Beans of Wisdom: 50 sheets of grey

by DB Staff

This week in Beans of Wisdom…

Afii asks an important question in comment #13 of “Tomorrow With You: Episode 13”:

I’m sorry to say this, but am i the only one that being bothered to the fact that they have not change their bed sheets? Or they do already change it and i’m being insensitive again? It’s been months, they should change it. Considering that they are pretty “active” in bed.

hyanggi:

I realize they had the same bed sheet even in the future ! When SJ went into the house and tadaa, still the same bed sheet. I guess they just really like that design and went on to buy 5 sets of it .

Amilia:

Maybe Ma Rin strips the bed after So Joon leaves for work, runs a load of laundry, and remakes the bed with the same sheets before So Joon gets home?

Kethy-chan:

lol oh come on guuuuuys!
maybe they simply have 50 of the same set. ha ha ha
it’s a funny comment but about as silly as wondering why the dirt poor girl in a kdrama manages to wear 44 different winter coats through the 24-episode span of the drama. And she never wears them twice!! ha ha ha ha
now THAT’s a real question!

(have a good day, folks)

<3

ar writes in “Chief Kim: Episode 16” comment #10:

I loved how they were like “we’ve got licenses”. Kdramas tend to depict characters as incompetent at their jobs or not committed or barely have any real work to do. I really like this depiction of an office where people work hard and are really good at what they do and that’s why they’re there.

WishfulToki:

That is so true. I was distracted by Myung Seok going ‘I have no license, so I’m afraid I can’t help bwahahaaa’ but you are right that Business Operations team is shown as hardworking, honest and competent. Their ongoing rivalry with the snobs in Accounting is a lot of fun. I still yell PIRARUCU every time I see the Accounting lady.

More seriously, I have come to the conclusion that corruption is a team effort. I’m with Yul on this one: it’s ironic/pathetic that those doing the corrupt work actually get little or nothing out of it.

While DramaDrama shares an analysis of our favorite bickering duo in #10.1.1.1.1:

Yul. Seems to start out on the “white” side (as a prosecutor) and is now firmly in the “grey” camp. He’s a pragmatist and realist. And, true, he seems to honestly want to fix things but with the pragmatic view that corruption exists but it should be “limited”. He gets exasperated when it goes extreme. He is also shown as someone who has a good idea what the limits are (no thugs, killing etc) and sticks by them.

Kim. He starts out on the “dark” side and gradually moves into the “grey” side. But his motivations appear petty..revenge or to feel good. So his motivation appears to be actually more superficial and it isn’t actually clear that he wants to make TQ a better company.

This cleverly designed drama shows how these two feed off each other to achieve what amounts to the same end goal. Kim finds the bad things and threatens to expose it while Yul works to fix what Kim discovers behind the scenes. Who is right? Neither actually, both have valid viewpoints. Yul thinks it better to quietly fix things but without Kim he would be less effective at pressuring the Chairman to do the right thing. Kim, meanwhile, doesn’t actually fix anything…he just exposes the situation. So neither Kim nor Yul would have been effective individually.

In comment #8.1 of “Strong Woman Do Bong-soon: Episode 7,” gadis writes:

I like how grandma view this super strength as a gift, a legacy she needs to pass down to the next generation so that they can do more good things, instead of a curse. And when Bong-soon lament how she didn’t hate the idea of having daughter anymore, it’s like she finally accept and love herself, super strength and all. Love that quiet moment of reflection.

While Cooler writes in comment #37:

Min Hyuk clarified his sexuality to the shareholders because–per the show–the rumors regarding his sexuality were having an effect on the company’s stock. While there are many countries that are accepting of homosexuality, I’m not clear why people pretend that’s the case everywhere and act shocked every time it’s presented as anything other than “normal.” Offended, fine. But shocked, nope.

The show is actually pushing acceptance and normalization of homosexuality. Even the two gangstas canoodling on the blanket with obvious sexual interest normalizes the concept for people. And notice, except for a “what am I looking at here” face, Bong Sooh doesn’t act particularly shocked about their behavior at all. The fact the majority of the characters don’t care that Min Hyuk is supposedly gay and some do is testament that the writers actually live in the real world.

Looks like everyone is in love with Min-hyuk. sylvia shares her reasons in “Strong Woman Do Bong-soon: Episode 8” comment #1.2:

Ya know, by k-drama standards Minhyk is one of the least crazy heroes out there. No jerking the heroine around, no 24/7 angst fest (though how come no brooding shower yet lmao), no holier-than-thou noble idiocy (fingers crossed!), no therapist on stand-by or some kind of psychiatric disorder, no vampiric or immortal or alien or birth secret double identity. Just a doofus with a massive crush on a girl who he thinks is an angel guided to him by his mother. Oh and he says it like he means it. Yasss, kdrama, good job. You’ve come a long way since the days when true love was supposed to result in everyone floating belly up like dead fish.

charlie:

I also love how naturally ok he is with her strength. Like after training when she gives him the water bottle and he passes it back to her to open it for him. I don’t ever see GD being ok with him not being the all-powerful man in their relationship. Even the way he describes his love for her sounds patronizing: in his eyes she’s this silly puppy that cannot manage without him (grr). Contrast this with MH’s I’m on your side; if you want to go after the big baddie on your own I’ll do my best to help you succeed; I respect your choices and I’ll help you get what you want even if that it’s not me. BS would have to be the biggest idiot ever not to chose MH after all that.

And Fish N’ Chips in #36:

One thing I really love about Min Hyuk is how he’s literally the only person who’s offered to support Bong Soon. Not just with what she wants to do in life, but in general too.

Like her kids, as much as I’m sure they genuinely like her, really just want Bong Soon to be their personal street justice hero. The gangsters would love to have her on the payroll. Gook Du has been incredibly patronising with his long long list of all the things she must and must not do, so I’m pretty sure that even if he DID know about her strength he’d just take her on her family’s attitude of say not, show not, want not. You wouldn’t ever see him training her in self defence.

And speaking of her family, they really are the worst offenders here. Yes, sure, they only want Bong Soon to hide her strength for her own good, but they’ve made that decision completley unilaterally. They’ve never sat her down and talked about it, never ASKED her what she wanted to do, never took her opinion into consideration.

And as much as I’m sure they love her and want the best for her, none of them –not mom or dad or grandma or bong gi or even her best friend– have ever seemed to consider guiding her or helping her out during her struggle to keep a low profile. Bong Soon was pretty much just left her on her own and told to sort it out herself, with no support system beyond the occasional scolding when she’s caught using her strength without permission.

In fact, Bong Soon’s whole life seems to have been this cycle of being underestimated and thus unsupported and thus unsuccessful and thus underestimated again. She didn’t do well in school, didn’t get into college, didn’t find a job — and while the biggest culprt for this is her own lack of motivation, things might have been very different if she’d gotten even half of the support her twin brother got. Instead, she grew up with hearing people constantly comparing her to her sibling or berating her for being unsuccessful or telling her to control her strength without showing her HOW. She’s been like a lone boat adrift at sea.

Until Min Hyuk, and his adorably fervent efforts as part of Team Bong Soon. He sees her feel bad about her strength, and tells her it’s not her fault. He sees her deficiencies with English, and gets her study materials. He hears she wants to make a game, and gets her a laptop. He hears her say she wants to use her powers for good, and tells her he’ll help. He sees her unable to control her strength, and makes her a training schedule. He makes note of everything in her life that gives her a hard time and immediately reaches out his hand to support her as much as possible — without her even having to ask.

Min Hyuk has been the only one who doesn’t constantly tell Bong Soon ‘you can’t do this’ or ‘you can’t do that’. Instead, he says, “Look, you could totally do this, you just need a little help.”

And I suspect that those words are exactly what Bong Soon has been needing to hear for a very long time.

Imbuk talks about living in the now in “Tomorrow With You: Episode 13” comment #12:

Also, it is interesting how ma rin needs to be consoled and needs support when It comes to her past (from her dad to being called bap soon) whereas for so joon, its the future (the news about the accident). I just love that after meeting each other they have considerably reduced worrying about those times and started concentrating on the present because they have finally found someone who makes them want to live in the present. I am glad that it did not happen instantly and that it was a slow process which made it all the more gratifying to watch when they have finally achieved this place. I seriously want a happy ending for this couple, director kim and time be damned.

Luc expresses a wish in comment #19 of “Tomorrow With You: Episode 14”:

Omniscience is such a gift and a curse.

As a viewer who knows what has happened, is happening, and will happen, I feel frustrated that everyone in the drama is so short-sighted and naive. Even our time-travellers. You know what could and might happen, yet you don’t have backup plans? And you go off on your own, send people to go off on their own, and not utilize the police or any form of security? I mean, here I thought So Joon is a millionaire and he doesn’t have any foresight to hire any kind of security details for himself and his wife.

Bad things have to happen, but boy did I wish everyone was smarter with how they go about things in this drama.

And Peeps talks about the dangers of time-travelling. She writes in comment #25:

DooShik seems like a tragic character to me. If SoJoon was addicted to time-travelling, DooShik was obsessed… with “fixing” his daughter’s fate.

So obsessed that he missed her growing up, so obsessed that he lost his present to her future, so obsessed that the tiny little girl he could give his life up for ended up becoming a stranger he dearly loved but couldn’t meet.

Because of time-travelling, DooShik lost his life.

Beanies are having trust issues in “Strawberry-sweet posters and moonlit teasers for My Secret Romance.” Callie writes in #1:

I’m still unnerved that OCN is doing a romcom…

The cake is poison right?

FrabbyCrabsis:

Maybe there’s a kidnapper with seven wives on the loose.

Grapes:

Maybe he’s a sexy psychopathic chaebol, who lures young girls to sleep with him to drink thier blood to keep his youth but he fell asleep when he was with the heroine so she escaped safely. But he will finish his unfulfilled mission 3 years later!

ObsessedMuch:

Maybe she is an undercover agent, out to arrest all the chaebol playboys of kdrama-land, one hottie at a time?

In “Ji Hyun-woo offered weekend drama Thief-nom, Thief-nim opposite Seohyun,” Miranda writes about the value of slowly building acting experience in comment #1.2.2:

The qualifiers are a problem again. This is the Suzy conundrum: an idol who keeps getting cast in headline roles but who should actually take a lot of smaller roles until she’s better at the work.

This isn’t specifically a criticism of the idols, by the way – everyone needs to learn how to do a job, but most people get to learn how to do it slowly, perfecting as they go. But management companies and broadcasters keep taking insane gambles on very MARKETABLE idols instead of picking the person with the best audition. It’s a business decision, but for the viewer it sucks because you’re watching an apprentice muddle through something that plenty of experienced people would have happily done.

Potential is great. Hard-working attitude is great. Effort is great. But none of it should earn idols roles in dramas that they clearly aren’t ready to take on. It’s harmful to the actors as well, putting a ton of expectation and responsibility on them when they’re hardly prepared. Casting them in smaller roles and letting them learn by degrees and observe veterans is the way to create a GOOD actor. Otherwise you’re just hoping to strike it lucky and find that one born natural actor in a sea of singers – and those guys don’t need more than one drama to make it clear that they’re the genuine article.

“She’s getting better compared to the last drama she was in” is not particularly compelling to me. I’m watching TV, not funding a scholarship program.

Michykdrama shares her wish in “School 2017 gears up for July broadcast on KBS” comment #26:

I echo those people asking for a more female centric drama. I love my bromance but girls are just as capable of having awesome life changing friendships too!

And preferably without one of them turning into a jealous catty snake, or having them both like the same guy. Please?

High school in an all girl’s school was the best time of my life. The friendships, sleepovers, waterfights, clothespegs fights (don’t ask), teasing teachers and crazy antics in class… Just a bit of this in a drama would make me very happy.

Please dramagods? I don’t need it to be just girls but please let’s have some awesome female friendships!

Elianne:

A female-centric friendship would just be the best thing ever honestly, the friends I made in high school were a huge part of my teenage years, and yeah life-changing friendships occur for both sexes too!

Plus it’s so rarely depicted well in high school dramas (or just dramas in general period) that now I’m going to be letdown if this drama doesn’t even attempt to include it.

Speaking of female leads, Sera The Ms Temper writes in “Perfect Wife: Episode 8” comment #8:

You know why I love this drama? Because the main focus are female leads’ parts and we have one of the female lead playing a psycho, mentally unstable – this is rare, role like this always played by an actor.

Go Soo Young & Jo Yeo Jeong are both perfectly fit in their own roles. Hopefully next week the rating will be increased.

Gwinna:

That’s one of the things I really appreciate about this drama as well. The two ladies are really the “main” leads and the focus of the story is on the interplay between them. And yeah, it is rare to even have a female villain who is not just the underling or sidekick of a male villain, but here we have two (EH and her mom). There might even be more female characters than male characters total in the drama.

sorrynotsorry shares good advice in “Radiant Office: Episode 4” comment #3:

One final thing I like about this drama….the secretary. I worked in offices for years, and I always give this advice to people starting out: be nice to the front desk receptionist. The company I worked for threw away resumes after interviews if the party involved was rude to the receptionist. And always always always realize that is not “just” a secretary. They know EVERYTHING.

latteholic writes in comment #8 of “Rebel: Thief Who Stole the People: Episode 15”:

I secretly wanting Gil Dong to answer Eunuch Kim’s and the shaman’s warnings with “I didn’t choose the thug life, the thug life chose me”. Missed opportunity, show!

While the-basketcase notices a pattern in Kdramas. She writes in comment #10 of “Rebel: Thief Who Stole the People: Episode 16”:

I keep noticing the same pattern of formula of romance in dramas for our main couples, especially sagueks. While it is not surprising that men tend to be more developed character in k-dramas (thanks patriarchy), I feel there is a complete lack of imagination in crafting the strong women that help these men (even though by now we really need some more women-centered dramas – women tearing down women doesn’t count). In this drama, Rebel, Ga-ryung is an innocent young girl. In Inspiring Generation, the main love interest, Ok-ryun, is a naive young girl, obsessed with her hero. In Gaksital, our main girl, Mok Dan, is young and chaste, obsessed with our hero. In Joseon Gunman, our main girl Soo-in is naive, chaste, and completely in love with the hero. I don’t know how many more drama’s I have to name, but they follow the same pattern. What bothers me even more is that in every single one of those dramas there is always a second lady who is seen more as “damaged” or “scarred” is attracted to our hero, and our hero is usually attracted to her a bit, but she will NEVER prevail over our young, chaste, innocent girl. In Rebel, we have Nok-soo, in Inspiring Gen. we have Kaya, in Gaksital we have Rie, in Jose Gunman we have Hye-won.

I don’t want to bash on any naive, chaste girls out there. You are totally a legitimate romantic partner who deserves a happy ending. But if you keep seeing these girls’ love win over the love of a more “storied” woman what kind of message does that tell girls watching these dramas? If you’ve been scarred from love or had a difficult life, you’re essentially “damaged goods”? All of these second women have had to sacrifice, forcibly or voluntarily, their chastity or innocence to survive. I just want a drama where these women get to shine and achieve the love they want! I’m reminded of how much I loved the drama Hogu’s Love where UEE played a girl who get her happy ending even though she wasn’t chaste or innocent.

Furthermore, I just completely find it ridiculous that those poor naive girls always win their man by waiting it out. These girls wait years for their man to notice them. What kind of a message is that sending to girl as well? If he doesn’t love you now, just wait 5 years! Don’t bother finding someone that can treat you better! When are we going to see a saguek where the man waits years for his lady love to notice him (have I not seen these dramas? tell me!)

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t enjoy these tropes play out, but who can’t appreciate diversity in storytelling? I just want all girls, not just cute and innocent ones (which I am absolutely not) to see a characters like them find love. And for men who aren’t natural leaders or alpha’s to see characters like them find love!

Also, why do all of these stories have dead or missing sisters?

We don’t know about missing sisters! But other beanies have answered the call for differently-written dramas here.

Schera talks about the heroine’s problem in “Yoo Seung-ho becomes the prince behind the mask in new Ruler–Master of the Mask teaser” comment #13:

” Kim So-hyun (Bring It On, Ghost) co-stars as a young woman determined to get revenge on the prince for ordering the execution of her father, but that revenge will take a big turn when she falls in love with the prince instead.”

Pfft, women…You had one job.

Cliche Love:

I’m sure what happened was that she was planning on killing a super old, super ugly and super mean guy, and then BAM!!!

It’s hottie prince, Yoo Seung Ho.

clover:

Cue flower petals rain, sunshine, plus birds chirping.

Klurker:

Don’t forget the slo-mo, flashbacks, lingering eye contact, and Goblin OST.
Sword falls dramatically to the ground. slo-mos 10x slower.
years of hate forgotten in one fell swoop.
So-hyun gets lost in Seung-ho’s always-about-to-cry gaze.
lol

Kidding aside, can’t wait for May 10!!!

We’re excited too! See you next week (which is not yet May 10) *sadface*

 
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