Acting Alone Is Nonexistent ❣ It's Not Love, Anyway °6.7° °good, bad, & bitter°
No man is an island ❣
Entire of itself ❣
Every man is a piece of the continent ❣
A part of the main ❣….❣ Any man's death diminishes me ❣
Because I am involved in mankind ❣
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls ❣
It tolls for thee.
~John Donne~
Is that love? Yes, it is.
‘I wanted to carry the burden alone,’ many characters in WIL say. Is that love? If you choose to act alone, you are choosing to be alone. Before you act alone, remember that you /don't/ act alone: No man is an island. Everything we do has an impact on others, and every one of us is a role model, whether for good or less-than. "By the time I realized I'd pushed you away, it was too late," is another line we hear. Again, was acting alone, love?
‘Why would you drop out of college with just one semester to go?’ Long pause. This rom-dram, with some smiles mixed in, opens up to our FL, “Noh” Ae Jung (Song Ji Hyo from My Wife’s Having an Affair This Week & The Witch's Diner). She's in a job interview at a movie studio. Her voice is a rich Alto. Finally, she blurts out that she had to drop out to have a child. Her daughter's now older, so she's ready to pursue her dream of being a movie producer. She was hired immediately ~ Wow, that was easy! When the owner of the studio disappears, she learns that he tricked her into cosigning for his debt! The debt collector is a really scary looking dude. She needs to make money fast or risk losing limbs.
Noh frantically rifles through the studio in search of anything that can generate quick cash. She comes across a contract to adapt ‘Love Is Non-existent' to film. It's the fledgling novel by a now enormously famous author. Jackpot🎰. She arranges a meeting and is pleasantly surprised when the reclusive writer agrees to it. When she arrives at the pre-arranged location, she understands why: She's met this author before. He's never posted pictures of himself publicly, and he writes under a pen name, but this wordsmith, Oh “Dae” Oh (Son Ho Jun from Go Back Couple & The First Responders-7.8) is her ex. Right here. Right now. Right in front of her disbelieving eyes. They had been very close, but was it love? I'll tell you what it is now: It's hate. No matter how much money is involved, this is a man she won't work with. Lo, and behold! HE says the same thing about HER! He'll never agree to work with /her/ on /anything/.
Noh has the script’s rights, and she's desperate, so she's thinking about forcing through with the project. In the meantime, Dae looks for comfort and support. He reaches out to the couple's closest college friend, “Ryu” Jin (Song Jong Ho of Arthdal Chronicles & A Korean Odyssey-7.2). Ryu, a now famous actor, has his OWN agenda, however. As the project goes forward, things will get quite messy with the 3 of them.
Not as messy as it is with Dae and his daughter, Hani, though. Once again, we see a superb Korean child actor. She's been longing for him her whole life. He didn't know she existed. Dae’s first interaction with the kid is darling. It's loaded. There's tension, they spat, they look alike, they act a little bit alike, yet she also acts like her mom. Hani may seem inconsistent. She's looking for her father, but when she finds him, she's reluctant to accept him. She's lived 14 years without a father, she tells him, so she doesn't need one. It's understandable that she would be self-protective and cautious before opening up her heart to this man whom she's just met, but the toxicity is frustrating. Is that love? Not yet.
Kim Mi-kyung is the every-other-mother. She's in every other feature as the mom, it seems. (Somebody should let that woman out of the kitchen!) In Saimdang-8.5 she plays a sophisticated Gallery owner, and she does it well. Even though she's always playing a mom, that doesn't mean that she's the same in every feature.
When things get a little more serious, the actors shine. They get to show off their skills. That is part of what hurts. I'm behind in writing reviews. Sometimes, the way I see a show changes over time. My first impression isn't always the lasting one. The more I recall WIL, the less I like it. The more I look back on it, the more bitter it is. WIL is a difficult pill. What it does well, it does really well; but the negatives are what stay with the viewer. There are things in this show that I didn't merely dislike, but actively loathed.
First of all, some characters don't come around quickly enough. It's frustrating.
Secondly, Noh committed so many no-nos! They will show the couple's falling out. Dae became obsessed with the many things pressuring him between school and career, He turned dismissive, unappreciative, and inattentive towards Noh. He was horrible. He was wrong. She, in turn, separated herself and never told him he was a father. Not when she started showing. Not as the due-date neared. Not after the birth. Not at the first birthday, or the second. Count to 14. Fine, to that. I don't agree, but she was really angry at that jerk. But we'll also learn that /Hani/ was tortured at school over not having a father. They had to frequently move due to the intolerance from outsiders. Hani had trouble making and keeping friends. Hani longed for her father. Noh sacrificed her daughter to her anger. Her feelings were more important than her daughter! Was that love? HAIL NAW! This isn't up for debate: Noh was wrong.
That's the worthy message rolled into WIL. “Stop before you end up doing something you regret, like I did. Some things just weren't meant to be,” we hear. No one is guilt-free in this show. Everybody thinks they're running in a straight line. We're all going after our prize. However, none of us are capable of running in a straight line. Society is a web, a tangle, and endless knots. In WIL, most of the characters make decisions on their own without a care to verify the facts. Is that love? More often than not, when we think we're acting alone, we're lying to ourselves. We're not running a straight path, we're always weaving and intruding into other lanes. We choose to ignore that and keep the focus on us, what we want, & our own pain. Instead of the wide world around us and loved ones closest to us, it's our bitterness, hate, anger, and, more than anything, our pride that drive most people. Nowhere is this more true than with parenting. "It was my choice to have her, but it wasn't hers to live this way," Noh sobs (yeah, it was). She's in the middle of her mother and her daughter. Mom is saying that she'll take on all Noh's burdens because that's what a mother does for a child. Noh slowly takes in the fact that, ultimately, burdens must be borne - nobody can /walk/ our path for us. It's much easier with support, if we can get it. Regardless, the toll must be paid. She realizes how the whole situation has put a very heavy burden on her unsupported daughter, while Noh willfully had blinders on. She had refused to see it in the middle of her swirling pain. Was that love?
Parenting is the main theme of WIL. The teacher's mother wants to protect her son, and therefore, tries to take over his life. Is that love? Ironically, she got the exact opposite of what she wanted: She distanced herself from her son. If she had just been natural with him they would have been close. ‘I'm a single parent, so I'm your mom and your dad,’ is Noh's attitude. That's asking the kid to enter a pact of lies. No matter what a parent says, kids know when they have another parent out there, somewhere. I have people close to me with a parent who claimed s/he would be two parents. The kids knew it wasn't true; all they felt was betrayal from the parent that wasn't there, and they underappreciated, with a little resentment mixed in, the parent that was there. Because nobody can fill two roles. We should merely fulfill our responsibilities to our utmost ability and love. Kids always want a mom and a dad, but no one can be two people, we can each only be one. Tell them you'll do everything you can to make up for the lack. Tell them that you're in this together. It's important that they know that things don't always work out the way we like in life. Besides, it's usually a bad idea to lie to kids. Most of our lies are for ourselves, not others, anyway. (Even many white lies are about making us feel more comfortable, not about looking out for the other person, who might improve if s/he heard the truth in kindness. Is that love?) Most of all, we lie to ourselves first. You can get through anything with your kids by cherishing them and always keeping communication open and flowing. Claiming "I'm your mom & your dad," (focus on YOU) as opposed to saying "I will do everything I can to make up for what you haven't been given in life,” (focus on THEM) are almost opposite. As one character i says: 'it's not enough to fill the void in her heart."
Thirdly, he ends up wanting to scrap his book, change his pen name and start over to write the true story. He claims the 1st one was a lie. It wasn't a lie, it was the truth as he knew it. I think a better idea would be to write the sequel from her perspective. He can't scrap the book anyway, it's already out there.
Finally, the dreaded, no good, very bad MSS - Mandatory Separation Syndrome. It's a tired-out plot device in which, once a couple commits, they are separated for an extended chunk of time. I can't believe that after 14 years of separation they still did a 2-year MSS. Just pretend it didn't happen. Yeah, sure, he had to go do what he had to go do, and she needed to do what she had to do, but no contact? I can't stand it. How could they bear to be separated, and how could he leave his daughter for another 2 years? Is that love? Nope. This is utter nonsense in any culture.
There are many worthy elements. The childrens’ relationship mirrors the adults. It's charming. “Why do bad things always come all at once?,” Noh wonders. Apparently suitors come all at once, as well. It ain't a Kdrama without a ❣⛰. First blood: They each got a paper cut early on in the show; they are linked. The cool camera work during some of the kisses makes the viewer feel how dizzying it must have been for them. They aren't going for all-out laughs, but there's plenty of amusing moments and characters in the show. Director Kim Do Hyung does a nice job. The Issues don't stem from the technical side. The directing is solid. The acting is tremendous. It's just enough to string the viewer along for the big letdown. The weakness in WIL is the writing, more than anything else. While It isn't without merits, we are left with an emptiness that hurts. I'm not in love with it.
QUOTES🗣
I don't know how many knots there are, but let's start on tying them one by one.
Love has no revenge.
I wanted to stay by your side & protect you, but I was just being selfish. It wasn't love.
〰🖍 IMHO
🎬6 📝5 🎭7.7 💓5.5 🦋6.5 🌞3 🎨7⚡3 🎵/🔊6 😅3 😭5 🤢2 🤔5 💤2 🔚4
Screenwriter: Lee Seung Jin (Cinderella & the Four Knights-5.6)
Age 14+ starting 25 minutes in, we have a string of R-rated language, Including a couple f💣s. It's scattered through the series here & there. There's blood & death around level 2.5/10
Re-📺? Sorta wish I skipped the 1st viewing.
After So Long, It's YOU:
My First First Love-8,
Romance is a bonus book-7.9,
Oh My Ghost 10,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
Sisyphus 8
Hospital Playlist 9 (give it 3 episodes to get warmed up),
Itaewon Class-8.9,
Familiar Wife-8.5,
More Than Friends-8,
Awaken-8.7,
The King's Affection 8.3,
Something in the Rain-8.6,
C🇨🇳:
A Little Thing Called First Love-8.5,
Hidden Love-7.8
Entire of itself ❣
Every man is a piece of the continent ❣
A part of the main ❣….❣ Any man's death diminishes me ❣
Because I am involved in mankind ❣
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls ❣
It tolls for thee.
~John Donne~
Is that love? Yes, it is.
‘I wanted to carry the burden alone,’ many characters in WIL say. Is that love? If you choose to act alone, you are choosing to be alone. Before you act alone, remember that you /don't/ act alone: No man is an island. Everything we do has an impact on others, and every one of us is a role model, whether for good or less-than. "By the time I realized I'd pushed you away, it was too late," is another line we hear. Again, was acting alone, love?
‘Why would you drop out of college with just one semester to go?’ Long pause. This rom-dram, with some smiles mixed in, opens up to our FL, “Noh” Ae Jung (Song Ji Hyo from My Wife’s Having an Affair This Week & The Witch's Diner). She's in a job interview at a movie studio. Her voice is a rich Alto. Finally, she blurts out that she had to drop out to have a child. Her daughter's now older, so she's ready to pursue her dream of being a movie producer. She was hired immediately ~ Wow, that was easy! When the owner of the studio disappears, she learns that he tricked her into cosigning for his debt! The debt collector is a really scary looking dude. She needs to make money fast or risk losing limbs.
Noh frantically rifles through the studio in search of anything that can generate quick cash. She comes across a contract to adapt ‘Love Is Non-existent' to film. It's the fledgling novel by a now enormously famous author. Jackpot🎰. She arranges a meeting and is pleasantly surprised when the reclusive writer agrees to it. When she arrives at the pre-arranged location, she understands why: She's met this author before. He's never posted pictures of himself publicly, and he writes under a pen name, but this wordsmith, Oh “Dae” Oh (Son Ho Jun from Go Back Couple & The First Responders-7.8) is her ex. Right here. Right now. Right in front of her disbelieving eyes. They had been very close, but was it love? I'll tell you what it is now: It's hate. No matter how much money is involved, this is a man she won't work with. Lo, and behold! HE says the same thing about HER! He'll never agree to work with /her/ on /anything/.
Noh has the script’s rights, and she's desperate, so she's thinking about forcing through with the project. In the meantime, Dae looks for comfort and support. He reaches out to the couple's closest college friend, “Ryu” Jin (Song Jong Ho of Arthdal Chronicles & A Korean Odyssey-7.2). Ryu, a now famous actor, has his OWN agenda, however. As the project goes forward, things will get quite messy with the 3 of them.
Not as messy as it is with Dae and his daughter, Hani, though. Once again, we see a superb Korean child actor. She's been longing for him her whole life. He didn't know she existed. Dae’s first interaction with the kid is darling. It's loaded. There's tension, they spat, they look alike, they act a little bit alike, yet she also acts like her mom. Hani may seem inconsistent. She's looking for her father, but when she finds him, she's reluctant to accept him. She's lived 14 years without a father, she tells him, so she doesn't need one. It's understandable that she would be self-protective and cautious before opening up her heart to this man whom she's just met, but the toxicity is frustrating. Is that love? Not yet.
Kim Mi-kyung is the every-other-mother. She's in every other feature as the mom, it seems. (Somebody should let that woman out of the kitchen!) In Saimdang-8.5 she plays a sophisticated Gallery owner, and she does it well. Even though she's always playing a mom, that doesn't mean that she's the same in every feature.
When things get a little more serious, the actors shine. They get to show off their skills. That is part of what hurts. I'm behind in writing reviews. Sometimes, the way I see a show changes over time. My first impression isn't always the lasting one. The more I recall WIL, the less I like it. The more I look back on it, the more bitter it is. WIL is a difficult pill. What it does well, it does really well; but the negatives are what stay with the viewer. There are things in this show that I didn't merely dislike, but actively loathed.
First of all, some characters don't come around quickly enough. It's frustrating.
Secondly, Noh committed so many no-nos! They will show the couple's falling out. Dae became obsessed with the many things pressuring him between school and career, He turned dismissive, unappreciative, and inattentive towards Noh. He was horrible. He was wrong. She, in turn, separated herself and never told him he was a father. Not when she started showing. Not as the due-date neared. Not after the birth. Not at the first birthday, or the second. Count to 14. Fine, to that. I don't agree, but she was really angry at that jerk. But we'll also learn that /Hani/ was tortured at school over not having a father. They had to frequently move due to the intolerance from outsiders. Hani had trouble making and keeping friends. Hani longed for her father. Noh sacrificed her daughter to her anger. Her feelings were more important than her daughter! Was that love? HAIL NAW! This isn't up for debate: Noh was wrong.
That's the worthy message rolled into WIL. “Stop before you end up doing something you regret, like I did. Some things just weren't meant to be,” we hear. No one is guilt-free in this show. Everybody thinks they're running in a straight line. We're all going after our prize. However, none of us are capable of running in a straight line. Society is a web, a tangle, and endless knots. In WIL, most of the characters make decisions on their own without a care to verify the facts. Is that love? More often than not, when we think we're acting alone, we're lying to ourselves. We're not running a straight path, we're always weaving and intruding into other lanes. We choose to ignore that and keep the focus on us, what we want, & our own pain. Instead of the wide world around us and loved ones closest to us, it's our bitterness, hate, anger, and, more than anything, our pride that drive most people. Nowhere is this more true than with parenting. "It was my choice to have her, but it wasn't hers to live this way," Noh sobs (yeah, it was). She's in the middle of her mother and her daughter. Mom is saying that she'll take on all Noh's burdens because that's what a mother does for a child. Noh slowly takes in the fact that, ultimately, burdens must be borne - nobody can /walk/ our path for us. It's much easier with support, if we can get it. Regardless, the toll must be paid. She realizes how the whole situation has put a very heavy burden on her unsupported daughter, while Noh willfully had blinders on. She had refused to see it in the middle of her swirling pain. Was that love?
Parenting is the main theme of WIL. The teacher's mother wants to protect her son, and therefore, tries to take over his life. Is that love? Ironically, she got the exact opposite of what she wanted: She distanced herself from her son. If she had just been natural with him they would have been close. ‘I'm a single parent, so I'm your mom and your dad,’ is Noh's attitude. That's asking the kid to enter a pact of lies. No matter what a parent says, kids know when they have another parent out there, somewhere. I have people close to me with a parent who claimed s/he would be two parents. The kids knew it wasn't true; all they felt was betrayal from the parent that wasn't there, and they underappreciated, with a little resentment mixed in, the parent that was there. Because nobody can fill two roles. We should merely fulfill our responsibilities to our utmost ability and love. Kids always want a mom and a dad, but no one can be two people, we can each only be one. Tell them you'll do everything you can to make up for the lack. Tell them that you're in this together. It's important that they know that things don't always work out the way we like in life. Besides, it's usually a bad idea to lie to kids. Most of our lies are for ourselves, not others, anyway. (Even many white lies are about making us feel more comfortable, not about looking out for the other person, who might improve if s/he heard the truth in kindness. Is that love?) Most of all, we lie to ourselves first. You can get through anything with your kids by cherishing them and always keeping communication open and flowing. Claiming "I'm your mom & your dad," (focus on YOU) as opposed to saying "I will do everything I can to make up for what you haven't been given in life,” (focus on THEM) are almost opposite. As one character i says: 'it's not enough to fill the void in her heart."
Thirdly, he ends up wanting to scrap his book, change his pen name and start over to write the true story. He claims the 1st one was a lie. It wasn't a lie, it was the truth as he knew it. I think a better idea would be to write the sequel from her perspective. He can't scrap the book anyway, it's already out there.
Finally, the dreaded, no good, very bad MSS - Mandatory Separation Syndrome. It's a tired-out plot device in which, once a couple commits, they are separated for an extended chunk of time. I can't believe that after 14 years of separation they still did a 2-year MSS. Just pretend it didn't happen. Yeah, sure, he had to go do what he had to go do, and she needed to do what she had to do, but no contact? I can't stand it. How could they bear to be separated, and how could he leave his daughter for another 2 years? Is that love? Nope. This is utter nonsense in any culture.
There are many worthy elements. The childrens’ relationship mirrors the adults. It's charming. “Why do bad things always come all at once?,” Noh wonders. Apparently suitors come all at once, as well. It ain't a Kdrama without a ❣⛰. First blood: They each got a paper cut early on in the show; they are linked. The cool camera work during some of the kisses makes the viewer feel how dizzying it must have been for them. They aren't going for all-out laughs, but there's plenty of amusing moments and characters in the show. Director Kim Do Hyung does a nice job. The Issues don't stem from the technical side. The directing is solid. The acting is tremendous. It's just enough to string the viewer along for the big letdown. The weakness in WIL is the writing, more than anything else. While It isn't without merits, we are left with an emptiness that hurts. I'm not in love with it.
QUOTES🗣
I don't know how many knots there are, but let's start on tying them one by one.
Love has no revenge.
I wanted to stay by your side & protect you, but I was just being selfish. It wasn't love.
〰🖍 IMHO
🎬6 📝5 🎭7.7 💓5.5 🦋6.5 🌞3 🎨7⚡3 🎵/🔊6 😅3 😭5 🤢2 🤔5 💤2 🔚4
Screenwriter: Lee Seung Jin (Cinderella & the Four Knights-5.6)
Age 14+ starting 25 minutes in, we have a string of R-rated language, Including a couple f💣s. It's scattered through the series here & there. There's blood & death around level 2.5/10
Re-📺? Sorta wish I skipped the 1st viewing.
After So Long, It's YOU:
My First First Love-8,
Romance is a bonus book-7.9,
Oh My Ghost 10,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
Sisyphus 8
Hospital Playlist 9 (give it 3 episodes to get warmed up),
Itaewon Class-8.9,
Familiar Wife-8.5,
More Than Friends-8,
Awaken-8.7,
The King's Affection 8.3,
Something in the Rain-8.6,
C🇨🇳:
A Little Thing Called First Love-8.5,
Hidden Love-7.8
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