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Favorite kdrama scene #1

My Mister - Episode 13

This choice might not be the most obvious to start this blog because it features a scene from what is very much not the main plot of My Mister. But this show is that good. Every scene is so well written and so carefully crafted. My Mister is often praised for having this great platonic relationship at its center so it seems even more of a reach to pick that one but in the end I picked it because I think about it a lot. 

When you first watch My Mister and start learning about Jung-hee and why she seems to be the way she is, you know a confrontation with Gyum-duk is going to happen. You also know it’s not going to end well. My Mister commits to a certain degree of realism. Gyum-duk is not gonna leave the temple and run towards his former lover. You know it. But most importantly, you know that Jung-hee knows this as well (more on that in a minute). 

Yet, when she goes to the temple, sits in the room, listens to him and then goes to confront him, your heart aches for her. At least mine did. 

When Jung-hee starts talking to Gyum-duk, she’s brutally honest about how hard life is for her mentally but also physically. It could feel a little bit over the top if you had not watched her suffer so much before (1) in the last couple of episodes. When she talks about how much this breakup still hurts her you know she is not exaggerating one bit. She doesn’t even say that to guilt him, she just needs to say it. 

And that for me is what sets this scene apart from a lot of “romantic confrontation” scenes. At no point does Jung-hee does this to get him back. She knows damn well he is not coming back. That is the whole point. She is hurting because he is not coming back and never will. She cannot get past it (2). 

When she starts begging him to come back, it doesn’t feel desperate but it is devastating because it is an expression of her desire. Of what she wants the most in life. She is not talking to him. She is basically talking to herself out loud. Seeing him helps her to voice her desire but it is in no way a real demand from her. 

I think this scene is a tour de force from Oh Na-ra, especially in that moment just before she starts losing it. The way her pain becomes so unbearable that it transforms itself in anger is so visceral that I was blow away by it. 

The part where she starts getting mad at him, accuses him of not loving her, hates on his way of life and then threatens to burn the temple to the ground before leaving without letting him talk, is probably what a lot of people remember from that scene but for me it’s really the minute before the meltdown that does the trick. 

You know a show is great when even third-tier characters can have a compelling story arc. You know actors are great when they can create something in only a few scenes. Oh Na-ra and Park Hae-joon are so good together in that scene (and he utters only one sentence) that you can feel in only a couple of minutes all the love and pain there is between them. The writing is great, sure. But they truly make this arc work (3). 

Having a character suffer because her boyfriend left her decades ago to be a monk seems on paper a tricky thing to do in your show. It could have looked a bit silly. Especially in a show that again, aims to be realistic. But I think this plot and this scene in particular does something almost unique by talking about a breakup that is not link to a third party, or a job offer in another country or something like that. In My Mister, Jung-hee suffers because she can’t comprehend what happened. That guy loved her, probably still does in a way but chose a life that most people don’t get (4). 

And this plot asks the question : would you get over it if you were her ? I think we would also want to burn that place to the ground. 

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(1) Out of all the depressing scenes in this show, I find the ones where Jung-hee is alone in her tiny room above her bar the most difficult to watch. I don’t know why. Maybe because she is older than Ji-an for exemple ? 

(2) I found so refreshing (for a lack of a better word) Jung-hee as a character. In general we want people to get over their trauma, especially when it is as “small” as a breakup. We want the character to move forward at some point, just tiny bit, even in a show like this. Here, even after she sees Gyum-duk again in the last episode and he seems to be getting on the road to closure, she doesn’t really seem to be there herself and you feel that she never will. The show doesn’t blame her for that, doesn’t judge her for that. It makes you accept that fact. 

(3) I think Park Hae-joon is one of the best actor around to be honest. I understand that people have issues with The World of the Married (I didn’t but I get it) but his performance is just so great. He played this coward so well. He was pathetic and hot and mean and... basically every adjectives you can think of. It is so different from his supporting turn in Misaeng and My Mister. A performance that people will grow to respect more with time I’m sure of it. 

(4) I think Hospital Playlist really did a poor job with Jeong-won and his struggle regarding his desire to become a priest. It’s basically used as an obstacle between him and Gyeo-ul. Is it even mentioned in the second season after he decides to stay ?  I get that HP is a comfort drama but it is one thing that didn’t really work for me while watching it. 

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Intro

My friends were sick of me because I kept writing 500 words essays on 2 minutes long kdrama scenes in our groupchat. “Get a fucking blog”, one of them said. So I guess I’m here. To talk about my favorite kdrama scenes. 

I have no idea what I’m doing exactly and I don’t follow a lot of people yet because everything feels overwhelming for now. But I know I will at some point. 

Also English is not my first language. I am French, a nationality notoriously bad at English but I’m gonna do my best.