, even when the truth ends up being more convenient for them. I don’t know if this reflects Korean society so much as a need to keep the plot going for a few more episodes. (Actually, when I think about it, this happens in pretty much any drama series.)
Fortunately, they didn’t waste too much time with this non-conflict. Han-Gyul gets over it, Eun-Chan comes back to work, and the whole gang turns into a bunch of giggly schoolgirls. My favorite part was when Sun-Ki (ohh, I can’t get enough of that guy) asked Ha-Rim which “package” he thought Eun-Chan liked the best. Also, the “sweet and sour chicken” text message they wanted to send Han-Gyul was pretty awesome. I don’t know if the subtitles on these are consistent, but the ones shown on the version I saw were pretty classic all around.
What’s up with Han-Sung chasing after that lousy flake Yoo-Joo? What, she disappeared? Good! Maybe she fell into the black hole of her self-absorption. Jesus. I shouldn’t judge – I’ve certainly seen this kind of thing happen in real life enough times – but that guy needs to give it UP. He had the right idea trying to cheat on her with Eun-Chan. At least his dog is dependable.
So, we’re about two-thirds of the way through this series – there are 17 episodes (or “cups”, if you like) – and the cat’s out of the bag. Everyone knows Eun-Chan is a girl, but is everyone happy? Fun-loving Ha-Rim suddenly got all uptight and righteous as soon as he found out he and Han-Gyul were being deceived. Clearly he’s had the hots for him/her all along. As for Han-Gyul, don’t you think he’d be relieved to find out that the person he’s in love with isn’t a guy after all, and he’s not gay? Instead, he spends an entire episode storming around, furious because Eun-Chan was dishonest and “didn’t believe in him”. I’ve noticed this happens in a lot of K-Dramas – characters get really upset when they find out they’ve been lied to in any way, even when the truth ends up being more convenient for them. I don’t know if this reflects Korean society so much as a need to keep the plot going for a few more episodes. (Actually, when I think about it, this happens in pretty much any drama series.)
Fortunately, they didn’t waste too much time with this non-conflict. Han-Gyul gets over it, Eun-Chan comes back to work, and the whole gang turns into a bunch of giggly schoolgirls. My favorite part was when Sun-Ki (ohh, I can’t get enough of that guy) asked Ha-Rim which “package” he thought Eun-Chan liked the best. Also, the “sweet and sour chicken” text message they wanted to send Han-Gyul was pretty awesome. I don’t know if the subtitles on these are consistent, but the ones shown on the version I saw were pretty classic all around.
What’s up with Han-Sung chasing after that lousy flake Yoo-Joo? What, she disappeared? Good! Maybe she fell into the black hole of her self-absorption. Jesus. I shouldn’t judge – I’ve certainly seen this kind of thing happen in real life enough times – but that guy needs to give it UP. He had the right idea trying to cheat on her with Eun-Chan. At least his dog is dependable.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
In Case You Haven't Been Watching
Frankly, the last couple of episodes of “Bride From Vietnam” (aka “Golden Bride”) have been such clunkers, you’d think there was a writer’s strike going on in Korea. Scene after scene feels like it was cribbed from a previous episode: Ji-Young running to her mother and declaring she can’t live like this anymore, her suspicious husband Young-Min confronting character after character about her past to no avail, In-Kyong getting increasingly bitchy and making Jin-Ju feel insecure at every opportunity… and how long are people going to keep wondering aloud about the mysterious “other reason” why Semi and Young-su can’t get married? Can we please advance the plot, people? There are at least 20 more episodes of this show to go!
Oh, sorry, you have no idea what I’m talking about? You haven’t been following the last 38 episodes of Bride From Vietnam? You didn’t even know that many Korean dramas are subtitled in English here, are broadcast several times a week and are, even with the occasional off episode, generally light years more entertaining than anything on American television? I’ll go into how and why my addiction to K-Drama developed at some point later; right now, I’ve got to get you up to speed.
For those who DO know what I’m talking about, let’s dish.
Recap of the Last 38 Episodes of “Bride From Vietnam” (major spoiler alerts):
Jun-Wu, a promising young man from a working class family, is cruelly dumped by his fiancée, Ji-Young when she goes to study abroad and meets wealthy Young-Min. Turns out, her freaky, somewhat terrifying mother squandered the family fortune on a gigolo after her husband’s death. Faced with the prospect of not being rich if she marries Jun-Wu, she decides to dump him and go for the sure thing. When Jun-Wu comes after her to change her mind, she even reports him as a stalker and he spends a night in jail. Jun-Wu has a complete nervous breakdown and for the next three years suffers from severe panic attacks and agoraphobia.
In desperation, Jun-Wu’s mother, Han-Suk, decides what he needs is a wife and travels to Vietnam to, uh, find him one. She meets Jin-Ju, who is not a mail-order bride but a translator working for the matchmaking service – she’s half Korean. Jin-Ju’s father was a Korean man who abandoned her and her mother when Jin-Ju was an infant. Jin-Ju’s mother is starting to go blind, so Jin-Ju is desperate to find her father, her mother’s only true love for whom she has waited for 20 years, so her mother can see him once again before she loses her sight.
What ends up happening is Jin-ju and Jun-Wu decide to enter into a marriage of convenience. She gets to come to Korea and search for her father, he gets his mother off his back. Jin-Ju actually falls for Jun-Wu early on, but the messed-up Jun-Wu declares that his heart is full of hatred and that there is no room for love (or something to that effect). As far as everyone else knows, though, they are a real married couple – Jin-Ju secretly sleeps on the floor of their bedroom. The cat gets let out of the bag when Han-Suk tries to take Jin-Ju for a gynecological exam (this is a really weird, to my Western viewpoint anyway, recurring theme on this show and many others – mother-in-laws forcing their reluctant daughter-in-laws to go to gynecologists and get “fertility treatments”. Is this an accurate depiction of family life in Korea? I’m really curious). Jin-Ju refuses to be examined – she’s never done it. The family is outraged, but by this point real feelings have begun to spark between Jun-Wu and Jin-Ju, and they decide that they are going to be a “real married couple” from then on (no, it’s not that believable at first. But eventually enough affection and tenderness between the characters shows through that it makes up for the total lack of sexual chemistry). Slowly, Jin-Ju’s devotion and persistence help Jun-Wu recover, and he even manages to score a job at an investment firm with his old school chum, In-Kyong.
Meanwhile, Ji-Young marries into Young-Min’s wealthy family. As fate would have it, the matriarch of this family is Ok-Young, Han-Suk’s bitter rival ever since Ok-Young stole her best friend Han-Suk’s boyfriend and got him to marry her by pretending to be pregnant. Now haughty Ok-Young lives the high class life with her husband, Sung-Il, the chairman of a huge food company. (Han-Suk’s husband runs a small rice cake factory and doesn’t bring home much, but he is probably the most level-headed character on the show). When Han-Suk finds out about Ji-Young, she lets Ok-Young know that she and her children are like enemies to her, but she won’t say why. Ji-Young’s mother-in-law adores her at first, but things go south quickly once the family finds out about her skanky mom. Ok-Young even uses the phrase “marriage fraud”! It blows over, but it’s just the beginning - Ok-Young freaks out every other episode because of something or other Ji-Young has done. Ji-Young has no interest in being an upper-class housewife or having babies – she wants to be a CEO, much to her mother-in-law and husband’s chagrin. With enough arm-twisting, she gets Young-Min and Ok-Young to accept her working at the family corporation. But Ji-Young still lives in constant fear that the family will find out what happened with Jun-Wu, and will figure out for sure that she only married Young-Min for money.
MEANWHILE, Young-Min’s younger brother Young-Su is dating Jun-Wu’s younger sister Semi, although it takes a really, really long time for either family to find this out. When they do, it hits the fan and the kids are forbidden to ever see each other again. Not surprisingly, this doesn’t work (haven’t they ever seen The Fantasticks?). Even when Ok-Young starts to back down, Han-Suk remains dead-set again it – not because of her rivalry with Ok-Young, but because of the mysterious “other reason” (Ji-Young) that she won’t reveal. Ji-Young knows she’ll be screwed if Young-Su and Semi get married, so she tries to convince Young-Su to go study photography in America. It’s around this point in the show that every episode features Ji-Young calling her mother in a panic: “Mom, I’m really in trouble now!”, followed by a scene at her mother’s where she says something like, “Every time I overcome one obstacle, another one presents itself” or “I can’t go on living like this”. Cynical Mom tells her to either get a divorce, or be prepared to “go all the way”, whatever that means. Young-Min becomes increasingly suspicious of his wife, especially after they encounter Jun-Wu in a business setting. He confronts Jun-Wu, who tells him nothing. Jun-Wu, by the way, is now remarkably well-adjusted for a guy who couldn’t leave the house several months ago. Young-Min then confronts Han-Suk, who won’t give up anything either – she thinks Ji-Young is pregnant, and doesn’t want to break up their family, even if they are her “enemies”.
Jun-Wu’s co-worker In-Kyong is a little more loose-lipped, however. She doesn’t come right out and say anything, but hints that Ji-Young “knows all about” Jun-Wu’s ex. In-Kyong was Jun-Wu and Ji-Young’s good friend in college, and always had a thing for Jun-Wu. Only after she helps him get a job at her company, hoping for a romantic reward, does she find out that he’s married – and to a foreigner, no less! Now she’s overcome with bitterness because her friend Ji-Young “ruined” the man she loved. In her view, Jun-Wu and Jin-Ju’s marriage is a joke and is bound to fall apart sooner or later. She takes every opportunity to suggest that Jin-Ju is not a proper wife – to her face! – and warns her that she’ll ruin Jun-Wu’s career by being a burden on him. Jin-Ju slowly starts to overcome her insecurity and neediness, although she still seems to show up at Jun-Wu’s work a lot more often than you’d think she should. Things really come to a head when at a company party, Jin-Ju overhears In-Kyong and and some important Director lady talking trash about them, saying that Jun-Wu was mentally unstable and “shopped for a wife”. Jin-Ju starts to tell them off and ends up injuring the Director, putting Jun-Wu’s big project in jeopardy. In the latest episode, Jin-Ju tried to go apologize to the Director but was humiliated and forced to actually get down on her knees. Jun-Wu, furious, tells the Director where to go and resigns from the project, much to In-Kyong’s horror.
Don’t worry, we’re getting there. Jin-Ju has decided that to help the family business, she wants to become an artisanal rice cake maker, so she seeks out the greatest rice cake maker in the country – I forget this character’s name, but everyone addresses her as “Grandma” – who happens to be Sung-Il’s aunt. Not only does she run a famous restaurant, but she also seems to give yoga and wine-tasting classes (…?) She was also Han-Suk’s and Ok-Young’s former teacher. “Grandma” is a tough, cranky lady who wears a hanbok and is waited on by her mute assistant, Yeon-Ki. People are constantly coming to her for advice, particularly Ok-Young. Grandma tends to give advice by yelling and telling people they’re idiots. When Jin-Ju first approaches Grandma about learning to make rice cakes, she gets yelled at and turned away. But Jin-Ju persists. Eventually Grandma agrees to take her on as a student, but it’s not really because of her persistence: Grandma has discovered that (get ready)…
…Sung-Il is Jin-Ju’s father! Yes, Rich Dad apparently spent a year abroad on business about 20 years ago. His marriage to Ok-Young was on the rocks at the time, and he was planning to divorce her. But, after falling in love with Jin-Ju’s mother and fathering a child, he was forced to return to Korea when his father passed away. His father’s dying wish was for him to stay with Ok-Young, so of course he never went back to Vietnam. Although he sent money, we learn that the person in charge of sending the money gambled it away, so it was as if the Dad had disappeared. At this point, Sung-Il and Grandma know that Jin-Ju is his daughter, but no one else does. (Jin-Ju confronted him once and asked if he was her father, but he denied it.) Now Ji-Young’s mother is starting to dig up some dirt that will probably lead to her finding out. Ok-Young has said that if she ever found out Sung-Il had done something like father an illegitimate child, she would “kill herself on the spot”, so we all have that to look forward to.
I haven’t even gone into the comic subplots involving Jun-Wu’s older sister Won-Mi and his aunt Gun-Ja. They’re not that important, but in a nutshell: Won-mi, a 30-year-old “spinster”, is about to settle for a boring dentist she’s not that into, but ends up with Dong-Gu, a goofy law student who insists he loves her more than anybody else. Both families are against their getting married, so Won-mi pretends to be pregnant to force them to approve. Currently, they are married and living with Dong-Gu’s wacky mother, who up until the last episode was over the moon about her grandson-to-be. Won-mi just spilled the beans, though. Gun-Ja, the aunt, went to work in her brother’s rice cake factory where she kept bickering with her cranky co-worker Byuk-Su. Of, course, they fall in love and get married.
The very latest: Semi just found out the “other reason”. She’s been buddy-buddy with Ji-Young all along, so this is a real shock (I don’t know why Jun-Wu’s sister didn’t know what his ex-fiancée looked like; I may have missed something in an early episode). Enraged, Semi goes to confront Ji-Young and find out for herself if this is true. When Semi threatens to blow the whistle, Ji-Young manages to get her into her car and drive her over to Scary Mom’s place. Scary Mom pushes Semi down on the sofa, and there’s your cliffhanger.
Tune in on Saturday and Sunday at 7:50 PM, Time Warner Cable channel 76 (check your local listings) to see what happens. By the way, the cable guide will identify the show as Yeon Gae So Mun or SBS Weekend Drama. The titles are rarely ever correct: check the TKC schedule. They also show the previous week’s episodes back to back on Saturdays at 1 PM if you want to backtrack a little.
Now, I’m off to watch Coffee Prince (AZN network, Wednesdays-Fridays at 9). It’s not a new show, but this is my first go-round with it and I’m loving the ride so far.
Oh, sorry, you have no idea what I’m talking about? You haven’t been following the last 38 episodes of Bride From Vietnam? You didn’t even know that many Korean dramas are subtitled in English here, are broadcast several times a week and are, even with the occasional off episode, generally light years more entertaining than anything on American television? I’ll go into how and why my addiction to K-Drama developed at some point later; right now, I’ve got to get you up to speed.
For those who DO know what I’m talking about, let’s dish.
Recap of the Last 38 Episodes of “Bride From Vietnam” (major spoiler alerts):
Jun-Wu, a promising young man from a working class family, is cruelly dumped by his fiancée, Ji-Young when she goes to study abroad and meets wealthy Young-Min. Turns out, her freaky, somewhat terrifying mother squandered the family fortune on a gigolo after her husband’s death. Faced with the prospect of not being rich if she marries Jun-Wu, she decides to dump him and go for the sure thing. When Jun-Wu comes after her to change her mind, she even reports him as a stalker and he spends a night in jail. Jun-Wu has a complete nervous breakdown and for the next three years suffers from severe panic attacks and agoraphobia.
In desperation, Jun-Wu’s mother, Han-Suk, decides what he needs is a wife and travels to Vietnam to, uh, find him one. She meets Jin-Ju, who is not a mail-order bride but a translator working for the matchmaking service – she’s half Korean. Jin-Ju’s father was a Korean man who abandoned her and her mother when Jin-Ju was an infant. Jin-Ju’s mother is starting to go blind, so Jin-Ju is desperate to find her father, her mother’s only true love for whom she has waited for 20 years, so her mother can see him once again before she loses her sight.
What ends up happening is Jin-ju and Jun-Wu decide to enter into a marriage of convenience. She gets to come to Korea and search for her father, he gets his mother off his back. Jin-Ju actually falls for Jun-Wu early on, but the messed-up Jun-Wu declares that his heart is full of hatred and that there is no room for love (or something to that effect). As far as everyone else knows, though, they are a real married couple – Jin-Ju secretly sleeps on the floor of their bedroom. The cat gets let out of the bag when Han-Suk tries to take Jin-Ju for a gynecological exam (this is a really weird, to my Western viewpoint anyway, recurring theme on this show and many others – mother-in-laws forcing their reluctant daughter-in-laws to go to gynecologists and get “fertility treatments”. Is this an accurate depiction of family life in Korea? I’m really curious). Jin-Ju refuses to be examined – she’s never done it. The family is outraged, but by this point real feelings have begun to spark between Jun-Wu and Jin-Ju, and they decide that they are going to be a “real married couple” from then on (no, it’s not that believable at first. But eventually enough affection and tenderness between the characters shows through that it makes up for the total lack of sexual chemistry). Slowly, Jin-Ju’s devotion and persistence help Jun-Wu recover, and he even manages to score a job at an investment firm with his old school chum, In-Kyong.
Meanwhile, Ji-Young marries into Young-Min’s wealthy family. As fate would have it, the matriarch of this family is Ok-Young, Han-Suk’s bitter rival ever since Ok-Young stole her best friend Han-Suk’s boyfriend and got him to marry her by pretending to be pregnant. Now haughty Ok-Young lives the high class life with her husband, Sung-Il, the chairman of a huge food company. (Han-Suk’s husband runs a small rice cake factory and doesn’t bring home much, but he is probably the most level-headed character on the show). When Han-Suk finds out about Ji-Young, she lets Ok-Young know that she and her children are like enemies to her, but she won’t say why. Ji-Young’s mother-in-law adores her at first, but things go south quickly once the family finds out about her skanky mom. Ok-Young even uses the phrase “marriage fraud”! It blows over, but it’s just the beginning - Ok-Young freaks out every other episode because of something or other Ji-Young has done. Ji-Young has no interest in being an upper-class housewife or having babies – she wants to be a CEO, much to her mother-in-law and husband’s chagrin. With enough arm-twisting, she gets Young-Min and Ok-Young to accept her working at the family corporation. But Ji-Young still lives in constant fear that the family will find out what happened with Jun-Wu, and will figure out for sure that she only married Young-Min for money.
MEANWHILE, Young-Min’s younger brother Young-Su is dating Jun-Wu’s younger sister Semi, although it takes a really, really long time for either family to find this out. When they do, it hits the fan and the kids are forbidden to ever see each other again. Not surprisingly, this doesn’t work (haven’t they ever seen The Fantasticks?). Even when Ok-Young starts to back down, Han-Suk remains dead-set again it – not because of her rivalry with Ok-Young, but because of the mysterious “other reason” (Ji-Young) that she won’t reveal. Ji-Young knows she’ll be screwed if Young-Su and Semi get married, so she tries to convince Young-Su to go study photography in America. It’s around this point in the show that every episode features Ji-Young calling her mother in a panic: “Mom, I’m really in trouble now!”, followed by a scene at her mother’s where she says something like, “Every time I overcome one obstacle, another one presents itself” or “I can’t go on living like this”. Cynical Mom tells her to either get a divorce, or be prepared to “go all the way”, whatever that means. Young-Min becomes increasingly suspicious of his wife, especially after they encounter Jun-Wu in a business setting. He confronts Jun-Wu, who tells him nothing. Jun-Wu, by the way, is now remarkably well-adjusted for a guy who couldn’t leave the house several months ago. Young-Min then confronts Han-Suk, who won’t give up anything either – she thinks Ji-Young is pregnant, and doesn’t want to break up their family, even if they are her “enemies”.
Jun-Wu’s co-worker In-Kyong is a little more loose-lipped, however. She doesn’t come right out and say anything, but hints that Ji-Young “knows all about” Jun-Wu’s ex. In-Kyong was Jun-Wu and Ji-Young’s good friend in college, and always had a thing for Jun-Wu. Only after she helps him get a job at her company, hoping for a romantic reward, does she find out that he’s married – and to a foreigner, no less! Now she’s overcome with bitterness because her friend Ji-Young “ruined” the man she loved. In her view, Jun-Wu and Jin-Ju’s marriage is a joke and is bound to fall apart sooner or later. She takes every opportunity to suggest that Jin-Ju is not a proper wife – to her face! – and warns her that she’ll ruin Jun-Wu’s career by being a burden on him. Jin-Ju slowly starts to overcome her insecurity and neediness, although she still seems to show up at Jun-Wu’s work a lot more often than you’d think she should. Things really come to a head when at a company party, Jin-Ju overhears In-Kyong and and some important Director lady talking trash about them, saying that Jun-Wu was mentally unstable and “shopped for a wife”. Jin-Ju starts to tell them off and ends up injuring the Director, putting Jun-Wu’s big project in jeopardy. In the latest episode, Jin-Ju tried to go apologize to the Director but was humiliated and forced to actually get down on her knees. Jun-Wu, furious, tells the Director where to go and resigns from the project, much to In-Kyong’s horror.
Don’t worry, we’re getting there. Jin-Ju has decided that to help the family business, she wants to become an artisanal rice cake maker, so she seeks out the greatest rice cake maker in the country – I forget this character’s name, but everyone addresses her as “Grandma” – who happens to be Sung-Il’s aunt. Not only does she run a famous restaurant, but she also seems to give yoga and wine-tasting classes (…?) She was also Han-Suk’s and Ok-Young’s former teacher. “Grandma” is a tough, cranky lady who wears a hanbok and is waited on by her mute assistant, Yeon-Ki. People are constantly coming to her for advice, particularly Ok-Young. Grandma tends to give advice by yelling and telling people they’re idiots. When Jin-Ju first approaches Grandma about learning to make rice cakes, she gets yelled at and turned away. But Jin-Ju persists. Eventually Grandma agrees to take her on as a student, but it’s not really because of her persistence: Grandma has discovered that (get ready)…
…Sung-Il is Jin-Ju’s father! Yes, Rich Dad apparently spent a year abroad on business about 20 years ago. His marriage to Ok-Young was on the rocks at the time, and he was planning to divorce her. But, after falling in love with Jin-Ju’s mother and fathering a child, he was forced to return to Korea when his father passed away. His father’s dying wish was for him to stay with Ok-Young, so of course he never went back to Vietnam. Although he sent money, we learn that the person in charge of sending the money gambled it away, so it was as if the Dad had disappeared. At this point, Sung-Il and Grandma know that Jin-Ju is his daughter, but no one else does. (Jin-Ju confronted him once and asked if he was her father, but he denied it.) Now Ji-Young’s mother is starting to dig up some dirt that will probably lead to her finding out. Ok-Young has said that if she ever found out Sung-Il had done something like father an illegitimate child, she would “kill herself on the spot”, so we all have that to look forward to.
I haven’t even gone into the comic subplots involving Jun-Wu’s older sister Won-Mi and his aunt Gun-Ja. They’re not that important, but in a nutshell: Won-mi, a 30-year-old “spinster”, is about to settle for a boring dentist she’s not that into, but ends up with Dong-Gu, a goofy law student who insists he loves her more than anybody else. Both families are against their getting married, so Won-mi pretends to be pregnant to force them to approve. Currently, they are married and living with Dong-Gu’s wacky mother, who up until the last episode was over the moon about her grandson-to-be. Won-mi just spilled the beans, though. Gun-Ja, the aunt, went to work in her brother’s rice cake factory where she kept bickering with her cranky co-worker Byuk-Su. Of, course, they fall in love and get married.
The very latest: Semi just found out the “other reason”. She’s been buddy-buddy with Ji-Young all along, so this is a real shock (I don’t know why Jun-Wu’s sister didn’t know what his ex-fiancée looked like; I may have missed something in an early episode). Enraged, Semi goes to confront Ji-Young and find out for herself if this is true. When Semi threatens to blow the whistle, Ji-Young manages to get her into her car and drive her over to Scary Mom’s place. Scary Mom pushes Semi down on the sofa, and there’s your cliffhanger.
Tune in on Saturday and Sunday at 7:50 PM, Time Warner Cable channel 76 (check your local listings) to see what happens. By the way, the cable guide will identify the show as Yeon Gae So Mun or SBS Weekend Drama. The titles are rarely ever correct: check the TKC schedule. They also show the previous week’s episodes back to back on Saturdays at 1 PM if you want to backtrack a little.
Now, I’m off to watch Coffee Prince (AZN network, Wednesdays-Fridays at 9). It’s not a new show, but this is my first go-round with it and I’m loving the ride so far.
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