Hmmm…..

It’s accurate to say that ‘Hmm’ does appear on my mind a few times as I watched this episode, as well as Episode 9.

Here’s a quick recap on what happened:

After a romantic kiss in the rain, the couple returns to Gi Bbeum’s home for a hilarious episode of being seen through by her family for having kissed. Ma Sung stays for the night and Gi Bbeum is determined to protect him from now on. The day after, Ki Joon learns that Ma Sung spent a night at Gi Bbeum’s house and throws a tantrum. Meanwhile, Ma Sung’s brain shows further deterioration and signs that he will ultimately lose long-term memory.

Ma Sung’s aunt is anxious about what Ma Sung remembers of his accident and interrogates Secretary Yang who, to the pride and joy of the viewers, stays loyal to Ma Sung. Ha Im is secretly upset that the crew was willing in the past to fool around and be friends with Gi Bbeum, but not her.

Gi Bbeum is so upset about having caused Ma Sung’s accident that she gets drunk with Nan Joo and turns up at Ma Sung’s house with a gift and a drunken demeanour of a ‘top star’.

I know it’s supposed to be cute, watching Gi Bbeum demanding for water, and asking to be escorted like a top star, but there’s something about Song Ha Yoon’s tossing of her neck around and whining that is uncomfortable to watch. In that moment, I’ve got the feeling that only Ma Sung thinks she’s cute, not the viewers, and that’s not really something the director should intend to achieve.

Gi Bbeum gives him a hug as fan service and topples out of his house. Ma Sung is delighted to find in the box  a handmade soft toy, a t-shirt and a note which hopes to give him the fate of an elephant which is said to remember people even after being separated for 10 years.

Choi Jin Hyuk shows wonderful acting, with an expression of being sad, torn and yet touched at the same time.

Ha Im continues to find herself interested in Ki Joon and ropes him in for a minor acting role when someone in her show drops out last minute.

When she finds out that the script has changed and included a kissing scene for him (or was the manager just lying about this?), she storms out jealously, and later pecks Ki Joon on the lips as a form of ‘method acting’.

Ma Sung and Gi Bbeum arrange for a movie and dinner date the next day, but Ma Sung gets pushed into a matchmaking session by his aunt. Gi Bbeum also needs to cancel because she has to meet a director for blind casting so it all works out….except the two occassions take place in the same place – the golf course.

The so-called director of Lalaland makes the four girls, including Gi Bbeum, go through diaphragm exercises and picks Gi Bbeum out for her strength. He even instructs her to book a motel for a retreat later. Shady. At the same time, Ma Sung turns TN Corporation’s daughter down by blatantly stating that he’s dating someone else.

Turns out, the so-called director is a scam; he’s the one who destroyed Gi Bbeum just at the start of this drama by uploading the video of her online. Whilst Gi Bbeum hits him in a rage as he goes down on his knees, who sees this but Ma Sung?

The couple gets annoyed at each other – Ma Sung hearing that the ‘director’ wanted Gi Bbeum to book a motel, while Gi Bbeum finds out that Ma Sung was on a matchmaking session.

Ma Sung’s aunt takes out the most cliche trope in K-dramas – deciding to rid the pest Gi Bbeum by bribing her sister with cosmetics, her brother with good customer business, and her father with a limitless credit card. Ugh no doubt this might work in reality, but it’s so boring to watch in a drama.

Gi Bbeum’s father spews a poem about love at Ma Sung’s aunt, who doesn’t recognise a single line. I did like this scene because it shows that while the Joo family is poor, they are rich in emotions and other things. At the same time, what the aunt is striving for is wealth but she will never be able to achieve the same kind of richness in happiness. Gi Bbeum’s dad gives us a semi heart attack by drunkenly approach the ATM, but ends up not drawing any money from the card – all for Gi Bbeum’s noble love.

CEO Kim asks the prosecutor to re-start an investigation into Gi Bbeum’s incident 3 years ago and notes that while there was a witness, the witness will never be able to remember him.

At the same time as he narrates this, Ma Sung crosses the road and suddenly bows over in pain, seeing Kim Bum Soo in his memory of the night 3 years ago, right before he was knocked over.

-the end-

As a pure bully, CEO Kim annoys the heck out of me. The way he wants to trample on Gi Bbeum and squeezes the life out of her, makes me so furious. He’s almost obsessed with her! Villians perform in different ways – the aunt is a normal type of just planning things behind the leads’ back, but villians like CEO Kim frustrate me. And I only hope the drama does give a satisfying ending to such villians.

I’m not sure if this is an unpopular opinion, but the love confession that comes at the end of Episode 9 also kinda rings hollow. I think it would have been better if we were shown more sincere, genuine scenes between the leads, rather than the push and pull that continued for the past 8 episodes. When the little squabbles suddenly culminates in a ‘I love you’,  I honestly went Hmmm, instead of fangirling at all. I get that they fell in love at first sight; I know some viewers don’t buy it, but I was okay with it and I liked the first episode. But in the storyline of 2018, I don’t think I really saw the depth as to this indescribable attraction the leads had for each other.

I’m also not a fan as to how Ma Sung gets his memories back. It seems like rather than using Gi Bbeum as a trigger, the script is going to rely on opportunate flashes of sunrays to provoke his memory. Sure, that might make logical sense and the fact is that meeting Gi Bbeum is probably the key to why these sunrays suddenly work when they didn’t before. But from a drama’s perspective, it surely would have been more climatic or significant if Gi Bbeum is actually tied into Ma Sung’s recovery of memories. As it is, right now Gi Bbeum is left out of that narrative and this isn’t how I envisioned the show to develop initially. It also makes me go hmm once again, when Gi Bbeum says she will protect Ma Sung, because…how?

As for his short-term memory loss, I think the show has dropped any pretence of a lack of continuity and I suppose it is also because he does remember Gi BBeum everyday now. I think that’s quite smart and a good idea, but the script will do the show a service by highlighting that fact to the viewers.

It’s such a pity because I do see potential in the storyline and I am still invested in the show, if only to see how the leads end up destroying Kim. Here’s hoping that the show picks up in its last 6 episodes!

<3thoughtsramble