[drama 2008] Happiness / Bliss / I Am Happy 행복합니다

[Guest hjkomo]

Thank you for the link, Shenny! It's soooo much faster than CB.

I do try to learn online for my desperate attempts to understand korean. but don't have much time to do it. I'm also a bit confuse about korean alphabet (hangul) e.g for one character there are two possible equivalent sound like k@g, b@p l@r...

The reason there are two equivalent romanized letters for some Hangeul letters is because the pronunciation of the Hangeul is somewhere in between k&g, b&p, l&r, etc. Specifically for l & r, l is generally used when it appears at the end of a syllable and r is generally used when it appears at the beginning of a syllable (in my opinion) because the Hangeul pronunciation more closely resembles that way of romanizing. (e.g. how is the Hangeul letter even pronounced when you say the alphabet? ~ it's "ree-eul") There's also no official way of romanizing, so the romanized letters are often used interchangeably when translating from Hangeul.

[Guest cyan4jy]

Looks like a promising series after Golden Bride.

Wish any subbing group will do the subs for this!!!

[baduy]

SY: Because I felt guilty for sightseeing in Hong Kong without you! (What a good liar she is.)

Yes indeed. But again the really clever thing is that this is indeed 99% true. She was in truth feeling guilty towards him, and for good reasons. But she's a great liar because she's a true lover.

I think this is a fine example of how brilliant Kim Jung Soo is as a writer of drama. She invents these half-everyday, half-extraordinary situations and puts them into scenes and lines that skilful actresses can really milk for all they're worth.

So SY can keep going down this path for as long as its the only one she can see ahead of her, and be bolstered up by a conviction that she isn't really deceiving JS in anything that (to her) really matters. And for as long as it appears to be working and buying time, that's just what she does, including that uproarious visit to her fake "Mom" in ep 4. (I went hungry yesterday, after watching the episode "live" at UK lunchtime, because I laughed so hard that my innards were sore for hours).

But when there's nothing left for it but to come clean and face it out, she hands JS's address to that trusty driver and heads for his home base with a suitable basket of goodies to hand out. That gutsiness of hers again. And again, the underlying genuineness and honesty. She's not buttering JS's family up in the worst traditions of KDrama "hook your guy by hooking his elders" techniques. No. she's just being her lovable self and they're all loving her and quite right too. (Which doesn't mean she can't do the skirt-tugging-down "don't worry granny, I'm a good girl" bit as well. Again, that's not really deceptive. She truly is a good girl, though she knows that the detailed contents of a good girl package can be different in the eyes of older generations.

And ay-link, props to you, you were spot on with your comment on the ep3-4 cliffhanger sequence. JS may be uptight and easily charmable, but he has ears in his head and he's no fool. It turns out that he did indeed pick up on that initial "agashi" and the "-yo" at the apartment door, but, unsurprisingly, it took a while for the literally incredible implications to set in and for two and two and then twenty-two (like SY not knowing where the bathroom is in her "own" apartment, and that call allegedly from a "bus stop" after a "shopping trip", when he heard that voice in the background, again in polite mode, as SY was speaking) to make four million, hence the rage that makes him want to throw her out at the ep4 cliffhanger.

Great fireworks, BUT is there anything more phallic that THIS?

I'm so relieved that it's not just my dirty old European male mind that saw a certain symbolic significance here.

Especially since Ep3 opens with another demonstration of the side-effects of watching such displays, carrying on with the "couples" sequence from where we left off in ep 2, this time with Se Young and hubby in the presidential suite, the President plainly pre-occupied by something (my guess is that he's deeply uneasy about the background of some of those "investors" sonny boy has been wooing), but Se Young is too drunk to notice (or care) that he isn't exactly enthused by her still incessant though now very slurred babbling about her matrimonial plots.

[Aside: another illustration of how troublesome romanization can be: the difference between the spellings 세옝 (Mom) and 서윤 (daughter) is plain as a pikestaff, whereas the corresponding romanized forms Se Young and Seo Yoon are highly confusable as well as sharing the same English "initials". So I'll just call Se Young "Mom" though I'm rather scared of showing her such disrespect].

The last of the fireworks has died away while Mom was rabbiting on, but the, err, stimulating effects we noted on other couples at the end of the episode are plainly being felt by her as well. She pours hubby another glass of bubbly (maybe not actually a very good idea in view of what she has in mind, remembering what the porter says in Macbeth about booze: "it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance") and kills the bedroom lights.

Cut to an adjacent bedroom, where Ae Da, exceptionally it seems, is spending this particular night alone, though not in her thoughts, which are all with the nameless silent stranger. She tries moving his coat from her bedside chair to the bathroom laundry basket, maybe intuitively trying to lower the pheromone impact, but it doesn't help.

But hang on a sec: just where is SY, her roommate of the day before, spending this first night of 2008? Maybe she was banished to a separate single bedroom after that midnight squealing fit of hers? Or maybe not. At what point did she break off the Kissing a Girl 101 tutorial-cum-practical she was giving JS at the end of the previous ep?. Probably best not to enquire any further. But he is looking very pleased with himself when he arrives back in snow-covered Seoul the next day.

[Guest puela]

episode 02

part 01 : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OIMC9BW2

part 02 : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DD8QHBKR

Episode 03

part 01 : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=O1KCSXQ9

part 02 : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZEIF64KQ

[Guest hjkomo]

HAHA!!

Kissing a Girl 101 tutorial-cum-practical:

<- JS checks to see that no one's looking.

That's it? What a let down!

SY: Open your mouth.

[ay_link]

^ thanks for the caps, hjkomo dear

I love how she gives him this "what? come on, bring it on..."-look in that last cap..

This drama seriously has done such a great job creating the memorable, witty, alluring, yet can hook us up w/ those cliffys scene ever!

baduy hehehe... you know I'm glad he's as smart as he looks ^^ those glasses~

Now if anyone happened to catch him on his last drama, "3000 miles in search of my son"... what a total change!

He was sooo goofy, but kind-hearted-wouldn't-kidnap-a-frog type a man in there..

Lee Hoon's acting is really growing on me.

Counting down to weekend while I think I'll find some time to rewatch ep 3-4 again~

[Guest hjkomo]

I finished watching Episode 3. Hurray for federal holidays! (It's Presidents' Day in the states, so no work today.)

Cut to an adjacent bedroom, where Ae Da, exceptionally it seems, is spending this particular night alone, though not in her thoughts, which are all with the nameless silent stranger. She tries moving his coat from her bedside chair to the bathroom laundry basket, maybe intuitively trying to lower the pheromone impact, but it doesn't help.

But hang on a sec: just where is SY, her roommate of the day before, spending this first night of 2008? Maybe she was banished to a separate single bedroom after that midnight squealing fit of hers? Or maybe not. At what point did she break off the Kissing a Girl 101 tutorial-cum-practical she was giving JS at the end of the previous ep?. Probably best not to enquire any further. But he is looking very pleased with himself when he arrives back in snow-covered Seoul the next day.

After the 'Kissing A Girl' tutorial at the end of episode 2, I was eagerly looking to see where SY would have ended up the next morning, but alas, she is actually sleeping in the bed next to Ae Da. She sleepily, and with an irritated tone at the annoying disturbance of her little sister, tells Ae Da to turn out the light.

I guess the fireworks didn't work their magic quite that far.

A little more background on the Lee family:

Mom died at the age of 34, while giving birth to the youngest son, Joon Young. Hence, his sulking that no one celebrates his birthday because they always have to do the memorial service for their deceased mother.

Completely agreed w/ you on this case.

I, too, was having a hard time digesting' the JS's family side of things, especially when they seemed to be quite 'insignificant' during the first two episodes. BUT, in episode 3, things begin to surface a bit more in this humble family. The interaction between brothers, the matchmaking the grandma sets up for the single dad whose sons have begun to grow up, and she's worried that her son-in-law will keep on waiting by his deceased wife, with no wife to take care of him. And especially when they welcome Kang Seok and halmuhni quickly prepares his bowl of rice and soup, complete w/ the spoon and chopsticks, and tells KS to eat. I'm excited to see more stories of this family and their connection to Kang Seok. The plot has been thicken and it only gets better, hopefully.

Yes, I am really liking this family. This scene where they all welcome Kang Seok, without even batting an eye, really touched me. I was moved to the point of getting teary-eyed at their kindness and warmth (even the meddlesome old Halmoni).

Kang Seok stuffs his mouth full of food like there's no tomorrow (he's most likely missed a few meals, and they all take notice).

I like how they all bring him a jacket (since he shows up without one, having given his to Ae Da in Hong Kong).

And Dad brings him a pair of gloves.

Even a sleeping Joon Gi says, "Just give him one of mine."

And for all you lurkers I periodically see down there: COME, JOIN IN ON OUR DISCUSSIONS, AND SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THIS SHOW!

[baduy]

alas, she is actually sleeping in the bed next to Ae Da.

Oh dear, that really does prove I have an evil mind. (And it will confirm canyayasis's worst suspicions about me, once she's back with us). Now I look again (great excuse to view this one more time, though) not only is SY very plainly there in the next bed, but the poor thing also squeals in protest when Ae Da accidentally knees her in the gut en route to fetch the coat. Serves her right, I suppose, for kicking out at Ae Da earlier when she was advancing on Daddy.

[canyayasis]

Oh dear, that really does prove I have an evil mind. (And it will confirm canyayasis's worst suspicions about me, once she's back with us). Now I look again (great excuse to view this one more time, though) not only is SY very plainly there in the next bed, but the poor thing also squeals in protest when Ae Da accidentally knees her in the gut en route to fetch the coat. Serves her right, I suppose, for kicking out at Ae Da earlier when she was advancing on Daddy.

I'm here, you ne're-do-wells!!

Watching right now to get caught up.

I've watched 1 and 2 and I'm in it for the long haul -

actually, i'm really liking that this series will be with us for a while -

It seems with the 16 eppies - JUST ABOUT THE TIME- I'm getting the hang of it -

we fast forward a year - hair is longer and "that's a wrap!!"

Give me tonight and then I'll have plenty to say - I'm already looking for men wearing tennis shoes as a metaphor!!!

Wow! I totally just shmocked myself! YOWZAH!

BADUY ...... sigh..... really, suspicions??? me? of you???

Let's just find out - I'm IN, kids -!!

Why don't you two (BADUY and hjkomo) do the subs???

[ay_link]

Why don't you two (BADUY and hjkomo) do the subs???

Ermm... actually.... I have somewhat a VERY GOOD news

*sending lotsa <3 to hjkomo* hee hee..

WITH S2 is taking this on as a SIDE PROJECT, just because this project is too good to pass up~

BUT... we do still need TONS of help. So, please PM me or mily2, if you can help w/ translations

(korean/chinese translators are very welcome) ^^

[Guest mily2]

wave wave to everyone.. yes yes.. as ay_link ( shenny) just announced.. We are all very excited to tackle this drama.. and we hope many people will join us in this long journey.. After Golden Bride, we promised ourselves to not take on another long project.. but gosh.. our dear ay_link is in love with this fun drama.. and with such a title.. how can we resist? lol.. but to really bring this " Happiness" to the dear fans.. we really need all the help we can get.. We desperately need translators ( Korean, chinese), timers.. editors.. we need everyone.

Please email us at withs2team@gmail.com , or pm ay_link or myself... looking forward to hear from all the wonderful fans of this series.

[Guest smiley6yrl]

wave wave to everyone.. yes yes.. as ay_link ( shenny) just announced.. We are all very excited to tackle this drama.. and we hope many people will join us in this long journey.. After Golden Bride, we promised ourselves to not take on another long project.. but gosh.. our dear ay_link is in love with this fun drama.. and with such a title.. how can we resist? lol.. but to really bring this " Happiness" to the dear fans.. we really need all the help we can get.. We desperately need translators ( Korean, chinese), timers.. editors.. we need everyone.

Please email us at withs2team@gmail.com , or pm ay_link or myself... looking forward to hear from all the wonderful fans of this series.

Thanks Mily2, Aylink, and the rest of WITHS2's members for picking up this drama.. I was a bit disppointed since Single Papa in Love was taken off the possible future release list, but I'm glad you guys have decided to pick up this [long] family drama to replace Golden Bride. :blush: so hopefully this drama is something similar to Golden Bride, if not better but I believe in Ay_link's taste... hehe, so thanks again for everything that you guys have done for us~!!! and I can't wait to watch it! ok, im going to dl the raws now.. hehe whoohoo~!

Edit: Is there a wiki for this drama yet? since I can't find it... or maybe it's under some other names?

[canyayasis]

Ermm... actually.... I have somewhat a VERY GOOD news

*sending lotsa <3 to hjkomo* hee hee..

WITH S2 is taking this on as a SIDE PROJECT, just because this project is too good to pass up~

BUT... we do still need TONS of help. So, please PM me or mily2, if you can help w/ translations

(korean/chinese translators are very welcome) ^^

oh my gosh, oh my gosh - that is awesome news -mily2, ay_link, WITHS2 - you guys ROCK!

baduy and hjkomo - i'll start to gather the troups - this is definitely a group watching series.

[Guest dopeyleigh46]

THANKS WITHS2 for subbing this drama....I can wait to watch the first episode again but this time with subs!!!!

[canyayasis]

Ok. I'm SOOO in to this.

But let me see if I've got most of the dynamics correct...

by the end of EP.4 - her secret is out - her brother confirms that she is his sister and the President's DAUGHTER. (RIGHT?)

Feeling betrayed - he stops at a bar to drink

(love the music at that point - opening theme from the Sopranos..."woke up this morning -

stimulating visions of mob murders..)

His dad stumbles on him - they drink a bit too much and the father makes an emotional exposure to his eldest son,

while Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush serenade us in the background with "don't Give Up, you still have friends.."

*nice touch I might add.

The elder, armed with his new found knowledge - he's in love with the President's daughter -

throws (or tries to - judging by the preview)

tries to throw out the President's daughter (because he doesn't see her as his girlfriend/fiancee anymore)

and she shoots off an awesome look like ....."bohrl"??? (you talkin' to me?????)

======================

The President's SON has a first love/mistress - that we are getting indications has probably had his baby.

The mistress works as a manager in the hotel/office building - and has to play slave to this guy's wife.

The President's wife wants a grandchild - so she buys a magic banner to put under their bed.

But he's not interested in getting it on - Pres. son keeps running back to mistress/first love of some kind.======================================

Am I close so far??

[Guest kacanghijau]

Ermm... actually.... I have somewhat a VERY GOOD news

*sending lotsa <3 to hjkomo* hee hee..

WITH S2 is taking this on as a SIDE PROJECT, just because this project is too good to pass up~

BUT... we do still need TONS of help. So, please PM me or mily2, if you can help w/ translations

(korean/chinese translators are very welcome) ^^

Wow this is really a very GOOD NEWS for me yeay....

I just download EP4 raws from the link Ay_link provided. I not download the previous eps yet will do it later. I've watch the episode but fast forward it not to spoiler myself too much. This is indeed a really worth a drama to watch. The main lead is doing great and my fav LES, she's really different from her prev drama, EIA. Her role is more like her role in QSS but cheekier and sweeter too. She also has her own love story in this drama. Now, I will refrain myself to watch any further and will wait WithS2 release the softsubs and watch it properly. For the mean time, I will watch 'I Hate You But It's Fine' to get my daily dose of kdrama. (not really like this drama it's toooooooo draggy. Now watching TWSSG and will finish it soon. Not sure what to watch next) By the way I've taken this screencaps of eps4 of LES( Ae Da) She's really funny haha

[Guest hjkomo]

Yup, you got it!

JS is a pretty smart guy. He tells SY that he'll give her some time to come clean with him (after the visit to 'fake' mom's apartment) and that he hates liars. He's already figured out that

1) the story SY gave about pretending to be the President's daughter in Hong Kong is a bit fishy

2) she doesn't have an employee file/family background sheet on file at the company (either there never was one, or someone with highly restricted access removed it)

3) Mom calls her 'ahgassi' and hands her a fork like she's a princess and Mom's a servant

So, he decides to ask Sang Wook, as a classmate/friend and not his superior at the company, what his younger sister's name is. SW says that he should already know. Then, he tells JS, as a classmate/friend, that his sister's name is Park Seo Yoon and that JS should end things now before he's made to look a fool and like trash.

Yeah, I noticed the Sopranos, too.

About SY's brother Sang Wook: He's quite an interesting character. On the one hand, he's the cold, business-like heir to the SJ empire who knows the way the world works and that people from different social positions have no chance of being together whatsoever. On the other hand, he's a man who's so madly in love, and I mean like c-r-a-z-y in love with Ji Sook, that he can't and won't let her go. He screams at the unfairness that she had been born with nothing, an orphan - why couldn't she have half, or even 1/10th, of what other people have, so that their love could have at least had a chance?!?! They had been together for 7 years (that's how he knew her security code - it was her birthday, and he had celebrated her birthday for 7 years), but then, she disappeared all of a sudden (presumably because she was pregnant with his child), leaving him without a trace. He missed her so much (and you can see how he softens around her), and he refuses to leave her alone, now that she's back in his life, even if it means he's sort of an @ss to her. I wonder when he'll find out about the baby (I think it's a boy - and it looks like his wife is infertile). - The clip of him holding a baby and feeding him a bottle was just Ji Sook's imagination.

[baduy]

you two (BADUY and hjkomo)

Hmmm, shades of 우리들 (or tayong dalawa for all you silent lurkers who speak a language I like even more than Korean). Careful canyayasis: you'll be starting rumors there. I don't want hjkomo's hubby calling me out.

After all, we know from an earlier posting in this thread that he watches sports on TV. That's enough to get me nervous, even if he is 8 timezones away. I am so massively un-sporty that I have a serious problem watching live drama streams, because the Korean networks precede the "big" dramas with 10 mins or so of sports news. I have to sit through it because I need to get a connection working well in advance of the actual drama airing time, but it either fills me we nerve-wracking reminiscences of high-school horrors or, worse, sends me into a deep boredom-induced sleep that means I miss the cliffhanger resolution when the drama actually comes on.

Anyway, no need for any of you ladies to worry. Thanks to Mr Google's very wonderful "intelligent agent" who sends that discreet little row of ads at the foot of every Soompi page (we all get to see different ones supposedly targetted to our locality and "personal consumer profile" from Mr Google's vast snooped database), there are, right this very minute, "thousands of Korean women in your neighbourhood eager to meet you". (At least Mr Google's robotic "agent" is smart enough to do British spelling, though he ain't too hot on the demographics of provincial Britain.) So all I have to do is click the link, furnish my credit card number, and before I can say 김치 there will be a line of demure dark-haired girls in hanboks, all toting hampers of lovingly prepared 떡, stretching down our driveway and out into our suburban English street. So that's taken care of.

More seriously, I'm as overjoyed as everyone else that WITHS2 are taking this on. I didn't like to join the askers previously, because a long-haul weekender like this one is a big, big commitment for a subbing group, and after the trauma of Winter Bird (which of course mercifully, with hindsight, wasn't being subbed) it seems an even bigger risk.

Actually, I wish I hadn't zapped my WB's now, because it would have been interesting to go back to, say, the first 4 episodes and try to analyse just what it was that deluded me, and so many others, into thinking this one was going to be worth sticking with. Not to mention why it took me so long to break the soul-destroying habit of watching the thing get more and more preposterous every weekend.

All the same, after the truly wonderful ep 4 of our current drama (a bit hard to settle an English title, though, one problem being that "Happiness" is already occupied by a well known movie from only a few months back, which has its -- still active I think -- thread on Soompi too) it's hard to image a similar lurch into weekly agony happening here. Especially since I have massive faith in the writer.

it looks like his wife is infertile

though as canyayasis has already observed, referring to that scene in which Ha Kyung squirts on the perfume in the matrimonial boudoir and slips off her dressing gown to reveal the closest thing a live-to-air Korean TV drama can get to a piece of sexy lingerie without running the risk of losing that little yellow "16" disk and being banished to cable, she apparently doesn't get much chance to find out whether she's fertile or not.

We can see how this is a big problem for her, because unless she comes up with the goods, preferably male, pretty soon, she's going to be struck off from Mother-in-Law's Most Favored Persons list and added to the Axis of Anti-Dynastic Evil. With her usual sensitivity, no sooner has Ha Kyong embarked on a sentence by saying she has a piece of good news than Mother-in-Law does a big "Ahhh!!!! you don't mean you're...???" But she doesn't, and she isn't. So it's a spot of Chinese calligraphy hidden under the sheets to the rescue. Don't you just love the way that Mom, who's plainly never made a bed in her entire life, insists, to Ha Kyung's considerable embarrassment, on installing the, err, potent incantation in its correct place with her own would-be grand-maternal hand? Next thing she'll be hiding in the wardrobe to do a spot of micro-coaching.

[Guest por13_2mpn]

It's a very good news!!!!!

Thanks so much ay_link, mily2 and WITH S2 Team!!!

[canyayasis]

Morning hjkomo!

I just printed out the family flow chart - did my 3x5 cards of the character description -\

i'm seriously in for the long haul!

(p.s. tomorrow HGD - sigh -)

Morning to you BADUY too.

I'm so happy to be watching together with you two.

Truth be told - I would have watched it because of you two even i didn't really care for the story -

but i like this story - alot!