Jang Bori Is Here! - Episode 15 (KimJiCap)
I never knew I liked crazy makjang so much. I also see why people say this kind of weekend drama is crazy addictive ... crazy because it's SO BAD and addictive because it's SO GOOD. Does that make sense? No? Thought so. Of course, it helps to have Kim Ji-hoon/Jae-hwa on screen, and him falling hard, and most likely painfully for this country bumpkin.
JoAnne: This is NUTS. But watching him fall for her (really, he's doing it so fast and so hard it's actually more like he's PLUNGING shit everything sounds sexual but I don't mean it that way. He's just bonkers over her, like, overnight. It's fun to watch.) (Don't forget that she is his first and only love from WaaaaaaaaaaaYYYYyyyy back. He has been in love with her for half his life)
Episode 15
Welcome, little earthling, to the crazy world of Hanbokery! But whose baby is it? that's the big question. Veggie Ahjumma says somebody just left it in here (suuuuure). GooDIL sees scissors, bloody towels, seaweed soup ... and knows for sure that Veggie Ahjumma is lying. Somewhere not far, Min-jung is hiding remorsefully (or something) while her mother is crying because of her wretched fate, blaming herself for not being there for her daughter. But that's not really what we are interested in, are we. How is Jae-hwa fairing?
JoAnne: The baby is cute. Still don't care one bit about Min Jung the evil troll and her tears.
Alas, no Jae-hwa yet. Bori is already in love with the little baby (soooooo cuuuuuuute) and almost discovers Min-jung's farewell letter. Only almost though. In it, Min-jung asks her mother to give her baby to an orphanage. To herself, she shamefully swears she will never come to see her mother again and tries to give herself courage that she is doing the right thing for this baby. She can always help kids when she is successful. I think I don't need to comment on this, do I? (I would also like to comment that this woman, Lee Yoo-ri, is not bad as an actress. She is vile and hateful, but also does the sad pretty well).
JoAnne: Stepping back from Min Jung the character, the actress portraying her is astonishingly pretty and not a bad actress (and she has a very special voice. I like it). I can be fair. I know she's only playing a CHARACTER that I want to step on and spit at. Most of the time I know it.
While his family back in Seoul is trying to find out whether it's true that Jae-hwa has "a woman" and who she is, said Jae-hwa awakes with a hurting head in his own bed. He screams in fright when he sees Young-sook sitting right next to it! She stayed with him all night, fully clothed though and not at all in the same bed, but she thinks they're quasi married now and wants to be introduced to his parents. He informs him that her nickname is "bulldog" - because she never lets go of anything she likes. Oups. Jae-hwa, you have a problem.
JoAnne: Yeah. It's not that she assumes this is how it is, it's that she did it deliberately so she could threaten him. This is her response to the other night when he was having fun with Bori and she felt left out. So she's irritating AND scary.
Realizing that, Jae-hwa flees to the toilet, where he tells himself he just needs to be honest with her: He will just need to break up. Right ... He imagines how it would go, and it goes alright up to the point where she starts wailing and there is his entire family, watching, judging him, beating him (his father) and laughing (his "mother" and half-brother). He comes back to reality and moans that he will be as good as dead if his father finds out! Dear boy, you're an adult. Stop the beating!
JoAnne: He's such a boy though. I will like it when he displays a more adult personality.
Right then, his mother calls ... asking whether there's a girl next to him. He freaks out and asks whether Young-sook has called her? Oh dear ... His mother now knows the name of the woman and offers to come and help him with the break-up (because this c a n n o t be), but he says he can handle it himself. Why doesn't she want him to have a woman? Do we know?
JoAnne: I don't think it's about him at all. I think she doesn't want the family to be embarrassed by someone low-class. Which makes me laugh because that entire family is about as low-class as you can get.
As soon as Bori leaves to open the store, Veggie Ahjumma takes the cute little baby to the orphanage. Outside, she breaks down crying. If only you were less of a puppet of your evil daughter.
JoAnne: And less of a witch to the girl who adores you.
Jae-hwa is at the office and takes out the little yellow scent-bag he got from Bori. He smells it with a smile on his face. It has mugwort in it (only the subbers insist it's mug wart. I'm pretty sure that's a Harry Potter thing though). (No that was HOGwarts) He wonders whether Bori is alright after the heavy drinking, what she is doing, etc. .... yeah .... the signs are clear!! He even calls her and .... OMG. He pretends to be some woman who lives two hours away on a mountain, whose grandmother really wants to eat her rice soup before dying. OMG. Bori buys it. Jae-hwa dies laughing.
JoAnne: But he's not even being mean, that's the cool thing. It's totally a plot to give her a break.
But when they hang up, the orphanage calls - the baby is sick! The mountain-delivery is completely forgotten, but here comes Jae-hwa anyway, on Young-sook's scooter. Bori begs him to give her a ride to the orphanage and since he doesn't care at all where they are going, in fact, just wants to be with her, he happily agrees. He drives like a lunatic and has an awesome amount of fun. Bori thinks she is dying. He says she should call him oppa once if she wants to live. Nope. Hahaha. This woman is a hard nut to crack, right, oppa?
JoAnne: I think she's about nine, mentally.
kakashi: Yes, that would about put him on 13. Fits.
At the orphanage, things turn much more somber when they find out that the little baby has a very high fever. Bori sends Jae-hwa to hail a taxi, but right then, Veggie Ahjumma comes running (why? remorse?). Jae-hwa is a bit curious about whose baby this is, but not for long because he must get that taxi to the hospital. At the hospital, the doctor tells them the baby is hearing-impaired and needs urgent treatment. And a lot of attention. Orphanage is off the table now? Bori and her mother leave Jae-hwa wondering alone in front of the hospital as they rush off with the baby in their arms.
Wow, Bori says she will gladly serve as the baby's mom. She is such a nice person. She doesn't care about what other people will think of her (as an unmarried mother). The baby needs someone. She will be that person. And the baby's name will be Bi Dan.
JoAnne: I wonder how Min Jung is going to feel about that. Because even though she gave the baby away, I will (very grudgingly) admit that it seemed to be hard for her and that she appeared (very surprisingly) to have genuine feelings for the little thing. And now here's the foundling sister she despises going to raise the baby? That'll go over well.
Next, Jae-hwa is having a bowl of rice. He has Bori stand right next to him. It's all payment for the scooter ride, he claims, which she "loved" so much she feels like tying him face down off a lamp post. I am looking forward to the day this woman discovers that human beings have sex and then starts using all that angry energy in the sack. He has her devoted interest immediately though when he mentions that he wants to have some hanboks made.
JoAnne: She will break his back.
She gets to measure all the employees at the Court - Jae-hwa gets permission from his superior that Bori is in charge of making all the uniforms for an upcoming Sports Festival. She won 2nd prize at a huge competition after all! Awwww, Jae-hwa ... you really are a cute person.
JoAnne: Except he's telling HER to make hanboks, and he's telling his BOSS that she's going to make sports uniforms. Does anyone see any potential issues with this down the road?
When Bori measures Jae-hwa, he gets quite flustered ... too close for you? Yum.
JoAnne: Where's the abs. Come on, Show, ab me.
Later, in his room, he fondles his mother's things (that sounds...really bad) ... when Bori appears in front of him. Well, just a vision of her. How is it possible that he constantly thinks of her, even though she's not pretty at all? He mumbles to himself that it would be a totally different thing if she had straight hair (YES!) and talked like a lady. Cue vision! Hahaha. Cue that vision turning into the vicious, real Bori again.
JoAnne: Well she could have wavy hair, and wear something with COLOR, I mean she looked terrible in his vision.
GooDIL is really angry at Veggie Ahjumma for even thinking about letting Bori take on this baby as a mother. It is sure to destroy her life! She is sure Veggie Ahjumma knows exactly who the mother is - is it Bori's older sister?! Oh look! It's Bori - she heard it all.
JoAnne: And is too naive to understand any of it.
The Rest
BaDIL confronts Min-jung about the pregnancy book and prenatal vitamins she found in her drawer, but Min-jung lies that she was just studying that stuff because of that Actress who chose the hanbok at the competition. Suuuuuuuuuure. But because they are all sniffing too much dye, BaDIL seems to believe that BS. Later, Min-jung, who is getting crazier and crazier, breastfeeds the little one. In a church. After that, she goes to get some medicine to dry up her breast milk. Uhm .... what? That'll stop anyway if there's no kid suckling my dear. (Yes but not right away, and it's messy, and you run the risk of mastitis, which is extremely painful.)
The war between the Matron and BaDIL goes into the next phase because BaDIL does everything wrong in Matron's eyes. This is old vs. new, tradition vs. modernization. As JoAnne has said before, a lot of the things that BaDIL says make total sense - but Matron doesn't want ANY change. Sometimes I'm a little bit on BaDIL's side. Yeah. Shoot me.
JoAnne: If she could just have a different voice. I hear her voice and I want to punch her in the throat.
The Gangster Couple! Awwwwwwwwwwwwww, how incredibly cute are they! Can we get them their own drama?! Big Kang gets his lackeys to (physically) manipulate one of those "pick a fluffy animal up" machines and it's just hilarious. Jung-ran then drags him to meet her brother. That's a somewhat nasty surprise for Big Kang! All is going "well(ish)" but the doctor-lie is getting bigger and bigger and Bad Dad says just go ahead and get married. He doesn't care about the details of Big Kang's employment - as long as he is not a gangster. Yikes! A next meeting is set the day after, to which he is to bring his brother. Big Kang starts to explain ... but then, he stops. Tomorrow. There's always tomorrow. Only you're in a KDrama and I know this is going to go wrong!!!!
JoAnne: I love him. He honestly had no clue she thought he was a doctor, and his very first instinct is to come clean about it. And he's SO very cute and totally nuts about her and her about him.
Oh and here is trouble already ... the police are after Big Kang - and go to talk to Little Kang about it. Jae-hee promises to be there for Little Kang whatever happens. Is he still capable of good then? (Yes, my cutie is not an evil person.) Ga-eul gets to do some more Kara stuff. Shaking her booty and stuff at a shop opening. (Wait. Is she an Idol?) Yeah, alright, this couple is kinda cute as well. Is she that bratty in real life though? He isn't happy about it all though: he takes life seriously. She doesn't. Hey, have you met her brother yet? I think it runs in the family.
JoAnne: Little Kang is just as adorable as his brother, but in the opposite way. Big is all fluffy with his girl and is actually a tough guy, and Little is a tough guy who's secretly all fluffy about the girl.
AppaNotOppa's dad passes away while he is still in prison. From a broken heart. I would laugh but it's somewhat not funny. What will he do to Min-jung now? Kill her? The police calls her - she needs to sign stuff so that AppaNotOppa can take care of his father's funeral.
JoAnne: I hope he goes batshit crazy on her bony little ass.
Comments
This drama surprised me this week. And I really like to be surprised. I never expected Bori to sacrifice herself again (I've never seen Thorn Birds, I hear it was similar) - and in a rather fundamental way for a Korean society. She is ready to throw her life away (so to speak) for this little creature who needs someone to protect her. She doesn't even hesitate for a second. Does she know what she is doing? I think she does. But she doesn't care one bit. These are saint-like qualities. I bow to her.
JoAnne: She doesn't even hesitate - it's because she knows what it is to be taken in by a family and then resented by the family members. She doesn't want this baby to go through that and she's willing to risk her reputation and any future family of her own for it. Very noble.
As for Jae-hwa: I like that he is out of his depth here. His usual flirteries don't work on this woman at all. And the more immune she seems, the more interested he becomes. At this moment, he is already far gone and I wonder how they will resolve the issue with Young-sook. Who is very, very scary. And he deserves some punishment for how he seems to have behaved to women until now. You player you, Jae-hwa!
JoAnne: They don't seem to have started a physical relationship, but I DO see where Young Sook would legitimately think they were a couple and that things were developing nicely. He's been lazy and callous, using women as it suits him - and yet he doesn't come across as a bad person, just a thoughtless one. I think Young Sook will be the last, and I think he's going to pay a price. But I will be glad when she's gone, at least, because she and her 'sense-eu' are driving me nuts.
kakashi: I think that the key to understanding his personality is the deep trauma he received as a child. Eggs, remember? He still feels guilty for his mother's death. He had a terrible father. He had to grow up with a terrible 2nd mother, who managed to turn two great friends and half-brothers into enemies. He lost his aunt, the only other person he felt loved by and he himself loved AND he lost Eun-bi, a girl he was forming ties with. I think he simply CANNOT have a normal relationship with women, but he still tries to get some warmth out of this dreadful world - these women give him some of it.
JoAnne: This is NUTS. But watching him fall for her (
Episode 15
Welcome, little earthling, to the crazy world of Hanbokery! But whose baby is it? that's the big question. Veggie Ahjumma says somebody just left it in here (suuuuure). GooDIL sees scissors, bloody towels, seaweed soup ... and knows for sure that Veggie Ahjumma is lying. Somewhere not far, Min-jung is hiding remorsefully (or something) while her mother is crying because of her wretched fate, blaming herself for not being there for her daughter. But that's not really what we are interested in, are we. How is Jae-hwa fairing?
JoAnne: The baby is cute. Still don't care one bit about Min Jung the evil troll and her tears.
JoAnne: Stepping back from Min Jung the character, the actress portraying her is astonishingly pretty and not a bad actress (and she has a very special voice. I like it). I can be fair. I know she's only playing a CHARACTER that I want to step on and spit at. Most of the time I know it.
JoAnne: Yeah. It's not that she assumes this is how it is, it's that she did it deliberately so she could threaten him. This is her response to the other night when he was having fun with Bori and she felt left out. So she's irritating AND scary.
JoAnne: He's such a boy though. I will like it when he displays a more adult personality.
JoAnne: I don't think it's about him at all. I think she doesn't want the family to be embarrassed by someone low-class. Which makes me laugh because that entire family is about as low-class as you can get.
JoAnne: And less of a witch to the girl who adores you.
Jae-hwa is at the office and takes out the little yellow scent-bag he got from Bori. He smells it with a smile on his face. It has mugwort in it (only the subbers insist it's mug wart. I'm pretty sure that's a Harry Potter thing though). (No that was HOGwarts) He wonders whether Bori is alright after the heavy drinking, what she is doing, etc. .... yeah .... the signs are clear!! He even calls her and .... OMG. He pretends to be some woman who lives two hours away on a mountain, whose grandmother really wants to eat her rice soup before dying. OMG. Bori buys it. Jae-hwa dies laughing.
JoAnne: But he's not even being mean, that's the cool thing. It's totally a plot to give her a break.
JoAnne: I think she's about nine, mentally.
kakashi: Yes, that would about put him on 13. Fits.
JoAnne: I wonder how Min Jung is going to feel about that. Because even though she gave the baby away, I will (very grudgingly) admit that it seemed to be hard for her and that she appeared (very surprisingly) to have genuine feelings for the little thing. And now here's the foundling sister she despises going to raise the baby? That'll go over well.
Next, Jae-hwa is having a bowl of rice. He has Bori stand right next to him. It's all payment for the scooter ride, he claims, which she "loved" so much she feels like tying him face down off a lamp post. I am looking forward to the day this woman discovers that human beings have sex and then starts using all that angry energy in the sack. He has her devoted interest immediately though when he mentions that he wants to have some hanboks made.
JoAnne: She will break his back.
JoAnne: Except he's telling HER to make hanboks, and he's telling his BOSS that she's going to make sports uniforms. Does anyone see any potential issues with this down the road?
JoAnne: Where's the abs. Come on, Show, ab me.
JoAnne: Well she could have wavy hair, and wear something with COLOR, I mean she looked terrible in his vision.
JoAnne: And is too naive to understand any of it.
The Rest
BaDIL confronts Min-jung about the pregnancy book and prenatal vitamins she found in her drawer, but Min-jung lies that she was just studying that stuff because of that Actress who chose the hanbok at the competition. Suuuuuuuuuure. But because they are all sniffing too much dye, BaDIL seems to believe that BS. Later, Min-jung, who is getting crazier and crazier, breastfeeds the little one. In a church. After that, she goes to get some medicine to dry up her breast milk. Uhm .... what? That'll stop anyway if there's no kid suckling my dear. (Yes but not right away, and it's messy, and you run the risk of mastitis, which is extremely painful.)
JoAnne: If she could just have a different voice. I hear her voice and I want to punch her in the throat.
The Gangster Couple! Awwwwwwwwwwwwww, how incredibly cute are they! Can we get them their own drama?! Big Kang gets his lackeys to (physically) manipulate one of those "pick a fluffy animal up" machines and it's just hilarious. Jung-ran then drags him to meet her brother. That's a somewhat nasty surprise for Big Kang! All is going "well(ish)" but the doctor-lie is getting bigger and bigger and Bad Dad says just go ahead and get married. He doesn't care about the details of Big Kang's employment - as long as he is not a gangster. Yikes! A next meeting is set the day after, to which he is to bring his brother. Big Kang starts to explain ... but then, he stops. Tomorrow. There's always tomorrow. Only you're in a KDrama and I know this is going to go wrong!!!!
JoAnne: I love him. He honestly had no clue she thought he was a doctor, and his very first instinct is to come clean about it. And he's SO very cute and totally nuts about her and her about him.
Oh and here is trouble already ... the police are after Big Kang - and go to talk to Little Kang about it. Jae-hee promises to be there for Little Kang whatever happens. Is he still capable of good then? (Yes, my cutie is not an evil person.) Ga-eul gets to do some more Kara stuff. Shaking her booty and stuff at a shop opening. (Wait. Is she an Idol?) Yeah, alright, this couple is kinda cute as well. Is she that bratty in real life though? He isn't happy about it all though: he takes life seriously. She doesn't. Hey, have you met her brother yet? I think it runs in the family.
JoAnne: Little Kang is just as adorable as his brother, but in the opposite way. Big is all fluffy with his girl and is actually a tough guy, and Little is a tough guy who's secretly all fluffy about the girl.
JoAnne: I hope he goes batshit crazy on her bony little ass.
Comments
This drama surprised me this week. And I really like to be surprised. I never expected Bori to sacrifice herself again (I've never seen Thorn Birds, I hear it was similar) - and in a rather fundamental way for a Korean society. She is ready to throw her life away (so to speak) for this little creature who needs someone to protect her. She doesn't even hesitate for a second. Does she know what she is doing? I think she does. But she doesn't care one bit. These are saint-like qualities. I bow to her.
JoAnne: She doesn't even hesitate - it's because she knows what it is to be taken in by a family and then resented by the family members. She doesn't want this baby to go through that and she's willing to risk her reputation and any future family of her own for it. Very noble.
JoAnne: They don't seem to have started a physical relationship, but I DO see where Young Sook would legitimately think they were a couple and that things were developing nicely. He's been lazy and callous, using women as it suits him - and yet he doesn't come across as a bad person, just a thoughtless one. I think Young Sook will be the last, and I think he's going to pay a price. But I will be glad when she's gone, at least, because she and her 'sense-eu' are driving me nuts.
kakashi: I think that the key to understanding his personality is the deep trauma he received as a child. Eggs, remember? He still feels guilty for his mother's death. He had a terrible father. He had to grow up with a terrible 2nd mother, who managed to turn two great friends and half-brothers into enemies. He lost his aunt, the only other person he felt loved by and he himself loved AND he lost Eun-bi, a girl he was forming ties with. I think he simply CANNOT have a normal relationship with women, but he still tries to get some warmth out of this dreadful world - these women give him some of it.