This review may contain spoilers
Park Bo-Young takes up the usual challenge faced by actresses: playing two roles at the same time. She changes her posture, her intonation, her facial expression, her habitus. It's confounding. She goes even further and plays two characters playing each other's roles.
Park Jin-young, you're perfect, go on.
"I feel like I've removed an invisible mask".
Injuring yourself rather than going to work - it's a sad thought for many of us. Yu Mi-rae's job is really awful. It's perfectly normal for bosses to be scum, that's why they're there, they're parasitic filth on the backs of the workers, but what about her stupid colleagues ? Don't unions exist in this universe ? You have to have the mentality of servants and cowards to be so relentless. And HR, they tell us to talk to them if there's the slightest problem... it will always piss me off how much they take us for morons. Don't believe them.
Bore out is terrible, torture for a lot of people; I have to admit that I've never been as fulfilled (in a manner of speaking) as when I was put in jobs where I could read all day without seeing anyone (disabled people are often isolated and shown the exit door).
"The door closed again"
This is a beautiful series, fuelled by kindness. Deep down, everyone is kind. Sometimes we are so bad that we hurt those around us, we become a ball of anger, unable to receive help, but there is a part of light in all of us. The only enemy in this story is this society that breaks us down thanks to those who profit from it. We cry a lot for and with the characters. Always with good reason. In fact, we cry even when these people are happy, genuinely upset at the idea that they are allowing themselves a moment of happiness.
"No matter how pathetic or messy it seems, anything you do to survive is brave" How can you not burst into tears after that ?
The poem invented for the series "The Sea of Sang-Wol" by Kim Ro-Sa brings tears to the eyes, so right and beautiful is its simplicity. The most extreme of sophistication: simple and beautiful. And her story goes straight to the heart. "I was the flaw. Without me in the picture, everything would be perfect" This declaration of love, left hanging in the air for decades and decades... you can't help but break down. So beautiful, so sad. We'd love happy stories for female couples, but the times in which this is happening didn't allow it. Not that it's any easier these days, that said...
"The void left by doubt ended up being filled with courage"
Everything is structured by a strict opposition : town/country, obnoxious/laxist boss, friends who listen/selfish, empathetic/vindictive mother ; and then we discover that these two mothers are broken, that they manage as best they can and their tumultuous friendship helps them grow. Each element takes its own course and feeds the deeply positive and consoling message that the series is so keen to deliver.
In the case of the twins, my initial fear that everything would be based on a teenage misunderstanding was quickly dispelled, and fortunately we're shown that the ground was fertile for depression, and that's by no means the only reason for their situations.
The parallels between teenage and adult life are often devastating. The characters recognise themselves in the misfortune of others and the inevitable decisions that life imposes on us, from which nothing positive can come. Love is never about winning or losing, it's about staying in the same team. You see yourself as a burden, but you help the others not to capsize.
"Why do I end up attacking myself when I should be defending myself?"
The roles of the main characters evolve, we're not taken for fools and everything ends up leading to something, taking care to spare its effects. The script and dialogue are simply perfect. Every monologue at the beginning and end of the episode breaks our hearts. We're not offered a magic solution, we're shown how to move forward one step at a time, a new blank page to fill.
"There is no perfect moment. Nothing is perfect in this world."
Ps: in a role as a wheelchair-bound disabled person, it would have made sense to cast someone who actually is, because it's much harder to find a role in that situation, for all the wrong reasons. Many roles wouldn't even require comedians to be able-bodied and yet disabled people are denied these roles.
Ps 2: Yu Mi-Ji is wearing a t-shirt that says "vos vêtements préférés/your favourite clothes" in French with a nice spelling mistake.
Park Jin-young, you're perfect, go on.
"I feel like I've removed an invisible mask".
Injuring yourself rather than going to work - it's a sad thought for many of us. Yu Mi-rae's job is really awful. It's perfectly normal for bosses to be scum, that's why they're there, they're parasitic filth on the backs of the workers, but what about her stupid colleagues ? Don't unions exist in this universe ? You have to have the mentality of servants and cowards to be so relentless. And HR, they tell us to talk to them if there's the slightest problem... it will always piss me off how much they take us for morons. Don't believe them.
Bore out is terrible, torture for a lot of people; I have to admit that I've never been as fulfilled (in a manner of speaking) as when I was put in jobs where I could read all day without seeing anyone (disabled people are often isolated and shown the exit door).
"The door closed again"
This is a beautiful series, fuelled by kindness. Deep down, everyone is kind. Sometimes we are so bad that we hurt those around us, we become a ball of anger, unable to receive help, but there is a part of light in all of us. The only enemy in this story is this society that breaks us down thanks to those who profit from it. We cry a lot for and with the characters. Always with good reason. In fact, we cry even when these people are happy, genuinely upset at the idea that they are allowing themselves a moment of happiness.
"No matter how pathetic or messy it seems, anything you do to survive is brave" How can you not burst into tears after that ?
The poem invented for the series "The Sea of Sang-Wol" by Kim Ro-Sa brings tears to the eyes, so right and beautiful is its simplicity. The most extreme of sophistication: simple and beautiful. And her story goes straight to the heart. "I was the flaw. Without me in the picture, everything would be perfect" This declaration of love, left hanging in the air for decades and decades... you can't help but break down. So beautiful, so sad. We'd love happy stories for female couples, but the times in which this is happening didn't allow it. Not that it's any easier these days, that said...
"The void left by doubt ended up being filled with courage"
Everything is structured by a strict opposition : town/country, obnoxious/laxist boss, friends who listen/selfish, empathetic/vindictive mother ; and then we discover that these two mothers are broken, that they manage as best they can and their tumultuous friendship helps them grow. Each element takes its own course and feeds the deeply positive and consoling message that the series is so keen to deliver.
In the case of the twins, my initial fear that everything would be based on a teenage misunderstanding was quickly dispelled, and fortunately we're shown that the ground was fertile for depression, and that's by no means the only reason for their situations.
The parallels between teenage and adult life are often devastating. The characters recognise themselves in the misfortune of others and the inevitable decisions that life imposes on us, from which nothing positive can come. Love is never about winning or losing, it's about staying in the same team. You see yourself as a burden, but you help the others not to capsize.
"Why do I end up attacking myself when I should be defending myself?"
The roles of the main characters evolve, we're not taken for fools and everything ends up leading to something, taking care to spare its effects. The script and dialogue are simply perfect. Every monologue at the beginning and end of the episode breaks our hearts. We're not offered a magic solution, we're shown how to move forward one step at a time, a new blank page to fill.
"There is no perfect moment. Nothing is perfect in this world."
Ps: in a role as a wheelchair-bound disabled person, it would have made sense to cast someone who actually is, because it's much harder to find a role in that situation, for all the wrong reasons. Many roles wouldn't even require comedians to be able-bodied and yet disabled people are denied these roles.
Ps 2: Yu Mi-Ji is wearing a t-shirt that says "vos vêtements préférés/your favourite clothes" in French with a nice spelling mistake.
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