[Drama 2010] Even Mom is Pretty / Pretty Mom 엄마도 예쁘다

[daunte29]

Haha...yes, the lady in the restaurant is a blabber mouth and walking newspaper rolled into one. Not only is this character present in many k dramas, rumor-mills like her exist in almost every office and organisations too.

She serves an important function in this drama hence variations of her appear in most k dramas...her motor mouth reminds the ajummas and elderly halmonis (grandmas) watching this show of past events and places current happenings into perspective, lest the elderly folks lose track or misunderstand certain 'developments'.

When you take a step back, actually Jeonghui and the evil director are very much alike - both are after chairman hong's wealth in their own ways, money/power are like flashing signboards in front of their beady eyes, both have zero respect for the human male species: while I dunno anything abt the evil director's husband, we do know Jeonghui has reduced her hubby Min Hyuk into an apron-wearing house-husband who according to mr white has improved his cooking skills by leaps and bounds.

Since being 'imprisoned' at home, Min Hyuk still jumps when Jeonghui barks and he obediently runs to do whatever she commands. Aww...if only there were more sweet homely husbands like Minhyuk around, who said today being a professor is not half as fun or good as doing housework. And they say korean men are hard to tame. Hehe!

Stereotypic characters like Jeonghui also exist in many other k dramas - they serve to make poverty (or being poor) seem like a disease. In the real world not everyone can be rich and wealthy and live a luxurious life - there will always be poor people and being poor doesn't always mean they're any less happy. but k drama writers love to depict poor (or poorer) korean folks as being totally obsessed in breaking out of their poverty trap. JH 'loves' chairman hong not as a future father but more as a potential bank account with unlimited withdrawals.

[koreankanak]

First off Min Hyuk needs to grow a set of new ones or when JH is not looking, take back his old ones from her purse. If not then he should be written out of the show because so far I don't see how important he can be to the storyline. Maybe the writer will surprise me.

It also seems to be that in Korea, you are either very rich or very poor. Is there no middle class in that country? Either you have a driver or you ride the bus. Although I must say the transit system looks pretty good to me.

Three letters can clear up all the situations present in this drama.....DNA

Onward to the end....

[Guest b00kw0rm]

I agree on both counts! And while I agree it looks like doggie-face and dizty did sleep together, it is also plausable that's all they did! Dizty is not a good lair. Yet when she told Dumb that she could not possibly be pregnant because "nothing happened", she didn't give her usual shifty-eye look or stare into space or leave her mouth hanging open .. all the usual signs when she's trying to come up with a white lie. She made the statement firmly and directly. It was just like a few episodes back when some viewers had thought that JW was definitely the great secret SJ was hiding from the Chairman. We know now that isn't it. So we won't know for sure until it really becomes an important issue. It could go either way.

I was thinking more of doggie's so-called 'branding' exercise! not much of a branding was it?! She told her Mum that she thought she was in love with WJ but when YJ got in trouble, she realised how much she loves him. I don't think SJ or Ditzy will ever know this allegation by the Curator because the point of it all is just to bring doggie and lusty jenny together. Ditzy will remain with YJ. And I guess Chairman Hong (another one who needs to grow a pair) will come out of hiding only when it is revealed that doggie is not his dog!

What annoys me the most is how everyone, including the priest, seems to think that young girl should marry JW and look after him for the rest of her life.

[daunte29]

One of the funniest scenes of all time in k drama was when in the middle of the heated family debate today abt donating bone marrow for mr white's son, Jeonghui tells her househusband Minhyuk: "GO TO YOUR ROOM" and the slightly drunk puppy quickly gets up and aided by JS, obeys. This order to him actually departed from her usual command, "KEEP QUIET".

In any other drama, a discussion abt donating one's bone marrow to save a young boy's life would be no laughing matter but this writer is much too gifted to be ordinary. I really do suspect the writer to be female but we'll never know for sure.

In the beginning, when dogface WJ was 'so determined' to dig out his biological mum (and how many countless k dramas have we seen contain this overused theme) I'll bet the scriptwriter didn't prepare him for the revelation. Daddy Gyutak in fact warned him several times to stop - gyutak must have also watched too many k dramas to realise that whenever the biological mum is tracked down, the news is always dramatically shocking, one way or the other - Why did you abandon me? You should have aborted me. Am I that worthless even though I'm your flesh & blood? And etc.

For several episodes now, dogface WJ has been reduced to a crybaby...when was the last k drama you saw that had a MAN cry buckets of tears? I can remember actor So Ji Sub doing continuous waterworks in a drama from several years way back but this WJ character is really a weeping machine: he cries at home, he cries hugging daddy gyutak in gyutak's office, he cries sitting on the toilet floor, he even cries while driving the car with his jenny and son at the back. I was laughing so much that I too had wet eyes.

Want another funny story? We now know that the evil cannot-be-fired director won the position of directorship of the prestigous national museum or something but she still chooses to return and maintain her position at that gallery in a small town. Or is she straddling both positions? Thank you for choosing me as your country's next President but I think I'll stick to being a fishing village head.

This really puzzles me.. If Youngjun owns the gallery (after buying over the majority shares once held by gyutak) why is youngjun unable to remove the evil director? Why does he sit there while the evil woman again insults and reduces his darh-ling Jeongsu to a piece of office furniture?

A REAL Youngjun after drinking himself half-blind would soon realise that hey, he could bring over and install his darh-ling JS plus the 3 female curators in his own gallery (Mun Gallery)...no more evil director, yeah? We do know 2 things abt Youngjun - he HATES to lose and his family (actually his mother) is RICH beyond compare. But sadly our Youngjun cannot change the script which says that until this drama ends, everyone MUST stay put in that gallery and continue to be terrorised by THAT woman or else she won't have anyone to glare at and smirk.

Interestingly and all credit goes to the writer's gifted skills, the evil director and JH always stares down at each other whenever they meet bcos since their physical show of hairpulling and catfighting in the restaurant several months ago, that unresolved contest is still....unresolved. Methinks JH should gain the upperhand if she practices more bedroom wrestling with her puppyface Minhyuk. Don't move and don't scream. I'm going to extract your bone marrow for mr white's son.If you need to scream, do it quietly

[Guest 2Van123]

From the preview, it looks like the curator's return to the gallery is going to be an extremely short one! The scriptwriter did not play enough musical chairs when young!

[koreankanak]

First off Min Hyuk needs to grow a set of new ones or when JH is not looking, take back his old ones from her purse. If not then he should be written out of the show because so far I don't see how important he can be to the storyline. Maybe the writer will surprise me.

It also seems to be that in Korea, you are either very rich or very poor. Is there no middle class in that country? Either you have a driver or you ride the bus. Although I must say the transit system looks pretty good to me.

Three letters can clear up all the situations present in this drama.....DNA

Onward to the end....

OK...I stand corrected. The writer just made Min Hyuk relevant to the show by making him a bone marrow donor. Don't know how good the sample will be from someone who does not a have a set.

As much as I dislike the Curator...she is an amazing actress. I wonder if she enjoys the role as much as it looks to me. Unfortunately the bad guy roles always seem to have more teeth than the goody ones. She just makes my right arm twitch and want to slap her back to reality.

[koreankanak]

And the suspense builds. Can Wujin tell the Chairman he is not Mrs. Lee's son before he signs off the Gallery? No matter gotta wait until Monday's episode to find out.

[daunte29]

Actually the evil woman, dogface WJ & chairman hong all did conduct a DNA test on Soonjin - a DO NOT ASK soonjin test. Apparently we now know that dogface WJ didn't do a DNA confirmation bcos he 'so wanted to be his son'. Jeonghee too had wanted to be chairman hong's daughter but her DNA test results said keep dreaming. What's with this chairman hong that so many misfits want to be his spawn? Go take a queue number and stand in line.

Many times before I've mentioned this drama is one of the funniest shows and I think this writer will become even more famous if she tried her hand at writing a 100% korean sitcom. Today we got another huge dose of disguised humor - that gallery scene where Youngjun offered to donate some artworks and the priest said he prefers NUDE paintings and to allay any misunderstandings - he clarified he WAS NOT joking. That was round 1 in comedic dialogue.

Round two was when Youngjun offered, What about checking out nude paintings of ME, and he said it while rubbing his upper chest suggestively? To which the happily smiling priest asked, When? The deal was even sealed with a hi-5 even.

Yup, fastest way to bond with your neighborhood priest is to donate one (maybe two) nude paintings of yourself to the church. Nothing to hide; everything to see..

Those two were such a hoot! Talk about deviant Catholic priests - I think the Vatican's about to get one more from ROK. It wasn't the first time too the priest let loose his vulgar side (did you see how shocked the evil woman was when she heard that word from the priest?) bcos a few episodes back, after the priest accompanied Jongwoo, Yunju to a paper-folding competition involving lots of other kids and their mothers, and Soonjin thanked him for looking after Jongwoo, the prest actually said, "Thank you for letting me. I saw so many beautiful women there."

Everyone would have let that remark slide as a joke but now with his nude paintings of Youngjun on his appointment book.....hmm, I dunno. I wonder how ditzy JS would react when she finds out in future the priest has a nude painting of her husband hanging in his sacristy- she won't be the only one who knows how hubby looks like in his birthday suit.

[koreankanak]

I like your version of DNA...and how true it is.

The priest does seem to have a darkside that has been unknown until now...at least we know he's not Catholic.

[daunte29]

oh gosh...izzit comeuppance time for the evil ex-director already? The finale is ep 174 and we're only now at ep 138.

Double gosh...the writer just had to insert (an almost) lovey-dovey scene between hottie girl in short pants Yunju and boy with the hots for her Jungwoo....her absolute mortified look of horror when Jungwoo asked permission to kiss her cracked me up...methinks she'd prefer kissing a bullfrog with a long tongue or perhaps a toothless crocodile.

Anyway today was another fun-filled episode...Jeonghui had all the good lines: first she snaps at her brother Jungchul for having lingering feelings for Jenny; then she confronts the evil ex-director and taunts her to no end; and lastly she yanks her house-husband's chains when he suggested going for a bridal photoshoot - I can't smile when I see you. - ahh...meltz our hearts to hear JH spout such sweet words of devotion, especially when she next accuses JS, Jungchul and Soonjin of gunning for the Nobel Peace Prize (donating one's bone marrow seems fashionable in k dramas this year).

The (literally) jaw-dropping moment was when mr white's 2nd wife calmly asked Soonjin if she and mr white could get married at the same wedding (btw SJ & Gytak)...2 for the price of one, eh? The woman was there at the house with mr white on a humanitarian mission to obtain bone marrow for her suffering son and yet, she has the presence of mind to suggest something like that...good one, writer! Ask and ye shall receive.

[Guest 2Van123]

I like your version of DNA...and how true it is.

The priest does seem to have a darkside that has been unknown until now...at least we know he's not Catholic.

That's true. His lifestyle, things he says and does seem to be more suited to a protestant pastor

[Guest cococrust]

ep 13 c-sub

http://www.sendspace.com/file/wszl8r

ep 14 c-sub

http://www.sendspace.com/file/wo7bf2

[koreankanak]

Without these off the wall situations...this drama will only struggle to the end.

I'm sorry but it still bothers me the way the mistress considers everyone a part of her family. In Hawaii we have "ohana" but it is not something that you forced your way into. A space is created for you because you exude the feeling of being family. Not in this case..

The Curator is still good for a couple of more situations before this drama runs it's course.

[daunte29]

Without these off the wall situations...this drama will only struggle to the end.

I'm sorry but it still bothers me the way the mistress considers everyone a part of her family. In Hawaii we have "ohana" but it is not something that you forced your way into. A space is created for you because you exude the feeling of being family. Not in this case..

The Curator is still good for a couple of more situations before this drama runs it's course.

In China in the olden days for hundreds of thousands of years, it was common, indeed desirable, for the menfolk to have an official wife and several mistresses (chinese prefer the term 'concubine') - how many mistresses depends on the man's earning power not to mention libido. This is NOT my hypothesis..historically it's part of the culture of mainland China and predates the notion of monogamy. While modern western-educated folks may balk or pass judgement at this practice, the term 'concubine' and 'multiple mothers' were accepted vocabulary in THAT society in THAT era.

The poorer menfolk of course could ill-afford to indulge in this multi-spousal practice and so the rich and the richer had their fill of women and procreation. Modern Korea for many years, on and off, was colonised by China and if you go further back, what we call Korea today was indeed part of China.

Hence when you look at family portraits from THAT era, you'd see additional adult females posing with the patriarch, who is usually seated next to his first official wife, plus an inordinate number of children, surrounding the adults. Now if the patriarch's own son or sons was/were old enough to marry, he/they too might have more than one wife, and additional offspring borne by his mistress/es. The huge (extended) size of that family portrait alone would represent the power and wealth of THAT family patriarch.

If you think that was confusing, it was also the cultural practice for the kids within that extended family of mistresses (concubines actually) to have more than one mother. In historical China a child was considered to have more than one mother.so for example, a child might have up to four mothers, the first wife being the "official mother" – in spoken language called "big mother" – the others being regarded as unofficial mothers, in spoken language called "little mother" or "aunt". Now like I said before, this is NOT something for modern western-educated folks to judge - it WAS part of Chinese culture, which was partly adopted by the rich and powerful in Korea, and most certainly by the royal families in Korea. Even many of the millions of overseas Chinese who left China and migrated all over the globe practiced this system until monogamy became legal, and women of course became more educated and none the wiser.

Still, this custom served a purpose and was primarily a result of the concubinage system, where only the first wife by marriage was considered the wife and the mistress of the household. A concubine did not marry her owner. Her main duty was to provide a son to her owner, and any children from the liaison were not regarded as officially hers. But she was also brought into the household to provide sexual pleasure to the man and servitude to his wife.

So thank our lucky stars the writer gave mr white only one mistress. And a son in serious need of bone marrow, which this writer says neither the birth mother's nor mr white's has been found compatible.

[Guest b00kw0rm]

Without these off the wall situations...this drama will only struggle to the end.

I'm sorry but it still bothers me the way the mistress considers everyone a part of her family. In Hawaii we have "ohana" but it is not something that you forced your way into. A space is created for you because you exude the feeling of being family. Not in this case..

The Curator is still good for a couple of more situations before this drama runs it's course.

I find it annoying too! And I also dislike Hong's part in this. He bought them a house and paid for their son's medical fees just so they will not bother SJ. But doesn't he know that the more he gives, the more they just take and annoy SJ even more. So he is indirectly encouraging their obnoxious behaviour! Looks like they will be stuck with the leeches for life!

[daunte29]

As you all know, K dramas follow certain templates and therefore the characters and plots are recyled time and time again.

Leeches, crooks and people with no manners abound more than the 3 or 4 'main' characters who in the beginning usually suffer from flaws b4 these flaws are either corrected by the finale one way or the other or as in some cases, they die from some terminal disease or get run down by a vehicle with faulty brakes or drunk driver.

In other words, if a k drama has zero annoying people or predictable recycled plotlines, it just isn't a k drama.

On the flip side, the do-gooders like chairman hong personify what korean ajummas and halmonis (grannies) will tell their young kids: if you study hard or work hard, then you'll end up owning a hotel chain or a company that makes billions of $$$, and when you reach that level of achievement, you don't have to work so hard anymore (i.e. spend less time behind the office desk) and have lots of time to stalk the woman you once loved. By the time the story ends, you'll also win the girl, so to speak.

Put simply, k dramas are mostly about a boy chasing the girl who's also lusted by another alpha male, and the story spend abt 20-24 episodes b4 you find out who ends up waking next to her smelly breath for the rest of their lives. In k dramas weddings are always HAPPEE endpoints and the reasons why they get married or should get married is NOT as important as getting married first, then unravelling why they love each other in the first place. In k dramas love (and lust) at first sight is the norm unless one of the main characters is blind, in which case the drama is extended by another 20-30 episodes to compensate for the cornea transplant subplot involving a long-lost-rediscovered family member who was living where else but in the US (k dramas don't have a lot of countries as we have in the real world)...9 times out of 10 this korean from the US cannot speak a word of English...as pure a korean as the day he flew to live in America.

In k dramas funerals are also happy endpoints bcos all is not forgotten but forgiven, and funerals are always an occasion for the actors to show their acting chops - korean actors/actresses are just so good at emoting crying scenes, and tissues are never used bcos it's more 'dramatic' to show real salty tears dripping down their smooth porcelain cheeks. Oh...men included.

This juxtaposition of the good and the bad, the haves and the have-nots all mixed up in a game of shenanigans is NOT actually a korean invention but derived from the accomplished greats in drama, opera and plays from Europe & the UK. Yup, if you know Shakespeare well and Italian operatic tragedies, the koreans have merely taken the essence from these European examples and made their k dramas an art form. To generalise, the koreans have transplanted traditional European & Scandinavian and Italian operatic and dramatic elements into their own unique templates and also borrowed heavily from the shakespearean theatrical tradition to augment the storytelling mode.

The moral of the story is always best told by the immoralities within that story.

This also helps in remembering the story.- one stray dog run over by a car while crossing the highway won't make the evening news unless a overturned truckload of stray dogs escaped and caused pandemonium on the highway resulting in a huge chain accident. The hapless truck driver told police he slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting what he thought was a baby fox, which later turned out to be a stuffed toy.

In dramas excesses works bcos it creates dramatics, without which it cannot be called a drama. Protagonists flawed in one way or another completes the picture bcos if in a drama everyone behaves as expected, like the ordinary jane or joe, like the next door kim and lee, would you watch the drama and follow the 175 episodes faithfully day after day, week after week? Hell no, my own family and office mates have enough shenanigans, scandals and delicious dark secrets to last 2 lifetimes!! Hallelujah to that!!

[koreankanak]

And that's why we watch the K Dramas...without these idiosyncrasies why spend 35 minutes that you will never get back.

Daunte... Mahalo for your deep reflections. It just helps validate the chunk of my day that I spend watching these shows. I'll just sit and enjoy the ride.

[daunte29]

Excuse me sir, why's the priest crying at the dinner table? Did someone die?

No my child, nobody died. He's just being transferred.

Oh...but why's he so sad? Is he leaving the country?

No dear, he's just being sent to the countryside, a place where the animals are always happy and the birds forever singing. Too bad the countryside won't have hot babes in shorts like Yunju following him around and he won;t have any more free meals at the diner as well.

OK...about poor Jeongwu's non-accidental consumption of wine...didn't we hear in the very early days of this drama after the first time when Jeongwu accidentally drank wine and passed out COLD? I thought the priest later promised to hide his wine collection or at least do a better job of concealment by stashing the 'medicinal' wine together with his private collection of Kpop's Girls Generation toy figures (all 9 of them), Girls Generation concert DVDs and his collectors' edition of Buffy The Vampire Slayer DVDs Season 1-7.

This drama is becoming so dangerously funny I'd better stop having sandwiches and coffee when watching it - wouldn't want to have any accidents b4 this drama is over. Speaking abt accidents, did you see how happy Gyutak was sucking soonjin's finger when she cut herself today? The man was really into it, even increasing his suctioning power by hollowing out his cheeks and all, I'll bet even soonjin's bone marrow might have been sucked out by that part-time vampire.

While on the subject of mouth/lip action, yesterday's episode raised the standard of kissing scenes in kdramas - remember how the slightly drunk Minhyuk was able to nonchalantly enter the bathroom/toilet while wifey JH was still sitiing on the toilet? Then after the vision of loveliness passed b4 his drunken brain, and JH had gotten up from the toilet seat, he slammed her against the bathroom wall and gave JH a lip-lock even the vacuum cleaner could do nothing about. Of all the places to make out, the toilet? Luckily this is a family drama and they had to uncouple but JH's face said it all....my hubby can kiss like a vacuum cleaner. No wonder the floors are so clean and dirt-free nowadays.

Not funny enough? The best was saved for last today when a sad-faced Soonjin told a stunned gyutak outside the house - I'm going to follow the priest.

Now imagine you're gyutak....b4 you even dare ask her, What are you thinking, my future wife?...I think it's entirely possible soonjin just likes men dressed in black. And all this while, silly me was thinking only Yunju was following the priest practically everywhere.

[koreankanak]

Daunte...I like the way you think. Just when I thought this drama had covered everything, along comes the request from the mistress to marry alongside Sunjin/Gyutak. In whose world does any of her justifications hold any water at all.

This drama has now gone from interesting to camp....Whoa baby!!!

[daunte29]

It's Xmas Eve folks and our mentally challenged Jeongu finally gets a present of sorts from Yunju...such a pity his mum hasn't yet taught him the meaning of the word 'fiance'. And using the imaginatively lame invitation to make love "It's getting quite chilly nowadays" Minhyuk finally gets to romp with one half of Dumb & Dumber: - if it was so chilly why are both wearng only t-shirts? Ahh...so that it's much faster to undress...hmm the wardrobe director thinks of everything.

Talking about undressing, isn't there a simpler solution for the priest to stay put like defrocking himself - if he resigns from the church, then he can even move in with soonjin and the messed-up family, seeing that Jeongsu would soon be married off to Youngjun. One spare room for him and Jeongu - yeah Jeongu would literally be in heaven sleeping next to the ex-priest EVERY night. Due to some previous promise Soonjin made (details unclear at this moment), she's supposed to make the priest ONE hot meal per day for the rest of her life. Talk about easy maintenance and good dietary habits - only one meal, huh?

Hands up, how many husbands out there get that promise of one hot meal per day for the rest of his life as long as he doesn't croak before wifey?

Actually the plotline now is quite simple: priests get transferred EVERY 4 years (or maybe only THAT priest is moved around due to his shrinking congregation wherever he is) and we were clued in today by the brotherly half of Dumb & Dumber that Soonjin and family too moved into THAT present house also exactly 4 years ago. Now true to his name, Dumb & Dumber could not remember 4 years back and so he asked soonjin, Why did we move here 4 years ago? I can't remember why? And we now should wonder how he was ever promoted to detective grade in the Korean Police Force.

The pattern is clear: wherever the priest goes, Soonjin will follow, with future hubby Gyutak (and asst Mr Kim) close behind. And her family of offspring leeches will do likewise. And since Jeongu now is also attached to the priest in more ways than one - him and the priest holding hands in front of Yeongju nearly killed me - he will follow the priest FIRST. Not forgetting the homeless hottie Yunju who will follow both the priest and origami master Jeongu. And for the sake of bone marrow, mr white and his mistress too will continue to stalk and impose themselves on soonjin's family. The family which follows the priest together stays together. Miss ditzy JS isn't so stupid after all for choosing to marry Yongjun.

Hey. someone should quickly tell the church authorities and put in some good words for the chap: - his origami classes are full-house and he even managed to get one nude painting (of Youngju) generously donated to the church. Soon he will preside over the weddings of Soonjin & Gyutak, followed by JS & YJ, and maybe mr white and his mistress.

The man in black already has a lot on his plate so it's much more convenient to let him stay put, THEN transfer him 4 years later. Perhaps by 4 Xmases from now, North & South Korea would become ONE country and there'll be more locales for him to work in. Amen to that!