Spotlight: Just Between Lovers

S2 E29 / Shannon, children’s librarian and podcaster (Banchan Bite Sized K-drama Reviews)  joins me to talk about the Kdrama classic, Just Between Lovers, a drama we both absolutely loved despite its heavy topics of trauma and guilt. 

❤️‍🩹 We explore what makes this drama so special: nuanced characters, found family galore, standout music, unconventional story choices, scruffy-handsome Lee Junho, and our takes on that ending. 

✋ After a short non-spoiler section, we dive into Just Between Lovers, talking about anything and everything! 

Currently Watching and Other Shows Discussed: 

• Typhoon Family
• Would You Marry Me?
• Romantics Anonymous
• Ms. Incognito
• Cinderella Closet
• Romantics Anonymous
• Ms. Incognito

Shannon’s Podcast: https://pod.link/1839465628

Shannon’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/banchankdramapod

Comfort Watches and Palette Cleansers with Shannon https://howimetmykdrama.buzzsprout.com/2435348/episodes/17898269

Articles:

Production of the drama:

https://www.soompi.com/article/1090223wpp/just-lovers-pd-shares-decided-cast-2pms-junho-won-jin-ah

https://www.koreaherald.com/article/1556450

Interview with screenwriter: https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=102205 (in Korean)

Transcript

Just Between Lovers

SPEAKER_00 0:10

I'm Sarah Rosette and today Shannon from the Bonchon Bite-sized K-Drama Reviews podcast is here. And we're doing a spotlight on the classic K-drama just between lovers, which is also known as Rain or Shine. Hi Shannon. How are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Great. How are you?

Meet Shannon

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Good. Shannon, you were on a previous episode. I don't have the number, but I will link to it in the show notes. So if people, you know, want to go back and listen to that, and I'll link to your podcast so people can find that too. But just give a quick short bio about who you are and your podcast to kind of catch people up if they haven't heard the other episode.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Sure. Yeah. So quick bio about me. I'm a children's librarian. I live in Rhode Island in the US. I am a mom to a human and to two cat babies. And yeah, I'm a K-drama obsessive. So that's why I started my own podcast to help out the other obsessives. So my podcast, Bonchan Bite-sized K-drama reviews, is aimed to give short reviews, spoiler-free reviews for people who are looking for their next watch. So if you're not sure if you want to press play on a drama, uh, this might help you make up your mind whether it's for you or not. And um, yeah, I like to keep it short because you know people are busy. It's really fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

And yeah, and it's hard to delve in and not give spoilers, as we were just talking about before we started recording. We're gonna try and do a non-spoiler section. But if you want to talk about a drama for a long amount of time, you kind of need to get into spoilers. So I think that's a good system. So let's talk about what are we currently watching? What are you watching or recently finished?

SPEAKER_01 1:44

I am currently uh keeping up with Typhoon Family, which also stars I Jun Ho. And it's been, I think, a bright spot in my K-drama watching year. I nothing has really grabbed me as much as this drama has. So I'm I'm really excited about it and I will look forward to watching it every week. I'm also watching Would You Marry Me, which is a pretty cute rom-com. I think it's one of the better rom-coms that we've had this year. I really enjoy the two leads, Che and Jang So Min. Is that her name?

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Yeah, I think that's it.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

They're really, really good together. So I'm enjoying the drama for that. And I just today finished a J drama, Cinderella Closet. So it's actually the only the second J drama that I've ever watched. Yeah. Um, I really like this one. It was super cute, short, very sweet. And I think it had something interesting to say about gender and loving a person and not the outside and you know, just making choices that suit us as people. It was a really nice drama. I liked it.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Yeah, I haven't watched that one, but I do like J dramas. I heard somebody say today that something about they're watching when it was really thought-provoking. And I was like, Yes, they the J dramas, even rom coms, they do bring up these questions that you just think that cause you to think the way things are presented. I enjoy them for that. And I also like that they're a little bit shorter. It feels like they cut out the boring parts.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Yeah, this one was only 12 episodes long, but 20-minute episodes. So yeah, it just flew by and it focused primarily on the romance in it, which is nice to focus on that instead of all these other side plots. Downside of that though, is they did like introduce something to the plot for like five minutes and then it was gone. Well, that was it. That was the end of it.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

And you yeah, and I I can see how if you had a character introduced and you wanted more, you might be like, Oh, I wish I had another episode or another 40 minutes instead of 20 minutes or whatever to explore that.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Yeah, I could see areas where it could have been fleshed out, but you know what, it was totally fine with the 12 episodes at 20 minutes long. I think you know, it always runs the chance of becoming too much with the filler, like it just can ruin it. So I think in this case it was it was just enough.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Yeah, well, that's good. Yeah, I haven't watched that one, but our watch lists are very similar because I'm watching Typhoon Family, really enjoying it. I'm loving like the throwback vibes, the the whole the in the look of it is kind of vintage. Don't you feel like it's kind of got just a little touch of sepia to it? And it feels like a more of like an older K-drama, a classic K-drama. Do you feel that way?

SPEAKER_01 4:34

I do. Yeah, they did an excellent job setting the scene and making it feel like you said, vintage. And I think a lot of that is the set dressing. They did a really excellent job with their props and just how everything looks. I saw something, I forget if it was on YouTube or Instagram or something, where they covered I wasn't I didn't see soul in the late 90s. I wouldn't see it in the present day. I have not been there, but um, they showed how they altered, they like put these old signs in, just like as an establishing shot, like highway signs, because they're they I guess they look different now. So it just kind of especially for anyone that was there in the 90s, like this is really gonna help establish a time and place. And for us, it just kind of helps to set the scene, give us that look, that 90s look and vibe to it. So it was it's cool. Yeah, they did a great job. I you know, I love seeing the old style monitors on the desk. Not everyone with one desk had a computer.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

I know, and what and one person ran the computer, and then like when they did all the math calculations by hand or with the lining the page with a ruler and spreadsheet, basically, yeah. And there's another scene where they're looking through the newspaper, and I think later on, as you get into it, they have like a newspaper clippings book where they have he's reading through these clippings, searching for something, and I was like, man, times have changed so much. You don't feel like it has changed that much, but that and the fax machine being the way you communicate, and it does feel like it's a whole nother era, doesn't it, when you watch it?

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Yes, but I will say, as you know, working in a public library, there are still a lot of people that come in and use our fax machines. There are still places that require you to fax, and it's like, why in the year 2025? Are you still doing this?

SPEAKER_02 6:27

I know.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

And whatever we have, we have a couple binders where we would cut clippings of things that happened in the library, um, you know, events that we had or whatever. We don't do it anymore, but it is fun to just go back clippings. Yeah, now it's like it's true. I think maybe we save them digitally. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Yeah, I'm really enjoying it. And I'm like, I like the story. I feel like I could do it with a little less of the focus on the bad guys, the uh antagonist, because I'm there are people that I'm interested in in the story. I want more from the people in his life and her life. And I was like, let's if we could dial that back just a little bit, the antagonist's plot line. And and I know we gotta have an antagonist, but at least there's no murder, no one's being investigated. So far, we're pretty far in.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

I want to see them get more wins, you know. So far it's been a lot of struggle. I want, but I mean it's 16 episodes, so yeah, hopefully that's coming soon because there are some really great moments between the two leads, like just these little snippets that are just like very sweet, so sweet. I love it. I want more of that.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

I know me too. Yeah. So I'm watching that and really enjoying that as well. To me, it also reminds me a little bit of Miesang because it meang had that same kind of thing where you were really rooting for the people in the office and they seem to get beaten down a lot. And I'm wondering if they kind of if they modeled this a little bit on that type of structure since it's more about the office. Yeah. Because I enjoyed Miesang, but after a while, I was like, man, let these people win at least one so we can see. But anyway, so I'm watching that and uh watching Would You Marry Me, which is I'm having a great time watching that. It's very light and funny. I was re-watching just between lovers and catching up in between on Would You Marry Me. Total, total tone shift. It was kind of nice to go, you know, light and fluffy for a while. So I enjoyed that. Yeah, and um, I finished up a J drama Romantics Anonymous.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Oh, I watched that too.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Yeah, yeah, it was really good. I had some quibbles with a few turns the story took at the end. You may know what I'm thinking of. I won't say it because I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but overall I really enjoyed that. And then I also finished Miss Incognito, which how was that? I I really liked it overall, but the last couple of episodes we were traveling, and so I was watching bits and pieces here and there, and I don't feel like I got the full experience of it. So I think I'll go back and maybe re-watch the last couple of episodes just straight through. I enjoyed it overall. I definitely recommend it. There were some things that looking back then, I think I didn't get some of the I thought there would be more romance vibes in part of it that that seemed to be kind of turned down in the last part of the last part of the series. And I was expecting there to be more of that, but I still enjoyed it a lot. So it's expectations, but it did have a very thriller feeling to it when it started, so that it definitely had thriller at the end as well. So depends on what you're looking for, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Yeah, yeah. I always prefer more romance than not, but I also that's how I felt about Law in the City, which is a totally different genre. But I felt they gave us a lot of romance, and then all of a sudden the last couple episodes it just dropped off. I just that makes me so so wonderful. Okay, turned off the faucet.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Yeah, getting a lot, and you're done.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Exactly. And I would rather keep that faucet running.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Yeah. So, okay, well, let's get into just between lovers. I'm gonna do a short summary that I had perplexity to do for me because it's not too long and rambly. So I'll read that and then we'll talk about the leads and short non-spoiler section if we can, and then we'll probably just dive into the spoiler section. So here's the summary. Uh, just between lovers is about two survivors of a building collapse who, haunted by their losses and grief, find comfort, hope, and healing as they rebuild their lives. So that's pretty generic.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

It's hard to get more specific than that without spoilers. Yeah, it is.

Non-Spoiler Section

SPEAKER_00 10:30

And thus ends the spoiler section. Okay, so we've got the uh two leads, Jun Ho, who was also in Good Manager, Walk of Love, The Red Sleeve, King of Land, and currently Typhoon Family. And this was his first main lead role. And the family lead is Wan Jia, I believe is how you pronounce that. She was in Melting Me Softly, She Would Never Know, and recently The Defects. And this was her debut role. And I found an article that talked about the casting of this, and she auditioned with around 120 other rookie actresses, and she won this role. I mean, that's really amazing because you think about most K-drama actresses. I feel like they start out as a second lead, and they're in a couple shows of second lead, and then they may get a lead role after a while.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

But right, like they have to work their way up to it.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

Yeah, so two. This was the uh first lead role for both of them, and first K-drama role for Wangia. And then the screenwriter is, I believe, you rock, and she also wrote Secret, Reflection of You, and Hyde. So I have kind of a shorter list. I saw, I watched Hyde and I was so excited because I really loved Just Between Lovers. And Hyde is very much a thriller, and I found it very disappointing. I'll just say that. I haven't seen the other two. And there's a couple, I think she's done another movie or special as well. So she hasn't done a whole lot, but yeah, I just think it's interesting to look at what other people what they've been in and what they've written. So non-spoilery thoughts. What are your thoughts on this in general? And if you have a rating or ranking, do you do those?

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Uh, I do on my podcast. Uh I would easily give this one. I rate out of finger hearts. So I I would give this one a 10 out of 10 finger hearts because yeah, even on my rewatch, it was just so well done. It's so hard to believe that this was Iun ho's first main lead role because he absolutely nails it. I mean, for me, he is the highlight of this drama, the way he built this character from the way he walks to literally to how he talks, because he pitched his voice down lower for this role. That's not his normal, he doesn't he made it lower. That's not his normal talking voice, and it's consistent throughout the whole drama, uh, except when he yells, which isn't very often for his character, but when he has to get loud, it resorts back to his normal tone. And I read an article about him talking about how he did purposefully lower his voice for this role, and you can just see the thought he put into who this character was. I think he also said that he went and like lived alone in an apartment in Pusan to like get the feeling of what it was like to be lonely and and just put himself in the role of Yeah, I saw that too.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

And he said he had some difficulties, I guess afterwards or maybe during while he was doing that, where it was difficult for him. And he's you know, I can't imagine what this is like for someone who's really gone through this, but you know, he felt some of that and could use that. And so I I thought that was very interesting.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Yeah, it really shows his effort, really shows. And I think it's also surprising that Wan Jinnah, you know, this is not only just her first lead role, but also her first he drama role. Because I know I've seen other people like their complaints are that she doesn't really match I Jin-ho in like acting-wise. I I I thought she did a great job, you know, for her character. Her character, you know, is totally different than Gongdu. And I thought I thought everything she did was believable, and she did a good job at making me feel for her. And I think that means she succeeded at her job.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Yeah, yeah, I agree on all those things. I mean, I would also give it a 10 out of 10. I'm a very generous greater, I guess you'd say. Because if I finish something, I'm I mean, if I don't like it, I'm probably not gonna finish it now. Like in the beginning, I would have, when I first started watching K Dramas, I would have probably finished some, I did finish some things that I was like, yeah, I should have dropped that. But now if I finish it, it means I enjoyed it. And there was something about it that I enjoyed. So, but for me, this is when when I re-watched it for this, I thought, because I I watched it early on, and then I there was a time after that that I couldn't find anything to watch. And I was like, you know, I love that so much. Let me go back and see if I still loved it. So I've rewatched it then, and then I rewatched it for this, and I was just gonna skim and kind of catch up and make sure I remembered everything. And I just got so into it, I just couldn't skim. I was like, oh, this is a good kid. I love this scene, I love this dialogue, I want to watch this. So I think that's a sign that even though I knew where the story was going and I remembered a lot of the dialogue, I I enjoyed it, even though it's such a heavy topic, it's such a strange combination because it really triggered warning for survival guilt, trauma, tragedy, death, all those things. But at the same time, it's one of my top dramas. Like I have mentally, like I have a list of these are great. I can rank them like these are superlative. And then these are great, still great. But this is one of mine that I'm like, I feel like the characters, the structure, the story, and just the dialogue, the acting, the cinematography. I mean, it's just all done so well and music, it's just amazing. So yeah, it all I loved it.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

You're right, it's weird. Like, I also really enjoyed watching it. This is this was my second rewatch, and I really enjoyed watching it, which is weird to say about a drama with people dealing with grief and trauma and PTSD and dealing with family who are also dealing with the same things, and it's like those are really heavy topics, and this drama doesn't make light of those, like it deals with them very seriously, but there's just something really nice about watching like such a good like quality drama. Um, yeah, it's it's also you know, one of my top, probably one of my top five dramas. Um, though this is my first rewatch. Are you a big rewatcher? Do you go back and not a lot?

SPEAKER_00 16:56

No, I feel like there's still so many things to watch that I don't normally go back. I may go back and rewatch a scene or two, but I do kind of want to keep sampling things. I don't really watch a lot, but I I agree that like I know there's been criticism, chrism criticism of the lead, the female lead, Wan Xia, that that she was too flat, I think is one of the criticisms. But I feel like the Gang Doo character, he's so intense. He has an intensity and a self-confidence. Even when he's beat-up construction worker, laborer, he still has the respect of those around him. And I feel like she is such a completely different character. She's very bottled up and very repressed. Like all of her feelings are repressed, and all of his feelings are at the surface, pretty much. Yeah, he's like an open wound. Yes, he is. And he's very reckless and she's very controlled. And so I feel like that was perfectly in keeping with the characters that are portraying. This time when I rewatched it, I was I intentionally watched for that because I knew that was a criticism that I wasn't aware of the first time I watched it. And there was not a scene where I didn't couldn't see what she was feeling. A lot of times it was very suppressed, but I always knew. And then when she had her moments where she had where she let herself go and had an emotional outburst, it was like, you know, those crying scenes she had, they were gut-wrenching.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

Right. Yeah, and I think that has to do with let's see if I can say this without giving any spoilers, but let's say memory, who remembers what? And yes, yes, he remembers a lot more than she does. And I think we're gonna say this in one let's just wrap it up.

Spoiler Section

SPEAKER_00 18:32

Let's just wrap this up because we've kind of given our ratings, we've sold it as much as we can without really getting specific. So this is the end of this is the spoiler-free section.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

All right, well, I'll just say as so he remembers the entire accident, the the mall collapsing, them being trapped. He Gongdu was trapped for seven days in the collapsed building, and he remembers like every minute of it. And he was trapped with another person who died, and then so then he's then trapped there with a dead body. Um, she was rescued on day three, but I think it was as she was getting rescued, like she hit her head, and then she lost her memory. She doesn't remember any of it, any of the time she spent trapped with Gong Du. And so I think that is really reflected in their personalities why Gong Du is so much more of an open wound, and she is very repressed. And I think as the drama goes on, she starts to gain back those memories. And as she does, she starts letting out more and more of the emotion. She has a big blow-up with her mom about it, and they both kind of like say some things back and forth to each other that kind of hurt each other, but that comes like towards the end, around the time she's also regaining all of her memories of that time. So I feel like story-wise, it really worked. Makes sense. Yeah, yeah, it makes sense. It makes sense for her to be more of a repressed kind of personality.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

And um and she had a quiet personality anyway. She was not in your face. So I can see how if you if a character was quiet and that all this had happened to them, and she had such guilt that she just pulled everything in and tried to be really good, tried to be a good person because she felt like she was a bad person. Right. Yeah. So I could see how that might be the outcome of that. That might be how a person would act if they went through something like this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Especially one of the things I noted down. I didn't the only quote I wrote down was she says to her sister, right before she goes up to the the ice cream shop to meet her the boy she was interested in. She says, If you follow me, you'll die. And or if you follow me, you're going to die.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Um totally something a sister or a sibling would say to another sibling. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

Like, don't follow me or you're dead. Yeah. And then of course, you know, what actually happens is, you know, her sister didn't follow her and then ends up dying. I mean, there's nothing to say that her sister would have survived if they had stayed together, but yeah. That has, you know, knowing that she said that to her sister has to affect her deeply.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

Yeah. And I I really liked the little details about their characters. Um, how I mentioned this, I think, either in our podcast or another one that we've that's on the feed is that like when he goes to buy the umbrella and it's not raining and he says it's going to because he has the ache in his leg because he knows the weather's changing. And I like the detail of her, like she wouldn't let herself, she didn't wear makeup and she didn't eat anything sweet. So she was punishing herself for these things that had happened. And he was also punishing himself, but he was putting himself continually in situations where he would get beat up and he would have physical injuries. And you couldn't see her injuries, but you could see his, but she had them too. And I just love the attention to detail for their characters.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

And I think, um, was it the grandmother says something like that? To him, or was it the older the Nuna where she someone says to him, like, just uh you might have written I think I wrote it down that just because someone doesn't cry loud?

SPEAKER_00 22:11

Let me find it. Because I how do you know she's comfortable? Just because the sound of your cry is louder, it doesn't mean your pain is greater. Yeah, and I think that was the grandmother.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

That totally that's their characters. His pain is loud and hers is quiet.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Yeah. So what about the second leads? Um, we have Ju Wan, who is the architect, and Yu Jin, who is the younger sister of the director of a company who is building, is rebuilding on this site. So I guess I should say, real quickly, in case someone's listening to this and if they haven't watched it and they're exploring the spoiler section, um, the there was a shopping mall that collapsed in the past that the two main characters were trapped in. They they were trapped, and each one of them also had someone, a significant other, die in that collapse. So they're, you know, just as much tragedy as possible could be had for them, these two characters. Yeah. And so now we've jumped ahead 10 years. This drama takes place 10 years later, where the uh director of this company, this construction company, is building a new building. They're gonna have a memorial park and a building around this at this site.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

They're calling it Biotown, which sounds like it's some kind of and it like they have a section for senior people to live. And it sounds like they're building like a whole community that's gonna have a lot of stuff going on, yeah, like a whole complex that yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

So it's gonna have probably. I wondered if uh in the states where we live, they call that a planned urban development where you've got different types of housing and then shopping and everything kind of in walking distance, supposedly. Yeah, probably. So, anyway, the second female lead, the character is Eugen, and she is the younger sister of the director of the construction company. So, what did you think about these two characters? The second leads.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

They weren't my favorite secondary characters in the drama.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

I feel like I'm laughing because that was the same reaction to me.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

I mean, they're just a little I mean, Kong Hana always gets stuck playing these characters, she's just always the one who's there to ruin someone's relationship.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

She's like there's a throw the wrench into the yeah, the plans.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

Yeah, they always have she always has to look angry. I don't know, I feel bad. Like she, I want her to see her play someone happy who is not there to be a spoiled princess ruining everything. And he woo plays Juan, the architect. He was just cardboard like to me. I don't know, he didn't show much of it.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Yeah, milk toast. I mean, I think he was supposed to be a really green flag character, right? And but for me, he did not come across that way. And there's a point, I mean, he really falls for uh Moon Tzu, and he and I think he likes her standards, like she has these standards and these convictions, and she's not going to compromise in the architecture world because that's what she does. She builds the models, and he I think he finds that very attractive, he's fascinated by her. But about that halfway point in the drama when he confesses to her that he's very interested in her, it just became very icky to me. I was like, This is like when like an office romance goes bad, and it's just I was like, this is borderline sexual harassment. Yeah, as a reviewer in 2025. That's how I felt.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

Yeah, absolutely. I was like, I couldn't get out of the back of my mind, like, you're her boss. Like, I don't know. For some reason, I can forgive that in drama's like uh business proposal. Like he was also there, but something about this, maybe it's because they're it's not a big corporation, it's a small smaller. Like he did favor her in the office by like giving her projects that she technically wasn't qualified to do, but like because he believed in her, he gave it to her. Um, I don't know if they were setting up for at least in the beginning, for him to be a green flag, and we're supposed to think Gong Du is a red flag because I didn't do a good job of that. Because like I specifically remember in episode three when Gong Du meets her wheelchair-bound best friend, he and she needs help getting into the taxi. He specifically says, like, is it okay if I touch you? And I was like, I like melted at that scene because he was just like, like, that is green flag behavior. Like, when you ask before helping someone out of their wheelchair, like, can I touch you? Like, ask first. That's such I mean, that is what you should do. And if they wanted him to look like a red flag, they failed because that is green flag behavior right there.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

I know. And he asks, he stops first, and just that he's stopping and willing to help, where most people would not.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

And then I think even before that, when he is with, I can't remember, I think it's in the first episode where he you see him with Sang Sangman. Yeah, is that he say the name, the character's name?

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Song Songmon.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

Songmon. Yeah. I don't know. When you see him, when you see them together, he's he's very kind to him, he's taking care of him, but he's not, he doesn't treat him in a childish way. He right, he's very much acknowledges that he is a person in his own right. And I was like, oh my goodness. I think that his exterior looks like he would be a rough red flag type person, but they have lots of conversations about the bad boy and don't fall for the bad boy. And then you find out almost immediately that he appears to be, but he's really not.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

Yeah. So that's that is a big part of the drama. Like, even her mom judges him, like, oh, he, you know, he's not the type of guy I want for you. She wanted her to date her boss. Um weird, but okay. Yeah. Um, and yeah, he gets a lot of judgment for the way he looks. Although you'll you'll never convince me that Yi Jun Ho is just not a gorgeous man, like even with the frizzy, kind of curly, yeah, reddish hair, orangey hair. Yeah, you cannot make it that everyone in this world looks at him and does not think, wow, that is a good looking guy. Although the makeup artist covered hit the little freckle on the nose. I'm so sad. I'm like, why did you cover that up?

SPEAKER_00 28:21

Oh, I noticed that too. Yeah, I thought that was interesting. Um, so uh just going back to the to the main leads and the second leads. I did think it was interesting that really there's a friendship that forms between Gongdu and Yu Jin, and then there's a friendship that forms between Lun Su and Juan early on. I it didn't grist me out early on because it seemed like he was interested in her, but he was more mentor boss relationship. But anyway, I thought it was interesting that instead of getting the typical love triangle things that we often get, they seemed to play with that and hint at it because there were times that they would meet up and they would see each other with these other people. And it you could see the jealousy or the oh, I don't like that. Why do I not like that? And um, I just thought that was some interesting choices that they made.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

Yeah, I thought it was an interesting way to take it to, and I I think it helped me like Yujin more and her involvement in the story because she was not trying to get to Gangdu. She was actually trying to get to Juan. Um, and so she was actually rooting for them to get together, so she wasn't there to cause problems specifically for them, and wasn't she wasn't mean to Moon Soo, like she wasn't especially overly friendly or anything.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

Yeah, there were a few times where she seemed to be kind of thrown around her way at like you do this form right now, just because she could, you know. But by the end of the drama, I actually liked what they did with her character at the end, how you know she didn't get her romantic happy ending, but she became the chairman, director, yeah, whatever. And she was really good at her job, she was really good at being responsible. And and that was a good, not like a happy ending for her, but I felt like you don't really see that normally for a female character. So that was refreshing.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

Right. Normally, you know, if there's a second couple, usually they end up together. And I'm glad that they didn't because for you know, most of this drama, Juan was like, No, I don't want to get back together with you. Like, this isn't this isn't what I want. This isn't, you know, it too much has passed, too much has affected how he feels about her, and he doesn't want to go there again. And so I think it would have been really disingenuous if they did end up together at the end. So I'm it wouldn't have felt okay with that.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Yeah, yeah. Well, what about one of my questions? Was what minor character was a favorite for you?

SPEAKER_01 30:47

I loved Songmon. Gang Du's in there. I that like you mentioned, like Gong Du treated him with such respect, even I we don't really know what's going on with Song Mon, like, what does he do in his daily life? We don't really know, he is so sweet, and the way he like quotes comic books at them. He's just accepting of Moon Sioux and just kind of includes her, like what you know, and when they fought, or when they were, you know, Gong Doo was pushing her away, and he was like, You need to apologize. The apologies need to happen right away. Like, it was just he was so great. And I think one of my favorite scenes in the whole drama is when they go suit shopping. Yeah, there's like montage of them trying on suits, and they just look so adorable. And it's just I love that Gong Du did that for Songmon. Like, just was like, Hey, I got some money, I'm gonna go buy myself a suit. Let's go buy you a suit too. And it was just I love that.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

And another reason I love that scene is because it's taking some of those rom-com tropes and flipping it, because normally it would be the girl getting the makeover, and it's the two guys and they go shopping together and they pick out their clothes, their nice suits and their long wool coats together, and they look so sharp, you know. So, yeah, there that one I liked, and then there were some other there were a couple other things like she reaches over and puts the seatbelt on Gangdu in the car. And they and I think when she she kisses him first when she's drunk and drunk, yeah, and he does the fisheye thing instead of the girl doing the fisheye thing during the kiss, which I don't like those, but it was nice to see some reversals like that. I thought that was fun.

SPEAKER_01 32:25

Yeah, I really like that they played with that. I liked her best friend, Wan Jin. I think that name I liked her a lot too. Um, I thought she was a good friend from Moon Tzu. I liked her little side romance story there with the um very adorable Kim and Q. He's very adorable, and I liked the two of them together. And I liked that we got some disability rep in this drama. And like it's actually, you know, even touched on a little bit with the building that she owns and the cafe that was in there didn't have a ramp, so she wouldn't get into it. So that's when we find out that she actually is from a rich family because she calls up like someone and is like, hey, when this when this when is this because they're not treating the public correctly, yeah. I loved that.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

If only we could all do that, but yeah, I did like how we we saw all these different types of injury and disability. She was in a wheelchair. Songman had, you know, some mental impairments where he was able to function pretty well, but he did have some limitations on what he could do. And they watched out for him. Yeah, he was very childish and they watched out for him. And then we had um even the architect Ji Wan, when he meets the the hominy or the granny. I'm gonna call her granny, make sure I don't mispronounce it. Because in one of the this is on different platforms, and sometimes they translate it differently. So in one on one platform I can't remember which they translated her grand her name Granny. Everybody called her Granny, even though that's not really how they say it in Korean. But when Granny met Ji Wan, she said, You look fine on the outside, but inside you're not okay, and he wasn't sleeping and he had issues. So it's like all these things, and then our lead, of course, and then the mom, she had oh yeah, well, the mom had alcoholic. Alcoholic. So so I we saw all these different impacts of this and how people deal with it, and then physical impairments as well. So I thought it was interesting. It was like, I don't know if that was intentional or if that just happened, but I enjoyed like all the different varieties. Um, I would say Granny was one of my favorite secondary characters. Granny and Nuna. I love them both. Even though they were both very different, they both were good friends. Actually, the three, I feel like Gravdu did not have a mom or a dad. He didn't have parents, but he had this found family around him, even when the show begins, because he's got Granny, he's got Nuna, and he's got his landlady. And I love those three strong women that, you know, kind of feed him and talk to him and give him advice and help him out. I just that was one of my favorite things about this show.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

I think um one of the things that happens as the drama goes on is he starts to realize he did have those people in his life. I think at the beginning he felt lonely and he felt like he had no one. Um it took him a while to open his eyes basically and realize that they've been there. He just wasn't counting them. He didn't think that I don't know, maybe he just thought he couldn't rely on anyone, that no one really meant it, you know, when they were taking care of him. But I yeah, as as the drama goes on, I think the found family vibe like starts to become stronger because he does realize, oh, these people are a part of my life and they do value me and I value them.

SPEAKER_00 35:42

I enjoyed seeing all the different combinations of friendships. The two guys, even though they they were both rivals in a way for Moon Soo, they did work together around the construction site. And Ji-wan takes Gantu to the sauna after that incident where he gets covered with the dirt and stuff, and yeah, that moment where they kind of they're kind of reluctant allies in some ways, I think.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

Yeah, they have respect for each other. I think, you know, they recognize they both like the same girl, but they're not gonna be jerks about it to each other, which I think also is great because that allows Moonsu the ability to like they're gonna respect what what she chooses. Well, Gongdu does for the most part until he decides that he's not good enough for her and then tries to push her away, which does take the decision out of her hand, but right.

SPEAKER_00 36:35

But uh as far as like noble idiocy breakups go, this one I could totally see it, even because they both kind of went through that that I'm not good enough for you, and you would be better off with somebody else.

unknown 36:47

Right.

SPEAKER_00 36:48

Or I'm just not a mutsu. Her thing was I'm just not good and I'm not a good person. Everybody thinks I'm a good person, but I'm not. So just that she just couldn't handle it. So I really bought the breakup this time. Sometimes I watch shows and I'm like, they're gonna be back together next episode. We're just doing this for a cliffhanger, but I felt like it was legitimate, like their pain would legitimately cause them to push people away.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

Right. It was rooted in their actual character. Yeah, um, and for her, I also interpreted her pushing him away as because that was like another form of her guilt. Like she was like, How can you look at me and not think and not be resentful of the fact that I got out days before you and come to find out like she got out because he was like holding up a beam basically that then fell and trapped, retrapped him. And that's after that is when he met the guy that Moonsu was originally there to meet at the mall, and um, he ended up dying. She, you know, feels like how could he not resent me? How could he look at me? And so she was trying that was her noble idiocy was like, well, you know, push him away so that he doesn't have to feel that way.

SPEAKER_00 38:03

Yeah, which made sense. Each one of them it made sense. Let's see, there were other things that we were gonna talk about. You were oh, you put in the notes the um the mom. Let's talk about the mom a little bit, her mom, Moonsu's mom.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

Moonsu's mom, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

I feel like all people always talk about, is it not she would never know, the not one spring night. What's the other one that's from the same direction?

SPEAKER_02 38:26

Something in the rain.

SPEAKER_00 38:26

Something in the rain. Yeah. Everybody talks about how that mom is so terrible.

SPEAKER_02 38:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

And one of the, I mean, she's terrible, but I feel like this mom is really one of the worst moms in K-drama because she's she's struggling with alcoholism in her grief, but she's so awful and so selfish. She doesn't really see what's going on with her daughter. She's so short-sighted. And that made it really hard to watch those scenes with her.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

Yeah, I've I found it very difficult too. And I think she it so I'm I'm a mom of an only child, and parents of only children hear all the time, like, oh, you should have another one. Because what if something happens to your first child? And it's like the response, yeah. Well, first of all, rude. It's like you, the loss of one child isn't negated by the fact that you have another one. And I think this clearly shows how that isn't the case. Like this mom has been grieving and struggling and just like torturing herself for 10 years over the loss of one child, even though she had another one that needed her love and attention and care. She wasn't able to give it to her because she was so wrapped up in her grief for the um the child that she lost. And it's really sad because, yeah, it makes her like such a bad mom to move.

SPEAKER_00 39:45

So yeah. And that that opening scene where the in the flashback, the mom is doing the younger sister's hair, and you get the feeling that the younger sister is the favorite. Definitely. And the older sister, it's her job to help the younger sister and take her around. And like the younger sister gets the phone and all these things. And I could see how uh Moon Su would be like, because they do have that confrontation scene later on in the show where she says, Do you wish I had died instead? And you can tell that the mom has never thought that, but her actions have caused her to feel that way. It's just, it's just very painful, so painful.

SPEAKER_01 40:22

I can see how Moon may have been thinking that constantly every day for the past 10 years. Like, clearly, my mom wished that I was the one to die. And I just have to wonder, when I saw that scene this time when I watched it, I was like, aren't there laws, entertained laws, where like, why does her older sister need to accompany her to this? Like, aren't there when children are on set, don't they have like a minor or like some kind of guardian that's supposed to be there? Can you really just send them off with their older sister? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 40:52

You would think, you would think, and maybe that's one of those things, either creative license or maybe things are different now than they were then. I don't know. But yeah, it was just so so that part was so sad. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

I'm glad the mom goes to get help at the end of the drama. Um, you do wonder, you know, if she had gotten help earlier, could yeah, her relationship with her daughter have been different, would she have stayed married to Moon Tzu's father? It's just yeah, it was just so sad.

SPEAKER_00 41:21

Because their relationship was just in shambles. And I can see if you have some a tragic event like that, they do say that divorce rates are very high for parents who lose a child because it's just so difficult. Yeah, I think that was very realistic. And I was glad they didn't get the parents back together at the end. I like that they got a divorce and kind of each went their own way, which is probably very realistic and probably for the best, I guess, for those two characters.

SPEAKER_01 41:47

I think it definitely was good for the the father, too, because we see him at the end. You know, he's gone back to driving a bus and he seems happy. He's, you know, snaps a picture of him eating at the rest stop that she had mentioned one time, and he seemed to be getting his life back on track at the same time as her mom going for her alcoholism is getting her life on track. Um, yeah, I think I agree. Like it would have been just as disingenuous as if the second leads had wound up together at the end, too.

SPEAKER_00 42:16

It wouldn't have felt wouldn't have felt felt right. And let's see, let me look at let me look at my list here and see what else goes on there. Um, I was just gonna mention two of my favorite scenes. One was the rooftop party where they the friendship and they just have fun and just enjoy being around each other, and kind of that's kind of a a break from all this drama. And then the found family around Granny when she's in the hospital and her little there were so many funny things in this drama that I did laugh a lot. And um, like when he opens her cabinet of treats, like she brought like enough snacks, you know, for everyone to have some. And and then there were a couple of other things. Oh, when the uh when Granny and Nuna are in Granny's living quarters in the back of her medical office, and he asked Nuna about his scar. And it both of them, like they double team him, trying to get information about who, you know, who's wanting to see your scar. Have you talked about your scars? And anybody who makes fun of scars is not a good woman. And it I just loved all those little kind of found family moments. And I think that would be the category they'd be in.

SPEAKER_01 43:21

Because it definitely feels like he was there with his older sister and his grandma. I loved that too. I really I did like them. I like the three of them, I liked their shared history, and I do love the family vibes in this drama too. I liked um the landlady in Songmon with Gong Du. I liked that she fed him and and everything.

SPEAKER_00 43:44

Um there favorite scenes that come to mind when you think of this drama that we haven't talked about already. We talked about so many.

SPEAKER_01 43:50

God, there's I just I love so much of this drama. I like when they're at the bus stop together and the bus comes and he's like, Can you take the next one? And then they just like keep letting the bus. Us drive by and they're holding hands. It's just it's so sweet. I love it so much. It all connects back to like one of the first times that they meet, and he's like, Isn't it weird that this bus stop is still named S Mall?

SPEAKER_00 44:15

After the mall, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:16

Yeah, after the mall. And a lot that happens at bus stops.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

Yeah. Another K-drama trope is the waiting at the bus stop, riding the bus.

SPEAKER_01 44:24

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

Running along the bus as it pulls away as you're watching your beloved get smaller in the distance.

SPEAKER_01 44:30

Right. I liked when she, I forget at what point it was. I think oh, it was when he was pushing her away, and she would just show up every day. And like he would start walking out of the motel where he lived, and she would just show up behind him and he'd be so surprised to see her. And then he got used to it. And then when she wasn't there when he expected, he was like kind of looking around.

SPEAKER_00 44:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:52

Yeah, a little sad that she wasn't there. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 44:55

There were a couple of things that were romantic but practical, like practical, but very romantic. Like when she goes to each person and buys the food to give to his landlady so he'll have food. And she just continues to show up. And he had something he did for her that I was like, Oh, when you got your ice cream, she was sick.

SPEAKER_01 45:12

Yeah. And he climbs up the drain pipe to her with us to give her ice cream. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:17

Yeah. He and so there were things I was like, okay, those things are romantic, you know, even though they're normally we see, you know, like and they do have a couple of scenes where like she's bandaging his wounds and stuff, but you know, you gotta have those, I guess, too. Okay drama. So, oh, you want to you mentioned the OST.

SPEAKER_01 45:34

Yes, oh, I love the OST for this drama. All the music, it's perfect, it fits, it's beautiful. Ho sings a track called True Love that plays several times. Yeah, oh god, it's such a good song. Like, I listened to it just because it's so beautiful. He does such a good job. And the OST, like it, I don't know how they did it. They just picked these beautiful emotional songs that really heighten the scenes.

SPEAKER_00 46:04

Yeah, and there's even some instrumental, I don't know what instrument it is, but there's some instrumental things that like it's dark, it's kind of sad, but at the same time, it's not so sad that you know you're going to cry. There's a little tinge of hopefulness to it.

SPEAKER_01 46:16

I would say that kind of defines the drama. Like, yeah, it's sad, but there is like a thread of hopefulness that carries through.

SPEAKER_00 46:23

And um, I would say if this is on several platforms, and I we were traveling, and so part of it I watched on Netflix because it was easier to get it that way. But if you want the lyrics to the OST, watch it on Vicky because they actually put the lyrics, the translation of the lyrics, which really adds to the story. It's just really good. Yeah, that's a beautiful song that he sings. I love it. Let's see. I think the only characters, I mean, there's there's so many characters in this uh Yeah, it should probably like a big cast. Yeah, I wanted to talk a little bit about the director and the Nuna, the construction director and the Nuna. Oh, yeah. I mean, I did not like him in the beginning, but by the time you saw like when he took her to watch the birds, and and he was always like, I like you because you're so practical. And he was always about money and just the bottom line. And by the end, I didn't hate him as much because I was like, okay, you could see that he really wasn't suited to be a director, but he was put in that position, and that wasn't what he wanted to be either. And so he's probably gonna have a much better life not being a director.

SPEAKER_01 47:32

I hope so. I hope he straightens up. I don't know, yeah, straightens up. Like, I I didn't warm up to him very much, um, which is fine. Like, I don't have to love every character of a drama. I mean, I do hope things change for him. You're right, he was not suited to be a director, and it's not really what he wanted to do. I think he was trying to do what he thought he was supposed to do, and that just ended up unhappy.

SPEAKER_00 48:01

Yeah, just always making the wrong choice. Yeah, it was just terrible. So he did get his comeuppance at the end when he got demoted and and had served divorce papers. You know, that was probably well.

SPEAKER_01 48:12

I mean, he spent all his time with the Nuna, which was I didn't mind the two of them together. I mean, I don't love the fact that he was doing it behind his wife's back like that. Yeah, yeah, it's not great, but like the two of them I feel worked well together, and she seemed to really like him for whatever reason. So maybe they'll be in the future.

SPEAKER_00 48:30

Yeah, and that's kind of left up to the viewer to kind of an open ending to kind of imagine what you what might have happened with them. Let's talk about the ending a little bit. So there's a lot of I mean, we've talked about specific characters and how their stories were wrapped up, but two things people don't like about this drama are when granny dies, and that's more I would say three-fourths of the way through. And then at the end, his scare uh with the liver transplant needed urgently.

SPEAKER_01 49:01

Right.

SPEAKER_00 49:02

So, what are your thoughts on these?

SPEAKER_01 49:04

I don't mind Granny's death because I think that needed to happen for both plot reasons and for character development reasons, because after her death is like when he really opens up to Moonsuit, like he's trying to push her away, and then she confronts him that he's in Granny's like living area and she's there, and she's like, You can you can cry, you can open up to me. You know, she holds his hand and he's like, If you don't take your hand away, if you don't go away now, like I'm never letting go of you, and like that's when it all opens up for him. So I think that was needed. He we needed a big emotional event like that to happen for him to really get pushed beyond where he was. I mean, I it was sad, like that is a absolutely yeah, it was sad. And as for the whole like liver transplant thing, I actually don't mind that either because I felt like it was breadcrumbed enough in other episodes, like going way back to the beginning when Granny tells him, like, these pills are poison and they are very bad for your liver. And I guess he conveniently forgot or just didn't know the extent that his liver was damaged in the accident.

SPEAKER_00 50:14

Right. Well, I have a feeling he never went to a doctor if he could help it, even no matter how badly he was hurt. He never went to a doctor.

SPEAKER_01 50:20

So exactly, yeah. Um, and then it's a few episodes later, he gets a nosebleed, and like I just feel like we knew that there was something that was gonna go wrong. Yeah, so it was fine. What I did not like was when they do the death fake out where you're on the rooftop and they're talking, and it's a super sweet emotional moment, and then he like leans his head on her shoulder and like falls forward a little, and his eyes are closed, and she's like calling his name and like shaking him, and she's like, Wake up! And then she's just like sitting there crying, and I'm like, Call an ambulance, dial 911 or 119, whatever it is in Korea. That busts me so much in all the dramas when people would rather just yell there or sit there and just like shout instead of like calling an ambulance. But um, so I'm the first time I watched it, I was like, No, no way, oh my god, there's no way, right? They cannot do this to me. And like, then you have to go through these other scenes where like you still don't know, and like you see him, and he is he did in fact survive and got a liver transplant or whatever. And like that, I I didn't like I don't like that.

SPEAKER_00 51:29

No, it was manipulative. That yeah, and I this drama did a great job with foreshadowing because Granny mentions the blue pills that and how they're bad for him in episode one, and and it is mentioned again and again. And there are a lot of things with her, um, like when she's at the playground and she says, I wonder if I will see this covered in snow in my lifetime. So the first time I watched it, I was not surprised that she was sick. I was like, I think there's something up with her, right?

SPEAKER_02 51:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:55

So, and I I feel like that was so he could grieve. So we could see him grieve and handle and learn how to handle death, and she could be there to support him during that time. But at the end, I I understand, you know, you have to, as you're as you get near the end, your challenges and everything have to grow. But I feel like the liver transplant needed in the last episode was just too much at the end. They could have done something else that would be that would show. I think what they were trying to show is that he had changed and realized he needed to take care of himself, that he needed because people loved him and he wanted to be there for the people who loved him. And so he learned to care for himself. And I think they could have done that without going to the liver transplant.

SPEAKER_01 52:37

Something as dramatic as a liver transplant.

SPEAKER_00 52:39

Yeah. And it wasn't just needed like right away. It was like you could go into a coma and die right now, you know, it's like right. Yeah. So yeah, I thought this.

SPEAKER_01 52:47

The only thing that bugged me about that is, you know, everyone was getting tested to see if they could donate part of their liver. And Song Meng was a match. The mom went through this whole thing, or Songman's mom, the landlady, went through this whole thing, where at first she was like, No, absolutely not. You cannot, you know, I cannot put you at risk like that. Um, and then eventually she comes around and it becomes this really meaningful moment where she was like, I guess you'll just become my other son now. To Gongdu, she says, She says, like, you know, if you're gonna get a piece of my biological son's liver, like now we are actually family. And like for me, that was great. I loved that. And I kind of wish they had done that, but then I forget something, something came up and it turns out he couldn't.

SPEAKER_00 53:31

Yeah, he wasn't a good match.

SPEAKER_01 53:32

There's something, yeah. And so he got his liver transplant from an accident victim. And it was like, I think it would have meant more if it did come from his friend, from his brother, and that he is now like a part of that family. Like so much of this drama was building up the found family.

SPEAKER_00 53:49

Yeah, and maybe that's why I like it so much because there's so much found family in it. But I thought the same thing. I felt like there were a couple of things going on at the end that were they felt specifically like they were there so that actor or actress A or B could have their crying moment, you know, just do the drama. And because I felt like the whole thing is like, I don't think that we could have done without the some of the very dramatic moments at the end that seemed a little over the top. But overall, I really enjoyed the drama and I'm willing to forgive it because we did have all those seeds leading up to that at the end. I was like, okay, it's not just like, oh, we need to do something for these last two episodes. What are we gonna do?

SPEAKER_02 54:31

Right.

SPEAKER_00 54:31

So, and there was enough character development along the way that I was okay with it. I'll overlook it.

SPEAKER_01 54:37

Yeah, it's it doesn't ruin the drama for me. I mean, there have been way worse uh episodes of dramas that forgive. And and since he survived, I uh I forgivable overlook it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:50

Yeah, and I mean it would have been nice to have a little more time with them together as a couple happy, but we did see them together a lot during the drama, and they were able to they seem like a solid couple, like they were gonna be okay. Some of these you think, I don't know if they're gonna they're together at the end of the series, but their relationship is so fragile, I don't know if they're gonna make it really. So I didn't feel I don't feel like that was a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 55:14

Yeah, they've been through enough and we've seen them come back together. I think they're one of the ones that I could see them making it.

SPEAKER_00 55:21

Yeah. So let's see, one of these um quotes I really I put down a whole bunch because I I always like to write down the quotes, but there was one that um says you were only able to feel the lightness more once you've experienced the heaviness. And I think that's a good description of the drama, or when he when Gondu was talking about the pain of going through real rehabilitation. You have the injury, the pain to get over the injury is often worse than the actual pain that you had, but you have to go through it to get to the other side. And I feel like that's what this whole drama was just working through all these issues and coming out in a better place.

SPEAKER_01 55:55

Yeah, I think that's and I think that's a really great quote for life. Like I feel like that is an instant and very accurate thing about life. Like you, you know, you've cherished the happy moments more when you've gone through some sadness. You know, you need you need to have the heavier moments in life to really appreciate the lighter moments. And I like that this drama was really was trying to get at that.

SPEAKER_00 56:20

Yeah, getting the right balance most of the time. So anything else you want to talk about? Any other scenes or characters or I think we touched on on everything. We talked about a lot, didn't we?

SPEAKER_01 56:32

There's a lot to talk about. I mean, this drama, this it covers so much.

SPEAKER_00 56:36

It's a very rich drama.

SPEAKER_01 56:38

Yeah, we didn't even talk about like fate or yes, because there is a lot about fate. Yeah, you know, fate lines crossing and who is in our lives and who keeps coming back into our lives.

SPEAKER_00 56:50

Yeah, there's that scene where Granny's trying to match them up, and she brings Bimpsy back into and she's like, Oh, you two already know each other. Yeah, people who are supposed to meet will meet, and then she's like, Okay, everybody leave.

SPEAKER_01 57:03

She's like pushing them out the door so they can spend time together. Yeah, I did like that too.

SPEAKER_00 57:07

Well, I think we have covered almost all of it. There's probably more that we could have talked about, but I think we've covered a lot of it.

SPEAKER_01 57:13

I could, you know, do a scene by scene.

SPEAKER_00 57:15

An episode-by-episode one, yeah, pretty much. It is a very rich drama, and that's another reason I like it because you can rewatch it and notice things that you hadn't seen before.

SPEAKER_01 57:23

And you know, that is that's true. Actually, there is something I wanted to mention about noticing on this watch was how often the characters, especially Gong Doo, uses the word just because I had read and I wish I had saved the link to it, but um Jun Ho had done an interview where he said that the word just in the title of Just Between Lovers had a lot of meaning because his character says just a lot, and he does. I noticed this time around that both the two main leads use the word just a lot. I thought that was really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 57:59

Yeah, and I noticed that too. I think I I think I can find that interview. I'll link to it in the show notes if I can find it, where he talks about the title. And I mean, I think the other quibble people have with this drama, because it's called Just Between Lovers, if they're expecting a very passionate couple lovers, lovers in a title, they may be disappointed. And they do, and when I rewatched it this time, I was like, Yes, they are very the kisses are very chaste, you know, they're very subdued.

SPEAKER_01 58:27

And it's such a slow burn. I had forgotten how long it really does take for them to get together.

SPEAKER_00 58:33

And she and they really annoy each other in the beginning. I mean, even though she rescues him from when he's beaten up and he calls her a saint, but they grate on each other until they kind of get to know each other a little bit better. And I feel like it was almost the scene where they're going to look at the other monuments where they kind of are starting to get on the same page. I can't remember exactly when that happens, but theirs is a long slow burn.

SPEAKER_01 58:57

Yeah, it was like I had forgotten because I loved you know them getting together so much that that's like what I remembered from the drama watching, and I was like, oh wow, it actually takes a long time. But it didn't, it didn't feel too stretched out just to prolong the tension. It felt natural, it felt like these two characters, like you said, they rubbed each other wrong for you know a little bit in the beginning, and it just took them time as they kept spending time together, working on the memorial project together to really kind of come together and be on the same page and like really have the same feelings for each other.

SPEAKER_00 59:34

Yeah, and I also wondered after learning that this was both of them were their first role as leads. I wonder if maybe that had something to do with kind of the passionless nature of some of the kisses. It's like maybe they were awkward with each other, or maybe that was intentional from the director. I don't know. I I don't know where this aired originally. So I think that sometimes impacts it wasn't on Netflix for sure.

SPEAKER_01 59:58

So oh yeah, it was so it's 2017, and I don't know much about the difference in stations in Korea, like what's more acceptable on some stations.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:08

On one versus the other, yeah. Yeah, I you know I just I just know that if it's on Netflix, they have a lot more leeway about what they show and what they say.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:18

Netflix original, yeah. It was JTBC it aired on.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:21

So that may have had something to do with it too.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:23

Yeah. I mean, we all know now Iju now can do some really steamy on-screen kisses.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:28

That is the truth.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:29

He has a really great kiss with Yuna.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:33

Um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:35

Have you have you watched um The Female Lead? Have you watched any of her other shows, Wanja?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:40

No, I don't think I have.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:42

I have um one of hers, uh Melting Me Softwood, I think, is on my to-be-watch list. The defects is just too dark for me. I know I'm not watching that one.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:50

I don't even know that one.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:51

It's uh pretty, pretty dark thriller type.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:55

Yeah, none of her other dramas are oh, she would never know is on my to watch list. I have not gotten around to watching that yet.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:02

So yeah, it'll be interesting to watch her in another role and see.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:05

Yeah, because that's another romance, right? That's with Raun. Yeah, which I would watch for him.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:11

Um it is interesting to watch this and watch Typhoon Family at the same time because he smiles so much in Typhoon Family, but you know, he just does not smile in this hardly at all. Or if he does, it's just a little little twitch of the corner of his mouth.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:25

Although she does point out uh um she can tell when he is genuinely smiling and it's so his eyes. Yeah, if you watch him in this drama, it's so true. He's such a good actor, man. Because like when he's not genuine, and when his character is not genuine, it's true. His eyes don't get smaller, they don't, you don't see that light in his eyes. And when he genuinely his character is genuinely smiling, usually at Moonsu, it just his face just transforms because Juno has a fantastic smile. Just um well, he's an idol, so of course he's just but and so there is a difference like the way his face lights up when he's doing a genuine smile versus when his character is is not genuine, and yeah, I think it's just such great acting.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:07

Even in that first couple of scenes, he's so scruffy and beat up, but he has a sense of presence that and he will and he could get into the director's office by using somebody else's name. I mean, he's just so so scrappy, and then the director he wants the way people treat Gangdu, he wants to be treated that way, and he never gets it. He spends the whole drama being frustrated.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:28

He's like, he's like he's looking around, like, why do all these people like respect him and not me? And it's like, well, man, here there's reasons.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:37

Yeah, there's reasons. Okay, we could go on and on and on, and I know that we gotta wrap up. So tell everybody where they can find you and your podcast and all that good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:46

Yep. So my podcast is Bonchon K Drama Reviews. Um, so that's B-A-N-C-H-A-N, Bite-sized K Drama Reviews. You can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon, iHeartRadio, basically anywhere you listen to podcasts, and you can find me online on Instagram at Bonchon K Drama Pod. So B-A-N-C-H-A-N-K-D-R-A-M-A pod. And you can email me at bonchon kdramapod at gmail.com, and that's pretty much it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:19

Perfect. Okay, well, I'll have those links in the show notes. Thanks for being here and just diving into all the tiny little details on just between lovers. I've had a fantastic time.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:28

Thank you for inviting me. This was so much fun. Any anytime you want to deep dive a drama, I'm there.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:33

Okay, cool. And I think this is like the longest episode I've ever done. So wow. This is the marathon, just between lovers, aka rambling.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:41

Everyone enjoys it. I you know, if you've made it this far and you still haven't seen the drama, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:46

Definitely give it a watch. Yeah. All right. Well, if you enjoyed this episode, please take a few minutes to write or review it. Wherever you listen to podcasts, that will help K drama fans find it. And I will see you next time. Bye.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:56

Bye.