The North Korean security team take over the NSS in the hope of opening a safe with nuclear technology inside. Hyun Jun tries to find out more about Baek San's file but is confronted by Seung Hee who doesn't recognize him.
I found Seung Hee’s outfit in this episode a little impractical as she’s wearing heels while climbing up a ladder and crawling through the tunnels of NSS. Of course, during her fight scene they miraculously stay on. At least they seem to be a good weapon, I guess. I wonder if her stylist made her wear them for the sake of her keeping up the image of femininity and emphasizing her role as a woman or if wearing other shoes would look weird with her outfit. While she shows skin in a tank top after that fight scene, in contrast Sun Hwa is covered up completely with a mask and leather jacket. The mask is obviously used to hide her identity but it can also represent the mysteriousness of her character. The leather jacket is used to convey a sense of rigidity and toughness. Despite the difference between these two characters’ outfits, the duality is unified with an all-black ensemble, symbolizing professionalism and giving an authentic spy look.
Branding and advertisements are something that we did not see in this episode. As there were many opportunities to show Korean brands, the drama did not want to give free advertisements to these companies when objects were used. South Korean companies produce a wide range of technology which includes electronics and cars. Some Korean electronic brands may include LG and Samsung, and for cars, it may include Hyundai and KIA. When we see cars in this episode, the logo of the brand is either covered with a black or silver wrapping or the logo is removed. On the other hand, when they used the phones to send the picture of the nuclear controls, we see no brands on the phones. This is a common occurrence in movies and dramas all over the world and is called product displacement. The trademark owners of these logos and brand may request a licensing fee, they may be against the placement of its logo, and it can be seen as free advertisements. Due to these reasons, logos are covered up in this drama despite Korea being one of the leading countries in technology development.
This episode makes me wonder whether the entire NSS team is unintelligent. It starts off with Sa Woo and some NSS agents finding burned photographs on the table. They believe that the person in the photographs is the target of the North Korean Team. I don't understand why they wouldn't think of it as a scam, as there were no other traces of the North Korean Team there. Anyways, after the North Korean team enters NSS by blasting everything open, they have to face off the guards. These guards are in no way trained, as all of them get killed right away, without even hurting anyone from the North Korean Team. Shouldn't the guards be the most skilled if they have to watch over the entire NSS? I know they're not for the sake of the drama, as they are just extras, but it should at least be a little more realistic. Fast forward to all the security guards dead, the team enters the control room and holds all of them hostage. The only smart one here is Mi Jung, as she continues to work on protecting the servers, despite having a gun towards her head. After this, Seung Hee enters the building, and finds all the guards dead. She somehow decides that it's a good idea to find out what's going on all by herself, with only a handgun. Obviously nothing happens to the main character, and she is able to contact Sa Woo about them being under attack. She then enters Hyun Kyu's lab and saves him after an intense fight scene with one of the North Korean agents. This scene was so unnecessary because she had a gun in her hand, and could've just killed him and saved herself all the energy and pain. In previous episodes, they made NSS seem like they were superior and advanced, but ended up being so inferior.
It sure is something when Hyun Jun dares to exact his revenge on the entirety of South Korea and not just Baek San. From what we’ve watched already, Hyun Jun is very calculative, so his declaration to Chul Young almost seems it’s just a ploy to get North Korean help for his revenge. He helps them, and uses the time to sneak around and figure out about the USB drive and IRIS. In episode 10, we see this happening as Hyun Jun helps the North Korean team into the NSS headquarters but we don’t see any scenes of him wiping out the NSS security scene… How else are you to test his loyalty if you don’t make him do any dirty work? Don’t worry, guys, for a drama that talks a whole lot about loyalty—to your friends, agency, and country—it still does that theme justice by making Hyun Jun play coy in the background. And now that he knows that Seung Hee is still alive, there is no way he is acting his vengeance on his country now.
While I’m at it, can we just address the amateur-ness of the NSS? Wow, an abandoned factory. Wow, a box full of stuff that looks strategically burned and left there. Wow, you fell for the trap. Wow, no more connection to the headquarters but no one draws the dots about what’s happening. And, no, this is not some audience omniscience. The NSS are actually just plain dumb spies.
This episode gave me a bad impression on South Korean government agencies. It seemed almost childish how easily the North Korean team infiltrated NSS. As South Korea’s national security agency, I would expect NSS to have stricter and smarter security. There also seems to have no emergency protocol for when NSS is under attack. All the agents just fall into a frenzy and was confused about what to do. The agents outside of the NSS building were also at a loss. I feel like it is unusual that the writers will shine a bad light on the South Korean government, which makes me wonder whether this show of incompetence was deliberate or accidental. And if it was deliberate, what purpose does it serve?
This episode got me back into the show a little bit more than the past episodes. I found that the tension building of Hyun Jun and Seung Hee finally meeting was pretty exciting. The fact that they were so close to each other was teasing to the viewer as we were hoping for them to just cross each other's paths. I fully agree with Melissa's point with her wearing heels going up the ladder. I found that the directors are confused with how to portray Seung Hee since even in the past episode she was still grieving over Hyun Jun and was very womanly. However, she had a wild fighting scene in this episode with a man that is arguably double her size. I found the scene really brutal as she was getting knocked around so hard to the point that it was completely unrealistic how she ran to check on the doctor if he's okay when really he should be the one checking her. I am really finding it hard to enjoy the show while all these unrealistic and cringe things are happening but with Hyun Jun and Seung Hee finally meeting up again after the most drawn out plot, I am dying to watch the next episode. With ten more episodes left, I'm really hoping it gets better.
Despite many interesting elements I can address about this episode. Whether it be the awesome actions scenes performed by Choi Seung Hee, or the obvious Korean Drama tactic that keeps the viewers on the edge when Kim Hyun Joon and Choi Seung Hee are almost reunited by an inch for one too many scenes, I'd like to touch on the fact that the president is willing to go to the ends of the world to protect the peace summit from being cancelled. Despite a threat of a terrorist attack, president wants what he wants and we see multiple meetings between delegations from the North and the South with a rather hopeful atmosphere for some sort of a collaboration for peace. However, at the time IRIS was aired, the president at the time was Lee Myung Bak, who took a different approach towards the North than his previous presidents Noh and Kim. In fact, IRIS was the only notable drama that dealt with the subject of North and South and the topic of reunification. Since Lee's presidency, the reunification of North and the South are barely found in dramas, let alone the media. We see negative images of the North repeatedly in movies that deal with confrontation between the peninsula. I say it has a lot to do with the government policies under specific presidents that encourage or discourage the production of materials with topics dealing with North and the South. In the case of IRIS, I believe it is an example of a positive image being promoted through the collaboration of North and the South even though Kim has his own reasons to work with the North. Ultimately, there are elements like love towards Kim Hyun Joon by Sun Hwa that indirectly reinforces this positive relationship between the two sides.
DPRK showed excellent performance in this episode, although their opponent was one of the best trained Korean agency – NSS. In IRIS by far they have never lost to any enemies and were able to easily complete any tasks without being harmed. In fact, North Korea’s special operation forces has been called “among the most highly trained, well-equipped, best fed and highly motivated forces” by CNN and many other media. According to Ash Carter (US Defense Secretary) report, on the border of DPRK and ROK “North Korea has nearly doubled troops and Artillery pieces compared to the south side, even with American troops stationed in ROK, the number is still far from matching”. Especially with North Korean’s long-term nuclear development, the tension on the DMZ is provocative.
Hi IRIS team, I feel like I commented on half these already and somehow my comment was erased... so, I'm just going to write one overall comment: I like how you all are attacking the problems with the drama, and how it's not realistic (or it's asking us to suspend our disbelief). What I'd like MORE is if you did that -and- included some of your knowledge of Korea-- for example, have you guys checked to see if Korean intelligence has been caught in any big scandals? What does it mean that the drama is demonstrating the Korean NSS (which is totally fictional, but even though it's a hidden organization in the beginning of the drama, and is now known, no one ever explains what about Korea's real intelligence agency and why the NSS, after emerging from the shadows, can take such a large role in what should actually be the NIS's area of responsibility) is incompetent. Doesn't that erode Korean trust in institutions designed to keep Korea safe from terrorism? Are Koreans worried about terrorism? What real life events are being inter-textually referenced through the unrealistic plot?
Translation=go deeper. Anyone can say they're acting like idiots.
I found Seung Hee’s outfit in this episode a little impractical as she’s wearing heels while climbing up a ladder and crawling through the tunnels of NSS. Of course, during her fight scene they miraculously stay on. At least they seem to be a good weapon, I guess. I wonder if her stylist made her wear them for the sake of her keeping up the image of femininity and emphasizing her role as a woman or if wearing other shoes would look weird with her outfit. While she shows skin in a tank top after that fight scene, in contrast Sun Hwa is covered up completely with a mask and leather jacket. The mask is obviously used to hide her identity but it can also represent the mysteriousness of her character. The leather jacket is used to convey a sense of rigidity and toughness. Despite the difference between these two characters’ outfits, the duality is unified with an all-black ensemble, symbolizing professionalism and giving an authentic spy look.
ReplyDeleteBranding and advertisements are something that we did not see in this episode. As there were many opportunities to show Korean brands, the drama did not want to give free advertisements to these companies when objects were used. South Korean companies produce a wide range of technology which includes electronics and cars. Some Korean electronic brands may include LG and Samsung, and for cars, it may include Hyundai and KIA. When we see cars in this episode, the logo of the brand is either covered with a black or silver wrapping or the logo is removed. On the other hand, when they used the phones to send the picture of the nuclear controls, we see no brands on the phones. This is a common occurrence in movies and dramas all over the world and is called product displacement. The trademark owners of these logos and brand may request a licensing fee, they may be against the placement of its logo, and it can be seen as free advertisements. Due to these reasons, logos are covered up in this drama despite Korea being one of the leading countries in technology development.
ReplyDeleteThis episode makes me wonder whether the entire NSS team is unintelligent. It starts off with Sa Woo and some NSS agents finding burned photographs on the table. They believe that the person in the photographs is the target of the North Korean Team. I don't understand why they wouldn't think of it as a scam, as there were no other traces of the North Korean Team there. Anyways, after the North Korean team enters NSS by blasting everything open, they have to face off the guards. These guards are in no way trained, as all of them get killed right away, without even hurting anyone from the North Korean Team. Shouldn't the guards be the most skilled if they have to watch over the entire NSS? I know they're not for the sake of the drama, as they are just extras, but it should at least be a little more realistic. Fast forward to all the security guards dead, the team enters the control room and holds all of them hostage. The only smart one here is Mi Jung, as she continues to work on protecting the servers, despite having a gun towards her head. After this, Seung Hee enters the building, and finds all the guards dead. She somehow decides that it's a good idea to find out what's going on all by herself, with only a handgun. Obviously nothing happens to the main character, and she is able to contact Sa Woo about them being under attack. She then enters Hyun Kyu's lab and saves him after an intense fight scene with one of the North Korean agents. This scene was so unnecessary because she had a gun in her hand, and could've just killed him and saved herself all the energy and pain. In previous episodes, they made NSS seem like they were superior and advanced, but ended up being so inferior.
ReplyDeleteRevenge
ReplyDeleteIt sure is something when Hyun Jun dares to exact his revenge on the entirety of South Korea and not just Baek San. From what we’ve watched already, Hyun Jun is very calculative, so his declaration to Chul Young almost seems it’s just a ploy to get North Korean help for his revenge. He helps them, and uses the time to sneak around and figure out about the USB drive and IRIS. In episode 10, we see this happening as Hyun Jun helps the North Korean team into the NSS headquarters but we don’t see any scenes of him wiping out the NSS security scene… How else are you to test his loyalty if you don’t make him do any dirty work? Don’t worry, guys, for a drama that talks a whole lot about loyalty—to your friends, agency, and country—it still does that theme justice by making Hyun Jun play coy in the background. And now that he knows that Seung Hee is still alive, there is no way he is acting his vengeance on his country now.
While I’m at it, can we just address the amateur-ness of the NSS? Wow, an abandoned factory. Wow, a box full of stuff that looks strategically burned and left there. Wow, you fell for the trap. Wow, no more connection to the headquarters but no one draws the dots about what’s happening. And, no, this is not some audience omniscience. The NSS are actually just plain dumb spies.
This episode gave me a bad impression on South Korean government agencies. It seemed almost childish how easily the North Korean team infiltrated NSS. As South Korea’s national security agency, I would expect NSS to have stricter and smarter security. There also seems to have no emergency protocol for when NSS is under attack. All the agents just fall into a frenzy and was confused about what to do. The agents outside of the NSS building were also at a loss. I feel like it is unusual that the writers will shine a bad light on the South Korean government, which makes me wonder whether this show of incompetence was deliberate or accidental. And if it was deliberate, what purpose does it serve?
ReplyDeleteThis episode got me back into the show a little bit more than the past episodes. I found that the tension building of Hyun Jun and Seung Hee finally meeting was pretty exciting. The fact that they were so close to each other was teasing to the viewer as we were hoping for them to just cross each other's paths. I fully agree with Melissa's point with her wearing heels going up the ladder. I found that the directors are confused with how to portray Seung Hee since even in the past episode she was still grieving over Hyun Jun and was very womanly. However, she had a wild fighting scene in this episode with a man that is arguably double her size. I found the scene really brutal as she was getting knocked around so hard to the point that it was completely unrealistic how she ran to check on the doctor if he's okay when really he should be the one checking her. I am really finding it hard to enjoy the show while all these unrealistic and cringe things are happening but with Hyun Jun and Seung Hee finally meeting up again after the most drawn out plot, I am dying to watch the next episode. With ten more episodes left, I'm really hoping it gets better.
ReplyDeleteDespite many interesting elements I can address about this episode. Whether it be the awesome actions scenes performed by Choi Seung Hee, or the obvious Korean Drama tactic that keeps the viewers on the edge when Kim Hyun Joon and Choi Seung Hee are almost reunited by an inch for one too many scenes, I'd like to touch on the fact that the president is willing to go to the ends of the world to protect the peace summit from being cancelled. Despite a threat of a terrorist attack, president wants what he wants and we see multiple meetings between delegations from the North and the South with a rather hopeful atmosphere for some sort of a collaboration for peace. However, at the time IRIS was aired, the president at the time was Lee Myung Bak, who took a different approach towards the North than his previous presidents Noh and Kim. In fact, IRIS was the only notable drama that dealt with the subject of North and South and the topic of reunification. Since Lee's presidency, the reunification of North and the South are barely found in dramas, let alone the media. We see negative images of the North repeatedly in movies that deal with confrontation between the peninsula. I say it has a lot to do with the government policies under specific presidents that encourage or discourage the production of materials with topics dealing with North and the South. In the case of IRIS, I believe it is an example of a positive image being promoted through the collaboration of North and the South even though Kim has his own reasons to work with the North. Ultimately, there are elements like love towards Kim Hyun Joon by Sun Hwa that indirectly reinforces this positive relationship between the two sides.
ReplyDeleteDPRK showed excellent performance in this episode, although their opponent was one of the best trained Korean agency – NSS. In IRIS by far they have never lost to any enemies and were able to easily complete any tasks without being harmed. In fact, North Korea’s special operation forces has been called “among the most highly trained, well-equipped, best fed and highly motivated forces” by CNN and many other media. According to Ash Carter (US Defense Secretary) report, on the border of DPRK and ROK “North Korea has nearly doubled troops and Artillery pieces compared to the south side, even with American troops stationed in ROK, the number is still far from matching”. Especially with North Korean’s long-term nuclear development, the tension on the DMZ is provocative.
ReplyDeleteHi IRIS team, I feel like I commented on half these already and somehow my comment was erased... so, I'm just going to write one overall comment: I like how you all are attacking the problems with the drama, and how it's not realistic (or it's asking us to suspend our disbelief). What I'd like MORE is if you did that -and- included some of your knowledge of Korea-- for example, have you guys checked to see if Korean intelligence has been caught in any big scandals? What does it mean that the drama is demonstrating the Korean NSS (which is totally fictional, but even though it's a hidden organization in the beginning of the drama, and is now known, no one ever explains what about Korea's real intelligence agency and why the NSS, after emerging from the shadows, can take such a large role in what should actually be the NIS's area of responsibility) is incompetent. Doesn't that erode Korean trust in institutions designed to keep Korea safe from terrorism? Are Koreans worried about terrorism? What real life events are being inter-textually referenced through the unrealistic plot?
ReplyDeleteTranslation=go deeper. Anyone can say they're acting like idiots.