https://instagram.fsnc1-3.fna.fbcdn.net/t51.2885-15/e35/18443611_1464875666895985_196946919358988288_n.jpg

Last one, promise 🙂
http://m.post.naver.com/my/series/detail.nhn?memberNo=3669297&seriesNo=274476

I’ve gone through his insta pics and liked them so I can remember to bookmark them later.

😉

Haha, last reply to you because I need to let you sleep. I personally actually liked how little drama was used to wrap up the dad storyline, it felt refreshing to me that they defied expectations and made the change not situational, but from within Hangyul as he accepts it. As for Yoona, I get her purpose in the narration (Hangyul past to compare to, veteran artist, stirring Sorim’s sense of inferiority, etc.) but didn’t feel attached to her much, tho I had moments when I admired her no-nonsense and self-aware attitude.
For J-adaptation: the blog post here is nice:
http://www.dramabeans.com/activity/p/156268/#acomment-156273

Dad’s history is the rational that explains Hangyul’s initial philosophy about music:
– his over-protectiveness of his music (and lying and treating Sorim harshly because of it)
– his tendency to be individualistic and selfish (Dad was the opposite, betrayed by friends who took his music, so Hangyul ends up making music that doesn’t take his bandmates into account, music for himself alone, even if he makes it for the purpose of protecting his band)
– and other factor like his independence, his distrust and antagonistic relationship with his company superiors, his rigidity since dad is so sloppy, his drive to make his music known and successful, his inability to interact properly and preserve his relationships from his lack of parental presence, etc.

He’s also the fix point used to measure by comparison Hangyul’s change.

He put his music above his people, because doing what his dad did, giving in to others, meant losing his music. He believed it was one or the other. After meeting his girlfriend, who associates music with people she loves because of her mother, and refuses to give up people for music, or music for people, he starts to change. By the end, he reconciles himself with his father as he understands a bit better his father’s past decision (I assume the money was needed for his family), and present decision not to pursue the issue as it would hurt many. He, himself, sacrifices the right to a few of his songs, which he used to put above all else, to protect and take responsibility for his friends. Dad is a constant, Hangyul changed. Dad is an extreme, already set in his way, and as he says, too old to change even when he’s wrong. But Hangyul both mirrors and differs from his Dad by becoming a little bit more like him, but also by being capable of flexibility and changing his ways. Unlike Dad who is too old to look back and regret, Hangyul can look back and fix things up.
(Good thing I need to go out or I would have written even longer. Thank your lucky stars you got saved from an even longer ramble :D)

Super late reply (you know, life… meaning no logging in DB for days… meaning I felt like something is missing for the past few days… the addiction is real.).
After reading your reply, I figured this is really all about a matter of taste. Like I said previously, I really appreciated how dad’s storyline was wrapped up with little drama an fanfare. What made Liar special for me, was that it distinguished itself by choosing to stay light and moving on quickly, rather than milk drama for all its worth. It had the choice to easily exploit many more threads in a more emotionally stronger (and in my book, manipulative way), but I loved that it always moved on and didn’t feel necessary to linger and drag things for all their worth. Characters dealt with their feelings in one scene usually, mostly realizing something internally, and once they made peace with whatever hang-up they had internally, they moved on.

The resulting viewing experience for me was that I got the best of both worlds. I got enough drama substance and complexity that I could connect emotionally and feel the characters and their emotions in an organic way, without feeling that I exerted in the least emotionally, the way watching fluff is so easy.

For the dad’s storyline specifically, I appreciated that we could get the father-son dysfunctional and loving quality down, without needing to go through the whole drama routine of of tears, yelling, and over-the-top anger and all that good old stuff. Same with CEO Yoo and Dad. I felt how emotionally rich their relationship and history was, without the drama to go emotional on me. It left those kind of acting for other scenes to make them more impactful I guess? If I was to make an analogy, it was like being able to something sweet and good the way junk food or a heavy pasta meal is, without actually feeling that it was a heavy meal when I overate. To me, the meal between Hangyul and his Dad when Hangyul shared that he finally understood his decision, was conclusion enough, and actually very moving for me. The quiet and simple way, almost off-handed way it was executed made in all the more moving for me. It’s a personal thing, but I get particularly moved when we get scenes like that, with a wealth of history between the two, unspoken words of acknowledgement and mutual understanding and acceptance, and reconciliation. All done in the most deceptively casual manner possible. I just dig those kind of scenes a lot.

What’s funny is if I were to criticize this drama (which I don’t really feel like it), it would be almost the exact opposite criticism to yours. Scenes I could make do without would be all scenes where characters were strongly emotional or hysterical, because I tend to check myself out emotionally when they happen, which I don’t do for emotional in a subtle way scenes. Don’t get me wrong, I still get affected by them, but I could get them in 99% of other dramas too, and quiet scenes with a. And what I like about Liar was that it avoided those scenes when it could. I was happy to be able to retain my energy watching it.
BUT, like I said, I realized it was a matter of taste reading your comment, because I can understand wanting to see a storyline used to its full emotional potential, even if I personally didn’t want this for Liar.

By the way don’t feel the need to reply, I’ll be ok, because I don’t know when next I will have the luxury to check in DB again. Could be this week-end if things work out, or 2 weeks from now, if complications arise, so I can’t guarantee a prompt reply.

Whoops, reading back, I realize I was rambling a lot and didn’t make a ton of sense.
In short, I just like scenes of reconciliation like Dad and Han, or Chan and Han drinking with their back to the wall, or Sorim and Chan non-confession at her dorm, or Chan and Shi on the steps, or Yoona asking Han what was wrong with her, or Yoon and So “disliking” each other in the car.

There, you don’t need to read the long comments. Just skip them. They made no sense anyway. lol.

Looks like I’m sounding very incoherent and rambly again. Apologies. Need Sleep. ASAP.

DB over sleep always. I’ll sleep when I’m dead. No worries on the spam, I really do find your thoughts interesting. I agree that there was forward motion in the relationship throughout the drama, and maybe it’s just me, but to me this was one of the weaker storylines in an overall very strong drama. So it’s not that it was terribly done overall, it’s just in the final resolution that I found things to be a bit lacking.

I think I’m disappointed because, as you wonderfully pointed out, it was Han-gyul experiencing the same sacrifices his father had to make that made him finally understand him. I just wanted these two parts to be connected, because if the show was gonna tie up everything in a neat little bow, this would’ve been a really easy one to do. One scene was all I ask.

Would you mind quickly clarifying what kind of scene you were specifically looking for?
To me, I already found satisfaction when Dad admitted that he didn’t know all the answers and just pretended to know, and when Dad admitted that even if he was wrong, it was too late to regret. So that meal towards the end was actually an expected surprise bonus for me, which means I’m having a hard time figuring out what you’re referring to. Sorry if I seem slow today, my brain is working on safe mode.

(I know a drama character said I’ll sleep when I’m dead but can’t figure out who…)

Nvm, was it Danah? (Speaking of female characters, I LOVE Unnie. She’s me about marriage basically.)

Nvm, I think I figured out the kind of scene you wanted, with maybe more conversation? Is that it?
I guess I didn’t need it because I thought what was needed to be said from Dad was said in their previous conversation, so the meal was about what Hangyul had to say to Dad, a more or less “I finally can understand you a bit, which means I can forgive you a bit.” And I think it was the fact in itself that the son was finally able to understand Dad and for Dad to hear him say it was very moving in itself for me that I didn’t need anything else (partly because I was projecting a lot from my own life). But I think I can understand why you did.

Ok, sleep for real. It was nice talking to you today, hugs and hugs.

Oh, and WFKBJ is my all-time fav drama! (Liar comes close).

I think there was just something in general that was missing for me in terms of bridging the two parts — like all these conversations happened in between action, but there was just something missing for me. In all fairness, I could also have just missed something all together while watching and just be dumb. But there was just an element of emotional heft that was missing. Maybe it was just more of dad’s backstory I wanted, then? I can’t quite put my finger on it. There’s just something about the whole arc that feels like it’s missing a piece to me.

Maybe it’s because we know how extremely emotionally attached Han-gyul is to Crude Play’s music, but we don’t see that same parallel in In-woo? We know In-woo lives for music, but his hurt from the past was never palpable the way Han-gyul’s is — we’re only told it is. We see one flashback to childhood an that’s it. We know he ran away from his family because of it. But we never see the interim effect. So the parallels are there but the emotional connection to them are not?

(Also, the “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” is a thing I’ve been saying forever, after I saw a movie with that title years ago. Though I’m also a bit of an insomniac, so…Though I think Dan-ah said something similar in the first episode of Strongest Deliveryman, but I haven’t been able to get past episode 3, so pretty sure that show is dropped like a hot potato.)

(I want to be Unnie when I grow up. She’s my fave drama character of the last year. Though I’m still on episode 36…but yeah, I could write poetry about her she’s so badass.)

Also sleep! We can debate another day…lord know’s I’ll probably have material up for you to do so. I should sleep too, come to think of it.

(WFKBJ is one of my top five dramas of all time. Possibly top three. Up there with Soulmate, my number one, and Answer Me 1997.)