Woohoo Waikiki: Episode 3

by LollyPip

As silly as this show is, amongst all the goofy pratfall comedy and toilet humor, the characters have somehow managed to get under my skin. It’s hard to describe how they made me care for them so much in only a few episodes, and with so much insanity going on. But as much as I enjoy laughing at them, even better is how much I find myself really feeling for them when one of them is hurting.

 
EPISODE 3: “A beautiful farewell/Are you still dreaming?”

Joon-ki and Doo-shik gather their guests for a night of partying, and Joon-ki gets snotty when Doo-shik translates his long, flowery speech as, “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you.” Hee. Their attempt at a toast is interrupted by Dong-gu loudly blowing his nose. They try again, but this time Seo-jin walks through, sobbing her heart out.

When the guests give up and wander off, the guys yell at the siblings for making the guests feel uncomfortable (Joon-ki: “Stop blowing your nose or your brains will fall out!”). Suddenly a voice calls out Seo-jin’s name… it’s her crush Tae-hyun, dripping wet from the rain and come to declare his feelings.

Tae-hyun (cameo by Han Ji-sang, sorry for not mentioning it before!) tells Seo-jin dramatically that he doesn’t care about her facial hair, or even if she grows seaweed from her armpits. He asks her to be his girlfriend, and she sobs again as she hugs him. Doo-shik and Joon-ki are grossed out, but Dong-gu whines, “I’m so jealous!”

Tae-hyun takes Seo-jin on a date worthy of a drama, and they end up at an art gallery. Seo-jin sees Tae-hyun’s nose bleeding, but he says it happens often. When he takes her home, Tae-hyun gives her a sweet little kiss, then hands her a gift to open later in private.

Seo-jin finds the whole house watching the movie “If Only,” which Dong-gu seems to have on eternal repeat. Joon-ki snatches away her gift, and he opens it to find a small pink electric razor. He thinks it’s a weird gift, and looks to Dong-gu for confirmation, but Dong-gu just says sadly, “I never gave Soo-ah a proper gift…” LOL, he’s so pathetic.

Seo-jin happily makes kimbap for Tae-hyun the next day, while Joon-ki complains that she’s never even made ramyun for them. Dong-gu is still in his blanket burrito, moaning miserably, and he wails that he never made kimbap for Soo-ah. Someone get this guy a new girlfriend!

At the library, Seo-jin sneaks up behind Tae-hyun to surprise him, but she stops cold when she finds him with his finger halfway up his nose. EWW. He sees her and stops his bleeding nose, blaming it on stress. Seo-jin watches, disgusted, as he sticks his finger right back up there, and this time he flicks the booger across the room.

She ignores it and brings out the kimbap, which he refuses to eat with chopsticks. Instead he sticks his boogery fingers into the food and pops one in his mouth, then insists on feeding one to Seo-jin with that same hand. She takes it in her mouth, but quickly distracts Tae-hyun and spits it out. Unfortunately, he just pinches her cheek and feeds her another.

Back at Waikiki Guesthouse, Joon-ki pleads with Dong-gu to watch something other than “If Only” over and over. Dong-gu gets up to get some more tissue, warning Joon-ki not to touch the remote while he’s gone.

Seo-jin returns from the library looking depressed, and she tells Joon-ki and Doo-shik that Tae-hyun picks his nose constantly. What’s worse, he then eats and even touches her with that same hand. Joon-ki points out that Tae-hyun has been understanding about her facial hair, so it’s only right that she overlook his bad habit.

Dong-gu returns, practically in tears over the fact that they’re out of toilet paper, hee. A worried Yoon-ah brings him some porridge, but he refuses to eat, begging them all to let him die. Sheesh, dramatic much? Joon-ki makes the mistake of accidentally insulting Soo-ah, and Dong-gu finally shows some life, insisting that he truly loved her and that he’ll never heal from this wound.

He stomps up to the roof to stare at pictures of himself and Soo-ah on his phone. Yoon-ah joins him and agrees that sudden breakups are painful. She says she’s been there herself, but that he’ll overcome it with time. Dong-gu disagrees, saying that he regrets that he never did much for Soo-ah, so he’ll never get over her.

He adds that what he regrets most is that their last moments together weren’t beautiful: “I just want to see Soo-ah one more time and say goodbye in a beautiful way.”

The next day, Yoon-ah goes to Soo-ah’s studio and politely asks her to see Dong-gu one last time, but even her description of how much he’s suffering doesn’t move Soo-ah’s heart. She actually drags Yoon-ah outside and locks her out of the building.

During another study session, Seo-jin winces as Tae-hyun works with one finger rooting around in his nose. He just keeps digging until she finally blows up and tells him to stop, and he sheepishly removes his finger. She tells him that his nose bleeds because he’s always picking it, and he seems genuinely sorry and unaware that he was doing it.

Doo-shik calls Dong-gu out to meet a female friend of his, thinking that a new girl might help Dong-gu get over the old girl. Dong-gu barks that he’s not ready to get over Soo-ah yet. But the girl arrives before he can leave, and he’s enchanted by how pretty she is.

She introduces herself as Min-ah, and Dong-gu is practically starry-eyed. He glares at Doo-shik when he tells Min-ah that Dong-gu had a recent breakup and can’t join them. Doo-shik and Min-ah head off together for drinks, leaving Dong-gu wondering why he feels disappointed.

At lunch, Seo-jin catches Tae-hyun picking his nose again, and in desperation, she makes him wear chips on his fingers to break the habit. LOL, seriously? Tae-hyun is starting to look annoyed by her nagging, and I don’t blame him.

Dong-gu follows Doo-shik and Min-ah to a pojangmacha, although he says pitifully that he just came to drink and sort out his thoughts. He tries to join them but Doo-shik says he needs to “sort out his thoughts” alone, so he takes a table nearby (after bonking Doo-shik in the head, ha).

He orders the same thing they ordered, unaware that it’s enough food for several people. He pretends he’s eating with his friends, drinking when they drink and laughing when they joke about Joon-ki’s cluelessness. He jumps up when they decide to leave, and Doo-shik points to the mountain of clams still on the table, but Dong-gu says he’ll take them home for baby Sol. LOL, what?

Across town, Seo-jin steps away from the table, and Tae-hyun can’t take it anymore. He eats the chips off his hands and jams a finger into his nose. HAHA, he looks blissfully happy. Seo-jin comes back and slaps his hand, arguing that what he’s doing isn’t healthy or attractive, and he loses his temper.

In an irritated voice, he reminds her that she has facial hair, which is extremely unattractive. Oh no he di-in’t. He asks people at the nearby tables which is worse, her facial hair or his nose-picking, embarrassing Seo-jin.

Tae-hyun snaps that he’s embarrassed when they’re on a date and he can see her facial hair growing, and that it hurts when he kisses her. The conversation devolves into a screaming match, with both of them hurling insulting nicknames at each other. Finally they yell that they’re breaking up.

Yoon-ah waits until Soo-ah leaves the studio at the end of the day to continue asking her to see Dong-gu one last time. She says that she knows how it feels not to say a proper goodbye to someone you love, but Soo-ah still refuses. Yoon-ah suddenly turns kinda scary for her diminutive size, and she advances on Soo-ah, grabs Soo-ah’s expensive purse, and runs.

As he waits for a taxi, carrying a huge bag of clams, Dong-gu finds himself feeling jealous when he overhears Min-ah mentioning a blind date this weekend. He pretends there’s something stuck in his teeth and asks Min-ah for her business card to pick it out. He snatches it from her, then stalks away after one last glare at Doo-shik.

Yoon-ah runs from Soo-ah, calling back that she’ll return her purse when she agrees to see Dong-gu. Soo-ah catches her and they have a tug-of-war over the purse, and eventually Soo-ah agrees to see Dong-gu. Thrilled, Yoon-ah links arms with her, but they’re both surprised to see Dong-gu walking towards them.

He’s on the phone with Min-ah, and the girls overhear him talking about the blind date. He’s so busy talking that he almost walks right into them, and Yoon-ah yells that she brought Soo-ah because he said he misses her. But Soo-ah doesn’t get mad, she just asks Dong-gu to speak privately.

They find a bench, and Dong-gu stammers that the blind date was Doo-shik’s idea. Soo-ah says that she doesn’t deserve an apology and thanks him for the last four years together. Dong-gu tries to stop her, sensing what’s coming and knowing that if she says it, he’ll have to let her go.

He gets on his knees on the bench and promises to treat her better than the new guy. Soo-ah tells him that he did treat her well, and that what happened was her fault. She says that she’s happy with her new boyfriend and asks Dong-gu to forget her and be happy, too. Dong-gu listens, tears tracking down his face, and Soo-ah gives him a hug and walks away.

After she’s gone Dong-gu cries again, knowing that this was really the end.

Dressed in a dark suit and baseball cap, Joon-ki makes his way through a dimly-lit office building. He pulls a gun and dramatically whispers, “Those who live for tomorrow will be killed by the one living for today. I live only for today. You have no idea how messed-up that is. I will show you now.”

He shoots, and the lights come up. HA, he’s in a room full of people, and the guy he’s pointing the gun at just tells him to leave his resume and go. He grins, introduces himself, and puts his headshot on top of a huge stack of similar headshots.

He heads home, where he and Seo-jin get into another bickering argument. Dong-gu breaks it up and tells everyone that he’s helping out a friend who’s filming tomorrow, then casually throws out that he and Soo-ah are really over. He says that from now on, he plans to just focus on earning money so they can make their movie.

The ladies go to their bedroom, where Yoon-ah asks Seo-jin if she has a dream. Seo-jin says that she’s always wanted to be a journalist but she can’t seem to find a job. Yoon-ah admits that she’s jealous that they’re all following their dreams, when her life circumstances are keeping her from realizing hers. Seo-jin says that that’s just an excuse, urging Yoon-ah to tell her what her dream is and she’ll help her.

Nervously, Yoon-ah whispers that she wants to be a rapper. LOL, what? Seo-jin is taken aback, but she asks Yoon-ah to show her, so Yoon-ah puts on some music and delivers the weirdest, most awkward rap ever. Seo-jin struggles for something nice to say and finally settles on, “you should practice,” which Yoon-ah takes as encouragement.

Joon-ki goes to an audition, where he puts on an impassioned performance as a soldier killed in battle. The director blandly informs him that the movie title, “Marine,” is about the Olympic swimmer Park Tae-hwan (whose nickname is Marine Boy), not soldiers. PWAHAHA.

Joon-ki begs for another chance, so the director tells him to take off his clothes so he can see if he has a swimmer’s body. But he balks at the sight of Joon-ki’s prodigious chest hair, informing Joon-ki that swimmers remove their body hair to reduce water resistance. Joon-ki vows to get rid of every hair on his body if he gets the role.

He heads to a salon, intending to wax it all off. He’s surprised when his aesthetician turns out to be a pretty young woman, but she assures him that lots of men get waxed these days. She tells him to get undressed and lie down, and to keep the worn-out stuffed rabbit he found on the table, because he’ll need it. The aesthetician starts with Joon-ki’s legs, and he starts screaming and biting the rabbit with the very first rip of the wax. Oooouchie.

Yoon-ah asks Seo-jin and Doo-shik to listen to a song she wrote about Seo-jin. It’s even worse than her first rap, if that’s even possible, and all Doo-shik can think to say is that it has a “grotesque charm.” He abandons Seo-jin to suffer Yoon-ah’s next rap alone.

Doo-shik decides to take a shower, but he finds Joon-ki already in there. He’s scandalized at the sight of Joon-ki’s completely hairless body (and I do mean completely), and Joon-ki confesses that he did it for a movie. He’s proud to have landed the role of Swimmer #8, which he insists is a very important role.

He takes a call from his new girlfriend, inviting him to lunch tomorrow to meet her mother. Seo-jin jokes that she wonders how many days he’ll date this girl, but Joon-ki swears that this time it’s serious. He makes the mistake of asking Dong-gu if this is how he felt with Soo-ah, and Seo-jin gooses him in the ribs to shut him up.

Dong-gu slumps to the guesthouse media room and starts deleting his photos of Soo-ah. Yoon-ah follows him and says that she knows how hard this is, and that no words can comfort him. She tells him that she prepared something, and oh no please don’t… she starts rapping, making Dong-gu flee for his sanity.

She’s rapping again at breakfast while listening to headphones, and the others complain that she’s driving them crazy. Dong-gu tells Seo-jin that since she encouraged Yoon-ah to follow her dream of being a rapper, it’s her job to make her stop.

Joon-ki makes a good impression at lunch with his girlfriend’s mother. Her mom takes a call and has to leave for an emergency, and once she’s gone, Joon-ki admits that he was incredibly nervous. His girlfriend Ji-soo (cameo by Lee Ji-ha) tells him that her mother likes him, then mentions that her little sister is also joining them.

When her sister Ji-min arrives, she and Joon-ki both freeze as they recognize each other… oh no, she’s the aesthetician that waxed him! Ji-soo notices the awkwardness, so Ji-min confesses that Joon-ki was at her salon getting waxed recently, and Joon-ki stammers that it’s for a movie.

Ji-soo says she doesn’t care so long as Ji-min didn’t do the job… oops. Ji-min assures her that it’s all just work to her, but Ji-soo freaks out that her little sister saw everything when she and Joon-ki haven’t even held hands yet. She calms down eventually, but she says she needs to think about this.

Dong-gu’s “filming” job turns out to be taking pictures and video at a child’s first birthday celebration. The kid’s mom complains when the baby cries and Dong-gu does nothing to make him happy for the video, so the friend who hired him shows him how to use props and act silly to cheer up the child. Dong-gu is reluctant to do it, but he needs the money.

Back at Waikiki Guesthouse, Yoon-ah approaches Seo-jin for help in applying to be on “Show Me the Money,” a show where rappers compete against each other. Seo-jin is forced to tell her that her rapping is terrible, and even raps a bit herself to prove that just about anyone is better than Yoon-ah. Poor Yoon-ah pouts like a whipped puppy and retreats to her room.

Joon-ki slumps into the kitchen and demands some of Seo-jin’s ramyun. Seo-jin grabs the pot back, and they start fighting again, both pulling on the ramyun pot. Seo-jin lets go, causing Joon-ki to dump the scalding hot ramyun in his lap… right where he just got waxed.

Screaming in pain, Joon-ki is rushed to the emergency room. When the doctor arrives, the intern explains the embarrassing situation, and Joon-ki is horrified to recognize the doctor as his girlfriend Ji-soo’s mother. I am so embarrassed for him right now.

He tries to stop her from looking at his burned crotch, so Ji-soo’s mom orders the nurses to hold his arms. As soon as she raises the sheet and exposes his shiny new wax job, Joon-ki goes into a glassy-eyed state of shock. Poor guy.

When it’s all over, Ji-soo arrives to see Joon-ki, and she’s upset when she realizes that her mother was his doctor. She wails that everyone in her family has seen Joon-ki’s business, and she breaks up with him. Joon-ki tries to follow her, but he just ends up flopping on the floor, clutching himself and screaming her name.

Dong-gu’s attempts to cheer up the birthday boy only result in more crying, so he checks his bag for more props. The mike boom drops and smacks him in the head, making the baby laugh.

He tries it again, and the kid laughs even harder, so he ends up whacking himself in the head throughout the whole party until he gives himself a bleeding head wound.

Seo-jin bandages Dong-gu up at home as Joon-ki staggers painfully around the house, trying to get Ji-soo to take his calls. Sweet Doo-shik comforts Joon-ki and says he’ll meet someone better, and he admits that the thought of being an extra forever makes him sadder than the breakup.

Seo-jin mentions actors that were extras for years before getting their big break, cheering up Joon-ki by saying that he has talent. Even Dong-gu tells the guys that they’ll achieve their dreams if they just stay positive.

Yoon-ah, still grumpy at Seo-jin, comes in to slam a tray of muffins onto the table and yell at Seo-jin that she’s not mad at all, okay?? Seo-jin tastes a muffin and declares it delicious, urging the guys to try one, and they all exclaim that they’re wonderful.

Seo-jin asks Yoon-ah if she ever thought of being a pastry chef. Yoon-ah confesses that that was her second dream, and the guys enthusiastically agree that she should go for it.

When it’s time for Joon-ki to film his swimming scene, he proudly shows off his sleek, hairless body to the director. The director praises him, but he’s even more excited by the next guy, who went so far as to shave his head. HAHA, it’s Mutant Man from the bus.

But then the lead actor arrives, having refused to shave himself because, he argues, he’s not a swimmer in real life. The director completely switches, saying that it’s not really important whether it looks real. The actor complains that all the smooth extras will make him stand out, so both Joon-ki and Mutant Man are downgraded to spectator roles.

When they’re directed to cheer, they both start sobbing, once again brothers in pitiful solidarity.

 
COMMENTS

I think this may have been my favorite episode so far (though sort of feel that way after every episode, heh). The silliness and ridiculous behavior of the characters are so perfectly offset and grounded by the moments of real feeling, keeping the show entertaining without being exhausting, which can happen sometimes when a show relies solely on humor. I love how much the show makes me laugh, but I’m sticking around for those times when the characters really make me care about them, such as Dong-gu’s quiet, sorrowful acceptance of the breakup, or Yoon-ah’s sincere concern for Dong-gu’s emotional well-being.

The casting for Woohoo Waikiki is really just spot-on, with everyone playing their characters to the comedy hilt and managing to be adorable at the same time. But I have to say what I know we’re all thinking… Lee Yi-kyung is absolutely running away with the role of Joon-ki. In only three episodes, he’s had to do some of the silliest stuff I’ve ever seen in a drama, and it could so easily look stupid and overblown. But he somehow carries it all off in a way that just makes me love Joon-ki more and more every minute, because he’s just so very earnest in everything he does. He constantly fails, sometimes to hilariously spectacular results, but he never gives up.

The others are also hilarious, and I love that their comedy is expressed in very different ways. Dong-gu’s humorous moments are all unintentional, usually involving his humiliation in his quest to get Soo-ah back. Doo-shik is the straight man, but he still manages to be funny when he’s cringing away from Dong-gu and complaining about how he treats him. Seo-jin is loud and says what she’s thinking, which often comes back to bite her. And Yoon-ah is just adorably clueless — it’s like she never went outside and met people before she ended up at Waikiki Guesthouse. They’re all so quirky and lovable, and this is one of those times when I’m thankful that the show just started because we still have so much hilarity and so many sweet moments to look forward to.

It was sweet to see how protective Yoon-ah became over Dong-gu in this episode, and how she went to such lengths to get him his “beautiful goodbye” with Soo-ah. She’s such a sweetheart even when her attempts to cheer him up fall flat — I mean seriously, rapping?? But you have to love her commitment to taking care of people with all the cooking and cleaning she’s doing, not to mention stepping in whenever someone needs a supportive ear. I love the idea that her domestic skills could be her key to success, and I’ll be thrilled if she turns out to be the one who helps the Waikiki boys out of their financial slump.

I’m also happy to see Dong-gu starting to cheer up, because as funny as he is when he’s grumpy and upset, it was getting to be a bit much when that was all we saw of him. I don’t want his grouchiness to go away entirely, because it’s pretty cute when Dong-gu is just being his usual snarky self and not unfairly taking his anger out on someone. I love the way he’s reluctantly softening to Yoon-ah, even when she manages to terrify him with her rapping. They’re going to be so cute together, with Yoon-ah’s gentle caring to smooth Dong-gu’s rough edges and her playful side to draw out his sense of fun. And let’s not forget that adorable baby, who’s going to teach Dong-gu a lot about what it means to be a responsible adult.

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