K Drama Chat

Jen is on vacation, so this episode has Joanna and Sung Hee.

In this episode, we recap and analyze Episode 8 of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, the hit K Drama on Netflix. In this episode, the children’s story is Beauty and the Beast. Joanna and Sung Hee disagree on the overall theme of this episode: Is it Stockholm Syndrome, where Gang Tae has become enamored of his captor, Meun Young? Or is it a story about how Gang Tae’s love is healing the monstrous Meun Young? We also argue that neither Meun Young nor Gang Tae can be the beast, since they are both so gorgeous!

We talk about how Meun Young and Gang Tae are loosening up, learning to smile, and starting to enjoy each other’s company. But trouble is brewing between Sang Tae and Meun Young. Sang Tae doesn’t like Meun Young’s shorter hair, he is angry that Gang Tae gave the nightmare catcher Mang Tae to Meun Young, and he doesn’t want to share Gang Tae. Meun Young, meanwhile, knows that Gang Tae and Sang Tae will never be separated and she wants to join the brothers under the metaphorical umbrella. 

The poor publisher has become enamored of Ju-ri and he’s now living in Ju-ri’s house, in a bid to win back Meun Young’s favor, save his company, and win Ju-ri’s heart. We meet a mysterious patient at the hospital, who walks the halls at night, singing Oh My Darling Clementine. Finally, when a patient’s ex-husband punches Meun-Young, Gang Tae punches him back and is suspended without pay. He leaves the house, seemingly not upset, but smiling, as he runs to Meun Young and asks her to go on a trip. “Let’s go,” he says!

References:

• Little by Little on YouTube, with English and Hangeul lyrics 
• Jhoon Rhi, the father of American Taekwondo, dies - 
• Quora discussion on the popularity of Taekwondo in the US

In this episode, we recap and analyze Episode 7 of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, the hit K Drama on Netflix. In this episode, the children’s story is The Cheerful Dog. Gang Tae takes care of Meun Young after her nightmare, then takes the day off to spend the day with her. Later, Meun Young’s class at the hospital is canceled and she decides to take Eun-ja’s mink wrap as compensation. When Gang Tae objects, Eun-ja lets Meun Young have it, saying her burden has finally lifted. Gang Tae drinks with Jae-soo and when he comes home to Sang Tae, he has a realization that his mother did love him after all, remembering times when his mother bought him jjampong and invited him under the umbrella with her and Sang Tae.  

The publisher gets drunk at a convenience store and sees an equally drunk Ju-ri, who lashes out at the publisher and then ends up getting a piggyback ride home from him. At the end of the episode, Meun Young’s dad tells Meun Young that she is just like her mom, but Meun Young says no. At home, she cuts off hair, her burden, the hair that her mom would never let her cut. Gang Tae fixes her haircut and then tells her she’s pretty.

References:

• Mang Tae Doll on Etsy
• Oh My Darling Clementine on Wikipedia

In this episode, we recap and analyze Episode 6 of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, the hit K Drama on Netflix. In this episode Gang Tae and Meun Young admit to each other that they knew each other in childhood, Sang Tae moves in with Meun Young and becomes her exclusive illustrator, Gang Tae eventually moves in to the cursed castle as well, we learn more about the incident where Gang Tae and Sang Tae fell through the ice in the frozen lake, a hospital patient thinks she’s Meun Young’s mom and greatly upsets Meun Young, the hospital director has a clandestine meeting with one of his patients in a linen closet, the publisher and art director try unsuccessfully to convince Meun Young to come back to her old life, and Gang Tae promises Meun Young that he won’t leave her after witnessing her have a terrible nightmare.

Joanna and Jen recap the episode, discuss the show, and then talk about Korean BBQ.

References:

• The Story of Bluebeard
• Korean BBQ vs. American BBQ

In this episode, we recap and analyze Episode 5 of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, the hit K Drama on Netflix. In this episode, Gang Tae searches for Meun Young in the pouring rain and finds her. He tries to take her to a motel, but neither has any money, so they end up at Gang Tae’s apartment. Meun Young ends up staying the night, so Gang Tae has to fabricate an excuse to keep Sang Tae and Jae-soo away. When Joo-ri comes home the next day, she confronts Meun Young, who tells Joo-ri that she confessed her feelings to Gang Tae and he is her. They end up fighting and Gang Tae throws Meun Young out. Sang Tae realizes that Gang Tae lied to him to keep him out of the apartment and is once again upset with his brother. We learn more about Meun Young’s dad and Meun Young’s relationship with Joo-ri when they were kids. At the end of the episode, Meun Young convinces Sang Tae to live with her and be her illustrator. When Gang Tae goes looking for his brother, Meung Young invites him to come to the cursed castle. The episode ends with Gang Tae looking up at Meun Young, who is standing on her balcony, echoing the time when she was younger and Gang Tae came to her home’s gate to deliver her flowers, only to be rejected by Meun Young.

References:

• The Story of Rapunzel
• Filming locations
• Moon Gang Tae’s house filming location 
• Meun Young’s cursed castle filming location

Jen is on vacation, so Sung Hee is filling in. In this episode, we recap and analyze episode 4 of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, the hit K Drama on Netflix. The children’s story from this episode is Zombie Kid, the boy who couldn’t feel emotion and was only interested in eating. The assemblyman’s son causes havoc at his father’s political rally; he is chastised by his mom and his father tells the hospital director that his son will forever stay in psychiatric hospitals. Meun Young upsets Gang Tae with her talk of parents abandoning useless children, and children pushing away demented parents. But when her father tries to choke her, Gang Tae has a change of heart and goes to look for Meun Young in the rain. We have an important flashback of Meun Young as a young girl, her mom brushing her hair, and her mother lying face down in a pool of blood. 

We do a recap of the show, and then we dive deep into the episode. We discuss:

• The song Hallelujah by Kim Feel
• The Zombie Kid story and how we think this story is about a boy who ultimately was looking for warmth and love from his mom
• How Gang Tae is going through a transformation; he’s showing more emotion
• How Gang Tae and Meun Young are both childlike and childish in this episode
• Gang Tae’s flashbacks of his mom prioritizing Sang Tae when the boys were younger
• How Sang Tae is infatuated with Meun Young and he has another episode when Gang Tae yells at him
• How this episode is about each character’s need to be seen
• Our thoughts re: why Meun Young’s dad said “die” and “why are you still alive?” when he saw Meun Young
• How we need to know more about Meun Young’s mother, the circumstances of her death, and her relationship with her daughter
• Two characters who we think will become really important: Nurse Park and Ju-ri’s mom
• The K Drama elements we see in this episode, namely:
  • Flowers
  • Food
  • Wrist grabs
  • Umbrellas
  • Lots of crying, especially by Gang Tae
• How in Korean slang, telling someone “do you want to come over to my place for ramen” means “do you want to spend the night together.?”
• Our favorite Meun Young outfits
• Our favorites lines from the episode
• The amazing cinematography in this episode
• The wonderful animations in this show

References:

• Magnolia Festival in Taean 
• Cinematography of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay
• Filmmaker Reacts to It’s Okay to Not Be Okay Cinematography and Sound Design

In this episode, we recap and analyze episode 3 of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, the hit K Drama on Netflix from 2020. Meun Young shows up at OK Hospital because she misses Gang Tae. Her father is at the hospital, but she doesn’t seem to care about him. The hospital director asks Meun Young to teach a literature class and Sang Tae to paint a mural at the hospital. Meun Young kidnaps a manic patient at the hospital, who turns out to be the son of a famous assemblyman. They stop at a campaign event for the assemblyman. The son gets up on stage and tells the residents that he is the assemblyman's son, that he is mentally ill, and the ugly duckling of the family. 

We do a recap of the show, and then we dive deep into the episode. We discuss:

• The song My Tale by Park Won
• Our impressions of episode 3
• How it’s clear that Meun Young and Gang Tae have known each other since they were kids
• This episode’s children’s story of Sleeping Beauty and the theme of destiny
• The many times that Gang Tae seems to have changed his mind about Meun Young and being with her
• How we see another side of Meun Young, the vulnerable side
• What we think of the OK Hospital Director
• The story of the assemblyman’s son, Min-seok
• Mental illness in South Korea and the US
• The K Drama elements in this episode
• Our favorite Meun Young outfit
• Our favorite lines from the show
• Brene Brown’s work on fitting in and belonging
• Seo yea-ji’s background and acting career

References:

• Brene Brown on True Belonging 

In this episode, we recap and analyze episode 2 of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, the hit K Drama on Netflix from 2020. Sang Tae attends a book signing by Meun Young and gets in trouble when he touches a kid wearing a dinosaur costume. Gang Tae comes to his rescue and Meun Young intervenes, causing a huge scene when she gets mad at the child’s parents. While waiting for Sang Tae to calm down, Meun Young asks Gang Tae to be her safety pin. She ends up pushing a book critic, further jeopardizing her career. We also find out that Gang Tae and Sang Tae’s mother was murdered and Sang Tae says it was the butterfly that killer her. Jae-soo and Gang Tae realize it’s time to move again, before the butterflies appear. Sung Hee comes back as our guest!

We do a recap of the show, and then we dive deep into the episode. We talk about our first impressions of the show and what we loved about the first episode. We discuss:

• The song Breathe by Sam Kim, a Korean-American singer, songwriter, producer and guitarist.
• What we thought of this episode.
• The children’s story in this episode, namely the Girl with the Red Shoes by Hans Christian Anderson.
• Obsession and what things in the show cannot be separated.
• How we see the world through San Tae’s eyes as he is walking toward the book signing.
• How Gang Tae, Sang Tae and Mun Yeoung are all distorted in their emotional reactions to the world around them.
• What we think the butterflies mean.
• What we know about the Moon brothers’ mom being murdered.
• How we learn more about Meun Young, specifically about her parents.
• How Meun Young seems to get herself in trouble when Gang Tae is around.
• How Meun Young debated whether or not to help Gang Tae when they were little kids, and at the book signing.
• The triangles forming between the characters.
• The K Drama elements we see in this episode, and there are a lot of them.
• Our favorite Meun Young outfit.
• Our favorite lines from the episode.
• Kim Soo Hyun, his career, his military service, and how he decided on It’s Okay to Not Be Okay as his comeback show.
• How the South Korean parliament is considering a law that would allow internationally recognized K Pop stars to complete their military service in just three weeks.

References:

• The Red Shoes by Hans Christian Anderson 
• What do butterflies mean in Korean culture? 
• Kim Soo Hyun on his military service
• BTS rekindles debate about military service 

In this episode, we recap and analyze episode 1 of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, the hit K Drama on Netflix from 2020. In this first episode, we get introduced to celebrity children’s book author Koo Meun Young (Seo Yea-ji), compassionate caregiver Moon Gang Tae (Kim Soo Hyun), the talented, autistic Moon Sang Tae (Oh Jung-se), and the long suffering nurse Nam Joo-ri (Park Gyu-young). The characters intersect when Meun Young does a book reading at the hospital where Moon Gang Tae works, and when Joo-ri travels to Seoul to get Meun Young’s signature for surgery that her father needs.

We do a recap of the show, and then we dive deep into the episode. We talk about our first impressions of the show and what we loved about the first episode. We discuss:

• You’re Cold by Heize, one of the songs from the OST
• The 18 elements that seem to exist in most K Dramas, specifically:
  • Beautiful actors
  • Crying, by both women and men
  • Gorgeous OSTs (original sound tracks)
  • Food; there's lot of eating in K Dramas
  • Alcohol; drinking by both men and women
  • The trip and catch
  • Piggyback rides
  • The back hug
  • Product placements
  • Holding hands
  • The wrist grab
  • Flowers
  • Love triangles
  • Umbrella scene
  • The quirky best friend
  • The Deep Lean
  • Beautiful or arresting clothing
  • The Arm Rest
• Other possible K Drama elements, specifically:
  • A singing or karaoke scene
  • A gazing at some scenery standing side by side scene
  • A conversation about whether it’s okay to talk casually with each other
  • A grandfather or chairman character
• The opening stop motion animation about the girl with no friends
• What we know about Koo Meun Young
• What we know about Moon Gang Tae
• What we know about Moon Sang Tae
• The K Drama Elements that show up in this episode
• Our favorite Meun Young outfit

We close with a discussion about how to refer to older brother or older sister in Korean.

References:

• How to refer to older brother or sister in Korean
• You’re Cold by Heize on YouTube 

We’re still on break after wrapping up with Hotel Del Luna. In this episode, Joanna and Jen have a conversation with Professor Professor Ernabel Demillo, Department Chair of the Communication and Media Culture Department at Saint Peter's University and host of the Emmy-award winning "Asian American Life" show on CUNY-TV. Ernabel talks about:

• Her K Drama journey
• Why she thinks K Dramas are so addicting
• Whether and how the popularity of K Dramas and KPop are affecting American perceptions Asian Americans and Asian culture
• How Asian culture is not monolithic
• How the colorful outfits in K Dramas make her think of bouquets of flowers
• The high production value in K Dramas and how filmmakers and actors in Korea take their crafts very seriously
• How Jokoy is about to release his new movie, “Easter Sunday”
• The newly-designated Little Manila in Queens
• The recurring theme of identity in her show Asian American Life, and so much more.

We laughed nearly the entire episode; come laugh with us! After this episode with Professor Demillo, we will begin Season 2 of K Drama Chat by recapping and analyzing Episode 1 of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay. If you haven’t started watching, please start now!

References:

• Asian American Life on YouTube
• Asian American Life Website 
• On Demand Korea 
• Top 10 Korean Variety Shows 

We’re taking a short break between seasons after wrapping up with Hotel Del Luna. In this episode, we have a conversation with a couple of friends: Sung Hee, who was our guest in Episode 6, and cousin Linda, who we have mentioned so many times! Be prepared to laugh with us as we discuss our love of K Dramas! We cover:

• Our individual K Drama journeys
• What makes K Dramas so addicting
• How K Dramas are so wholesome
• The invention of the Korean language, Hangeul, and our own languages journeys with Hangeul
• Our favorite shows and actors
• Our favorite K Drama OSTs
• Are Korean really that wonderful?
• What it’s like to be Asian-American and Korean-American at a time when KPop, K Dramas and Korean culture are so popular
• What we thought about Hotel Del Luna
• What we think about our choice of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay as the next K Drama that we will recap and analyze

Listeners, next week, we will have another special guest: Professor Ernabel Demillo is Department Chair of the Communication and Media Culture Department at Saint Peter's University and host of the Emmy-award winning "Asian American Life" show on CUNY-TV.  

After the episode with Professor Demillo, we will begin Season 2 of K Drama Chat by recapping and analyzing Episode 1 of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay. If you haven’t started watching, please start now!

References:

• History of Hangeul
• Korean tofu soup or Sundubu-jjigae 
• DramaCool
• King Sejong from the Joseon Dynasty