K-Drama: Romance is a Bonus Book
Unrealistic Expectations For Love, The Workplace, And Me
K-dramas really be giving me unrealistic expectations for life.
I fucking hate it.
But I absolutely love it at the same time. It’s so goddamn sappy, I want to stick my hands in it and just drown myself in the happy goo.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of melodramatic moments and moments that made me seethe like a boiling kettle, but the main romance and the lovable characters kept me coming back.
Kang Dan-i (Lee Na-young) has hit the lowest point of her life, but she keeps a smile on her face and exudes a positive attitude to the world. Her scumbag dipshit of a husband has cheated on her and supposedly left the country, leaving her and her daughter with no money or child support.
The main conflict takes precedence over the romance, which truly deepens the main characters’ relationships: Dan-i was a stay-at-home mom for several years and despite her best efforts and the accolades she carries from before that time, she cannot find work.
She becomes homeless and takes on several low-paying jobs until she lands a temporary contract role at the publishing company Gyeoroo, where her very successful younger friend Cha Eun-ho (Lee Jong-suk) is chief editor (who ding ding ding is main love interest. Obviously. I mean. Look at that hair).
Dan-i struggling and forcing herself to keep moving forward is poignant and devastatingly relatable in today’s current job market, layered with her divorcee status and career gap, she cannot catch a break.
Throw in a dash of romance, the second lead trope, and a sprinkle of workplace drama and you have the essence of this story that can be thoroughly enjoyed— binged on Netflix like most every thing on that platform.
Carrot Sticks
I really enjoyed the setup and payoffs in this show because it was subtle but in it for the long haul. Without giving too much away, things that were mentioned in the beginning or shown in a closeup shot were left to marinate in our minds but never answered immediately.
We have questions we want answered like:
What happened to famed author Kang Byeong-Jun (Lee Ho-Jae)?
What is Eun-ho’s deep dark secret in that cardboard box?
Why is Ji Seo-Joon (Wi Ha-joon) such an ass?
These all eventually get answered, but moments of interaction with these characters without the full story hooks us into their lives and, much like the hellhole that is reality TV, we want to know what happens next?
A good story leaves you bread crumbs from the beginning to the end that mildly satiates your desire for a full story without having the full story. You may not know exactly what you’re eating, but your eyes devour it nonetheless. It’s like finishing up a pie you’ve seen the baker meticulously put together and how satisfying the apple filling tastes as the crust crumbles in your mouth.
This show doesn’t do anything ground-breaking in how it leaves those story breadcrumbs, but I am a fan because they did it, and then they did not forget about it.
All too often, with an ensemble cast and episodes that tip over an hour long each, there are moments that seem significant and seem like important puzzle pieces for later, but are completely forgotten and even neglected in the grand scheme of things so we’re left wondering:
What was the point of xyz happening?
Why was there a close up shot of these books and then this character’s face?
Why did they introduce this relationship waaay in the background and never mention them again?
Most of their shots are not wasted. It’s beautiful and cinematic, but there is no wasted storytelling in how it is edited and cut together. We are reminded of moments of importance by gloamy flashbacks of scenes we’ve already seen and splicing them to a character’s realization scene allows us to experience that knowledge with them.
Ensemble Cast
I think ensemble casts are tricky to do and do well, but I also believe that we can learn a lot about how to do them by watching K-dramas and I will die on that hill.
Maybe it’s the length of episodes varying from the cable-approved 45minutes to 1hour to 1hour 30minutes (however long depending on the drama) that allows such a well-developed ensemble cast.
Maybe it’s the interlacing storylines that run through every episode with their A, B, and C plots that demand more than superficial storytelling.
Maybe it’s the South Korean culture that defines an individual by their community and so protagonists replicate that aspect intentionally.
There is very obviously the main character and her main love interest, namely Dan-i and Eun-ho that we see the most of and learn the most of. We love them, we root for them, we want them to be happy no matter what.
There is no way we cannot interact with the side characters, so each one earns their own character development and begins a character journey not unsimilar to the main characters’ story arcs.
The main couple is our focus, but it is also the bedrock of character development. I would consider Dan-i and Eun-ho static characters who are well aware of their abilities and what they are lacking/fearful of, but they are placed in a world that does not acknowledge it. Their journey is to maintain their strong and positive personalities in the face of adversity, no matter what swirling chaos may pull at their sails.
Many of the side characters experience growth alongside our static couple, aspiring to be competent, presentable, and passionate like our main ideal couple.
Their stories inherently weave into and out of each other, and Dan-i being such a compassionate, friendly, and hard-working person puts her into her co-workers personal and professional lives. She lifts them up by being in the room, and their character development follows suit because Dan-i is the ideal.
Everyone is cool and whatnot, but you cannot help but love Dan-i in spite of all she’s been through.
✨My Favorite Part For No Discernible Reason✨
Eun-ho is a celebrated and famous author, often creating Gyeoroo Publishing’s best-selling books. He’s always been a writer, but now he is Chief Editor and a lecturer at his university, but he only ever shows his playful side for extended periods of time with Dan-i, his first and only love.
He towers over most characters breaking 6 feet, is impeccably dressed to the nines even when sleep-deprived, and is the kindest, most understanding person in this show.
He is a tall glass of water and I say that with the utmost respect.
But he attributes all of this to Dan-i because she got him into reading as kids and she told him his writing was good and pushed him to publish and she always always believed in him.
There was a moment at the beginning of the show where Dan-i and Eun-ho are enjoying cups of tea in the moonlight and he says “The moon is beautiful.”
And she remembers where it came from because she recommended that book to him. She teases him about the story and Eun-ho recites it like the lecturer he is:
An author and his student are translating a story. The student comes across the phrase ‘I love you’ and translates it word-for-word, much to the chagrin of his teacher.
The author instead writes “The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?” to avoid saying those three words because to say that in their culture is taboo.
The moon is beautiful. Poetic. Charged. Dancing around words you cannot say.
I loved that excerpt because it is the definition of Dan-i and Eun-ho’s relationship. It’s a way of expressing emotion you can’t fully put into words by looking up and appreciating what you have for yourself, and then looking down and appreciating who you are sharing it with.
And if no one has told you this today, I think the moon is beautiful.
Don’t you?