Aramintai

Episode 9 was covering a hot issue.
Those poor Asian kids, they have no life since they start school. It’s a real crime that they have to study more hours every day than adults work. Their society makes them very competitive and anxious about being able to enter the best university to get the best job…in the office from the very bottom. With inflation and higher prices than it was during the times their parents were the same age it’s no wonder they overwork themselves to death, can’t afford to buy a flat let alone a house , and have to wait decades for promotions because promotions are gained by years slaved at the company not merit, and older colleauges keep working into very old age before going to pension. They train young generations to be like hamsters running on a wheel, perpetually running after success. No wonder there are so many suicides there. SK and Japan top the list every year.

There's a spot-on PSY's music video about this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc3yJgfAO6o

Oh Yoon-Seo is FL's stage name/pseudonym. Her real name is Oh Jin-Shim.
Why he calls her by the real name when nobody else does is explained by him in one of the later episodes. Basically, he first thought it proper since she was there to work at the law firm undercover, not as a celebrity. And then they both agreed that it's cute that only he calls her by her real name, can immediately distinguish it's him.

Also, her real name is unusual and kinda funny, maybe that's why it was changed for a stage name. This drama's and novel's Korean title is "Jinsimi Dadda" which literally means "Reach of Sincerity", so there is a play on her real name in the title. As a noun jinsim is translated as sincerity from Korean.

There is plenty of romance here. I'd say more than necessary actually, with all the love triangles. And action scenes are sparse, it'more of a fantasy historical drama with comedic elements.

No, she clearly wasn't forced. And Jin Mu is her uncle, he probably told her some lie. Why they were in that spot on the lake is unclear, but fake Queen also was making black powder there. Maybe that's where the Ice Stone is hidden, or it needs to be on the lake, surrounded by all the water to use it.

Wow, this show better not drop in quality or have a dumb ending. Current rating is insane 🤩

Yea, Bu-Yeon for example was revealed to be born with the help of the Ice Stone. And whenever she uses her powers as Mu-Deok it temporarily blinds her. If she was in control with full powers she'd probably turn permanently blind again.

😉 Btw, continuing water dragon theory. I dunno if you play video games, but there was this rather old one called Jade Empire.
The plot there had some similarities. There was a big drought (a cyclical natural occurence involving water dragon's life span), which the villainous emperor solved by slaying the water dragon. Her blood/water started perpetually pouring from her giant body hidden in the Royal Palace, which ended the drought. But with a caveat, the water dragon not only supervised the distribution of water supplies and rainfall to the mortal world, but also shepherded the souls of the dead along the Great Wheel – the cycle of life, death and rebirth. And since she died, restless ghosts started roaming the land.

More about water dragon there, everything probably based on Chinese myths and folklore about water dragons:
https://jadeempire.fandom.com/wiki/Water_Dragon

Nah, she was totally preoccupied by the Ice Stone. And Jin Mu had her obviously fooled, probably pretended to be a good Jin uncle with a mission for her. And then he drowned her in the lake. Like a good uncle 🙄

Btw, it can also make tornado like wind 🌪️. Both Choi mage from the past and Bu-Yeon made it using the Ice Stone.
So it can make all elements 💧⛰️🔥🌪️ and can affect souls 👻. (It's The Fifth Element, guys! 🤣)
What's more interesting, when Choi mage summoned the tornado it showed him silouettes of two people - a man (Songrim founder?) and a blindfolded woman (Jin founder from the ritual?).
Maybe it can show the future? Maybe Bu-Yeon also saw something in it and that's why she was smiling? Like, that she will get soul shifted with Naksu?

-It can shift: ❄️->🔥->🌑->💧->❄️
-It can make black powder for soul shifting 💫
-It can raise dead people 👻(?)

P.S. I still think it's divine in origin. Like water dragon 🐉 divine. Maybe it has a whole water dragon inside, or part of it, or it is its egg. That water dragon in episode 1 wasn't shown just because.

-Murderer was a fish seller, he had an accomplice in girls kidnappings. That accomplice got killed in self-defense by FL’s mom when he almost killed a policeman who was searching the area for the girls. And that policeman instead of reporting it hid the body and told mom to stay quiet 🤦‍♂️
That policeman was also a childhood friend of the killer, they were from the same town. He didn’t suspect him until the killer also kidnapped him at the end and almost killed him. In the end that policeman got the location of the place the girl was buried from the killer who got imprisoned.
-The killer murdered not only the girl but also her father and buried them together. Why he kidnapped those girls was not revealed. But if he was a pedophile it is highly doubtful he could have stayed quiet for 18 years without repeated offense.
-ML and FL were going back and forth with their breaking up and making up. But in the end they got together and finally opened that damn restaurant with two other guys.
-SFL chef’s sister and other women murderer was not revealed. It was most likely the stalker dude who got killed by the fish seller killer and put in the same fridge again, but police probably got no conclusive evidence. Stalker got killed because he returned to that neighbourhood and knew the killer - when he was a kid he lured the girls to house the killer told him to for a gameboy.
-Police chief officer resigned because he haunted the wrong person (ex-piano teacher) all those years. That wronged person got together with his son policeman.
-Wronged person’s policeman son got back together with policewoman.
-FL’s mom and policeman who hid the body she killed all those years ago ambiguously stopped by the police station at the end maybe to give themselves in.

That’s about it.

I dropped it as well, read episodes recaps after and I don’t regret dropping it. It went downhill after eight episodes and never recovered by the looks of it. If you want an explanation of villains motives you’ll be disappointed, logic of some characters actions is also nonsensical. It’s not for analytical people, for sure. It’s more about food, emotions and romance. Link also is not explained, some mystical shit or smth. I would put Fridge in the title as the connecting link here instead, lol. Overall not as bad and meandering as Beyond Evil but episodes count could have easily been halved and nothing would be lost. I’ll have to keep in mind never to watch a drama where there is ML’s actor and someone’s sibling got murdered years ago.
Spoilers below:

Episode 8

Shaman Choi soul shifted into the Queen. So there is no picture of Shaman's real body yet. But the real Queen is still alive in Shaman's body somewhere, maybe we'll see it later.

My bet is next year. It takes a long time to make all those CGI, even with half the episode count.

He may have had some family related problems when he was younger, or simply decided to postpone serving until later, he's still young after all.

Or he'd served already but it wasn't anywhere as impressive as those other guys were bragging.

Mu-Deok/Bu-Yeon is still inside her body along with Naksu, something went wrong with that ritual. But Naksu is in control most of the time. But there were several scenes already where the real Mu-Deok/Bu-Yeon took over - sleepwalking scene, breaking the mirror scene, saving Uk from being soul shifted scene, saving herself from soul shifter scene.
The reason for that lies in Bu-Yeon's special birth involving the Ice Stone. She exhibits powers akin to it.

What is it with this ridiculous theory popping up time and again? Too many avid k-drama watchers who try to guess which cliche from past dramas can be applied to every character in this one?

1) Unless TSM married a man with a son of his own, her son should be younger than WYW. But it is known from other sources that JH is older than her.
2) TSM said her son is still finding himself, doesn't want to follow in her footsteps and spends most of his time at a computer. Doesn't fit any male character in Hanbada.
3) Her son would never be working in a rival law company, unless there is some altercation between them. Nothing points to that.

Yea, the body she inhabits protects her from soul shifters. Also, there were no side effects when Gil-Ju wounded her earlier.

Yea, maybe not locked up. But something's keeping him away from people, nobody has seen him. And if news don't reach him why would he be looking for the Ice Stone when he himself sealed it away (most likely in Jinyowon) before disappearing. He knows where it was supposed to be.

Anyway, he's trash. He was bad as a husband (blamed everything on his innocent wife), as a father (absentee father who left Uk all alone to live with shameful rumors and no future as a mage), as a leader (trusted Cheonbugwan into the hands of the villain).