Vick notifies Mr. Black that Dr. Hong has been terminated but didn't have what he was looking for and assumes that the NSS team has taken it. As Sa Woo becomes more envious of Hyun Jun's relationship with Seung Hee, we are brought to the present day where Hyun Jun is given a solo assignment and viewers receive more context about the assassination. It turns out someone has betrayed Hyun Jun and let the North Korean security detail know a planned attack was going to take place. While Hyun Jun is recovering from the injury sustained from his mission, Sa Woo points a gun at him, saying it was an order.
Episode 4: Now I really need a boyfriend/girlfriend to take me Japan...
ReplyDeleteHallyu hits Japan in 2003-2004 when the drama “Winter Sonata” airs for the second time and immediately becomes a success among Japanese women. Winter Sonata changes the image of Korea and affected Korean tourism, Korean-related businesses in Japan, and the sales of Hallyu related products. Suddenly, Japanese people are wanting to buy Korean products and travelling to Korea to visit the sites where the drama was filmed.
Much like the effect seen here with Winter Sonata, IRIS creates a similar effect as the characters are seen travelling to Japan and Hungary and filmed next to iconic buildings and monuments. While the trip to Hungary is more than a 14-hour flight, Japan is 2 hours away. IRIS does a good job in romanticizing the tourist attractions in Akita, Japan in episode 3 as we witnessed the alluring mix gender hot springs, a bar where you can paste your couple-polaroid on a board, references to White Day, and a nice walk in the snow with your lover as you past by the monument of Tatsuko at Lake Tazawa. It is interesting as IRIS only mentions the love story behind Tatsuko and Hachiro-Taro and somehow draws connections to it with Hyun Joon and Seung Hee’s relationship in this episode as a flashback. In doing so, IRIS pretty much seals the deal and especially targets couples within the viewers to visit Akita, Japan so that they may experience the same fantasy that the characters did. Another effect of the flashback is to not let the viewership forget that moment between the Hyun Joon and Seung Hee as unavoidable dangers are ahead.
awesome sauce. (could have been SLIGHTLY more so with a tourism + hallyu lit reference)
DeleteEpisode 4 has many elements symbolized the same perspective of the relationship between N. Korean and S. Korean. At that moment, when Chul young sat down one table away from Hyunn joon in café, hyun joon spotted him immediately, and covered his face. Sun Hwa joins Chul Young right after, and they had a small talk about his early life of surviving during his study period in Moscow. They ate hard black bread, still hoping at the prospect of North and South reunification. As a well-trained soldier with military background, even in the training program, his mind is full of reunification of two countries. This condition is identical to Hyunn joon and Chul young in the café, they are on opposite sides of a table, working for different institution, if it’s not because of the awkward political position and purpose, they wouldn’t have to kill each other. From this point of the view, I believe, that’s also the reason why every year there are so many people from S. Korea that visit Mt. Kumgang National Park in N. Korea. Most Korean citizens still wish to meet their families and relatives from the other side of the border, because, at the end day, they still share the same root.
ReplyDeleteGreat until the very end. B/c 1) Geumgang no longer operates 2) even when it did, you couldn't meet your relatives there on a tour, that was only when reunifications are staged-- which is not every year.
DeleteTarot cards are usually connected with psychics and the practice of cartomancy. This form of fortune telling has been popularized in Europe and is now found worldwide. This practice can either be seen as superstitious activity or an actual reading of ones future. As Hyun-jin and Seung-hee walked the markets of Hungary, they stumbled upon a tarot card stall. Hyun-jin chooses two cards and one is revealed to be that their wheel of fate is in perfect position and that they cannot avoid destiny. Hyun-jin interprets this as that he is destined to be with Seung-hee. As someone who only wants to hear the good things, Hyun-jin refuses to see the second card and leaves. The fortuneteller becomes really concerned after flipping over the second card herself. Later, the same fortuneteller finds Seung-hee to tell her about the bad fortune of the second card. These two scenes show the cultural difference between Koreans and foreign countries like Hungary. Hyun-jin shrugs off the fortune like it is just a joke and something ones does for fun. On the other hand, the locals like the fortuneteller takes the fortune more seriously and shows deep concern when something bad appears. She trusts in her fortune so much that she was willing to find and tell Seung-hee about after a day in order to help them. Cultural difference can influence people’s perception on certain topics. A gag to one culture can be something influential to another.
ReplyDeleteDonavan-- Hyunjun not jin. please. please. Tarot has become quite popular in Korea, the boom started at the same time as this drama.
DeleteThis episode was much of a thriller for me. What disturbed me was how they sent Hyun Jun alone on a mission that seemed suicidal. It looked like they were making him a scapegoat when they refused to send any backup to save him, especially since it was revealed that somebody tipped off the North Korean security team that an assassination would be attempted. Korean dramas are often known as being unrealistic but through this episode, we see Hyun Jun bleeding and gasping almost on the brink of death, showing his vulnerability as a human being and giving attached viewers a feeling of compassion, which leaves us to wonder what will happen in the next episode.
ReplyDeleteokay.., esp. point on vulnerability
DeleteEpisode 4 repeated the scene on Hyun Joon assassinating the North Korean leader Yoon Sung Chul in episode 1, but with more details. Although Hyun Jun has succeeded his assassination, he was unable to make an escape successfully, as he was shot in the process. It is still unknown whether he can make it out alive. A day before the assassination, Hyun Joon was at cafe, with Chul Young and Sa Hwa at a few tables beside his. Hyun Joon then sees a little girl crossing the street in front of an oncoming van, and runs over. After the van passes by, the little girl is on the other side of the street, and Hyun Joon was already far away. This caught the eye of Chul Young, and hes interest in Hyun Joon has officially peaked. On the day of the assassination, with Hyun Joon standing by for the assassination, the little girl is seen again. The target interacts with the little girl, causing Hyun Joon to delay his shot. If he was more ruthless, he would've been able to escape earlier; but he would rather put himself in danger than to harm the innocent. This scene shows that Hyun Joon has not become a monster, despite the missions that he has to do.
ReplyDeleteNice reading of the little girl's role in the drama
DeleteLike Melissa, this episode was a thriller to me, too. In the previous episode, we see the owner of the orphanage that Hyun Joon grew up in call the director to tell him Hyun Joon is inquiring about his past. In this episode, the director seems to want Hyun Joon dead. I’m assuming that is because the director is connected to Hyun Joon’s parents’ death. This alone is already enough suspense to keep me intrigued with this drama. What shocked me the most, though, was not that the director instructed Hyun Joon to step into a suicidal mission and not send him backup, but the fact that he ended up sending Sa Woo to terminate Hyun Joon. The writers emphasized the brotherhood between Hyun Joon and Sa Woo in the previous episodes of this drama, yet in this episode the tables seems to have turned. It puzzles me how brothers that were so close could get to the point where one is pointing a gun at the other’s head. I don’t think that total obedience to the director is enough of a reason for Sa Woo to point a gun at Hyun Joon. Perhaps one of the factors may be the fact that Sa Woo isn’t happy about Hyun Joon and Seung Hee’s close relationship?
ReplyDeletemore analytical next time, please, this type of mostly summary of major events entry is okay sometimes but not every week.
DeleteIn episode 4, there were two moments that reminded me of our topic on religion last class. Hyun Joon and Seung Hee come across a tarot card stall and have it read for them. However, both of them had a different approach. Hyun Joon was more carefree not caring about what the result basing it off whether it was good or not but Seung Hee genuinely didn’t want to have it read if the outcome was bad. This example also came up when they had a flashback scene at the lake in Japan, Seung Hee telling Hyun Joon about an old tale of two people turning into dragons meeting there because of everlasting love making the lake never freeze over. Hyun Joon responds to this by ignoring the love but the fact that they turned into monsters. Hyun Joon and Seung Hee differ in these cases where Seung Hee believes in more things than Hyun Joon does which is very similar to what Korea is like in terms of religion. Korea isn’t close to having one main religion but having less than half the people not believing in religion and the remaining split in between Buddhism and Christian with small percentages of other religions. Just like Hyun Joon and Seung Hee, Korea is made up of people with different beliefs.
ReplyDeleteNice analysis.
DeleteThe theme I like to discuss in episode 4 is nationalism. Particularly the nationalism portrayed by the two NSS agents Kim Hyun Joon and Jin Sa Woo. We know from previous episodes that these two come from a military background who dedicated their time and effort into serving the military for the country. Furthermore, becoming a member of the NSS (national security service) goes to show that these gentlemen are of highest duties to the national interest. Their nationalism grows with each mission, even saving the presidential candidate who then goes on to become the president. All this is reinforced with settings such as the blue house, presidential elections, protecting the interest of the South Korean at all cost. It seems as if the two NSS agents Kim and Jin are willing to do just about anything under the sun to serve their country, or the best interest of the national security. This is shown when Kim goes on a solo mission to kill the supreme leader of North Korea when ordered by his director in NSS. Kim seems to set aside any question or doubts on why he should be carrying out this mission and follows the order which he believes will play a pivotal role in protecting the interest of the South Korean government. At the end of the episode, it seems as if Jin Sa Woo would ultimately place nationalism over his personal feelings when he claims to Kim that he was ordered to eliminate Kim by the NSS. It seems like quite a dedication to the cause, and the interest of the nation over their own. I felt like this episode was just splashing with example of nationalism and I wanted to point that out.
ReplyDeleteNot the Supreme Leader, he's close, but still a follower. Unless I misunderstood.
ReplyDeleteYep, you're right nationalism everywhere.