This review may contain spoilers
Intergenerational Friendship
The drama has deuteragonists 23 year old aspiring ballerino Chae Rok and 70 year old Deok Chul whose love for ballet was re-ignited when he saw the former practice, but it's mostly centered around the journey of the latter. Song Kang's 6 months training really shows in the scenes that fully show his face while gracefully dancing. The dance teacher Ki Seung Joo was smart to assign Deok Chul as Chae Rok's manager exchange for Chae Rok teaching Deok Chul to dance. It intermingles their dynamic which is already complicated by the very age hierarchical culture even more so. Even the teacher had to stop yelling at the students when the newest student of the studio, but the eldest Deok Chul asks him to. Deok Chul is at once a sunbae/teacher and a grandson like figure, even more so after he meets Deok Chul's wife Hae Nam who will always have him sit down for dinner with them and sweetly includes him in the yearly family citron tea gifting. We see Deok Chul as a young man looking upon the aged, hunched back back of his elderly father that he then scrubs in the bath house as his own is being scrubbed by Chae Rok. He's able to give a lot of perspective for Chae Rok as well as Ho Beom, both of whom had suffered misguided abusive punishment from Chae Rok's father who was their soccer coach, a mis step that he had been jailed for. They were both able to make peace with what had happened and the changed person their former coach had become in order to move on with their own life and ambitions. I love that at no point do they push a romance on Chae Rok with Deok Chul's granddaughter Eun Ho who was previously his co-worker at the cafe before she was let go and he quit to focus on ballet. They rather learn from each other how to cope with the difficulties and their shared love for Deok Chul instead. I hope he had saved up enough money to live on because it didn't make any sense for the his teacher Li to get angry for him holding down a part time job when even though he waived any school fees for Chae Rok, he's not housing or feeding him. The guy has been having to pay his own bills since his dad went to jail and his mom passed while he was still in high school.
Both Chae Rok and Deok Chul are outrunning time in their respective points in life. Chae Rok needs to get into a professional ballet company as soon as he can as he already started 10 years later than most ballet dancers, despite being pretty much a natural prodigy quickly picking up ballet in 1 year, he's already 3 years in and ballet dancers retire very early for various reasons. His own teacher was forced to retire early due to a career ending injury. Deok Chul is outrunning his deteriorating mind from Alzheimer's. He had watched his friend decline and die and have attended many funerals of his peers. One of his episodes led him to Chae Rok, which lit the spark in him to finally soar like he had seen his first ballerino when he was a child. Chae Rok refers to Deok Chul as grandfather, which is a way to refer to an elderly man, but he has absolutely taken on the responsibility of a grandson to care for Deok Chul as best as he can once he tearfully finds out through Deok Chul's notebook, even if it breaks him a bit as taking care of a person who suffers from Alzheimer's is intense for anyone. He tries to respect Deok Chul keeping the information to himself until the symptoms become too severe and he reveals it to Deok Chul's youngest, the 40 year old doctor who hasn't recovered from his ptsd from a patient death. All of the adult children's issues are tied back to and resolved with Deok Chul well, strengthening their understanding and relationship with each other and each other. Although his wife and two eldest children were emotionally violent in their refusal to accept his ballet dream, his youngest, his children in-law, and his granddaughter thought were impressed, and everyone else eventually came around to supporting him, especially after his symptoms could not be kept from the others any longer. Deok Chul was able to realize his dream with the support of his entire family and Chae Rok right beside him and Chae Rok is able to leave the airport towards his own dreams with the love of his father, his best friend, his ballet teachers, and Deok Chul plus the family members that tagged along.
The ending is very touching as 3 years later, Chae Rok made top dancer within a year as teacher Ki predicted returns to visit Deok Chul who is fully in Alzheimer's state and Deok Chul remembers ballet through muscle memory as he sees him. It's kind of sad his wish to be living in a nursing home while he was still lucid wasn't respected as he's at home under the care of his also elderly wife who has a hard time keeping an eye on him at all times. His daughter and son in law offered to care for him too, but they're not around. Deok Chul wanders the streets delivering what he thinks are letters to the consternation of the people around the area and it looks dangerous as he walks to a train crossing where he runs into Chae Rok. The writing of the various friendships and familial relationships are good, but the pacing can feel pretty slow and Chae Rok didn't get as much focus, but all the ballet focused sections were fascinating.
Both Chae Rok and Deok Chul are outrunning time in their respective points in life. Chae Rok needs to get into a professional ballet company as soon as he can as he already started 10 years later than most ballet dancers, despite being pretty much a natural prodigy quickly picking up ballet in 1 year, he's already 3 years in and ballet dancers retire very early for various reasons. His own teacher was forced to retire early due to a career ending injury. Deok Chul is outrunning his deteriorating mind from Alzheimer's. He had watched his friend decline and die and have attended many funerals of his peers. One of his episodes led him to Chae Rok, which lit the spark in him to finally soar like he had seen his first ballerino when he was a child. Chae Rok refers to Deok Chul as grandfather, which is a way to refer to an elderly man, but he has absolutely taken on the responsibility of a grandson to care for Deok Chul as best as he can once he tearfully finds out through Deok Chul's notebook, even if it breaks him a bit as taking care of a person who suffers from Alzheimer's is intense for anyone. He tries to respect Deok Chul keeping the information to himself until the symptoms become too severe and he reveals it to Deok Chul's youngest, the 40 year old doctor who hasn't recovered from his ptsd from a patient death. All of the adult children's issues are tied back to and resolved with Deok Chul well, strengthening their understanding and relationship with each other and each other. Although his wife and two eldest children were emotionally violent in their refusal to accept his ballet dream, his youngest, his children in-law, and his granddaughter thought were impressed, and everyone else eventually came around to supporting him, especially after his symptoms could not be kept from the others any longer. Deok Chul was able to realize his dream with the support of his entire family and Chae Rok right beside him and Chae Rok is able to leave the airport towards his own dreams with the love of his father, his best friend, his ballet teachers, and Deok Chul plus the family members that tagged along.
The ending is very touching as 3 years later, Chae Rok made top dancer within a year as teacher Ki predicted returns to visit Deok Chul who is fully in Alzheimer's state and Deok Chul remembers ballet through muscle memory as he sees him. It's kind of sad his wish to be living in a nursing home while he was still lucid wasn't respected as he's at home under the care of his also elderly wife who has a hard time keeping an eye on him at all times. His daughter and son in law offered to care for him too, but they're not around. Deok Chul wanders the streets delivering what he thinks are letters to the consternation of the people around the area and it looks dangerous as he walks to a train crossing where he runs into Chae Rok. The writing of the various friendships and familial relationships are good, but the pacing can feel pretty slow and Chae Rok didn't get as much focus, but all the ballet focused sections were fascinating.
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