Welcome to my Saturday blog post where I give thoughts on dramas I’m watching, whether at the beginning, middle, or end. Whatever I want, because I’m petty that way.
This week I recapped episode 6 of timey-wimey-thriller BL(?) 4Minutes, which lays out everything that happened before the show started. The entire backstory. You get to see all of it.
I also recapped episodes 7-8 of Jack and Joker. I was ready to give up on Jack but eventually realized it wasn’t his fault, the poor guy has noble idiocy baked into his character. Jack, you are forgiven.
What did I watch this week? A show and a movie with similarities that made me think about their differences.
I watched:
What Comes After Love – 사랑 후에 오는 것들 – 2024
Recently aired Korean Melodrama with 6 episodes.
While in Japan, an ambitious young Korean woman and an ambitious young Japanese man fall in love, but their relationship doesn’t last. It takes 5 years and 6 episodes to sort things out.
Unlike the recent cross-cultural romance Eye Love You, this show is a Korean production with a serious, intense tone that is more common to that country’s dramas. The most similar Japanese drama I can think of is Silent, which has more in common than just tone.
Unfortunately for me, I didn’t like it as much as Silent. The acting was great, the writing strong, and the dissection of a relationship and angst of the characters navigating it felt very real.
But it had two things that drove me nuts
A very self-serious tone and whisper-talking for dramatic effect.
While there were some light happy times, there were a lot, lot, of voiceovers about fate, destiny, and everlasting love. They stared moodily at each other or into the distance while the other characters pretended this was all perfectly normal.
I love overly serious arthouse films so this is familiar territory, but to me, this didn’t always suit the scenes. There were plenty of standard romance tropes to be found here, handled with the same gravity as a movie about systematic inequality and suffering. The poor characters couldn’t even have a drunk date playing UFO catchers without the show making it Deep and Profound.
There was also a lot, lot, of our leads speaking about their deepest emotions while talking under their breath. Some shows shoot everything in darkness to prove that their theme is dark. This show had the characters speak in soft, deep voices to prove their conversation was deep.
I can’t help but think of my hard-of-hearing self in a relationship with either of them. I imagine them also being people who, even after explaining that you are hard of hearing, won’t raise their voices. I’d go out for a fun coffee date, stare blankly while they mumbled at me for 10 minutes, and have no idea I just got dumped.
With that off my chest, let’s get to the interesting stuff
I expected this show to be more about the present, like Silent. But while these characters had gone about the business of their lives since breaking up, they had never moved on from the relationship. Even if they told themselves they had. They needed to look backward, hard, before they could move forward again.
This leads me to an interesting part of the story I didn’t think about until I watched the movie reviewed below. These two have communication issues but they do not have language issues. Our female lead speaks fluent Japanese (better than our male lead in Eye Love You). People can tell she’s not a native speaker, but there are no translation issues. The communication issues between them, on some level, could occur between any two people speaking the same language.
But her being Korean and him being Japanese is a big part of their relationship (more so than it was in Eye Love You). She can communicate admirably but she’s still living in a new country, and not sure of what customs are the same or different, with a boyfriend who is sometimes oblivious. What happens between them is, in large part, caused by them being from two different cultures.
Other positives about the show
There’s not a lot of plot here, the show is a mood piece about feelings and relationships. It does this very well. There are no villains either, both our leads are likable, kind, smart, attractive people. But it takes more than that to make a relationship work and the slow way things broke down was painfully real.
There are also great melodramatic moments. When he comes to Korea 5 years after they part, she unexpectedly becomes his translator. She’s forced to translate personal questions and their answers, some of which were about her, to people ignorant of their relationship. It makes for delicious angst.
There’s a good chance you’ll like this show more than me
If you like deep emotional angst, don’t mind whisper talking, and want to go through the ups and downs of a relationship, I say give this one a try. Look past the stuff that bothered me and let this show give you feels.
Marahuyo Project looked lonely as the sole Filipino review on my website, so I rewatched a Filipino movie I’d enjoyed. More than that, it has a Deaf character. I rewatched:
Isa Pa with Feelings – 2019
A down-on-her-luck young woman makes an unexpected connection with her Deaf neighbor and tentatively starts a relationship.
Unlike the drama reviewed above, this movie is a lot about speaking two different languages and, to some extent, being from two different cultures. That’s the thing about being Deaf and hard of hearing that I feel like hearing people often don’t understand: You’re born into a country where you can’t speak the language the way everyone else does. This makes you an outsider.
And I love it when that doesn’t stop two people from falling in love.
There’s not a whole lot of plot here either
Our female lead starts like a Korean drama female lead, beaten down by life despite her upbeat attitude and best efforts. Her Deaf neighbor sees her struggling and wants to help. The language difference is a barrier but one they get around as she learns sign language and they text and communicate in other ways.
They get closer and share each other’s lives and worlds, but this closeness triggers insecurities in him. These two people have to get past their anxieties and vulnerabilities if they want to be together.
That’s it. If you want more plot, this isn’t for you.
Also, if you are looking for a movie that goes deep into Deaf culture, this isn’t it either. We see the struggles the male lead goes through being deaf, but there isn’t anything more to it.
Why I love this movie
I love that he’s short. A short romantic male lead in a heterosexual romance is maybe the rarest kind of animal.
I love that they learn to dance together. It’s a common romance trope that I will never tire of, and it has a unique meaning since he can’t hear the music.
I love that they both take turns claiming to be fine when they aren’t. It’s a frustrating but real communication issue.
I love the meaning of the title. I’m not telling, just watch the movie.
And I love that it’s full of feelings but relatively low angst. It’s just a sweet, simple romance.
For those reasons, I recommend you give it a try.
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