Min-kyeong (played by Lee Seon-hee-I) is a screenwriter with whom Ji-woong has some deliberately bad history. Despite her inherently minor role, Min-kyeong almost immediately won me over by just echoing the exact same criticism I’ve been making of “Our Beloved Summer” this entire time. The documentary Ji-woong is trying to make has no apparent point. And where Ji-woong sees crisis in the disappearance of his lead subjects, Min-kyeong sees opportunity since there must be some reason why they’ve inexplicably run off.
Advertisement
“Our Beloved Summer” has always had this awkward problem. The flashbacks are by far the strongest parts of the show…yet they are, by definition, irrelevant to the premise. The documentary crew has no access to flashbacks. So Woong’s opening story about his tendency in life to run away is exhaustingly pompous as usual. He’s telling a story about how unique he is. Yet in flashback, Woong’s tendency toward evasiveness is played much more ambiguously as a genuine flaw.
Yeon-soo has the exact same flaw, intriguingly enough. This is why they both run off at the same time, for similar reasons, but accidentally manage to run into each other again just like they did in high school because they both find solace in the library. It’s an important commonality between the two, despite the differing motivation. Yeon-soo sees the library as a means for self-improvement, while Woong sees it as a means of leisurely fantasy.
Outside of these conflicts the story of “Our Beloved Summer” is on dubious footing. We get an entire subplot about NJ’s forgiveness program for people who make malicious comments about her online. The very idea that NJ can even identify these people is weirdly dystopian. It’s to the credit of Roh Jeong-eui that she can make NJ sympathetic in a situation like this, because on its face the briquette donation subplot makes her seems very petty and vindictive. Random online comments really don’t do much actual harm to her career.
While not compelling I did find the whole subplot of Eun-ho and Sol-i doing the celebration party with nothing to celebrate to be entirely adorable. With “Our Beloved Summer” nearing the halfway point this seems like a very odd time to introduce a possible romantic subplot and maybe this isn’t actually going to go anywhere but I still found the entire storyline to be very cute. Especially since, in general, neither of these characters have actually had much to do up until now.
Review by William Schwartz
___________
“Our Beloved Summer” is directed by Kim Yoon-jin-I, written by Lee Na-eun-I, and features Choi Wooshik, Kim Da-mi, Kim Sung-cheol, Roh Jeong-eui, Ahn Dong-goo, Park Won-sang. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/12/06~Now airing, Mon, Tue 22:00 on SBS.
jsw313689jsw
William Schwartz
Staff writer. Has been writing articles for HanCinema since 2012, having lived in South Korea since 2011. Started out in Gyeongju, then to Daegu, then to Ansan, then to Yeongju, then to Seoul, lived on the road for HanCinema’s travel diaries series in the summer of 2016, and is currently settled in Anyang. Has good tips for utilizing South Korea’s public bus system. William Schwartz can be contacted via william@hancinema.net. He also has a substack at williamschwartz.substack.com where he discusses the South Korean film industry in broader terms and takes suggestions for future movies to review.
[HanCinema’s Drama Review] “Our Beloved Summer” Episode 7 (2022/01/04)
Source: Laban Lang Philippines
0 comentários :
Post a Comment