You're the Best, Lee Soon-shin: Episodes 33-34 [Open Thread]

174 June 30, 2013January 24, 2016

You’re the Best, Lee Soon-shin: Episodes 33-34 [Open Thread]

by javabeans

Wow. It took the show 34 episodes to figure out that if you cast a singer (or two) in the lead role of a drama, maybe we’d want to see them sing. Give the writer a cookie. Although… it might be a little moldy and stale from WAITING SO LONG. Just sayin’.

The gist:

Soon-shin moves in with Mi-ryung. However, she’s not happy about it, and doesn’t hide it. Mi-ryung tries to win her over a few times before she gets petulant too. It’s a lot of petulance.

Mi-ryung continues to try to dictate Soon-shin’s career, but Soon-shin puts her foot down and only works with Jun-ho, who prepares her for auditions. A tiny background role for a drama comes up for an aspiring singer character and he remembers her stage performance and gears her toward that. This gives a few moments of cuteness in each episode, worth a watch with a finger on the fast-forward button.

Yeon-ah feels pushed aside and threatened now that Mi-ryung is ignoring her. So she gets extra-bitchy with Soon-shin, especially when Jun-ho’s obvious interest keeps growing. She has tried to keep out of Soon-shin’s casting issues, telling Mi-ryung that nepotism never gets an actor very far, but finally she snaps and (1) signs on to the drama Soon-shin is auditioning for, (2) tags along to auditions, (3) gets all set up to make Soon-shin miserable.

Highlights:

There are a number of Jun-ho and Soon-shin scenes in these two episodes, which is a good thing and long overdue. Sadly they no longer get me as excited as they used to, but it helps since the other sisters are getting less interesting.

So Soon-shin hears that she’s not her father’s daughter and this is crushing. For anybody else to care I would be frustrated at the “bloodline rules all” implications, but it makes sense for Soon-shin because she yells at Mi-ryung that she stole away her mother, and now also her father.

Jun-ho insists on accompanying Soon-shin following her confrontation with Mi-ryung, insisting that he can’t let her go because she’ll worry him too much. He at one point pats her on the shoulder, but when she shoots him a look, he’s all, Oh look, a mosquito. I love how much he is the opposite of smooth.

Then when they’re eating over drinks, he misinterprets her reaction to the soup and thinks it’s too hot, and starts fanning her bowl with his hands. Gah, I love him when he’s being all dorky. It’s why he’s a great romantic interest (when he’s not being stalkery) because he cares about her feelings more than anything else.

Jun-ho also advises her that nothing about her family discoveries matters with how she should actually feel about them, and adds philosophically that everybody lives for themselves in the end. That sounds selfish, but it helps and she later parrots that back to Mi-ryung.

The morning-after scene is worth it just for assistant In-sung’s hilarious reaction to seeing Soon-shin sleeping in Jun-ho’s office. Jun-ho looks super pleased with himself to watch her sleep (um, it’s sweet, I swear, not vampire-creepy) and goes out to buy her toiletries and breakfast.

Soon-shin goes on her first audition, which gives Jun-ho the opportunity to give her my favorite of his many facial expressions:

She bombs that and he tells her encouragingly that they’ve only begun. Also, he shares that you can want something too much and it can stress you out and ruin how you perform, which is why he ended his singing career before it began.

Soon they pick a new audition which requires her to sing. She can play a little guitar so they go with that, while Jun-ho advises that she not pick a dance song since she can’t dance. This leads to some cute flirting with him insisting he can dance, which just leads to him tripping. HA. And it turns out, when he’s not falling on top of her, he’s dragging her to fall on top of him. I’m not complaining.

A conversation with Mom reminds Soon-shin of her Dad’s favorite song, and that inspires her to change her song choice. When she struggles to play it on guitar, Jun-ho takes over, which gives us about five seconds of a duet. I guess I’ll take it.

Jun-ho ignores Yeon-ah’s lunch invitation in favor of that practice, and when she tells him he can go, he says, “Right now, this is most important. [looks away] You’re the most important.”

When Yeon-ah gets pissy about Jun-ho liking Soon-shin now, Young-hoon actually tells her she should’ve treated him well while she had him. Ha. He says it in his nice way since he’s a nice guy, but the words are kinda satisfying.

Yeon-ah sits in on Soon-shin’s audition and is prepared to be a huge raging bitch about it, but in an underhanded way—after insinuating that she’ll get Soon-shin cut, she asks the director to cast her. Keep your enemies close, I suppose?

But then Soon-shin starts singing and Yeon-ah looks gratifyingly threatened because she’s actually good.

(Song: “잊혀진 계절” / “Forgotten Season”)

Lowlights:

So sad, but Bread Man makes the lowlights list this time. He tells Bread Boy that he has to stop lessons now, because he likes Hye-shin so much and he can’t bear to face her anymore. (She’s such a good person for not holding his past against him… but that makes him feel even more like he doesn’t have the right to like her. Or something. I’m not sure.)

Hye-shin overhears his tearful confession and then starts acting really weird around Bread Man. This makes me sad for him and a little angry at her. I get that she feels weird about him liking her, not because he’s an ex-con, but still. It’s like abandoning someone right after they’ve been the most vulnerable.

Chicken Ajumma continues to be a pain in the ass about Yoo-shin. Chicken Ajusshi points out that the reason she doesn’t like Yoo-shin is because she wants a daughter-in-law she can control.

The two ajummas have another fight, but this time Chicken Ajumma brings up ancient grievances like how Mom was always so uppity and superior about her wonderful awesome life and her wonderful awesome husband/kids and how she looked down on Chicken Ajumma all her life. I’ve gotta say, it’s hard to side with anyone in this because they’re both kind of terrible, but yeah, I can see Ajumma’s point since Mom does have that insufferable martyr complex.

But later I guess it smooths the path for more understanding (or whatever) because Mom apologizes if she ever treated Ajumma badly and they make up, sort of.

Yoo-shin tries to win over Ajumma by cooking and cleaning for her, and Ajumma kicks her out of the house. But it gives her the idea to use Yoo-shin’s own tactics against her, and she sets her to cleaning the toilets and doing all the housework. Chan-woo is sweet and insists on taking over the work and gives Yoo-shin a foot rub, which is really very cute until Ajumma sees them.

Jun-ho’s mother starts to suspect weirdness about her husband’s closeness with Mi-ryung. Thus far it’s all been aboveboard, though I do think Dr. Shin likes Mi-ryung more than he likes his wife at this point, but I don’t blame Mom for worrying. Still, I find her very wearying and smug so I can’t really care.

Soon-shin’s family drives me NUTS. Once she’s gone, they complain that she actually left, like they weren’t screaming at her that she wasn’t family just an episode ago. So Grandma gets mad at Soon-shin’s “betrayal.” Then Soon-shin comes home and Grandma gets mad that she’s back. Then Soon-shin packs a bag to leave and Grandma gets mad that she’s leaving for real. This all happens in the span of about three minutes. Basically, Grandma needs no excuse to be mad.

Mi-ryung forgets Yeon-ah’s birthday and keeps asking her for advice on what to do about Soon-shin, because she has no shame and no tact. Yeon-ah is hurt and asks whether Mi-ryung ever thought of her as daughter.

I would feel sorry for Yeon-ah, only then she turns right around and is a terrible sniping bitch to Soon-shin, insinuating that she’s an ungrateful coattail-rider who would abandon her adoptive family in a flash just so she can be famous. Ugh, Yeon-ah.

The only consolation is that it’s actually really satisfying to watch her face when Jun-ho turns down her birthday lunch, then walks into The Only Restaurant In the Universe with Soon-shin. Then Soon-shin excuses herself (because it’s the most awkward gathering ever with Jun-ho’s mother and sister making bitchy comments to her face—gossiping harpies, I swear) and Jun-ho excuses himself to leave with Soon-shin.

Yeon-ah smirks as Soon-shin blunders her way through the audition reading, only to look unsettled when she rocks the song.

174

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51 susie

July 3, 2013 at 5:48 AM

Thank you so much for the recaps of this show? I was flashforwarding a lot...but it seems now I can't even have my happy moments with JH, since Dramacrazy was shut down today. Anyone know where I can watch this? (dramafever doesn't work in my region)

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Aria

July 3, 2013 at 5:54 AM

try http://www.epdrama.com, I watched this from there:)

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KimYoonmi

July 3, 2013 at 6:25 AM

Good drama Google it. I found it after wandering around for a while. It's not as graphic heavy, sure, but it does the job.

I'm not linking it up, because Dramafever is watching. (Though Dramacrazy might have shut down because of d-addicts since drama crazy was stealing subs and uploading and claiming it was theirs from d-addicts... not sure.)

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52 Aria

July 3, 2013 at 5:51 AM

Can anyone tell me what is the ending duet song from episode 34? It was on one of the episode before this as well:D

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Rach ^^

July 3, 2013 at 8:59 AM

Changmin (창민) [2AM] & Dahee (다희) [GLAM] - 한 사람만 보여요 (I Can't Live Without You) [You're The Best Lee Soon Shin OST

The song's available on youtube. I thought it was JJS and IU singing at first, kind of gutted it isn't.

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53 mikey

July 3, 2013 at 10:42 AM

What happened with Dramacrazy.net? They said the site is closing down. What a blow to the fans of kdramas. Dramafever started doing the same crap that hulu.com does "premium only" (make you wait a week to watch content for free)

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54 Michael San

July 3, 2013 at 8:32 PM

Thank you for the reviews. Excellent as always. Maybe I should watch these 2 episodes since they feature more Soon shin and Jun ho :-)

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55 thorned sakura

July 3, 2013 at 8:42 PM

Waaah!!! I'm back to reality which means back to fangirl mode!lol

So once again, here's my special SJH/LSS recaps (you guys know the drill!lol):

(PS: I intentionally didn’t read the posts yet because I wanted to write according to how I felt while watching the show and didn’t want to be influenced by everybody else’s opinion. So bear with me if there should be some redundant points. ^_^)

-I love the opening scene! Finally, SJH was able to articulate his concern towards LSS properly! Also, LSS made it so obvious here how she is overly conscious when SJH is concerned. After all, she's the type who is not avert to skinship with other guys--you can see her play with her male ex-crewmates and she even cried on YH's shoulders, but everytime SJH does as much as brush his arm against hers, she flinches and holds her breath! This girl is totally on full crush mode!lol

- The sundae restaurant scene was also really sweet, especially how SJH offered to cover up LSS's tears with the excuse of the spicy sundae. He is really starting to act like a boyfriend rather than a concerned CEO. No wonder everybody can figure out his intentions (YH, YA, and practically everybody who’s seen them together!Lol). In a way, I can see how he takes after his father. Both of them have one-track minds and can be obsessive once they set their sights on something. I just hope that--for the sake of SJH's family--his dad doesn't get carried away with his interest on SMR. But I feel like they would either get into a full-blown affair, or SJH's mom would misconstrue SJH's dad and MR's newfound friendship, especially since she is already starting to have her suspicions. When and if this happens, it will definitely make a big impact on the SJH/LSS relationship.

-The morning after scene and the hilarious misunderstanding with secretary-nim!lol In fact, all scenes with secretary-nim is just hilarious! Especially the scene where he reprimanded SJH and told him to mind his actions coz "everybody's watching him"! What makes it funnier is their flabbergasted expressions after he voices out his opinions, its like a mixture of shock and guilt!lol

-The guitar scene--kyaaaa!!! Oh Junho-sshii you player, you! Telling a girl she's the most important thing to you, then taking it back the second after...do you have any idea what that does to a girl's heart--especially to someone who is already overanalyzing your every move?!

-There are actually a lot of SJH/LSS moments scattered throughout these two episodes--between practices and auditions--and though there isn't really any major developments in terms of their romantic relationship going forward, I felt these scenes were necessary to show their growing fondness for each other. Somehow, I find these baby steps more satisfying as compared to the full-on feet-swooping that you find in most romcoms which, to me, are just plain unrealistic. Like I said before, it’s the little things—like greeting each other simply with a smile or the minute jealous glances—that makes this pairing remarkably endearing.

-There are a lot of in-your-face moments for YA on these two eps—and I love it! I mean an ex-bf who can’t even remember your birthday?! That’s gotta hurt! Especially when you’re still trying hang on to the flimsiest chance of the two of you getting back together by patronizing his family. If she weren’t such a bitch, I’d pity her!

On another note, I really like the development of SMR's character. She started off as a greedy, self-absorbed bitch but now with the presence of LSS in her life, she has started to develop some motherly instincts--albeit still the selfish type (hey, a person can't just change overnight!lol). I think LSS serves to be a good rehab for her, if selfishness was ever an addiction. Eventually, she'll learn to put someone else's best interest before her own, and finally understand how the REAL world works.

Also, breadman and HS's romance took a step forward--or backward!lol I just find it funny that WJ was the first to bring up the awkward air between those two when all this time she's been trying her best to separate them. I think our little brat is on her way to transforming into a little cupid!lol

All in all, a lot of good things happened on these 2 eps. Most people complain about how slow the development is, but with such interesting characters, I don't really mind. I would love to see how each of their lives pan out until they're old and have babies...or maybe that's just me wishing to see JJS every weekend!lol

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56 Sakari

July 5, 2013 at 11:00 PM

The reason why the Soon Shin-Jun Ho romance is not progressing is - I THINK - that it would rule out the possibility of Jun Ho's father, the dermatologist, being Soon Shin's biological father. If they started kissing and doing stuff now, and it then turned out they shared the same father, it would make them VERY BAD - and the two main characters cannot be VERY BAD, can they?

To my mind, what they have done to and with each other till now, is still all right with them being siblings.