Some really nice moments in this episode, and some long-awaited movement on Ra-im’s part (finally!), help mitigate some other bits that I hated. Or rather, one bit in particular. (I really wanted not to hate it, but it’s one of those things that you just can’t bring yourself to accept, y’know?)
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Jung Yeob – “Love You” [ Download ]
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EPISODE 13 RECAP
My absolute favorite part of Joo-won staring down at a sleeping Ra-im is how, when she frowns, he frowns too. Despite his emotional stuntedness and his absolutely inappropriate ways of treating people’s feelings, he’s in tune with her feelings and dislikes seeing her experiencing a nightmare. (Too bad he can’t make the mental connection and see that HE’S the cause of some of her waking nightmares, so to speak, with his harassment.)
When she awakens, they stare at each other and have a silent conversation (their thoughts are to themselves, but form a dialogue) which ends with Ra-im mentally telling Joo-won to come by in her dreams again. And then Joo-won utterly ruins the connection by whispering, “Uh, there’s an empty room next door…”
Ra-im grimaces — men! — and shoves her pillow in his face, but both immediately duck down and feign sleep when Jong-soo enters the room. Seeing Joo-won cuddled up to Ra-im, he drags him away, then settles down on the ground to claim the spot next to her.
Not about to be outdone, Joo-won pretends to sleep-wriggle his way back up, wedging himself between the two. He allows himself a gloating smile and snuggles against Ra-im’s back. One point, Joo-won.
In the morning, Ra-im and Jong-soo head out for a hike together, ignoring Joo-won’s pestering questions. He manages to catch up to them on the trail, though he gasps along and asks them to slow down. Instead, Ra-im suggests upping their speed, and Jong-soo happily obliges. One point, Jong-soo.
At the summit, Ra-im declares that winter is her favorite season because the cold forces you to keep walking to keep from freezing to death, warming the body. Well, that’s optimistic in a morbid sort of way.
On their way down, they find Joo-won huddled in the cold, notably opting for the exact opposite of Ra-im’s hypothetical scenario. He sits and waits rather than moving, his body cooling instead of heating.
Grimacing in pain, he makes a big deal about twisting his ankle, and hobbles along with the aid of the other two. They’re particularly annoyed with the way he leans all over Ra-im, using this as an excuse to slip an arm around her and pat her hair.
Finally Jong-soo has enough and declares that it’ll be faster to just carry Joo-won on piggyback… and miraculously, Joo-won declares his ankle healed. Hur.
Disgusted with his cheap trick, Ra-im delivers a swift kick to the shin. Joo-won protests that he really was hurt, clutching his kicked leg while hopping on his good one… then loses his balance and goes toppling down the slope.
Oska calls Seul’s social-climbing friend to ask her about things he should have frankly asked years ago. I suppose he was afraid to face the possibility that he’d been an ass, as he admitted to Ra-im, and now the friend confirms as much. Seul didn’t actually study abroad with that douchebag, as he’d believed, and had even attempted suicide. The friend advises Oska to hear the rest from Seul, since it’s not really her place to divulge all this. Yes, so discreet of her to share everything but one last detail.
Oska grows teary-eyed as she reminds him that Seul doesn’t have a lot of friends because he’d been her everything. She was always there when he needed her, but he was never there for her. The truth, it hurts.
Seul’s employee confesses to accidentally leaking Oska’s plagiarized song, which is doubly bad for Seul because in addition to making her responsible for this professional gaffe, it also means Oska was right when he suspected her.
As Tae-sun watches interestedly, Oska comes barging in and takes her aside to talk. He doesn’t say anything at first, just fixes his attention on peeling a plate of roasted chestnuts. Seul sits there awkwardly, her anger at being wrongly accused fading since the accusation wasn’t so wrong after all. She admits to being responsible for the song leak, but he doesn’t react much, just keeps peeling.
He offers her the chestnuts, having remembered how she liked them, but she shoots him down — he’s mixed her up with someone else. Oops. Frustrated with himself more than anything, he asks why she ever dated a jerk like him in the first place. He promises to think harder about how he hurt her. (Geez, you still don’t know? You declared that she meant nothing to you — to a guy who you thought she was with for a year — and can’t put two and two together? He gets points for effort, not so much for brains.)
Back to the mountain retreat. Joo-won’s business meeting will keep him behind for another day, so the stunt team heads down first. However, Ra-im isn’t with them; she (reluctantly) stays behind to tend to Joo-won, since he was injured when she kicked him.
Given Joo-won’s stunt about the ankle, Ra-im is reasonably suspicious that he’s faking his injured back, too. As he rests up at his own quarters, he wants her to tend to the swelling, then pulls down his pants (pffffffffft!) to show her the bruise. Ra-im whirls around and squeaks out a protest.
He asks what she did with Oska that other night, and she answers that she went to eat pork skins with him. He grimaces at her pointed comment that he ate it “like a man,” unlike some people.
He insists on taking a walk with her, citing physical therapy, and they walk on in silence. I love that they walk in step with each other, like Ra-im did in his fantasies, and he tells her as much — that he’s walked with her before, back when he kept imagining her appearing before him.
Ra-im looks at him as she thinks to herself:
“Ra-im’s narration: There are things that are thought of as fantasies merely because they’re far away. Starry bodies are like that. Just as it is with people who are too beautiful, they readily disappear.“
The line is a quote from a book, and she continues, thoughtfully:
“In the books that I’d read to find out what he’s really like, there was a passage that had long settled in my heart.”
Joo-won faces her with a smile, and tears start to form in her eyes as she thinks:
Ra-im: “It’s now that I realize it — how beautiful a person he is. And therefore, how far away he is from me. He’ll disappear someday, too, like people do when they’re too beautiful.”
(It’s a beautiful scene… but rehashes a sentiment I’m pretty sure has been shown before. It sorta sucks out the impact of this “revelation” when the point being made is an old one. Although it is nice that we finally see Ra-im’s longing, on a level that’s deeper than a purely physical pull.)
Joo-won barges in on Ra-im while she’s trying to get a handle on her thoughts, pouting and making trivial requests (water, change the TV channel) just to stretch out their interaction. When he declares he’s going to sleep in the same room with her, she’s not having it and tricks him into stepping outside, then locks the door. Indignant, he tries to pick open the lock with a paper clip, unsuccessfully.
It’s his turn to do the tricking: He talks as though Jong-soo has returned, which draws Ra-im outside, at which point he pushes his way into the room. Before she can shove him out again, he pushes her into bed, holding her to him, and tells her firmly to go to sleep.
Ra-im puts up a struggle, threatening first and then pleading for him to let her go. He doesn’t loosen his grip, and eventually she settles down and stares up at Joo-won for a long beat.
After a charged moment of looking at each other — do you hear that crackling? It’s the tension — Joo-won holds her even tighter and starts reciting his old familiar refrain, the one he used to ground himself in reality whenever his feelings (or hormones) got away from him. Only this time, his voice breaks and takes on a desperate tinge as he recites, over and over.
The next morning, they head straight to the doctor’s office after Joo-won wraps his business meeting. Having assumed he was faking his pain, Ra-im is surprised to hear the doctor declare that the injury was fairly severe.
Joo-won’s mother calls Dr. Lee (Ji-hyun) to ask about Joo-won’s medication, ignoring Ji-hyun’s comment about patient confidentiality and shrilly demanding to know the truth. Ji-hyun is spared a knock-down drag-out fight about medical ethics because Mom receives word that Joo-won was injured, and that Ra-im had been with him.
Ra-im has another stunt training session with Oska, who drives her home afterward. However, he recognizes the chauffeured car parked nearby, and guesses what’s happening. Warning Ra-im to stay away until he calls, he hurries inside — where Mom waits in disgust with a nervous Ah-young.
He tries to get his aunt to leave, but like she’s going to listen to him. Ra-im appears at the door (argh, does she not listen, ever?), and that gets Mom’s hackles up. Oska defends her, but it doesn’t help that Mom’s just found the box of Joo-won’s boxers — the ones he “returned” to Ra-im — and she dumps the box over Ra-im’s head.
Ra-im tries to explain about a misunderstanding, but there’s no easy way to explain Joo-won’s sparkly underpants, and Mom rails against Ra-im’s parents for bringing her up poorly, and raising her to mooch off a rich man.
It’s that low blow that lands with her, and Ra-im says with tears in her eyes that it’s true Joo-won likes her, and that she has developed feelings for him as well — but no matter, because she won’t date him now, no matter what, because he’s not someone she’d dishonor her parents to be with. Crying in earnest, Ra-im says that her father was an outstanding person, and demands that Mom take those words back.
Not bloody likely. Instead, Mom spits out that she can do a lot worse. Yeah, I believe you, viper lady. Finally, Oksa loses his temper and forces his aunt out. When he comes back to check on Ra-im, she’s sobbing her heart out, crumpled on the ground with Ah-young attempting to comfort her.
Hearing that his mother paid a visit to Ra-im, Joo-won immediately heads to Ra-im’s house, and then the action school, to no avail. He then confronts his mother angrily, asking her to back off Ra-im.
Mom declares that she knows he’s taking pills, which to her is a Big Fucking Deal — because of how it would look to the world, of course. Nice of her to care about her son’s health, isn’t it? If word got out that the LOEL president was hopped up on crazy pills, it would look mighty bad.
Mom says the one bit of wisdom she’s probably ever spouted in her life, in telling Joo-won to go for the relationship if he likes her so much. At his astonishment, she points out that he’s not actually fighting with her over this — he’s fighting with himself.
But if he chooses Ra-im, if he marries her and has children with her, he’ll have to give up everything. Mom may eventually accept the child, but Ra-im will never be allowed one step into their hallowed halls. So if he thinks he can be content with only love to sustain him, by all means, go for it.
Finally! Mom graduates from Mere Plot Device and Angstmaker Extraordinaire™ to voice of (spiteful, malicious) reason.
Joo-won returns to Ra-im’s door, this time knowing she’s inside because he can hear her phone ringing. She refuses to answer the door, and in the morning finds him still outside — he sits in his car, having waited through the night.
Joo-won tries to say something, but he admits he doesn’t know how to go about apologizing. If he’s looking for a break, she’s not about to cut him one — not when this is more proof of his arrogant privilege. Why can’t he do something everyone else knows how to do? She’s forever apologizing, and yet he doesn’t even know how.
Ra-im tells him she has to keep living her life in that space where his mother degraded her and her family — so he ought to leave her to her own pathetic life, and return to his fairy tale. She walks away battling tears.
Meanwhile. LOEL is holding its annual VVIP party that night, which Seul plans to attend as part of her patented Piss Oska Off Revenge Plan.
After spending all day in a broody fit, Joo-won comes roaring up to the action school. Ra-im quickly asks Jung-hwan to say she’s not here, but Joo-won knows it’s an excuse and shouts aloud into the empty gym that she’s a coward for hiding, that he’s hardly even begun, that he won’t give up. That if she’s going to reject him, she ought to at least take his calls to tell him so.
Jong-soo comes up to her and points out that Joo-won has a point, and that hiding is the worst option. She bows her head but doesn’t emerge from hiding, and spends the day hunched in the locker room lost in thought. She reads over the string of texts Joo-won sends her, each worried in tone, asking her to answer.
After sitting like that for hours, she finally makes a decision and heads out, arriving at Joo-won’s compound that evening.
It’s not till she’s outside his house that she realizes there’s a party going on. From outside, she sees Joo-won making the rounds, smiling and greeting his guests, and the scene hammers in her status as an outsider (literally) looking in (again, literally) on the unattainable world inside.
Remembering Joo-won’s reaction to her shabby safety-pinned bag earlier, she glances down at her clothes, so unsuitable for this setting.
She hesitates when Joo-won calls, and finally decides to leave, unseen. However, Oska comes walking up at this moment, interrupting her escape.
He notices that she’s freezing and invites her to his house for a warm drink. He urges her to make her presence known to Joo-won, but she’s feeling self-conscious about her appearance and anxiously declines.
That’s no problem: Oska declares himself her fairy godmother (heh) for the night and calls in a styling team to fix her up.
And so it’s a very different, very glammed-up Ra-im who makes quite an entrance at the party, on Oska’s arm. (Ha Ji-won looks hot, but let’s just say that this moment might have had more dramatic impact had Ra-im and Oska not been wearing the same hairstyle.)
Seul glares — surprised, and also peeved to be upstaged just after declaring her intent to be the queen of every event — while Joo-won looks on in a mix of jealousy and shock.
COMMENTS
Is it me, or is the conflict getting really repetitive? I really liked much of this episode, but when you stop to think of what really went down in the big conflict scenes, it seems like the answer is, not much. The acting really kills the moments, whether it’s Joo-won’s viper of a mother being her poisonous self, or Ra-im being torn down by these hoity-toity folks, or Joo-won fighting with himself. But the actual facts of the matter? They’ve been long established and aren’t really changing. Yeah, class differences separate them. We got it ten episodes ago, thanks.
In that respect, Secret Garden has always felt like a bit of an antique, premise-wise — something out of a prior age that has been dressed in modern clothing, but hasn’t actually updated its themes or motifs accordingly. It’s the classic mistress dilemma — the woman refuses to be a kept woman, but the man refuses to marry her because his wife must be his social “equal.”
I get this conflict if we’re talking about, say, 19th-century British aristocracy, or 16th-century Joseon classism, or old-timey fairy tales. But it’s a stretch here in modern times. Chaebol families are the closest Korea has to a modern aristocracy and the thematic parallels generally work, but not perfectly, which is why these increasingly dramatic classist clashes are starting to wear thin.
Warning: Rant ahead. Regarding the bed scene —
This scene makes me so mad, because I’m so conflicted about it and it’s aggravating that I even feel torn because I know I should just hate it outright, but I realize the chemistry is sizzling and our couple is just so damn electric together. But I can’t enjoy it either, because the moment is just all kinds of wrong.
Yes, he’s hot, and yes, I love Hyun Bin — who wouldn’t want to be aggressively courted by him? But the fact remains that in this situation, a man tricks a woman, forces his way into her room, ignores her repeated protests, shoves her onto a bed, and restrains her body while holding her close. True, he doesn’t attempt any further bodily violations… but really, isn’t that enough? It’s already assault. The fact that he’s a dreamboat doesn’t diminish the ick factor for me.
Perhaps you can argue that Ra-im actually likes him, that her resistance fades, that she’s actually okay with it. But she says no over and over, and struggles, and asks him to get off her. It resembles a lot of the “forced seduction” scenarios of old romance novels, the kind of scenes that romanticized rape (hey, the hero got the heroine to like it, therefore his brute force was justified) — but which are, tellingly, no longer considered acceptable.
This is so close to the whole “She was asking for it” argument that gets thrown around, the lame defense of “It’s not assault because she liked it, honest.” I’m just… really, really torn about this moment because I want to like it, in fact I do sort of see the appeal and that drives me nuts. Because I also hate it. The very fact that Joo-won IS so appealing is not a mitigating factor but in fact an exacerbating one — it blurs the lines so that you want to cut him some slack, and that does everyone a grave disservice.
I’m more irritated with the drama itself than I am with Joo-won the character, because it’s one thing for a flawed character to act in stupid ways. But it’s a whole other thing for a drama to put forth this scenario and then romanticize it as sexy and moving, putting an uncomfortable glossy sheen on a situation that at its core is deeply problematic. Even if I hadn’t personally known friends (yes, plural) who were raped by men who claimed after the fact, “I thought you wanted it,” it would be hugely upsetting. Oh, it’s okay to assault a woman if she likes you back? Okay, then. Swoon.
But still: Urg, drama, you just ruined Joo-won for me! He’d been teetering on the brink for a while, but had finally won me over with the awesome watching-her-sleeping scene in the beginning of the episode. I don’t know if I can go back to rooting for him now — you can’t un-sour milk, can you?
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RECENTLY COMPLETED
RI was smiling , when she closed the door,was she??
Yeah, cause she’d tricked him into stepping out of the room.
guys, let’s all stop the complaining. you know you’re all here cuz you love the drama. a bit of cliche is acceptable…because it’s what the audience wants not matter how much a dramasist hates it for being unoriginal.
secret garden is a cliche fairytale (literally, with fantasy elements) in a modern setting.
which is why we all love it so much. oh, the chemistry!
oh no. i can’t stand oska hair style.
Now that you brought it up, I can’t think of an Oska hairstyle that I can stand.
LOL. It reminds me of SHINee Onew’s current hair, so I got used to it. Anything after the 50/50 part was a-okay with me. However, Gil Ra Im sporting it…bleh.
That forced kiss coupled with the current bed scene just enrages me so fucking much. I just don’t see anything romantic about any of those scenes, because he was asserting control and she seemed to have lost hers.
I love this drama, but the second I read that there was one little thing bothering you, I knew what it was because quite frankly it pissed me the fuck off too.
I really hope we don’t encounter scenes such as that again. Whenever he seems to magically overpower Ra Im, the strong stuntwoman, I’m just left with this annoyed bitter feeling of what the fuck was that?? u_u
Stupid people. Just because JV starts pointing out the negatives in this episode, everyone starts agreeing, when in fact if you’ve never read this recap, you wouldn’t react this violently. Ra-im could punch the daylights out of Joo-won if she wanted to. But I’m not saying what he did was praise-worthy.
Uh, it’s rude to assume that we’re all sheep blindly following one person. I watched the episode and then read this recap, where I realized that there were other people besides me who hated the bed scene.
was it just me or was the dress she was wearing too short? it looked like she was ready to hit da club. Also, what was up with joo-won’s priest looking suit thing? (lol, I’m just criticizing the fashion.)
Hi y’all.
I’ve just watched the subbed episode and I must say that I didn’t like the acting (except for Oska and the other actors in his scenes) until the scene where Joo-won confronts his mother. After that scene things were much better.
I was really excited about this episode but it looks like we’ve still got a ways to go for Joo-won to get it together.
I liked Ra-im’s hair in the final scene but didn’t like her dress.
Look forward to reading everyone else’s comments.
at first i felt the same about said bed scene, but then I realized that she – should she really have wanted it- would have been able to get him off her. like in the audition tape later, she’s awesome in i-don’t-know-how-many martial arts, and therefore her struggling really has an “the lady does protest too much” feeling to me. so joo won- still thumbs up from me
lol at the Oska/Ra-Im hair conclusion. Didn’t notice til you mentioned it, but so true. Doesn’t help that the two apparently shared a hair color bottle too.
who knows the song tittle in this episode… while Gil Ra Im recording her video at action school… the song sound good.. anybody can help me…
I just re-watched the scene where they walked together. It’s such a simple yet beautiful scene, esp with the flashbacks added in. Love his smile so much
Just sayin’, Taiwanese dramas are more violent than this. Really..
I couldn’t agree with your comments on the bedroom scene more, JB. I don’t feel the need to address every single problem I had with this episode (and the last two, actually) because many of them have been articulately discussed by several people already in the comments here.
Just a few thoughts from looking at the comments other people have posted. Firstly, there seems to be a divide in terms of some people perceiving the offended reaction of many viewers to the bedroom scene versus the forced kiss. Now, I didn’t read the comments section for the episode with the forced kiss so I cannot speak to what that reaction was like, but speaking personally I found BOTH the forced kiss and the bedroom scene problematic.
I realize that Joo Won has taken an aggressive approach from the beginning, but in terms of my general comfort level it was these particular instances that pushed me from eye-rolling at common Korean Drama Tropes to frustration and squick. Setting aside HB and HJW’s excellent chemistry, those scenes stood out as showing especially strong shows of force as romantic as opposed to problematic. That makes me uncomfortable.
There has been a lot of discussion concerning Ra Im’s reaction to Joo Won’s “You. Me. Bed. Now.” approach. What I find particularly disturbing is the number of people who have insisted that “she could have fought him off if she really wanted to”. Like the one commenter who gave the example of a woman trained in martial arts falling victim to sexual assault, I believe that even a woman as strong and well trained as Ra Im is can become a victim. By putting the responsibility on the person who very clearly said “no”, we misdirect it from where it should be focused.
Here is what struck a chord for me watching that scene. So many times we have seen Ra Im fearlessly kicking Joo Won when she feels that he has gone too far. But here, when she struggles and he refuses to let go, she begs him to let her go, promising she won’t tell anyone if he just lets her go (er…at least that was how she phrased it in the eng sub I was watching – there may be variation). To me that is unequivocally where he had to let her go, socially stunted guy or not. It was in that moment that Ra Im no longer had any control over the situation, and left me feeling squicktastic.
*hugs imaginary Dae Woong plushie* It’s tough, because I do actually like SG a lot and up until this point in the narrative I thought the writer was absolutely killing with all of that wit. I think the writing has been very sharp, intelligent, and refreshingly adult (MSOAN tested my patience to the extreme on this front. Still not sure if I will finish it.). I am not sure that the drama *can* turn around completely after the direction it is going in, but I haven’t given up altogether. I would probably watch it through to the end just for Sang Hyun, though, not gonna lie. The only thing that would make his character even more fun to watch is if Woo Young got involved with Tae Ssun. I realize this is not likely to happen what with the strong setup between Woo Young and Seul in the most recent episodes and I accept it, but it sure was fun to watch those two boys snipe at each other.
(Ha Ji-won looks hot, but let’s just say that this moment might have had more dramatic impact had Ra-im and Oska not been wearing the same hairstyle.)
LOL
Personally, I found the bed scene extremely disturbing. It really did look like Joo Won was going to rape her. I mean, he grabbed her and shoved her onto the bed and held her down. The entire time, I was cringing and screaming at Gil Ra Im to kick him. So I do not understand at all how anyone can say “Oh, it’s so romantic”.
But it brings up an interesting point. Ra Im is a stunt woman and could easily free herself of Joo Won if she wished to, as has been seen in past episodes. Yet at the same time, she consistently has been pushed and pulled around by Joo Won and abused by him and allows it. Several times he pulls her on the wrist and she doesn’t stop him so maybe she kinda likes it? He yells at her, throws clothes at her, and says hurtful things like “we obviously won’t last” but still expects to be in a relationship with her.
Yes, there are many cute scenes with him but in my eyes, I would never understand why Ra Im would ever like a stalker and bullheaded guy who wears glittery track suits. No matter how cute Hyun Bin is.
I am completely with you here especially when the camera did a 1-2 second look “down there” during their struggle. Sure, push her down and sleep next to her but to do it so aggressively.. No, just stop. I can’t stand to watch if Ra Im isn’t even going to defend herself with more than just pleading words.
The whole reason why I started watching this was because Gil Ra Im is a stuntwoman. I expected her to be more aggressive in her actions when it comes to defending herself against such a stalker who just can’t take a hint. Sure, I can see why she lets Jon Won get away with all the things he does but it’s really too much.
Yes, she’s starting to like him but I don’t understand how you can let that and Jon Won’s social class just step all over a person. Where’s your own self worth here? *sigh* I guess what really gets me down to the core is that in the end, no matter what a woman does or doesn’t do, a man will overcome her.
Hyun Bin… Your acting is great and you have your moments as Jon Won but I can’t look at this character or yours in the same light anymore.
Dang am I late in commenting, but yeah, I agree… I kinda WANT to like the scene because it IS hawt…sorta. On the other hand, it’s pretty much sexual harassment to force a woman (or man…but in this case, Gil Ra Im is a woman) in a bed with you, regardless if whether there was anything sexual at all. I mean, I was already kinda about all the kisses Doo Won forced on Ra Im, but this really makes me wonder, is it alright to like these scenes, even if they’re just fictional? Hyun Bin is hawt, check. The leads have extraordinary chemistry, check. Scenes are crackling, check. But still, is this alright? I’m not sure I can accept any more forceful actions Doo Won pulls on Ra Im anymore. And Ra Im, regardless whether or not you are mutually attracted to him, you’re a woman with at least some pride, right? And a kickass stunt woman at that. I know you can actually beat the crap out of him, right? It makes no sense that you can’t judging from the first few episodes. Either that, or report him for sexual harassment. Get a lawyer, and give Doo Won a taste of his own medicine ( “do you want to see my lawyer?” ) by reporting him for sexual harassment AND stalking. Hyun Bin, you’re hawt. I love your neurotic, obsessed, silly character because it’s so darn entertaining, but that doesn’t excuse you from acting like a total Edward stalker. Heck, even Edward knows his limits…sorta. Minus the stalking…..
Also, I simply do not understand why Ra Im likes Doo Won. Sure, he’s there ALL the time, but it’s really just stalkerish. He acts like a douche to her. He acts all high and mighty and above her. He hurts her. He abuses her. He annoys the crap outta her. He’s a pain in the ark. He never listens. He tells her to disappear (until last episode). Then he says he’ll disappear. He’s clearly toying with her (regardless whether or not he really loves her). He makes it all too clear that they won’t last. He’s neurotic. He’s childish and immature. He’s inconsiderate. And to top it all off, he has a freakin’ horrible mother who pretty much just mirrors his character in the first few episodes. I don’t get it. How did she come to like this guy? Because obviously, all he has going for him is: 1) his looks (although I’m quite sure that Ra Im is not quite that shallow), 2) his money (not that she cares…until he rubs it in and hurts her pride and makes it clear to her that they can’t last in a relationship), and 3) his obsession over her (which in a way, is rather creepy, even if it’s because he likes her). So…while I can see how Doo Won is obsessed over this “fresh” and “cool” stunt woman, I don’t quite see how Ra Im came to reciprocate that feeling.
I know I’m way late. Yeah that bed scene was disturbing but you have to put it into the context of a comedy to remove the element of total creepster. I find Joo Won a creepy stalker, not even considering his flaws, regardless of how damn fine he is. The reason I think she fell for him is because he’s the first one who’s ever looked at her that way AND let her know it AND so intensely. That is, looked at her as a woman and found her attractive and alluring, and never let her forget it. Oh yeah, and he’s damn fine. She’s more or less blinded by the emotions he’s created in her. Thus his appeal will always overpowered his jerkiness.
Oh, I also forgot to mention 2 things.
(1) Why did she wear such a revealing dress? What about the scars all over her body? They just disappeared. *movie magic* They always dress them so blaghhh in the drama makeovers. Make her elegant plzzz.
(2) When did she become so fashionable? Prior to the switch she wore these worn out clothes and sneakers and had this badass tomboy style (which made her hotter imo). Now she wears high heels and has a different fancy jacket for each episode. Even if Joo Won left them behind from the switch, I didn’t think she’d be the type to wear them. I could see maybe when she plans to see him (for “his sake”) but not around Action School, etc.
YOU GUYS GOT TO CHILL. his intention is pure. he might have brought it across in a marginally inappropriate way, but cmon it’s the 13th episode, we all know how annoying and arrogant a bastard he is. he just wanted to hold her in his arms. i mean after all that angst, how she keeps trying to play hard to get and push him away, he has REACHED HIS LIMIT. the mutual attraction btw them is obvious. how can it be likened to RAPE??? that is taking things way too far! as for the forced kiss, i admit, he shouldn’t have done that. but we got to understand the context, and understand his personality. he IS a jerk. when he wants sth, he makes sure he GETS it. he hasn’t matured enough to understand the workings of love. abt how in love, it isn’t all about you. it;’s abt sacrificing yourself to love another. but at the forced- kiss stage, he was just pissed how she refuses to reciprocate and forced a kiss upon her so she will somhow come to her senses and acknowledges the fact that she loves him. granted, it is annoying how he constantly puts her down and insists his way all the time, but i really don’t think he intends any harm. he’s still a gentlyman, in his warped sense and logic. he will never go as far as to infringed her rights and rape her. in fact i think the bed scene was pretty sweet, esp how he had to try his best to suppress his hormaonal desires LOL.
Well this is a korean drama. and lets face it koreans are prudes. So java beans if joo won didnt force Gil Ra Im nothing would happen. Also women find this sexy because it reminds them of the cavemen days when men were men. And it makes women feel protected with a he-man beating his chest which is why rape is romanticized. No woman wants a passive men. And i really hate the feminine crap because “oh gil ra im the victim” oh please as you have said before she is a bad ass stuntwoman and can throw joo won around like a doll so she could have easily escaped his grasp but she never does because she likes it. I think you’re putting your own prudishness and misgivings into this drama. Joo Won didnt listen to her protests because she’s always mad and he has to force her to get under her skin or else they’ll never go anywhere since Gil Ra Im is too passive.
After watching the ep and then reading the recap as well as the comments that followed, I’m led to believe that the reason why Ra Im seemed to fail in keeping Joo Won’s hands off her was because she’s already tired.
Yah, I know it’s a very shallow reason but this is because of all the arguments I’ve been reading coming from different points of view I still haven’t decided fully whether I liked the bed scene or not. I liked it because of the way it was acted–not to mention the uber-sizzling chemistry between HJW and HB–it was a heart-felt scene where you can see both characters struggling against what they feel for each other, as if both of them are losing their minds. Well, this was more obvious with Joo Won as he kept on reciting that darned mantra.
On the other hand, looking at it in the lens of reality I would feel totally uncomfortable having that scene being played out in real life. It’s just so…out of bounds.
i think im on my third round watching the series. just love the pairing. as to the bed scene, i think really it was a set-up so that after the 2nd swap when joo won asks ra im to stay in his house and they sleep together in the same bed, ra im would be much more amenable since it already has a precedent. but still looking for justification for ra im’s falling for joo won after all those demeaning things he said to her, and in front of his mom, too. what girl would put up with that? and esp since in the opening scene we’re shown that ra im is a strong woman.
I’m a bit behind but i just got into watching SG and i love it so much and i like reading the recaps of those episodes to read people’s opinions of the scenes, and i find them fascinating, especially the comments that i’m reading concerning the bed scenes. I’ll try to share my thoughts on it, like real opinion and not try to sugarcoat it. Let’s say it, Joo won IS obsessed about Ra Im. His love for her in the beginning is not a healthy one, or at least it the way he persue her. That was the consistent plot in the drama; Joo won simply WONT accept Ra Im rejecting him and he would do ANYTHING to get her to love him back. At first he tried denying his feelings because they were too overwhelming but not once he stopped pursuing her. Joo won is not a sane individual, he has his psychological issues obviously and his love for Ra Im messed him up a bit some more while helping him at the same time but the way he stalked was not ever a good message to begin with, yet viewers loved it and found it cute, well it’s too late now to go back and pretend that it’s wrong because of ONE episode or ONE scene. The Bed scene compared to the Kiss scene was nothing, to me the REAL sexual assault in this drama was the kiss scene in episode 11 and the writer didnt even try to make it look like something else, it WAS WRONG! but when a stalker, obsessed guy like Joo won feels extreme jealousy or feels like he could be losing his love to another man, that’s why he would react. He did this to show her that she belongs to him and it was wrong and they both knew it. To me talking about rape is going a bit too far but we dont even have to pretend that there isn’t a sexual harassment/stalking tone throughout this entire show and part of it is written because it represents Joo won’s flawed personality, but Hyun Bin played this role so well that he actually convinced the viewers to love him anyway and to forgive Joo Won for his flaws because at the end of the day, he is a man in love who was desperate to be loved man, as the theme song states. Just listening to the Geu Namja song, it says everything clearly.
I’m a bit behind but i just got into watching SG and i love it so much and i like reading the recaps of those episodes to read people’s opinions of the scenes, and i find them fascinating, especially the comments that i’m reading concerning the bed scenes. I’ll try to share my thoughts on it, like real opinion and not try to sugarcoat it. Let’s say it, Joo won IS obsessed about Ra Im. His love for her in the beginning is not a healthy one, or at least it the way he persue her. That was the consistent plot in the drama; Joo won simply WONT accept Ra Im rejecting him and he would do ANYTHING to get her to love him back. At first he tried denying his feelings because they were too overwhelming but not once he stopped pursuing her. Joo won is not a sane individual, he has his psychological issues obviously and his love for Ra Im messed him up a bit some more while helping him at the same time but the way he stalked was not ever a good message to begin with, yet viewers loved it and found it cute, well it’s too late now to go back and pretend that it’s wrong because of ONE episode or ONE scene. The Bed scene compared to the Kiss scene was nothing, to me the REAL sexual assault in this drama was the kiss scene in episode 11 and the writer didnt even try to make it look like something else, it WAS WRONG! but when a stalker, obsessed guy like Joo won feels extreme jealousy or feels like he could be losing his love to another man, that’s how he would react. He did this to show her that she belongs to him and it was wrong and they both knew it. To me talking about rape is going a bit too far but we dont even have to pretend that there isn’t a sexual harassment/stalking tone throughout this entire show and part of it is written because it represents Joo won’s flawed personality, but Hyun Bin played this role so well that he actually convinced the viewers to love him anyway and to forgive Joo Won for his flaws because at the end of the day, he is a man in love who was desperate to be loved back, as the theme song states. Just listening to the Geu Namja song, it says everything clearly.