I know ep11 will be controversial. We are in mid drama and this is where the story turns darker. I’d say 99.9% of the viewers were protesting against the amnesia. I don’t feel like analyzing much today. All I know is, this episode worked for me. It touched me. I’ll leave you the space to analyze, spazz, figure out its meaning etc etc etc
Some quick thoughts
1.- The beginning and the end sequence, was beautifully done. The OST, the direction and yes, I’m going to fangirl some cause, our Jang Hyuk was so so so beautiful in this scene. I felt Geon so deeply. All his feelings.
2.- Jang Nara continues to be great as Mi Young. Mi Young the character, showed her subtle but steady strength. She seems passive but she did not miss any opportunity to try to remind Geon of her. Her understated performance, always moves me.
3.- The humor is still there, not as wacky, not as strong, but it is still there. The drama has not lost its identity, in my opinion.
4.- Se Ra did more or less what I anticipated. I still feel the character is justified from her point of view, but I felt her selfishness once again. I actually expected her to want to know more about the circumstances that drove Geon to marry Mi Young. Geon couldn’t inform her since he didn’t remember, but she could’ve tried to investigate a little, with Secretary Tak maybe. But I get the impression that she just wanted to bury the situation. It’s like she really can’t see beyond herself? She got offended because Geon attended pre-natal classes? She can’t perceive the importance the child has for Geon? Even if she thinks Mi Young is a gold digger, she thinks separating her from her child is something that can be easily done? No empathy for Mi Young? Too many things that bugged me about her today. Her conflict is limited to her, her world, her needs, her pains, but ultimately, her. That makes her a tad less interesting than I expected.
5.- Daniel, with his anti- Geon comments, irritates me. The man is sick, and you still badmouth him? You still nag Mi Young with the “This guy is always making you cry!” mantra? He at least did something good when he visited Geon to push him to remember. I guess he is somehow torn between his genuine concern for Mi Young’s happiness and his desire to be her man.
6.- I have high hopes for Yong
7.- Is secretary Tak kind of hot?
8.- Love the one sided bromance from Tak to Geon. I want Geon to get with the program and be nicer to him :p
Stuck on Hyuk 
This episode brings to light the relationship between LG and Sera and how he sees her in a new light. i love the subtle emotional and eye response JH uses to show his reaction when Sera says we can just take the baby, hurry up and divorce MY. The little light of memory on Macau when he sees the lollipop, i think was a brilliant stroke and LG saying he feels like he is going to lose something v important. All this to me shows the changes in LG and how he has fallen in love w MY and out of love w Sera. It also makes sense when he tells her much later that no matter how hard he tries, he cannot do somethings – which means cannot love her as much as he had before and make Sera his wife. Amensia/temporary loss of memory is a common theme in Korean and asian dramas anyway but the use in this episode is good..i mean LG had a hard fall, amensia is explainable factor that can be used. My hats off to the Director for this episode – its a breakthrough to also show LG’s decision to push MY away.
I feel your pain, Drama Fan.
Here’s a link to Pragmatic Altruism vs. Noble Idiocy in 운명처럼 널 사랑해 –> http://spqetr.net/archives/1997 , a post all about empathizing with the pain our protagonists have gone through during the crisis that exploded in the last two episodes.
I hope you enjoy! [*sniff… sniff…*]
I felt deep sadness watching this episode but I really only cried twice. Once when Mi Young read dog poopie’s diary and during the last scene, when Mi Young is remembering their happy moments together. Just seeing Geon do the snail sign brought tears. I can’t help but feel that something more than dog poopie is dead. Well, besides Mimi :p lol! I need to believe my beloved Snail couple will find each other again and be as adorable. I’m still sad 😞.
Dear Dramafan ,
I am no trying to convice you,and I love Jank jiuk many times, but not all the time at least here, in a comic role for me his better performances are The client, Chuno and Tree with deep roots.
Yes you are rigth, when I referred to steal the show excuse me my mother tongue is Spanish and I make silly mistakes like this. I wanted to say He needs a good actress in front of him to keep the type and here she does it…
Its my humble opinion
best wishes
That’s fair. I believe all actors benefit from being sorrounded by other good actors. Regards.
Yes,not only in Korean dramas but J dramas have more variety and I guess chinese will do good dramas in a few years.Respect to Jk I havent said he tries to steal the show on purpose but sometimes he does it,is my opinion being fan is not the same to be blind, and he has brilliant moments but he overacts when the direction is weak or the script is bad or both.
Mexican dramas, spanish dramas, soap operas, you name it. I still don’t understand how an actor can steal a show where he is the protagonist. The term is used when a secondary character outshines a lead. And it’s usually not used in a negative way as in the actor is less of a nice person because he steals a show. I don’t know if you are referring to yourself or to me when you mention being an objective fan. But can you accept the fact that I find his acting to be just to my taste in the majority of cases? We simply disagree and that is ok but you won’t convince me. It’s almost as if you were trying to convince me a chocolate is too chocolatey or sweet or had too much of too little milk. My appreciation is based on my taste and yours on yours. And also what exactly is your point? What are you trying to accomplish? If its just expressing your opinion you are more than welcome to do so. If it is to find someone who agrees with you, you might find that. But if it is to convince me of something I don’t see, that might be close to impossible.
Well I still go on loving the show but the point its why in Korean dramas always use the same cliches amnesia illness cancer and so on…I feel a lack of imagination over and over and except in cable dramas they use the same recipes for the same gendre read it comedy melo .
Jank hiuk is a nice man but he tends to steal the show if he has the possibility but here she is as good actress and there is a fifty fifty very interesting.
Not just in korean dramas. Jang Hyuk purposely goes out of his way to “steal” shows? Now that’s a first! I assume the protagonist of a show will have protagonism in said show. The man is only doing his job.
Ep 11 didn’t make me love the amnesia trope – I wish they could have found a way around it and just done something else completely, but I appreciate very much that
a) it didn’t last more than one episode
b) Geon’s established genetic brain disease meant that the idea of memory loss didn’t feel like something completely out of the blue
c) because the characters involved are so beautifully and fully-realized (and also because I love them so much) nothing about the whole scenario ever felt cheap or contrived or played purely for melodrama, and
d) we got those beautiful, BEAUTIFUL opening and closing scenes. I was making tiny whining noises to myself the whole time, it was so beautiful. Also whatever that OST song is, they need to release it like,YESTERDAY. It’s magical.
I can understand how ep 11 might be a dealbreaker for some,and I’ve seen my fair share of people all over tumblr deciding to rage quit the show at this point – partly because of the amnesia (which REALLY wasn’t as bad as I feared it would be) and partly because the show is starting to deliver too much angst where it initially promised sunshine-rainbow-cuteness. Personally, I’m in this for the long haul. Like @fiveinone says, I’m way too invested and biased to let this show go. In so many ways, FTLY really has been the kdrama romcom I never knew I had been waiting for.
I’ll need a rewatch with full subs before I can comment more, so I’ll leave at this for now.
What can i say. I love this show so much that I’m perpetually biased already. There are just some shows, while not perfect, with many obvious flaws, but for some reason, that you just love them. Not because you overlook the flaws, but you love the show despite all these flaws. FTLY is one of them.
Well, amnesia is not something I’d like to see in the show, because I thought FTLY is too smart to go this route. But since it happened, I accepted it. There can be many what-ifs, what if they don’t go the amnesia route, xxx and yyy could happen, but then again, it wouldn’t be the FTLY we grew to love.
Oh, i love the opening and ending scene by the way. Hauntingly beautiful. It was magical, like the end of epi 8, where they cut back to MY confessing her feelings and fears to Daniel. Would love to see more of this kind of editing/story-telling. *keeps fingers crossed*
#7
HAHAHA! Kind of, yes. He looks good in tight pants. =D
I can’t comment in the serious stuff yet, so just leaving that for now.
I don’t think this ep was as bad as some make it out to be. I liked it, except for the fact that some of the writing is showing, and it’s a little.. I guess the word is ‘clumsy’ for that. I still think the tropes were handled well, and I am glad the revelation was quick. There was no way they could hide MY’s influence in his life and it was just a matter of time, logically. Thankfully, they didn’t try to circumvent logic too much and drag it out.
Re: 7 . Yes. *blush*
Jang Hyuk is the dramatic one, and the script gives him the full range of emotions, but it could end up being clownish without Jang Nara to ground the emotions in reality. I cannot get over how well Mi Young the character has been fleshed out. From her size, to the snail metaphor, I could wax lyrical about wonderful detail they have given Mi Young.
I love Mi Young but today, at least today all I can think of is Geon. That first and last scene. Those were his.
I don’t mean to take credit out of Jang Nara’s performance. I love them both together and separately. I suppose tomorrow Jang Nara will have emotional scenes that will earn her praise. Her interpretation is natural and works to pull
us in. But I also do love Jang Hyuk’s approach to his character even in scenes when she is not present. He acts like an anime but one with a full range. But he totally breaks my heart in his own way. I don’t think he needs her or she needs him. I agree that they complement each other perfectly and I don’t feel the need to compare them. Well, its a matter of taste I suppose.
I think in their scenes together, they complement each other very well. And they can stand on their own and do their own magic, and also blend easily when with other actors. That’s great actor.
Well, the episode had good responses in Korean sites. Many people were scared of the amnesia but then were pleased with how it was handled.
Don’t worry DF, I am totally appreciating Jang Hyuk’s acting here. And you don’t have to explain your love for JH 🙂 You are right, saying one is good is not comparing and saying the other isn’t. I just love what these two are bringing to the screen.
I don’t worry. Im just expressing my view. Its nice to have two good actors as the OTP. I don’t think it is that common in kdramas lately, I understand if people are mesmerized by Jang Nara and watch the show for her. She is doing great. But I do think there are scenes and episodes where her character is the center and shines more while Jang Hyuk supports her nicely and there are episodes that are more challenging for Jang Hyuk and she becomes the support. As moving as Mi Young is, my tears today belonged to Geon. But, I just want to give them both the credit they deserve without pointing out “A wouldn’t work without B” , a statement that I see often and find a bit unnecessary? while at the same time I disagree. I honestly think they would work, just not the same way. In my opinion its not just her giving him strength its also the other way around. But anyway, even for those who lean more towards one of them as actors or their characters, the drama would be enjoyable.
Nothing much to say today. But this episode is surprisingly good. It amazes me that how FTLY can continue using cliche tropes but does it beautifully.
As for Se Ra, we’ve said that she and Geon needed to talk. But judging from this ep, I guess the lack of communication and mutual understanding could be the problems that already existed between them. She could choose to be honest with Geon at least about Macau, and I believe he would have forgive her. If she had told him earlier, even if their relationship was bound to come to an end, they could at least have a nice closure and parting. But she cares about herself too much to care about other people, which is quite the opposite of Geon, Mi Young, secretary Tak, and to a lesser extent Daniel.