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Witch Amusement: Episode 8

(Random) SONG OF THE DAY

Park Jiyoon – “돌아온 사랑” (Returning love, or Love that’s returned), just because I felt nostalgic.
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EPISODE 8 SUMMARY

After being rejected by Joon Ha, Yoo Hee dazedly wanders, completely crushed. He offers her no reason, merely saying sorry before walking away.

Looking for comfort, Yoo Hee calls Mu-ryong, who’s out on a date with Seung Mi at the movies, but hearing Seung Mi’s voice in the background, Yoo Hee hangs up. While Joon Ha retreats to the riverside to deal with his frustration (and call the President to tell him he’s handled the Yoo Hee situation), Yoo Hee ends up at Johnny’s restaurant.

Johnny sees how upset Yoo Hee is, and somehow takes that as a cue to make his move. Which, erm, huh??

Understandably rejecting his advance — I mean, she’s crying for pete’s sake, and he kisses her?? — Yoo Hee abruptly rushes out, and Johnny can only look after her in concern and regret.

In the movie theater, Mu-ryong worries about Yoo Hee at the expense of Seung Mi (so what else is new?) and leaves the movie early to check on her. He asks Yoo Hee if she was rejected, and she confirms it. Mu-ryong tells her he’s glad to hear it; she’s too good for Joon Ha. Alone in her room, though, Yoo Hee breaks down in tears, looking at her music box as she cries for her mother.

Han Ga In isn’t the world’s best crier, but she does a decent job of conveying Yoo Hee’s heartbreak, and it’s nice to see her finally show some emotion beyond disdain or annoyance.

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The next day, Yoo Hee’s back to her former glasses-wearing, black-clad self. She interrupts Hee Jung and Team Manager Lee in the middle of a discussion about the latest trend for four-syllable names, as they think of cool ways to turn their names into four syllables, joking that their boss would obviously be Ma-nyeo Yoo Hee, or Witch Yoo Hee. Yoo Hee takes it upon herself to designate theirs for them — 꼴통희정 (Airhead Hee Jung) and 무능준호 (Incompetent Jun Ho).

At work, Mu-ryong takes note of a special competition for French cuisine, the reward for which is instruction at Paris’ famed Cordon Bleu institute. Johnny informs the staff that only one representative can be sent from their staff, and will be chosen through a cooking battle.

Johnny approaches Mu-ryong about Yoo Hee’s behavior the night before, wondering if she was really upset, but Mu-ryong assumes Johnny’s referring to the fact that she was rejected by her senior. He then tells Johnny that he should take the chance to occupy the now-empty space in Yoo Hee’s heart, and encourages him on.

Mari witnesses this instance of male bonding and senses her chances being threatened (I assume), because she attempts to knock Mu-ryong out with a frying pan. Unfortunately, she gets the wrong target.

I’m not exactly clear what she’s thinking, though, because even if she HAD gotten her intended victim, did she think she could assault someone in the middle of work and get away with it? If she’s going to resort to sabotage, she could’ve been more clever about it. I dunno.

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Anyway, Yoo Hee loses an ad campaign, criticized by the client that her lack of dating experience has to do with it. She’s told that she should try her hand at dating some more. Fighting her instincts to attack the guy with his own body parts, Yoo Hee tells him she’ll give it a try.

The President makes an unnanounced visit, and brings up the topic of another blind date. To cut him short, Yoo Hee tells him she’s already seeing someone. At that moment, Mu-ryong arrives home, and Yoo Hee introduces him as the man she’s living with. Mu-ryong clarifies that he’s living there as her housekeeper, but Yoo Hee persists: “Yes. I’m dating my housekeeper.”

After the President leaves, Mu-ryong tells Yoo Hee things with Seung Mi are awkward enough as it is — why’d she go telling her father they’re dating? Yoo Hee counters that their contract ends next week, and thus far she’s only been rejected. She makes a proposal — if Mu-ryong acts as her boyfriend, she’ll accept that in exchange for his debt. She has an additional condition: For the next week, he has to act as her real boyfriend, explaining that she’s in need of one for work purposes.

Mu-ryong suggests Johnny instead of himself, but Yoo Hee says Johnny won’t do. She doesn’t want to use him like that; she wants to keep their relationship on good terms. Mu-ryong resists, saying he’s already got a girlfriend, and Yoo Hee asks, “What, are you afraid you’ll fall for me?”

Mu-ryong tells her, “Just try. If my heart trembles even a tiny bit, then I’ll act as your boyfriend.”

So she attempts to entice Mu-ryong… and asks, “Did it work? Did your heart tremble?” Amused, he tells her it surely did — in fear.

(…and again, I’m confused about this fake/real boyfriend thing. What’s the difference between his prior role as a fake boyfriend, and his new role as fake “real” boyfriend? Because she’s not suggesting they date for real. Ah, I dunno.)

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The next day, Mu-ryong and Seung Mi make a date for the evening to catch a movie, since their last date was cut short. Mu-ryong starts to mention his fake-real-dating agreement with Yoo Hee, but Seung Mi’s called inside, so he says he’ll tell her later.

Johnny arrives at Yoo Hee’s work, and asks Yoo Hee to act as his guide one more time in showing him around Seoul. (As you may remember, they explained that they met around the time of the 2002 World Cup when Yoo Hee acted as his guide.)

They tour some historical sites, complete with a brief but random parody of Johnny and President Ma in full Chosun-era traditional garb.

When Johnny goes to buy some drinks, Yoo Hee looks through his phone, only to see all the photos he’s saved of her, surprised to realize the extent of his feelings. I dunno, you’d think she got a clue when he kissed her.

In any case, as they drive home, Yoo Hee looks at Johnny and thinks to herself that he’s really handsome. She imagines Mu-ryong coaching her along that not only is Johnny good-looking, he’s a good person — she should just go ahead and date him. Unsure how to act, Yoo Hee pretends to be asleep, so Johnny goes on to tell her, in English, that he’s sorry for falling in love with her.

When Johnny drops her off, he works up to confessing his feelings, starting with a tentative “Yoo Hee. In the future, we… Our relationship…” Sensing what’s coming, Yoo Hee tells herself that once he confesses, she’ll accept. But Johnny backs off at the last moment, saying, “We… can keep being good friends, right?” He rushes off, and Yoo Hee wonders why he didn’t say what he meant. Driving home, Johnny’s upset with himself and his suggestion to stay friends.

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Since Johnny didn’t work out, Mu-ryong takes on the position of her boyfriend. He asks if there’s anything in particular she wants to do, for instance —

Or maybe this is more appropriate for Yoo Hee:

I’ll admit Yoo Hee makes a pretty badass Trinity. And the sequence is shot very well. But I dunno, aren’t Matrix parodies so 2002?

Director Jeon Ki Sang has made use of plenty of parodies in the past, all to great effect — for instance, the MISA and Full House parodies in Delightful Girl Choon Hyang, or the French love story parody in My Girl (whose source I’m unsure of; I just figured it’s some prominent Catherine Deneuve film or something). However, I don’t know what he’s doing with them here. Aside from being very visually appealing — the director’s slick camera work and style are undeniable — they don’t really seem relevant to anything. Kind of like a lot of things in Witch Amusement lately.

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All that aside, Mu-ryong and Yoo Hee go on a cute fake date, mostly for the benefit of the cameras following them and taking pictures of them to report to the President.

Unfortunately, Mu-ryong’s forgotten about his date to go to the movies with Seung Mi. She hears his apology with disappointment, and Johnny notices the movie tickets she’d bought in advance. It’s very sweet that Johnny takes her to the movie instead, but I dunno, it seems like we’ve seen this somewhere before. Somewhere maybe around, say, Episode 3? Given that it was only two weeks ago, isn’t it a little soon to be pilfering from your own work?

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Mu-ryong does little cute date-like things for Yoo Hee, like hiding a toy ring inside her ice cream and dropping notes into her popcorn that say things like, “Will you go out with me?” and “I love you.” He tells her not to be too touched since it’s all fake anyway, but Yoo Hee seems to be a little moved nonetheless.

In the movie (The Illusionist, btw), Mu-ryong turns to tell Yoo Hee something just as she faces him, and their lips just barely brush.

Outside, Seung Mi sees Yoo Hee there with Mu-ryong, and receives enough of a shock from their fake display of coupley affection to make her go weak in the knees. And not in a good way.

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Making matters worse, the next day, the President shows up to the restaurant to inform Mu-ryong that he should break things off with Yoo Hee. He is absolutely unacceptable, and the President refuses to accept him as his daughter’s boyfriend.

Overhearing this exchange is Seung Mi, who’s so shocked she drops her tray, sending her water glasses crashing to the ground….

(…which, again, confuses me because didn’t she already get her big shock from seeing them at the movies together? What’s with these women and their delayed reactions? I dunno. I don’t get it.)

Additional thoughts:

I’m now beginning to think the Witch Amusement writer(s) are schizophrenic. I’m confused, and worse yet, I’m starting to get bored. The director is really very talented, and his stylish imprint is visible on every frame of the series. The cast is gorgeous and charismatic, and even if one criticizes the acting, it’s never truly awful. So why are they recycling their own plot already? Why do I feel like they’re repeating all their story points?

Come on, I know you can be great! The first five episodes were wonderful, and in my personal opinion, Episode 5 was the best we’ve seen so far. It was fun, energetic, stylish, entertaining. But we are now done with half of the drama, and really, things haven’t changed. I dunno. I don’t get it.

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damn your quick!!! thanks for the recaps!!

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yeah i have to agree with you a lot of similar things that happened in the other eps.

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:O Johnny kissed her! Not very good timing though... D:

And Johnny was SO close... they coulda been together... D:

Yeah, you're right... it's kinda going a little down hill... weird... maybe it's just fillers? >>;

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i'm agreed with u...writer Yoo Hee had to something with script...gosh..fake bf n jealousy..i luv previous ep and i hope this drama will do better on ep 9.

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hehe thank you! i depend on your summaries to know how the story is going since i haven't been downloading the episodes. i'm patiently waiting for the MQ episodes.

i love your summaries!

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thanks sarah!! me too, im confused about the writers now. their going around in circles, liking beating around the bush and dont know how to drive home their point. to quote from soompi: I love the irony that MR acts like he's this expert love doctor...and yet he's failing in his own relationship. I love that he thinks he has this perfect relationship with SM just b/c they're best friends...he doesn't realize that best friends don't always translate into perfect couple-dom.

i dont appreciate this irony actually. it bugs me. i dont know why they made MR seem to be this way. its cute and all, its jaehee but no im started to get ticked.also, the way johnny is written is weird. he kisses her at the wrong time, says the weirdest things acts all aloof. the dad is bugging me too, he doesnt like anyone? he cant see anyone good for yoohee? what is he doing? im sorry but seungmi is like a push over in some ways, she isnt actually happy but doesnt say anything acts all nice. her reactions and emotions are blurred to me.

oh lastly, the referrence of the PD ur talking about is Leon from MG. :) ok ill stop ranting now. dang, i wish the PD would getting things going again.

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But I dunno, aren't Matrix parodies so 2002?

ROFL

I felt confused to reading your summary, what are they doing it is like an octagon or something...MR needs to get it together. If I had a bf I would never agree to be someone's fake gf ever!!!!

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I thank you for the quick recap of this series. I actually haven't seen this episode yet but I like going to your site and learning what exactly happened and what they have talked about ( obviously I don't know the language ). I understand now why the ratings were declining since we don't know exactly which of the three guys were really for Yoo Hee ( of course she'll end up w/ Mu-ryoung) but really she's already confused enough with her feelings. I hope this would pick up soon.

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Haha, except for a couple of things, it totally feels like we're going back to ep 1 and do it all again.

The matrix stuff is lame. Who actually still uses it these days?

Despite the big mess of a storyline and direction, I actually enjoyed this episode more than ep 7, cause we get to see progression on both YH/Johnny as well as YH/MR (despite fake and everything).

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Thanks for the great summary! Eeeks what's the problem with YH's dad? this won't do , that won't do. Seriously, I can't think of another plot to continue this episode. *sigh*

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i agree, javabeans. I'm beginning to get bored since last episode.. which is quite disappointing considering its great start.

did this director work on anything else besides chun hyang and my girl?

I'm starting to miss the Hong sisters...

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Hi! Thanks for the recaps. I try to follow the episodes as soon as the subs get released, so watching out for your summaries is quite a treat.

I do have to agree that the plot is somewhat muddled and very contrived at this point. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, hoping that the second half would provide more clarity to the story with just the right amount of fun and entertainment. There's just too many relationships going on without any sign of genuine affection between the two main leads. MR and YH's relationship can't be established given all the fabricated display of affection as well as the existence of their prospects... I'll just have to wait and see. Hopefully the writers have an ace or two up their sleeves.

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i love the kiss scene!
it made me weak!
Lah-love.

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I hear you and agree.. with a lot of your points.. the drama is still good to watch but yes they keep adding too much 'filler-type' stuff in.. and the relationships do not seem any clearer or advanced than before.. we can see that yoo hee has developed feelings - to an extent- for mu-ryong but he is still taken.. I look forward to seeing this all pan out though and thanks a lot for your recap because I missed the middle section of this episode..

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ugrh. this drama is getting confusing and it broke my heart to see seung mi getting sad by mu ryong's intimacy with yoo-hee. and gosh, president ma is always spoiler. urgh. i hate him man. he doesnt like joon ha and even mu ryong. so do you think he would like johnny? urgh. he's making his daughter a really pity girl, no boyfriend of her choice...

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Thank you for blogging this drama! I thoroughly enjoy reading your comments and summaries as a supplement to watching the drama. Here are some things that I'm wondering at this point of the drama:

1) Is Joon Ha as much of a jerk as the character descriptions say he is? I think from his interactions with Yoo Hee that he does in fact care for her somewhat (his distaste and meaness towards Mu-ryong, his concern after her reunion boxer-shorts incidence, his caring about her misunderstanding him and his ex-fiance, etc.). I don't know what the deal is between President Ma and Joon Ha is, and whether the "business transction" Joon Ha refers to is the "don't go out w/ my daughter and I'll pay for your education abroad" thing or if there's something deeper than that.

2) What is Joon Ha's background? There's no mention of his parents or family, and his perpetually sad looks makes me wonder if he's an orphan, and so have a very strong drive for success. He broke up with his fiance because she cheated on him (that's what the subtitles say) but given his non-emotional exterior it could be a result of her not feeling any love from him. If my speculation of his status as an orphan is true, it could be he doesn't know how to express love.

3) If there is going to be some sort of tragedy (as most Korean dramas do), I wonder if it will involve Mu-ryong's prided "perfect sense of taste". In a previous episode (I don't remember which one) when Manager Lee and the secretary was visiting Mu-ryong's family's noodle shop it was mentioned that Mu-ryong's dad won tons of competitions for his sense of taste, and is now at the state of running a noodle shop because he lost his sense of taste. In this episode (08), after Johnny's date w/ Yoo Hee, Yoo Hee mentioned that Mu-ryong's cooking is too strong in its taste and Mu-ryong says that Johnny has said the same thing. This seems to imply Mu-ryong's taste buds are losing their sensitivity. This makes me wonder if Mu-ryong will also lose his sense of taste like his dad. That would be very very sad.

4) I wonder if President Ma is such an annoying, dictating father in the matters concerning Yoo Hee's marriage because he had a bad experience with Yoo Hee's mom, and doesn't want her to make the same mistake. Or perhaps the experience with Yoo Hee's mom made President Ma lose faith in love (that sounds so cliche) and President Ma thinks Yoo Hee should just marry for status and position - that those kind of material things are easier to hang on to.

Anyways, just some speculations.

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It's a shame that Johnny didn't confess this time around; at the rate that this drama is heading, his potential romance with YH is probably a lost cause! Aw (yes, I am a Johnny-YH fan).

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haha!i said this at the very begining..the story really created a character..so..dunno what to say more...most k-drama is like this.

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I am a bit discouraged to see this drama after knowing the mixed-up plot. Is it really that bad? Right now I am watching Episode 5.

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shinobie, I'd suggest you keep watching and decide for yourself how you feel about it. I'm just blogging my opinion, and there have been lots of series that I've disliked that people have loved, and vice versa. What bothers me may not bother you, and it would be a shame if you stopped watching something you might've loved based on someone else's criticism!

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i love korean dram a. what do you watch . i am not a bad person . i am a korean . i love korea drama witch yoo hee

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Yes, javabeans. I'll definitely watch this drama till the end of it. Thank you for your summaries and comments. I love it.

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I would probably like this series better if Mu-Ryong acts like a man and just date Yoo Hee for real. Whether intentional or not he's being a real inconsiderate jerk. Does he have no heart and not understand how this will affect Seung-mi. I think the problem with this series is I feel more for the side characters than I do about the main cast.

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I know this is a little late but in the dream sequence with the Matrix...the first scene is very similar to the movie classic Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn. If I recall, there was a scene when they were walking down the steps and having ice cream.

Great blog BTW...I really enjoy reading your opinions regarding the different dramas especially WYH and QSS. The music extras are a special touch!

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for the "prominent Catherine Deneuve film", it's "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg", and for one, I liked An Seok-hwan & Choi Ran's theme song there...:D

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this is a ok, drama i've only wacth ep1 and it as quite boring and i did'nt know of i should wacth but then i found out about dramabeans so i went on to it then there were recaps there was lots of drama now i can't read drama instead of wacth it this is great but it does not tell part by part but still very good THAnks SO MUCh
LOVE YA ALL

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this is an OK drama

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(3/10) This episode looks off-beat for me because that Matrix-like scene lacks its plot a bit.

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