Oh My Drama: Feelings

Officially Kmusic

December 23, 2015

I recently finished several dramas, so with a plethora to choose from, I chose “Feelings,” a drama I had heard about years ago, and got a hold of to watch, watched half, and then got distracted…for two years.

ANYWAY~ It’s a great drama. Let’s take a look at the synopsis and then let me tell you everything that’s wrong with it and blab about it to you.

Obviously by now, you know there will be spoilers. You’ve been warned.

This drama was directed by Yoon Suk Ho, the same man who directed the famed season dramas like “Winter Sonata.” This drama aired back in 1994 on KBS2 from July to September during the 21:55 time slot on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

The drama stars Son Ji Chang, Kim Min Jong, Lee Jung Jae and Woo Hee Jin.

Synopsis: Three brothers Bin (Song Ji Chang), Hyun (Kim Min Jong), and Joon (Lee Jung Jae) become drawn to the very pretty and sweet Yuri (Woo Hee Jin), a family friend. Yuri arrives from France to live with them for the summer while attending classes at their university, causing each brother to be attracted to her in a different way.

SOOOO Oh my god,  I thought that this was going to be the classic K-Drama formula, but I was WRONG…sort of.
The drama starts out with the three brothers, Bin, Hyun and Joon attending college. Bin is the sporty player with his childhood friend (who has a MAJOR crush on him) Hye Rin (Lee Bon), Joon is on the canoeing team where he meets his new friend, Han Suk Chan (Park Jae Hoon), the buff addition to the team, and Hyun spends copious amounts of time in the library, studying because he’s the bookworm of the bunch.

The drama starts out all fun and games, and with the addition of Joo Hee (Lee Ji Eun), who is a loud tomboy who develops feelings for Hyun.

They come home one day to their mother (Jung Yeong Sook), who tells them that their childhood friend, Yuri (Woo Hee Jin) will be coming over from France to spend the summer with them. The three brothers are pretty excited, since they haven’t seen her in years.

Well, she get’s there and is almost immediately mowed down by Joon on his motorcycle. After Joon apologizes and tries to play it off, Yuri, unimpressed, heads on her way to her new home.

She arrives there before Joon does, and settles into his room as he has moved into Bin’s room. A hilarious and cringeworthy scene where Joon tries on one of Yuri’s tops as shorts ensues, and then she catches him, making it even cringier.

So we go through this drama, and of COURSE, Joon falls for Yuri. It’s the classic K-Drama formula. Or so I thought. So obviously from the generic synopsis, all the guys fall for her in some way.

Hyun and Joo Hee have this thing where she follows him around, and its obvious that she likes him, but he doesn’t really care. Now this is all fine and dandy, and actually somewhat amusing, until they, I guess I want to phrase it as ‘become adults’ and she becomes this clingy, annoying ‘plot device.’

I thought her character was fine until she ‘grew up’ because they made her really obnoxious instead of the funny, cute girl who had a crush on Hyun.

At first I shipped it and then afterwards I really didn’t know what to do. Especially after they made Yuri like Hyun. See, Joon likes Yuri, but Yuri never feels that way about Joon.

She begins to seem to like Bin, but that’s just as a brother-sister relationship and that’s all it ever boils down to despite the writers forcing Hye Rin to be suspicious all the time. Which is extremely unfounded because he never does anything un-brotherly with Yuri. He runs when she’s in trouble and helps her out. End of story.

Then there’s Hyun; quiet, studious Hyun who hangs out with Yuri and gets to know her, unlike everyone else who’s busy with their own stuff. So, obviously, the writers begin to ship Hyun and Yuri which made me ship Hyun and Yuri, and I didn’t want to because at the time, I was shipping Hyun and Joo Hee.

But then I began to because I got this inkling feeling…which I shall now tell you about.

Around episode 6, Joo Hee hands Hyun a mix tape. Romantic, right? However, just before hand, their mother was listening to a tape, which Hyun mixed up and ended up hearing a huuuuge secret.

That secret being: one of them is adopted, and is actually Yuri’s biological brother.

Which makes the shipping weird, because Hyun goes to the hospital to check for records, and something the doctor says throws his suspicion…on himself. Which makes it doubly weird.

Joon takes off with Yuri every once in awhile, and even confesses to her at one point. She tells him there’s no way she can love him like that, but he refuses to give her up (oh my gaaaaad) and still pursues her, just not as aggressively.

There’s not much that goes on for ‘drama’ in the show, other than the sibling secret love…pentagon thingy.

So, fast-forward to the near-end. The boys’ mother wants Hyun to get married, so she sets him up on a blind date that he agrees to.

And guess. Who. Shows. Up? That’s right, Joo Hee. And that’s the first time they meet since school. So, that’s when the whole her-being–an-annoying-plot-device starts. She inserts herself into his life, most notably his workplace, where her uncle is the CEO. This makes Hyun uncomfortable so he confronts her and she’s all like, “Look man, I was already set to work here before you got hired, this is just a coincidence,” not word for word, but you get what I mean.Which I sort of believe, because…in the world of K-Dramas it makes sense for her to work under her CEO relative.

Anyway, she pops up there and throughout the rest of the series that way until finally, FINALLY, she sees that she will probably never have him love her the way she loves him, and says her ‘final’ goodbye, and there’s a long hug with a looooong flashback scene of every interaction they’ve ever had.

Eventually, Bin and Hye Rin get married, but before that happens, one question remains: Just exactly WHO is Yuri’s brother? They each take turns saying it’s them, but we hear a voice over of Yuri saying, “Of course, I knew it was you all along,” as she and Joon walk along the river.

Before Bin’s wedding, Joo Hee makes a final appearance. She says hi to Yuri at the wedding hall and asks how everything’s going. Yuri tells her to wait there. Joo Hee figures out what she’s doing and leaves before Yuri has the chance to bring Hyun over. Hyun doesn’t know what’s going on, so they go back in and the wedding commences.

As the reception takes place outside, Joon steps back from everyone else, and recites an inner monologue. It’s pretty weird, let me get you a quote.

“A new beginning is upon us… Yuri, the image of your back and the remains of myself, the time spent with you. I wished for time to stop at each of those moments. If that was the only way I could stay with you. But now, I have no reason to try so hard to win you. From the time we were born, you and I were one. I’m not sending you away. You’re already with me.”

I found that weird, and a little creepy, because that sounds more like a guy moving on from a woman who doesn’t reciprocate his feelings, but is still in love with her. It was the writers trying to make the brother-falling-for-his-sister thing seem less weird, but it’s just as weird as ever.

Overall, the drama is lighthearted with plenty of laughs. No tears, but I enjoyed the nostalgia, and if you’d like to watch it, go here. There’s no English subtitles, but it’s the only place I could find it online.

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