Hyun Jun, believed to be dead, is actually in a coma and wakes up 6 months later. Seung Hee is devastated by his alleged death. Sun Hwa is sent to Japan to track him down and kill him, but instead develops a civil relationship with him after he spares her life. Later, she is arrested by the NSS and Hyun Jun is seen being tortured in a Japanese prison.
When someone thinks about a country with high beauty standards, South Korea usually comes to mind as one of the answers. Actors and actresses must be physically attractive in order to get fans to watch the drama. This episode focuses a lot of the time on the North Korean agent, Sun-hwa and her interactions with Hyun-jin. Near the beginning of the episode, Sun-hwa is seen in a North Korean prison after a failed mission in Hungary. While working out in the prison and talking to her boss, Cheol-young about the next mission, we see close ups of Sun-hwa. She is wearing full makeup and lipstick in a DPRK prison. In this setting, I believe that she would not have the tools to keep her face in top shape. However, she has the cosmetics on for onscreen purposes. After being left in the snowy mountains of Japan and rolling down the cliff, Sun-hwa finds Hyun-jin in the home of Yuki. She seemed to have recovered from her cuts and again, is in full makeup. It is surprising that she has the time and diligence to do her makeup in order to assassinate someone. The constant application of cosmetics even in lousy times shows the emphasis of beauty in Korean dramas.
ReplyDeletefull points for humor.
Deleteand yes, pretty ridiculous, right?
don't get me started on contemporary beauty standards in most historical dramas.
Foreigners at the club—I mean, in Korean dramas.
ReplyDeleteWhen Min Jung goes to a nightclub in this episode to dance the night away and have some fun, she finds herself in an uncomfortable situation where two foreign men harass and force her to join them. The two men don’t take it very well after she rejects them coldly and forces themselves onto her. All the while, Vic been watching Min Jung since she entered the club and comes to her rescue. He quickly knocks out the two foreign men and coolly walks away from Min Jung without asking for anything in return.
From this episode, we don’t get a positive impression of foreigners based on their actions. They are portrayed as intrusive and aggressive in comparison to Vic who stays cool, calm, and collected throughout the confrontation. In terms of appearance, the two foreign men are not.. attractive (sorry) and are observed to have the same height as Min Jung. When Vic comes in, we see the handsome TOP who is significantly taller than Min Jung. This situation portrays Korean men in a better light than foreign men.
I remember from an ASIA327 lecture talking about a variety show on military service and this foreign soldier is featured with the Korean soldiers. Even when the foreign soldier was a lot more muscular than the Korean soldier, the Korean was still praised in the commentary: he may not be buff, but he looks like Bruce Lee, so it’s better than okay.
I guess, what I am trying to get at: the appearance of foreigners is another tactic that reinforces images of masculinity in Korea…
This comment also doesn’t consider foreign actresses in Korean dramas … So, I actually don’t watch a lot of Korean dramas… so while this may be applied to foreign actors who are just side characters and in the background, I wonder about foreign actors/ actresses who have bigger roles. Let me know : )
This is absolutely true and I'm surprised that your group mates haven't helped answer this question (maybe they do, below in their own comments). Yes, I agree. That's the point. However, what can be amusing is when the foreigner is supposed to be attractive but he/she only is to Korean eyes. It's like all those English teachers in Korea joke, a 6 back home gets treated like a 9 in Korea. For men. For women it's more complicated. Anyway, another problem with casting of foreigners in Korean dramas is that the directors/casting agents will cast any foreigner in any role. They don't see type in a white face (like I can see a haircut/physical comportment/fashion and think Russia/Eastern Europe, or Germany, or France, or whatever). They'll put any white man in a role of an American soldier (Descendants of the Sun's first foreigner-laden scene for example), even if they don't look American or have native sounding English. I'll think of more good examples for you later, as I know this goes with your paper topic.
DeleteIn episode 6, Hyoon joon goes back to Japan again. In some way, I feel like IRIS is promoting the Japanese travel industry. As Saeji mentioned in class, the Korea government spent millions of dollars on promoting their domestic tourism each year. However, Japan is still Korean’s favorite travelling destination and millions of newly wed couples go to japan for their honey moon. In the past few episodes, the story line constantly switches back and forth between Japan and Korea. Hyoon joon and his girlfriend spent their first vacation there too, where he met Yuki for first time. I was surprised to see Yuki appear in the story line again, since she doesn’t seem to be a main character to the story line.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, but we need her for the plot later....
DeleteI think if you investigate why THIS place in Japan and check out how much this drama cost to make, we can figure out why this drama was set in Japan, in this particular part of Japan...
In episode 6, a lot more female stereotypes were brought out again. Mi Jung was constantly wearing miniskirts, which is seen as rebellious or just a phase that all girls go through. She also goes to the nightclub to have fun and release some stress, but she is hit on and gets harassed by two men. This is a constant problem in our society still, as she was harassed even though she rejected them over and over again. If she wasn't rescued by Vic, a lot worse could've happened to her. On the other hand, Sun Hwa, the North Korean agent, was portrayed as a strong, independent, and emotionless female agent throughout the drama. This episode also showed Sun Hwa in a prison cell working out and staying strong, hoping for a chance to go out again. She was then told that Hyun Joon is in Japan, and that it is her last chance to kill him. She could be seen trekking up the mountain in Japan in harsh weather, but she doesn't give up and tries and fight. She fails multiple times, but Hyun Joon didn't kill her, but took care of her instead. She then realizes that Hyun Joon treats her very nicely, and starts falling for him. Her feminine side started showing when she helped out in the kitchen, but it was obvious that she has never done any chores such as grocery shopping. This episode was a very good example of an emotionless agent falling in love and becoming more feminine, while keeping her strong and independent charisma.
ReplyDeleteReally? I found the Seonhwa falls for Hyeonjun thing to be such a horrible plot device I wanted to scream. They undercut her power with that. Why not have her attracted to the *justice* or *honor* or something? Why are women depicted as weaker due to falling for a man (because I think she is, because this plot device essentially says that her love for the DPRK and their brainwashing and manipulation of her for her entire life is weaker than one hot guy), but men get to be the brave hero who rescues women?
DeleteIn the article by Epstein and Green, they pose the question “does South Korea as a whole truly desire reunification with its troubled neighbor, or would it rather relegate it to the status of another country all together” (2016: 138). Despite Baek San communicating to Hyun Jun that his mission would reunify North and South Korea, it appears to be the opposite. Instead, he is solely focused on nuclear development and will go through extreme means to get what he wants, even deceiving the president of South Korea. Through this conspiracy, the corruption that takes place in political organizations is highlighted. Ironically, Hyun Jun’s mission consequently enlarges the division between North and South Korea as the North Korean security detail dedicates themselves to hunting Hyun Jun down to achieve vengeance for his assassination of their leader. This leads viewers to question the reasoning behind Baek San’s actions and whether he genuinely wishes for the reunification of North and South Korea or another possibly ulterior motive.
ReplyDeleteEpstein, Stephen and Christopher G. “Now on My Way to Meet Who? South Korean Television, North Korean Refugees and the Dilemma of representation.” In Korean Screen Cultures: Interrogating Cinema, TV, Music and Online Games, edited by Andrew David Jackson and Colette Balmain, 119–141. New York: Peter Lang, 2016.
Nice. I'm sure by now you've watched further and know Baek San wants the opposite of reunification. So, not an ironic but an intended consequence.
DeleteThis episode put a lot of focus on the relationship between Hyun Joon and Kim Sun Hwa. Their interactions reinforces Hyun Joon as a compassionate yet masculine man. Throughout the drama (so far), Sun Hwa has been trying to kill Hyun Joon. After she fails her mission in Hungary, she was sent to Japan to terminate him. While she searches for him on a snowy mountain, Hyun Joon easily knocks her out. Instead of killing her, he takes her into his home and even makes food for her to keep her alive. Although Hyun Joon warns Sun Hwa that he won’t be so nice if she tries to attack him next time, he still kept her live after her second attempt on taking his life. When Sun Hwa tried to kill Hyun Joon the second time, although she had a gun pointed at the back of his head, he still managed to take her down easily. In this drama, Sun Hwa is portrayed as a strong agent (maybe one of the strongest) from North Korea. Even though Hyun Joon is also portrayed as a strong agent, I still found it odd how Hyun Joon can so easily beat Sun Hwa. Hyun Joon’s ease at combat and compassionate nature can be seen as an attempt to shine a positive light on South Korean males as a whole.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think you've hit the nail on the head. The idea is to -tame- the wild DPRK with the -insert many positive adjectives- powers of the ROK. The conflict between these two shows the conditions on which the ROK will accept the DPRK -- if the DPRK totally submits and gives up and lets the ROK have its way.
DeleteWith every episode that T.O.P comes out, the more I realize that it wasn't his acting skills that got him a somewhat key role in this drama. Still pretty uncertain as to who he works for or why he does what he does, T.O.P's appearances in the scenes are as charismatic as it is short. However, it is commonly accepted fact that T.O.P is a renowned KPOP rapper for the group BIG BANG. Being a member of Big Bang already helped T.O.P make a name for himself as an established pop star, and probably played a pivotal role in landing him a gig at a drama as big as IRIS. We see a substantial increases in dramas with more and more idols and kpop stars who aren't actors primarily. This can be explained by understanding the branding effect mentioned by Dr.Saeji in class. It makes sense that when there is a a positive association with the character outside of the drama such as T.O.P, it is likely that the drama who uses that person will benefit from it as a result. It is hard to believe that T.O.P was chosen to play a role in IRIS for his acting abilities, but rather his charismatic looks on top of his well established fame was enough to land him the role. In a way, I see it as win win situation between IRIS as a drama as well as T.O.P as a star.
ReplyDeleteAll good points, but if he could act even a little bit... since I've watched the whole drama I can tell you positively that he never manages to convince anyone he's an actor who isn't already biased in his favor. TOP's placement is merely a device to get more viewers from the younger demographic and his amount of screen time is probably about or less than Yuki's, so he certainly only gets top billing to convince his fans to tune in.
DeleteIn episode 6, one scene that really stood out to me is the night club scene where Min Jung is rescued by Vic from two foreign guys who were hitting on her. I found this scene really unnecessary to the drama and like Jeff's point about Vic being T.O.P. makes it a very convincing reason why they put this part in. Because T.O.P. is a well know pop star, he comes in and saves Min Jung from the two aggressive foreign guys, making him look like a hero. This scene was most likely targeted for the fans of T.O.P. as this scene had nothing to do with anything so far unless it is foreshadowing something for the future. It was also very interesting that the two foreigners was one caucasian male and an African American. They chose them specifically to be the perpetrators rather than just two South Korean actors so I wondered if it was to not bring any shame to South Koreans but rather shifting the bad to the two most typical foreign looking characters.
ReplyDeleteC'mon, surely you guessed that Vix staged the foreign guys to do that so that he could have a reason to make an impression on Minjeong? And yes, the guys who violate women are OF COURSE foreign.
ReplyDelete