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The songs we heard during the recap: Same Sky, Different World by Nam Hye Seung and Park Sang Hee, Like You by So Soo Bin and Kim Soo Hee, and Here I Am Again by Baek Yerin.
How Captain Ri kept vigil by Se-ri until he knew she was in stable condition.
How it would feel to be given a chance to stay in South Korea after growing up in North Korea.
How Se-ri’s stepmom gave Se-ri a gift when she told Se-ri about Captain Ri’s devotion; this convinces Se-ri to go see Captain Ri before he left.
The heartbreaking scene at the border when Captain Ri and Se-ri manage to steal a few moments and say goodbye.
How General Ri went to rescue his men and his wife kept her own virgil at home, with folded pieces of paper that probably contained poison.
The tragic relationship between Seo Dan and Gu Seung Jun. Seo Dan confesses that she likes Gu Seung Jun and then Gu Seung Jun dies.
How Seo Dan and Se-ri are united in their desire to take down Yoon Se-hyeong. Seo Dan helps Se-ri by getting Mr. Cheon to send records and recordings from China to Se-ri.
How Seo Dan and her mother seem at peace with Captain Ri’s actions, and the end of Captain Ri and Se-ri’s engagement.
The NIS chief with the big heart who allowed Captain Ri to visit Se-ri at the hospital and schedule text messages before he went back to North Korea.
How the text messages allow Se-ri to feel like she is spending the seasons with Captain Ri. Both of them try to honor the other by trying to live a good life.
How life goes back to normal after Captain Ri and his men go back to North Korea, but all of our characters are fundamentally changed.
How Se-ri convinces her brother, Yoon Se-jun, to create a foundation that supports students talented in music. These students are given support to study in Switzerland.
After many years of waiting, Se-ri paraglides, lands on a mountaintop, and meets Ri Jeong Hyeok, who has missed her every night and day.
Later, we learn that Captain Ri and Se-ri spend two happy weeks in Switzerland together each year.
The show that we will recap and analyze in Season 9 of K Drama Chat.
References
Time Travelers: North Korean Defectors Resettling in South Korea
Alternate Way Better Ending for Crash Landing On You by GF Miller
Hello Ladies,
ReplyDeleteThis is the listner from Mr Queen days if you actually remember me :)
I have dropped QoT after 6 episodes because I didn't care about side characters and I could see roughly big parts of where the story was heading, and I wasn't thrilled by it. It was a pity, because I LOVED the leads. Whenever they were together it was awsome! But, I concluded that this writer is not for me despite her writing some of the most successful shows.
I couldn't get past E04 of My Love From the Stars despite trying 3 times! I also couldn't get past E02 or 3 of CLOY.
So, I have really missed your podcast.
Anyway, I am reasonably happy with Kingdom. I liked the show, and I think it is really good, but it wouldn't make my top list. It was a nice one time watch. That said, I am very keen to hear your take, because you always add so many interesting facts.
Looking forward to your next podcast, but please try not to spoil shows when you pick your favourites :)
Finally, I just want to highlight a show that I loved watching during these months. I think it will appeal mainly to Sung Hee, because it gives you "My Mister" vibe (Not as good, but it is one of those very slow shows with tons of introspections and heavy themes). The English title is Lost (original: 인간실격) starring: Jeon Do Yeon & Ryu Jun Yeol.
Hello, anonymous! Yes, we remember you! Thank you for coming back to K Drama Chat!
DeleteSo sorry that Crash Landing and Queen of Tears did not appeal to you. I couldn't get past the first four episodes of CLOY at first, but after much urging from my cousin, I came back and I'm glad I did. If you do ever decide to come back, maybe the podcast will give you more context and appreciation for the show. I know that for me, doing all this research and introspection has made me appreciate CLOY even more!
I'm thrilled that your are happy with our choice of Kingdom. We agonized over this choice because it's zombies. We know that zombies are not for everyone, but YOU know that Kingdom is much, much more than zombies. It's a true hero's journey. So yay, thank you for coming back.
Yes, we will list our favorites in our next episode and be very careful not to spoil shows. Thank you for that reminder! Welcome back and thank you!
And thank you for the recommendation for Lost. I will have to check it out and add it to my very long list of shows to watch. I'm watching AList to Playlist and Love Next Door right now. Both are fun, easy to watch shows.
DeleteI'm glad you're coming back to join us for Kingdom!
DeleteI totally understand that not every drama appeals to everyone.
I am probably the only Kdrama fan in the world who hasn't watched Goblin, though I'm giving it another try now and I finally broke past the 4th episode. I couldn't see the appeal of Kim Go Eun's character and the age difference didn't seem natural (though the age difference in the story is actually centuries not 10 or 15 years).
I think we will find lots to talk about in Kingdom, in the historical context, the character arc, the cinematography and the costumes.
Thanks for the recommendation of Lost. I will look into it!
Hi Girls, My name is Ellen Sullivan and I’m a big fan. Contrary to the comment above, I loved CLOY, Queen Of Tears, and Mr. Sunshine, and have listened to all of your reviews for those.
ReplyDeleteI did try the first episode of Kingdom, but I’m not a zombie fan, never have been. Even the first episode was pretty brutal, so I’m not along for this ride. But you’ve reviewed Mr. Queen, which I’ve not watched yet, so while you’re busy with Kingdom, I’ll watch that and follow along with your recaps.
Mr. Sunshine has its brutality too, but it’s rooted in history. Apparently I can take fantasy and brutality, just not together!
Hello Ellen, thanks for writing! I totally understand that zombies can be a hard sell.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you're going to take a look at Mr Queen. It's one of my all time favorite shows and as much as I loved it, it was surprising that Joanna and I found so much more to it when we took a closer look in the podcast. Fortunately, Mr Queen will keep you busy since there are 20 episodes, while Kingdom is relatively short with only 12 episodes between the two seasons.
I noticed that the new movie Harbin, starring Hyun Bin, was just exhibited at the Toronto Film Festival. As you probably know, it depicts real fighters for Korean independence in the same era as Mr. Sunshine. I don’t know when it will be available in the US, but please keep us posted if you learn more info. You guys are so good at this!
DeleteI’m a researcher and technical writer by profession, so I may chime in with interesting facts when I find out about them.
Alas, my prediction for the final episode did not come true…. Truth be told, I may be turning into Sung-hee because even though I’ve watched CLOY I did not remember a lot of this episode. There is another K Drama where the two love interests meet up and I’m pretty sure it is the location where the scene where Captain Ri plays the piano by the lakeside. 1,000 Bonus Points if anyone knows what K Drama that is (I won’t spoil it here).
ReplyDeleteI love that Seo Dan’s mom gives the village ladies the “limited edition” cosmetics with their faces. But isn’t everything in North Korea essentially limited edition!!
Poor Seo Dan! The writers did her dirty! I doubt she is doing any dating, and I wouldn’t want to be the poor guy that ends up on a blind date with her! I also think evil brother and sister and law got off pretty easy considering Seo Dan wanted revenge. I half expected her to turn up in South Korea and kill them (another plot for my fan fiction)!
As many have said, I think the ending is a happy one and pretty realistic – certainly in comparison to the rest of the show! Obviously, one alternative would be to have Captain Ri defect, but I don’t think he could do that because of his family. Not even Captain Ri’s father would be able to cover that up! Maybe someday when his parents have passed, he might finally reunite for good with Se-ri. Also, am I the only one who thought for a second that Se-ri was pregnant in that last scene in Switzerland?!
Ernie is right, that part of Switzerland is absolutely amazing! Although, in fairness, pretty much every area of Switzerland is amazing. I’ll bet they got an influx of Korean tourists following this show.
I have my doubts about how easy it would be to grow edelweiss indoors like that. I think it actually needs cold to grow. But this show has certainly taken far greater liberties! The edelweiss reminded me of the HBO series Band of Brothers where they come across a dead German soldier with edelweiss in his label. Apparently, the sign of a true soldier.
https://screenrant.com/the-real-meaning-behind-band-of-brothers-edelweiss-flower/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mma2nbH1V_E
Thank you two (and Ernie) for this season of CLOY. I’d seen it before, but this gave me a good reason to watch again.
As for next season…. I made it clear that I am an ABZ guy (Anything But Zombies). But I will, of course, watch and listen along.
Thank you for yet another quality season of K Drama Chat!
ReplyDelete