My Father Is Strange Episode 21

I feel bad for Jung Hwan. As much as I love…

I feel bad for Jung Hwan. As much as I love and respect the heck out of Hye Young, throughout their relationship, it's mostly been Jung Hwan stepping outside of his comfort zone and matching Hye Young's pace and ideals. Honestly, I don't disagree with her at all on her view on marriage. Especially as an American, it's hard to imagine what it must be like to have all of those societal and familial pressures applied to you as a wife and daughter-in-law. But even so, I wish she could do more for Jung Hwan to show him how much he means to her, the way he usually does for her. Sure, she might be the one to reach out first after a fight every now and then, but he's always the one who cooks her meals, removes her makeup, buys couple items for their flat, puts himself out there, and waits for her. I'm trying to think of what she's done for him, but I'm mostly coming up blank. She organized the couple massage that they never got to do, and I guess moving in with him was sort of doing something for him, but a lot of the time, she's just receiving rather than reciprocating. I feel like (because we still have 20+ episodes of this show) this will be a big sticking point that will break them up. To be honest, I expect (because this is a Korean show) that Hye Young will eventually cave so that they can get married and have their HEA ending, but even if she didn't, I would hope that when they break up and then eventually reconcile again, she can go out of her way to show Jung Hwan how special he is to her, even if marriage weren't the way she chose to do it.

And with this show bringing up Yoo Joo's concerns about how newly married women are often fired because they're expected to take maternity leave and lose the company money, I've been pretty impressed with how many modern issues they're bringing up so casually. It might be strange that I emphasized "casually," but I guess in my mind, if they make a big deal about it, the issue seems like it's kind of unexpected or something no one ever deals with. By making it something that people talk about like it's a matter of course, they show just how pervasive these prejudices are and how many people have to deal with them regularly.

Wow, Hye Young's reason for not telling Jung Hwan why they broke up 8 years prior was surprisingly noble. I thought it was just a dumb pride thing or like a weird shielding thing lead characters do in all kdramas, but to think that it was because she didn't want Jung Hwan to think poorly of his mother, whom he'd be seeing for the rest of his life, is unexpectedly thoughtful, especially given how hurt she must have been and considering how young she was at the time.

Also, I fundamentally disagree with Jung Hwan. Why does he ask about their future as if dating means no future and marriage means there is a future? Just because you're dating doesn't mean you're not fully devoted to each other, and just because you're married doesn't mean you are. So many kdrama view marriage as the end goal and the definition of a HEA ending, but there's so much terrain to traverse after getting married. Just because you marry doesn't mean it'll be smooth sailing for the rest of your life. Married people get divorced or have miserable marriages too. I mean, look at Jung Hwan's own parents. They're miserable being married and living in the same house as each other. What good role model in his life leads him to think that marriage is such a great idea? (Ironically, Hye Young's parents are a great example of a successful, loving, supportive marriage between equals, so it's funny that she's the one who opposes marriage and Jung Hwan is the one who endorses it...)

Ahhh I called it (I wrote the first paragraph of this in the beginning of the episode before they broke up). I actually also predicted that Jung Hwan's mother would be the one to let slip that she was the cause of their breakup 8 years before, but I didn't write it down, so I have no proof haha. It's so touching the way Mi Young and Joong Hee interact. And I love that it's a two-way street -- it's not like one of them is doing all of the emotional heavylifting -- they're both looking out for and supporting each other. It's especially sweet since they think that they're half siblings and don't have anything romantic going on at all.

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