The Problematic of the Unproblematic

kakashi: Hi all! Twenty Again is over, but our thoughts linger on ... a reader of this blog has submitted a short entry, which I really liked, so I'm posting it here. It's on "Loss of connection with the stories of the elders". Written by W. Miguasha. Maybe you have your own stories about the elders to share?

Who remembers what it feels like to fall in love? I do - cause I often fall in love again, with my husband and my daughter, but also with certain actors (*wink, wink*). And while I would of course NEVER compare those loves, falling in love of any kind is a wonderful, wonderful thing … unless your love is tragic, cannot be, or is unrequited. Love can also make you suffer like hell, but that's a topic for another time. Today, we're talking about falling in love. I remember it. Vaguely, like a prehistoric memory lodged in my pea-sized dinosaur brain... I remember falling in love with Jaehyo. Does that count?

kakashi: Respect for people according to seniority is a pillar of Korea's Confucianist traditions, with its detailed clearly laid out in the Confucian "Five Relationships" (오륜 [五倫]). We already talked about the issues that No-Ra's age initially caused at university (and how weird it seemed that she received so much rudeness instead of respect, especially because she was an elder). But there is a different sort of respect that plays a role in this show - it's the type that you have to earn. And No-Ra earns it, step by step. JoAnne: As well she should. You don't have to dig very deep into that timid wallflower to find the clear-headed girl hidden away 20 years ago. Jaehyus: There's a quality that No Ra has that frankly, only people who deep deserve respect have: forbearance. She stands up for things when they are clearly wrong, but she is deeply patient with everyone and everything around her too. So, while she's been stifled in many ways, she's ...

kakashi: One of the sweeter things in Twenty Again is Cha Hyun-Suk playing a (visible and same-age) Daddy Long-Legs as he makes all of Ha No-Ra's (secret) wishes come true, thinking she only has about 6 months to live. There's a topic of living well and dying well to be discussed here, because it has a huge influence on the characters in the drama (and it is probably the topic with the most depth this drama gets into). Beyond that, Bucket Lists per se are a fascinating thing that I want to think about a bit. JoAnne: Lists, in general, thrill me - yet I've never created a bucket list. Never even thought about making one, and at the moment, I feel very resistant to the idea. This bears consideration.

Time to talk a bit about whiplash-inducing, bipolar Hyun-Suk! One episode sweet as honey, the next as nasty as burned toast. What are we to make of this? Well, here is my explanation: the poor man has ZERO emotional intelligence (EI) (and little emotional maturity, too). And in fact, hardly anybody in this show has any. That makes life quite difficult, especially if so many emotions are involved! Those pesky things! We should just live like robots. So much easier.

kakashi: Haha, I'm so obsessed with this drama. Sorry.... another post. There's another interesting topic that Twenty Again touches and that we have "discussed" a bit on Twitter: the one about the college/university education of "mature" students and, by extension, the question of how different generations mix in real life. JoAnne: Twitter has become an incubator for so many discussions lately!

kakashi: I love this show, I really do. I couldn't be sure it would treat emotionally sensitive issues with the needed tact but it fully does, in a tone that’s both touching and hilarious at times, sometimes at the same time. Oh the feels. JoAnne: Yes, after the first episode, which I didn't much enjoy - it left me feeling uninterested - I have to agree. This show has heart and warmth and an emotional balance that often seems difficult to find in KDrama.

kakashi: The other day, there was a discussion on twitter about Twenty Again and marriage and stuff. "Discussion on twitter?", you say, "how is that possible?!". Yeah, you're right to ask that because it quickly got confusing and then a mess and in the end, everybody had said a lot but nobody was sure what. I am one of the people that liked the first two eps of Twenty Again and one of the people responsible for making the convo today a mess - and because I am, frankly, a bit surprised by the fact that I like this drama and because I liked the discussion, I thought why not continue it on here.