Jeong Hoon leaves behind a clue for Hyun Jun, who informs the president of the existence of IRIS. Mi Jeong develops a romantic relationship with Vick. Sang Hyun finds out Baek San is also corrupt and works with Seung Hee to find Hyun Jun while the terrorists scout out a location for the nuclear bomb.
I finally noticed some product placement in this episode. The phone Hyun Jun uses is the Korean brand LG and the screen, though tiny by today’s standards, looks larger than the average phone 4 years ago. Additionally, the car Hyun Jun receives from Jeong Hoon is a Kia, also a Korean brand which has a fingerprint reader and a push-to-start button. I believe these were shown to display the advanced technology that Korean brands innovate. In the chase scene, I spotted how the director purposely included shots that showed the car glinting in the light and looking modern while advertising that this is a speedy car and is worthy of being used by the president’s security team. The car Jung In drives is a Kia too, sporting a flawless silver finish and giving viewers a picture of how it can not only be used for professional settings, but also for one’s everyday life.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of “face” among east Asian, is similar to the concept of Reputation in the Western culture. Moreover, East Asians show more concern for maintaining ‘face’, from many conducted psychological experiments show. Face is the amount of social value others give one’s if one live up to the standards associated with ones’ position. Due to face being more easily lost than it is gained so it is crucial to attend to potential shortcomings, which means east Asians show more concern for maintaining “face”, which is attached to one’s position. From my understanding, the reason why east Asian cares about the conceptual of “face” much more than westerners, is due to the objective self-awareness. We, as east Asian, are aware of being evaluated by the standards of others, experience ourselves as an object – a “me”, in contrast of a subject – an “I”. The self-criticism of East Asians usually allows for self-improvement by directing attention to those areas where there is the most room for improvement. In the terms of self-evaluations, east Asian more often depends on or influenced more by what others think of them.
ReplyDeleteVic
ReplyDeleteFor once, I wasn’t entirely moved with Vic’s appearance this episode. Crazy? I know, it’s TOP, how can you not? There was something unsettling I felt with his relationship with Mi Jeong. In terms of the couple scenes displayed in Korean dramas, I felt that the clichés were not used for the relationship between Vic and Mi Jeong. It might be because they’re not the main couple (or maybe because Vic might be using her), but I still think that even the minimal could have been done for them. We never saw how they met up again and exchanged numbers after Vic saved Mi Jeong at the club. The seen in which Vic confronts Mi Jeong while she practices her songs at a bar was practically an unspoken encounter. And when Vic asks Mi Jeong to come out and meet him, he just suddenly and forcefully kisses her instead of answering her questions. Much like the last scene, there relationship appears forced and lacks emotion and passion. I think IRIS could have made a soundtrack dedicated to this couple and play it whenever they were together. It would honestly elevate their scenes significantly, but we don’t even get that.. I want to love this couple, but IRIS isn’t exactly selling it to me by putting in the effort to make it appear real, which makes it quite hard to see their relationship “bloom” on screen.
In this episode, I found it interesting when Baek San and his wife were speaking in different speaking forms. His wife was speaking to him in the formal form of speech while Baek San was speaking informal. Like what we learned in class this past Thursday, I was wondering why this was the case since they are married and I would've thought that they would both drop their "politeness" but I am suspecting it's because Baek San is older and prefers to be at a higher sense than his wife. With the use of formal speech, it is often when you use that to someone who is older or at a higher rank than yourself, so I think that the director used this to reinforce that Baek San is a person with high authority.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that this episode included a lot of popular tourist sites in Seoul, possibly as a way of promoting tourism. As discussed in the beginning of this course, many Korean drama viewers have a tendency to want to visit the sites those dramas were filmed at. IRIS took advantage of that to promote Seoul in this episode. While the North Korean team was looking around the center of Seoul for a place to detonate the nuclear bomb, there was an emphasis on sites such as Gwanghwamun, the King Sejong statue, and (what looked like) the Namsan tower. There were multiple scenes of the North Korean agents walking around the streets of Seoul just nodding at each other, while the camera pans out on these sites. In my opinion, these scenes were unnecessary unless used as a way of promoting Seoul.
ReplyDeleteIn this episode, I am so proud of the NSS agents for finally realizing that Baek San and Sa Woo are suspicious. It took them long enough because all of Sa Woo's actions have been fairly suspicious. When Sang Hyun started doubting Sa Woo in the previous episode, he made the wrong decision by telling Baek San, but I guess most people wouldn't suspect their senior. In this episode, he finally realized that Baek San and Sa Woo could be on the same side after interacting with Baek San about the house full of dead people (from the assault of Yoo). When Sang Hyun was about to to transfer the case to someone else based on Baek San's orders, Hyun Kyu stops hims and says that the dead body he is examining matches the skull comparison he did for Sa Woo prior to the assault. This proved their suspicion against Baek San and Sa Woo, and they start to warn the rest of the agents. This shows that it takes a lot of evidence in order to prove their superiors are wrong, and that it's hard to even be suspicious of them in the first place because of how their hierarchical system works. There aren't a lot of discussion between leaders and their agents to reach mutual ground, but a lot more of giving orders and obeying in Korea.
ReplyDeleteI think Brian brought up an interesting point of Baek and his wife still speaking in a polite manner rather than dropping the honorifics system which are often found in married or dating couples. However, it is also very common for the couples to continue using the honorifics in their language for many reasons. Reasons such as to be polite, the age difference between the two, the nature of the spouse's occupation, etc. Therefore, it could be explained that having a husband like Baek who has a leading role in his occupation may lead the wife to use an honorific system, or he may be just that much older than his wife.
ReplyDeleteThe thing I wanted to point out in this episode was the peculiar product placement/advertisement. Before I point out an example from this episode, I'd like to discuss the fact that korean dramas are notorious for advertising products whether they are officially sponsored by the brands or not. I believe someone in the past discussions mentioned the fact that every car in the scenes are KIA cars even though their brand is covered, as well as the phone their using are of the same company (I believe LG? but someone can correct me). However, the thing that caught my attention the most was the fact that Baek San, the head of NSS and a IRIS member was wearing a chrome hearts sunglasses. Like what? Chrome Hearts sunglasses which totally has no correlation to Baek as a character. It's hilarious because Big Bang fan's will understand that YG and Big Bang especially are avid lovers of the brand, and clearly had an influence on bringing the brand into the drama as we can see multiple chrome hearts items showing up subtly throughout the drama. It was seen on Vick multiple times, and now on Baek. Dramas in Korea are definitely one of the biggest channels of product advertisement that works extremely well.
I agree with Rachel as corruption in the NSS is a reoccurring theme for this episode. The NSS agents finally realize the suspiciousness of Sa-woo and Baek San as they try to do things without consulting these two corrupt personnel. This is a difficult task as Baek San is the Director of the NSS and is the team’s boss. Going against their superior is a tough thing to do due to Korea’s hierarchal system. Korean are always taught to repect their superiors and to listen to their orders. Sang-hyun would plan meetings with Seung-hee outside of the office to plan a mission to find the terrorists. During this mission, Sa-woo interrupt the communication between Sang-hyun and Seung-hee and Sang-hyun plays it off as if he was talking to someone else. He also denies having any contact with Seung-hee in hopes to cover up this secret operation. Other members of the NSS who are not part of Iris are also in on this operation and do not disclose any information to Sa-woo and Baek San, even when asked. Despite not know much detail about Iris and their involvement with the nuclear crisis, Sang-hyun and his team has done well to combat this internal corruption by identifying the corrupted members of the NSS.
ReplyDeleteMelissa, sharp eyes, good job, esp. the description of HOW the products were shown (glinting light, etc.).
ReplyDeleteShengjie, in general I would be hesitant to say "East Asians this" and "Western people that" -- it reduces the complexity of human existence. However, you are making an astute point, I think you just need to work more on how to word it in a way that leaves room for diversity of culture in East Asia, and diversity of responses to culture by individuals in East Asia. Something like, "Scholar XYZ has asserted..." easily lets you off the hook, and lets you sound like you're doing the reading/doing additional reading for your own purposes. Or, criticism in East Asia may be perceived differently because of different concepts of the individual as a member of society. For example, it is common to... " just by adding "common" you've already allowed that there are others who think / do differently. "We, as East Asians, are generally aware...." you see what I mean?
Karen. seen/scene. And do you think he can act? If TOP could act maybe they'd be a more convincing couple.
Byeonghan, it could be to reinforce, but in fact many couples maintain polite language with each other, and that is more common (I think) when they are higher class people and when there is a larger age gap. It's a good observation.
Karisa, not a bad hunch.
Rachel, the giving orders and not discussing could be partially to reduce 'uninteresting' dialogue, or to reinforce the urgency and military discipline, or it could be to set up the things that only happen b/c people don't talk.
Jiyong, nice job bringing both Melissa and Byeonghan's comments to a more elevated level. And great eye to catch the brand of glasses.
Donny, the point on hierarchy that you've got here would be good, but you're not taking it far enough or deep enough.