CONTAINS SPOILERS.
If you havent watched the drama, go watch it now. If you have, you may proceed to scroll down.
The drama opens up in Amman, Jordan with Jang Geu Rae (Siwan) chasing a man across the busy streets of the city. He's wearing a suit, he speaks English, and is in a foreign country, so we already know that there is a happy ending. Flashback two years, and we see him working at a sauna, his hair is swept down loose, his face carrying a sense of defeat. We watch him perform many small jobs, until he lands up at a trading company as a contract employee. And that is where the real story begins.
The whole story revolves around the ongoings in the company, whether it be work, or be the people. The idea through which this is shown is simple. Pick a business item. You have some problems with it. You solve them. You move on to the next one. This runs for three to four episodes at a large. It could be become horribly repetitive for a 20 episode show, if not for its characters, who hold the largest part of the show's success.
When Oh Sang Sik (played by the excellent Lee Sung Min), meets Geu Rae, he is furious and unable to accept an untrained and under qualified intern as a part of his team. Yet by the third episode, Sang Sik is able to trust him, and keeps an eye out for him. On the contrary, it takes more than half the drama, and after a rather awkward scene in the sauna (this scene is gold!), that Jang Baek Ki (Kang Ha Neul) asks his boss out for a drink.
I especially enjoyed the scene where Jang Baek Ki and Jang Geu Rae try to sell socks and underwear on the subway line, and then eventually get drunk and sell it outside a sauna. I loved how this situation brought together many solutions - Jang Geu Rae learns the art of selling the right items at the needful place; Jang Baek Ki comes out of his shell, and both of them become closer, not in the sense of the bestest of friends, but the awkwardness and jealousy present between the two is erased. Or when Oh Sang Sik forces his team to drink expired milk, in order to avoid working for a new business item. These bitter sweet moments is what puts a smile to our faces.
The only female lead, An Young Yi (Kang So Ra) starts out as a star intern, but later on suffers sexual harassment, and Han Suk Yool (the life of the drama, played by a joyful Byun Yo Han) is never given credit for he work he does. And all of this is tackled without any unnecessary melodrama. An Young Yi decides to bury her pride and performs menial task with any hesitation. Han Suk Yool does restore to some of his tricks, but decides to go against them when they backfire. I particularly loved the scene where Han Suk Yool is in a dilemma of whether to revel his boss's affair or not, and we see him keeping and removing the photos (proof of the affair) from his boss's desk, unable to decide on whether to choose his boss's humility or his own integrity. Here, we see him as a mature 27 year old, not the cunning pervert we were introduced to.
I watched this drama after a year of its release, yes, but it was totally worth the wait. It is devoid of anything related to love, so don't expect cheesy lines or mushy dialogues or damsels in distress waiting to be rescued from the school bullies, but go for it's tight storyline and strong performances (and even for Siwan, if you don't have another reason, that is ;) )
Don't bother marathon-ing it, I took 6 months to finish watching it. You can probably take waaay less time but give time to the story and its characters to grow on you, and for yourself to fall in love with them.
If you havent watched the drama, go watch it now. If you have, you may proceed to scroll down.
The drama opens up in Amman, Jordan with Jang Geu Rae (Siwan) chasing a man across the busy streets of the city. He's wearing a suit, he speaks English, and is in a foreign country, so we already know that there is a happy ending. Flashback two years, and we see him working at a sauna, his hair is swept down loose, his face carrying a sense of defeat. We watch him perform many small jobs, until he lands up at a trading company as a contract employee. And that is where the real story begins.
The whole story revolves around the ongoings in the company, whether it be work, or be the people. The idea through which this is shown is simple. Pick a business item. You have some problems with it. You solve them. You move on to the next one. This runs for three to four episodes at a large. It could be become horribly repetitive for a 20 episode show, if not for its characters, who hold the largest part of the show's success.
When Oh Sang Sik (played by the excellent Lee Sung Min), meets Geu Rae, he is furious and unable to accept an untrained and under qualified intern as a part of his team. Yet by the third episode, Sang Sik is able to trust him, and keeps an eye out for him. On the contrary, it takes more than half the drama, and after a rather awkward scene in the sauna (this scene is gold!), that Jang Baek Ki (Kang Ha Neul) asks his boss out for a drink.
I especially enjoyed the scene where Jang Baek Ki and Jang Geu Rae try to sell socks and underwear on the subway line, and then eventually get drunk and sell it outside a sauna. I loved how this situation brought together many solutions - Jang Geu Rae learns the art of selling the right items at the needful place; Jang Baek Ki comes out of his shell, and both of them become closer, not in the sense of the bestest of friends, but the awkwardness and jealousy present between the two is erased. Or when Oh Sang Sik forces his team to drink expired milk, in order to avoid working for a new business item. These bitter sweet moments is what puts a smile to our faces.
The only female lead, An Young Yi (Kang So Ra) starts out as a star intern, but later on suffers sexual harassment, and Han Suk Yool (the life of the drama, played by a joyful Byun Yo Han) is never given credit for he work he does. And all of this is tackled without any unnecessary melodrama. An Young Yi decides to bury her pride and performs menial task with any hesitation. Han Suk Yool does restore to some of his tricks, but decides to go against them when they backfire. I particularly loved the scene where Han Suk Yool is in a dilemma of whether to revel his boss's affair or not, and we see him keeping and removing the photos (proof of the affair) from his boss's desk, unable to decide on whether to choose his boss's humility or his own integrity. Here, we see him as a mature 27 year old, not the cunning pervert we were introduced to.
Don't bother marathon-ing it, I took 6 months to finish watching it. You can probably take waaay less time but give time to the story and its characters to grow on you, and for yourself to fall in love with them.
No comments:
Post a Comment