Beanie level: Rooftop room dweller

You Are My Hero episode 17: There’s something absurdly persuasive about Lu Feng’s logic when he says, “Aren’t you happier if you gain a billion dollars after losing a billion versus when you just have a billion dollars.” But it’s hard to figure out why this seems even remotely persuasive. You’re in the same position either way!

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    You know, that sidekick rich friend in YAMH – I felt they could have done more with him. For some odd reason, despite his being a jerk, I sort of warmed up to him, and wanted an arc where he became less of a jerk at the end. But we never got that.

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      I like him too. Tbh, I liked Xia with him more than that stiff police guy.

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        Oh yah, and it didn’t help that police guy couldn’t act much either. This chap had more energy and just generally more dynamic! The other OTP I wanted more of was the sister and the doctor. We got the backstory, but I wanted to know what would happen after. Sigh. Anyway, it was a great show despite these small issues.

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@pickleddragon Where are you up to these days? I miss you! 😭😭😭

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    You know Maq, you will meet her often if you just join our Discord. 😁

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      Okay, I cave. How do I join Discord?

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        https://discord.gg/Z6khDFgY

        I’ll be so happy if you join us. We think you’ll like at least a couple of channels there (cooking, for example.)

        *whispers* We are having a competition this Friday and the main ingredient is 🍋.

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        So this was it!!!
        And now we have you!!

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          You see Eaz, I was the one who did it yay!

          And to be clear, I wasn’t instigating the coup; I don’t want Queenie @sicarius to be mad at me, so I’ll make sure I’ll go upvote her comments on Monday ‘cause I’ll be free then.

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    Hey Maq!!!! I’m here. Mmmmm told me about your message. I’ve been generally low-key, nothing much to report. And definitely been off DB for a while.

    (Like M said, I spend (marginally) more time on the Discord beanies group than here. I do feel you’ll like it there, so think about whether you want to join 😉 )

    How have you been? What are you watching these days?? I was complaining the other day that my watchlist is really slim now:
    — Racket Boys (such a delight!),
    — HosPlay2 (doesn’t have the magic of the first season, though, I felt, plus my ship, my ship, sigh), and
    — Beyond Evil (decent crime drama – I love the ‘little town where everyone knows everyone’ vibe) but not the greatest show).

    Have you watched The Day of Becoming You (the cdrama with Steven Zhang in it – he displays fantastic range there, and if you brace yourself – or avoid – the last 10 minutes of the show, it’s a really fun and wonderful drama to watch)?

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      I realized so many brackets in my message are placed wrong – haha – but I guess you’ll be able to decipher what I’m saying anyway.

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      Racket Boys is so warm ahh I’m loving it so much that I get excited when I see love for it on the fan wall.
      The excitement I had for HosPlayS1 has somehow dwindled for s2. Though, I still think the show shines when the friends are together and this week’s patient’s stories really touched me.
      I think I might be in the mood for a crime thriller soon. What do you recommend I watch, Nobody Knows or Beyond Evil?

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        Same re Racket Boys and Hosplay! HP especially seems a little jaded and repetitive and doesn’t have the energy of S1. Maybe it’s deliberate, and it’ll pick up and turn around soon. I’m definitely sticking with it. RB is a show where nothing really happens, and is so predictable, but it’s just so full of joy and happiness, I’m loving it.

        Ooh crime thriller – right up my alley. I have four recs for you, if I may (some may involve darksiding, if you’re okay with that), although you may have watched some already:

        1. kdrama – If I had to pick just one, Nobody Knows over Beyond Evil. Not just as a crime drama, but as a drama, and for a superlative performance by Kim Seo Hyung. It’s among my all time favourite shows. BE hasn’t evoked the same response.

        2. cdrama – The Long Night. Short, 12 eps only. A fine performance by Bai Yu especially, and a little edgy in bits – I was surprised to see a cdrama go there. Ignore the propaganda. For the rest, it’s a great show. I mini-reviewed it here: https://www.dramabeans.com/members/pickleddragon/activity/1184244/

        3. tw-drama – The World Between Us. 10 eps only. This is an outstanding, world-class show, and less of a crime thriller than a drama drama. I think everyone should watch it. I reviewed this too: https://www.dramabeans.com/members/pickleddragon/activity/1221059/

        4. j-drama – MIU 404. This is police procedural but also a cop caper drama, so it’s much lighter fare than the others, but also discusses some serious issues. I loved both the MLs, who had terrific chemistry with each other. Easily one of the best jdramas I have watched (although tbh I haven’t watched much!)

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        And MeloMe, you’re already on discord, right? I don’t see you there, though!

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          Thanks Pickle, I knew I asked the right person :D. Will check these out soon and no, I’m not on discord rn, might join sometime in the future let’s see.

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      DB ate my comment =( I guess I’ll have to write it up again…

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2PM loves picking on Junho. Chansung may technically be the maknae, but Junho is actually the maknae.

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I continue to feel attacked

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    Side note: I don’t think they know how a relay dance works (or they don’t care) 😂😂😂

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I feel attacked

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I want to spazz so much about Winter Garden. However, the way they ended with Jung-wan has me so nervous! Is everything okay with Ik-sun? What has him so worried next episode? I need answers!

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    I love Ik Sun and Jun Wan individually but not together. Idk why, I can’t put my finger on it but that’s how I feel

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      I’ve always been kind of disinterested in their relationship, but I think for me the fact that it’s essentially now all done via Facetime is kind of getting old quick, too.

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        Maybe its because we see things from Jun Wan’s perspective or maybe it’s my internalised misogyny idk, but it kinda seems like Ik Sun isn’t invested in this relationship as much Jun Wan. Like I get that she has had a bad previous relationship which left her scarred but Jun Wan is very invested and he should have his affections reciprocated

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          Hmmm, I know what you’re getting at (and I don’t think it’s misogyny), but I think this has more to do with the way the relationship is being framed by the writer. To put the point differently, I think a plot point is whether their relationship will last and whether Ik-sun will give Jun-wan the kind of long-term commitment (presumably in the form of marriage) that he is hoping for. So I understand why you see it this way and why it might trouble you, but I also think this is intentional and will ultimately get resolved.

          I will say that I think the uncertainty we feel as viewers about their relationship is probably mostly an illusion, just like how this show has so often built up to something bad potentially happening and then suddenly anti-climactically pulling the rug out from under us by showing that this is just a perspectival artefact. It’s happened a few times already (e.g., when the box containing the ring returned unopened).

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            Our point of view is shaped by how Jun Wan sees IJ – and our uncertainties are his uncertainties, I think, as intended by the director. Nicely done, I thought.

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            Yes, this is my point too! =) it’s a perspectival artefact.

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        I like their relationship! I though it was cute in season 1 and I like it in season 2, too.

        As for it being all done on Facetime—aren’t all of our relationships basically conducting these days? Anyway, even pre-pandemic, I feel like this would’ve been par for the course in a long distance relationship. So I don’t find it’s getting old. I just think it’s an accurate reflection of how these types of relationships go.

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          And I’d probably be less bored by the Facetime if I was more interested in the relationship, to be honest. 🙂

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      I’m not invested in any relationship.

      For Jun-Wan and Ik-Sun, it went too fast. First, he didn’t know her name when she was his best friend’s sister, then he operated on her and then they dated when they had nothing in commun in the first place… (except to be doctor). We don’t know why they were attracted to each other.

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        Hmmm, I feel like he was attracted to her because of her quirky personality. I do agree that the relationship moved very fast though. In fact, this is probably a complaint with Winter Garden, too. The development of their relationship is too fast and not well explained (although I find so damn cute anyway).

        I think the reasons why Min-ah likes Seok-hyung are the best explained out of all of the potential romantic lines in this show.

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          I agree. For Winter Garden, the actor didn’t know before the end, like us, so it’s why it didn’t work for me.

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          I so gree with you. I feel like we, as viewers, need to see a relationship develop in order to be invested in them. Without the buildup, everything seems forced

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    It cast a dark shadow on the relationship when ISun has been lying all these times that the best friend in London is a she when it’s now a he. She might be well-intended but it breaks the foundation of trust.

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      I don’t think she was lying. The name is not male/female, and the pronouns Koreans use aren’t either. JW just assumed a female.

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        Yes, agreed. Although I wonder if omitting this important fact would count as deception. On this point, I’m conflicted. On the one hand, saying yes would seem to buy into antiquarian ideas about the relationship between people of the opposite sex; in particular, it would seem to affirm the dumb idea that men and women can’t be friends without the specter of romantic feelings hanging over them. On the other hand, the common sense part of my brain screams that your boyfriend would probably like to know that you’re going to be living with somebody of the opposite sex for months (years?) in a foreign country. I don’t know.

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          We’ll see how the writers handle it! For me personally, I knew a guy growing up with a very similar name, so I just assumed it was a guy and assumed JW assumed a guy also, so this development surprised me a bit. I thought he was just being a cool boyfriend.

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          As much as I am all for men and women being able to be platonic friends, I feel like the ommitance was not good on her part. It’s slightly inconsiderate of her, mainly because they’re in different countries and they only have their trust in each other to go on. Like it was going to come out sooner or later, had she told him in advance, he wouldn’t have been so worried.

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        A commenter on the BoD site called the theme of this episode “Faulty Assumptions.” Ver6 apt, I thought.

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        The ‘she’ part is coming from Netflix subtitle as I recall more than once of ‘she/her’ in describing that friend – but I don’t have the Korean to verify if it is indeed the case.

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          Often, the pronoun/subject is implied in Korean speech; it is not required. The he/she in the subtitles is inserted because it’s awkward in English without it. For example, the scene in season 1 where Song hwa says to Jung won “Let’s get married” has no explicit subject in the original Korean. The literal translation would be “marriage, do”. Th real question is whether the he/she was deliberately made ambiguous by IS or just through normal usage and thoughtlessness.

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            Yes, I think the real question here is if she was being deliberately ambiguous or not. I have been on the receiving end of vague personal pronouns, whereby someone switched languages in a conversation with me from German to English so that he could avoid assigning a gender to a “friend” who, funnily enough, turned out most definitely not to be a friend. But he banked on playing my assumption, and it worked (in the short term). I realize that in Korean its common to drop the subject, so she may not have been deliberately doing it. Honestly, she doesn’t seem like the type. But it can certainly make for an unpleasant discovery.

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            @carlybisek

            A little bit of honesty would prevent a mountain of misunderstandings. I would much prefer honest discussion. Any bets on whether JW straight up asks IS next episode? As she recovers – nah, suffering in silence is more likely! Talk to each other, people.

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Okay, I lied. I don\’t mind Soo-kyung and Seok as well.

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I\’m just sitting here cheering for Hye-sun and Jae-jin, while ignoring the rest of this trainwreck

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    I’d estimate that I FF through a solid 40% of ep 11 yesterday, and the only time I had my eyes and attention 100% on the screen was when Hye-sun and Jae-jin were on. I really enjoyed this drama across the board in the beginning, but now I really don’t know how they’re going to make 5 more episodes engaging.

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      I thought it was really good for maybe the first three episodes, when Dam was a hilarious badass. Although Hyeri’s still doing a decent job with this character (and surprising me like crazy!), the main plotline in this show is super dumb, not to mention boring. It doesn’t help that both Bae In-hyuk and Jang Ki-yong are not very good actors as well as having both been saddled with terrible (terrible) characters.

      The best scenes in this show IMO are the scenes involving Hye-sun and Jae-jin, as well as the scenes where Dam, Soo-kyung, and Jae-jin hang out together. I also don’t mind Soo-kyung’s very minor arc with Seok sunbae. I also like Dan’s interactions with Dam and Seon-woo’s interactions with his sister. Unfortunately, while all of these side plots are engaging, they make up a too small a part of the screen time for me to feel like they genuinely redeem this show.

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        Comment was deleted

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        I think @leetennant summarize JKY best when she described him as a pleasant plank of wood. That really comes through in his performance with this character. He’s truly statuesque—he’s handsome and also utterly devoid of life.

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Kang Han-na is just too good in this role xDD

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The ppl in this show is so unsubtle.
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    I think they’re doing it on purpose. With the lighting and everything—he is shooting a commercial. 😂

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I literally just gawked at Junho the entire video

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Taec, why you do ‘dis to me?

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    And why is Junho wearing a granny’s cardigan and WHY does he look so good in it? What is this sorcery?

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      His legs look so long in this video! And yeah, the granny cardigan is weird, but who cares–he looks so nice in it nevertheless!

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        *watches video 3 times
        *searches for fancam, just to be sure,
        *only finds fancam MV for My House,
        *watches fancam video (another cardigan, lol)
        *goes into mydramalist to add Junho’s dramas to to-watch list
        *
        *
        *
        *I’m a very shallow person
        @Eazal, @Maq, 2PM Beanies in general: you can’t just bomb the wall like this and ruin me. I’ve got things to do, but now I just want to look at Junho making his moves and feeling himself 😂

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          Welcome to the dark side (https://pin.it/3X9Cs7w)!

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          I have stopped counting the times I’ve watched all the MV: official, fancam, the stage… Hands Up, ADTOY…
          I even cried watching Nichkhun fancam in Hold On.
          But Junho… my gosh… everything he does!

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          By the way, here it is his fancam.
          Just in case.
          I’m a good beanie spreading love.
          God bless that granny red cardigan and the way he rolls his sleeves.
          https://youtu.be/3rkFPSZR6Ag

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            10 hours and several rewatches later, I don’t know wether to curse you or to thank you 😂
            I can only state that red is Junho’s colour 🔥

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            @flyingcolours oh, the hard fangirl life. You love me 😈😈😈

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    The minute I watched the video and his part with his deep voice leaning on her against the wall… I was dead… have been in this loop for more than 24 hours! I need a break!!

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      Do you mean 2:27? Because I screamed so loud when I saw Taec do this part! Not only is this a lower voice, but he’s also singing (and doing it pretty well, if you ask me, though I think it might be less that he has good technique and more because his voice has a really nice natural timbre).

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        Exactly that part! And is such a contrast with Jun K. high notes. He’s improved so much. And also Chansung!!
        The song is amazing, the melody, the bridges, the use of brass, piano and guitar… and their voices, they are perfect together.
        I could fangirl for hours!!

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          Yeah, IMO the best singing parts in this song are actually Wooyoung’s!

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        A Gentlemans Game is my favorite album (top to bottom its perfect) and Taec made me think of an interview they did for that album where hes asked to sing a bit of his favorite song from the album and he flatly refuses. The interviewer asks him why he wont sing it and he stares at him, “theres a reason Im a rapper and not a singer” and now I want to smack on the head with a rolled up newspaper: LIES. HEe has a lovely voice.

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          I’m with you that Gentleman’s Game is such a good album. So, so good and probably their most underrated one. In fact one of my favourites songs of them is Perfume, and they haven’t even performed it live ever. But so many good songs from Giv U Class to Uneasy.
          And yes, Taec has improved so, so much. He’s much more than a rapper. Of course he’s not Jun K. (who could compare to him??? Not even Junho!!), but his part is sooooooooooo powerful!!!

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Beanies, Junho with babies is the cutest thing on earth!

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Junho said on Return of Superman that he wants to have a lot of kids! I\’m so tempted to start wildly speculating about how many kids he\’ll have, the ratio of boys to girls, and who the lucky lady will be!

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    He can have 3 boys and 3 girls. Can 6 people form a basketball team? 🧐

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      He could have his children cover 2PM songs, with each child doing one of person’s part.

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    If I weren’t so much younger to him, i would have gladly volunteered

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SO MUCH 2PM STUFF TODAY! I\’m going to explode!

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    I feel you. I’m so tired and it’s way past midnight now but I’m just too excited to try sleeping. I know some fans watched MV diligently to meet their target views. But 해야해 really is so good I keep repeating it. Again, forever grateful for Jang Woo-young. Not to mention their Comeback Shows are also really good. Live singing all the way! And there’s literally no bad songs in this album.

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      I feel the same about the MV. I keep rewatching and liking it even more every time.

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\”Back in 2013, during a public showcase for his movie Secretly, Greatly, he [Kim Soohyun] joked that he’d prefer to get married in his early forties, but still marry a girl 20 years younger than him.\”

🤮🤮🤮

(Source: https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3102009/kim-soo-hyun-its-okay-not-be-okay-fame-wasnt-always)

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    WHY????!!!!!

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      I have no clue. I searched for some good context, but couldn’t find anything that made sense.

      IDK about anybody else, but this makes him seem a bit gross.

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        I was a huge So Ji Sub fan but not anymore. It’s a turn-off when men marry someone 20 yr their junior.

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I\’ve recently been re-watching small bits and pieces of many dramas that I\’ve watched (as is probably clear from my wall). One actor that I have a new appreciation for is Yoon Hyun-min. I think I\’ve said some pretty harsh things about him before, but, honestly, when I watch his stuff objectively, it\’s clear that he\’s a good actor that\’s just got saddled with really bad projects. This is more than I would say of somebody like Cha Eunwoo or (to pick a more current example) Jang Ki-yong. It\’s all the more impressive when you consider that Yoon Hyun-min began his career as a professional baseball player!

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    I agree. He isn’t a bad actor at all. He just needs good projects, ones that allow him to shine

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      As far as reasons for disappointment go, being burden by bad projects is better than being burden by lack of talent!

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    I liked him in MY HOLO LOVE, which was a fun though predictable watch (I actually like the way it dealt with the robot more than ARE YOU HUMAN TOO?).

    If I’m ever in the mood for it, I want to watch TUNNEL.

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      I think Tunnel is the best drama I’ve seen him in. His performance in that was really good too.

      I hated My Holo Love as a drama — it just made no sense to me — but I will admit that I found him super swoony in it.

      Unfortunately, despite several projects in 2020, I thought he didn’t have a single show that I thought was better than mediocre. In the case of Men Are Men, I actively want to get one of those neuralyzer’s from Men in Black and erase my memories of having watched that atrocious show.

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    I really like Yoon Hyun Min so much and have such a hard time sticking with his shows ☹️
    I hope he will have a successful future like Namgoong Min, who took a long time to catch fire 🤞🏼

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    A Witch’s Love, Tunnel, and Cruel City are my favorite drams of him!

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A thought about Hospital Playlist: To what extent do fellow Beanies think Jeong-won\’s decision to stay a layman was really, truly influenced by Gyeo-ul? If it\’s really as significant a factor in his decision as season 1 and episode 2 of season 2 suggest, then I\’m sort of two minds about this. On the one hand, if he and Gyeo-ul work out, then it\’s super cute and also speaks to how important love can be as a guiding force in a person\’s life. But imagine they don\’t work out (of course this is a big ask, since we all know how they\’ll ultimately work out). Wouldn\’t Jeong-won rue his decision to give up on a clerical life in order to pusue a relationship that ultimately didn\’t work out?

Although maybe I\’m reading the significance of Gyeo-ul incorrectly. Obviously, he likes her and wants to be with her. But, view more generally, maybe Gyeo-ul represents a moment it clicked in his mind that he actually did have worldy desires, that he did or could love women more than he would love priesthood, and that, while Gyeo-ul is the person who makes him realize this, the importance comes more from the shift in mindset. On this view, assuming it didn\’t work with Gyeo-ul, maybe he\’d still be open to—or, indeed, actively want—to pursue other romantic relationships. In this way, even if it didn\’t work out with Gyeo-ul, it\’d still be okay, because Gyeo-ul isn\’t some one-off magical unicorn (the one and only person he\’d prefer being with over being a priest) but, instead, somebody who brought about a broader, more general change in his outlook on life.

Wow, I wrote a lot speculating on the motivations of a fictional character 😅😅😅

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    This is super insightful! No need to apologize at all! I agree with you. I really disliked that the first season made it seem like Gyeo-ul was the sole reason he decided to not go through with priesthood and him taking the bible out of his drawer (or was it his rosary?) and a friend noticing its absence was probably my least favorite scene of season 1.

    In the first ep of S2 Jung-won explains that Gyeo-ul isn’t his only reason but is one of the bigger ones. That made me think that his intentions were more along the lines of your thoughts. He had pursued priesthood for almost all his life. To divert from that direction must have taken a lot. He has feelings for Gyeo-ul (i.e. knows she’s an Army, best friends with Min-Ha etc.) but it wasn’t enough to change his decision. But Gyeo-ul confessing may have been that tipping factor that colluded with all the other factors of the hospital, family, his love for his hospital profession, and his love for children, etc.

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      You know, you raise an interesting issue in your first paragraph that rankles me now that I think about it. So far in season 2, we haven’t seen as much of Jeong-won’s faith whereas it was ever-present as a part of his storyline in season 1. I’m curious what his attitude towards Catholicism is now. It would be so lame if the show made Catholicism an insignificant part of his life now, given how important it has been to him for so long.

      One thing I hope they try to do is find ways for him to meaningfully participate in his faith as a layperson. That would ensure consistency and I think it would be an interesting way of developing his character. For so long, he’s thought being a cleric is the best way for him to be faithful. It would be nice for him to realize that he can find just as much religious fulfillment without going whole-hog and becoming a priest. It would also be interesting from a broader sociological standpoint, since my understanding is that laity have, in general, become more important in the Catholic Church in recent decades.

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        I would actually argue that besides him trying to pursue priesthood, S1 also doesn’t delve much into his faith. They joke around with him being nicknamed “Buddha” while being a devout Catholic but we never see him go to mass, pray, confess his sins, even read the bible in S1. The most we get is him making the sign of the cross maybe once during a time he was frustrated and wearing rosaries? So unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that the pursuit of priesthood was only a plot device than an actual character trait 😭. But otherwise, I think he still wears his rosaries (I cant bother checking LOL but I hope he still does!) in S2?

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@eazal https://www.soompi.com/article/1476821wpp/watch-2pms-junho-and-chansung-immediately-bond-with-yoon-sang-hyuns-kids-on-the-return-of-superman

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    Ikr!!! They are just supercute!! Can we take them home?
    The whole episode is only available raw right now.
    Today we will have the album.
    I don’t know if I’ll make it to the end of the day!!!

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      I keep refreshing the episode to see if Eng subs are up! No cigar so far. But it’s fine. I can’t sleep right now anyway.

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    By the way, you’ve changed your avatar!!

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      Hah, you noticed! In honesty, it was bound to happen, to be honest. I love Junho too much! TT_TT

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I must say, having Jun Hyun-moo back on I Live Alone is nice. The show is much more entertaining with him.

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