nolatoo

Yes, it’s good.

🤣🤣🤣True

K-culture is quite baffling at times. Warm and social at times. Cold and baffling at times.

Are those his real abs? Looks like makeup or a body suit to me. Bracing myself for the hate I will probably get for this speculation, lol 🤣🤣

I too was baffled and unimpressed when he questioned Sarang’s extremely precise table setting instructions and the staff’s need for umpteen dozen rehearsals in preparation for the banquet. That conveyed he didn’t understand the need for precision and attention to details on the job which I found astounding. You can’t achieve excellence in your business, your craft, with that attitude.

We know that he’s only on the job because he’s looking for info about his mother. So, of course, the job itself is not a priority. He originally told his sister that he didn’t compete with her because he didn’t want to, NOT because he couldn’t. So, apparently, he’s been sitting on some sort of impressive business acumen. I am definitely excited to see him unleash it. But, yeah, like you said, the work ethic he’s shown so far really leaves me wondering.

I appreciate your viewpoint. The character is compassionate and dutiful. The character has physical desire for her too. He’s desperate to save her life. That is well-conveyed by the actor, but the actor himself still seems distant to me. Or, maybe that distance is a deliberate part of the character. I can’t tell.

Super pretty

Yes, I enjoyed that drama too. Funny. I believe that was her debut as a leading lady. Great chemistry—agreed. That was the first time I became acquainted with her and could tell she was something special. Glad to see her career is steadily progressing.

Forget the romance, I’m most excited to hear Gu Won’s business plan next week. I want to know his strategy for increasing profits without cutting costs. New products? New services? New business partners, investors? New capital investment strategy? I’m legit curious.

He’s been clingy and overstepping boundaries since Day 1. Annoying character. But, I agree. I believe he’ll be loyal to Gu Won.

I think he was just as shocked as she was. He was probably tricked into this meeting with the young woman. Probably thought he was simply coming to have a meal with his dad. I have a tough believing he’d willingly accept such a meeting if he knew its real purpose.

I love her too. So cute.

Mr. Gu could teach that Weightlifting Fairy guy a thing or two about holding an umbrella for a girl, lol.

This writing has some really stupid bits. Who play-plays with a serious legal document like a marriage registration? Who signs something like that just for kicks and a gag? What level of idiocy is that? Woww, this writer.

You make a valid point. There are many different types of kdramas. The second male lead of “Just Between Lovers” had that perfect sort of attractiveness but the ML (our very same Lee Jun Ho) was just a plain, regular Joe. The other two you mentioned had more down-to-earth qualities, as well.

So true. I hope they work out their issues, learn to get along, and heal. I hope you’re right about there being good deep inside her. She’s been mean to him every since he was little and she was a teen. Meanness and jealousy and elitism seems to be in her bones, to me.

@GiseleK True, you’re right, unappealing toxic personalities of tsundere ML characters is often a part of that kdrama trope. I meant “perfect” physically speaking and “perfect” in the superficial sense—wealthy, family status, capableness. To onlookers he seems “perfect.” But, as his personality and weaknesses are revealed, we see he isn’t so perfect after all.

The physical “perfection,” however, that extreme attractiveness, the almost plastic flawlessness, is what makes a kdrama a kdrama. The perfect set lighting, the perfect camera angles, the perfect skin, the style, the aesthetics—that’s the whole appeal of a kdrama. If the ML looks more down-to-earth and like a regular Joe, then it’s a whole other thing. It’s just a regular show then, not a kdrama (at least not a traditional kdrama) in my opinion.

That’s what makes it a kdrama. The over-the-topness. The unreal, next-level prettiness of the ML, a prettiness and a too-good-to-be-true perfection that sometimes even outshines the FL. It’s metrosexualism on steroids. It’s a different sort of masculinity that most Westerners don’t associate with masculinity at all—flawless pale skin, thin physique, perfectly coifed hair, extreme fastidiousness and attention to style.

Also, the tsundere ML is a classic archetype used over and over and over again. So, yes, we do kinda see the same character across many kdramas. (But, other countries do this too. Many Golden Age of Hollywood’s leading men had extremely handsome “pretty” looks similar to their peers and played similar characters in similar dramas —Cary Grant, Tyrone Powers, Gregory Peck, Rock Hudson, Glenn Ford, just to name a few. That brand of “prettiness” is just more traditionally masculine to Western audiences.)

Old-school kdrama male leads, say 20 yrs ago, weren’t like they are now and had a more traditionally masculine, tan-skinned aesthetic (Song Seung-heon, for example, “Autumn in My Heart,” or Lee Byung-hun “Iris”). For some reason, with the popularity of kpop idols, the “flower-boy” masculine aesthetic for ML actors changed and mirrored K-pop influences.

I personally don’t care for the flower-boy aesthetic either, but after watching many, many kdramas, I barely even notice it anymore. I just notice the chemistry between the leads. If the actor is good and talented, he’s heartfluttering and swoonworthy regardless his appearance. His masculine appeal shines through as he becomes warm and attentive to the leading lady (e.g. Park Hyungsik in “Strong Woman Bong Soon”—an extremely pretty man but also extremely charming and swoonworthy. He had my brain shook for a good long while because I couldn’t understand what I was looking at when I first saw him.)

Honoring the unsung heroes—beautiful episode. I love young Mr. Gu’s egalitarian sentimentality. The hotel wouldn’t be the hotel without its dedicated staff, for sure! Looking forward to seeing ML’s business prowess though in the next episode because a successful businessman must balance sentimentality and idealism with pragmatism and realism, aka profits.

Nice people