Well, well….well.
I’m actually insanely busy these days, but I just HAD to drop by with some pics and some thoughts about this episode. After all, it kinda marks our turning point in the story. (So, not my usual recap length at all).
I love love this show – the execution is perfect, the pacing on point and the characters are all oozing chemistry with one another. Not just sexual chemistry between our leads, but also acting chemistry amongst all other characters. That’s important because side characters are key to building a world.
Our main couple has amazing emotional and physical chemistry. As I was preparing this recap, I was really taken by how many times Moo Young looks at Jin Kang with love in his eyes.
And this is soo precious especially when we see how callous he is to other girls. (That being said, this show does make me feel sometimes that it’s at its core, a story of how a girl wants to change a bad boy…it works in dramas, but in reality, it’s a bad idea. But of course, if your type is a bad boy, who am I to stop you LOL.)
Moving on, I also liked how we see the couple actually supports each other emotionally – they take turns spilling their emotional guts this episode.
I love, love their hugs. There’s no ounce of space in between them and you can tell it’s a genuine, sincere, tight embrace, because they connect so well they don’t even need words to console the other.
I also really like that Moo Young gave Jin Kang the key to his house, which kinda symbolises for the first time, him giving someone outside access to his locked world.
There’s always something in the air, that doesn’t have to be said, like how Moo Young could just feel by Jin Kang holding his hand that she knew exactly what he was talking about – the feeling of hoping he wasn’t abandoned. And that he didn’t even need to verify; he just straight out asked why she knew.
I also didn’t realise till writing this recap that this episode is like 80% about our main leads. Woots. And finally, we have first, this super pretty shot where Moo Young murmurs, “I want to sleep with you,”
(I feel like I’m reading a racy love novel hahahaha).
Followed by this bed scene which is so beautiful in a dorky way.
And I quite like that whole giggly, dorky idea because Moo Young for sure, is an expert in bed – and we’ve already seen him enticing Seung Ah, so I totally appreciate that this bed scene is shot in a very different light and mood.
Okay at this point, I feel like I’m a commentator on National Geographic, watching a pair of wonderful beings. Let’s move on.
[SPOILER, SPOILER ZONE!]
The thing is – I’ve managed to stay perfectly far away from any form of spoilers even though they are kinda aplenty on Twitter. I also kinda formed my own conclusion based on the mild spoiler I’ve seen, Oh there’s incest, because I thought they were referring to Jin Gook loving his sister. So all along, I guess I’ve been living in blissful ignorance, blinded by the thought that that’s what everyone was talking about when they said incest.
And wow, now I realise I couldn’t be more wrong – but I’m so thankful things turned out the way they did, because I saw the incest by piecing together hints that the show has thrown out (without any hindsight bias), thus creating the true maximum impact. It’s so well-written like a mystery novel, where we learnt that Jin Kang isn’t related to Jin Gook, where it’s said that Moo Young has another sibling, where it turns out that Jin Gook has been bringing Jin Kang to pray to her dead father every year.
I like it that the clues were thrown at us, that Jin Gook confesses to having ACTUALLY killed the guy, at the same time as we see, well, the couple having sex, because wow, that’s uhm one way to make us feel conflicted eh. (Oh if you haven’t gotten it by the way – which also means you shouldn’t be reading this section! – the back story is probably that Jin Gook felt guilty for killing the father so he adopted the daughter aka Jin Kang, who is now sleeping with her brother, Moo Young.)
At the same time however, I feel that the show has left about enough room to wriggle out of this ending point. Honestly at the start, where Moo Young said that he heard Jin Kang’s voice in his dream, I thought they were just childhood friends and that was where the story was heading towards. A usual childhood love story. Ha ha ha. Anyway, I think this route is still possible, although it would take some explaining for Jin Kang’s now-revealed backstory.
It’s also kinda fascinating because incest angles used to be quite a trope in the past K-dramas, where leads agonise over falling in love with a blood-related sibling but it always turns out that someone’s father or mother isn’t who they think blah blah blah so all’s good and no incest. I don’t doubt J-drama’s audacity to touch such materials, but it’s interesting to see a K-drama spin on it in 2018 modern world – and whether, they would go down that road after all.
I’ve recently caught A Simple Favour in the cinemas, and that had a muchhh more immoral tone to it. So this is perhaps why rather than being grossed out by this storyline, I’m just all-round fascinated with this drama, wondering why 1 hour is always up so quickly and eager to see where it will take us. It has already been 10 episodes, but boy, it sure doesn’t feel like 10 episodes have gone by.
<3thoughtsramble
P.S if any of you have watched A Simple Favour, I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on it!
THOUGHTSRAMBLE 
Okay, so. Excuse my language, but this drama has got me fucked up, lol. I binged all of the released episodes yesterday (I have been out of work sick).In Guk’s acting is so on point that I am conflicted every other scene, whether I sympathize or despise him. In negative reviews, I hear that people are saying he is expressionless and horrible at portraying emotions in this drama, but yooooooo he’s playing a psychopath, lol. I feel as if psychopath is more fitting than sociopath. He’s portraying KMY’s character growth PERFECTLY. Anyways, I saw spoilers on viki pertaining to the original Japanese adaptation so I watched the last few episodes of it. AND BOY WAS I NOT PREPARED. Then I came back and watched the last two episodes of this one and could do nothing but hope that they disregard the incest and go down the friendship path. They’ve built up their relationship so well, so appealing that it would be even more so devastating to me than watching the Japanese adaptation’s ending. I ugly cried at their ending, even though I wasn’t invested in their relationship because I hadn’t watched the entire drama. Concluding from the last few episodes of IT, I didn’t care for the lead actor’s acting, it was super bland and too stoic. SIG’s stoic expressions still give off waves of energy and a foreboding feeling, while the Japanese counterpart was just…not believable to me. There is a distinct difference. I’m so invested in KMY and YJK that I don’t know how I will react if they go the same route. I DON’T KNOW HOW TO FEEEEEEEEEEEL. Bookmarking your site for future episodes.
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Seo In Guk really nailed the character of Moo Young in my opinion. Hmm I can see why people said he was expressionless at the front (those characters are always super hard to nail and hard to please 100% of the viewers) but his performance towards the end of the drama was amazing and heartbreaking.
I haven’t watched the Japanese version but I think it’s regarded as one of Kimura Takuya’s most famous works (he’s a super famous actor in Japan/Asia).
Thanks for dropping by!
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I only want to say how can you or anybody else be so Ok with an incest. Like I am reading all kind of comments regarding this theme and is like thats something ok…wtf is happening
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I’m not sure about others but I can explain at least my point of view (and perhaps some others). I don’t think I/we are going omg that’s so cute! romantic! while watching incest – for the J-version, most viewers didn’t know what hit them until the very end (that was the whole point of a twist) so they wouldn’t have known what they were watching when the actual scene was playing. For this K-version, I myself didn’t fully realise what was going on until the end of the episode. For people who already knew the spoiler, I think they are kind of watching with the hopes that this is NOT an incest. I don’t doubt that there are people who would think – ah it’s so beautiful I don’t care it’s incest – but LOL that’s not me, and not a good number of people.
In this regard, I am superficially aware that there’s apparently a lot about incest we don’t know and can be more educated about. But have you read my comment about A Simple Favour? Uhm I’m clearly disturbed by the theme of incest but A Simple Favour has pegged it so high, this drama is nothing in comparison.
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i hope for a twist, please KMY and YJK must not be blood related in this K-version. I hate it!! I want to see how KMY could stand and become a better person through the power of their love
( KMY & YJK ). Happy ending please…
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Oh dear have you watched the finale yet? ><
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Amazing post! I hope you continue to review this incredible show 🙂
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Thanks for reading! ^^ Didn’t manage to keep up to date regularly with this one but did write a finale review,
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Gahhh i wish i had found your blog earlier To have discussions about this drama. Too late, i still love your review and episode 10 is hands down My fav episode for this drama. I love how mooyoung and jin kang confided With Each other and saying all The things They wanted To say without hesitations❤️ And when They Said They wanted To sleep With Each other i was swooningggg but Then i was freaking out because having watched The jversion that They could be siblings as much as i love how sweet The bed bed scene Played out i was still hoping They are not siblings! But thank god They are not. And yes its been almost a month since The drama is over and here i Am still Talking about it😂
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HAHA awww no worries, it’s never too late to drop by with a comment! I’m glad you enjoyed this review. This episode was indeed such a pivotal one and I’m glad I wrote on it, as some form of memory.
With the backdrop of the finale in mind, this episode now feels so bittersweet.
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