Big: Episode 16 (Final)
by girlfriday
Well, it ends. Listen, my mother said that if I don’t have nice things to say… waitaminute, my mother never said that. Let the ragefest begin!
This show is basically a lesson in math. Turns out you can have great parts, but the sum can add up to less than those parts. I know! I didn’t know it worked that way either! But math is wily like that. And apparently, so are dramas.
SONG OF THE DAY
Big OST – Gong Yoo “Because It’s You” [ Download ]
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FINAL EPISODE RECAP
Da-ran makes her big confession (handy to have the whole cast rounded up) that she’s in love with KKJ. She takes off the ring and leaves it on the table. Kyung-joon drags her away, and her parents are left to apologize to the in-laws.
Kyung-joon calls her crazy—he’s going to lose his memory and she’ll be all alone and hurt. Da-ran: “I’m going to remember. Even if it hurts, I can’t pretend you weren’t here.”
He stammers, “You’re not going to pretend it didn’t happen?” Is the question you’re really asking, Then was the last episode all for nothing? Because that sure is MY question.
Da-ran: “No. Because I said that my feelings for you were real. The you that I like is there. He’s there now and will be in the future.” He looks at her, dumbfounded—but he might not remember, and he might call her a crazy person!
She says through her tears that it doesn’t matter. She’s going to remember and protect their love, and she’s going to tell him everything. She’s crazy now, so why not go with it? He agrees that she sure doesn’t appear sane.
She gives him the watch she fished out of the lake, and he decides she’s officially crazy. He cups her face in his hands, sighing that she’s all dirty and smelly. She says it again—that even if he can’t remember her, she’s going to remember for the both of them, and that she won’t let go of him.
A tear falls as he hugs her tight.
Little Kyung-joon’s vitals spike, and his heart rate gets dangerously high. Se-young calls the parents, who run over and stay up with him that night, worried.
Kyung-joon and Da-ran walk down the street hand-in-hand, and he asks if she doesn’t want to go home and shower first. But she says she’s going to have to learn to be seen as a crazy person by the entire world, so she may as well steel herself now.
To that end, she decides to pick some flowers out of a planter on the sidewalk, to make up for the time she threw out the flowers he gave her. She runs across the street to wave them about and sing the Pororo song, and she successfully gets called crazy.
Kyung-joon runs over and sighs that he’d hate to forget this—it’s fodder for a lifetime of mockery. She says in turn that there are so many things she didn’t do for him when she thought he’d remember, and now that he’s going to forget she’s just full of regret.
Mari comes back to the restaurant to retrieve her fake ring and asks Aunt and Uncle to be a witness for her when Kyung-joon wakes up, to say that she’s the one who was by his side the entire time.
They nod that she’s right about that, and she sighs that she’s the only one who has the right to be by his side, and not lying Gil Teacher who goes back on her promises.
The Gil family waits on pins and needles for the fallout, and Choong-shik worries—if Yoon-jae and Da-ran left like that, the air must be frosty between them right about now…
Cut to the happy couple shooting furtive smiles at each other across the kitchen table. Kyung-joon starts in on his interrogation: “When did you first start liking KKJ?!” He slams his hands on the table for emphasis.
She retraces her steps, like the time she felt something when he showed up at the theater, or realized in the park that she was no longer waiting for Yoon-jae, but searching for Kyung-joon.
She argues that they should be going over his half of the story since his is the memory they have to recreate, but he counters that his part is just full of pain, like the time he confessed he liked her and she called him a blood clot, and on and on ad infinitum. Well, when you put it like that, *sadface.*
She wonders why she didn’t find the courage to confess her feelings sooner, and he tells her to just do well from here on out, because he’s going to write it all down from now on. And then they just make moony eyes at each other in an explosion of cuteness.
Mom and Dad sit by Kyung-joon’s bedside all night, and Mom says it feels just like when Yoon-jae was young and sick all the time. She wonders how it feels the same now, watching over Kyung-joon.
Da-ran heads home to face the music, telling Kyung-joon that they can’t exactly see each other out in the open anymore. He asks if they should just run away to the boonies and she vows not to do any more running.
She steps through the door cautiously to find the whole family waiting for her. They send her upstairs right away. Mom comes in brandishing a pair of scissors: “Even when my mom cut off all my hair, I still liked your father.”
She tosses Da-ran a wedding photo, and in it Mom’s hair has been chopped off. She asks now if Da-ran wants to end up the same way. Da-ran says it doesn’t matter, because if she has to pretend her feelings aren’t real, then she’ll never be able to smile like Mom in this photo.
She closes her eyes and braces herself, and even when Mom grabs her hair and puts the scissors to her head, she says nothing in protest. Mom stops when she sees Da-ran’s resolve, sighing, “You’re really crazy, aren’t you?”
Mom sobs in her room, as Dad comes to pat her back. She adorably calls him Teacher, and cries that she just said the same things to her daughter that her mother said to her. She wonders now how much she broke her own mother’s heart. Aw.
Kyung-joon stops by the hospital to check on his coma body, and is alarmed to hear about the near-heart attack. Se-young remembers that he first woke up in the morgue after the accident, after being declared dead.
He confirms it. Oh noes. This is going to an ominous place.
He sits with Teddy, blowing balloons, and tells himself the body swap will be fine—just like inflating a balloon, deflating it, and then inflating it again. But next to him, Teddy over-inflates his, and it pops, jolting them both. Kyung-joon grabs his heart in fear.
Meanwhile Mom happily tells Se-young to wait for Yoon-jae to return to his old self. Mari tells Kyung-joon that she’s going with him to Germany, but he says they’re not going anywhere.
He tells her that Gil Teacher will stay by his side when he wakes up and Mari gapes—you mean by your side, the little brother of the man she just cheated on? She calls Da-ran crazy, and he affirms that she is with a goofy grin.
Kyung-joon spends the entire next day trying to see Da-ran, but the Gil Family is on high alert, taking shifts to watch her every move. He finally has to romeo his way to her window late at night, and puts his arms out to 10:10 for her to jump.
She’s about to when Mom stops her, reminding her not to do something as despicable as keep all her options open (ie. play both Yoon-jae and KKJ), a phrase that means in the literal sense, to “maintain your fishing pond.”
Da-ran grumbles that her pond only has the one fish, and then worries, “What if it dries up and dies?” She decides to jump, to water her fish and save it.
She gives Kyung-joon his watch, newly fixed, and then leaves him with a peck on the cheek. He watches her go with a swoon, muttering that if she was going to water the pond, she should’ve splashed him, not given him one little drop. But then he goes right back to swooning.
The next day Mari stomps into the hospital with a team of bodyguards in tow, and declares that she’s going to take Kyung-joon away. Um… are we adding kidnapping to your ever-growing list of crimes? Because you can’t just steal people’s coma bodies and get away with it!
Kyung-joon goes to see Mom to tell him that he’ll go to Germany with Dad, and they should leave Coma Kyung-joon here. To his surprise, Mom says she’ll stay here with Kyung-joon then.
But they’re quickly interrupted with bad news: Kyung-joon is gone. WUT. She really took him? How does a person just walk away with a coma patient? SIGH. Whatever.
She answers Kyung-joon’s call to announce that she’s going to hide him away till he wakes up, and keep him from ever seeing Gil Teacher again. “You said Gil Teacher was crazy? Well then I’m double double double crazy!” Um… were you waiting for someone to argue?
He tells her that he’ll just stay in this body forever then, and not get treated. She starts to panic that he’ll die that way, and Kyung-joon calls her bluff: he’ll meet her tantrum for tantrum, and he’ll just die in this body if she keeps going. She breaks down and tells him she’ll stop.
Kyung-joon tells her that being with Da-ran is what he wants, and Mari can’t force things to go her way while ignoring his feelings. She counters that he’s doing the same, ignoring her feelings and Yoon-jae’s.
She puts the ring on the table to remind him that when Yoon-jae wakes up and finds Da-ran by Kyung-joon’s side he’ll be as heartbroken as Mari. Yeah, but I doubt he’ll resort to kidnapping to argue the case.
At the same time, Little Kyung-joon’s vitals spike again. Teddy and Rabbit worry that they yanked too hard, and we see that the Miracle picture has been torn in two.
Mari continues on her quest to meddle, and why this character is even still trying to run interference at this point is beyond me. She goes to the mandoo restaurant to lie to Da-ran that she hid the ring in the mandoo filling, just to send her digging for it.
Da-ran bursts all the mandoo to look for the ring and then chases after the delivery guy to steal other people’s mandoo dinners, all the while feeling terrible that she ignored Yoon-jae’s feelings.
At the hospital, Yoon-jae-in-Kyung-joon’s-body cries a tear, and then his heart rate goes shooting up again. But Kyung-joon shows up to hold his hand, and he comes back down to normal. Kyung-joon says he’ll wait until Yoon-jae’s stopped time gets cleared up too.
He finds Da-ran trudging along in the street, looking for something. He guesses right away that it’s the ring and he says he found it. They stand across the street from each other, talking on the phone, and Kyung-joon sighs that it won’t work for them to hold hands right away, will it?
The blinking red light and her silent pause confirms that he’s right.
He wonders how long it’ll be before they can be together, hoping that it won’t take too long. He worries that he won’t remember and they’ll be apart for so long that they’ll miss their opportunity.
But she assures him that she’ll remember. Kyung-joon: “If my heart has grown enough to be able to look back at someone else’s heart, if my heart has grown just a little… then won’t I wake up, not as a child who knows nothing, but someone who can remember Gil Da-ran, just a little?”
She says that her heart will grow too, every day as she remembers him. She promises to keep growing her heart, so that it’ll be impossible to ever let him go.
Kyung-joon finally (FINALLY) spells it out plainly for Mari, that he’s not going to wake up by Da-ran’s side right away, but he’s not going to stay by Mari’s side either. He tells her to stop running after him, because no matter how much she does, he’ll never go to her.
Just think of all the felonies that could’ve been avoided had you done this sooner! He says he ignored her feelings completely in all this and did as he pleased, but now he feels sorry and can’t keep letting her do this.
He says he’ll put up a very clear signal for her, and puts up his hand, “Mari-ya, stop coming.”
She looks up with her puppy dog eyes and cries, and then steps forward, just until her head meets his outstretched hand. Aw, that’s kind of heartbreaking. She goes literally as far as he’ll let her, and stops there, resting her head against his palm. He drums his fingers on her head one last time.
And then Choong-shik sees her off at the airport with a long face, as he watches her approach the gate. He calls after her at the last minute and runs up to write his name on her purse.
Mari: “Gil Choong-shik!” Choong-shik: “That’s right! I’m Gil Choong-shik! This will probably take about ten years to repay via pizza. I will pledge that time to you. You wait, Jang Mari!”
And then he walks away, finally getting his cool exit down just right. She smiles after him.
Kyung-joon meets with Mom to go over travel plans, and finds her studying a notebook. He asks what it is, and she says it’s her Kyung-joon notes, gathered from Da-ran and Mari, so that she can learn as much about him as she can.
She worries that he’s a picky eater and that she isn’t the best cook, but Kyung-joon tells her to do her best, and prepare for a cold response since he’s not the most well-behaved child. He grins to himself, touched at her effort.
Ae-kyung and Na Teacher pass around their wedding invitations, and Ae-kyung asks Da-ran what she’ll do next if Yoon-jae heads off to Germany. She says that he’ll return someday to give her an answer.
She says that she’ll tell him then, that she’s no longer waiting for his answer, but has come to love someone else, even more.
Kyung-joon watches over his body and says that he’ll meet Yoon-jae soon, and by now I’m just screaming, You said that eons ago. Can soon be now?
He runs into Se-young and apologizes to her for acting so immature lately, and says that when she touched his arm after the accident that was kinda sexy. She should do it again, when Seo Yoon-jae returns. He walks away with a smile, leaving her confused.
Da-ran walks through the park and stops to drop some money for a homeless man sleeping on a bench, and is shocked to find her green umbrella sitting right there, still with her name and number on it.
Wait… did you just steal from a homeless man? Er…
She takes it to a shop to get it fixed and finds Kyung-joon watering the lawn. She tells him to make it rain and opens the umbrella, asking if he remembers the day they met.
He remembers, and confesses now that he followed her off the bus, not because she stole his umbrella, but because he swapped them on purpose. Ha.
They ride the bus together now, remembering that day, and he says how funny she was, giving herself away with the radio story. He saw that their umbrellas looked similar so he slid his over to her, and she picked his up without even looking.
They wonder that if he liked her enough to do that, maybe when he wakes up, there’ll still be a little of her in his heart.
They get off the bus and she opens her umbrella, and he puts his hands over hers just like that first day. She hopes that if she remains in his heart, he’ll come after her again. He asks that if he does, for her to hold onto him, no matter what, and tell him about their love.
Kyung-joon: “Then we’ll come back to this time.” She takes his watch and says that the moment she tells him her feelings, Kang Kyung-joon will return to this instant, and says he’s now been hypnotized.
They get ready to part, and she starts to cry but smiles through the tears. He ekes out that he’ll be going, but then stops to say one last thing. “I didn’t want to say this. I wanted to say it to you when I returned, but… Gil Da-ran, I love you.”
A tear trickles down his cheek as he says it, and then he puts the umbrella back in her hands, and walks away.
One year later.
Da-ran is a teacher at a new school, and Mari sends her an email to say that both boys have returned to their rightful places, and that neither remembers anything after the accident. Wait… the big finale body swap happens offscreen? @&*#$T#*#KK!
Kyung-joon hasn’t asked about Gil Teacher, and per her promise to Kyung-joon, Mari won’t tell him.
Da-ran says to herself that per her promise, she’ll continue to remember.
Rabbit gets better and even gets to go home from the hospital, and Teddy gives her a big hug. Ae-kyung and Na Teacher are pregnant and happy. And Da-ran still stops every time she sees sunflowers.
Choong-shik slices and dices as the new chef at the mandoo restaurant, and Mom and Dad say that Da-ran is due for a visit, after stopping by her old school. Choong-shik heads out to send Mari yet another package of mandoo, only to find her standing at his door.
She’s here to accept an award, having turned her stalker photographer skills into an artistic pursuit instead. Well that’s lemonade out of lemons if there ever was. Choong-shik asks hopefully if she’s been eating the mandoo he’s sent, and she says her dog enjoys them.
She admits she’s tasted at least one, and he asks her how many points she’d give them. She judiciously says, “One.” Choong-shik pumps his fist in the air, to have finally made it out of zeroland.
At this rate it’ll actually take you a hundred years to get your girl. He asks if they can take a picture together and eagerly awaits the day he’ll get to two points. Aw.
Da-ran drops by Kyung-joon’s old house and sees a mother and her son living there now. She says she used to live here and just dropped by, and as she leaves the kid says that the hyung who was just here said the same thing…
It starts to rain, and Da-ran hops on the bus. She hears her letter being read over the radio, wishing the person she loves a happy birthday this June 24. Da-ran whispers on the bus, “Happy birthday, Kyung-joon-ah.”
The radio message continues that she’ll be going next month to see him, and though he won’t remember, she’ll tell him everything that she remembers. She looks down at her watch and it’s 10:10.
The message concludes, “I’m running towards the time right now, 10:10.” She looks down at the aisle, where another green umbrella lies next to hers, and she smiles.
She gets off the bus with her umbrella, and then suddenly a voice calls out to her: “Gil Da-ran!” Wait, that’s still Gong Yoo’s voice. Urg, and though we only see him from above as he runs under her umbrella, it’s still Gong Yoo. WHY. Why Show, why.
It’s supposed to be Kyung-joon back in his own body, but they refuse to show it to us. This is so lame. I waited sixteen episodes for them to reunite like this?
He puts his hand over hers and she looks up. And then the scene is intercut with Kyung-joon’s farewell scene, earlier in the episode. If we were going to do that anyway, would it have killed you to have Shin playing the present-day half of his own character?
Past Kyung-joon tells her to hold onto him if he comes back. Da-ran looks up and smiles at him now, “Hello, Kang Kyung-joon.”
Kyung-joon plays it cool, saying that he just came around because he was curious how she was doing, and she says she knows the real reason (his little crush). He walks off with the umbrella and an, “Uh-oh, you’re overreacting.”
Back to Past Kyung-joon, who asks her to hold on, even if he’s mean and cold and bristly in the future. She runs after him now, returning that gesture and putting her hand over his under the umbrella.
Past Kyung-joon says that when she tells him her feelings, they’ll return to this moment. She smiles up at him now, and his watch reads 10:10.
Back to Past Da-ran: “I love you.” Past Kyung-joon: “The moment I hear those words, my heart will grow, as big as it is now. Like a miracle.”
They beam at each other, and then we end, on Past Kyung-joon and Past Da-ran, under the umbrella on that day they parted.
JAVABEANS’ COMMENTS
What? Huh? What? What? Was that just in her head? What? How did he get his memory back? What? What was the point of the year? Did Yoon-jae get over his sadface? What?
I have no more words for you. Drama, you don’t deserve any more words. Go sit in a corner and think about what you did.
RAGEQUIT.
GIRLFRIDAY’S COMMENTS
*HULKSMASH*
THE FUCK? We don’t even get ONE measly glimpse of Kyung-joon in his own body, even when they meet again? BAH. So. Disappointing. I know it’s jarring, but you’re the one who stuffed the hero in the wrong body for the entire goddamn series; own up to it and let us see the couple who’s supposed to be together, TOGETHER. If that’s the line you’re playing, you have to see it through!
It’s not like Shin has to appear 30 for crying out loud; he’s just 21 so how hard is it to let us see the 21-year old hero in his own body, finally getting the girl? I was so ready to say that despite some unnecessary episodes and senseless prolonging of plot points, that they managed to salvage a satisfactory ending. Until they didn’t show the swap. And then that last scene… where they didn’t give me my ONE moment, of Da-ran with the real Kyung-joon! Aaaaaaaaargh.
That’s just… plain mean.
Siiiigh. So many ways this drama went awry, and sadly, I think it began at the roots. They should’ve stuck with the original Big concept of a boy who rapid-grows into his own 30-year old body, because then at least it would’ve been HIS body. Having him stuck in Yoon-jae’s shell (even till the final moments of the show, dangnabbit) just kept me at arm’s length the whole time, knowing that she was having to look past his shell. Sure, it’s admirable that she can, and I went along because I expected that we’d get the final scene with Kyung-joon in his own body to say yes, Da-ran still loves him completely, as himself. IS THAT SO HARD? Why must you take that away from me? How can a story culminating in a body re-swap… not show the swap??? I. Don’t. Get. It. And did Yoon-jae just never come back to see his fiancée, or did that happen offscreen too? Why do you need a drama if all your most interesting narrative payoffs are going to happen OFFSCREEN?
Okay, calming down now. Truth be told, I might be angry now, but I was pretty checked out emotionally for most of the show’s run. There were definitely things that kept me invested, like Gong Yoo’s fantastic performance. But a showcase for one actor does not a drama make. And despite my love for Gong Yoo as the teenage Kyung-joon, my heart is always with the story first and foremost. That’s why I needed to see Shin playing the character in the end, because to me, telling me that they re-swapped offscreen is not enough. If I’m buying into the idea that he’s one character, no matter whose body he’s in, then you have to trust that I’m going to buy it till the very end. It shows a lack of trust in the audience, and for that, I feel betrayed.
I certainly don’t think that it was all bad, because there was a whole lot of cute and some good coming-of-age stuff in there amidst the confusing. But one thing I constantly asked all series long was: Are we there yet? I feel like somehow every step of the way, the show never got a step ahead, never surprised me. I held out hope that the boys would swap back sooner than the final hour (because honestly, I think the fallout is FAR more interesting than the lead-up), but that didn’t happen, and then to top it off, we didn’t even get to witness the big moment. No heartfelt first official meeting between the brothers, who saved each other’s lives? No my-hand-was-warm-because-you-reached-out-to-save-me-first? No wonder twins, activate? Nuthin’?
It’s really too bad that the whole drama failed in the writing department, because the Hong Sisters have penned some of my favorites over the years. I don’t love all their works before Big, and neither am I going to just write them off because of this one drama. But I’ll call a dud a dud, and this one just sailed right into the crapper. It turns out you can’t shape a whole drama on one big premise and leave things like logic and character motivation and emotional payoffs at the door. We kinda like that stuff. It’s sorta why we live here, in dramaland.
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Tags: Baek Sung-hyun, Big, featured, Gong Yoo, Lee Min-jung, Shin, Suzy
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251 Sunshine
July 25, 2012 at 6:11 AM
i am just so glad i spoiled myself with the recaps! i never expect kkj to go back to his old body...phew now i feel better that i didnt watch this series :D
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252 zank
July 25, 2012 at 6:12 AM
hong sisters, give me back my 16 hours!
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253 yong in
July 25, 2012 at 6:16 AM
oh.my. i guess i won't be watching this after all. i've just been downloading and reading recaps because i was wary of the whole body-swap thing.
so disappointed with this one. what kind of ending was that? how can he still be in YJ's body? : (
i was even willing to just watch this because of Gong Yoo, but now, i don't think so.
thanks for the recaps.
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254 Kim
July 25, 2012 at 6:19 AM
Ok first off, I just feel really bad for the actor Shin. Why he agreed to be in a coma for 15 episodes I'll never know. Second, Despite my disconnect with Daran in the beginning, I stuck with the show because Gong Yoo and the KKJ character were so great, and once everyone started being honest, it got a lot better. But then the dang show went and sucker punched me at the end! Ugh so disappointing. So many things were just confusing and unexplained. I agree with GF that if they had pulled the body swap earlier (and actually showed it for goodness sake!) that the fall out would have been a lot more interesting and emotionally satisfying than the angsty lead up. I could kinda see where they were trying to make it where there was a little reversal, where in the end Daran had to hold on to him....but it just didn't work on so many levels. Sad, I so wanted to like this drama because Gong Yoo is so freakin adorable.
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255 madman999
July 25, 2012 at 6:35 AM
ugh....i had a feeling they weren;t going to be able to resolve this story cleanly and i was right.
i agree, how can you not show the body swap after we had been waiting for it for 16 episodes.
plus we get cheated out of getting to see Yoon jae and KKJ meeting and resolving that story line too.
i get the whole "artistic" ending but lame to not let KKJ meetup with GDR in his real body too.
if Fashion king had the worst ending this year, this is a close 2nd.....
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256 CM
July 25, 2012 at 6:37 AM
Gosh...this drama....WFwfjwuhuehbehwbe"$%%^@gtres.... I watched just a few episodes I found interesting after reading the recap, but even if I haven't been invested that much in this drama, I feel betrayed... And I even watched the final episode first and stayed away from spoilers...Why on earth not give Shin at least the scene at the end!? And all the anti-logic things that happened afterwards... The moment I saw '1 year later' on the screen I knew this drama was going to the bottom pit of stupidity and will never have a chance of redemption. Well... not surprised, the only drama I really liked written by the Hong sisters is My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, even if the other dramas were "Oh, so good!" for others. Another drama in the WTF category then...
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257 Kandiboo
July 25, 2012 at 6:37 AM
oh i stuck till the end and i cried and cried at 2AM whilst watching ep 15 (yes I am a sucker)... Gong Yoo (okay, maybe LMJ) were the best bits of the drama and I am glad that Evil Mom came to her senses, but i was absolutely annoyed at Mari (she was cute in the beginning) and little Bro (can't believe he stuck around the Mari, otherwise he was cute). damn.
i actually knew it was going to be a bad wrap once ep 15 finished - not enough time to cover anything. i was literally counting down to the moment KKJ had to leave DR... i was hoping for a resolution between DR and real-YJ and the switch "moment"... which didn't come. so much for looking forward to that from the 3rd episode onwards.
as for the grand finale i think it was OK to use Gong Yoo as a symbolism for grown up KKJ, i thought it was well played out with his voice and hair only... it left me wanting more... and more of GY...
looks like i have to find more of Gong Yoo elsewhere!
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258 neliq
July 25, 2012 at 6:42 AM
Gong Yoo's great acting was not enough to carry this drama. On my book, this one is coming down as the worse drama flop of 2012.
I watched the final episode late at night, and my shock was so great that I busted out on an uncontrollable laugh so loud that I woke up my whole household. My disappointment was so great that laughing was all I can do to relieve it. What the F*u*c*k was that all about?
The Hong Sisters creative juices has run dry and I will think twice before committing myself to another of their dramas.
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barwnkesteven
July 25, 2012 at 6:58 AM
Wrong! Fashion King has that award. As well as the awards for worst K drama disaster ending of the decade and century. I believe it is also the front-runner for most ridiculous ending ever worldwide. Since the invention of television. LOL
(I do agree though, the second half of the series in general and the ending specifically were pretty much a giant letdown.)
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259 katiamon
July 25, 2012 at 6:45 AM
this drama is not a big, but a huge mess! i never got hooked to the plot and the story didn't made up for the interesting premise. GDR was annoyingly weak, poor Gong Yoo had to do all the work to keep the interest in the drama.
It's sad because someone could expect more from the Hong sisters, they are not perfect but were doing well most of the times.
Anyway, thanks for the recaps GF and JB! i guess this season is tough and frustrating for you with sooooo many bad dramas where the premises and casts made us think they would be good if not awesome (Big, AGD, Dr. Jin).
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260 wanderlust
July 25, 2012 at 6:46 AM
I appreciate the QIM ending even more now.
No show, you don't get a gold star. Its funny over at koalas playground she defended it despite the obviously glaring plot holes and narrative but completely smashed into QIM for its "lazy writing" but is so willing to ignore Big's flaws, and thus many of the fans are trying to convince themselves of the coherency too. This drove me crazy with ppl accusing QIM fans of the ending doing this when it wasn't true, all the clues had been built into the story so even if you didn't like it, it was still rooted in the drama's narrative.
but THIS. anyone who says the ending was good is actually grasping at straws. Your personal preference does not negate that it was a bad ending and shodding writing. You spend the whole drama reiterating the ramifications of the post swap, preparing people for it, basically shoving The Big Fall Out in our faces and in the end there was none. You did a little magic memory wipe to wrap everything up. This is worst than deus ex machinas by a mile. When I was halfway through and they still hadn't swapped, I was in denial and hoping the last few minutes would at least redeem a little of it by showing Shin as Kyung Joon. I'm flabbergasted at Hong Sisters, their writing just seemed to get better and since they're veterans, I thought they knew better than this. From forced noble idiocy in Delight girl and my girl, to it being organic in You're beautiful and MGIAG. I thought they were learning and growing knowing what audiences wanted and were tired of. This is like their first drama or something, I swear.
Completely agree that it would've been SO much better had they shown the REAL kyung joon and interspersed with that flashback. that would've been FINE.
sigh, Big. I'm out.
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BB
July 25, 2012 at 7:30 AM
It's very obvious: it's Ms. Koala's choice (to love/hate a drama) and it's HER blog.
And, what's with you QIHM fans trolling on posts that have nothing to do with that drama. Not everyone loved that show/ending/etc! And, your presumptuous attitude isn't helping any. I remember reading incessantly obnoxious comments on a post related to Faith. geeezzz....get over yourselves!!
Also, if you have a bone to pick with Ms. Koala do it at HER blog or send her an email. Hardly respectable, your attempt at mudslinging here on DB!!
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starlight
July 25, 2012 at 8:06 AM
it is her blog and ofcourse she its her choice to like it but I agree with wanderlust. I felt it was unfair in that she didn't give Queens ending the time of day and just wrote it off, instead of acknowledging she didn't like it but it still had coherency. For Big, many ppl are fanwanking and its your choice but you still have to knowledge that it was a miss by miles and I was a bit puzzled too cuz koalas very eloquent is a good reviewer of dramas but it looked like she refused to critique big and sort of just washed over it's bad points because she liked it.
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BB
July 25, 2012 at 8:41 AM
As far as I remember both JB and GF didn't care for the QIHM ending as well which marred the experience of watching a good drama. Are we going to bash them as well?! NO! Everybody has their reasons and one should learn to respect them.
On the other hand, I won't be bringing down somebody just cuz they liked a show (which according to me was a sore dud).
GF and I loved K2H (JB didn't care for it) and Koala loved K2H and Big. At the end of the day these are JUST dramas and we should learn to let. it .go. That's all!
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reglest
July 25, 2012 at 12:04 PM
I shall say again, That's Miss Koala's blog (and we're discussing it here actually isn't appropriate), she can love anything she want and doesn't as she want, that's her right to do. Following her blog or DB doesn't mean we always agree with what they wrote, each people has their own taste :)
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wanderlust
July 25, 2012 at 8:10 AM
I have commented over at koalas already have but thankyou for your comment :)
I take no issue with people who didn't like the ending of QIM but did take issue that it was called horrible writing. And I clearly stated that regardless of personal preference of endings, it must still deliver narrative payoff that it was touting since the beginning which was not done in Big.
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xfiles
July 25, 2012 at 8:14 AM
I love koala more than anything and BIG more than anything but have to agree with starlight. She let go of many things she otherwise wouldn't of for other shows.
Thanks JB and GF, echo all your sentiments. Loved Big and loved all the actors and but was massively disappointed by the last 2 episodes.
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wanderlust
July 25, 2012 at 8:30 AM
I'm a regular at both db and koala and just so you know everyone who reads dramabeans over at koalasplaygrounds and liked the ending of big are bashing jb and the commenters too, saying theyre sick of the comments and the negativity. koala hasn't taken any issue with im assuming you havent either so wanderlust and everyone is entitled to bring up that here. it goes both ways and seems like youre being a hypocritical taking it out on wanderlust and not anyone else "mudslinging" over there.
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wanderlust
July 25, 2012 at 8:34 AM
and i wanderlust have you had that nickname for long? cuz ive had it for years here but noticed you commenting more and more these days and I didn't want to comment with the same since my writings a bit shoddy so people would think we're the same person. I want to change but I really like the nickname though haha! Glad to meet a fellow wanderlusterer though :)
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kibumlove
July 25, 2012 at 8:43 AM
Touche. lots of ppl at KP attacking DB over there and vice versa so I guess people just gravitate towards the blogger who resembles and validates their own opinion the most.
Interesting isn't it? Koalas review was obvs easier to read because I was fine with and even liked the ending, but didn't like people calling out dramabeans for the comments and jbs and gfs review because I respect them all. I do acknowledge it just failed to deliver any narrative payoff. Oh well, I shall still rewatch!
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BB
July 25, 2012 at 8:52 AM
Bbbbut...I didn't even LOVE Big...abandoned this crapola of a drama at Ep 4. I read Wanderlust's comment hence replied...that's it.
BB
July 25, 2012 at 8:55 AM
To add an addendum I respect both blogs and the bloggers' effort to watch shows (despite their quality) and to review them.
BB
July 25, 2012 at 8:50 AM
I'm on my lunch break at work. I read Wanderlust's comment hence replied to it. And, unfortunately I cannot referee the comments on TWO blogs while I'm working. I check these blogs once/ day. Plain and simple, don't have the time =/= hypocritical.
In any case, I don't understand this incessant need for fans to a) want everyone to love their drama, and b) bring others down who don't do so.
Peace!! <3
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starlight
July 25, 2012 at 9:20 AM
Deff respect where you're coming from, but I don't think wanderlust was attacking anyone for not liking QIM at all or attacking koala. She said she doesn't take issue with opinions or personal preference.
However, if you call something a review, you should be able to state your opinion and why it worked for you but also be objective to the good/bad points of it. I respect koalas opinions but seeing both her queens ending and review and how harsh it was on the plot points especially and see the lack of it in big, i see how it'd feel a bit unfair to readers of her blog.
A thing I've always liked about jb is that she reiterates that her personal preference and the quality of the show are sometimes worlds apart and always mentions that and stays objective regardless.
I too expect a bit of objectivity included for all bloggers and to treat all dramas the same and review it on it's merits regardless if you liked it or not. maybe im asking for too much? haha
peace :)
Eternal
July 25, 2012 at 8:56 PM
Er, I think that was just one person.
Anyways, I did write a comment on KP saying that I didn't think the rating DB gave Big was fair. But that's just my opinion. I'm not attacking JB or GF or anything, as I understand everyone writes/watches dramas with a bias (and I'm biased as well). We're all biased, yay?
I still respect Dramabeans and all, and I appreciate them for taking the time to recap. So thanks, JB and GF :)
Also wanderlust (er the original poster - getting a bit confused here), I think you have to get over the fact that some people are just going to like dramas you don't like. It's the way the world works. You simply move on and watch dramas you like. That is all.
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SANEAGAIN
July 26, 2012 at 7:02 AM
Just out of curiousity I read Ms. Koala's blog coz of this post....She's proBig without losing her objectivity, I thought. She acknowledges it has its shortcomings and all. Anyway, just thought I'd throw in my two-cents. As she is entitled to her own opinion, but it's not fair to say she just totally condoned Big's flaws.
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tenten
July 25, 2012 at 12:04 PM
you're spitting the words i want to say.
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261 barwnkesteven
July 25, 2012 at 6:54 AM
I was OK (only OK) right up until I saw what was clearly Gong Yoo's body at the very end. WTF was that?
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
I don't know what happened - did they just start down this story path and then not know what to do with it anymore?
That aside, I thought Gong Yoo did a fantastic job as well as the actress playing GDR's mom and the guy playing Choong Shik. Suzy was OK - her character though was fun at the beginning and then just kind of became (like the rest of the show) a little pointless.
Still, as much as many of us complain, when I compare it to the nuclear war disaster level trainwreck ending that was 'Fashion King', I calm down because 'Big' could have been a lot worse.
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262 ahjummabunny
July 25, 2012 at 7:08 AM
yeah anytime the hong sisters say they're going to rework an american movie I'm out. What a laugh! well here's to the next one being better.
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tinyviolin
July 25, 2012 at 8:20 AM
I wish there wasn't some sort of unwritten time requirement before do-overs, because I just want them to crumple this up, toss it in the trash and *immediately* do it again. But, you know, better. And with the same actors.
Yeah.
Now, please?
~Not the same thing as a reworking or a remake, I know, but still. I'm hearing the same, universal refrain everyone hears every time a drama disappoints so deeply: "what could have been..."
Sigh.
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ahjummabunny
July 25, 2012 at 9:17 AM
I didn't like the original big, I dislike body swap or memory loss stories. I did surprisingly, enjoy 49 days and who are you? and of course secret garden. I really wish this genre can be thrown away. But I do think this drama has some potential for being reworked successfully.
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263 irib
July 25, 2012 at 7:12 AM
it was finally about the small!
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264 DINDINN
July 25, 2012 at 7:22 AM
Disbelief. Perplexed. Puzzled. Negatively.
How did the show just end like that? we are taken 14 hours of happiness, and then at the 15th hour, you crushed us with strange story flow, and now at the last hour, you simply ended it like that. WTF.
They had the best actors in the show, for Goodness' sake. Lee Min Jung and Gong Yoo could have been the best pair ever matched, but... *sighs*
2 words for the ending:
MAJOR FAIL.
I might have wasted my time.
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265 noona
July 25, 2012 at 7:24 AM
Count me out for this drama.
The ending is unlogical.
But, still Gong Yoo is the best. Even the character is a little bit similar in Biscuit Teacher, ending for Biscuit Teacher is better...
Gong Yoo! love your acting :) Keep it up...
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266 tinyviolin
July 25, 2012 at 8:01 AM
Well, fuck it. I watched like, 6 episodes of this, then just read your opening comments on the ensuing episodes. I kept telling myself I'd go back to it (GONG YOOOOO~~) but, after reading this recap all the way through...well? Fuck it.
I was waiting, *waaaaiittiing* to see Yoon Jae in Kyung Joon's body. That's half the fun, right? Then I was waiting *waaaaiittingfuckinghell* for them to consider the fact that Yoon Jae might be dead. I got there after episode six. I shouldn't be ahead of the drama itself.
I just. I can't believe it. This recap is like confirmation of my worst fears for this drama. Absolutely no satisfaction, whatsoever. I don't even get the ending; I read over it three times.
I feel bad for that Shin kid. Did he ever wake up onscreen??
Also, this is probably the biggest waste of the biggest accumulated talent that I've partially witnessed yet. Honestly? I think THAT's what bothers me the most. It hurts that these actors I enjoy so much had to be in this: a drama I can't enjoy, no matter how hard I tried initially.
Way to go, Hong Sisters. Well done. No, really, you outdid yourselves, ladies. Now, go celebrate! ~*^_^*~
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267 Chylow
July 25, 2012 at 8:17 AM
I'm still a newbie to Kdramas and I guess I just don't understand how Korean drama's work still. You sell a premise to a station without having the story finished first? I mean, it's just a 16-24 episode story normally. Most of us here could think of better endings then what we received.
The other thing that kinda pisses me off is the fact that the age gap is acceptable if it's older male - younger female, but not the other way around? If it's a cultural thing, I can understand it, but why go there in the first place then? Unless you're trying to push the envelope, which has been used successfully here in the States for years to bring out issues that need addressing. But they didn't even do that...
It seems like quite a few shows have been using the older woman, younger male premise, and the gap here wasn't that dreadfully wide. Just makes no sense.
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bd
July 25, 2012 at 10:35 AM
The age-gap is fine; there are plenty of 'noona' relationships in K-dramas.
The problem here is the student/teacher realtionship (if they were 28 and 34, it would be an entirely diff. matter).
Really should avoid dreck like this and watch some quality K-dramas/romcoms to see how the proper ones are done.
'Coffee Prince. 'I Need Romance 2012' and 'He/The Man Who Can't Marry' are a good start.
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Paloma
July 25, 2012 at 2:05 PM
Yes!! Coffee Prince (absolutley adorable and cute actors), Winter Sonata, Full House (light and funny), A love to kill, Beautiful Days (tissue needed), Personal Preferences!
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Ana
July 25, 2012 at 5:43 PM
Is the age gap really fine though? For Koreans, I mean. There have been quite a few noona dramas over the past couple of years but, IIRC, almost none before that. I have to wonder if this 'trend' has more to do with the surplus of popular older actresses and younger actors in dramaland given that many older actors and younger actresses that would have 'normally' been paired together devote themselves full time to cinema. I'd like to think otherwise but this is what I've suspected all along.
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268 yc1984
July 25, 2012 at 8:31 AM
major waste of time. the writers gave up on the plot and just wanted to be done with it.
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269 diajoi
July 25, 2012 at 8:34 AM
Javabeans, thank you for being succinct. Truly made my day. :-) and thank you for having a site like this where both passion and intelligence overflow.
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270 GONEINSANE
July 25, 2012 at 8:35 AM
oK...after finally being able to sleep...i have a new perspective on the ending this morning....i can live with it now.
if i just think of 49 Days ending...i start feeling better about Big's ending.
and i actually prefer Gong Yoo in the final scene...Kyung Jae actually evolved into like a 3rd character for me...it's not the same if it's KKJ in Shin's body. that's just me though. i just haven't been convinced by this drama that Da Ran would have fallen for KKJ if he was in his original shell.
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271 Lee Bebeolli
July 25, 2012 at 8:40 AM
So you mean to tell me the poor boy (the real actor) had to stay in bed, in a coma, for the whole freaking time?!?!?!? WTF. I've been out of the U.S. for a while now so the last ep. I watched of this drama was ep. 4. I was so ready to go back and finish it but thank goodness, I didn't waste my time. Is this really how they ended it!?!?!? WOW!!! No words. At the end of the day i'm still a BIG Gong Yoo fan. At least he can never do me wrong, drama!!!
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272 leslie
July 25, 2012 at 8:43 AM
"I have no more words for you. Drama, you don’t deserve any more words. Go sit in a corner and think about what you did."
hahahahahahaha!!! exactly
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273 DangCinDee
July 25, 2012 at 9:04 AM
You know what I think it is from the start? They cast a way too young looking kid for KKJ. There was no way I can indulge in that love affair. Gong Yoo played the character soooOooOooo well, but if I had to see the love story unfold with the actual actor who was to play real KKJ, it would have been quite the incest. They just don't match.
Poor kid, didn't get many lines. All he did was played dead for 99 percent of the series.
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274 fatraspberry
July 25, 2012 at 9:12 AM
UGH WHAT KIND OF ENDING IS THAT I AM DISAPPOINTED. Gong Yoo and Lee Min Jung should play in other drama with a better story. D: such great casts.. but the writings.. sigh ok whatever
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275 madman999
July 25, 2012 at 9:14 AM
just wondering....did the ending happen the way it did because there is a stigma about older-younger/teacher-student-relationships?
i understand that South Korea is maybe a mostly conservative society and asians in general don;t "push the envelope" on social issues. While I am not expecting ground breaking "gone with the wind" drama , the ending seemed mostly....abbreviated. As in is there more?
i don;t even mind that GDR ended up with KKJ in the end as it sort of was the only logical conclusion. but what would have been the harm in showing 21 year old KKJ in the final scene?
other than that, my only pet peeve is the unfinished storylines and unanswered questions.
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276 DangCinDee
July 25, 2012 at 9:15 AM
Oh, I wrote an article about how to know if you're in a korean drama. GUESS WHAT? This drama had a lot of it!
Link :
http://lovelovemeloveme.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-know-youre-in-a-Korean-Drama
GGRR!! Boils my blood why don't you. ROAR!
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277 DangCinDee
July 25, 2012 at 9:17 AM
The hong sisters need to make a new drama asap and redeem themselves.
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278 xnopex
July 25, 2012 at 9:20 AM
man this has been a disappointing season for dramas. too many let downs.
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279 jin
July 25, 2012 at 9:42 AM
this is why i love dramabeans! they are able to express the feelings i cannot say into words about the dramas! Hong gil dong was not very good but I always thought it was bc the story was long and they never got the pacing right, but I was excited about BIG... it was 16 episodes it had Gong Yoo....but as mentioned above i guess you could have all the right factors but it doesnt add up to a great drama.... i am still disappointed that this bad drama is ending bc no more Gong yoo... T.T
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280 Lyla
July 25, 2012 at 10:13 AM
I'm so happy I'm not the only one who has confused and outraged by this ending. I can't believe they didn't fully take advantage of the amazing cast they had in their hands. Not cool, drama. What a big disappointment.
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281 chula
July 25, 2012 at 10:21 AM
what a hot mess. i dropped this drama in epi 8 but i kept on reading the recaps. they should stop marketing this drama as an adaptation of BIG, Tom Hanks' movie does not deserve that insult.
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282 cv
July 25, 2012 at 10:23 AM
I can't believe I read thru all the comments. LOL ^^
Anyways, of all the Kdramas/movies I've watched, most have open ending where you kinda have to make up your own ending. I wish at least a few dramas would be complete---with showing us they ended happy, not just have them meet somewhere staring at eachother and having us guess, oh, they met, they will be happy. LOL I want to see the cute happy time together. (sigh) I don't think that really happens in Kdrama/movies. Oh well.... I suppose I can always dream eh? ahahhaha
Big is one of those open ending where you definitely have to make up the ending yourself... after they meet again. :P
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283 Sumire
July 25, 2012 at 10:36 AM
I sort of feel like having Gong Yoo cast as the lead role was a big handicap in the progression of the story line.
If he had switched back into YJ earlier on, it might have saved the storyline a bit because then they could have developed some better conflict than the unbelievable bs that we were given - they could have gone into YJ recovering from amnesia, and DaRan trying to sort out her feelings for both of them, or something along those lines. then we might have gotten a better ending, with DaRan getting together with the person she is meant to be with, no confusion necessary.
but at the same time, if that had happened, Gong Yoo would have also had to take a back seat for the rest of the show, and he doesn't deserve that, because he's not only a fantastic actor, but also a veteran actor. so I can sort of understand why the writers wrote GY as KKJ from beginning to end, but it ended up really compromising the ending.
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284 PrincessSerenity81
July 25, 2012 at 10:37 AM
*BIG BIG sigh*......so very disappointed in this "could have been great" drama. Not the ending I (and many others) were expecting...So sad...No more words to describe this huge disappointment.
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285 Northern Star
July 25, 2012 at 10:38 AM
What happened?
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286 marganski
July 25, 2012 at 10:49 AM
ouch! ouch! ouch! I will stand up for this drama. I thought it to be intelligent, honest and a feminist drama.
I understood DR's dilemma over KJ age. I am married to someone 4 years younger. When I met him, I was 27, I had traveled, lived and worked overseas for 6 years. He was 23 and in graduate school. Like DR, I kept thinking I am crazy, he is such a youngster! Also, he is #1 son, the golden boy. I was not well received with the family - I "robbed the cradle". I endured many years of comments and quips. Now all is well. On the surface, we say it is okay to marry a younger man, but my experience is that it is an underground taboo.
The third character of the story is MaRi. Her character represented social convictions; she was always reminding DR what is right, how society expects her to act. She is like the Greek Chorus. She was ever present, trying to put DR "on the straight and narrow" - reminding her of the (faux) marriage, the age gap, the brother. It is a very hard road to travel when we go against social customs. Women are not to make the first move, and then, aren't women held more responsible to society - DR's mother head got shaved, while the dad...? DR was ever mindful of MaRi's words, and tried to act accordinglhy. (note: the elephant in the room being social mores, there was very little skinship between our OTP -no social boundaries crossed in this unaccepted relationship.)
BIG is about growing up, taking responsibility within society. KJ grew from being a loner and selfish to selfless and accepting person. DR grew up from being a doormat, and one who is in love with love, to someone who is willing to go against social customs, and truly love regardless of the consequences. Although it took 15 hours for DR to come into own - when at the end of episode 16 , she ran in the rain after KJ, I cried "you go girl!!", and then when SHE placed her hand on his, I knew she (they) would be okay (regardless of social convictions). For me, it was a pitch perfect ending.
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287 wowfantasticnv
July 25, 2012 at 11:01 AM
I LOVED this show. I was completely with it from episode 1 to episode 14. And then the last two episodes happened, and left me wanting SO MUCH more.
An ideal ending for me would have been if the actual body swap happened at the end of ep 14, when they did the blood transfusion. The transfusion didn't happen right away, they had at least a couple weeks leading up to it to, and they knew that that was most likely when the swap would happen. If Kyung-joon had known sooner that he would forget everything when he went back to his body, the time before the transfusion could have been used for cleaning up their feelings, which is basically all that ep 15 and the first half of 16 were used for. That would have left the last 2 episodes for a thorough ending; having Kyung-joon and Yoon-Jae meet in their own bodies, Da-ran and Kyung-joon reconnecting and starting over from literally day 1, seeing if the brothers' parents follow through and treat both sons as their own.
But then I can also understand why they ended it the way they did, keeping it more open for interpretation. Yet I HATE it! I would have actually liked the ending if they did this one thing- if at the end, the camera shifted down to show Kyung-joon under the umbrella. Kyung-joon being Shin Won-ho. A large part of the show was Da-ran coming to realize that she loved Kyung-joon rather than Yoon-Jae, that she could look past the body of her (ex-ish)-fiancé, and love Kyung-joon. Then how are you not going to show us that she still loves him when he's back in his own body?! Even if we're supposed to think that it was Kyung-joon at the end, it was clearly Gong Yoo! If the end scene was cutting back and forth between the promise that they made each other, with Da-ran standing there looking at Gong Yoo in the past, and Da-ran standing in the present looking at Shin, I would have been happy! Was that too much to ask, Show?
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jvip
July 25, 2012 at 11:36 AM
I absolutly agree with you!!! That's the same things I thoght!! Anyway Big ha been ruined already and there is nothing we can do :((
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288 Seorori
July 25, 2012 at 11:29 AM
I've never seen such a short comment from JB before.
Thank you.. guess I was right in dropping this after all. -_-"
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289 jvip
July 25, 2012 at 11:32 AM
If there is something that can ruin a show it's his end....BIG was totally ruined!!!
TOTALLY RUINED
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290 lezzy
July 25, 2012 at 11:35 AM
Oh Gong Yoo. I still love you. *sigh*
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291 rasu
July 25, 2012 at 11:43 AM
I'm glad I left Big midway to continue I do I do, after reading this last ep recap. I think even though the plot of I Do I Do was not that strong but the progression was really good and it didn't bore me ... Kudos to you guys, though, that you kept on writing till the end.
And, no matter what kind of projects he takes, I will always love Gong Yoo, I recently watched Silenced and that movie did it for me, esp Gong Yoo's versatility in acting.
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Paloma
July 25, 2012 at 1:40 PM
I think 90% of viewers watched this drama for two reasons:
- Gong Yoo was there.
- Keep watching episode by episode with the big hope to see a change in the story and feel "butterflies" again in your stomach.
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292 jenjula
July 25, 2012 at 12:18 PM
DAMN YOU GONG YOO. It's all your fault that I wasted my life watching this mess of a drama.
It's so ironic that so many of us stuck it out to see how it would end when the ending made even less sense than the whole series itself and essentially went nowhere.
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293 reglest
July 25, 2012 at 12:25 PM
*Redeem My Self*
I'm actually Hong Sister fans, and they are the one who make transition from jdrama to kdrama works for me, since theirs are comical just as much close with jdrama and how they twist the makjang element, into something different.
About BIG, I've sensed something different since 1st episode, and as their fan I can say the tone of BIG isn't the same with their other works, which could be good or bad. There's no hook or hillariousity like others, and it indeed felt like melodrama than rom-com for me. As the story progress, I don't feel cuteness which is their absolute forte.
I think..they are trying to dig other side of their brain, which unfortunately isn't work. This is actually the most difficult and deep characterization among their other works, just say MGIG (I'm a big fan), like KKJ&SYJ soul swap and GDR's background whose parents background overcome the age gap. They are trying to work the hero side more, maybe extension for dokko Jin? But sadly, it does not work. Anyone can sense the difference tone of KKJ and KKJ in SYJ's body, that boy used to be a smart&arrogant one but in YJ's body he feels like a mere silly act teenager. And they don't make GDR's parent background work as convincing factor -and To mention the overly cute GDR in 1st&2nd episode, which annoy me A LOT- There are so many things to mend and repair for this drama, and more to dig up.
I really hope Hong Sister's next work will be able to present us with their own forte, and of course, with what they learn through BIG.
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294 june
July 25, 2012 at 12:27 PM
oh gawd!! freaken 16 eps to have a suck ass ending?! geeeezus! it was thrilling up until ep 15! ep 16 went downhill fast! lighting fast!!
i want to stomp my feet and demand for a better ep 16!
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295 jademwong
July 25, 2012 at 1:00 PM
...THE FUDGE?! What a waste of 16 eps and Gong Yoo's fantastic acting skills on-on-i don't even know what the hell this is!
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296 Literati
July 25, 2012 at 1:13 PM
I'm starting ti think. How bad was that rookie singer/actor that all they could trust him to do was lie on the bed/ sleep/ and say uh oh before jumping out a window. He had to be really bad to not even be able to do the umbrella scene twice. Seriously why not hire someone like Song JoongKi or Kim SoHyun who could play a believable(ish) high schooler and have a 3 episode cameo 1 + 15 + 16 with him playing Young KKJ. They should've hired a decent second lead so we could have someone who actually does something. Too much reliance on Gong Yoo ruined the drama for me. i mean he was great but it needed more.
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Mystisith
July 25, 2012 at 2:34 PM
The problem is than the actor Shin Won-ho was TOO GOOD for his own good! Everyone who saw him in the infamous Bachelor Veggie Store can testify than he can act: He played a young idol who becomes a father here. He has a magnetic charm and my guess is that his character has been "silenced" cause he shadowed Gong Yoo in the first 2 episodes here. I will never forgive the prod team/writers for that. What a waste for a promising actor!
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Gom
July 25, 2012 at 6:39 PM
Let's just hope that he's offered a better project next time. I haven't watched Vegetable Store but I did watch a lot of videos of him on YouTube (I just really wanted to see more of Little Kyung Joon), and he CAN act. He has potential.
I think THS just didn't want to make it seem like a love triangle between GoongYoo-LeeMinJung-ShinWonHo. They want us to believe that it's a GoongYoo-LeeMinJung-GoongYoo love triangle somehow. But perhaps they underestimated their audience and thought, Hey, let's make Goong Yoo act as the kid, don't worry, they won't even remember that he exists. Tsk.
In the end, this was a really badly written drama, not just because they failed to utilize Shin Won Ho. There are a lot of gaping holes and it's sad because here you have a perfect plot that promises a nice coming-of-age story, a wonderful cast, and a high production value but all they came up with is this.
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297 laraffinee
July 25, 2012 at 1:14 PM
The ending was very poorly done. Yes, I "understand" what happened, etc. but the script, the editing, the directing of if was absolutely terrible. It was thrown together in a most thoughtless way - I really felt like everybody involved in the production got paid a week ago and left the ending to be finished by some junior assistant. Some movies have shocking/clever last minute endings, "Inception" comes to mind, but they are clearly and artistically thought out and presented. This was not.
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298 Paloma
July 25, 2012 at 1:24 PM
Ok!
I thought I was the only one with the attitude of: WHAT!!?? at the end of the drama (not mention all the Spanish "words" that I threw through my mouth with this "crap" ending)
- Poor Shin Won Ho and his bedsore...well...all drama in bed.....
I cannot believe he signed a "one episode" contract.
What a waste of a gorgeous young actor.
- I don´t know why the name of the drama is BIG.
What about:
"Sleeping Gorgeous" or
"Bedsore Big Time" or
"Good Plot Crap Ending"
- Gong Yoo...all my respect and admiration. Excellent, gorgeous actor.
In general, good actors, excellent story but bad people behind scenes.
Very dissappointed with the second half of the drama, not mention the ending!! ARGH!!!
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299 1061-kun
July 25, 2012 at 1:34 PM
I kept on waiting in this episode for the body switch (actually, I been looking forward the whole series). After every scene, I was thinking it will happen in the next scene. Then the switch came off camera?!
Pretty much everyone here on Dramabeans have seen and loved at least 1 Hong Sisters Drama so we were all looking forward to BIG. The first episode rocked and we were all excited and wondered how it would end. But as the BIG progressed, problems arose and we got worried. Sure, Gong Yoo gave one of best performances of the year and there was the usual Hong sisters moments of humor and witty dialogue. I enjoyed it somewhat, I really wanted to love it but it was just ok.
Then they had to drag out the ending... We get it, the OTP in its current state was going to end, and they wanted to hold on but I wanted to see the aftermath. What happens next but we are left with a confusing scene a year later where they meet on the bus but they cut in footage of Da Ran and Gong Yoo.
Also when I was watching the last episode, I was thinking how they should made the body switch at the end of Episode 12. Yoon Jae would wake in his own body to find that Da Ran had fallen in love with his younger brother who had been occupying his body. KKJ may or may not remember his life in Yoon Jae body (either way would have possibilities). We would have a great love triangle. Many possibilities for comedy and drama. What could have it been.
Keep on thinking about what Choong Shik said to Mari, my memories might be erased but the feelings in my heart can never disappear. I thought the Hong sisters were sending us a hint on how they were going to end it. KKJ would have no memories of his time with Da Ran and he would be back to his young cocky self but his heart would remember.
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300 pandasaurus
July 25, 2012 at 1:49 PM
that's MESSED UP~!!! how the F do you justify NOT having KKJ reunite w/ her????? i think i just lost my appetite. what a killjoy!
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