#park sang young

[averagekpoppermideko87]

I finished watching the queer KDrama "Love In The Big City'. I must say the drama was excellent. The drama was full of emotions. The cinematography was fantastic. The acting was also fantastic. I love the drama. I recommend the drama. It's a must-watch drama.

[stuff-diary]

Love in the Big City

Movies watched in 2025

Love in the Big City (2024, South Korea)

Director: E.oni

Writer: Kim Na Deul (based on the novel by Park Sang Young)

Mini-review:

The drama adaptation of this book was my favorite k-drama of last year, so I came into this movie version with my interest piqued but also kind of wary. And, while there were certainly a lot of things about it that I liked, at the end of the day I didn't connect with it as much. I feel like this film doesn't reach the same level of depth, neither in the characters nor the approach to social issues. Still, the relationship between the leads is very engaging; in a way, it shows that your soulmate doesn't necessarily have to come from romance. And the acting is great, especially Kim Go Eun's. Now I just have to read the book, and then I'll have enjoyed all versions of Love in the Big City.

[gillianthecat]

Books Tag Game

Thank you for the tag @littleragondin! I've actually been reading books again these past few weeks so I have answers now lol

hardcover or *paperback* (i am but a weak little woman and those hardcovers are heavy) // bookstore or *library* (probably I would usually say bookstore but I was going to many different libraries to study at towards the end of the semester) // standalone or *series* (really depends on my mood, but the most recent books were a series) // nonfiction or *fiction* (fiction is an indulgence, and while I'm interested in a lot of non-fiction, reading it usually feels more like work) // thriller or *fantasy* (I've never been into scary stuff) // under 300 pages or *over 300 pages* (otherwise it goes by too quickly!) // children's or *ya* (i have not connected with the YA I've read in recent years but at times I have devoured it) // friends to lovers or *enemies to lovers* (there are some amazing friends-to-lovers I adore, but I'm compelled by even mediocre enemies-to-lovers) // *read in bed* or read on the couch (either but recently it's been all in bed) // *read at night* or read in the morning (through the night and into the next morning) // *keep pristine* or markup (I don't try to actually keep books pristine, but I also never bother to mark up anything but textbooks) // *cracked spine* or dog ear (historically I read most books on one sitting, but if not I'd just search for the page again/use a random receipt as a bookmark)

Currently Reading:

I'm not in the middle of anything, but I've read more in recent weeks than I have in a long time. (Well, technically I'm in the middle of Solomon's Ransom by Corey Kerr, because I read the sample and now am waiting for the book to be released in a few weeks.)

Several months ago I got from the (physical!) library a (physical!) copy of She Who Became the Sun by Shelly Parker-Chan, and I finally finished after the semester ended, and then found an ebook of the sequel, He Who Drowned the World. (Compelling, though I think the ambitiousness of the project inevitably meant that parts of it didn't quite work.)

Then I read a bunch of romance ebooks, and even found a m/f one that I liked! Jodi McAlister's Not Here To Make Friends. (It was also the reality dating show romance I had been low-key hoping would exist.)

I also read RF Kuang's Babel: An Arcane History (which I appreciated and was provoked by, but didn't exactly love), and then read that she was inspired by/responding to Donna Tartt's The Secret History, so I reread that. (When I read it years ago my reaction was, I'm too old for this. It felt like a book you need to read in your teens or early twenties to get swept up into. My thoughts this go around were pretty much the same.) Then Kuang's Yellowface, which was also compelling.

Speaking of enemies to lovers, quite enjoyed The Sorcerer's Omega, also by Corey Kerr, which is why I'm awaiting her latest release. (The other two books in that world are also good, just not catnip for my tastes in the same way.)

And your post reminded me—I too read Love in the Big City, which was good and also unsettling in that way of most autobiographical novels about the authors fucked up twenties. Now I can go and unblock the tag and see all the fascinating discussions y'all had in your book club.

I have no idea how they'll manage to turn it into a BL (which is what I think I read is happening?). Although it's about relationships it's very much not a romance. Are they just pulling out some random plot points and building a whole new story around them? I hope they don't try to smush it into BL shape at all, and just tell the narrator's melancholy story as written.

(Oh, technically I'm in the middle of Mari Kondo's The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, but I'm not sure if I'll read any more. Other people's advice can be counterproductive at times.)

(Most most recently was a bunch of Untamed and Drarry fanfic, but I'm not counting that.)

I'm not sure who's done this already, but I'll tag @lelephantsnail, @petrichoraline and @tungtung-thanawat.

[nikredd]

Squid Game Season 1 | Squid Game Season 2

[thisfeelslike-iykyk]

would die for you

kang dae ho: a sweetheart. we love him.

hwang jun ho: he's a classic good cop. what a hero.

park jung bae: baby died for gi hun :( I think he fits with thanos's category, see below

would die with you

seong gi hun: mister protagonist hehe. I don't really have an explanation.

would kill for you

the salesman: it's time to say goodbye to all your ops!

hwang in ho / front man: *snaps neck of the guy who was in the room with him and jung bae* no explanation needed.

cho sang woo: would stab a dying girl for you 🥵

lee myung gi: anything can be a weapon if you try hard enough

thanos: didn’t know where else to put him, but I feel like he needs his own category: “accidentally gets himself killed while trying to save you.”

this turned out to be more crack than I expected

[001x456]

no because imagine how unhinged in-ho would get if sang-woo joined the game in season 2 where he (in-ho) was also a player. actually imagine in-ho in a room with gi-hun, jung-bae and sang-woo. my man would have been foaming at the mouth and convulsing on the floor I'm sorry

[dread-full]

Seong Gi-hun's relationships and how the Squid Game affected them.

Jodi Picoult, 'Vanishing Acts' / Catherynne M. Valente, 'Deathless' / Zeke Russell, 'Wintered Over' / Zora N. Hurston, 'Their Eyes Were Watching God' / Anne Carson, 'H of H Playbook'

[rosy-fox-art]

Several assorted squid game drawings/doodles .Some are from a ghost au thing.

[this-vs-that]

This question was sent to our inbox. If you’d like for us to post a This or That poll for you, send the 2 things you want to see against each other to our inbox and we’ll let the people decide which one they prefer. Everything will be anonymous.

[waitmyturtles]

Love In The Big City: Reflections on the Novel, and Episodes 1 and 2 of the Television Series

(Writing this with big ups to the LITBC Book Club, led by @lurkingshan and @bengiyo -- I only wish my mom life allowed me to have participated in real time in that project! I am taking the LITBC club's lead and watching two episodes a week of this series. SPOILERS from the novel that may make their way into the series are below -- read at your peril if you're pacing yourself on the series.)

In the midst of my reading the novel version of Love In The Big City over the last two weeks, I've been posting news updates (here, here, and here) about South Korean conservatives, many of them (maybe all of them) Christian, trying to censor and prevent the airing of the subsequent drama series, which dropped this week on TVING and Viki.

I want to note how important and ironic it is, macro-systemically, to note that Christianity has such a looming presence outside of the story itself, with "protestors" (bigots) leveraging "Christian values" as a means of trying to keep this already-brilliant show from being aired.

And if you're pacing on the series like I am, and you *haven't* read the novel, then you've only gotten a little taste for how Christian zealotry, among other issues, has and will affect Go Young throughout this story.

But I'm getting ahead of myself: when I picked up the novel, I was more familiar with the noise and drama associated with the television series than I was with the story itself. I'm going to talk a little about my reactions to the novel, and then offer thoughts on the first two episodes.

I read Proust's In Search of Lost Time (yep, all of it) in my freshman year of college, and Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises two years after. I felt the power of both of these stories strongly in Park Sang-young's novel, from the impact that memories and depression can have on a young man, to the permanence of medical conditions that can drive a young man's life towards otherwise unexplored cliffs of grief and pain.

Even reading a synopsis of In Search of Lost Time is a monumental feat, so let me just say that I felt Proust's madeleine-driven devices of memory, within the novel, from Young's frozen blueberries to the chill of the Marlboro Reds in the freezer. The impact of Young being really, really alone, as connected to the empty freezer and the dwindling blueberries after Jaehee's (Mi-ae in the series) wedding, caught me in a hole of loneliness that I felt for Young -- well before I knew enough of his backstory to be truly devastated.

I'm jumping ahead of myself vis à vis the series, but I also felt Proust even more heavily as I was reading about Philosopher Hipster Doofus Hyung, and I threw back to @lurkingshan as I was reading the book, "goddamn it, we are in yet another circle of hipster doom, huh," well before I learned about the medical turning point this story hinges on. Young's incessant attraction to that POS had me thinking about Proust's narrator's simultaneous incessant attraction and disdain for his companion, Albertine, who is a lesbian in early 20th-century France. While the story between the narrator and Albertine is ultimately a devastating one, Proust's narrator winds through the devastation with an equally devastating arm's-length distance, continually avoiding the true depth of pain that his obsessions would have otherwise rendered.

For me, it's such an apropos comparison to think about as we see Young, time and time again, rationalize the avoidance he has to commitment, all while throwing his energy into the relationships he's able to find himself in, ones that he essentially stumbled upon and never instigated.

The pain of his loneliness only grows as he grows into adulthood, and that, paired with his medical reveal, left me with a boulder in my stomach by the time I finished the novel.

Because I'm me (intergenerational trauma auntie), as soon as I finished the book, I couldn't help but think about Young's own boulders that he silently shouldered -- the thought that Young's medical Kylie would rear its head as a means of aiding Young in rationalizing his own assumptions about wanting vs. deserving long-lasting love, and his habit of taking commitment too lightly, even in the context of an already-established relationship with Gyu-ho.

But I also consider the lifelong trauma he suffered vis à vis his mother as an equally heavy boulder: the fact that Young absolutely internalized his mother's disdain for him as a gay man, his mother trying to "correct" his sexuality through conversion therapy, and then seemingly seeing past her son's reality, horrifically ignoring the emotional development of her son. Besides physical abuse, you couldn't do better than Young's mother in permanently psychologically traumatizing a young man who will already face obstacles as a queer individual in a highly conservative society.

All of this combined rendered me unsurprised -- but, of course, still equally devastated -- by Young's eventually pinball-style life, jumping from menial job to increasingly flippant flings.

What we are treated to in the novel are the thoughts that Young can put together as he steps back and assesses his life, especially at the crushing end of the novel. On the surface, someone on the street could absolutely write off Young as another aloof and aging hipster, disconnected with the world; but we know that that's not the case as Young assesses his dashed hopes for the kind of permanent love that he had once pooh-poohed.

Both Proust's narrator, and Hemingway's Jake Barnes in The Sun Also Rises, could join Young in that aloofness, and our own misreads of these men, to an extent. Not only is Barnes held back in life by a previous wartime injury (to me, this is screaming of inspiration to Park Sang Young's novel and the timing of Young's medical condition, but I'll never know if Park was directly inspired by Hemingway's book), but Barnes and Proust's narrator are also both young men growing into their adulthood, within circles of friends in impactful societies that seem to be full of intelligence and engagement, but are ultimately larded with loneliness and the pain of static ambition and conformity.

The last takeaway from the novel that I'll think about for now, one that I think is already leading beautifully into the television series, is the fallacy that we all have or had as young adults: that our youth would last forever. Young says, at the end of episode two,

"As I looked down at those blueberries, I realized that a time I had thought would last forever had come to an end."

Young has to reckon with the fact that his life, as it stands still in his early 30s, hasn't moved forward. It's only gone backwards, into deep habits of disconnection, despair, and loss. That youth itself could serve as a modality of movement for a young person to hopefully grow into a person with more potential is both heartening and brutal to consider -- especially as Young clearly could not take time in his life to take care of himself, as busy with his mother as he ends up being.

There's a lot more I'll likely say about the novel as the series unwinds, but I'm honestly still internally processing it. I'm also amazed to think that both In Search of Lost Time and The Sun Also Rises have significant connections to queer sexuality in both novels, and I just couldn't help going down this comparative literature brainrot cycle for a few minutes.

As to the first episodes of the series: what can I say? No one does it like South Korea. The acting, the cinematography, what Nam Yoon-su is bringing by way of his mere presence, let alone how he bodily channels Young's sexuality and personality. We're in prestige drama territory -- and already by episode 2, we've been taking into multiple facets of Young's internal strife, and his soon-to-be-revealed lifelong aloofness to commitment, while he still yearns for infinite love.

God, those internal contradictions, huh? In our real life, with our friends who are like that -- those friends drive us INSANE, RIGHT? Proust's narrator is SO THIS. A guy who sits in a chair and whines about what he wants, and complains even more when he HAS what he wants, because it's not perfect? He HAS Albertine at so many times, but he can't make her fully love him, because guess what, she's a lesbian, womp womp? Pick a battle, homey.

And yet. We're still devastated by Proust's narrator. Because one of his ultimate flaws is that he'll never remain still, he'll never be truly satisfied, and that conflict DOES keep him from being able to attain permanent happiness. At least we get to see him age, while we're left to wonder with Young and Jake Barnes.

I'm just too excited to see how Nam Yoon-su renders Young's own conflicts, as they simply grow, throughout his life in the series.

*****

I want to make one quick, totally unrelated note, about the airing of this series. At least to me, maybe only to me, the opening animated title cards of LITBC are really close to the imagery and symbolism of the title cards of Netflix Japan's The Boyfriend, a recent dating reality show featuring gay men in Japan trying to find permanent love. The ultimate pairing of DaiShun has been HUGE in Asia this year, with DaiShun doing fan meets across Asia, including in South Korea.

As @lurkingshan and others have emphasized: Love in the Big City is NOT a BL, it is NOT a romance. It is a deep exploration of the life of a gay man in the city of Seoul.

Inspired in part by Sex And The City? Probably. But LITBC is not nearly as flippant as SATC regarding social obstacles that its main characters face. LITBC delves painfully into the various obstacles that queer men face in Seoul, from social to medical discrimination.

The Boyfriend actually touched a lot on these obstacles as well. Some of the participants were out, but not all of them; one participant, Tae-heon, used the show itself as a means of coming out to his parents.

While some of us have seen the majority of queer content in Thailand turn very primarily towards BL romances, I still believe that Thailand can and will produce high-caliber media about queer life aside from romance, as it did in 2022's The Miracle of Teddy Bear (which I just finished this week, I'm fine, thanks for asking, devastated actually) and in other cinematic pieces. But I also want to note how incredibly refreshing it is to see Japan and South Korea also pick up this thread through The Boyfriend and LITBC, respectfully, producing content out of the usual romance loops that we've come to expect from BL media.

Anyway. If there's a connection between LITBC and The Boyfriend, with both entities talking MUCH more about holistic queer life in society, then I celebrate it, and I want more, more, more of it.

[averagekpoppermideko87]

To LGBTQ+ allies and supporters and open-minded people who don't have any ill intent toward homosexuals. Please support the KDrama, "Love In The Big City." The series will be released on Oct 21. So make sure to watch the series. I'm going to watch the series.

[phoebecatesl0vr]

Wait hear me out (he probably didn't survive and its probably gi-hun but i miss my glorious king guys 😓)

[fictionalbond]

Love In the Big City (2024) - EP. 3 & 4 PART TWO - A BITE OF ROCKFISH, TASTE THE UNIVERSE

[bl1ssfulelleon]

SQUID GAME S3 SPOILER!!👇

Gi-hun is happy, sang-woo, ji-yeong, sae-byeok, Ali,Jung-bae, Gyeong-seok, thanos, semi and young-mi are alive!!! All of them are alive!!! they are all happy in s3!! Trust guys!! In-ho was just pranking Gi-hun because you know, you tease the person you like!!

[squidsquidsquidsquidsquidgame]

Wedding Invitations

Summary: You and Your husband sit down to make your wedding invitations, and of course sign each and every one

(Gi-hun, Young-il, Sang-woo, Gyeong-seok)

Warnings: None

GI-HUN

You and Gi-Hun sat at the kitchen table, the soft hum of the radio playing in the background as you spread out the stack of wedding invitations. The pile seemed endless, but there was a special kind of excitement in the air.

"Okay, we just have to sign all these," you said with a grin, lifting a pen.

Gi-Hun chuckled, looking at the mountain of envelopes in front of you both. "I didn't realize we'd be signing our lives away... quite literally."

You nudged him playfully. "It's for our wedding, not a contract."

He raised an eyebrow. "Isn't marriage kind of a contract?"

"Well... yes," you teased, "but you signed up for it willingly."

"True," he smiled, looking over at you with affection. He picked up the first invitation and signed his name with a flourish. "You know, this feels like a big deal. It's really happening."

You smiled, feeling a warmth in your chest as you picked up your pen to sign your name on the first invitation. "It is happening, and I can't wait to marry you."

Gi-Hun leaned over, his hand brushing yours. "I can't wait either," he said, his voice soft and sincere. "We're making something beautiful together."

You both went on signing invitation after invitation, the task growing less like a chore and more like a ritual. Every time you signed your name, a quiet joy filled your heart, knowing that these little pieces of paper were marking the beginning of your forever together.

YOUNG-IL

You and Young-Il sat together at the kitchen table, surrounded by stacks of wedding invitations. The air was filled with the soft rustle of paper as you both worked on personalizing each one. Young-Il hummed contentedly, a smile tugging at his lips as he carefully signed his name on the first envelope.

“You know,” he said, glancing at you with a teasing sparkle in his eye, “I never thought I'd be doing this. But here we are, signing invitations to our wedding.”

You chuckled, nudging him playfully. “You’re so dramatic. We’re just signing a few invitations.”

“But it’s our wedding invitations,” he insisted, making a show of adding extra flourishes to his signature. “It’s the start of something huge, something special.”

You smiled, your heart swelling. “I know. And I can’t wait for it to be official. To be your wife.”

Young-Il stopped mid-signature and looked up at you, his expression softening. “I’m already the luckiest guy in the world, you know that?”

Your face flushed, and you leaned over, kissing him on the cheek. “Well, you better keep signing those invitations, or we’ll never get them done in time.”

“Right,” he said with a smirk. “Let’s make sure every last one has my name on it.”

You both laughed, the moment feeling perfectly yours as you continued signing your future together.

SANG-WOO

You and Sang-Woo sat down at the kitchen table, piles of wedding invitations scattered in front of you. He flipped open the first one, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he read the elegant script.

"Do you think anyone will actually keep these?" you asked, a playful tone in your voice.

Sang-Woo chuckled, carefully picking up a pen. "Maybe just our parents," he said, scribbling his name with his usual neat handwriting on the bottom of the invitation. "But I guess it’s part of the process. We have to make it official."

You laughed and picked up the pen, signing your name next to his, your fingers brushing slightly. The weight of the moment settled in, and you felt a quiet warmth spread through you. You were making this commitment, one signature at a time.

"Just think," he said, looking over at you with a soft look in his eyes. "Soon, we’ll be getting invitations for our anniversary parties."

You grinned, playfully nudging him with your shoulder. "Let’s just get through the wedding first."

Sang-Woo leaned back, glancing at the stack of invitations. "Right. But... I’m glad it’s with you."

And with that, you both continued signing the invitations, content in the quiet rhythm of it all.

GYEONG-SEOK

It was a cozy afternoon when you and Gyeong-Seok sat down at the kitchen table to tackle the wedding invitations. The smell of freshly brewed coffee lingered in the air as you both pulled out the stack of elegant, blank invites and a pen.

“Ready to sign our names a hundred times?” you teased, lifting the pen with a grin.

Gyeong-Seok smiled back, his eyes lighting up with amusement. “I think I can handle it, but I’m starting to regret how many people we invited.”

You chuckled, starting to fill out the first envelope with your joint names. “It’s our big day. We can handle a hundred signatures, right?”

He grinned, leaning over to kiss your temple. “For you? Anything.”

The task turned into something unexpectedly intimate as you both worked in harmony, giggling about how your handwriting wasn’t as neat as it could be. With every signature, Gyeong-Seok’s love for you seemed to deepen, his eyes softening as he glanced at you.

"How did I get so lucky?" he whispered, as you signed the last one, looking up at him with a bright smile.

“Because we were meant to be,” you replied, sealing the final envelope with a kiss on the back.

And just like that, the simple act of signing wedding invitations became a moment to cherish forever.