Who Are You: Episode 8

by javabeans

My big question heading into Who Are You? was whether the handling of the body-possession of Seung Hyo would create weird Electra complex moments for Young In. Thus far I’m glad to report that I haven’t found the developing Young In–Seung Hyo relationship to be creepy; and in fact Episode 8 brings more opportunities for their “real” (unforced, unrelated-to-body-possession) relationship to grow.

SONG OF THE DAY

Napoleon Dynamite – “니가 없는 곳에서 노래를 부르네” (Singing in a place where you aren’t). Personally, I’m not a fan of naming oneself after a pop-culture phenomenon wholly unconnected to said self — why identify yourself in relation to something else, rather than create your own pop-culture identity? — but I have no complaints about the music of this indie band. [ Download ]

EPISODE 8 RECAP

For some reason, this morning Seung Hyo can see Il Gun, although he immediately assumes it’s an intruder. Il Gun excitedly asks a string of questions (“You can really see me?”), but unfortunately this new development comes without volume control — Il Gun can be seen but not heard. Belatedly Seung Hyo realizes the man is Sohn Il Gun, as his driver arrives to see Seung Hyo talking to nothing, and assumes his boss is hallucinating. 

Jae Ha meets Young In in front of her workplace (because she didn’t come home the night before, having slept at Seung Hyo’s) and asks if she’s read her father’s will. She’d resisted reading because she was afraid of what it might say — that her father wasn’t her biological father, or that he had more debts — but she found there wasn’t much in the letter. 

Jae Ha casually inquires about the contents, probing for hidden clues, and Young In remembers one bit that her father wrote about hearing from his friend after April 15. It doesn’t mean much to her, but she lends the will to Jae Ha, who immediately gets to work trying to decipher any possible clues in the message. His hired gangsters continue trying to narrow down Il Gun’s orphanage friends.

At the office, Seung Hyo vents his frustration — both at the Il Gun sighting and the fact that the company lost the Fujimori deal (while he was SeungHyoDad, he missed his appointment as a Bae Yong Joon-related guide for Yoko). His associate Lawyer Yoon tells Seung Hyo to get his act together — Seung Hyo could’ve already been dismissed if headquarters knew about his strange behavior.

Seung Hyo tells Yoon that he saw Sohn Il Gun, and speculates that perhaps he’s not dead. What if the man faked his death because of the money at stake?

Il Gun wonders why he’s suddenly visible to Seung Hyo, but the Reaper had nothing to do with it. It’s probably a by-product of Il Gun’s time inhabiting the man’s body. The Reaper remains stoic, not answering Il Gun’s questions about whether he will continue to be visible to people.

Jae Ha bails out this guy from jail (I’m still unclear on his name — the website merely lists the gangsters as “Loan shark #1″ and “Loan shark #2,” which makes this guy #3.) Jae Ha spies Seung Hyo entering the police station and quickly averts his face to remain unseen.

Seung Hyo questions the police officer over whether the body was confirmed as Il Gun’s. Is it possible he’s still alive? The cop doesn’t love having his investigation questioned, but when Seung Hyo inquires about evidence, there isn’t much available. There was one particular cigarette butt (the same black type smoked by gangster #3) found at the site, but it’s practically useless as evidence. Seung Hyo takes the cigarette with him; all the while, Jae Ha observes his departure.

Sooki and Deok track Young In down to her new job and have lunch there; despite having cut off contact, Young In is happy to see her friends again. When Young In rejects a phone call from Seung Hyo, Sooki guesses it’s a man and answers the phone for her. Seung Hyo demands to meet her right away, and arrives at the restaurant. 

Young In tries to turn him away, forcing Seung Hyo to enter the germ-filled restaurant (oh, horrors!) to retrieve her (he can’t even open the door without using a handkerchief, which he immediately throws away). He “buys” Young In’s time by handing a wad of cash at the owner, who happily gives Young In the rest of the day off. Watching all this, Sooki eyes Seung Hyo approvingly (to Deok’s dismay) — Young In called him Crazy Man, but said nothing of his appearance or obvious wealth.

Seung Hyo shows her his lists and asks Young In if the writing is familiar; she answers that it looks like her father’s. He cuts right to the chase — is she positive her father died?: “Did you confirm his corpse with your own eyes? I think he’s alive.” He insinuates that they faked the funeral, and Young In takes offense at his nerve. 

She explains that she’d lost her mother at a young age (“I thought I’d used up all my lifetime’s sadness then, that I’d cried out all my life’s tears then”), then her father. She wants him to leave her alone, to stop following her and making her thinking of her father, and asking whether she saw her father’s dead body: “Yes, my father really is dead, and I did see his corpse clearly with my own eyes. Okay?”

Young In rushes off, and Seung Hyo has the grace to look sorry for his crude line of questioning. He follows her out and catches up to her in the stairwell, and utters perhaps the first apology of his life: “I’m sorry. I was wrong.”

He fishes in his pockets for his handkerchief to offer her, but remembers he threw it away. Unfortunately, Young In hears his muttered curse as directed toward her, which breaks the mood. He asks to borrow her father’s will (“You might be driven mad because of me, but I’m being driven mad because of your father”), and reacts with suspicion to hear she lent it to Jae Ha. 

Jae Ha is, at the moment, dealing with a girlfriend who’s fed up with being belittled and snubbed by his mother. Ha Young seems like a decent woman who’s worked her way up to a respectable position in life, but her poor upbringing will always be a source of derision from snobs like Jae Ha’s mother. But today, Jae Ha has no patience for Ha Young’s complaints, and snaps at her to stop whining — it’s her fault for taking the abuse and not standing up for herself. Jae Ha may have a point, but it’s a bit unfair; perhaps it’s partially fueled by self-disgust, as he tells her, “I’m not as good as you think. I’m not the decent guy you think I am.”

As Young In and Seung Hyo part ways, he leaves her with one word of caution:

Seung Hyo: “Don’t trust nice people. Don’t trust anybody but yourself. … About Shin Jae Ha — ask him how much he sold your father’s painting to me for. … And move out from his place.”

He may not be smooth with words like Jae Ha is, but his concern is sincere, and Young In takes it to heart. Or, at least enough so that when she’s home, she starts looking at Jae Ha in a new light. She recalls his questions about her father’s paintings with new doubt.

Young In asks for her father’s will back, and Jae Ha tells her it’s in his jacket pocket. She retrieves it — and glimpses a note with keywords and questions (“April 15… Friend. Who?”). Nervously she stuffs the note back, but Jae Ha clocks her uneasiness, and smoothly goes into damage control mode. Casually, he mentions the very things he’d written in the note to defuse her suspicions.

Remembering Seung Hyo’s words, she asks about the painting sold to him. Jae Ha’s very good at acting natural, and allays her concerns enough that she stops herself from asking more questions. 

Gangster #3 loiters around Seung Hyo’s home, breaking the security camera and waiting for Seung Hyo to arrive, at which point #3 grabs him from behind and drugs him with what I guess is a chloroformed cloth. He steals Seung Hyo’s money — and takes the envelope containing the cigarette stub.

Young In tries calling Seung Hyo, to no avail, to let him know she’s got the will for him to borrow. Now that she’s mistrustful of Jae Ha, she lies and says she’s going to meet her friends — and then takes Seung Hyo’s last bit of advice as well, and informs him she’ll be moving out the next day. After all, she’d never intended to stay for long, and her friends have invited her to move in with them. 

Instead of going to see her friends, Young In makes her way to Seung Hyo’s house — and finds him collapsed on the ground, alone. (It’s funny because she frequently calls him Crazy Man, but in this case her worry clashes with the words as she calls out, “Mr. Crazy Man, are you okay? Mr. Crazy Man, wake up!”)

He comes to, and she helps him up — at which he pulls his arm away from her grasp. Gathering his senses, Seung Hyo realizes that the envelope of evidence is missing. 

When Seung Hyo stumbles, Young In again grabs his arm to steady him, but pulls away knowing he doesn’t like her touch. But this time, he allows her to guide him along, even inviting her inside (albeit indirectly; he gruffly asks, “Aren’t you going in?”).

Young In takes a look at her father’s painting hanging on the wall, and as in the first episode, she has a one-way conversation with her father, who answers her questions while remaining unseen and unheard.

Young In: “So your dream was to be an artist. I didn’t know.”
Il Gun: “No, kiddo. Since the day you were born, my dream was you.”
Young In: “What’s your favorite food, Dad?”
Il Gun: “Whatever food you like.”
Young In: “And not just what I like. What do you like?”
Il Gun: “Let’s see… the food I eat with my daughter.”
Young In: “When were you happiest?”
Il Gun: “When my daughter was born healthy and safe.”
Young In: “When were you saddest?”
Il Gun: “When your mother was sick… when you’d hide and cry alone… and right now.”
Young In: “Dad. I’m sorry for treating you so badly. Nagging everyday… I’m really sorry. I don’t think I would be like that now. I could’ve lived happily with you. But you’re gone now. You’re not here with me anymore.”

Young In cries in front of the painting; Il Gun leaves the room just as Seung Hyo enters (symbolism?). Seung Hyo awkwardly offers her tissues, but stumbles backward when she faces him.
Having lost a slipper in the process, he stands on one foot and tries to recover his normal brusqueness. He tells her he hates crying, and asks for her to hand him his missing slipper.

But, at the very last minute, she grabs his un-slippered foot and forces it to touch the wooden step:

“See, you didn’t die, did you? Nothing happened. It’s not the street outside — what’s so dirty about your own floor? Ajusshi, you know you have a sickness too, right? Then you should fix it. Why do you live like this?”

Embarrassed to realize she’s holding his foot, Young In tries to rush off. Seung Hyo tells her to stay and look at the painting some more, but she politely declines — she can come back some other time. It’s like he wants her to stay but can’t think of a better excuse to keep her there, so he continues, “Who says I’d show it to you later? Take a look when I’m offering.”
In silence, they sit on the stairs and take a long look at the painting on the wall.

My absolute favorite part is when Seung Hyo, sitting in front of her, looks to the right as far as he can — as though to see her with his peripheral vision without actually facing her — and then turns to the left, to see from the corner of his other eye.

Seung Hyo takes a look at his foot — touching the floor with no imminent fatal illness in sight — and smiles, maybe for the first time so far.

The next day, Il Gun tries his best to be seen by Seung Hyo, but he’s back to invisibility. Seung Hyo has brief flashes where he can see Il Gun, but those disappear quickly. Finally, after a few temporary flashes, the vision sticks — he sees Il Gun for real as he steps out of the shower.

Because Il Gun has no voice, they try to communicate through reading lips and gestures, to mixed success. Il Gun is able to convey (eventually) that he’s a ghost. Seung Hyo doesn’t believe it, so Il Gun takes another tack — he points to the clock, and says (mouths):

“It’s 8:00 right now! For three hours, I am you! Okay? See you at 11:00!”

And with that, he jumps into The Body and gets started on his day. 

SeungHyoDad arrives at Young Ae’s craft shop with flowers and suggests eating breakfast together — just as Young In drops by. Boy, does this not look good.

Who Are You: Episode 7

by javabeans from dramabeans.com

The rules are changing!

The series is still funny and enjoyable, but now we get more into the mystery aspect. Plus, Seung Hyo’s hard, cold exterior starts softening, which continues through Episode 8. Aw. Perhaps proportionally, Yoon Kye Sang’s really growing on me too, not just as an actor but as fangirl eye candy. And he sings! (Just barely, but that might be enough to excite G.O.D. fans anyway.)

SONG OF THE DAY
Lucite Tokki – “Disco” [ Download ]


EPISODE 7 RECAP

Seung Hyo offers his hand to Young In, but his OCD kicks in at the last minute and he recoils from her touch. That sends her flying into his arms for one charged, tense moment, after which he pulls out a white handkerchief (symbolism!) and offers it to her as a compromise. She thinks he’s incredibly weird, but gratefully takes the handkerchief as he leads her down the steep cliff.

With shaking legs, she has a hard time making it to her father’s death site, but Seung Hyo prods (pulls) her along. He asks for a photo of her father, and recognizes Il Gun as the man from his recurring dream (of the accident), and suggests that there might have been another explanation for his death. That question triggers a memory in Il Gun (who’s watching nearby) and he remembers being accosted by three gangsters one night — the two who’ve been harassing Young In, and a third, Seung Hyo’s (probable) gangster brother.

Seung Hyo asks if anyone’s shown an interest in her father’s art, and she mentions Shin Jae Ha — which triggers Seung Hyo’s Spidey sense. 

Seung Hyo gives Young In a ride to U Gallery, where she lights up at seeing Jae Ha. It’s becoming more clear that Young In is developing a crush on him, of which Jae Ha must be aware but doesn’t necessarily discourage. It doesn’t make Seung Hyo or Ha Young (Jae Ha’s girlfriend) happy, though — the girlfriend finds their living situation inappropriate, and even offers to take the girl in herself to keep them separate. On this score, she’s not jealous so much as she’s concerned about the problems that could arise.

Seung Hyo asks probing questions about the painting he bought: the conditions of Sohn Il Gun’s contract, who receives the rights to the artwork now that the artist is dead, etc. Seung Hyo’s sharp mind makes him more suspicious the more he learns (i.e., U Gallery was planning an exhibition of Il Gun’s work), and mentions that it’s strange that an artist who was about to make so much money would kill himself. Ha Young doesn’t quite know what he’s driving at, but she’s smart enough to be on alert, and gives politely vague answers. 

While Seung Hyo discusses the painting, Young In and Jae Ha chat outside. Jae Ha promises to do his best to get her father’s case reinvestigated — making sure to tell her to sit pretty and not worry about it. Young In interprets this as kindness, although Jae Ha’s just ensuring that she stays in the dark.

Their cozy familiarity rankles Seung Hyo, and upsets Il Gun as well. He nearly dives into Seung Hyo’s body so he can protect his daughter from the predatory male, but stops himself, remembering the Reaper’s admonition — he’s borrowing Seung Hyo’s body and shouldn’t use it for personal situations. Il Gun holds back, but luckily Seung Hyo reacts anyway. Irritated at the sight but not really aware of the reason for it, he goes out to interrupt.

Seung Hyo’s reaction is kind of adorable — he doesn’t have a good excuse for his intrusion, so he fumbles for one. “Hey, you!” he blusters at Young In. “If someone gave you a ride here, you should thank them!” He follows that up with more excuses, saying he heard she ran away and that the landlady was worried. He loiters some more, then asks where she’s staying.

Jae Ha — who understands Seung Hyo’s behavior — tells him she’s staying with him, and not to worry. They exchange some thinly veiled words in some kind of manly power struggle, with Seung Hyo questioning Jae Ha’s “kindness,” and Jae Ha calling Seung Hyo cold and calculating. But Seung Hyo has the last word — he tells Young In he has her father’s will, which makes Jae Ha visibly nervous. (Feeling the pinch, Jae Ha swoops into action, calling the two gangsters to find Il Gun’s former orphanage friends in order to locate his paintings..)

Seung Hyo brings Young In to his house to retrieve her father’s will (it’s really more like a letter, since I doubt it’s legally binding), but tells Young In to stay outside. His excessive fastidiousness prevents him from inviting in people to his anti-bacterial, germ-free kingdom of cleanliness.

But, just at that moment, Il Gun takes over and tells her to stay for lunch. (Meanwhile, his assistants go crazy trying to locate him because he’s ignoring the huge Fujimori deal while he’s SeungHyoDad.)

SeungHyoDad orders a ton of food, and once again Young In is struck with the similarities in the way SeungHyoDad and her father talk, the familiar phrases he uses, the things he shouldn’t know but does. Everything he says is classic Il Gun-speak, and unnerves her.

For instance, he brings up “the best-tasting liquor in the world” — liquor poured by his daughter’s hand — which reminds Young In of all the times she refused to pour her father a drink. This time, she takes the bottle and pours for him, and both are moved at the gesture.

Young In: “Why aren’t you drinking it?”
SeungHyoDad: “Because I want to save it. I want to drink it slowly. It’s too precious to waste. Just looking at it, it’s delicious.”
Young In: “Who are you? Who are you really? Do you know my father well? How do you know him? Why do you keep talking like him? Why do you keep reminding me of him?”
SeungHyoDad: “It’s Dad. It’s me, Young In. It’s Dad, kiddo. Look closely, it’s me. I wanted to see you so badly, I missed my daughter so much, I came back.”
Young In: “Say something that makes sense! My father wasn’t rich like you, or as good-looking, or as smart. My father was a person with lots of debts, tears, and laughs. He was a truly good person.”

They both sob quietly for a while.

Young Ae, meanwhile, is still having a difficult time coping — she obviously loved Il Gun a lot, and is taking his death very hard. She sees that Young In’s birthday is coming up, and remembers recently suggesting that they live together. Geez, their similar names are confusing, aren’t they? — okay, The Daughter (still bitter and antagonistic) tells The Girlfriend not to worry about her, because she’d rather live with gangsters than with her. But The Girlfriend bursts out that she’s not saying that because she feels sorry for The Daughter.

Young Ae: “It’s not because of you, it’s because of me, Young In! I have no one to talk about your father with. I want to talk about him, but there’s nobody to listen. I’m so afraid that your father will disappear, day by day. Let’s live together. I want to live with you. I couldn’t live with your father, but I want to get on well together with you.”

A while later, Young In and SeungHyoDad have gone off separately, both drunk and melancholy.In a quietly lovely scene, Young In sits at the table, softly singing a song her father used to sing, whose refrain goes, “Because I’m happy now.” Sitting in the next room, SeungHyoDad joins in, and both of them sing the song together (but separately) for a while. Tipsy, while Young In continues singing, SeungHyoDad says:

“Your dad’s going to send you to college. And buy you a new house… with a garden, and trees, and flowers. I’ll buy you a pretty house with birds flying around, and a 50-inch television. I’ll buy you everything. So just stick it out two months. If you can make it two months, your dad will make it so you’ll never have to suffer again. So even if it’s hard, just wait it out. Got it?”

Some time later, Young In gets up from the table — totally drunk — and sees Seung Hyo sleeping on the floor. She tells him to wake up and sleep elsewhere, but he doesn’t respond, so she takes him by the ankles and drags him across the floor, through the hall, and into his room.

Ji Sook (Sooki) comes up with a new idea to help Young In — kick Deok out and give his room to Young In. Sooki tells him that he’s a guy, so he can handle living outside more easily. They have a cute dynamic, where most of the time he’s treated as one of them (“just one of the girls”) but to gain his cooperation, Sooki calls his masculinity into question. Heh.

In the morning, we find Young In and Seung Hyo sleeping off their drunkenness in bed. Together.In his sleep, Seung Hyo maneuvers so that they just barely touch lips — which succeeds in waking both of them immediately.

Without immediate recollection of the night before, both accuse the other of inappropriate conduct. Seung Hyo sees all the food and jumps to the conclusion that she took advantage of him, while Young In calls him a pervert and says she’s sick of his mood swings — inviting her to eat one day, then getting angry over it the next.

Seung Hyo busts out the CCTV footage, and both are convinced the other will be proven guilty. Young In says if he’d carried her into the bedroom by force, she’ll make sure he pays. Seung Hyo counters that if she was responsible for all the food, she’s in trouble.

First, the footage looks bad for Seung Hyo — he invited her in and seemingly made the advance. Young In fills with righteous satisfaction, and says, “You like me, don’t you? Since when? You went about it all wrong, you know. This isn’t how you act to someone you like.”

Seung Hyo denies it, and just then the footage shows Young In dragging Seung Hyo across the floor into the bedroom. Ha! He says, “Look! You were the one who dragged me while I was drunk into the room. Looks like you’re the one who likes me. What did you do to me? Tell me.”

With both embarrassed and uncomfortable, Young In hastily leaves for work, and Seung Hyo finds a note he’d written while drunk. The words read “Future art show = U Gallery” and are written in strange handwriting, which matches the writing of another note he’d written as SeungHyoDad. Handwriting that matches the writing in Il Gun’s will.

And then, as he’s about to leave for work, SEUNG HYO SEES IL GUN and demands to know what he’s doing in his house.

Il Gun points to himself (“You mean me?”) and is overjoyed at this new development.

Additionally…

Like I said, the rules are changing. Not clear yet just HOW, or more importantly, why, but I’m glad to see some development — an entire series of the same old body-possessing shtick could get old, no matter how well Yoon Kye Sang manages the physical comedy. But the rules of Il Gun’s life-after-death are slowly shifting, just as the relationships are.

For instance, although Jin Yi Han is still an actor I love to watch, that doesn’t blind me to the fact that his character is steadily crossing over into Bad Guy territory. I think he does feel protective over Young In, but his own selfish motives are ultimately his priority. Likewise, Seung Hyo’s character is changing, but in the opposite direction: He may still be brusque and impolite, but he’s starting to seem like not such a MEAN guy. I think part of why I enjoyed his assholery in the earlier episodes was in anticipation of this turn in his character.