irmar

Let me answer you. Because we know exactly what will happen. It's like painting by numbers, all the clichés and coincidences put together, a story like dozens of dozens of others we've already watched. The plot, the character, everything. Of course it's only the first episode, but I am not very optimistic.

It could be lower. This episode is like déja vu, like dozens of dramas we've seen already. Yawn! Let's hope it gets better.

Watching this in 2024 I can feel how k-drama has made a lot of progression in the past 10 years. At that time, things were thought funny that we now find distasteful and infuriating.
And of course, if anyone is curious why so many women in Korea are giving up on marriage and children, let them watch this drama. Of course it's an over-the-top comedy, but most articles and interviews with real researchers will tell you that it's not that far from reality for many daughters-in-law until a few years ago and, in some more conservative circles, even today.
Still I couldn't stomach more than 3 episodes, so I dropped it.

What I meant was The Undateables. I thought it was a complete train wreck and even he couldn't save it.

Yes, I liked that one too, but Our Blues is of a different style. More slice of life, since that's your thing. And the cast is... what can I say! All the stars of Korea in one drama!

Except once. But we will forgive him that bad choice because we love him so much.
(Can you guess which one I'm referring to?)

I'm with you on this.

Ha Yul (thank you for the name because I am very bad at remembering them) did like and trust her teacher even then, but the "think for yourself" part was towards the end, in the scene where she recommended she goes to the demo class by Mr. Pyo.
In the same episode one, do you remember (I think it was one of the very first scenes, if not the first) how she counselled a new teacher, telling her the tricks of the trade, and the advice was despicable.

You' re mixing the times a bit. The conversation with the female student that prompted the female student to say those things happened towards the end of the drama. AFTER our FL got inspired by the ML's method and (after their big fight on that) she told him "you win", she said "the USB files are not my treasure" etc. That is, when she wanted to return to her old self and started doing it. Part of this was telling students to learn how to read understand the texts by themselves and not just memorize answers, and also told the female student to attend Mr. Pyo's class in the rival hagwon, and to make her own mind about things.

Have you seen "Our Blues"? For me, that stood out.

No, she was this only at the beginning of her career. When we met her (present time), she was telling a rookie teacher to only concentrate on getting the answers right etc. The very first scene, remember? And she had files on possible questions that she guessed correctly most of the time etc. And that was also the content of the famous USB drive that was stolen. But then, after meeting him again, and after the encounter with Mr. Pyo, she was reminded of her past ideals and wanted to come back to them again.
When she was reminded of her youthful passion after meeting the ML, she is drawn to do an unconventional lesson to the one student who shows up. That was a spur-of-the-moment decision, triggered by her old student's present who brought back memories of her old self. Not what she had been doing so far!
Then she fought hard with him because he wanted to do something unconventional. At first she didn't agree. Only after a lot of pushback, she conceded that he was right, and she wanted to change. That's when she said that the USB files "are not my treasure anymore". Because she wanted to change her usual method. She started putting it into practice, but the parents were not thrilled. What? No more homework? No more handouts? Yes, they attributed it to her being in a relationship and becoming lazy, not taking care of her students anymore. But even if there were no scandal, they would eventually find out and would have complained. They certainly wouldn't let her go on that route.

He was none of those. He learned about how the world of hagwons works. At the beginning she needed no saving at all, he was just there for love - also ambition. She taught him how to navigate that shark-infested world .
Then, after understanding what was required of him, after the initial shock, he started rebelling and trying to find ways to make teaching more meaningful. Thus he brought a breath of fresh air, reminding her of what she was at the start of her career. She used to be an idealistic and passionate teacher as well, but she had buried that and lost her way because of the demands of the business.
So he was a catalyst for her evolution and she was a catalyst for his evolution.
After the scandal broke out, there was more evolution. She initially crumbled, but still held her ground (she never considered breaking up with him or denying the rumour) and, seeing that, he started reflecting more on the consequences of his actions on other people and understood that he was no saviour or knight but in the contrary he was the reason her career was ruined (that realization made him burst into tears).
Through that ordeal, she also realized the fickleness of that business and that the path of a hagwon teacher had led her to an alienated existence, a puppet of unreasonable parents and greedy directors. She didn't want that life anymore. It wasn't worth the struggle to come back... to what? Something that she didn't value anymore?
After all those realizations, they both sat down as collaborators, as allies, and devised a strategy together to at least save the school and remaining teachers. For the sake of those who were loyal friends to them (like miss Nam) and also for his sake, since he wanted to continue in that path.
She overcame her dejection and gave us a taste of her old fighting self in the brilliant scene with the Grey Witch, just as he made Ms Wu writhe in the restaurant scene.
The plan worked and gave them the satisfaction they wanted. The school was saved, (also thanks to the secondary characters). Then our two leads went on to do what they wanted professionally, and pledged to get married as soon as she got her law degree or something like that.
It was a mutual thing all along. So I didn't see at all what you saw, this saviour and knight thing. Even if he deluded himself at some point that he could play that role, he realized well enough that it was just his idea, not the reality.

I agree with you on everything, except it didn't feel like an open ending at all. We foresee the future of our hagwon, we can pretty much guess the future of the rival hagwon, we have been told the future plans of everybody, both in career and in personal life. What else should be spelled out?

We have seen her liking miss Nam and finding her promising, all over the drama. Now she has one more reason to like her. Otherwise, realistically speaking, she is the least experienced in the hagwon, there would be no reason to choose her over one of the experienced team leaders. But, whatever the motivations, Manager Kim wouldn't trust her with that position if she were no good, because she'd be losing her money. She's not that stupid!
Generally we have seen the drama explore good sides and less good sides of people in a realistic way, and I liked that.

Hagwons cannot embrace this idealistic system too much, realistically speaking, Korean parents won't allow it. If she wants to teach like that, it should be elsewhere.

Didn't you notice she had still kept her law books? I thought this was tell-tale. And, the sassy queen showed herself again once she recovered from her first shock. Didn't you watch the scene with the Grey Witch?
I agree she is a talented teacher and it would be a waste to put an end to this. But given the hagwon culture, she wouldn't be able to teach in the best style she wanted. Whereas if she gets a law degree, she can become an awesome university professor teaching law one day. University professors are more respected and have more freedom in teaching methods.

Well, that video of the two directors wasn't enough for you to understand what impact the incident would have on the rival academy?
The two academies will continue to be rivals, but now Daechi has an advantage, and is starting afresh. It's obvious, why do we need to have it spelled out for us?

It seems that we all know where the plot will go. The cynic and the idealist will clash but they will both grow and influence one another and become great friends and allies bla bla bla. It's so rare to see a plot that hasn't been done and redone. Of course one can hope for fresh side stories, and solid acting, but still... Reading about it doesn't excite me.

No, I remember from another drama. Exile was the second harshest sentence after death. They are sent to a remote place like Jeju where life was harsh and lonely without any luxuries and lived in detention, their shabby house surrounded by a fence of thorns (wirianchi punishment). There was a young heir to the throne in another drama, and they brought him poisoned porridge and the poor lad died.
https://www.kf.or.kr/kfNewsletter/mgzinSubViewPage.do?mgzinSn=10977&mgzinSubSn=11019&langTy=ENG
https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220804000718
https://issuu.com/museumofkorea/docs/nmk_v50/s/12154352

If it's not death and it's not fleeing to safety with their child, then what could the writers come up with? Prison? Probably worse than death.