Haeundae Lovers: Episode 5

by kaedejun

As happy as I am with Tae Sung finally losing his memory, what is up with my picking a drama for the second time in a row where the main male lead has a case of mistaken identity? Anyways – let’s bring on the hijinks!

Tae Sung lands on the boat, passed out. The uncles freak out, unsure if he’s dead or alive, and what to do, since they’re afraid they’ll be framed for Tae Sung’s death. It’s funny that Sora is the one who springs into action by giving Tae Sung CPR, since she’s the girl scout! She even tells Uncle Hello Kitty to call 911.

Suddenly, Tae Sung’s eyes open as Sora is in mid-breath, lips still on him. He jumps upright, coughing up water, but falls right back down, passed out. Well! He’s alive!

The 911 operator instructs the uncles to undress Tae Sung while the ambulance is on their way. Poor Dong Baek – he feels like his masculinity will be threatened if they undress Tae Sung. Soon Shin: “Don’t worry! He was in the cold waters for a while, so it should have shrunk!” Kaedejun: O_O No. Way.

In the hospital, Tam Hee fusses over her husband, who’s still out of it and muttering “Tae Sung-ah…” every so often.  Joon Hyuk just watches Tam Hee willing her husband to get better… so that he can rewrite his will! Next thing we know, Tae Sung gets wheeled into the ICU on a spot right next to Man Ho. Your Tae Sung is closer than you think!!

Tam Hee winces at Tae Sung’s fishy smell, and recognizes him as the man who was with Sora. When she and Joon Hyuk leave the ICU, they bump into the uncles. Soon Shin makes Dong Baek be the representative for the family, and tell Yook Bok Ja to shut her mouth with sushi like she used to. They’re betting that Bok Ja is finding a new man with a lot of money and very few years left to live to replace her dying husband.

Bok Ja? Joon Hyuk thinks the uncles may have confused Tam Hee with someone else, but Dong Baek sets him straight. Bok Ja changed her name to Tam Hee, and she has sisters named Gop Ja and Duk Ja to boot. See, this could all have sounded like lies, except Tam Hee shrieks in anger. So yep – it’s true. I love that Joon Hyuk is bemused by all of this, relishing in watching Tam Hee fail at one-upping her sworn enemies.

Tam Hee fires back that her husband is still healthy and strong enough to juggle weights… but then her lackey comes running with diapers for Man Ho. HA. The lackey – Min Shik – even gets angry at the uncles for insulting his boss, but Soon Shin reminds him that back in the day, Min Shik was under them.

Before the fight can escalate, Sora arrives with Tae Sung’s belongings, and she breaks up the tension by telling the uncles to go in and check up on “Nam Hae.” Joon Hyuk is super happy to see her there, though he can’t be too happy since she’s the “enemy.” Tam Hee reasons that Tae Sung must be Sora’s fiance: “Does he know your family is full of gangsters?” Before Sora can properly deny this and say that Tae Sung is a robber, Uncle Hello Kitty comes running out to tell her to stay quiet. Tam Hee and the Yangs don’t need to know about their situation! Let them assume that the hot guy in the ICU is Sora’s fiance!

Tam Hee goes off to check on Min Shik and her husband in the ICU, and so Joon Hyuk notes that Sora must have very different tastes from her fiance. After all, Sora’s dressed plainly, while the clothes she’s holding are expensive and brand name. He knows, because he’s wearing the same brand. “Your husband-to-be is quite good looking, enough to make me jealous,” Joon Hyuk adds. WHOA. It’s like you just confessed dude.

Suddenly, Dong Baek comes rushing out – looks like Tae Sung regained consciousness!

Tae Sung’s eyes are still closed, so Soon Shin starts poking and yelling at Tae Sung to wake up. They need to haul him off to jail and get double their money back for everything Tae Sung stole! Uncle Hello Kitty then notices that in most dramas, this is the moment when the lead wakes up, and then goes “Who are you?” I LOVE that Winter Sonata music starts playing in the background. The epitome of amnesia and mistaken identity – whee!

Everyone tells Uncle Hello Kitty that he watches way too many dramas. “I only watch morning dramas, Monday-Thursday dramas, weekly evening dramas, and weekend dramas. And I still haven’t watched the ones I downloaded yet!” he cries. Aw – a man after my own heart!

Tae Sung’s eyes flutter open and slowly he sits upright again. Soon Shin gets right into it – “The moment you get your sense back, you’re going straight to jail mister.” Tae Sung looks around, a little dazed. His eyes land on Sora: “Who are you?”

Everyone’s jaws drop. Did he… really say… “Who are you?” Dramas: 1 Reality: 0

Back at the hotel, Tam Hee finally confronts Joon Hyuk. She wants him to break the contract with Uncle’s Fishery, but he reminds her (again) to butt out of hotel affairs if she’s not an executive. Oh really now? Tam Hee takes out a piece of paper; she’s gotten the board members’ signatures of approval for her to act as interim president. So she does have an executive position now, with her assistant and Joo Hee as her witnesses! Whatever Joon Hyuk is dreaming, she’s going to trample all over them very soon.

Joon Hyuk isn’t scared. The board also approved of the contract with Uncle’s Fishery, so it’ll be quite difficult to get that decision overturned. If Tam Hee really wants it, he’s willing to fight her. He’ll convert his office into a boxing ring just for her! And with a couple of jabs, he’s off for his office.

Joo Hee can’t help but be impressed with the cool, suave Vice President. Looks like she’ll be switching loyalties now! Besides, Joon Hyuk isn’t going down that easily. With one call to a director, he tells him to run the ad looking for Yang Man Ho’s missing son.

The doctor runs a scan on Tae Sung’s brain, but finds nothing abnormal. Since he doesn’t remember his identity or where he’s from though, it’s possible he has amnesia. And his memories could either come back, or not. (I love this doctor – so black and white!) He could check his brain cell activity to see if everything’s normal, but that would require a shot. Through a very big needle.

Tae Sung looks like he’s about to die when he sees the nurse hold out the needle – and she needs to jab it near his butt! He protests at first, but since he wants to get his memories back, he grudgingly turns over for the nurse. He grimaces so tightly that Sora offers her hand for him to hold. He takes it and squeezes tightly as the needle “invades” his body.

It doesn’t hurt as much though, and Sora says that holding a person’s hand usually helps with the pain. But even after the nurse leaves, Tae Sung doesn’t want to let go. The shock of the needle hasn’t left his body yet! He finds it weird that holding her hand calms him, since he doesn’t remember who she is at all.

The uncles and Sora take Tae Sung down to the lobby in his wheelchair, hoping that he’ll start remembering some things thanks to the shot. He doesn’t, so they start feeding him (false) facts about himself: his name is ‘Nam Hae’ and that he’s a body builder. Tae Sung can’t believe that, since he thinks that he’s a more decent person than that, but Soon Shin points out his washboard abs and calluses – what else could he have done!?

Uncle Hello Kitty pulls out random objects from his pocket and Tae Sung identifies them correctly. That just sets the uncle off – Tae Sung can remember the names of objects, but nothing about himself? He starts grabbing Tae Sung by the shirt, which makes him fall off the wheelchair. Good thing the police arrive and Tae Sung grabs their attention, but the police are actually here because the uncles had reported that they caught the thief!

Tae Sung can’t believe it – he’s a thief!? There’s no way! He had to be a good person… right?!

At that same moment, the police are investigating the accident scene where Jung Chul and his girlfriend died. An officer calls in to give his update: the bodies have been burned beyond recognition, but they found a watch that had an engraving on the back: “Tae Sung <3 Se Na.” The license plate number also showed that the owner of the car was a Lee Tae Sung, but the clincher is when another officer finds an ID badge. It’s Prosecutor Lee Tae Sung. Uh oh – this is going to be a messy problem!

Tae Sung’s father, Sae Jo, is visiting his daughter-in-law when he gets the call: he’s needed to verify the body of the victim Lee Tae Sung.

But Tae Sung is alive, and whiny. He gets restless in the ICU when Man Ho starts moaning again for his son. Tae Sung finds it annoying as heck and, based on the patient name card, starts calling out down the halls for a “Yang Tae Sung” because Man Ho is calling for him. A nurse reprimands him to be quiet, but then she notices Man Ho’s heart monitor – he’s flat lined!

The doctor and nurses gather to bring the crash cart and revive Man Ho. One of them tries to get Tae Sung to lie back down on his bed, but he stubbornly refuses. He just wants to get discharged! But since he can’t get discharged right away, he stands right in his spot and watches the doctors scramble to revive Man Ho.

While in the salon, Tam Hee overhears a couple of other ladies talking about the ad that just went out on the newspapers. They wonder who this lucky guy that struck the jackpot is, but Tam Hee is furious at Joon Hyuk for doing something ridiculous. But Man Shik comes running in with more pressing news – the president is in critical condition!

At the hospital, a police officer informs Sora and the uncles that as Tae Sung’s guardians, they are to take care of him and the hospital bills. Once Tae Sung gets his memories back, they can settle their debts. After all, didn’t Sora just want the money repaid, and didn’t care if Tae Sung went to jail or not?

Uncle Hello Kitty gets exasperated with her – they all wanted Tae Sung punished, but Sora’s too nice! When the officer goes to check in on Tae Sung, Dong Baek gathers everyone round for a huddle. They have two options: 1) become Tae Sung’s guardian so that he can pay for the fish, but they’ll have to pay his hospital bills, or 2) just abandon him and get out of all this mess, since they don’t know if and when his memory will come back.

The uncles look at each other and nod. Off they go for the exit! But Sora floats towards the ICU instead! And the uncles are back to drag Sora off in the other direction. Heh!

Meanwhile in the ICU, the doctor deems Tae Sung ready for discharge, which thrills him to no end. As he leaves, Tam Hee enters the room, curlers still in her hair. She starts crying over Man Ho because he didn’t get to change his will yet, but the doctor assures her that he’s now been stabilized.

When Tae Sung and the police officer exit, Sora and her uncles are nowhere to be found! That means the police need to take responsibility over him now, and Tae Sung wants to go and get his fingers printed to find out his identity.

Problem is – his fingers are so callused that they’ve given only blurry prints! So now there’s no way to identify him! The only report they’ve gotten regarding a “Nam Hae” who’s also a body builder is from Uncle’s Fishery, so that’s the only identity they can give him. Tae Sung refuses to believe that he’d be a thief, and he painfully racks his memories to come up with the right phrase: “You can’t convict someone without proper evidence!” The police officers are barely impressed that a body builder knows legal language, and tell him to just leave the station, get his memories back, and find his family instead of bothering them all.

Tae Sung doesn’t want to leave – he has no home outside that door! He tries to guilt them into letting him stay, saying that he’ll get in trouble – maybe even die! – if they let him leave. The police barely make a move to force him to stay. Ha! Tae Sung leaves for just a second, but comes back again with the excuse that he just pities their lives. He takes up the newspaper and rattles off the stock headlines. He knows stock! This is the first clue to his past – he’s someone who’s “elite” enough to understand foreign stock markets.

He wanders around the police station all day, as if the station were his own home. The news report on TV centers around a gang of robbers with their fingerprints wiped off, hitting up some jewelry stores. Tae Sung quickly takes it as his cue to leave, afraid that an officer may make the incorrect connection between him and that gang of robbers.

As he leaves the station, he walks right past his father, who’s entering the station to identify his son’s “body.” They miss each other because Sae Jo’s assistant’s umbrella blocks his view of Tae Sung. Dang – Dramas: 2 Reality: 0. Sae Jo tearfully confirms the watch as having belonged to his son, but they cannot do a DNA test to confirm Tae Sung’s identity because it wouldn’t match Sae Jo’s DNA anyways.

The police are surprised to find out that the woman in the car wasn’t Sae Jo’s daughter-in-law, and they show him pictures of the car from the traffic cameras before it went off course. Since it only captures the girlfriend kissing Jung Chul and completely masking his face, it looks like to Sae Jo that it’s really his son in the car. Because of the embarrassment, he requests to speak with the head sergeant to take care of the matter quietly.

Tae Sung wanders around in the rain, starved to death. He walks around the market, watching other people eat barbecued meats and purchasing hocks of meat. Poor Tae Sung – he looks like a sad puppy! He then gets the bright idea of going back to the hospital – now he wants to be readmitted! Of course, the nurse isn’t going to let him back so easily; before he was just crying to leave!

Sora, meanwhile, has been feeling guilty about abandoning him, and does go on a search for him. However she just misses him at the hospital and at the police station, so she has no idea where to look. The next morning she gets a call from the hospital about Tae Sung being there though, and rushes over.

She finds Tae Sung shivering in the lobby, sneezing from a cold. She holds out her hand to him: “Grab my hand, so that we can go home.” Tae Sung’s bottom lip quivers and he looks like he’s a five-year old who just got found by his mother after wandering around, lost all night. Sora then takes out a sweet fried pancake for him and tells him to eat up. Tae Sung initially resists – he doesn’t eat sweets! – but the taste of it sends him craving for more, and he stuffs two of them into his mouth. What a kid.

Sora drives Tae Sung home, and she notices that he’s starting to develop a fever. There’s medicine in the glove compartment that he can take, but Tae Sung finds the contract with Haeundae Hotel instead. He takes a cursory glance at it and notices that the terms are heavily biased towards the hotel’s favor. The terms include dictating when and how much mackerel will be caught by Uncle’s Fishery, which could lead to an eventual loss for Sora’s business. Hmm – so maybe Joon Hyuk isn’t trying to help them after all?

Sora says she’ll take a better look at the contract later when she gets home; she hasn’t had the time since she’s had her hands full with Tae Sung so far. When they get home, she shows him the tank from which Tae Sung apparently robbed from. Tae Sung will have to pay them approximately $2,200 for the fish that he stole and the loss that the store took when they couldn’t work because they caught him in a net instead.

Tae Sung thinks they’re scamming him out of a lot of money, but Dong Baek gives him the ledgers that he’s carefully accounted for every day; his math is legit. On top of that, Tae Sung owes them for meals and the room bill. Soon Shin declares that they’ll make a contract with him: for as long as he is with Uncle’s Fishery, Tae Sung can eat, sleep, and work at the store for $70 a day against his tab. If he manages to find work as a body builder, half his check will go to them to pay off his debt.

It’s a reasonable contract, but Tae Sung can’t sign it with his ID number (since he forgot it) or with his thumbprint (since it comes out as a smudge anyways). Soon Shin thinks that there’s only one guy in all of Korea who could have a smudged thumbprint like he does, and the three uncles try to force Tae Sung to stamp it on the contract. Haha – it’s too comical how three gangsters try to force a young man with the mindset of a five-year-old to do something, and fail so miserably at it.

Sora goes to visit Joon Hyuk at the hotel to discuss the terms of the contract. She interrupts him as he’s having a conversation with his mother, and from the sounds of it, he’s a mama’s boy. Joon Hyuk invites her out for lunch, saying that if they eat and discuss, their conversation may go along better. Ha – yeah right; it’s really just a way for Joon Hyuk to distract her from discussing the terms.

Tae Sung wanders around the town, trying to will his memories to come back. He ends up in the middle of the road on the train tracks, and gets all philosophical – which way should he go? Dude – it’s not like you’re on the fork in a road. He hears a train coming, and he opens his arms outstretched, facing the train. Is he going to kill himself because he feels hopeless!?

He braces for impact… but it never comes. Instead, the only thing headed his way is a little kid on a toy tricycle, speeding along towards him while his grandmother shoos him away from the train tracks. Haha! Tae Sung turns around and finds Sora there, waiting for him. She can sympathize with how he’s feeling, since he must be so confused and lost in an unfamiliar place. She offers her hand to him one last time to bring him home. Tae Sung grabs it – after all, who is he to deny her when she speaks to him so sincerely?

A guard starts yelling at them to get off the tracks – a train is really coming now! And the two of them dodge the speeding train just in time. When they head home, Sora tells Tae Sung to be more understanding about the uncles. Though they may seem rough to him all the time, they actually really care about his well-being. She’s about to leave him behind so that she can go on a delivery to the hotel, but he holds her hand even tighter – “Don’t leave me! You can’t let go of my hand yet!”

But then a neighborhood dog comes bounding up to Sora and Tae Sung starts freaking out, running around in circles trying to avoid the dog that just wants to play with him. He looks like such a fool that the uncles seriously don’t know what to make of this weirdo.

Meanwhile in Seoul, Se Na and Sae Jo hold a funeral for Tae Sung and put his ashes in funeral home. Se Na sheds some tears, angry that Tae Sung broke his promise about coming home, and didn’t even smile in his wedding photo. But her husband currently is just… seasick. He can barely help the uncles with the fishing as he spends most of his time heaving over the side of the boat.

To settle his stomach, Tae Sung falls asleep on deck, and he only wakes up when he smells lunch. Excited, he whips out his chopsticks and joins the family for lunch. The uncles pass around the brass pot, drinking the soup from the same bowl. Tae Sung makes a grab for it, but Uncle Hello Kitty grabs it back. Tae Sung’s food is on his tray! Didn’t he not want to share food or saliva with them? Tae Sung frowns at his meal, which is a weird heap of soggy ramen noodles. He doesn’t like his meal, which can’t even be identified, and so he refuses to eat it. What a picky eater!

Se Na arrives in Busan with a bouquet and visits the scene of the accident with Joo Hee. She throws her flowers over as tribute, and cries angrily over why Tae Sung couldn’t just wait until they went on their honeymoon to Busan to do whatever it is he needed to do. Her anger then gets turned upon herself, as she wishes she never had appendicitis so that she wouldn’t have delayed their whole schedule. Girl, you take things wayyyy to hard on yourself. Joo Hee comforts her tortured friend, who believes in her heart that Tae Sung is alive somewhere.

No kidding. He’s actually in the truck passing by, helping Sora with the fish deliveries. Sora pauses by the accident scene, curious over what might have happened there and also wanting to take a moment for fresh air. She prods Tae Sung to join her outside for a stretch, and looks over at Se Na and Joo Hee. Se Na and Sora look at each other… and then Tae Sung looks over at Se Na.

No. Way. SERIOUSLY?! They all see each other?!

Comments:

Well that moved quickly! This drama certainly is improving with its cliffhangers. I’m surprised that Se Na will discover Tae Sung so soon since I didn’t expect this to happen until perhaps when Joo Hee sees Tae Sung at the hotel first, and lets Se Na know about it. I wonder how she’ll feel when she sees Tae Sung with Sora, although she doesn’t know that “Tae Sung” was killed in a car crash with another girl in the car. Commence hijinks as she tries to convince Tae Sung on who he really is!

This episode did have a moment of unevenness for me because of it’s use of slow-motion. The slow-motion effect was meant to prolong the feelings of angst and desperation when I already knew he was desperate, especially during the moments when he wandered around Busan with no money, no food, and no shelter. It was kind of artistic in a totally useless way, but this drama can be offbeat like that.

The winner of this episode is definitely Kim Kang Woo, because he looked like a sad little puppy ALL THE TIME. Seriously, I think the hit in the head also reverted his personality back into a petulant five year old. It might be annoying to some, but to me, it’s hilarious (not endearing). For me, Kim Kang Woo really sells it, because he’s so earnest and serious about acting not-seriously. He’s willing to go all the way for the laugh, no matter how over the top his acting may seem. Quivering lips? So fake, and yet so funny!

On the other hand, Joon Hyuk is starting to become a bad guy with this episode. He sounds like a mama’s boy, but that conversation with his mother can’t possibly be trivial. It sounds like she could have had something to do with his coming back to Haeundae Hotel, and I’m really not surprised if he wants to come and take over the hotel for himself. It’s just that his motives are unclear because though he seems to help Sora with the business, and Man Ho with his search for his son, there’s something else subversive going on that we haven’t been able to determine yet. It would be an interesting turn to see him be evil, rather than the smiling pleasant character that he is so far.

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