tsutsuloo

Her mother regards Jenny and Tae Oh as Soo Hyun's weaknesses or mistakes. Perhaps they'll be her greatest strength. That's my hope.

Same thoughts! Actress So Yi Hyun has created a riveting character. Is it too much to hope that this show will NOT go off the rails? It's getting better every week.

It looks like tfc.tv has the film if you sign up for a streaming account through kapamilya: https://tfc.tv/show/details/4908/sid-aya-not-a-love-story

Finding a "free" English sub for "Sid and Aya: Not a Love Story" took a lot of hunting and the version I found was quite poor. At least the subs were legible. I was able to finagle a decent experience with clever layering of two browser windows.

Browser 1: Streamed a decent quality version from filikula dot co on the first browser. Search engine works; use "sid and aya".

Browser 2: I found English subs on a crappy cam copy on cafecinema dot cc slash film slash sid-aya-not-love-story-2018/ (the seach engine doesn't work and the site is filled with siezure-inducing ads.) Took about 30 seconds to synch the videos and turned off the audio from the cam copy. Adjusted the windows so I only saw the subs and placed below the larger first browser.

Have you seen it yet? I'd describe the film as lovely and bittersweet—with an ending full of possibility. It's not the type of film that ends with a church wedding but it's hopeful in its own way.

It's time for In Joon to change the password on his door, right?

Huh, it's like half the cast is brewing some sort of plan. The thing I find hilarious about revenge plots in Asian dramas and films is how they're usually a long game. A really, really long game. Like, I'm going to pass my MCATS, go to medical school, specialize in organ transplants—all to get into the prison hospital where my father's murderer is imprisoned. Or, I'm going to make you fall in love with me, marry you and then make you miserable! Suckah!

Yes to everything. This week's episodes (17-20) were thrilling. I really cherish these characters—even the bastards—because they're portrayed with such nuance. In Joon's father is the only one who's like a cartoon villain but everyone else has depth.

SOO HYUN and have made a marriage alliance to help IN JOON grab power and SOO HYUN live up to her promise to raise her family’s status. IN JOON’s deeper goal is to avenge his mother’s treatment. But getting closer to his goals—at home and work—isn’t giving him the satisfaction he imagined. At beginning of Ep. 12, he reasserts his mother’s “ownership” of the house and promises to avenge everyone who hurt her. But, he admits that he doesn’t feel good. “This is a good day. I don’t know what’s wrong. I’m sorry, Mom.” As satisfying as it would be to watch IN JOON kick his horrible family to the curb, I’m not convinced this is actually what he needs to do to be complete. He’s clinging to the vengeful aspirations of a twelve-year-old child. In Ep. 7, he tells HAE RA that the “home” he’s looking for is the Gold Shoes company:

[Viki translation]
“It took half a day to go from America to Korea, but I still haven’t reached home yet. I think I’m still on the way back home. It should be a little easier now since you are going to help me.”

I’m anticipating that this is a prescient statement but not in the way IN JOON means. If reciprocated romantic love is a way of expressing a sense of home, HAE RA could very well be the key to IN JOON finding home. (Even if it all ends up turning to sh*t when the “truth” comes out.)

The arrival of TAE OH and HAE RA has complicated everything for SOO HYUN and IN JOON. HAE RA obviously threatens SOO HYUN’S plans for IN JOON but it’s her dying daughter, JENNY, who really threatens to upend decades of grooming SOO HYUN’s parents have invested in their daughter. I stated upthread that my hope for SOO HYUN is to assert true independence from her succubus of a mother.

TAE OH is harder to read. He seems to be a loving father will go to the end to save his daughter. At the same time, he’s quite comfortable manipulating and terrorizing HAE RA in the process. Is the liver the only thing he’s desires from his ex? Does he also have a secret ambition to get SOO HYUN back in the process of “destroying” her? It’s a messed-up courtship.

I’m foggy on what the prognosis is for GOO SOO YEON, HAE RA’s comatose sister. She seems to be dependent on a ventilator to stay alive; is it Hae Ra’s hope that her sister will recover? I’m impressed so far how she’s used KIM CHANG SOO (the scumbag loan shark) to investigate the circumstances of her sister’s arrival in the ER. But, lawdy, she needs a better poker face. As TAE OH once said of her, she flaps her mouth too much and often looks a bit imperious. Not a good strategy.

I doubt she anticipated getting beaten by In Joon’s uncle’s thugs but it’s astonishing that she took the opportunity to follow through on In Joon’s demand that she call him when she needed help. HAE RA hasn’t thought much about the consequences of seducing IN JOON and didn’t seem to even consider the possibility of falling in love.

I think IN JOON’s half in love with HAE RA already but I’m uncertain how long it will take her to develop real feelings for this man. She brings out his sentimental, vulnerable side which will make any perceived betrayals all the worse.

I’m not looking forward to the all-out makjang but I hope we’ll get some sweet falling-in-love moments to savor before it all goes off the rails.

By the end of Ep. 16, what’s at stake for each of the four leads? Literally and metaphorically, it’s life and death for all four. But it’s also possible that they want the wrong things. Spoilerly musings follow in reply.

REFRAMING CHA SOO HYUN
I love our increasingly complex four leads. SOO HYUN initially presents as the typical, over-the-top kdrama bitch. She is flawless in appearance, overly controlling, and unafraid to slap or grab what offends her. Her initial challenge to HAE RA was excessive. Why make such a fuss over a business card?

Her constant refrain to JIN TAE OH that they “died” in Hong Kong, that he was a “dead person” was initially confounding. Upon hearing that their child was dying, she responds, “Is that so? Then let her. We were already good as dead seven years ago.” (Note: Viki and Kocowa have distinctly different translations of this scene. In Ep. 3, Viki’s translation has TAE OH saying that he’s dying while Kocowa’s translation reiterates his statement that the child is dying.) The following airport flashback shows SOO HYUN using the same refrain. “I’m dead. You’re dead as well. We both died here. I’m not alive anymore. Let us live as though we’re dead.” It’s not until the end of Ep. 7 that we get more context: (Viki’s translation is better for this scene)

Tae Oh: “Although we are dead, the child—”
Soo Hyun: “We’re dead!” [walks away]
Older woman holding baby: “Go and get her! Say that you found her! Tell her you found your baby that her mother threw away.”
Tae Oh: “Ahjumma. This child. Cha Soo Hun killed and left this child. It wasn’t her mother, but Cha Soo Hyun.”

Her indifference in scene three and her outright cruelty in the airport flashbacks present Soo Hyun as monstrous.

This view of her, however, started shifting once I saw how SOO HYUN’S mother had conditioned her daughter for one thing only—to raise up the family and increase their financial power through marriage to the right person. In Ep. 7, about 5 minutes in, the mother advises her daughter that love is inconsequential to marriage. Her own marriage to SOO HYUN’S father is loveless and, by her own admission, she only loves her daughter. And it’s a toxic love.

At the end of Ep. 13, SOO HYUN seems to be moved as she observes Jenny at the playground. She’s almost wavering when she asks mother for advice but Mom asserts her authority by reminding SOO HYUN of her duty to their family. Mom later visits TAE OH, stating that SOO HYUN was the perfect obedient daughter until she met TAE OH. She denies him SOO HYUN’S kidney (for her own grandchild!) and threatens that she’s willing “to do anything for daughter.”

I wouldn’t put it past LEE EUN SOOK to commit murder to “protect” SOO HYUN (and the family’s ambitions). We don’t know if she literally threw infant JENNY away, kidnapped the baby, forced SOO HYUN to give the baby away, etc. but the result was this: SOO HYUN walked away from her infant and fiancé. The immediate period after childbirth is a vulnerable period for new mothers, physically and psychologically. They need as much support as possible. Given that SOO HYUN has had a lifetime of conditioning to be obedient, I can imagine how wrathful her mother must have been once she found her in Hong Kong. It’s easy to imagine LEE EUN SOOK screaming “he’s dead”, “the baby’s dead” repeatedly at her fragile daughter until Soo Hyun broke.

I recognize that CHA SOO HYUN spent a lifetime cultivating a sense of entitlement and is now a nasty piece of work. But it’s also evident that SOO HYUN is profoundly lonely, as are the other leads. Other than her parents, she has no other family or close friends who love or counsel her. She seems to have some feelings towards IN JOON but meeting her family’s expectations is her main driver in life. She is actually pathetic.

My hope for her is that she finally asserts her independence. Perhaps becoming a family with her daughter would be too much to ask for, even for a melo, but I want SOO HYUN to start living her own life.

FAIRYTALE PARENTS
Like a classic Disney movie or a fairy tale, good parents are dead and the living ones just stir up trouble.

In-Joon yearns for home, embodied by the warm memories of HYUN JUNG OH, his deceased beloved mother. She was a talented designer who shared her love of shoes with her child. He’s is driven by his desire to avenge his mother’s mistreatment and his own expulsion from the house by reclaiming the conglomeration for his mother’s family. IN JOON’S maternal uncle—and surrogate father—HYUNG JUNG SOO supports this goal, ironically to the detriment of IN JOON’S own happiness.

The other dead parent is equally loved by his child. Like IN JOON, HAE RA’S soft-focus memories of her shoemaker dad, GOO DONG SEOK, are bathed in golden light and a source of happiness and guilt. He's affectionate and encourages his daughters.

IN JOON’S father, TAE PIL WOON, is a classic kdrama chaebol. Whether he’s smashing furniture with golf clubs, slapping his children and throwing them away or goading his sons to compete, IN JOON’S a top-notch lout and overall shit. We don’t yet know the details of how his adulterous affair affected his first marriage, but it’s clear that IN JOON blames his father and step-mother for his mom’s death. In terms of parenting, In-Joon is a capable sperm donor but he is a horrible father. He sent IN JOON to America at age 12 (!) and his two children with mistress/2nd wife HAN SUNG SOOK are spoiled and nasty.

It’s unfortunate that HAN SUNG SOOK follows the fairytale trope of the evil step-mother. As mentioned above, she has raised two horrid children but her son, TAE JUNG HO, is especially awful. Her cruelty to her daughter-in-law GO AH JUNG is boundless. She is emotionally and physically abusive and actually withholds her grandchild from AH JUNG. As of Ep. 16, the audience has yet to see this child. She is actively plotting with her son against IN JOON and wants his arranged marriage to fail so that her son will inherit the conglomeration. (Of course the audience also wants the engagement to end, but for sweet, sweet love with HAE RA.)

The most terrifying (living) parent is LEE EUN SOOK, CHA SOO HYUN’S mother. Now that we’ve seen how EUN SOOK views marriage as a tool for acquiring power, Soo Hyun’s own cruelty makes more sense. In fact, I’ve now reframed SOO HYUN as a tragic figure.

[EDIT] As of Ep. 17, IN JOON'S DAD, TAE PIL WOON, is as loathsome as LEE EUN SOOK. Neither of them wouldn't think twice about destroying other families and throwing people away.

[MORE ABOUT THE WORST MOM IN THE SPOILER BELOW]

How do you describe this show to others who haven’t seen in it yet? I’ve called it a simple story with complex characters. It’s full of yearning, sumptuous to look at and languidly paced with a lot to unpack every week. It’s also my first live melo so it’s interesting to finally watch one without my finger on the FF button.

Spoilery musings hidden in the comments
• What do the parents in Fates and Furies have in common with fairytale parents?
• Reframing Cha Soo Hyun, In-Joon’s business partner/fiancée

The scoring is perfect. I wouldn't normally listen to power ballad type pop, but Aalia's song—and those cellos!!!—really tug at my heart. *wipes brow*

The heightened emotions are exactly what draw me into a good melo. I agree wholeheartedly with your comparison to "I Have A Lover," which was filled with such longing and heartache. "Fate and Fury" has a delicious blend of makjang and suppressed passion. I'm loving every moment of it.

Viki subbers are volunteers. Thanksgiving holiday takes a big chunk out of many people's schedules, including the time they would have to sub this series.

Your summaries and translations are invaluable. Thank you!

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll add that my (ever-growing) list!

I clapped when this week's Ep. 17 of THE UNDATEABLES directly addressed this trope. When Jung-eum's new boyfriend questions her innocence, she gently scoffs, that she's dated before. She adds: "Who above the age of 30 can say, 'I'm innocent'?"

Ha! EVERGREEN/THAT MAN OH SOO (2018) was the first drama I saw to reference condoms. The brother, Oh Ga-na,—who's a bit of a player—reaches into his coat pocket (one of many coats, natch) and hands Oh Soo condoms for a date. Oh Soo is disgusted and flings them back. In the end, do they really need birth control when they sleep fully dressed on top of their bed covers anyway?