Thanks for your recommendation. I enjoyed it! Truly, this KDrama offers delight of its own kind.
The established are so lost within their tiny, outdated pseudo aristocratic, yet nevertheless exclusive world view and their rotten sense of pride, that comes with it. The girls´ family, on the other hand, so torn between seduction, shame and yet pride, too. A pride based on slowly but surely growing self esteem as society tries to change. (However, there is still a long way to go...)
And then the (rich) boy and (poor) girl, innocently (or a bit naive, too) stumbling into becoming a family... ´Thank god´ they have a baby-boy... so the machinery turns out to be a bit in their favor... (the irony is all over the place..) Funny enough, they are supposedly from different educational classes (so says the attorney dad), yet while his boy is intellectually struggling, the ´lower class´ girl is the bright, rather promising and refreshingly clever one.
The servants, loyal as their job pays their bills, yet well aware of the hidden truth of those depraved elites behind their shiny veil of money and power, are like the heartwarming glue between those worlds. They are the grounded ones with a relaxed and wise ´we´ve seen it all´ attitude. They are great! It sometimes seems like, behind their professional poker face they are enjoying their daily routines with their highfalutin bosses like some sort of private soap...
It is actually the best thing you can do: laugh about it! If it only weren´t sadly true at the same time...this is mostly the human material the pillars of the state are made of...
Yes, the story at times is as cross a two sticks. Subtly nasty to the point. Sarcastically making fun of the (hopefully at one point in time, but not yet, obviously...) outdated attitudes and world-views. The music brings in some extra swinging and swaying drive. I agree. It´s wonderful.
Nevertheless - here you are right again - 30 episodes might be a few to many if you watch it continiuosly. Less could have also done the trick... But so what. I sipped at it in bundles of ca. 4 episodes, took a break in between, and when I was in the mood for venomous satire again, enjoyed to delightful dive into the splendidly executed KDrama once more.
Thanks for your sophisticated and inspiring review!
ich würde es eifersucht nennen. er hat sich geradezu symbiotisch, auf choi chi-yeol fixiert, so dass es nichts und niemand mehr außer ihm gibt. das leben seines ´chefs´ zu organisieren und zu kontrollieren ist sein einziger lebensinhalt. das funktioniert aber nur, so lange choi chi-yeol ebenfalls nur einen lebensinhalt hat: seine arbeit.
die frau bringt nun das gut funktionierende ´beziehungssystem´ durcheinander.
für choi chi-yeol ist das nicht schlimm, denn er weiß, dass es nicht gesund war, so essgestört und als workaholic zu leben. für seinen assistenten ist das schon schlimm. das ist geradezu existenziell. weder erkennt er, dass das leben, das er führt, so nicht gesund ist, noch will er oder kann er etwas anderes (sinnvolles) mit seinem leben anfangen. daher entgleitet ihm der boden unter den füßen.
yes I agree, moon chae-won was more dominant in her presence there - in flower of evil. however, here she had the role of a daughter, who is absorbed in some sort of bitterness, in her feeling of being wronged and pondering over revenge. there was this scene, when eun yong smiling said to her, how good it feels to see her thinking about something else than revenge for once - with another face, another expression. otherwise her face seemed to be rather frozen most of the time. ... and then at the ending, with tea-chun at prosecution at last, she was finally brighter, with more dynamic and some sort of teasing humor. she most of the time rather played a lonely woman who - except for the payback idea - couldn´t really enjoy herself still being alive or let alone living joyfully. from that perspective, one could argue, she did a good job in NOT showing so much, being a shadow of herself when it comes to her personal life and holding all in most of the time. :-)
that´s exactly what I mean: the setting is depressing, but still we (as audience) can relate to the authentic in a way that we can sort of enjoy sharing this experience with the protagonists - it is depressing and yet it is not (e.g. depressing to watch) - at least that´s what I felt.
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15 
Truly, this KDrama offers delight of its own kind.
The established are so lost within their tiny, outdated pseudo aristocratic, yet nevertheless exclusive world view and their rotten sense of pride, that comes with it. The girls´ family, on the other hand, so torn between seduction, shame and yet pride, too. A pride based on slowly but surely growing self esteem as society tries to change. (However, there is still a long way to go...)
And then the (rich) boy and (poor) girl, innocently (or a bit naive, too) stumbling into becoming a family... ´Thank god´ they have a baby-boy... so the machinery turns out to be a bit in their favor... (the irony is all over the place..) Funny enough, they are supposedly from different educational classes (so says the attorney dad), yet while his boy is intellectually struggling, the ´lower class´ girl is the bright, rather promising and refreshingly clever one.
The servants, loyal as their job pays their bills, yet well aware of the hidden truth of those depraved elites behind their shiny veil of money and power, are like the heartwarming glue between those worlds. They are the grounded ones with a relaxed and wise ´we´ve seen it all´ attitude. They are great! It sometimes seems like, behind their professional poker face they are enjoying their daily routines with their highfalutin bosses like some sort of private soap...
It is actually the best thing you can do: laugh about it! If it only weren´t sadly true at the same time...this is mostly the human material the pillars of the state are made of...
Yes, the story at times is as cross a two sticks. Subtly nasty to the point. Sarcastically making fun of the (hopefully at one point in time, but not yet, obviously...) outdated attitudes and world-views. The music brings in some extra swinging and swaying drive. I agree. It´s wonderful.
Nevertheless - here you are right again - 30 episodes might be a few to many if you watch it continiuosly. Less could have also done the trick... But so what. I sipped at it in bundles of ca. 4 episodes, took a break in between, and when I was in the mood for venomous satire again, enjoyed to delightful dive into the splendidly executed KDrama once more.
Thanks for your sophisticated and inspiring review!
er hat sich geradezu symbiotisch, auf choi chi-yeol fixiert, so dass es nichts und niemand mehr außer ihm gibt. das leben seines ´chefs´ zu organisieren und zu kontrollieren ist sein einziger lebensinhalt. das funktioniert aber nur, so lange choi chi-yeol ebenfalls nur einen lebensinhalt hat: seine arbeit.
die frau bringt nun das gut funktionierende ´beziehungssystem´ durcheinander.
für choi chi-yeol ist das nicht schlimm, denn er weiß, dass es nicht gesund war, so essgestört und als workaholic zu leben. für seinen assistenten ist das schon schlimm. das ist geradezu existenziell. weder erkennt er, dass das leben, das er führt, so nicht gesund ist, noch will er oder kann er etwas anderes (sinnvolles) mit seinem leben anfangen. daher entgleitet ihm der boden unter den füßen.
so habe ich das verstanden...
however, here she had the role of a daughter, who is absorbed in some sort of bitterness, in her feeling of being wronged and pondering over revenge. there was this scene, when eun yong smiling said to her, how good it feels to see her thinking about something else than revenge for once - with another face, another expression. otherwise her face seemed to be rather frozen most of the time. ... and then at the ending, with tea-chun at prosecution at last, she was finally brighter, with more dynamic and some sort of teasing humor. she most of the time rather played a lonely woman who - except for the payback idea - couldn´t really enjoy herself still being alive or let alone living joyfully.
from that perspective, one could argue, she did a good job in NOT showing so much, being a shadow of herself when it comes to her personal life and holding all in most of the time. :-)