Padam Padam - episode 2

[dangermousie]

If I was drawn by and in love with episode 1, by the end of episode 2, to say I was obsessed was an understatement. A lot of it is due to Jung Woo Sung - I don't remember the last time I felt such a degree of unthinking, fierce empathy for a drama character. Maybe Lee Byung Hun in IRIS? (Oh, that ended so well. Let's hope this will end better because I may not survive a repeat).

Everything about him gets me - his slightly alien way of looking at things (of course, this is the first time out in a normal world in 16 years), the way he reminds me of one of those giant dogs - friendly but cautious due to past mistreatment (interesting, as Han Ji Min's character shows open affection to animals the way she cannot to humans), the way he buries his anger and desperation and hopelessness under boisterous manner. The way he is with Han Ji Min.

Oh my God, the way he is with Han Ji Min. The chemistry, the writing, the height difference, the chemistry the chemistry the chemistry. Whenever the two of them together, it all sort of kicks into overdrive - I love how their interactions - awkward, uncertain, sometimes friendly and sometimes antagonistic - just ring true. My favorite scene in that ep was when they shared a fire in that abandoned house - the little moments got me: the way he looks at her neck (he hasn't been near a woman in a very long time), the way their hands touch when he peels the potatoes for her, the way she freaks when she realizes he's a former convict, just the awkward way they hold their bodies.

And of course that last scene (forgive me for crappy quality of the caps. As a sign of my insanity, I am now getting a 1.5 gb version so better caps coming).






And of course, the mysteries are really getting me too - why did the DA kill that kid years ago? What is with Kim Bum? Is he really an angel? And why did he pick JWS to help - that brief little unmemory Kim Bum has looking at JWS on the bus, where he is picturing himself sitting by JWS' kid version - what is with that?

Also, am I getting it correctly? The kid who was JWS' friend and who JWS got framed for murdering was Han Ji Min's uncle? (Oh God, I hate HJM's Dad - pathetic, wife-beating freak).

Anyway, this is amazing. Beyond amazing.

If I could, I'd make everyone watch this.

Comments

[timescout.livejournal.com]

I need to watch these two episodes again with subs but that has to wait (like several other dramas).

I just got blown away by the last few episodes of TwDR and I need to finish that one before I take up another one to mess with my emotions. :) I'll be watching something less taxing in the meantime....

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I can watch two intense dramas at the same time but only if one is contemporary and one period. Luckily this is the case here.

[vert-gazon.livejournal.com]

I am obsessed with this drama. I think out of everything airing right now this is my favorite drama for sure.

Also, it's nice that they didn't go the predictable route and make the love interest the sister of the person who framed him or something. This is also such a niche drama that it could go anywhere under revenge/romance/supernatural/etc.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

It's my favorite too.

I wonder how HJM is going to react when she finds out that JWS is the man whose innocence her mother used to champion? Because on one hand, she loves her mother so much so I can see her trusting her judgment (plus if she interacts with JWS for any length of time, she should be able to tell he's incapable of cold-blooded murder of a kid) but on the other, he was the catalyst for her parents' marriage woes and eventual death of her mother. It could go either way. Whatever way that will go, her father is going to go insane (thank God, I loathe the man).

[vert-gazon.livejournal.com]

Yes so much angst potential there. I could see her being torn too and understandably somewhat bitter. Her father is just horrible and I hope they don't turn him into a 'misunderstood' character in the drama because there is NO excuse for his actions towards his wife.

Also, Kim Bum's performance is magnetic and he makes his friendship/antagonistic relationship with the main guy so believable and natural.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I can 'understand' the father in the sense that it's realistic and not insane but that doesn't make him any less of an awful awful person.

She's very prickly so I don't think she'll fall on JWS' neck when she finds out.

Yes, Kim Bum is turning into quite an actor. My hopes when I saw him in East of Eden and was blown away are being realized.

[kilerkki.livejournal.com]

I just started this drama this weekend, and I'm already in love. Fascinated by Kim Bum's character--he works the otherworldly angle SO well at times, like his enigmatic expression at the end of episode 1, and at other times he is such an overgrown kid that I can't help smiling with him. And Han Ji Min's and Jung Woo Sung's characters are so deeply hurt, patching it together so poorly--the scene where Kang Chil's mother refused to acknowledge him broke my heart. And lent a lot of poignancy to the much earlier scene where she'd been jealous of the neighboring ajumma crowing over her son. I love that this drama isn't afraid to show you things, let you wonder, and THEN explain.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Isn't it amazing? I really wonder what KB's connection to JWS is - why he picked him to help, other than the egregiousness of an innocent man being in jail for 16 years. KB is doing such a good job - he really is a guy to watch as he gets older and gets more experience. He's already good, in a few years he's going to be amazing.

Much as it hurt me to watch JWS be rejected, I can kind of get the mother, if she thought he was guilty (but what kind of mother thinks that? I can't see believing that of my kid).

I am so curious as to how this is going to go, especially what are the other two miracles JWS is supposed to get.

[kilerkki.livejournal.com]

I had the sense that the mother wasn't particularly warm to Kang Chil even before he was locked up--didn't gangster friend say in the first episode that even Kang Chil's mom was scared of him? I wonder what made him such an angry kid, that he was known as a thug even before he was framed for killing his friend. SO excited to find out everyone's backstories in this!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

True. I get the sense he was always somewhat of a hoodlum which is why people believed so easily he progressed to murderer.

As to why he was angry? I don't think his Mom is particularly affectionate, they are clearly poor and didn't Kim Bum mention something about an abusive father? Reasons enough.

[kilerkki.livejournal.com]

Interesting roles for mothers in all three of our main characters' lives. Gook Soo's mother loved him, and he desperately loved her--enough to rob a bank in an attempt to save her life. She called him an angel and so he believed he could become so. (Obviously guessing here--I'm still not sure whether he is actually supernatural or not. Love the ambiguity.) Her influence, and even her death, seems to have awakened him to love and light and possibilities, whereas Ji Na's mother's death caused her to withdraw in anger and grief. And Kang Chil, the only one whose mother is still living, has never had her love...

Gook Soo also mentions several times that his father and brothers beat him. That's 3/3 on abusive fathers. 4/4 if we count Kang Chil smacking his maybe-son...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I love your thoughts about parents - I didn't think about it before, but you are right.

I wouldn't count that one smack KC gave the kid because kdramas have that sort of thing all the time (as opposed to slapping or beating) but I don't think he's ready to be any sort of a father. I love the man but (understandably) he has a huge propensity for acting out through violence, which is always a dangerous thing when around a mouthy teenager. (And yet, I cannot ever see him raising a hand to a woman which is an interesting dychotomy).

[kilerkki.livejournal.com]

It seems that the only way KC knows to express himself is through violence, as when he drives GS away--which makes a lot of sense, for a guy who has probably never had tenderness in his life. (Even the woman who bore his maybe-son only spent one night with him, and then left him in the morning. Man.)

We've seen GS trying to restrain him, and failing, and later pointing out that KC stopped himself. But it was because of GS's influence that he could. I'm so looking forward to seeing what effect GS and Ji Na's further influence has on him--one thing I think kdramas do incredibly well is portray very damaged people slowly beginning to heal (see, e.g., Someday, which I can never thank you enough for reccing!) and I'm so excited (and apprehensive) to see how KC and JN begin to rebuild their lives after having suffered so much.

(Because honestly, believing that your father basically caused your beloved mother's death? That would be even worse than being falsely imprisoned for 16 years, for me. That's a lifetime of hell, with no hope of reprieve.)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yay, another Someday fan! Such an underrated drama.

I think what happened to KC is worse than what happened to JN, mainly because I cannot imagine anything worse than being imprisoned for close to 20 years with a bunch of violent psychopaths for a crime you didn't commit. (That bit where he almost got out and was framed - eeeek). But what happened to her is pretty awful too.

I love that if GS is an angel (no idea), it really was KC's choice to stop - but it was that choice through, you are right, actually having a friend who cared, whose voice got through the fog of rage.

I think until GS, the only warmth KC had was from his childhood friend whom he was accused of killing, so yeah.

I have great hopes of JN and KC healing each other - they both need it so desperately. And I love that no matter what, he is always so amused by her - even when he's pissed off, it's a grumpling kind of pissed off, not his usual blinding rage when something deeply hurts him. He just makes me think of a big teddybear around her. (That line when he was saying women's faces and hands are tiny just made me awwwwwwww).

The thing is, she is so shut off, she needs someone with no filters so this will work, I think.

[karened.livejournal.com]

You made me dl it. =D Wasn't even intending to read about this in the first place...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yessss. I promise you won't regret it.

[sisterjune.livejournal.com]

I saw the first episode and it was so weirdly compelling. I was SO glad when it turned out he wasnt starting the drama dead cause that would have put me off the whole thing. I have hope this drama will end on a hopeful if not happy note. also yeeeeees his chemistry with ha ji min. i never saw jung woo sung in anything before but he is electric. also kim bum is soooo pretty. *sigh*

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yay, so glad you like!

JWS mainly does movies. This is only his third drama.

[rectherapyfreak.livejournal.com]

ITS ALL YOUR FAULT!!! I am bugging out waiting for the next 2 episodes!!! I am completely in love with this show!!! I am loving JWS SO much (and the other actors too!!!)

Kim Bum lost his baby face by losing the 25-30 lbs for this show. What a difference! Not that it makes him any less or more cure imo.

I like your discussion on how HJM isn't good at interacting with people but is great with animals. I didn't pick up that until you wrote it. So true!

I get a cute child like sense of innocence from JWS's character I love.

I want to find out more about the relationship between JWS and HJM's mother and uncle.

DO you think the images with the 2 boys swimming is of JWS and the Uncle?

Need. More. Now.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I am not sorry! :P

I love JWS' character's sense of innocence and wonder, despite everything he's been through. I think this is a good catalyst to get HJM to open up because she is so closed off.

Yup, I think uncle and JWS were friends and then for some reason DA murdered uncle and framed JWS.