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

[baduy]

I think we can now safely say there'll be no more Happiness this weekend. Unless they decide to screen it in the early hours of Monday morning, Korean time, which is extremely unlikely.

[Guest puela]

I think we can now safely say there'll be no more Happiness this weekend. Unless they decide to screen it in the early hours of Monday morning, Korean time, which is extremely unlikely.

Thanks Baduy I dont know what I would do w/o you hehehe

back to painting my room (i'M SORE ALL OVER AIGOO) ^^v c u guys tomorrow..

[baduy]

Thanks Baduy I dont know what I would do w/o you hehehe

Oh, I bet you could think of quite a few useful things...

Actually, I'm sore all over from painting too, but then I'm painting part of the side of the house that's right by a neighbor's thorn bush. You have thorn bushes in your room?? Nvm, forget it, intrusive question...

[Guest puela]

Oh, I bet you could think of quite a few useful things...

Actually, I'm sore all over from painting too, but then I'm painting part of the side of the house that's right by a neighbor's thorn bush. You have thorn bushes in your room?? Nvm, forget it, intrusive question...

hahahaha 2 thron dogs that decide to lay down at the worse place possible so I have to go around them and I have to make sure that they don't get paint on themselves.. :blush:

dont even mention the rest of the house.. cause its looking pretty ugly to me now... but definetely not this w/end.. cant take it anymore..

Thanks again for the heads up on H ^^v have a great w.end well whats left of it

[baduy]

Only one episode this week, and one where many of the most important scenes make perfect sense without any linguistic help, so with a bit of luck I may be able to get through it in just two chunks, and here's the first. Just a reminder that when I skip scenes, it doesn't mean I don't think they're important. These spoilers are meant to help people with not much Korean get more out of watching the raws, not as a replacement for watching the real thing...

[ep 56 start]

JA on the phone with Mom watching glumly. From her side of the conversation, we gather JA is talking to young Kang, who is still in the States

No I'm not lying to you. Ae Da's cellphone really is broken... Yes. ...She's going to buy a new one.... I'm afraid her mother's not here either.... She's gone out again today. ... Hello? Hello?!

"Looks like President Kang's son is really angry" she warns Mom.

Before Mom can say anything about that, Mrs Ahn, bearing the thermos of restorative porridge we saw her cooking up in her kitchen at the end of ep 55, knocks at the door (giving us a reminder that these events are taking place at roughly the same time as Kang Soek is dying in the hospital) Mrs Ahn dispatches JA to the kitchen to fetch some

water kimchi (http://www.koreanyori.com/koreanyori/gimchi/27%20yulmoomool.htm if your Korean is up to following recipes, but you really shouldn't try to make, or eat, this sort of stuff at home folks unless it's in your genes and you share your domicile -- or better still your entire block -- with very tolerant people) and so she's out of the room when the landline phone rings and Mom yells through to her not to pick up if it's yet another call from the US. (So that silver-plated authentic mock-antique handset, obligatory for all Kdrama chaebol living rooms, has a caller-id display. Forward thinking guy, that Alexander Graham Bell) Mom just has time to enlighten Mrs Ahn about the now precarious engagement prospects of Ae Da before Jjong Ah's wail of anguish reveals that the call was from somewhere much closer to home.

[00:09:15]

After scattering KS's ashes, Ae Da visiting her father at the company

- Did the funeral go off well?

- Yes. I'm sorry Daddy. I couldn't go home and leave Kang Soek Oppa.

- No need to be sorry. I understand. I'm the one who should be saying sorry.

- I found out it was you who sponsored Kang Soek Oppa. Thank you.

- Yes indeed. Thanks to you I got to know a courageous man. So thank you for that.

- I'll go home now.

- Ae Da, how about we go on a trip somewhere, just you and me?

- Aren't you needed at the company?

- Never mind about that, I'll just let it all drop.

- I'm fine, really.

[Watch the President's right hand as she leaves the room... Like his wife a few days earlier, he's seen that Ae Da has become a grown woman and is departing on her own life. She senses that too, and pauses at the door to look back at him half fondly, half sadly. But whereas Mom won't yet let go of her "doll", the President accepts that the time has come to take leave of the last of his little girls (remember his walk in the park with Seon Yoo when he alarmed her by saying he was upset at the thought of losing the woman he'd loved even more than his wife for many long years, till she suddenly realised who what woman was.) He involuntarily stretches his hand toward Ae Da as if to call her back, but then he leaves it resting on the chair and lets her go her way.]

[00:12:02]

Ae Da comes into the house and meets her mother. I don't want to hamper sales of a forthcoming groundbreaking study by canyayasis entitled Un- and Semi-reciprocated Hugs in Korean Drama: a Bird's Eye Perspective", to be published next month by the Friends of Colorado Wildlife Association (pre-orders to Hjkomo Enterprises, please mark your envelope plainly "NOT a Country Ajumma Pants order" to ensure speedier attention) but note the complete limpness of AD's arms in her mother's embrace as she simply says "I'll go wash up" and walks away upstairs.

[00:15:28]

Ha Kyoung starts her meeting in a restaurant with the wife of the HK group president (aka the Ajumma in Orange)

At the same time, over at the company, the President has just taken a call from Right-Hand-Side-of-the-Table Director (the one in favor of SY and JS as successors): "Ha Kyoung's activities continue to look suspicious. And it's emerging that she was behind Park Sang Wook's scheme to manipulate the stock prices." "I gave her a very clear warning..." says the President to himself.

We cut back to the restaurant, where Mrs HK is looking very shocked at what HK has just proposed (and we didn't hear)

- Ha Kyoung! Do you realise what you're proposing amounts to?!

- I know that very clearly" [she uses the same word for "clearly" - 분명히 - that the President just used about his warning to her.]

- You want me to set up a ghost company and buy up shares in SJ foodstuffs. Is that what you're saying?

- Naturally you could buy them at below the current market price.

- Gosh, you are a really scarey young woman. I'm not having anything to do with this! (She gets up to leave) It's too risky. And it could lead to huge trouble with the law. I'm leaving.

- I wouldn't normally want to do it either. But President Park is thinking of retiring very soon. And he's planning stop Park Sang Wook succeeding him.

- So who will be the successor then?

- I can't be certain, but I think it's to be Seo Yoon and her husband.

- No! Not those two young things?! That doesn't bear even thinking about!

- My marriage is under attack. Fromn my mother in law, too. She wants me to get divorced and leave the company.

- What are you saying! (she sits back down again) Your mother-in-law really said that?

- Yes. I'm on the brink of losing everything. I thought my parents-in-law would always stand by me, but now things are looking really bad. HK and SJ are involved in developing a resort overseas, construction is about to get under way. We need to work together to ensure the future of our companies. Everything depends on that resort being a success. If HK can operate the resort in collaboration with Park Sang Wook, he would put the full force of the company behind it, in a way not even my father-in-law could. We can give up the foodstuffs supply operation if we just get the construction contract.

While Mrs HK is thinking about that, Dong Soek passes by and senses something fishy about their meeting and their obvious air of conspiracy.

[00:19:55]

Not all Kdrama characters can get their plot-necessary eavesdropping done in open-plan galleried mansions. The other mainstay is, of course, the company bathroom with its rich possiblities for characters learning things not meant for their ears. Normally, because of gender-specific grooming and peer-bonding behaviors in the vicinity of hand-wash-basins and large mirrors (not to mention freebie cosmetics in plusher establishments) it's an unseen female in a nearby stall who gets to hear things not meant for public consumption. This time, however, we're in the gents, and it's Joon Soo who hears two staff members talking about the rumors that are rife in the company about the President's impending retirement, and the possiblity that because Sang Wook cheated on his wife, the succession may go to Seo Yoon and Joon Soo. The son and heir has an eye for a pretty girl and gets the shove, the guy who hooked the President's daughter wins the jackpot...

Joon Soo is furious and frustrated: "Why the hell do these strange rumors keep going around?" he asks himself.

He exchanges notes on the matter with Seo Yoon in the corridor after she catches him yet again with one of her surprise attacks from the rear. She's heard the rumors about her father's retirement, too, but she doesn't really believe them either, even if her father has been looking in need or a rest lately. But they both agree that the rumors are causing problems for company morale. "Why don't we just ask him?" SY suggests. "No don't do that", JS replies. "Not when he's so worried about Ae Da." "But Oppa..." SY replies [and at this point, 00:21:54-56, as we cut to a closeup of SY, there is a rather nasty lighting/color mix continuity error, which stands out all the more because the editing is normally so faultless] ".. supposing it's true? That stuff about you and me possibly..." "Oh that's just nonsense" JS says dismissively. SY's mood changes into male chauvinist detection mode: "Why should it be?..." And after a long double-take, JS suddenly realises for the first time what may truly lie in store...

We cut to them the same evening in their bedroom at the mansion. JS still seems to be totally shattered by the thought of his suddenly-revealed prospects and just wants to go to sleep, but SY is sitting at her dressing table asking herself why shouldn't the two of them run all those companies. And she slaps JS awake to ask him the same question. He tells her to stop indulging in such fantasies, and looks forward to going home to his father's house, and sanity, next day (for the low-budget wedding celebrations of Joon Ki and Son Mi). "So: because you're afraid to think about it, you don't want to talk about it?! Coward!" says SY and hits him again, leaving him no chance of getting any sleep eventually unless he distracts SY by engaging her in some non-business-related energetic activity...

In their bedroom nearby, there's a very different exchange between Ha Kyoung and SW.

- Honey, if it were necessary to make a sacrifice for the future of the company, would you be willing to do that?

- Sacrifice? What do you mean?

- It would be a very small sacrifice...

- If it really was necessary, then I'd make it.

- That's the way I think too.

SW turns over and goes to sleep, but HK lies thinking about the "sacrifice" she has in mind and gets a suitably creepy chord to go with it.

And in her bedroom, too, Ae Da is not alone that night. "Everyone dies," Kang Soek reminds her. "It's just that I went on ahead".

In the morning, JJong Ah is flabbergasted to see Ae Da wearing the intact necklace. - - When did that get fixed? It was broken wasn't it?

- Oppa mended it

- What?!

- Kang Soek Oppa came and mended it.

Ae Da speaks as if it were the most normal thing in the world, but Jjong Ah plainly thinks she's gone nuts. In fact, her matter-of-fact calmness is a sign of her restoration to the world of the living through this healing visitation from the realm of the dead.

[Guest cococrust]

ep 51 c-sub

http://www.sendspace.com/file/7muhuk

[baduy]

Before I carry on with the main plot lines for the rest of ep 56, skipping the Joon Ki strand as before, just a hint for those who've asked me off-list about what's going on in the kitchen between Soon Mi and Seo Yoon. Briefly, it's the continuation of that sister-in-law pecking order matter that I said a bit about on the occasion of Soon Mi's declared intention to address Seo Yoon in panmal. Pop Lee tells Granny in private about his bamboozlement that Soon Mi is able to rule the roost over Seo Yoon. He just can't figure it out. Should be maybe put in a word for Seo Yoon and ask the senior daughter-in-law to go easy on her? Stay well out of it, Granny warns him, this is women's stuff, let them sort things out among themselves (and she's plainly hugely enjoying the sight of household-gadget-loving, once-worn-tights-throwing-away, foreign-car-driving career woman Seo Yoon getting her come-uppance from the formidable and mega-thrifty Soon Mi) After the "wedding feast", as Mrs Ahn dons her washing up gloves, Soon Mi tells her not to bother, washing up is the junior daughter-in-law's job. She'd normally help out, but standing up too long is bad during pregnancy. Of course, she cheefully points out, things might be different if Seo Yoon could see her way to getting pregnant herself like a good daughter-in-law should... [Love the way SY thinks you have to shake a bottle of washing up detergent as if it were ketchup, then squirts it liberally on the sponge as if it were toothpaste...] But back to more weighty matters and the rest of the episode....

[00:29:50]

In an empty meeting room at the company, Dong Soek is tipping SY off about what he accidentally witnessed at the hotel.

- Ha Kyoung met with the wife of the HK president? Well we do have some joint projects, so why shouldn't they meet?

- But why in secret? And aren't there strange rumors about your father's retirement? Maybe the HK group is trying to influence who succeeds him?

- There aren't [sY is shaping up well here as future co-President. DS is an outsider, and she isn't about to admit she knows of these rumors, let alone be dragged into commenting on them]

- OK. You know best. I just wanted to tell you what I suspected.

And DS rushes off, saying he has a company of his own to run now, and being a CEO is a really hard job. He knows full well that he's provided a vital piece of intelligence, and that SY knows it too. But he also gets her message that she's going to handle this on her own, and in her own way.

[00:30:30]

The President and Mom in their bedroom

- You want to take a trip with Ae Da? For a whole month?

- That's right

- But what about Ae Da's engagement? And the company?

- I'm thinking about retiring

- How can you say such a thing at a time like this. And when you're still so young!

- It's something I've been considering for a long time now. You know that.

- All the same, you can't do it!

SJ and SY, about to leave for the Lee's and the minimalist wedding reception, come in. Mom looks displeased because she wants to carry on working on the President to shelve his retirement plans before he let's anyone else know. The President produces one of those well-stuffed envelopes to give to the newly-weds. Joon Soo is reluctant to accept (he still has a kind of knee-jerk reflex pride even where it's completely out of place) but SY signals him his orders to accept it with good grace and he duly obeys. They are about to leave when JS notices the look on his mother-in-law's face and enquires if something is wrong. Oh no, nothing at all, she replies testily. Which prompts the President to edge further toward a fait accompli by letting the cat out of the bag (and thereby putting it right among the pigeons).

- It needn't be a secret any longer. I'm planning to retire soon. It may seem early, but I want to take things easy.

- But surely you can't do that?! (Joon Soo objects in genuine incredulity: he really did think the rumors about retirement were rubbish, not to mention the further ones about his future role).

- We'll talk about it some other time. Go now, or you'll be late.

Out on the landing, the couple again compare notes, just as they did in the company corridor earlier

- Fancy that, Oppa! He really is planning to retire!

- Wow, this will really set things buzzing at the company tomorrow.

Mom comes rushing after them, wanting to know why Joon Ki isn't getting married at her wedding hall. She wouldn't have made a charge. (see my post http://www.soompi.com/forums/index.php?sho...&p=10796117 If Mom read Soompi she'd have got in her free offer earlier...) They just wanted the bare formalities with no fuss, Joon Soo explains. My brother in law's an artist after all, SY reminds her.

Mom glances anxiously back towards her bedroom, then reveals what she really ran after them to say. You keep quiet about what the President just said about retirement plans, she orders JS. Very well, ma'am, he responds dutifully. And to Seo Yoon: and when President Kang's son gets back, get Ae Da to meet up with him again (she's obviously got the message that her personal efforts in this direction have failed, but she's not giving up just yet). Why should I get involved with that? SY wants to know. Mom explains that she's claiming to be suffering from menopausal depression (!) as an excuse for lying low where the Kang family are concerned, but now that other relationship is no longer an obstacle, the way ahead should be clear. Perhaps JS could get to work on his sister-in-law since recent events have brought them closer? With a bit of luck they might still manage to get her engaged in September as originally planned. At this point the President storms in: "Are you still going on about that?!" and Mom hastily switches back to seeing them off and telling them to convey her congratulations to the happy couple.

[00:47:04]

Some time the next day, HK takes a call from the HK president's wife (she's switched to wearing purple now things are getting serious) who say's she's given the matter some thought and has decided to expand her business and buy up SJ foodstuffs stocks via a holding company. But she needs to repeat: their little arrangement mustn't be known to anyone else. Is that plain? HK is delighted to agree, and bounces Sarang up and down in delight. "It worked, it worked, Sarang!"

Over at the company, SY sits at her desk, still mulling over what Dong Soek told her about the clandestine meeting he'd observed. "You think you can get the better of me like that, do you, sister-in-law? There's a limit to what I can take." She goes home and into Ha Kyoung's room, searching through the things on her worktable. "Sorry Unni" she says to herself, "but I can't stand for this any longer". She finds two sheets of paper. "Isn't this a memo taken from my room. About developing the garlic drink? She compares the two documents: "a perfect match!"

[There's an oddity here, caused by a not altogether consistent departure from the script in an earlier episode which has not been completely carried through. The business of HK spotting the idea for the garlic drink on SY's laptop wasn't in the earlier episode as scripted. Instead, the original idea was that Ha Kyoung, sneaking into SY's bedroom as the couple quarrelled outside, spotted SY's memo book and physically took a page from it (which we later realize was her jottings re the drink). Then, in the script for today's episode, SY is recalling Dong Soek's words about the meeting when she suddenly spots that a page has been taken from her memo book. That's what takes her rushing home to search HK's room, looking specifically for that page, and that's what she then duly finds. But as things stand in the scenes as shot, SY finds in HK's possession an item that she wasn't specifically looking for and which HK never physically stole in the first place, and her grounds for suddenly realising it was missing and therefore going home to look for it post haste are harder to see, although a reference (and flashback) to the laptop has been inserted into the script as well as the shooting of this episode]

At this moment Ha Kyoung comes into the room and the both of them realise this is crunch time.

But we cut immediately to the library, where the President, JS and SW are holding a grim-faced impromptu meeting.

Why is a company no-one has ever heard of quietly mopping up shares in the SJ foodstuffs division? the President is asking. They haven't been able to find out who's behind it, Joon Soo responds, but it's plainly a large-scale operation. Who would want to make such a major move? SW wonders. The President comes out with one of those four (Chinese) character sayings that tend to shut down my brain in panic: 소탐대실 (小貪大失) Running up a huge loss by chasing a small gain. I suppose he means that what this mystery company is doing makes no business sense. Then he drops proverb-speak, but remains enigmatic: why do something so unspeakable? Joon Soo and SW exchange a puzzled look, but at that point Driver Kim enters: the President of the HK group is on the line... "What can this be about?" the President wonders, and asks JS and SW to leave while he takes the call.

[in case anyone shares the President's puzzlement, what I think has become moderately clear by now is that the "small sacrifice" HK talked about to SW the previous evening is a masked way of putting what she said more openly to the HK President's wife at their secret meeting: it was worth SJ losing control of its foodstuffs division to secure future co-operation with the HK group over the new (overseas) resort project. Her idea is to present what she is up to now, should it ever come to light, as a reprise of what she falsely claimed was her earlier rescue of the SJ/HK tie-up, when it was imperilled by SY's marriage. In return for allowing, or indeed inducing, the HK group to buy up SJ foodstuffs shares via a phantom company at below market price, the HK group will use SJ for the construction work on the planned overseas resort. So if the deal ever surfaces, Ha Kyoung will claim that although of dubious legality and apparently against the immediate interests of SJ, it has secured the company's longer term future. But the real deal is of course intended to remain secret for good: namely that in return for this insider information and the ability to take control of SJ foodstuffs, a major supplier of theirs, the HK group will make choosing SW as successor a precondition of any further collaboration with SJ.]

Back to the SY vs HK standoff, with HK shamelessly taking the offensive immediately, despite her obvious anxiety about what SY may have come across

- What are you up to?

- Exactly what I want to ask you, sister-in-law. This was taken from our bedroom, wasn't it? It's an item I was working on. You came into our room and took it, didn't you?

- So are you the only person in the world who has a memo pad like that one? That's my own memo. I've been thinking about the mineral water and garlic idea for a long time. The idea came to me during a trip to Japan

- So this was all your idea?

- And was this all your idea, coming into my room in secret, searching through my things, then pretending to be innocent when I caught you at it? Disgraceful behavior! But I'll overlook it this once. If this became known you'd be in big trouble. And from now on, please refrain from coming into my room without permission.

- Oh pardon me, please do! But listen here! If these ideas really are yours, let's see them on your computer. They'll be datestamped there. I'll get mine and we can compare the dates.

- How dare you be so impertinent?!

- And show me your first files with the resort project scheme, as well. Let's see if they predate Joon Soo's ideas, or whether you stole those too.

- Are you calling me a thief?

- Yes! I know very well when you copied this garlic idea. I was working on this in bed on my laptop. You took a look when I left the room but you slipped up. I'd left the laptop on the bed, but when I came back it was on my desk. How come?

Outside on the landing, SW and JS are still wondering about this mysterious company which has already bought up 37% of JS foodstuffs stock. Who on earth would want to do that? No sooner has SW asked than they hear the women quarrelling and what they are saying

SY is now on a roll

- And there's one more thing I'd like to ask. Why did you meet wife of the HK President? What were you discussing in secret?

- So now I can't even meet someone I know very well without your permission? Someone who's been like a mother to me?

- Well then, what was it you had to say to this mother-substitute of yours? A short meeting with her that day, and suddenly a ghost company starts buying up the stock of SJ foodstuffs?

- What on earth has gotten into you? I suppose that when a woman gets married, she adopts the values and manners of her husband's family. Does that explain why you're behaving like this?

- What did you just say???

- If you're so anxious to know... I did meet the wife of the HK President, because I had a favor to ask. Sang Wook is still under the spell of Ji Sook. Even your father and mother have fallen for her tricks, and they've become suspicious of me. So I wanted to ask her help.

- I see... So... just how is selling off our company stock supposed to help?

- If you weren't my sister-in-law, that remark would land you a defamation suit!

This brings Sang Wook and Joon Soo into the room

"What's this about?" Sang Wook asks his sister (he noticeably says nothing to HK) but JS tries to grab SY by the arm and pull her out of the room "You! Get out of here!", but she shakes off his grasp without taking her ferocious eyes away from HK. SW asks her again "What's going on, shouting so rudely at your sister-in-law like that?" "Oppa!" she replies, addressing of course SW, not JS, "there's one thing I have to come out with and ask you. The resort proposals. Did you come up with them all on your own? Tell me on your conscience! Was that plan really yours?

A strained silence follows, which JS, close to panic, breaks by shouting "Of course it was Sang Wook who came up with them (though he knows better than anyone that it wasn't, of course)" "I want to hear it from him!" SY interrupts fiercely.

It's the supreme test of whether SW is still the coward Ji Sook has always blamed him for being. He fails it miserably. "Yes. I came up with them!"

HK eyes show a gloating relief. As for SY's look, her anger is suddenly overlain with pain and sorrow[an echo here of the look on her father's face when the light suddenly dawned on him about HK when she tried to "sell" him the garlic idea]. She has just lost her belief in own brother, and there is acute disappointment in her voice as she looks at him with more than a tinge of contempt: "Is that so? ... Well I never... I owe you an apology, sister-in-law."

And of course she doesn't mean she owes her an apology for a false accusation, because SY knows full well that all she's alleged is true. She's apologizing for assuming Ha Kyoung was the originator of the theft and deception, rather than believing her brother would stoop so low. Her ostensible apology to HK is in fact a bitter reproach to SW for letting her, the family and above all himself down so dismally. He hears that reproach only too clearly and it strikes home. It's probably what finally makes him into the "empty shell" as he describes himself to Ji Sook in the last scene of the episode.

Only Joon Soo remains partly in the dark about what's really being said, because he is too good-natured to credit it. "You, get out of here", he repeats to SY in best "obey your husband" fashion, and grabs her by the arm again, apologizes humbly (far too humbly as SY has often observed) to HK and SW, and pulls her out.

She goes along with him this time, not out of compliance with his wishes, but because she can no longer bear to stay there after what she's just witnessed. Once they are alone in their room, however, the full force of her fury returns, and it gets directed against Joon Soo for not understanding the real reason for her anger.

- What the hell's gotten into you?

- A thief! I caught her! My grandfather and my father sweated blood to build up this company. You want me to just stand by and watch criminals destroy it day after day?

- But catching a thief takes more than that! You've no really convincing evidence to prove it!

- But I do have evidence. My laptop!

- That doesn't count as surefire evidence!

- Why not? Why doesn't it?

- You love the company don't you? And you're proud of it? If you make an issue of this

you'll be throwing dirt in the President's face.

- But it's so unfair!

- Of course it is. But if you really love the company you should be capable of living with that for the company's sake.

We see her face over JS's shoulder as he hugs her and gives her a consoling pat on the back. Sadly, from the point of view of our celebrated hug-ologist and her forthcoming study, the camera doesn't show us whether SY in turn puts her arms round him, but the set of her shoulders suggests she doesn't. But no matter where her arms are, this isn't SY's radiant "all's well with the world because I've got my Oppa" look, because all isn't well in SY's world, and she doesn't really think it ought to be in her Oppa's either.

She's still deeply uneasy (as she has been from the very moment the theft of ideas became apparent) about his readiness to avoid boat-rocking by letting the matter pass. What she sees, and he doesn't, is that much more than a single incident of plagiarism is at stake here. The way SW has behaved just now convinces her that he has betrayed the whole ethos of the firm which her father, inspired by his own father, has devoted his life to building up and sustaining. In other words, SW has disqualified himself from succeeding his father in Seo Yoon's eyes. She now sees him in the way her father has been coming to see him from the very first episodes, when time and again the President warned SW about the need to put the firm's ethos first rather than seeking immediate financial gain at any costs) And so she sees herself and Joon Soo (whose pride in his own family tradition has sometimes been a source of friction between them, though it is emerging here as one of their most important shared priorities even though on the surface they are rowing again) as the heirs the company needs and should have. But at the very moment when SY comes to see her succession as a matter of duty and indeed right, not just of paternal preference, HK's intrigues seem about to snatch it away from her and force the company into the wrong hands.

We cut to HK and SW in their bedroom. It seems from their mood that in the time we have been with JS and SY, Ha Kyoung has told SW about the deal she has cut with Mrs HK.

- Are you completely insane?

- There's no way it can be linked to me. To the outside world...

- You're out of your mind!

- Keep your head! We've declared war now!

- What my father, my grandfather built up... To mess with it like that...

- We have to look at the bigger picture! Keep calm! We can see this through! Remember what I said? About needing to make a small sacrifice to secure a bigger goal? You said you agreed with me about that!

[but now he knows what is was he "agreed" to, SW isn't so sure. Or rather he still agrees with the principle, but his notion of what small sacrifice and the bigger goal actually consist in are completely different from HK's. What he will sacrifice is his future as head of the firm, and the bigger goal will be life with the woman he loves. But Ha Kyoung is too caught up in her own intrigues, and their apparent impending triumph, to realize that.]

We cut to the President's office at the company (not the library in the mansion) where HK and SW are standing in front of his desk. It is obviously now the next day. The mood is somber (despite, or rather because of the fact, which we infer from the next scenes, that the President has just told them he intends to make SW his successor) and when we come in we hear him asking "Why are HK insisting that you must be in charge of managing the resort project?" (SW has no answer, though he understands the real question, which is why in the light of the outstanding success of JS in managing the previous project with HK, they are refusing to go ahead on the new one unless Sang Wook takes his place)

"And at the same time," the President continues, "someone is using a phantom company to buy up stock in our foodstuffs division..." "I'm sorry" is all SW can bring himself to say. Superficially a non-answer, but at a deeper level his is acknowledging his father's implication that there is something seriously underhanded going on and that is connected with the insistence from the HK group that he must be the SJ successor.

The President turns to his daughter-in-law. "Do you know anything about this". "Father in law, we [and her choice of the plural, though the question was addressed to her alone, conveys the message: 'suspect what you like, but dig too deeply into this, and your son will go down with me'] we honestly don't know anything about it." The President's face shows his disbelief, but also his sense of powerlessness in the position into which he's been maneuvered.

He's saved from having to say anything by a knock on the door. It's the right-of-table Director, whom he's apparently summoned to see him immediately after his interview with his son and daughter-in-law, whom he now tells to leave.

- You wanted to see me?

- Announce that Sang Wook... will succeed me as head of the company.

- Is that what the HK group want?

- It has to be Sang Wook, otherwise they won't go ahead with the overseas venture. In view of that, I have no other choice.

And so to an advertisment by environmentalist campaigners demonstrating the level of noise pollution from passing traffic in Seoul streets. Oh no, sorry: the drama isn't quite over yet, this was actually meant to be a conversation between Sang Wook and Ji Sook on a roadside bench, but it seems as if the sound engineer had a secret engine-noise fetish and so decided not to spoil his tape of nice roars and whooshes by anything as trivial as audible dramatic dialog. Then, to make things worse, Wicker Man crept into the postdubbing suite and merged in choice extracts from his birdsong CD. So, script very much to the rescue on this one...

From the way he's dressed, it seems SW has called Ji Sook immediately he came out of his meeting with the President

- I'ts not because I've anything to say. Just please sit with me for ten minutes.

(A change in camera angle suggests the ten minutes have gone by, and SW decides to say something after all.)

- Ji Suk. It's looks like I'm going to inherit the company.

- Congratulations

- Ha Kyoung has finally got everything she wanted. She'll adopt Sarang and you'll be kept far away from him while he grows up. She'll stir up internal conflicts in the company. Do you honestly think I can cope with that?

- It sounds great. Suits you down to the ground.

- Looks like when I'm head of the company I won't have any say about anything. That woman will give all the orders and decide everything. The power behind the throne...[that's another four-character thingie: 수렴청정(垂簾聽政) -- literally "(from) behind the veil"]

- Yet it's thanks to her that you inherited SJ enterprises.

- Should you and me just run away somewhere far off? ... Give up the big business world, abandon everything and disappear? Live by selling newspapers in the street? I've become like an empty shell. There's nothing left inside.

[Guest cococrust]

ep 52 c-sub

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ev9cxh

[vietgurl4ever206]

god for now i am so sadddddddddddd that KS has past away. from what i think going to happen is that AD she won't have any happiness around her she will into a depression. this drama have very disspoint me. i will cont to watch this drama for AD to support her.

[Guest Happy_Day]

Love how the rich mother is starting to accept JiSook. Weird how much she cares about her considering her personality. Probably the affection from treating her like a niece since she was little.

[Guest cococrust]

ep 53 c-sub

http://www.sendspace.com/file/hq6z10

[Guest immunophilic]

I thought this show is 50 epi long? So what's the finalised no. of epis?

[canyayasis]

That's amazing, Oppa!

Thank you, really, really... thank you.

[canyayasis]

It double posted....deleting....

P.S. to the one that asked...it is now 60 episodes.

[baduy]

Behold on the official site: slots for this weekend's previews are there, with Saturday's and Sunday's dates. BUT Sunday's is marked 58회 (최종회) i.e. Final Episode. In keeping with that, the preview contents are blank, as often happens with final episodes.

It's possible that, thanks to the limpet attacks, they have truncated a planned last four episodes down to two (or maybe, more precisely the planned last 6 down to 4). That would account for the rather crass and highly uncharacteristic continuity error in ep 56 and the dire sound mix in the last scene of that episode that I pointed out earlier -- both could indicate a switch to rush-job-quick-wrapup mode. That would also explain some intriguing omissions from the script of 56 in the episode as screened, entailing maybe the cutting out of a last little plot twist, but we'll soon see...

So looks like it's going to be all over this weekend. Will life ever be the same again?

[canyayasis]

WOW!!!

That really is life changing....so many months of early Saturday morning rising.....gone after this weekend!

HOW are they going to wrap it all up in 2 episodes???

[ay_link]

Brought to you by WITH S2

Written In The Heavens Subbing Squad

Episode 45 ENGLISH SUBS

CREDITS:

Main Translators: inbi, youngee

Spot Translator: rainydays

Timer: julier

Editor/QC: ay_link

Coordinators: mily2, ay_link

Episode 46 ENGLISH SUBS

CREDITS:

Main Translator: asiandreamer117

Spot Translator: purpletiger86

Timer: julier

Editor/QC: canyayasis

Coordinators: mily2, ay_link

Episode 47 ENGLISH SUBS

CREDITS:

Main Translators: june_showers, maeahri

Spot Translator: purpletiger86

Timer: cookieremix

Editor/QC: ay_link

Coordinators: mily2, ay_link

Episode 48 ENGLISH SUBS

CREDITS:

Main Translator: asiandreamer117

Spot Translator: purpletiger86

Timer: julier

Editor/QC: Suz07

Coordinators: mily2, ay_link

Episode 49 ENGLISH SUBS

CREDITS:

Main Translator: youngee

Timer: blog234

Editor/QC: ay_link

Coordinators: mily2, ay_link

Episode 50 ENGLISH SUBS

CREDITS:

Main Translator: acemaverick

Spot Translators: rainydays, saturn

Timer: julier

Editor/QC: ay_link

Coordinators: mily2, ay_link

[Guest cococrust]

ep 54 c-sub

http://www.sendspace.com/file/wmse5b

[canyayasis]

Episode 57

It does have the feel of being hurried....but it was nice to have SO MUCH

movement in ALL the storylines...

This late in the game - be warned that all of the following contain

story ending SPOILERS.....

Seo Yoon was running around like crazy putting together proof and actions

to do "in" HK.

HK was visited by either internal or external investigators who searched

her (and Sang Wook's) office.

Mrs. HK called her frantically, the met - both were double crossed.

HK is in deep trouble too now.

Yong Gi and his new wife played cards with the Lee family -

and the obvious boombox in every scene indicated that ... yes ...

we were going to Yong Gi's song on the radio...

and we did....

everyone cried from happiness...

Ae Da called Kang and said ... it's over ... in a phone message ...

Mrs. Lee and Jjong Ah tried to reason with her...

Ae Da is a woman now ... and just shmocked her mom...

Many busy busy clandestine meetings and post its being passed around

with HK being mentioned, Sang Wook, etc... the usual players whispering in corners.

Ji Sook gave BACK the ring to Mrs. Park in a letter, explaining why.

Young Jae found Ji Sook who yet again, turned him down.

Wicker Man turned in his resignation letter - but Sang Wook tore it up.

Sang Wook went to his father at home in the library and tried to come clean.

Sang Wook also packed up and left HK and the Park household.

Joon Soo and Seo Yoon met with Mr. Park at his office....

I think all of Seo Yoon's back door work had results....

Because by the end of the episode everyone seemed optomistic...

Ae Da went back to their countryside hideaway and the friend of Kang Seok's

gave her ALL the letters that KS had written to her and hidden in the bricks on

the wall...

She read them and we had some great flashbacks of their time there...

Preview shows Ae Da with a back pack and wearing tennis shoes leaving

the Parks to go out on her own... a trip... overseas???

but she's outta there...

Oh yes and the FREEZE FRAME was on HK in her office after the investigators

have left taking the documents they came to find...

[Auntie Mame]

WOW!!! Thank you so much for the summary.

I'll miss the Saturday/Sunday tete-a-tete with everyone on this thread. This thread has shared such good knowledge and perspective on dramas, cultures and a myriad of related issues.

Special thanks to Baduy, puela, hjkomo and canyayasis because you always came through for us viewers ... even during the "limpets".

I hope all of us will end up in the same thread again.