"Live as if there is a God.
If there is a God, then you will gain eternity.
If there is no God, then you will lose nothing."
Hyun Jun travels back to the orphanage where he grew up, looking for answers about his parents but the priest lies, telling him there is no information. While Sa Woo goes on a solo mission in Hungary, Hyun Jun and Seung Hee enjoy a romantic getaway in Akita, Japan. Hong Seung Ryong is a nuclear scientist from North Korea seeking political asylum. As he attempts to make his escape to South Korea, he is shot by Vick who is looking for the IRIS list.
In episode 3, on their trip, seung hee was demanding candies for white day, and Hyum-joon didn’t prepare for that, soseung hee was upset and refused to talk to him. From it we can learnt that white day is an important and special occasion especially to young couples. White day was originally from Japan, since 1979, March 15, in which set aside a day for men to give (return) gifts, such as white chocolate or other white sweets to women, whom they received chocolates from a month earlier. Not to mention that even though valentine’s day is a western celebration, it’s been highly Asianized as only women’s obligation give chocolates to men in Korea and Japan, in which it symbolizes the liberty of female. Similar to Valentine’s day, white day has been perceived as an adopted Western holiday, this started by some Japanese marketing companies, using this social occasion to dedicate for the reciprocation of Valentine’s day. For marketing purpose and promoting this “western” concept, the holiday was given an English name, stated in Roman letters only. And for contrasting with Valentine’s day (chocolates are commonly in black), all customs are in white, due to this trend, other industrial sectors started promoting different types of items in white to celebrate this special occasion
ReplyDeleteAdding on to Shengjie's comment, we can see the differences between Seung Hee and Hyun Jun in this episode. Although she was previously portrayed as a strong and independent woman, inevitably she is like other girls who expect to be given chocolates during White Day. On the other hand, Hyun Jun doesn't participate in these kinds of activities and described it as childish. I inferred that maybe due to his lonely upbringing in the orphanage, he never grew up as the type of person to do these acts of love. Even at the beginning of the trip, while Seung Hee was admiring the view, Hyun Jun just wanted to take a nap. However, through this episode I believe we begin to see some character development as Seung Hee brings him out of his shell.
DeleteShengjie, nice start to the discussion. What do you think it represents in their relationship? I mean, one month ago we have no info if Seunghee gave Hyeonjun any chocolate. Does she have a right to be demanding? Why is she so touched by the way he gives her the candy?
DeleteMelissa's comment is interesting... but how to do deeper in our analysis of Hyeonjun as a damaged person who may go rogue through this candy episode?
DeleteHyun-jin is characterized as the ideal Korean man who everyone from all nations should like. In this episode, Hyun-jun and Seung-hee sneak off to Japan for a couple getaway. During their visit, they asked a group of schoolgirls for directions to a famous nearby spa. They are given directions by one of the Japanese girls who then tell her friends that Hyun-jun is really handsome. Soon after, they meet the same schoolgirl, Yuki, at the spa as she serves the main characters sake. Hyun-jun puts his hand on Yuki’s cheek, which makes her blush after serving the couple. These scene tries to portray how good looking the main character is and how he is a desirable person. Not only is a girl from his own nation infatuated with Hyun-jin, a foreign, Japanese girl falls for him at first sight. This creates the perception that Korean men like Hyun-jin (Lee Byung-hun) are perfect and they would make the ideal boyfriend or husband. These positive feelings about Korean men can be attributed to the way men are shown in Korean popular culture. In dramas like Iris, the men are often depicted as someone who is very muscular and protective, yet handsome which are really desirable traits. There are many scenes where Hyun-jin has been shirtless with washboard abs. These scenes and his flirtatious personality make both fans and other characters in the drama fall in love with him.
ReplyDeleteDonavan this is a great analysis of why the scene with Yuki was included. In fact, I think you're totally right, this is 'establishing' how attractive Hyeonjun is. So, what does this mean for the drama, and Korean masculinity? Why would they feel a need to work hard to establish this fact? At the time of filming 이병헌 was still in his 30s. Were they worried he looked too old? Were they compensating?
DeleteEpisode 3: The appearance of religious (Christian) motifs.
ReplyDeleteSeveral times throughout the episode, our characters are found at a location that features Christian churches. Based on what I have observed in the episode, the church represents a place of sanctuary or a safe house as Hyun Joon reveals how he grew up in an orphanage and how the NSS sheltered Hong Seung Ryong in the Hungarian church. It represents a place of familiarity as there are churches in South Korea and in Hungary where a follower may feel comfortability in a familiar place but in a foreign country. The Church also represents a community or a family as how Hyun Joon saw the practitioners as a family while he was at the orphanage and saw a father in the priest who took care of him. Lastly, a church may be seen a place of trust like how Hyun Joon trusts the priests to tell him his past (but from a specific phone call this isn’t the case) and how Seung Ryong entrusts his rosary to Hyun Joon for he has nothing to lose. Especially with the last point, the churches emphasize the opposite reality of what is represents: safety isn’t always ensured and family and trust can be broken.
D.E.E.P. awesome comment, Karen.
DeleteIn this episode, I find it interesting that the writers chose Hyun Joon and Seung Hee’s getaway trip to be in Japan. Given the not-ideal relationship between Korea and Japan because of Japan’s rule during the colonial era, I wouldn’t think that Japan is the best option for filming these important scenes. Since this trip’s main focus is to show audiences the couple’s flourishing progress in their relationship (which includes lots of romantic scenes), I expect it to resonate with and have a great impact on audiences. As previously discussed during our lectures, viewers of Korean dramas tend to be interested in going to the filming locations of popular dramas. If that is the case, then the writers of IRIS would be promoting tourism in Japan; especially attracting them with the tourist locations in the scenes. This seems to contradict my impression that Koreans generally have a negative response towards Japan; which leads me to wonder what goal the writers were trying to achieve by portraying Japan in such an appealing light.
ReplyDeleteGreat questions. No spoilers, but it is relevant to the plot that it was Japan. Also, many Koreans (realistically) do travel to Japan b/c it's nearby and a quick trip. Also, 이병헌 is marketed as a 'world star' who performs in Hollywood movies, too. So I think that the need to be in foreign countries (Japan, Hungary) is a reason why Byeongheon (known to speak English, etc.) was cast.
DeleteIn episode 3, during their trip in Japan, Seung Hee received candy from Hyun Joon in a very special and unique way for White Day. The candy was shared in their mouths when they kissed. Back in 2009, this scene was a huge shock for viewers, and even Lee Byung Hun (the actor who played Hyun Joon), mentioned that he couldn't watch that scene himself either. Although it was once a huge shock, it is now remembered as a legendary kiss scene, and becoming one of the top 10 kiss scenes in the Korean drama history. This also started a trend of "food kisses", such as the foam kiss, cotton candy kiss, bread kiss, and much more. Although realistically, none of these kiss scenes would happen in real life. The candy scene can be seen as pretty disgusting and unsanitary. But in dramaland, a kiss is never just a kiss. Many junior actors and actresses, are seen trying to produce a better kiss scene than this candy scene, or at least one that is on a similar level. Kisses in dramas are always fairly unrealistic, but it's the parodies of these kiss scenes that acts as a biggest indicator of how popular the dramas are. Lee Byung Hun has also mentioned that he has seen many parodies of his legendary candy scene, and had a good laugh out of it.
ReplyDeleteGreat! I can tell you really did some mini-research, and this is a great focus. Why are Korean kiss scenes so darn unrealistic?
DeleteIn this episode, I found tourism in Japan a reoccurring theme. They explored specialties there as Hyun Joon and Seung Hee went to a famous hot springs spot (which turned out to be a mixed bath being a Japanese specialty) and had sake (Japanese liquor) at a classic Japanese bar. Adding to what Karisa said about showcasing tourism in Japan within the episode, I believe that this episode was targeting a Japanese audience to watch this drama. This reminds me of the reading we had on Transnationalism and "Pop Nationalism" in Korea by Joo Jeongsuk. The article talks about how Korea has recently achieved pride through Korean media culture such as dramas that populated in other countries. This popularity opened up exchanges of foreign cultures with other Asian and Western countries which was against in the past. These foreign traditions and cultures have been added to Korea and shaped it to the nation that Korea has now. For example, how Koreans celebrate "white day" which was originally from Japan that Shengjie mentioned above. Hyun Joon and Seung Hee mainly being in Japan in this episode, made me feel that they really targeted a Japanese audience. Also because they showed popular locations in Japan, I feel like more Japanese people would end up watching the show and enjoy Korean dramas to another extent. Which in the end will increase tourists from Japan to visit Korea, helping out Korea's economy.
ReplyDeleteGreat points, 병한! I love it! For sure you can interest a Japanese audience more by showing understanding and appreciation for Japan than you can if they are the 'enemy' -- Korean dramas can no longer use Japan this way in the era of Hallyu (when will China stop doing so?). Also, great job bringing in the reading. REMEMBER to do it correctly you want the YEAR of reading (201?) after the author's name, and a bibliography at the end of your entry.
DeleteAdding to Karisa and Brian's points, I believe the writers of episode 3 were intentional when filming Japan as a setting for Kim Hyun Joon and Choi Seung Hee's romantic getaway. It is evident that the sites, the food, the drinks, and spas enjoyed by the couple in those scenes seem all very much desirable and may leave the audience feeling attracted to Japanese culture. I surely felt the need to plan a trip to Japan or at least a trip to the nearest Japanese restaurant to get a fix of its culture. To answer Karisa's question, Brian made a very convincing point that the motive behind such aesthetically pleasing depiction of Japanese culture and the appreciation of it by the two main characters has to attract positive attention by the Japanese viewers. We learned after the madness (positive) of Winter Sonata, what a drama can do to the relationship between Japan and Korea. Korea being the economical benefactor of this relationship, I think this is a classical example of a Korean drama writers capitalizing on the potential of growing IRIS's popularity beyond the Korean audience by also targeting other audiences like the Japanese. With that, I'd like to point out an interesting detail which hasn't been mentioned by Karisa and Brian. We see the introduction of a new character named Yuki who seems to be a female Japanese student in her teenage years. In the scene where we first see Yuki, she gives directions to Choi and Kim who are on their vacation, and instantly falls in love at the site of Kim. By showing Yuki, a Japanese's girls perspective on Kim, a Korean male as being desirable and "handsome" in the words of Yuki, may strongly reinforce a similar effect that Yonsama had on the female Japanese population when Winter Sonata was popular. I'd argue just based on watching this episode, that IRIS's popularity among female viewers in Japan is very predictable and the effect it had on Korean tourism and economy would be similar to that of Winter Sonata. Maybe at a smaller scale, but surely big enough to make it worth for the IRIS writers.
ReplyDeleteSolid points, yet again, for sure. Why always the last to comment?
Deletebecause Brian and I scheduled our sunday nights to be the "IRIS Date Night" followed by our comments hahahaha
Deletethink my group mates are much more diligent and get em done in advance :)
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