Television and Radio Criticism

Media Review #1 Gavhar Hushvaktova

Abstract: In our lives there comes moments when we have to move on, move to different places, or back where we started; however, no matter how far you run your past will still come to haunt you in one way or another. The only thing you can do is to push forward.
 
Having had a tough summer vacation, Seol looks forward to better semester with Yoo Jung. However, many troubles still reside within their relationship and Seol’s old apartment. Seol promising Yoo Jung that she will be more trusting of him in their relationship is slowly allowing Yoo Jung to be comfortable with her and her around him, but there is one matter that still persists within their relationship: Yoo Jung’s past and his identity.
 
As Seol recounts all the events that had taken place in her past and present, many people around her persistently tell her that she is merely falling under Yoo Jung’s false identity of the sweet guy. From crazy obsessed stalkers, to her newest friend, a.k.a. biggest archenemy, In Ho. While Seol and Yoo Jung’s growing mutually, there are still a lot of things that Seol has yet to know about Yoo Jung from his family, to his job and his living situation. Although Seol seems to be hopefully that things will improve, it is obvious that she is merely seeing the surface of who Yoo Jung is.
 
In the opposite end we are slowly seeing In Ho letting us into his past and his world a little bit more. He agrees to help clean out Seol’s Uncle’s restaurant and discovers an old electric piano. He slowly realizes that he still yearns to play the piano like he had before he hurt his hand. This is a very touching episode for In Ho lovers, not only is he a very fun character, he is hard working, and slowly he is showing us his soft side towards his dreams, also not holding himself back from reaching for what he wants.
 
The biggest event throughout the episode for In Ho is visiting Yonyi University campus and wandering around the Music Department. There he bumps into a friend of his old teacher and ends up being chased down refuting his desire to go back to piano, thus suppressing his desires to show Yoo Jung’s Father that he refuses to play the piano and accept any assistance from Yoo Jung’s Father.
 
One thing that is still lingers in In Ho’s life is his sister’s disastrous life. After refuting Yoo Jung the chance to study at the academy to become an assistant at his Father’s company, he pushes In Ha, In Ho’s sister, further by telling her that she needs to move out by the end of the month. Looking back on Yoo Jung’s past interactions with the siblings, it is clear that Yoo Jung is pushing them to find their own living and that his father will not continuously support them till the end. Although as viewers and as fans of the in ho and In Ha you may think that Yoo Jung is indeed a bad person for forcing the siblings into such a situation. But from Yoo Jung’s standpoint, he does not wish to give out things for free for the siblings, and in his motives wants them to learn to earn things the hard way. There seems to be a glimmer of hope for In Ho, but for In Ha she still remains the same from wanting expensive things and wanting others to pay for them.
 
Aside from our central characters, there is something that is special about this drama. They confront certain social issues within Korean society that many other dramas may overlook. We are dealt with a gay couple, and false identity person. In the previous episode, we saw how Teachers Assistant had been struggling with how the scholarship results had turned out, because Yoo Jung had forced him to throw out his application. We were then hit with him being beat up by a man claiming to be “the landlady’s son”. It is interesting that in the beginning of the drama, we were led to believe that indeed he was the landlady’s son from how comfortable he was around the area and the apartments. But we did feel that something was off from the first interaction we saw involving him. In this episode we are finally shown who he really is, and how the gay couple had been hurt because of the hatred that people in Korean society hold towards them. Of course, this is not true for all Korean people, but it is a big conflict that prevails within their society.  

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