Honest Swan

Director really did a good job with the show. I remember one of his first shows I watched was 'Something in the rain' and I loved his approach to a love story. I was like yeah, this is how I want to love and be loved. One thing I can take from all his shows he has directed is that love is enduring. He seems to have had a successful marriage by the looks of it.
Like most of his shows, in this show too I felt a sense of realism. I don't know if thats the right word but the love story he gets to portray feels less like a drama and more like watching two real people fall in love in real life and we are getting a premium seat to watch them. Let me give you an example, Love in disguise is one of my favorite showing that is currently airing. But watching the love story in that show, you can feel its a drama and most of their actions have that dramatic essence to it.
Anyway, I am going to miss this director. And I also love how they ended this show. Not everything was resolved towards the end. It was more like we are observers and we are just stepping away from watching their chaotic, messy and yet beautiful lovestory. So even though we stop watching from here, their story continues. This goes back to my idea that most of his work has a realistic touch to it. We don't get a fairytale love story where everything falls in place. Our protagonists have to make a conscious choice to stick together. R.I.P dear director. Your stories will forever remain in our hearts.

Also, there are many other things that were subtle from the movie. For example, it seemed the rich are so unaware of the poor peoples lives. For example, when Ho Seok was breaking down recounting his ordeal with being laid, you could see Ye Ji, the filmmaker, was more concerned on getting the best angles of him breaking down. It was as if it was amusing in her sight. Like the story she gave about an elephant disappearing. It is so beyond her how something like that can happen. So the entire thing felt like a rich man's amusement. They didn't care about the poor people's lives. A good example is that she gets money to make her films from the funds that could be put to good use elsewhere. That was beyond the fact that her husband could support her.
The rich basically show no sympathy or even empathize with the poor. For example, when Ho Seok was having a melt down in the bush, Ye Ji made sure to be prepared with a camera to capture the moment. She was filming him as if she was watching a different species. Think of something like going to a park to capture an animal because they're entirely different from you. So their feelings are completely irrelevant to you and the entire scene is more like a phenomenon.

Well, I went into this with high expectations. I finished it but if you ask me what I watched, I couldn't possibly tell you. It felt like taking a snippet of someone's ordinary life. Just uneventful. But is it? Looking back I felt it was a film that is open to the viewer's interpretation. For example, the rich couple are portrayed as completely unaware of their surroundings. Like the woman wearing expensive clothes when meeting the afflicted workers. The man, Sang U, is either ignorant or innocent to think that the whistle was just playful thing when it was actually a symbol of the power difference.
The last scene when Sang U and Mi Ok go to the beach, I think encapsulate the entire message of the film. Mi Ok asks how much he gets from the project that he received. His answer showed that he's completely out of touch with the "common' (poor) people's struggle. I would like to believe she strips naked in front of him intentionally. As a man, he is filled with desires seeing her naked. But she refused him when he tries to make advances on her.
But his reaction says it all. He's not used to people saying no to him. He's oblivious to the world he's been living in. He even tries to come on too strongly infront of her husband because he couldn't handle the idea that he couldn't get something. I guess that was entire premise of the film. And I also guess it was a form of a revenge by Mi Ok. She showed him that even though he's a rich man, there's something he can't have. Sang U later makes love to his wife and it was rather rough, more like a realization he couldn't have his way. So basically the film is about the world of haves and haves not. Its so subtle that the viewers will most likely miss to read between the lines of each and every dialogue and scene.

DAMN, WHATSUPP WITH 2026. TOO MANY DRAMAS. I CAN'T KEEP UP. There was a point where I was in every show airing. Now, there's a new show coming out almost every week. Thats the only thing I could associate with cdramas. Cdramas has too many shows that sometimes I think its an obsession from its film industry. Its as if they get bored and release a new show for the love of the game.

Yeah, thats the weird part. The drama has nothing flashy about it yet we're hooked.

Why are people saying Mi Do was suicidal? Damn, people we call that midlife crisis. A suicidal person makes various attempts to end their lives. Someone undergoing a midlife crisis is very much fond of or attached to life but have depressive thoughts. But the idea of them ending their life is never strong in them. Can that shift to being suicidal? Yes but its often as a result of going something traumatic in their life. A midlife crisis is something like your disappointed father telling you how you have failed to live up to their expectations in a career or a relationship. It stems from making or failing to make something better of oneself. On the other hand, suicidal person hates their very own existence and suffer from an acute low self esteem. Someone with midlife crisis can change their environment or maybe change their expectation and easily get better. But a suicidal person has a very deep psychological issue that simply talking them down doesn't make it go away. Matter of fact, when they hit a low point again their lives or just any trigger, those suicidal thoughts come back. Even when you thought you just got over it. Midlife crisis has shelf-life, its more of phase. A suicidal person isn't.

Damn, you know nothing if you thought Mi Do's character was suicidal in general sense. If you could say anything about Mi Do was that she had a very strong sense of self. And normally people like her rarely kill themselves. First, lets talk about what an acute suicidal person does or looks like. They often low on energy and are less motivated to do anything. They make attempt to take their own lives, WHICH IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF BEING SUICIDAL. Mi Do didn't put herself in harms way INTENTIONALLY nor did she try to SAVE herself.
Mi Do was suffering from depression of her life falling apart. She had a very strong sense of guilt and was feeling burdensome to her lover. She felt like a loser who had failed to accomplish her dreams. Now anyone who is suicidal those are enough reasons to end their lives. But is not what happened. She just lost that spark she had towards life and become even more depressed. So Namgung approached dating someone else in their relationship to bring back that passion in their love and hopefully in her life as well.
In short, she was going what we as adults call it midlife crisis, where you to start to question everything. We are very well attached to life and love it to some extend, that is why we are questioning everything because we want or expected better for ourselves. But again its never a good enough reason to commit suicide for the same reason we are questioning it. A suicidal person is not attached or fond of life and may very well be looking to put an end of it. I hope you got the difference.

Thank You!

I just think you have poor perception that won't be solved by us arguing it out. I am not discrediting your opinion. Its valid but you're only seeing it out on the surface level. You labeled Namgung's actions as sociopathic and called Mi Do as suicidal. And basically called the entire script as male centered.
The entire logic you made has to do your discernment level. I would want to give you my POV but it would be useless because then it will be like we are arguing who is right and wrong. And when the battle of egos are involved, it will be hard to get anything right even if its infront of you. So instead let me steer you to make your own conclusions.
You say Namgung pushed Mi Do to Tae Sung as she was suicidal. So, I would want you to think about why do you think she was suicidal? What led her to being that? In that episode, how did Namgung describe her before she was this version that was suicidal? Just answer that.
Namgung was a green forest in the beginning based on your own interpretition. So, I would ask how much of understanding did you have of him to describe that? So he basically turned out not so green, what are the reasons that made him turn out different? Here you say his love was out of guilt, which is the correct way to call it, and not love. To that end, you answered my question. So could you have misunderstood his character instead of claiming that the writer's butchered it? There's an episode where he talks to his brother and tells him his way of viewing love. Go re-watch it to see his perception about loving someone for me and you to say he loved out of guilt. The last part about Sua, thats outright nonsense. I will address it this once and never again because its beside the point. I don't think he fell in LOVE with Sua. He started to develop feelings or if I would like to say it, he saw her favorably. And yes, that has no timeframe. Its not CRAZY in love like your sentence is pointing towards. Becoming attracted to someone, which is what he was, can take a matter of minutes, seconds, hours, days or even years. You be the judge of that. Thats what happened and I wouldn't exactly call it butchering his character, which is what you were arguing. Its as if you are suggesting that a character should be one-dimensional if indeed that was your argument.

I don't know what to make about your third point. It doesn't make sense to me so I don't know how to approach it. But let me engage you abit, so Mi Do babied Namgung and Sua was just infatuated because of her age since she did not know better. So your conclusion was that the whole script is male centered.
Damn, thats very shallow on your part. My suggestion to you is just read a lot of books on psychology. Just learn a lot about human mind and human behavior. Your judgement has nothing to do with you not being logical or even smart enough. Just expose yourself to a lot of materials. Alternatively, just socialize with a lot of people in real life to see different behaviors and what ticks an individual on a deeper level not just the surface level.

Its just shallow because you are looking at it on a surface level. In other words, just try to see the underlying reasons for every action and reaction. And my questions were rhetorical questions. Feel free to ignore them if you wish to.

You know what? Fairs. Moving on.

Yeah, its because we were overly invested in their show. Even though I would have wanted them working out and rekindling that love once more, its just not how the real world works. It showed us the reality. Thats what makes it sad.

Read through my comment above. Maybe it will help.

The ending was never flat. That was the best conclusion it should have got. The entire message of the show wasn't for them to date other people and finally find each other towards the end. It was about two people drifting apart and us following their journey. Them finally accepting to end things and carrying on the impact they had on each other was the right answer. As the show accurately summarized it: They now grow and take care of the seeds planted in each other.

I really enjoyed this show. I don’t even fully know how to explain it, but it just got to me. So many people called it a show about cheating, but by that final episode, I realized it was never just about that, it was about two people drifting apart. And it’s not an ordinary relationship where you can just pack up and walk away. They have so much history and their lives are so deeply intertwined that they’re almost family before anything else. That’s what makes it hurt.

If I had to sum up the whole gist of the show, it’s really a story about moving on.

If you look at it from the writer’s perspective through Lee Mi Do, yes, she’s a deeply flawed character and she got so much backlash, she was actually the very center of everything. She showed us what it truly feels like to struggle with change. And to really get that, you have to look at her family, because that’s where the heart of this theme lives:

Her mother: She lost her husband young and had to raise her kids through that grief. Fast forward to the present, and we see someone who has learned how to live through loss and adapt. Mi Do has been frantically fighting and grappling with everything changing around her, and her mom gives her the exact advice she needs at the right moment: don't fight it, don't fear it, just go with the flow.

Her older brother: He came off a bit disjointed and awkward, but underneath all of that, he was just a good man who was always there for his family. It breaks your heart a bit because a man who puts family first still ends up divorced, and the show doesn't even give him a simple answer as to why. Yet, he is forced into change anyway. He has to keep moving forward, even when life isn't in his favor.

Her younger brother: This one hit the hardest. He’s drowning in grief over his late fiancée, so withdrawn that everyone thinks he's strange. But really, he's just consumed by regret. The most painful, powerful part of his story is that his fiancée actually expected him to move on. She thought he’d sell the karaoke place and find her last gift to him, finding closure years ago. Instead, he stayed frozen in place and suffered for years. It’s a heavy reminder that sometimes the very answers you're searching for are waiting for you on the other side of letting go.

So while everyone was arguing and debating over who was cheating on who, they missed the most beautiful part of the show. It was never about the mistresses or the mister. It was about two people on a painful journey where you have to make the hardest decision of all, to leave something you hold dear behind so you can actually grow.

It was about change and moving on, and the show was a masterpiece in how it showed that. If you're just starting it, I hope you view it from this angle and really feel it. It’s such good script.

I think thats in the context of a relationship. I know men and women are equal. But they are not the same. They both have different roles in a relationship to last. For example, one of them must be level headed for a relationship to work. One must give grace to the other more. Hence, a good man isn't expected to throw tantrums and should neutralize the conflicts more in a relationship.
I am not saying they suppress their feelings but they should show more grace in a relationship. Or at least one of you should in a relationship. Otherwise it will be all emotions and the relationship will burnout quickly.
So no, I don't agree that the argument is about 1%, men and women, 40% being at fault. I see it more like a defense line. Even a little mess on the man's part, it could mean the relationship is over since they are to preserve it. But again, it depends on the context. A woman enduring a man's mistake is often contributed by other factors like having children together or financially being dependent on him. Love may or may not be a factor.

If a man is enduring an unreasonable wife, children could be part of the reason but its often because he loves her. I think maybe thats why my mother said a good man should show love more often in a relationship especially after childbirth for the relationship to thrive. The scales do not sound balanced. Instead of seeing it as unfair, I just think as a man, you should have more love to give before starting a relationship. That way its easier and less of a chore.

I don't know why but I am pretty strict with thriller and/or fantasy genres. I can enjoy cringe romance but when it comes to sci-fi or thrillers, I have high expectations. I guess thats what happened. I actually enjoyed a couple episodes in. I don't know but I feel they couldn't maintain that excitement it had until the end. It felt somehow it was filled with plot holes or anti-climatic conclusions/scenes.
But anyway, it wasn't so bad. Some might actually enjoy it. The episodes are so short that I could call it a 4hr movie instead of a tv show. There are no filler episodes. So give it a try if you haven't.

I don't believe he had some work done too. I believe he must have exercised a lot to become leaner. He was a bit tanned like in the show still 17. So I just think its just skin treatment to change his skin tone. Other than that, nothing has changed to make you think he underwent cosmetic surgery.

I think he was like more tanned and a bit more bulk at the beginning. If he did use plastic surgery, then it isn't much. I could say he might have exercised a lot and received a lot of skin treatment to change his skin tone.

He does that a lot. You will not easily recognize him in his earlier works when he was a rookie.

When I started watching this show, in the first episode, the ML was losing everything. He was so calm that I thought, wow he has so much self-control. Because at the time I was thinking if it was me, I would totally be losing my mind. Now that I have caught up with all episodes, I came to realize its part of his personality and I think it was set up well.
I have managed to binge watch a c-drama, which I rarely do. That means its a good show. Unfortunately, its not being hyped enough.