#– nam thoughts

[pangolin-404]

The Lovers by Sneha Solanki // The Kiss by Kelly Mark // TV Garden by Nam June Paik (x2) // Sistine Chapel by Nam June Paik // TV Clock by Nam June Paik // Untitled (The Sky is Blue) by Sandy Smith // More Wrong Things by Carolee Schneemann // Nabil Saleh // Puma XO Tao by Dan Dowding/Media Pollution

[bitternace]

how about ... 14! and either xion or namine ... or both even

you find shelter somewhere in me, i find real comfort in you

[ID: a digital drawing of xion and naminé from kingdom hearts. the background is mostly transparent, with a purple splatter with straight edges and three white lines on the lower half, which they seem to be sitting on.

they are beside each other in mirrored poses, inner legs slightly behind the other. naminé's eyes are closed and her shoulders are tense. xion's mouth is slightly open and her only visible eye stares down at the middle, where their hands are intertwined. /End ID.]

[beeedelweiss]

The Ryu Shi Oh treatment

Oh boy do I have a lot to say.

So Shi Oh is the CEO of Doogo right ?

When we first met him we saw that he was violent and he did not care about being physically violent.

His introduction scene came in episode 1 when he was in that bus thingy watching Nam Soon stopping the plane and being head over heels for her. He is fascinated by her

At the beginning we dont have much info about him : all that we know is that he is the CEO, the one dealing the drugs, violent and scared of nothing.

Then we see him doing his little business drug and wanting to find Nam Soon, then he do finds her.

The chemistry is there at their first scene. Shi Oh is fascinated by her and really likes her, he wants to know more. He is jealous as he sees her having fun downstairs with Hee Sik.

Somehow she comes to aid him at the office, he trust her, he is fascinated by her, by Tsetseg.

The more we see them the more we see a new side of Shi Oh.

Not only do we learn that he can be very tender, soft hearted, he worries about her, cares about her. He wants to help her get a citizenship, drive her home, wants to help her find her own home. He drives her home personnally, they have meals together. He helps her putting her bag well on her shoulder, helps her with her jacket.

She is the only person which can makes him smile.

He is interested in her, and truly cares for her.

Not only that but we also learnt about his past, which he is starting to share with her as well.

He was an orphan and was adopted into a russian mafia group, which truly mistreated him. He could not eat if he did not win hand fight, was clearly being beaten up. We are only starting to see of his abuse, physical and mental.

The fact that he is opening up to Nam Soon (Tsetseg) and explaining that for him friendship and love were never an option but that with her it is finally something he can imagine is so important.

He also confessed and is vocal about his feelings. He trust her, he wants her by his side.

We also saw them bonding multiple times, being away from their natal countries, missing something, Being honest and wondering what their places in society is.

We also saw her standing up for him against her mother. Which he deeply appreciated. She always cares about him and asks him whats wrong

There is this phrase that I really like that nam soon said that was about your place in life : wether someone is in the dark or in the light and she said that he was in the middle. Searching for his light.

We saw in the last two episodes that he keeps thinking about : Nam soon could be his light, he wants to be in the light.

He is trying his hardest to break free from the mafia and the drugs and the antidote are that door to freedom for him.

We also saw how deeply he was worried for her when she did not come to work, how worried he was that it was because of his confession, but also when he took the drug he asked her to stay away from him, why ? probably because he was scared that he could hurt her.

Now the problem is that we are getting at the end of the drama. Soon he will find out that Tsetseg the woman he loves and trust is not who she pretends to be. And he is going to be broken hearted.

I don't see a good ending for him, the most likely cases can be cut to 3 :

Mafia finds him first and kills him since he is disobeying them

The police will arrest him and he will end in jail

He dies during a police operation (I could totally see a scene where he dies in Nam-Soon arms thanking her for making him feel love and friendship for the first time in his life)

Now that is why I am mad. It is extremely unlikely that he will have a happy ending, that he will be with Nam Soon

Which to me is so unfair.

Yes he did hurt and kill people but he is a victim as well.

He has trauma, and a really heavy huge one. It is not a vilain which does it without reasons or only for his pleasure, he is doing it to free himself from the mafia and from his trauma.

What he definitely needs is a therapist. He needs to heal from the pain in his heart.

What makes it so unfair is that I know he is not gonna end up well, he will either die or end up in jail.

And I hates it.

I want him to be happy, to be at peace. His whole life was suffering and trusting no one.

And now that he finally trust and love someone he is gonna lose her. He is gonna lose everything.

I just wish that for once, he would be happy, he would be forgiven just like the girl who tried to kill Nam-Soon.

I wish that he could be with Nam-Soon and heal properly with his trauma.

All those scenes that shows his trauma and childhood is to make us feel for him, feel sympathetic. Only for what ? For them to kill him off (probably).

The message that will be send out will be that even if you have trauma and you start to heal from it, is that there is no way of healing, there is no way of being free.

Shi Oh deserves the hapiness, he deserves to be with Nam Soon.

And I know that he will not get it

[magicaldragons]

'in the name of pain and outrage'

an analysis of the ending

I say this with utmost love, but episode 16 was a shitshow.

i walked into this show accepting it at face value – a show that would take itself lightly, with a compelling subplot marinated in humor, and a dose of sweet romance.

this show tried to include very mature, sobering themes with slapstick humor, which is definitely possible if balanced properly, but i feel this show was not able to achieve this the way do bong soon or others could.

to get some of the discrepancies out of the way:

they never told us that the women's senses were connected, geum joo should not have been able to feel namsoon's thirst – that's something they abruptly added to fuel the tension of the situation.

there is absolutely no reason nam soon would react like that to the drug, when you compare it to how every other user was affected by it.

the strength exerted by gil-joongan did not feel like enough to knock her out like that

and with how easy it would've been to leave the situation, it's very obvious that nam soon taking the drug was an ill-planned way to raise the stakes and increase suspense

the homeless couple truly had nothing of value to add to the show or it's message

none of the show's themes or messages were delivered properly towards the end, and it went against everything it preached.

the immediate tone change after ryu si-o's death did not do any justice to the effort put into his characterization

i do not understand how nam soon became a cop, all technicalities considered

why was she throwing humans out a window from the second floor, even if they're criminals??

they REALLY cheapened the whole marriage conversation by bringing money, property, and heirs into it. that was NOT romantic or wholesome. hee-sik deserves better parents, tf.

side note: i'm pretty disappointed with namsoon's character arc, but lee yoo mi worked within the purview of the script to give us honestly wonderful acting, especially in episode 15.

now, to get into the ending, i'll start with this:

what we got, felt like an empty victory. hollow and out of place.

i've always been an advocate for all parts of a show coming together to create an experience – there's usually no single keystone.

but as soon as si-o died, the rest of the episode felt like a blur, with all loose ends being succinctly wrapped up and prepared for season three. byeon woo seok, and his characterization really carried the show as a unit, and added to its cohesiveness. i did not find myself rooting for geum joo and nam soon's successes afterwards

because they had failed the ONE thing most of us had been hoping for them to do:

to save people who were victims of oppression from those with the power of money, and empower them, including to save si-o from his oppressors, and help him take down pavel.

there is no satisfaction in geum joo doing it by herself, because she has no emotional investment in destroying pavel.

losing hwaja and si-o, watching namsoon & heesik become one dimensional all of a sudden, and seeing tertiary unrelated characters having their loose ends tied, is extremely unsatisfactory – for a show that had an incredible cast and so much potential.

at the same time: i loved the portreyal of gil joongan's mission to help the elderly and her enthusiasm for her future, and the addition of binbin + looking into their past from an additional angle also really elevated the emotional context of si-o's character arc.

i loved each character, truly, and to not see the plot and writers give them the detail and care they deserve, is wholly disappointing.

the show took me on a whole journey, emotionally,,,but to know exactly what would make it better, and be aware of its discrepancies makes me grieve the potential it had to truly leave an impact on its viewers, with a solid takeaway message.

[taravangians-storming-balls]

does anyone else think it's weird that wayne has just like. a typical white dude name. Oh yeah my name is Waxilliam that's Steris and oh. Oh that's Wayne. Weird fucking name, right?

[theinfinitedivides]

hand on his face as he collapses from the blood loss. Cho Heon why the f*ck is your hand on his face

[mctna2019]

there are two points in this scene, I don't want to be biased but only Seon-ho noticed Yeon's confused look and injured hands after a few moments while Hwi didn't at all. second, he immediately understood whose work it must be. I don't mean that Namjeon was a good person or anyone else could have brought this disaster on Yeon , but he wasn't present at home and didn't know what happened to Yeon, and then he found out immediately. he looked at Yeon's hands as if he had seen everything, it could be familiar fo him. that means he had experienced this too.

[standardlilith]

What he said

What I heard

[somedayillbepeterpan]

Indulge me if you will, but here are the things I'm thankful for about Crash Course in Romance/Ilta Scandal.

There are a lot reviews for this show about what could have worked and what they didn't get right. I will get to that since I'm only human but before all that, CCIR/Ilta Scandal team, thank you so much.

-Thank you for giving Jung Kyungho the lead that he has said is the closest to his heart which even his gf, Choi Sooyoung, have said. For giving him a character that showcased his range and his undeniable charm. He's been under the radar for far too long. Which I actually didn't realise because he steals the scene for whenever he is on in all the shows I've seen of him so far. He actually first caught my eye from that random cameo he has from the 1st episode of Crash Landing on You (is the title fate or just a Netflix marketing ploy?)

-Thank you for introducing me to Jeon Do Yeon. I'm not korean but I read that a lot of the actors/actresses in SoKor chose Jeon Do Yeon as their acting influence. She is a fire that won't be extinguished. She put a credibility and strength in Nam Haengseon's character that I cannot imagine anyone else playing her. But, she was also so good in her art that I could clearly see Nam Haengseon brought to life by how the writer/director intended it. I am definitely going to watch anything that she's on right now.

-Thank you for showcasing a love story between people who were middle-aged and are in a moment in their lives where they didn't think that they deserved any change. Who were used to how equally mundane and chaotic their lives were. I loved that while the title cards represented the whole theme of the episode, it was pretty much focused on the development of Chiyeol and Haengseon's relationship. It was playful and thematic but also had actually really good meanings behind them. Someday, I'll get to writing an analysis on the title cards.

-Thank you for also not highlighting Chiyeol's wealth as something to save Haengseon. Too many kdramas give this "hero" status to the wealthy characters. I love that Haengseon was who she was from beginning to the end. Fiercely simply beautiful. She didn't need saving but there were moments that she was stopped at sacrificing too much. She was the "hero" in the story. A three dimensional hero.

CCIR/Ilta Scandal has many flaws and I will get to it too but I love it so much that I know that even though I'm frustrated, I'm willing to overlook them (I can't get over my frustration over the no-mention of the dream kiss).

[jaydastorm13]

So...as I've been watching Strong Girl Nam-soon, I've been feeling like Ryu Si-o is deeply misunderstood. Yes, he's behind the drugs and a few murders, I'm not being delusional there. But there were soft moments when he tried to see if he could confide in Nam-soon. He let himself smile, he let loose, and not only that, he's been trying to find his childhood friend. As soon as he found out that he was betrayed, he fucking LOST IT. I've been feeling like he stayed in the Mafia out of obligation, or maybe to destroy them from the inside. I don't know, I just feel like there's more to it. I also want to point out that for Nam-soon to be so sweet, she also tends to brush people aside or their concerns, because she's strong. I'm not attacking her, as I've seen this from all of the women in her family...but to see her callously discuss using Ryu when he had feelings for her didn't sit well with me. Or how the formerly homeless woman she met has randomly disappeared, but she didn't ask the ex-boyfriend about her? (I don't remember their names, maybe it was a plot hole?) I don't know, these are my random thoughts as the series will be over soon.

[kdramacrybaby]

Is the male lead a little boring? Yeah I guess you can say that. Am I going to ship her with the guy who profits from drugging and killing innocent people - who tried to kill her mom?! Of course not, why would she ever forgive him for that?!

If he wasn’t rich and pretty, y’all would never. This is Fifty Shades all over again except this guy actually KILLS people.

[flamingoservingdrinks]

i'm rewatching episode one of my dearest and there are a few things on my mind:

is that grey haired person in the insane asylum ryang eum

is that beach scene with jang hyun the ending of the drama

is gil chae dead by that point

[found--family]

once again diving into the must-read dean-study time has come today by the phenomenal @urne-buriall​ and this paragraph is giving me brainworms of j*hn tying dean up and stranding him (maybe even faux kidnapping him first) in the middle of nowhere with coordinates where to meet once he frees himself bc such is the nature of their work dean needs to be self-sufficient he needs to be able to survive and not being old enough to legally drink or drive is no excuse 

[eviltiddyproductions]

it's dumb because the show has just started and the villain in bongsoon was straight up horrifying, atrocious and demented but as of episode 1 idk kinda want the villain and namsoon to hit it off.

{just yelling into the void here 🙏 i just know he's going to do something evil }

[theinfinitedivides]

and once again i say: F*CK MBC

[murderousthighs]

I’m utterly devastated when a romantic comedy is neither funny nor romantic