Pokor

Sometimes even 12 or 8 episode dramas drop the ball by the end episodes, they really need to retire certain overdone formulaic tropes.

Noooooooo not Jae-su!!! Don't hurt him!

(preview also makes it seem like we'll get his story and he and Ji-hwan had a bloody past. Please make the noir short writernim and get rid of the villains fast and not drag this to the last minutes of 16. Totally unecessary, not to mention the more annoying trope than noble idiocy, the trope of plain and simple idicoy by the last few epsiodes, which Jihwan and gang were full of waiting for the inevitable to come knocking)

I thought it was Ji-hwan and Il-yeong who went about recruiting the main Deers themselves....That montage was for a joke but something about it rang true with how Hong-ki and Man-ho said that they were taken in. Dong-hui's story sounds like the factory lady's and after he dropped out, had some sort of record and was forced to leave the area he used to live in, this was probably the only place that he could apply and get housing. The official informant concept in a den of snakes as the risky thing I was talking about but if I recall right in the end Dong-hui never came through and it was Ji-hwan who tipped them off so the spy thread has no relevance anyway for the prosecutor and Dong-hui to be honest about it anymore.

Setting officer Song up with him at the end as a rebound isn't too good for her tho.

I mostly agree. Theres some gaps in the backstory too to not know exactly what the entire scenario was. But the brother was exactly like those milk carton throwers. The mom's conflict and pain was understandable even if she never sent that text but the brother was out for blood, shoved a completely innocent woman and it seemed it was all more about himself than justice for his sister. Its usually guilt with so many years. Or rage as he doesn't want to acknowledge, maybe part of him knows his sister died because she was being a typical teenager with her bf. He yells murder as if Dong-hui had criminal intent and it ends up looking like an over-reaction.

But maybe its narrative- this is the only backstory we are shown where a direct "victim/victim's family" confronts one of the Deers. With the variety of crimes the people working in Thirsty Deer are supposed to have done directly or some indirectly due to gang ties(even if the only ones we're told about are "clean"), its a bit on-the-nose about society with the brother and mother being two different types of reactions.

Suddenly remebered something. Prosecutor said he didn't want Dong-hui working at Thristy Deer because he didn't have a good opnion of Seo Ji-hwan but wasn't he the one who sent Dong-hui to spy on the conversations of what he considered a dangerous mob front? Or did the writers forget the rat storyline?

Dong-hui made my heart break. He was convicted, dropped out of school, was driven out of his neighbourhood, and he lost his girlfriend and lives with survivor's guilt and guilt for having caused the accident. This boy has been through so much. Its unfair and harsh to equate his offence with those who have more serious offences/with intent but irony is thank god he ended up hired at a company for ex-cons who see each other as one family.

And while their mannerisms are quite similar(the two actors did a great job of making them feel related) this is where Seo Ji-hwan is different from his father- he acts as a real emperor penguin father to his "Deer gang". His father is obsessed with his only (middle-aged)son without realising *that* is his downfall and weakness. And he first took in his son when he was 16 how did he raise him? If he thinks the betrayal was a good thing why does he care if his son has a girlfriend? Normal parents would like a grandson, a third generation successor, whats with him? I'm curious why he was passing off his gang to his successor all those years ago when he is still fit and fine. Yang-hee was the better solo villain for the drama- over the top, cat coded and unpredictable. Both together are however tiring especially if they all need to be reconciled or something.

Eun-ha's emotions were so raw and real I teared up. I love how natural all her emotions and expressions are. Surprisingly I ship Hong-ki and Ye-na, they fit well together with minimum screentime. The second couple's story is however something of a mess but I'm looking forward to seeing Ji-hwan meet Eun-ha's second parents and his little brother's to be in-laws.
Also the preview...are we Behind Your Touch?? Has that drama created a bunch of new tropes or is it the PTSD it has given so strong? FLs should stop going out stubbornly and hiding it and meeting the SMLs when danger lurks or they'll be a pile of people giving PTSD by the cliffhanger(even with different situations).

This Kdrama is reminding me of Love Between Fairy and Devil a lot. It was much longer and I never wanted to watch long series(>22 episodes) which isn't seasonal before that but I couldn't stop watchig and got so obsessed with it.

Me too. Two of them even directly betrayed the big boss with their Hyungnim and the others will also get pulled in now. They have all lived a normal life these past few years and want to continue but for the villains wanting revenge.

I liked Yang-hee because he was so funny, cat-themed and weak, dumb and sneaky and the whole cat-dog rivalry was comic but I'm frustrated by the scary obsessed dad who seems to be too all powerful. And all the parallels drawn in their mannerisms too...

That flashback scene where scared little girl started crying while he was trying to be sweet by giving her back her toy and making funny faces though. Also his drunk power rangers roleplay. The show is a bit on the nose about how children find them scary just because they are "bad men". They are well dressed ahjussis. No kid is really going to cry looking at these weird uncles(like especially Man-ho is so cute looking) if they aren't menacing looking like say Kang-gil the scarred mean guy.

I think in Korea its called Inyeon, its quite common elsewhere too and depending on where the what happens differs in details. The reincarnation/time travel thing must also be something not only KDramas but other dramas have them too. More honestly, having two men vying for the hand in a Cinderella fantasy is what gets on my nerves much more as they just cannot stop making the formulaic character roles every third KDrama not to mention the standard noble idiocy and tragic backstory in some. On the other hand theres plenty of KDramas that diverge from the mould making them stand out as brilliant. And at least this one is well done which is what is needed when so many others fail to make the typical formula sparkle becuase they just use it without putting in the effort to make it dramatic on screen.

This KDrama is based on a webnovel. Webnovels are basic like dime novels almost all with similar plot which are also similar in generic shojo manga so I can't blame KDramas alone where SML trope and the formulaic noble idiocy are also so rife and annoying yet typical. They could have erased the childhood connection which only had 3 year age gap, here they bring it 6 years to make it closer to both MLs real ages. Its odd their connection would be romantic as children at ages 7 and 13 so in way its ridiculous to see it as romantic in the start of childhood but as fate that they are fated to find each other just like how Hyun-woo and Ji-hwan are tied by fate of their coincidences too. The problem here is going forward I feel theres a potential of the trope being revealed cauing both noble idiocy maybe or will also effectively reduce her reasons for wanting to be together with him which otherwise would have been accepting him for himself. She already indirectly caused Man-ho to cover up his dragon tattoos while he was being himself before and even if the Deer gang love her as their found family uncondictionally makes her change of opinion a little one-sided.

Brother: In Dong-hui's backstory the girl's brother who saw him in the cafe and made him flee. Their video being uploaded online public's consequence maybe... The webtoon's name is "Playing with the hot gangster", one can find the eng translations using search. Its on a few pirat sites and the the translations can be slightly wonky. There isn't anything I found yet about the webnovel. Theres quite a bit of differences and like the Deers here are quite more like CLOY's Ducklings.

Hometown I feel can get weird in places even with some great actors' and the horror vibe but that was the first time I'd ever seen Uhm Tae-goo and he was so charismatic and scary and tragic and...I cannot describe it- his voice too was so hypnotic. I recently saw Save Me 2 and he is so good there too. He is an antihero there and has so much range. His action scenes are something else too- the way he moves in general too.

Since this is adapted from a webnovel/webtoon shes the typical villainess trope who keeps trying to sabotage FL out of envy and woo the ML she feels he deserves. Yena is competitive and a go-getter. But her levels I found it ridiculous her plan was doing advertising for their company even though she can't eat their product to get ML's attention.

In the recent episode Ji-hwan is given that parallel as Yena said that they are the type to do anything to survive. His father simply wanted to make him aware he was his father at 13 so that he'll come to him on his own one day and lets him go. Instead of that time he got kidnapped, 3 years later when he is 16 his mom is dying and he goes to his father for money himself, his father tells him this puts him in debt to him and he accepts that debt to him and tells Eun-ha taking his father's help and then joining him was his own choice. From Jae-su's (who was also in the gang) perpective everyone sees him forced into joining the gang with no choice because his father was determined to make him his sucessor. Even if traumatized Ji-hwan rationalizes everything as his own choice and mostly he seems ashamed and guilty of his past as a gangster that killed the Hyun-woo he used to be and wanted to be. In a way he buried his Hyun-woo self in the grave in their garden too and its too painful a subject for him.

I feel so too they went about developing the relation the wrong way around especially since he made a mistake about mistakes and then is making more mistakes about the usual "mistake"(baby) so the relationship is offputting even though they have great chemistry. Also they should have done the reveal about Il-yeong's past as an orphan(his talk with Ji-hwan paying his tuition and him being in a gang that young weren't clear at all) and clarified why he was a "player with no strings attached" earlier when they first called him a player than making this plotline.

The way I see it he has all the power in that situation and his sibling rivalry with Ji-hwan is such that whatever happens in that moment he thinks he'll "win" and he's all giddy because of that. I don't think he went there knowing Ji-hwan would show up right then and more like he went there because he wanted to malign Ji-hwan to his love interest and sending a message back. What we have seen is he wants to hurt Ji-hwan and possibly wants to see him dragged down by losing it and becoming what he hates once again. In this scneario Ji-hwan was desperate and about to lose it saying lets go somewehere private. By staying in this public place with witnesses, phone cameras and CCTVs, where they can at most have a scuffle but an actual fight/bloodbath will lead Ji-hwan to make that one mistake that will cost him everything he has built up till now(lose by losing it) so he knows the location is a major deterrent to him doing anything serious unlike his weak kitty shields because his own turf wasn't a deterrent to Ji-hwan. Yang-hee is the one person Ji-hwan is shown physically violent towards often even though he holds back otherwise(he did also accidentally choke Eun-ha that one time he thought she was an intruder maybe Yang-hee). And any of it in front of this woman will torture Ji-hwan mentally, which was possibly the original plan, planting the seeds of conflict between them and the fear and unhingedness he saw in Ji-hwan the day he first brought her up. Yang-hee guesses this woman is an ordinary citizen who has most likely never known the depths of his criminal past. He is sneaky and now also knows about SML's connection to FL. And by the final scene its clear his threat plan that fortuitously became one to one has really done the job of unsettling Ji-hwan.

I personally got put off by SML when he told Eun-ha "You're mistaken I don't get rejected" in episode 4 when talking about his old bad date who left him in the rain with the words "I'm the one rejecting you". No matter how materialistic his date was what they showed became ambiguous but mostly negative for him by framing it this way. Instead of making him say 'I don't get rejected' he should have clarified about not vibing with her but they didn't. This single line thus unfortunately colored my perception of him and I immediately recalled it seeing how he acted when he got rejected by FL. He applied the insight he heard from officer Song and reassured her so they can keep seeing each other but then he goes and ruins it all and says something entirely different to Seo Ji-hwan including how he assumes this will be a short stay for her, assessing fully well they are obviously together, and all because he will not let go of his prejudice of Seo Ji-hwan and beacuse he isn't giving up on pursuing her yet(even if its only because he truly believes that relationship will never work out and because she didn't fully reject him).

I keep thinking of the ML of Behind Your Touch who wasn't remotely an ideal guy at least(I liked his Lassiter-ness otherwise but for how he hounded SML even though the scriptwriters royally messed up), its this SML's holier than thou attitude with his prejudices against ML that never really progress every episode making it as nervewracking as Yena's harassment of FL(which ironically stems from Kang Yena being spiteful and envious due to her perceived FL's holier than thou purity) even though she barely appears in a few episodes(this KDrama is idealistic and so everyone will be friends by end but still the journey is too ardurous). Kang Yena is also like SML and BYT's ML in that they are all correct in what they are warning about and concerned about, but of course fools in love don't want to listen and the universe doesn't want to devote time to allow for slow relationship developments and big stakes must play out along with every variety of idiocy(goguma) especially on the main leads parts. Yena is unfortunately a typical web novel villainess(actually shes not as bad but we are only shown that perpective whenever we see her)whose role is only to move the plot but seeing her interact with Hong-ki made me wish they could have given us proper moments of her. And thats my other problem with SML he has too much screentime when I'm comparing notes on a certain thing. If Hong-ki and Il-yeong's backstories can be done that concise why drag out Dong-hui's to keep bringing in the SML back to make it about him interacting with FL and ML(this cliffhanger too ends on a note implying that SML might head to their offices and this is the brother of that girl but I hope I'm wrong about the SML arriving there). I love the Deer gang so much I really wish we could have had more about them by themselves, we didn't even hear their self-introductions and FL tells SML about their hilarious maths lesson(thus he ate up one of their moments from the webtoon for character development) but we never see any of the lessons proper unlike in the webtoon. The KDrama completely skips out on fleshing out the Deers and their backgrounds despite giving them names(and only something small in their character intros) unlike the webtoon. Reading the webtoon(which is only translated till ch 20) theres many aspects I feel the KDrama missed with some important points by deleting or rearranging things especially the lead's actual perspective outside of silent brooding.