Smuggling himself into South Korea, Hyun Jun works with the North Korean security team on a secret project while attempting to decode the file on Dr. Hong's USB. Sa Woo finds out Hyun Jun is alive and races to stop North Korea's planned terrorist attack.
Again, this episode is ironic with Hyun Jun now working with North Korea against South Korea. North Korean defectors are often displayed in the media but a South Korean betraying his country and joining North Korea is unheard of. Are viewers now supposed to be on team North Korea? The North Korean security detail are also shown to have powerful resources like a conniving hacker and armed weaponry. I wondered why the writers would portray North Korea as a smart and sneaky country who is able to bypass the oblivious South Korean customs officers. In contrast, the NSS are labelled as incompetent when they fail to catch Hyun Jun twice in this episode. Since we’re only halfway through the drama, these occurrences may take place just to further the storyline but I think in the next couple of episodes something will happen to make viewers have faith in the NSS and South Korean team again.
ReplyDeleteI also think that it is ironic how Hyun Joon is now working with North Koreans. In the beginning of this episode, Hyun Joon states that he wants revenge on the ones who used him then betrayed him: Baek San and the South Korean government. It is clear that Hyun Joon thinks the South Korean government is to blame for his current situation—stranded, alone, and without the people he loves. Although Hyun Joon’s thoughts are understandable, I think it is still ironic how he was portrayed as a patriot serving his country, but has now become someone determined to bring down the country he used to love. This causes me to wonder what Hyun Joon’s actions can imply about the people seemingly loyal to the South Korean government.
ReplyDeleteIn this episode, Korean pop music makes an appearance in the drama. During the scene where Seung-hee and her co-worker are driving to the work retreat party, they turn up the music on the radio. This song happens to “I Don’t Care” by 2NE1. This song was very popular in 2009 as it won trophies at various music shows and won Song of the Year at the Mnet Asian Music Awards in the same year. Korean popular music is a prevalent part of South Korean society. When I visited South Korea in 2011, I would hear K-pop everywhere when I walked down the streets of Seoul. This genre music is dominant in Korea so it is no surprise that the two ladies would be listening to it in the car. They also sing along to the song showing familiarity and the popularity of the song.
ReplyDeleteIn this episode, I think that Sa Woo is getting more and more dumb to the point where it pisses viewers off. Even in the previous episode, there were hints of Hyun Joon still being alive, but he brushed it off. At the beginning of this episode, he evens find video footages of Hyun Joon being alive, but lies to Mi Jung saying that it is from their initiation training, but everyone knows that no one should have any possessions relating to Hyun Joon. The next evidence was the footage of the terrorist entering South Korea through the boat, in which Sa Woo clearly recognized Hyun Joon's figure. As he was leaving the meeting room, Hyun Kyu also calls him over to tell him about the footage of someone breaking into Sa Woo's house, and that the bone structure from a reflection of the window is a 74% match with Hyun Joon. For some reason, he continues to deny the fact that Hyun Joon is alive, and continues to say that its a far stretch. I think he keeps denying all these hints because he obviously doesn't want Hyun Joon back, since he is in love with Seung Hee. I just don't understand why his character didn't doubt Baek San in his orders to kill Hyun Joon, and would instead betray his best friend. This makes me wonder how his character will develop in further episodes, and whether he will continue with his horrible decisions.
ReplyDeleteA Good balance of serious and casual
ReplyDeleteWhat IRIS is really good at doing is balancing the tones and atmospheres of the scenes in each episode. From episode to episode we get the patterns of chill and then action-pack. Within the episodes we get the same pattern (in the action-packed episodes we get more action and vice versa for the chill episodes.) In episode 9, I wanted to point out this balance and the significance of it when the drinking scene appeared and was used as a time for the NSS agents to bond with their peers. The scene reminds us of the prominent drinking culture in Korea especially with work colleagues and its ability to create an atmosphere where they can escape the harshness of work momentarily and just have fun. In terms of the plot of the drama, I think that this scene also creates a bond with the viewers. As the NSS agents unwind, the viewers can unwind as well as they can take a break from the action and politics too. The themes that the drama discusses are not something an ordinary Korean would experience, however, if they were to see the unordinary NSS agents playing the same drinking games an ordinary Korean would play if they were drinking with friends, they can create a bond with the characters over that commonality.
In this episode, I found that this was the first time the music that they played in the scenes really stood out. Like Donny mentioned above, they played the song "I Don't Care" by 2NE1 but what really threw me off was the Big Bang song that came on at around 12:47. I found that in the track there were a lot of english words and I thought that this had a really big connection with how South Korea was copying other countries for their own benefit. For example, the western style or America is something that South Korea really idolizes and finds cool. So I believe that with the hype that America was getting with music and the "Hollywood" industry, Big Bang used that to put that into their music to incorporate a western style so they could fit into the trend. I found that with the song, the way that IRIS was filmed at this scene really reminded of dramatic filming that western tv shows used to have with music playing in the background and over the top scenes that we find cringe nowadays. I had a big flashback with my cousins that live in Korea, where they used to love the show CSI: Miami and this scene I found was exactly the same as it was filmed back then but in a Korean way. This incorporation of westernized style makes Korean citizens enjoy their nation's production more and populates it.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to elaborate on Donny and Brian's points on the use of pop music. This episode isn't the first episode where we hear korean pop music in different scenes. In fact, the drama's OST "Do not forget me" by Baek Ji Young and the song "Hallelujah" by BIg Bang are repeatedly played at specific scenes that add tremendous emotion, depth, and at times excitement to the drama. The use of sound and music have been around across all genres of movies, dramas, and media,but one thing that stood out was the fact that korean dramas are the leaders in using pop music with lyrics throughout multiple scenes in every episode. In contrast, pop songs are found in the beginning and maybe at the end of episodes in dramas produced in North America. Furthermore, korean dramas will often times facilitate the production of a song by well renowned singer, or a pop star who may be playing a role in the drama (in this case T.O.P from Big Bang), and label it the drama's OST. This mutually beneficial relationship between the song and the drama promotes both the song producer/singer and the drama itself. Why? I think it has to do with the fact that now there is a cross interest between the fans of the artist themselves, and the fans of the drama. Singer's fans acquire knowledge about the drama through the songs of their favorite singer, and the drama's fans acquire knowledge about the singer through the songs they hear in theses scenes. Therefore, apart from adding elements to the scenes itself, I believe the lyrical pop songs played in Dramas serve a greater purpose.
ReplyDeleteIn this episode, Hyoon joon cooperated with DPRK’s agencies andsuccessfully slipped into South Korea, by hijacking a S. Korean cargo freighter. Cargo freight and trades are very common among DPRK, ROK, and PRC, in fact, it takes advantage of geography to improve 3 countries economy. On one hand, UN and US are spending a lot of effort on countering nuclear programs and the economy of DPRK. On the other hand, according to Ruediger Frank’s report, Chinese investors are building new malls and doing trades between 2 countries, in which accounts for over 90% of DPRK trades. However, trades between ROK and PRC didn’t go so well, due to the recent collaboration between US and ROK on the missile defense system. This led Chinese government being forced to shut down most of ROK supermarket chain – lotte, using the brief excuse of violation of fire-safety regulations. Meanwhile, the sales of ROK car brand such as Hyundai fell nearly half comparing to 1 year ago, while the broader markets still grew.
ReplyDeleteMelissa, Karisa-- I agree. But the logic in K-drama is often pretty screwed up. I think you're supposed to identify with Hyeonjun so strongly you ignore that whole 'now he's working against his own country thing'
ReplyDeleteDonny, nice focused comment on the music and it's connection to the drama. I bet you could have gone a tiny bit more analytic and not entirely fact based in your observations though-- why THAT song, other than the fact that it was a hit?
Rachel, I think he's known darn well that Hyeonjun is alive for a while, but that he's conflicted -- friendship says don't say anything, but following Baek San means reporting it immediately.
Karen, wonderful observation. Everyone else-- read this comment again and think about how you can make such an awesome observation, too^^
Byeonghan, huh, that's interesting. Now I almost want to rewatch the episode to see how the music is used. Nice observation.
Jiyong, another excellent comment, now this is analysis and interpretation of the purpose of the music, not just stating a couple facts. Great.
Shengjie, actually ROK/DPRK cargo freight is very rare. This would not be a direct trip. The DPRK spies would have come through China or Japan in any such instance. Actually the PRC shutting down some Lotte stores on fake fire-safety regulations is less a matter of national gov't and more a matter of over-active over-nationalistic local officials. Despite the THAAD standoff (now over), in most areas the economic cooperation between the ROK and PRC did not change significantly.