Post by humblestudent2 on Sept 21, 2009 9:39:06 GMT -5
Ten years ago, Hong Ryeon, Yoon Jang-hwa, Park Gong-mi, and Jin Jeong-hae were best buddies in their high school somewhere in a town in Chungcheong province. (This is pretty vague - but figure this to be something like a hundred miles south of Seoul and you probably won't be far out.) Hong Ryeon and Jang-hwa were particular BFFs. HR was a top student and perennial class president, and had been accepted at Seoul University. Jang-hwa meanwhile aspired to be a model and was cutting her classes. We see them palling around in flashback; a group pic of them is taken at their graduation.
Then - maybe that night - Jang-hwa drags Hong Ryeon out to a bar to meet some guy who is supposed to make her a model. They meet a sleazy perv businessman who is clearly just interested in getting Jang-hwa drunk. HR intercepts a couple glasses meant for YJH and slugs them down herself as an ineffectual act of protection. Soon HR is knocked out on in the passenger seat of the businessman's car; YJH is barely holding off the pawing perv. Eventually YJH just drives off into the night. Too agitated to be driving, she runs down two people, one of her classmates - Han Su-chan - and his father. The father is killed, and Su-chan is injured.
YJH, horrified, runs to check on Su-chan. "Help," he gasps, grabbing at her as she bends over him. She recoils ... and then her instinct for self-preservation kicks in. She wrestles the insensate HR into the driver's seat.
We see those events in flashbacks from both YJH and HR. But HR's memories are more incomplete, she was apparently unconscious during the driver-switching part, and has not figured out that she was framed. As far as she knows, she is responsible for Mr. Han's death.
Now it is ten years later. YJH got a criminal record for the accident. She never made it to college or even out of the village, is raising an eight-year-old girl (Gil-ran) by herself, and has a rather grueling job working for a woman in a rice cake (ddeok) house. Park Gong-mi is married with kids and working in her family's photography shop. Jeong-hae is in Seoul, as we will find out. And Jang-hwa is married to Kang T'ae-yoon, also in Seoul, a clever student from the same school who has really made a splash. He is apparently both an electronics whiz and a shrewd retailing giant, and is now the wealthy president of a glitzy high-rise mall in Seoul called Electron City. He is also a sweet and good man.
Back in the village, we see HR exhibiting her talents as a cook to Gong-mi, who is now her best friend. Jang-hwa hasn't talked to her for ages. When Gil-ran digs up a print of the four kids in the graduation picture, it makes her uncomfortable and Gong-mi takes Gil-ran off to chat with her in the other room. Gong-mi criticizes YJH for having dropped the friendship after YJH got a criminal record on her account, but I really don't think this means that they know about the driver switch, only that it was YJH who got them out there crawling the bars.
YJH then gets a tip from a friend of hers at a rental agency (?) that "The Dragon House" can be rented for half price because the owners are eager to find a tenant. Gil-ran asks her mom why it's called the Dragon House, and, I've gotta say, I find her explanation incomprehensible. Something about how a tree looks like a dragon against the full moon and it gets the first moonlight and it's where a dragon would naturally nest - oh forget it, seriously, but anyway, that's what it's called and will be called from now on, so get used to it. (In Korean, "dragon" apparently works into a play on words with "ridgepole".)
In Seoul, we see YJH talking with her beautician, "Sara Jang", apparently her chief confidante, about how she feels a void in her life. The beautician opines that a child will probably improve things, but YJH doesn't seem enthusiastic about that - she just wants to do what she wants at someone else's expense. Then, a call comes from the hospital...
It's about T'ae-yoon's mom, Ms. Byeon. She apparently had been living on her own with a housekeeper / aide, but her mental condition has been deteriorating for a while and, now that a fall has brought her into the hospital, the doctor says that her "hippocampus has been destroyed" and that serious dementia is coming on. This is a big surprise to T'ae-yoon somehow, although apparently YJH has known about this and is displeased with the aide that this has come to his attention. But now the aide doesn't want the responsibility of taking care of her any more, and feels that "her family should take care of her." T'ae-yoon agrees to this, apologizing to YJH and saying that he knows he said she wouldn't move in with them until they had a baby, but he feels they have to do it. YJH reassures him that everything will be peachy.
So now, they are getting Ms. Byeon discharged from the hospital. She is silent, with an imperious and suspicious expression on her face, and she has with her a picture of herself in front of her childhood home, the same Dragon House. They are outside getting ready to get in the car. T'ae-yoon goes back in to settle some paperwork. YJH tells her mom-in-law something nice about how she's going to take good care of her - and Ms. Byeon steps up to her, grabs both of her ears and begins to cruelly pull and twist them! End of episode.
Then - maybe that night - Jang-hwa drags Hong Ryeon out to a bar to meet some guy who is supposed to make her a model. They meet a sleazy perv businessman who is clearly just interested in getting Jang-hwa drunk. HR intercepts a couple glasses meant for YJH and slugs them down herself as an ineffectual act of protection. Soon HR is knocked out on in the passenger seat of the businessman's car; YJH is barely holding off the pawing perv. Eventually YJH just drives off into the night. Too agitated to be driving, she runs down two people, one of her classmates - Han Su-chan - and his father. The father is killed, and Su-chan is injured.
YJH, horrified, runs to check on Su-chan. "Help," he gasps, grabbing at her as she bends over him. She recoils ... and then her instinct for self-preservation kicks in. She wrestles the insensate HR into the driver's seat.
We see those events in flashbacks from both YJH and HR. But HR's memories are more incomplete, she was apparently unconscious during the driver-switching part, and has not figured out that she was framed. As far as she knows, she is responsible for Mr. Han's death.
Now it is ten years later. YJH got a criminal record for the accident. She never made it to college or even out of the village, is raising an eight-year-old girl (Gil-ran) by herself, and has a rather grueling job working for a woman in a rice cake (ddeok) house. Park Gong-mi is married with kids and working in her family's photography shop. Jeong-hae is in Seoul, as we will find out. And Jang-hwa is married to Kang T'ae-yoon, also in Seoul, a clever student from the same school who has really made a splash. He is apparently both an electronics whiz and a shrewd retailing giant, and is now the wealthy president of a glitzy high-rise mall in Seoul called Electron City. He is also a sweet and good man.
Back in the village, we see HR exhibiting her talents as a cook to Gong-mi, who is now her best friend. Jang-hwa hasn't talked to her for ages. When Gil-ran digs up a print of the four kids in the graduation picture, it makes her uncomfortable and Gong-mi takes Gil-ran off to chat with her in the other room. Gong-mi criticizes YJH for having dropped the friendship after YJH got a criminal record on her account, but I really don't think this means that they know about the driver switch, only that it was YJH who got them out there crawling the bars.
YJH then gets a tip from a friend of hers at a rental agency (?) that "The Dragon House" can be rented for half price because the owners are eager to find a tenant. Gil-ran asks her mom why it's called the Dragon House, and, I've gotta say, I find her explanation incomprehensible. Something about how a tree looks like a dragon against the full moon and it gets the first moonlight and it's where a dragon would naturally nest - oh forget it, seriously, but anyway, that's what it's called and will be called from now on, so get used to it. (In Korean, "dragon" apparently works into a play on words with "ridgepole".)
In Seoul, we see YJH talking with her beautician, "Sara Jang", apparently her chief confidante, about how she feels a void in her life. The beautician opines that a child will probably improve things, but YJH doesn't seem enthusiastic about that - she just wants to do what she wants at someone else's expense. Then, a call comes from the hospital...
It's about T'ae-yoon's mom, Ms. Byeon. She apparently had been living on her own with a housekeeper / aide, but her mental condition has been deteriorating for a while and, now that a fall has brought her into the hospital, the doctor says that her "hippocampus has been destroyed" and that serious dementia is coming on. This is a big surprise to T'ae-yoon somehow, although apparently YJH has known about this and is displeased with the aide that this has come to his attention. But now the aide doesn't want the responsibility of taking care of her any more, and feels that "her family should take care of her." T'ae-yoon agrees to this, apologizing to YJH and saying that he knows he said she wouldn't move in with them until they had a baby, but he feels they have to do it. YJH reassures him that everything will be peachy.
So now, they are getting Ms. Byeon discharged from the hospital. She is silent, with an imperious and suspicious expression on her face, and she has with her a picture of herself in front of her childhood home, the same Dragon House. They are outside getting ready to get in the car. T'ae-yoon goes back in to settle some paperwork. YJH tells her mom-in-law something nice about how she's going to take good care of her - and Ms. Byeon steps up to her, grabs both of her ears and begins to cruelly pull and twist them! End of episode.
