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Jirisan: Episode 2

As we try to unravel what mysteries lie within the mountains our rangers continue their often dangerous, sometimes fun, work of taking care of nature and her visitors. While our rookie ranger struggles to understand what his visions mean, we catch a glimpse into the past of his partner. What history does our veteran ranger have with Jirisan?

 
EPISODE 2 RECAP

In 2018, sixty-two days before Hyun-jo joins the Jirisan ranger team. A lone hiker treks on the mountain and passes by some yellow ribbon trail markers tied to various tree branches. As he passes out of sight, someone dressed all in black quietly goes about moving the ribbon markers to different branches.

A new hiker comes along the path and carefully follows the trail markers. As he treks onward, we get one last glimpse of him — with the figure in black following behind him.

2020
Yi-kang visits the police station, to the surprise of KIM WOONG-SOON (Jeon Suk-ho). Yi-kang gets straight to the point, asking if Woong-soon knows anything about the case of Yang Geun-tak, the missing hiker that Yi-kang knew the location of.

Woong-soon flips through the case file’s photos and tells Yi-kang he’d heard it was declared an accidental death. Yi-kang asks if he knows anything about the yellow ribbon that was found with Yang’s remains. He replies that he’s just a low-ranking officer so he wouldn’t know more about it, but figures that the case being closed means everything looked normal. He hesitantly asks if she found something strange about the ribbon.

Da-won enters the office and marvels at how Yi-kang was able to clean the station and organize the files — even documents Gu-young put off doing for a month. Gu-young defends himself, saying patrols and rescues kept him busy. Da-won abruptly asks if he and Yi-kang are really the same age, implying that he looks older. Gu-young scoffs and says that he’s technically younger by a few months.

Dae-jin finds Yi-kang reviewing CCTV footage of Jirisan and asks if she’s looking for the trail marker. He still thinks it’s a coincidence and probably a prank. Yi-kang counters that Jirisan is huge and the marker pointing towards the missing hiker is too exact to be a coincidence.

Beyond the marker, he can’t understand why she was even looking at photos of Jirisan when she’d nearly died and had been hospitalized for a year. Was it because of Hyun-jo? Yi-kang remains silent but glimpses of a winter’s day flash by.

A rock coming down on someone’s head with a splatter of blood against snow, Yi-kang looking terrified then a fall in the snow, a bloody Hyun-jo lying on the ground, and Yi-kang being carried off unconscious on a stretcher.

Dae-jin continues to probe, and asks what prompted them to climb Jirisan that day. She finally responds, only to state simply, “Nothing. We only tried to protect the mountain. Because that was our job.”

2018
Hyun-jo packs some gear and his ranger ID before heading out. Il-hae stops him to ask if he’s headed to Jirisan on his day off Hyun-jo replies that he’s headed there to do some training.

Il-hae wonders why a Seoulite like Hyun-jo opted to be stationed at Jirisan instead of a mountain in the city. Hyun-jo asks if Il-hae lives nearby and Gu-young comes out to say that Il-hae wouldn’t be at the dormitory eating ramyun if he did. They start arguing over patrolling and ramyun, and Hyun-jo quickly leaves.

As Hyun-jo hikes, he finds a pair of glasses and wondering if the owner of said glasses was able to get down the mountain safely without them. He reaches the summit and savors the mountain vistas that surround him. Hyun-jo takes a sip of water but suddenly freezes. Another vision flashes before his eyes, this time glimpses of yellow ribbons hanging in the dark and finally, a bloody hand.

Yi-kang is helping out at the restaurant her grandmother LEE MOON-OK (Lee Young-ok) runs. While she’s busy serving and cooking scallion pancakes Grandma is busy shooting the breeze with Yi-kang’s coworkers. She shares that Yi-kang was once hit by a motorcycle when she was young, but she didn’t even shed a tear and just ran to the mountain. Even as a young girl, Jirisan was a refuge for Yi-kang, and it’s where she’d run to whenever she was upset. Yi-kang exasperatedly tells her grandmother to stop slacking off but Grandma says she’s keeping the customers happy.

Dae-jin’s arrival cuts their argument short and despite her frustrations, Yi-kang obediently goes back to making more pancakes. Hyun-jo calls (he’s saved as “Crazy Guy” on her phone) asking questions about a pine tree habitat with yellow ribbons. Yi-kang says it must be a restricted area then, since illegal hikers are the ones who use yellow ribbon trail markers. She lets him know that there’s one a few kilometers away from Mujin Valley but when she asks him if he’s working on his day off he just thanks her and hangs up.

Hyun-jo sets off for a new destination and he hikes into a foggy area. He takes in his surroundings carefully, as if he’s trying to match the location to his vision. It’s eerily quiet — but he’s not alone. A man pops out to confront Hyun-jo and asks why he’s being followed. Hyun-jo counters by saying that he should be asking the questions. He asks the Lone Hiker if he has permission to be in this area. The Lone Hiker gets combative, and tells Hyun-jo he can go wherever he wants. Hyun-jo identifies himself as a ranger and offers to guide the Lone Hiker out of the restricted area and down the mountain.

The Lone Hiker responds by eyeing Hyun-jo and noting that he’s not in uniform and has no partner with him, which means he’s off-duty. He dismissively tells Hyun-jo to just let him be, but his knowledge of rangers and their work just makes Hyun-jo more certain that something nefarious is afoot. The hiker resignedly hands over his backpack to be checked for any poached goods then admits that he is searching for something — the body of his father, who went missing on Jirisan a year ago.

That night, everyone is gathered at the town hall where a memorial is set up. Hyun-jo asks what the memorial is for and we learn that in 1995 there was a torrential rain during the summer peak season, which caused a huge flood. Over a hundred people died, both rangers and vacationers alike. In flashback, we see covered bodies gathered in a large room with family members grieving over them. Young Yi-kang stands alone, looking grief-stricken.

Hyun-jo finds Yi-kang in her usual solo hangout spot (thanks to a tip-off from Grandma). He tells her about his encounter earlier at the pine tree habitat and shows her a case file. It’s for a missing person, Hong Sang-gyu. He’d been deep in debt with a failed business when he disappeared. The authorities were unable to trace him and the case was closed soon after he’d been declared missing. He tells her that the son hasn’t given up and he wants to help. Yi-kang is more pragmatic, after all the search may have been called off because there was no evidence that the man had even come to Jirisan.

But Hyun-jo is convinced that Hong Sang-gyu met his end in Jirisan, and entered a restricted area, possibly through Mujin Valley. Yi-kang replies that Mujin Valley is huge and that he should just give up. She warns him not to go on the restricted trails when he’s off duty. Hyun-jo confides that he saw the marker again, just like the time they found Seung-hoon and he saw someone bleeding, it might be the Lone Hiker. Yi-kang takes that information in…and concludes that he must be drunk. Hyun-jo doesn’t try to persuade her and just resignedly tells her to head back to the memorial.

In the morning, Hyun-jo seeks out the Lone Hiker to find out why his father went to Jirisan. The son shares that Hong Sang-gyu was a landscaper and was obsessed with trees, particularly pine trees. The day he disappeared, he’d planned to go see the pine trees on Wusong Cliff.

Hyun-jo promises to patrol that area and the Lone Hiker pleads to go with him. Hyun-jo reminds him that the area is restricted. The Lone Hiker says it would be easier to search together so they can skip any areas he’s already searched. He gives a heartfelt plea, saying he wants to be the one who find his father.

Elsewhere, at Jirisan, a young woman checks her lottery ticket and finds that she’s holding a winning ticket. She holds it up in excitement but a sudden gust of wind blows the ticket away. She approaches Il-hae to ask for help in finding the ticket, but he says that’s not part of his job. She explodes, saying the winning prize is 1.4 billion won (a little over a million dollars). Everyone within earshot hears it, and everyone scrambles off to look for the ticket.

The rangers try (and fail) to keep visitors out of restricted areas. With so much money on the line, people are desperate to find the lottery ticket and the news has already spread to other parts of the park. Even Yi-kang seems interested, when she hears how much the ticket is worth.

She hops a fence and joins the trespassing visitors. Just a few seconds later, Yi-kang shouts that she’s found it, and holds the ticket up victoriously. She hands it to Il-hae, telling him to return it to the owner. It’s actually just a receipt, but her ploy works and the rangers get to work fining trespassers and ushering them out of the restricted area.

Yi-kang catches a pair of hikers attempting to leave with an illegally harvested endangered plant, and while writing up the violation, she suddenly remembers Hyun-jo. Another ranger tells her that he could have gone to Mujin Valley since he had been looking for documents about it earlier.

Hyun-jo and the Lone Hiker reach Wusong Cliff but the son says he’s already searched the vicinity for a whole year, his rationale being that his father might have committed suicide. Hyun-jo consoles him, saying he’s sure they’ll find his father.

At the police station, Yi-kang asks Woong-soon about Hong Sang-gyu’s case. Woong-soon remembers it and tells her that the daughter had visited a week ago to ask if they had found her father yet. Yi-kang comments that the children are trying hard, and that his son has even been scouring Jirisan himself. At that, Woong-soon quizzically states that Hong Sang-gyu doesn’t have a son.

Woong-soon’s prints out Hong Sang-gyu’s ID report and on a far wall there’s a picture of the man with Hyun-jo is with. The photo lists him as KIM KI-CHANG (Kim Min-ho), a fugitive wanted for fraud.

Back on the cliff, Ki-chang and Hyun-jo discuss where to head next. Hyun-jo references the case file and states that there was a heavy downpour on the day Hong Sang-gyu went missing. A satellite image shows that the flow of the water changed over the year because of that.

Hyun-jo identifies a section near the newly-formed waterway for Ki-chang to check and hands him a GPS device. Hyun-jo plans to do some searching along the cliff’s rock face. Since there’s no cell reception at their location, he suggests they regroup in an hour at the location he marked in the device. Before they separate, Hyun-jo asks what his father was wearing. Ki-chang says he was wearing a green windbreaker, gray pants, and had a black backpack.

Hyun-jo rappels down the cliff. While he scans the area around him, he spots something off in the distance: a black backpack hanging from a branch.

Yi-kang visits Hong Sang-gyu’s house to meet his daughter, Young-mi. There’s a majestic looking pine, with large, twisted branches in the front yard. Young-mi seems incredibly nervous when Yi-kang introduces herself as a ranger, which doesn’t go unnoticed. Yi-kang asks about the pine tree, but Young-mi claims to know nothing about it.

Yi-kang comments that the pine tree couldn’t have grown nearby because only strong clifftop winds could have shaped its branches. To illegally harvest that one tree would have required great sacrifice, with hundreds of other trees being cut down to create a path for it. She notes that it would take decades for nature to recover but illegal harvesters never care. After all, a single tree would net them nearly $100,000. The more Yi-kang talks, the more anxious Young-mi gets.

When Yi-kang asks flat out if her father went to the mountain the day he went missing because of a pine tree. Young-mi hesitates, then responds that her father didn’t want to do it, but loan sharks kept hounding them. They needed the money desperately, so he had no choice. That’s why she couldn’t tell the police then, she had been afraid her father would end up in jail. Yi-kang asks who had recruited her father to do the harvesting.

Hyun-jo and Ki-chang meet up and neither man has found anything so they continue their search in another area. Meanwhile, Yi-kang tries to call Hyun-jo but he’s in an area with no reception. She recalls her earlier conversation with Young-mi and her revelation that Kim Ki-chang was the man who intimidated Hong Sang-gyu into poaching.

The sun is setting and Hyun-jo calls it a day. Ki-chang gets disgruntled and accuses Hyun-jo of stalling and leading him in circles. What’s the plan? To call the police? Hyun-jo states he will if he has to, and asks a question: How did he know exactly what Hong Sang-gyu was wearing when he went missing? It was swelteringly hot that day, he would have only worn his windbreaker at the top of the mountain.

He pulls out something to show Ki-chang, and it’s Ki-chang’s own wallet. It turns out that Hyun-jo had managed to retrieve the bag he saw hanging near the cliff and inside had been Ki-chang’s wallet with his driver’s license. He questions why Ki-chang’s things were on the cliff and if Hong Sang-gyu actually committed suicide.

Eyes full of rage, Ki-chang confesses there was no suicide, then slashes Hyun-jo with a knife. They struggle, but Ki-chang manages to stab Hyun-jo and makes off with the sole GPS device.

Interspersed with their fight, are flashbacks to Hong Sang-gyu’s last day alive. He and Ki-chang and had been together on Wusong Cliff, along with a client.

Ki-chang had received 50 million won in cash on the spot, and the pine tree was to be taken down from Jirisan. The two men fought, with Hong insisting this would be his last job. He had taken the cash and Ki-chang chased him, then pushed him off the cliff’s edge. As Hong fell, the money bag fell with him.

Hyun-jo staggers to his feet and struggles along the trail with only a flashlight to guide him. He sees yellow ribbons on the branches and when his bloody hand grasps at a rock wall, he realizes that he had seen himself in his earlier vision. As he collapses to the ground, he slams a twig between stones to create a marker and loses consciousness.

As Ki-chang tries to navigate his way in the dark, he’s found by Yi-kang and he claims to merely be a lost hiker. She scoffs and tells him that she’s not like the too-nice-rookie, she knows a crook when she sees one. Ki-chang attempts to threaten her but Yi-kang coolly tells him that she knows to hike with a radio. At that, her reinforcements come out from the shadows; it’s Woong-soon with a partner, and Gu-young and a few other rangers.

Rewind to four hours earlier, Yi-kang had radioed the team to meet her at the pine tree habitat and she’d set off to find Hyun-jo. When she reached him, he was bloody and unconscious but his trail marker had led her to exactly where Ki-chang was wandering.

At the hospital, Hyun-jo checks out a commendation plaque the police chief has bestowed onto the ranger team. Yi-kang asks Hyun-jo if he’s really psychic, in response he asks if she’d believe him. She replies that she doesn’t trust people easily, so she’ll wait and see what the truth is. As she heads out, Hyun-jo stops her to say that he was able to narrow where Hong Sang-gyu might be. Though she believes death is the end, he disagrees with her and says he thinks Hong’s family would agree with him.

Yi-kang leaves, and at Jirisan, she heads into a restricted area. Day after day, she treks and marks off areas along the way. At one point, she hears someone crying. It’s the girl who lost the lottery ticket, and she’s lost and injured. Yi-kang helps her, berating her for being reckless and putting her life in danger for the lottery ticket. The young woman says that she’s never had such luck and needs to find it because she wants to buy her mother a house.

Yi-kang continues her search and at long last finds Hong Sang-gyu’s remains. She pours out an offering of soju, lights incense sticks, and prays. Young-mi is waiting when her father’s remains are brought out from the park. Yi-kang returns her father’s bag to her and Young-mi sobs as she hugs her father’s bag.

Memories of Yi-kang’s own loss flood her mind, and we see both the day her parents had passed as well as the funeral and a fight young Yi-kang had had with her dad.

2020
Da-won shares attempts to share an egg sandwich with Yi-kang. She’s thrilled that Yi-kang knows her name, considering what a legend Yi-kang is. Da-won chatters away and offers to help look for more markers, but Yi-kang’s complete silence prompts her to get up. Before she can leave, Yi-kang asks if she’s still going on patrol at Dowon Valley the next day. If so, Yi-kang asks a favor of Da-won: Create a marker in the valley, which would point to the station. Da-won agrees and Yi-kang draws the exact formation she should make.

Dae-jin later approaches Yi-kang and informs her that he found her a spot for her at the rangers’ headquarters. She protests but he says it would be hard for her to continue working at the station. He promises to let her know first if he finds anything about the mark. Smiling, he tells her to head to HQ and walks away without giving her a chance to speak.

While on patrol, Da-won creates an excuse to sneak away while Gu-young is distracted. She reaches the exact location Yi-kang described and starts to set up the trail marker.

Back at the station, Yi-kang looks through more case files, and spends time examining photos of the yellow ribbons. She recalls a time when she and Hyun-jo had been searching for illegal hikers. They had been looking at red ribbons which are usually set up by illegal hikers to mark the path to the summit for any stragglers. Hyun-jo remembers seeing yellow ribbons the time he was stabbed and tells her that it was strange, the ribbons all lead away from the summit, as if someone was trying to get people lost.

Back in the present, Yi-kang takes a call from the Jeonbuk Regional Office, requesting a report file that’s needed urgently. She looks through the drawers — and finds a plastic bag filled with yellow ribbons, stained with blood.

At Dowon Valley, something catches Da-won’s eye. A thick fog descends rapidly over the area.

She stoops down to takes photos of a flowering plant but stops in shock when a cloaked figure steps in front of her. Something (blood?) drips down on the figure’s boots. The cloak is bloodstained and dirty, and it says “Korea National Park Service.”

Underneath that cloak’s hood, two eyes stare out from a dark void.

 
COMMENTS

Oh boy, I shudder. That was creepy. I’ve been bracing myself for something otherworldly and we got a preview of what’s to come. I still don’t know what to expect from Jirisan — is there a grim reaper of sorts or is the cloaked figure a spirit? There were early references to Jirisan’s historic and religious significance and I’m positive the drama was dropping hints for us viewers that we’re going to get a look at realms beyond this earthly sphere. After all, Hyun-jo’s visions have been shown to be pretty accurate and those powers must be coming from somewhere. He has been tight-lipped about why he chose to work at Jirisan and we still don’t know the origin story of his visions. Do they only occur near the mountain or has he had them all his life? Is he somehow related to the cloaked figure?

We’re not much closer to knowing what happened to Hyun-jo at the end of this episode, but I’m glad for the time jumps because we’re able to see the little development in his partnership with Yi-kang. (That said, though I’m glad we can see their relationship form, I wish the jumps were slightly less confusing since at a few points I found it hard to keep track of when we were and who was was.) I like Yi-kang though she definitely keeps her cards close to her chest. Despite her claims of being a loner, she’s also a bit of a tsundere type. Though her words may be cold, she’s definitely got a warm side to her. When Hyun-jo brought up Hong Sang-gyu’s remains and continuing the search, she acted as though she didn’t care — but then spent ages searching through the park to find him. From the way she thought back to her childhood loss of her parents when she met Young-mi, it’s clear she saw a reflection of herself in Young-mi’s grief. After all, though the departed are gone, their families can keep them alive by honoring and cherishing their memories.

Even if she doesn’t quite believe Hyun-jo, I think she trusts him more than she’s willing to admit. She may have doubts over his claim of being able to see visions, but after she found him injured, she trusted him enough to follow his formation marker and to look for Ki-chang. I’m looking forward to seeing what else happens before the unfortunate event that led to her paralysis and Hyun-jo’s comatose state. Yi-kang seems so shifty when she’s been asked what happened that day and it’s enough to make me wonder if she’s hiding something or if she just doesn’t trust the other rangers. Let’s not forget the tension that was evident at the station when Yi-kang first returned to Jirisan. I could be letting my suspicions get the better of me, but even Dae-jin is starting to seem a little shady somehow. It hasn’t been long since Dae-jin welcomed her back to the station, so why is he now so eager to have her move on to a different location?

We’re getting piled with mystery after mystery — very few answers — but I’m enjoying the suspenseful, eerie vibe of the drama while appreciating the occasional flashes of humor we get. Highlights for me so far are Gu-young’s comments, along with Hyun-jo’s rookie antics and Yi-kang’s resigned, dry retorts to him.

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When this recap published, we have a lot more then a few clues shown in this episode (I finished Episode 4 now). By trying not to spoil too much, I am trying to make some points.

Honestly, in the last episode, someone is saying something about the inconsistency of the rescue, the crappy CG, and things like that. I believe they are behind us now. Obviously there are some exaggeration about the rescue (like the dramatics and the danger in nature), but after all, they are not the main points (Certainly someone have their own right to comment about director's "unprofessionalism", despite operational and cultural difference between different national parks in different countries*). In my opinion, doing that is unfair for the director; and honestly, last episode simply shows us how they work, and lay out the mystery, so I am satisfy for that, since they have done the work.

The jumping between 2018 and 2020 maybe confusing for some who can only watch stories with straightforward storylines, but it is not that hard to distinguish them: Yi-kang is on wheelchair in 2020, and several characters are missing in the later timeline as well, with one of the obvious is Hyun-jo, who is still in coma in the hospital (and, maybe the ghost in the mountain is he himself?). The branch office even looks different (both interior and exterior), too. The show keep reminding us what year the events are happening with huge, big captions (even in Episode 4). I don't see why we are still going to mix up. In fact, I think this show's timelines are the easiest to understand (even in Kim Eun-hee's standard, think about her Signal ...

Now obviously, the daily life of park rangers are not the point of this drama (unlike Hospital Playlist on their doctors). We are now facing a possible murder mystery, probably a love story (and quite possibly between a human being and a ghost, if I can call it THAT), and certainly the conflict between human being and the nature as a whole. The history of Mount Jiri may have been covered as well (so we may deal with some kind of national pride as well?) Showing historic photos of the mountain seems one of Director Lee Eung-bok's style (He even reconstruct it in Mr. Sunshine--someone must have miss something if s/he has just watched Descendants of the Sun: for me, this is not his best drama, far from it). Kim Eun-hee is pretty much breaking the barriers which defining genres, and I am pretty looking forward to what comes next (with concerns, because, as I said in my last comment, funding from certain companies, or companies from certain countries, is not a very good sign).

*I actually have no credibility to comment about how they rescue and how professional they are. My only outdoor experience is being boy scout (and later, an instructor) when I was very young, so I did some serious hiking in the wild, but it was very long ago, and it was in Hongkong. I can't even comment...

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*I actually have no credibility to comment about how they rescue and how professional they are. My only outdoor experience is being boy scout (and later, an instructor) when I was very young, so I did some serious hiking in the wild, but it was very long ago, and it was in Hongkong. I can't even comment professionally how people doing rescue in Canada where I am living in, but as a person reading those reports in media extensively (I work in news), I can roughly see even in British Columbia and in Ontario, people doing rescue with different technique base on different weather, terrain, and many other factors. So I have no interest to judge the rangers "professionalism" in this very drama. So, if someone seeing "lemon" in certain rescue operations, I suggest s/he to drink some lemonade to cool oneself down.

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Perhaps then, by this same logic, it is unreasonable to expect those who DO have more experience in the field, that you by admission do not, to ignore the lemons, as it would be more difficult for them, as specialised viewers.

A drama is a drama, and with it comes a fundamental understanding that it is, of course, fiction, and at the same time it comes with an internal reality, the reality of the story.
But the more specialised the content matter of a story, the more work it takes to master this internal reality.
As a specialised field, Mountaineering, and any of its related subjects, comes with certain *external* realities.
And it is far more satisfying to watch, when these certain realities are acknowledged and respected by the text.

A specialised viewer, one who knows more about the subject, then, is going to be able to notice these inaccuracies to a greater extent than average, and would be more easily pulled out of the narrative.

The same goes for any other specialised field: history, medicine or other specialised sciences, martial arts and other sports, costume and language, and even on a metatextual level, writing and directing themselves.

Mountaineering is not exactly the same the world over, no; there are no mountain lions in NZ, but neither do the Rockies have a temperate oceanic climate. Nonetheless, a lot of the basics do stay the same, especially when it comes to survival. And people die because of lemons everywhere just the same, on Jirisan, and on my mountains, in the movies, but also definitely, very really, in real life.
For those with more direct experience with, or connection to, the freak accidents of the outdoors, it would undoubtedly be a lot harder to ignore drama “unprofessionalism” for the sake of drama alone.

And on top of that, maybe it's less about the director personally, and more about the care of the craft; realism, internal and external, that is more satisfying in storytelling when acknowledged, and respect of the field one is writing about, which ultimately also shows a care for your story and its art, as well as its subject matter.

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What's upsetting to me the most, is when these kids with no prior experience watch these shows, get inspired to "try nature", and get in trouble while hiking because they are not sufficiently prepared or educated or they've seen too much nonsense and buy into it. The number one reason why hikers need rescue is wandering off the hike. Most of them are run-of-the-mill day hikers, who get lost mere miles from the trail. They don't have or know how to read maps or didn't consult beforehand, relying on cell-phones to provide info. One wilderness instructor told me that it's harder to teach younger adults to find their way because they are so reliant on GPS these days, that they have minimum understanding of east, west, how to behave in the situation when you are lost (have you ever been lost in the city these days with Google maps?), etc. How can we even expect them to know how to behave in terrible weather? And we show them...this.

I actually enjoy the story of Jirisan. Love reading all the theories about this and that. I am not suggesting that people make their hiking decisions based on k-drama or TV show. I just get upset when any form of public entertainment suggests (perhaps unintentionally) something idiotic in the name of "dramatics", that can put people's lives at risk, that there are some type of heroics to survive in the wilderness. Just understanding the basics (map, leave plan with friends, pack a puffer and filtration system, if lost, know the weather conditions, etc, etc.) might help save someone's lives, not relying on SAR "stunts".

Again this is just the small pet-peeve of mine, and I'm forgiving it every minute I watch this series for the sake of the story. But I'm def not enthused seeing this whole SAR mess unravel before my eyes.

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Perhaps then, by this same logic, it is unreasonable to expect those who DO have more experience in the field, that you by admission do not, to ignore the lemons, as it would be more difficult for them, as specialised viewers.

I don’t say it is “unreasonable”, but I would rather say (sorry to be frank, @sicarius): 1. I question you are credible to represent those “do have more experience”, and 2. Even you are, seems you don’t know how a story is being written.

You are right, @bomibeans, no one can (and no one should) say they know hiking and outdoor rescue just by watching a K-drama, just like you can't claim you know how to operate a brain surgery just by watching Chae Songhwa doing one in Hospital Playlist, no matter how realistic the surgery is being shown. Jirisan is just a piece of entertainment, not an outdoor rescue documentary. We certainly hope that they can do it as realistic as possible. However, those who have some basic knowledge about writing story knows, you always cannot make it too realistic, because too realistic means too much detail, then the story will be way too boring by showing those unrelated detail (Similarly, I am pretty sure those rocks can’t fall that easily and if they do, that ranger hit by those rocks probably dead. None of those happened because there is something called “dramatics” and “conflict”). Jirisan, after all, is not even a story about outdoor rescue (If you watched all the way to Episode 4, you know it is a story of murder mystery with supernatural elements). I am not saying what they show in Episode 1 is perfect (I did say that tonnes of times, I am aware of the exaggeration of the rescue as well the problem of the CG). However, as long as the drama is entertaining, and the message is out, I am okay with all these.

By the way, certainly I did know how to read maps (We used maps from every professional hikers and even military when we were in Hongkong), but I still don't think I am credible to comment on hiking or the rescue in this drama (see, I used past tense in my sentence), because, as I said, it was long ago, just like when I was a boy scout instructor, I even have First Aid license, but we all know that license need to update every 3 years (1 years for professional first aid workers, like those work on ambulance), so I can't say I know First Aid now.

If you want to, @sicarius, try a documentary about outdoor rescue in Discovery Channel, and Jirisan is obviously not your cup of tea. Even such documentary exists, do you think you will know everything about outdoor rescue (You said that yourself: "I am the least outdoorsy of my family" under Comment #5 of Episode 1, yet you comment about the professionalism of the rescue of this drama. Certainly, I believe you have every right to comment, but I guess you also realize as long as your comment is out in the open, we have every right to criticize your opinion, right?). No...

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... If you want to, @sicarius, try a documentary about outdoor rescue in Discovery Channel, and Jirisan is obviously not your cup of tea. Even such documentary exists, do you think you will know everything about outdoor rescue (You said that yourself: "I am the least outdoorsy of my family" under Comment #5 of Episode 1, yet you comment about the professionalism of the rescue of this drama. Certainly, I believe you have every right to comment, but I guess you also realize as long as your comment is out in the open, we have every right to criticize your opinion, right?). No one can say one knows the trade until one doing that oneself, let alone just hear those things from a sibling. If I am saying I can investigate a plane crash after I watched almost every episode of Air Crash Investigation/MayDay, which I actually did, don’t you think it is ridiculous?

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I hope you'll take my poking about with all the well-meaning that comes with it, but surely we are allowed both to have eyes that will notice the rangers professionalism and eyes that do not? You are most certainly entitled to not mind these lemons and to appreciate the good you see in the drama to the fullest - and more power to you, for that! :)

But in the same manner, just as you are entitled to not mind these things, others will have eyes that will pick up on these lemons, and care about them - because they are there, and because - professional background in the field or no, their eyes will notice because of the background that they DO have.

It's quite like why I, despite not being a professional chef, but having experience in the culinary field, will still giggle seeing someone in a movie poke at an unassuming boule and call it "kneading". It's not that I don't want to appreciate the movie and it's not that I'm looking for faults to point out - but I do notice them, and it does affect the way I see the piece.

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(continued)

My understanding is that Sic has a similar perspective when it comes to the field in question. It is not about having special qualifications that let only certain viewers lord their superior opinions over others - but when viewing, there will be unique insight when you do have a background in that topic. As her entire family works in the field, surely she has some of that unique insight!

That's actually one of the reasons I love reaction videos by professionals or enthusiasts, because they notice these little pieces I know that I wouldn't have picked up on, and it enhances my own appreciation for the work that goes into making a cohesive and believable narrative and world.

All this to say, I appreciate your fervent support of a drama you care about, @imperialtitus, and your desire to seek the good in it, and I love the insight that @sicarius brings to the table when she comments. We're all on a quest to find good stories, and on this journey, I say - glasses of lemonade all 'round are in order.

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But Bams, you bring up a boule and you don't hand out freshly baked bread with the lemonade? I want a nice warm slice with raspberry jam to go with my glass of lemonade. Please.

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Oh, you are so right! My mistake - I have some sourdough bubbling away on the counter right now, it'll be along shortly! (Raspberry jam sounds amazing right now, I think I need to go grocery shopping...)

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Thanks to the power of Google, I solved the mystery of why we were talking about sourdough and lemonade in relation to the metal balls from the French game of boule.

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@leetennant All hail Google!

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Okay, on this most "liminal" of nights, I have adjusted my viewing lens to to the supernatural setting.
Hoping that we can all now come to realize that this is not a slice of life for people working in an overused national park. Thanks to @theintrovertbean for 1) watching enough times to keep things sorted and 2) telling us that the spectral thingy had a parka with "Korea National Park Service" written on it.
Hubby and I have enough experience in parks and friends who are rangers to have devised a classification system. Danger Rangers carry guns; Register Rangers sell postcards; Explainer Rangers give talks about flora fauna & rocks (the best); Plunger Rangers, erm ..keep things sanitary and lastly; Anger Rangers who become spectral thingies because they were asked "Where's the restroom?" too many times.

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You are funny, @jossie4cheryl ...

In fact, they released the drama's synopsis and updated characters description after Episode 2 is out, so I guess just by watching this 2 episodes cannot fairly judge the whole thing.

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Yessss. Liminal Space Mountain!

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Maybe my eyes is not that good, or I am a theatre person more than a movie/theatre person.

But honestly, if you are asking a Star Wars fans, they would tell you the best trilogy of the three is the one shot in 1970-80s (Episode 4-6), they even look for the original version, not the one re-mastered, even not that ending of Return of the Jedi with Hayden Christensen was keyed in to replace the original Anakin Skywalker when the Rebel celebrating the defeat of the Empire.

Recently people praise as the best K-drama in CG, no doubt, is Vincenzo, which recreated Italy before green screen in Episode 1. But if you look closely, you can still see those windows in the apartment building Vincenzo walked through as simply flat, even hazy like some computer game graphic.

Certainly I am not watching Who Killed Captain Alex?, but I guess story is always paramount, and as long as the CG contain the story, I am okay with that.

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Talking about "worst CG ever": https://youtu.be/BymeLkZ7GqM

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My favorite are Explainer Ranger, hands down, lol. I've never met Anger Ranger though, everyone has been very professional and helpful for the throng of us, hikers. Deep love for what they do.

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Does a mountaineering drama still count as a mountaineering drama if 50% is CGI? How do these rangers hike and save lives without ever breaking a sweat? There's more sweating in cop dramas than this.

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This drama is trying to be to many things at the same time : action, thriller, fantastic, funny, tragic... But the execution is not goos, so none of them works for me...

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It happened to me as well, but it got better on episodes 3&4.
But episode 2 was a total disaster, specially in directing, imho.

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Does it though? I agree this drama is trying to be every genre in existence. I can even see signs of a slow burn rom-com coming soon. Kim Eunhee dramas used to be smart mostly but this feels like it was inspired by a badly written youth adult adventure novel.

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Despite the criticism (I agree that the CGI on some scenes were awful), I'm actually enjoying the story.

I like the concept of mountains being spiritual places, and I think episode 3 does a good job of establishing Jirisan as a historically spiritual place.

That said, is it just me, or does anyone else also expect zombies to start popping out when things start getting dark and ominous?

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@emilytkn, you<ve probably watched too much Kingdom, haha ...

Jokes aside, glad you enjoy this show (and that show, too). Kim Eun-hee last 2 shows are tend to be genre-bending, in fact, we had an epic-zombie-sageuk (pretty good to watch it again in Halloween weekend), and now we have a possibly a historic-natural-spiritual-love-climate-aware-murder-mystery, and I said "possibly" because we only have 4 episodes, we don't what it is going to lead yet. That's how fun this ride is.

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I`m 100% into this show. I love kim eunhee, but bcs I dont like zombies/horror in general, I didnt watch kingdom and anything related to it. jirisan is my comeback to her in that sense. it gives me good signal vibes, which is one of my all time favorite dramas. I agree that jirisan might have a supernatural element while I would say signal would be more like magic realism to me.

I'm here for this crazy ride and I trust these writer to keep me entertained despite the bad CGI

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Not gonna lie... I'm hoping for more eerie mystical mountain hijinks, a la Blair Witch Project. Loving the secret codes, and visions. (Male characters with empathic abilities always fascinate me) The rescue aspect of the show seems a bit Westernized with the rock music and over the top action. I'm okay with that, too. (I have an older tv, so the CGI looks fine to me lol) I've watched so many dramas with time jumps, so it wasn't too hard to figure out where in time they are; admittedly I was confused with the kid using a 2008 planner. However, I am guilty of using a planner I found in clearance as long as it's the same dates.

I've come to appreciate inanimate objects that develop a personality through cinematography (The tunnel in Tunnel; the train in Train; the bamboo forest in The King... I'm looking at you) which makes them a character in the story. Sometimes they're more interesting than the humans.

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After seeing more bugs in Inspector Koo than in Jirisan I started wondering if one would be more likely to be eaten by black flies or mosquitoes on a mountain.
Wish they had spent more effort on showcasing safety measures. (or add a disclaimer at the start)
Black bear cubs tho :)

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I enjoy Inspector Koo, too. I love both the inspector and the serial killer. My only problem is, they make my weekend very busy ...

See you soon!

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I didn’t read anything about this show before it started beyond the casts so the eerie or creepy or whatchumacallit caught me a little off guard xD

Still gonna continue watching though no idea how long I’ll last.

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