Sunday, January 26, 2014

I Need Romance 3 Episode 2 Recap

The episode starts with Wan modeling. And the man can model. Then he’s being interviewed, while wearing something that reminds me of Liberace. The woman reporter asks him when he started composing. Answer: at 15. After some rambunctious years after immigrating to the U.S., he realized the world of music. He would be so engrossed in composing that he’d find that the early morning had already arrived, and… his own work impressed him (he admired his songs). They both laugh at that statement. He adds that he began looking for singers to sing them and that’s how he ended as a music producer. The reporter remarks about how even though he lived in the U.S for a long time, his songs have a Korean feeling in them. He replies that the first instrument he learned how to play was the piano. He learned not from a technician but from someone who taught him how to express emotions with music. His success is all thanks to that person. The reporter asks if that person was a woman. He smiles almost sheepishly as he admits that it was. Reporter asks if he’s going to meet her, since he’s back after 17 years. He replies, “probably.” He thinks he’ll meet her very soon. Especially since her mother is telling her to house you.

Then there’s the however… and we see that the interview took place before the conversation on the beach, where Joo Yun tells Wan that the thought of their meeting disgusts her and that she hopes that they won't have any other reason to talk. A shot of Wan after he told Shing Shing that she’s cold because she’s not loved and she needs to break up with her boyfriend as his voice over declares that she's not the Shing Shing that he knows. And that statement is really telling, his utter faith in who she is, despite what she’s become. As Wan looks at the falling snow, the snow that lovers are supposed to meet together when it’s falling, he declares that this Shing Shing was unfamiliar and cold.

I Need Romance 3 Episode 1 Recap

I have to say, I’ve watched the first two episodes back-to-back and I’m captivated. Addicted. I haven’t seen the first two series, but this one has me. Just because I like the heroine in spite of the hard exterior that she wears and I think it’s partially because of how the hero feels about her. But before I go on, let’s get to the recap.

Our hero, Joo Wan (Sung Joon), begins the story with a voice over saying that the day he was born was the day the first snow of the year fell. Why this is important becomes clear later, as the characters describe the first snow as a time that you’re supposed to be with the one you love. The 7-year-old Shing Shing leaves her house to go to the hospital. Wan describes her walk as “making her own footprints in the snow that no one had stepped on” – something that I think works well to describe how we see the heroine living her own life. She blazes a new path for herself and walks alone, whether she wants to be or not. When Shing Shing sees Wan for the first time, she frowns and moans, “How is he going to live if he’s this ugly?” Heh. Wan tells us that when he was a newborn, Shing Shing said he looked like a sweet potato. And thus we got one of the best nicknames ever: Sweet Potato, what our heroine calls Wan.

Wan says that he grew up in Shing Shing's house and that when he was one, Shing Shing said that he looked like a cooked sweet potato, that he got *uglier,* which is why Shing Shing said that she often covered my face. We see the 8-year-old interacting with little Sweet Potato, trying to cover up his head with a hat and him pulling it off and glaring at her. Later, she’s succeeded, to where most of his face is not visible as he sleeps with his head in her lap. She’s wearing a very happy smile as she looks at him.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

You Who Came From the Stars Episode 2 Recap

The episode begins with the tranquil music from Episode One. Men dressed just like Min Joon when he first appeared are gathering samples throughout the forest: plants, insects, animals. One of them steps too hard and ends up doing a flip in the air in spite of himself. Does that mean that Min Joon can do that too? Min Joon is among them, collecting plant samples. Glancing behind him and seeing his comrades engrossed in their work, he smiles a little to himself and leaves the group.

Switch to a bustling Joseon village. Time freezes – again, I’m loving the stop 3D camera work! – and Min Joon emerges from one of the buildings, adjusting a hat and then his belt as he is now wearing typical Joseon garb. I guess he wants to blend in… He walks past all the frozen people, observing them with a contented expression. He reaches a group of young men playing an ancient form of hacky sack. He takes the sack and tries it, not being nearly as successful. Then he puts it back where it was, closes his eyes and sighs, unfreezing time. Not that anyone would notice that he just showed up next to them out of nowhere.

Min Joon wanders around the marketplace and comes upon a shell game. He sees the man cheat, pushing the ball out of the cup that people have bet on and into another one. He smiles, amused by the trick. The bettor, who lost, holds out a bunch of money. He declares that it’s money for his daughter’s medicine and if he loses this, he’s going to throw himself into the Han River and die! And the cheater is ready to take his money. Min Joon squints and uses his abilities to send the ball back under the right cup, the cup that the man had bet on. The man is overjoyed at the money he’s just won. Min Joon smiles to himself, happy. This is a dramatically different Min Joon than the one we meet 400+ years later. He seems light-hearted and content. And he gets involved. The cynical Min Joon would have let the man lose the money, since he really shouldn’t have been betting it in the first place if it was that important.