[Drama 2018] My Mister, 나의 아저씨 - Best Drama at 2019 (55th) BaekSang Arts Awards

[t123han]

I tried to move on from this drama and forced myself to watch what’s wrong .. secretary kim. I fast forwarded 2 episodes in one hr. throughly unsatisfied I watched one of the initial episode of my mister just to watch dong goon eager eyes always trying to catch a glimpse of jian.

i don’t  think my heart is ready to move on from this drama yet . I might be in happy sad Melo kind of phase bc of this drama and anything fluffy is making me cringe.

Any suggestion for happy Melo drama which make ur heart happy sad at the same time ? 

 

[ann04]

6 minutes ago, t123han said:

I tried to move on from this drama and forced myself to watch what’s wrong .. secretary kim. I fast forwarded 2 episodes in one hr. throughly unsatisfied I watched one of the initial episode of my mister just to watch dong goon eager eyes always trying to catch a glimpse of jian.

i don’t  think my heart is ready to move on from this drama yet . I might be in happy sad Melo kind of phase bc of this drama and anything fluffy is making me cringe.

Any suggestion for happy Melo drama which make ur heart happy sad at the same time ? 

 

 

 

I tried watching it too... but ended up rewatching My Mister instead. I guess Im still looking for a continuation of the feelings/emotions from MM. Id love to watch Come and Hug me when it’s almost finished airing. 

 

Anyways, a few suggestions:

Go Back Couple (Gwang Il or JangKiyong is there too. I loved this drama. Its only 12 episodes but each ep. is pact full of emotions. There’s laughter, fun, friendship, tears and lessons. LOVE this. 

 

Just Between Lovers This is another melodrama that I loved. This one is more focused on romance so you definitely won’t have lingering feelings on that side of the story unlike in MM lol (although the ending of My Mister, after rewatching a lot of times and following this forum, I can now see that its the best ending for them - a beginning of something more). This too is very sad and the lead actors acted so beautifully. It really helps a lot when the actors are able to act out their roles and give the right emotion at the right timing. It might sound like a given in all kinds of dramas but I feel like it is even more so in melodramas. The story relies so much on how the actors portray their roles brcause it’s so emotion driven.

 

That’s all I have melodrama wise that gives off similar feelings as MM. It’s definitely hard to move on lol. I really hope they get to work again in the future and be able to act out their chemistry again without so much criticism from other people. Almost a month on and I thought we’ve exhausted all opinions and thoughts about this drama. But its lovely to still see insights and new observations every day. 

 

 

 

[tiger457_stv]

1 hour ago, nearsea said:

I would say my ahjussi really strikes a chord with the whole philosophy on how today's urban population regard life vs how life should be regarded. In that regard, it might share the ideology of every religion/belief system. Like I love when dong hoon says to his monk friend, I was relieved when you decided to reject the worldly life, I thought one less competitor. But then he had a successful life and a picture-perfect marriage with pretty lawyer wife and a son who studies abroad. 'The society' we're so afraid of and keep mentioning' would say they are a success. But although in worldly materialistic point of view one might say it's the case, but is that really so? Or do you really call someone successful just cause they had been living a comfortable life and apparently have everything one can wish for? The way the writer actually takes two people from two different seas, i.e, the materialistic society and the non-worldly society just gives us a hint about what the writer is trying to achieve or tell us here. Although body needs food, our soul needs nourishment too, and when the need of that soul isn't met, we literally die. Which happened in the case of dong hoon, who has been working in one of the top-tier companies, but still something is missing in his life. The urban society and the typical norms and boundaries made him more suicidal and then the true epiphany occurred when he went to see his monk friend and was finally able to empty his mind and stop thinking about the so-called society and the standards. 

I think in today's society a lot of people have been facing the problem dong hoon had to deal with, so when we realize that it's not money or status or worldly possessions which would make us truly happy, only then we can live for real. Dong Hoon's friend realized it way early, and although for dong hoon the way to home was a long road, ultimately he reached there. Dong Hoon himself had lots of goodwill in him, which helped people around breathe properly. Somehow in kdramas and mostly in real life too lol we tend to idolize people who are good looking or gets attention just because of their looks, talent or conversational skills, but here we see that how end of the day kindness or helping people is the way to someone's heart. Park dong hoon is an average man [don't deny though he's good looking haha], but he was able to move so many people's hearts just because he doesn't backbite when people aren't around, help people who have nothing to do with him or even has concerns over someone who's stealing things. We don't see this level of integrity often and that's why it was so hard for Ji An to leave him. I could go on and on but somehow through this drama I realized the importance of talking less/ not doing vain talks and what integrity actually means. Also yeah, not everyone has kind bones in them and people these days think sarcasm is very cool and all, but when you are really sincere and earnest, that's what hits you the most. And like the saying goes you would actually know how a person is, when you see how they behave when no one is looking.

@nearsea  It takes maturity to value goodness over good look.  It takes time to see values in good deed vs. good outward performances.... As the Engineer said to one of his Musketeer Engineer:  Between a girl who always says nice thing but helps no one vs. a richard simmons cold girl who won't abandon other in need, who is a better person?  the answer is rhetorical, but the young would tend to say "the better looking one"!   hahaha.

 

In My Mister, this reader notes that Lawyer Kang Yoon Hee is physically more comely than Lee Ji An the waif.   But clearly Engineer Dong Hoon knows whom he values more...because that person has a great deal of good values inside!

 

@t123han   should look at marriage contract or nagareboshi if you have never seen them.

 

[andius]

@justamom Thank you for the insightful post. This is part of the reason why I feel despite all DH and JA had with each other, it would not make sense for them to get together romantically at the end, pre-timeskip. One of the themes of the series is about internal force vs external force of a human being. You’ve got to have a strong core to withstand whatever the world throws at you, and that core should not be dependent on anyone else other than yourself. At the end of the series before the timeskip, DH and JA did save each other and are irrevocably tied together. But at that point, they need time to separate and heal on their own, to love themselves truly and to build their own core. It is only then that when they come together at last, that their union could be the strongest.

 

On another unrelated subject, has anyone watched Goblin? I'm unfamiliar with K-dramas before MA, but I've heard great reviews for this one. Thinking of picking it up, but yeah I'm not willing to move on from MA yet...

[enps123]

Been a silent reader since Day 1 but decided to resurrect my old account to comment. 

I noticed how JE’s IU TV they put JA’s age as 21 years but changed it to 22 years after the time skip when they met again in the cafe. Guess it was only 1 year after all. XD I guess the IU team talked to the PD team and ask that it was a 1 year time skip? Or JE told them?  

 

 

Btw I love your guys’ well thought of inputs and observations!

My Ajusshi is a drama for the mind. It gives you a lot to think about. It gave me lots of live lessons and values to currently live by too. 

P.s. y’all should check out the Fanfic ‘Dessert’ its really good!! Im an avid fan and check for updates everyday. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14813768/chapters/34277825 

aaaand I just realized this XD is DongAn their couple name?? XD

Edited June 9, 2018 by Jillia
Please do not post consecutively, edit you previous post instead. Thanks! :)

[nearsea]

48 minutes ago, tiger457_stv said:

@t123han   should look at marriage contract or nagareboshi if you have never seen them.

 

I loved nagareboshi! One of the fewest Japanese dramas on romance genre. About recommendations, Date is also another jdrama I really liked a lot. Then there is 'I'm taking the day off', which is quite fluffy but I liked it just because of the otp I think lol. 

*I also liked saikou no rikon ['the best divorce']. The banters in Date and in this one is really entertaining lol. 

Although mainstream but I liked 'thank you' which has jang hyuk and gong hyo jin. It's sad and melancholic but the simplicity of the storyline is quite compelling. 

None of these are like my ahjussi though lol. I doubt we would ever find anything of this kind. :/

[h2ogirl]

Ep 12-13 observations:

• YH and DH's choice of drinks symbolizes their different worldviews / values.
  
  YH = coffee = modern, Western values (like individualism, small family)
  DH = buckwheat tea = traditional, Korean values (like tribalism, large family)
   
• This conspicuous "SAFE" sign. We see this when the gang is about to leave after walking JA home, and DH is the last one to leave. I wonder if it means something...
  
   
• DH & JA's regular bar... Candlelight dinners... Frequented by couples... Suuure, we shippers are just delusional.
  Spoiler

  

 

• Just before KH and SH find out about YH's affair, we see cherry blossoms falling outside. Perhaps they're symbolizing a fragile, dying marriage in this case?
  Spoiler

  

• When KH and SH step out, the camera pans over to DH's phone. She's by his side. He's not alone.
  
  Later this ep, DH says: "Thanks... for being by my side." ♡__♡
  
  Oh, and then JA embraces her phone and cries... Just embrace each other already, dang it!
  Spoiler

  

   

  

   

  

 

• JH was talking about KH-YR here, but I think it applies to DH-JA as well:

----

This post is getting long, so I'll stop here... but I've noticed that the camera pans over to DH-YH's family photos before key moments like when YH tries to confess about her affair (ep 11), when she calls DH to tell him KH knows (ep 13), and so on. I think we can write an entire thesis on it like traffic signals, lol.

Spoiler

 

[tiger457_stv]

@h2ogirl  said YH and DH's choice of drinks symbolizes their different worldviews / values.

YH = coffee = modern, Western values (like individualism, small family)
DH = buckwheat tea = traditional, Korean values (like tribalism, large family

 

Can't see Engineer Dong Hoon drinking the modern coffee concoctions Americano/Latte etc...Yuck!!!    Hope if he remarried, his young wife won't make him drink those things, since she seems to like coffee of every types!

[sadiesmith]

11 minutes ago, tiger457_stv said:

@h2ogirl  said YH and DH's choice of drinks symbolizes their different worldviews / values.

YH = coffee = modern, Western values (like individualism, small family)
DH = buckwheat tea = traditional, Korean values (like tribalism, large family

 

Can't see Engineer Dong Hoon drinking the modern coffee concoctions Americano/Latte etc...Yuck!!!    Hope if he remarried, his young wife won't make him drink those things, since she seems to like coffee of every types!

 

That last scene at the cafe, when Ji An and her friends were ordering coffees, I thought for sure one of them ordered Americano.  Not sure how to read that.

[h2ogirl]

14 minutes ago, sadiesmith said:

 

That last scene at the cafe, when Ji An and her friends were ordering coffees, I thought for sure one of them ordered Americano.  Not sure how to read that.

 

I don't think these two are related, honestly. And I don't think DH literally doesn't like coffee. (Now I wish I knew what his order at the cafe was!) I meant that in that particular ep 13 shot, the juxtaposition of the two drinks was put in there for a reason.

 

@t123han I love feel-good melos! My suggestions:

• Dear My Friends
• Alone in Love
• Misaeng
• Miracle in Cell No. 7 (movie)

[tiger457_stv]

38 minutes ago, sadiesmith said:

 

That last scene at the cafe, when Ji An and her friends were ordering coffees, I thought for sure one of them ordered Americano.  Not sure how to read that.

They are young so they like the new drinks....that may be good.  May be one of those girl will pull an old stodgy dinosaur engineer into modern time!   a cup of americano for Engineer Dong Hoon please!   that would go well with his blue suit! hahaha.

 

@t123han  may try a Korean sageuk drama The Princess Man from 2012? It involves 1 of 2 violent periods near the beginning  of the Joseon Dynasty.... One can say that it is a Korean Romeo and Juliet story.  It's quite engrossing... especially around episode 8 and 9 when they planned the coup d'état.  This reader always marvel at how they manage to overthrow the government with only 200 men!    You will probably like the Romeo and Juliet part of it.  @h2ogirl you like sageuk drama... did you watch this one?

[sadiesmith]

3 hours ago, h2ogirl said:

 

I don't think these two are related, honestly. And I don't think DH literally doesn't like coffee. (Now I wish I knew what his order at the cafe was!) I meant that in that particular ep 13 shot, the juxtaposition of the two drinks was put in there for a reason.

 

@t123han I love feel-good melos! My suggestions:

• Dear My Friends
• Alone in Love
• Misaeng
• Miracle in Cell No. 7 (movie)

 

Oh, that's not what I meant.  Sorry for not being clear.  I did not mean to say that DH ordered Americano.   It was Ji An and her friends ordering their drinks and I thought I heard the cashier mention Americano as one of their orders.  At first I thought maybe the writer/director was trying to drive home the idea that DH's family is now in the US.

[ccl82]

@andius Pre-MA, I thought Goblin was the greatest thing EVER, after My Name is Kim Sam Soon, of course. However, even then, I could never figure what was so great about their love, that Goblin would wanna live forever so that he could meet Eun-tak again and again...  For me, Goblin's selling point was Gong Yoo + the bromance betwen Goblin and the Grim Reaper. Those two have more chemistry than Goblin and Eun-tak, in my opinion. I also thought there were a lot of filler scenes. The flashbacks especially were repeated to death. Beautiful shots and OST.

 

@enps123 1 year time jump? YAS. 

[sadiesmith]

7 hours ago, andius said:

On another unrelated subject, has anyone watched Goblin? I'm unfamiliar with K-dramas before MA, but I've heard great reviews for this one. Thinking of picking it up, but yeah I'm not willing to move on from MA yet...

 

@andius, MA was your first K-drama?  Just curious, but how did you stumble upon it?  

 

You hit the jackpot right away.  It's going to be hard to top this one, but it doesn't mean you can't find something else that is enjoyable.  I am also not in a hurry to move on.  Actually, why does anyone want to move on so quickly from something this beautiful?  

 

About Goblin, it's got very high ratings from many reviewers.  I watched it between MA new episodes.  It was good distraction, but perhaps because I watched the two shows simultaneously, the shortcomings of Goblin became magnified.  Both dramas were beautifully shot, and the leads had large age gaps.  But I could not get attached to Goblin and its fantastical setting when I had this other drama populated by very real and relatable people.  In the end much of Goblin felt very manufactured to me, and even the highly praised bromance felt flat and silly compared to the love shared by the three Park brothers and their Hugye friends.  

 

But there must be a reason Goblin broke all kinds of ratings records and propelled its male lead to superstardom that lasts two years after its airing, and its Soompi thread reached 1081 pages.  So you should give it a try and report back because I am very very interested to hear your thoughts on the story and how that age-gap romance there compares to the one in MA.

[justamom]

6 hours ago, h2ogirl said:

This conspicuous "SAFE" sign. We see this when the gang is about to leave after walking JA home, and DH is the last one to leave. I wonder if it means something...

 

6 hours ago, h2ogirl said:

YH = coffee = modern, Western values (like individualism, small family)
DH = buckwheat tea = traditional, Korean values (like tribalism, large family)

 

@h2ogirl are you sure you're an engineer? LOL. Just to add one more. Yoon Hee and Do Joon Yeon are always drinking wine. Wine and jazz. I feel it's very aspirational in Korean society -- wanting to be more Western, to aspire towards an American lifestyle. And that's why Ji Seok must go to the US.

 

Dong Hoon? He's Da Soju Bomb King.

 

4 hours ago, sadiesmith said:

 

Oh, that's not what I meant.  Sorry for not being clear.  I did not mean to say that DH ordered Americano.   It was Ji An and her friends ordering their drinks and I thought I heard the cashier mention Americano as one of their orders.  At first I thought maybe the writer/director was trying to drive home the idea that DH's family is now in the US.

 

I believe Ji An's friend ordered an Americano for her. "That's what you want right?" Something along those lines.

 

 

55 minutes ago, sadiesmith said:

@andius, MA was your first K-drama?  Just curious, but how did you stumble upon it?  

 

 

I'm just as curious!

 

6 hours ago, andius said:

 

On another unrelated subject, has anyone watched Goblin? I'm unfamiliar with K-dramas before MA, but I've heard great reviews for this one. Thinking of picking it up, but yeah I'm not willing to move on from MA yet...

 

2 hours ago, ccl82 said:

@andius Pre-MA, I thought Goblin was the greatest thing EVER, after My Name is Kim Sam Soon, of course. However, even then, I could never figure what was so great about their love, that Goblin would wanna live forever so that he could meet Eun-tak again and again...  For me, Goblin's selling point was Gong Yoo + the bromance betwen Goblin and the Grim Reaper. Those two have more chemistry than Goblin and Eun-tak, in my opinion. I also thought there were a lot of filler scenes. The flashbacks especially were repeated to death. Beautiful shots and OST.

 

I tried to watch Goblin about halfway into its run. I like Kim Go Eun, I wanted to like the show.

 

But I just couldn't. I didn't even make it past the second episode. 

 

Admittedly I'm not into fantasy and mature, character-centred stories are just my cup of tea, so take my comments with a pinch of my salt.

 

I had many friends who loved Goblin and cried buckets. They said something about the romance and love there being so amazing  to me, I just couldn't feel it.

 

Gong Yoo also has a huge domestic and international fan base. One of my Korean friends watches anything he's in, but no other dramas or movies (she prefers American films, hehe). Me, I just can't get into Gong Yoo. I find him a bit effeminate.

 

@andius You could try Coffee Prince which is a K Drama classic from more than 10 years ago. It's a bit of a gender-bender Cinderella romance but very well done, very heartfelt. The story is about a girl who dresses as a boy so she gets work as a barista. Along the way she meets two handsome leading men who are cousins, Choi Han Sung, a musician, and Choi Han Gyul, an idle rich boy.

 

Choi Han Sung was played by none other than Lee Seon Gyun (guess who fell in love with him then ) And Choi Han Gyul was played by Gong Yoo.

 

Even back then, I was rooting for Lee Seon Gyun. He had so much more charm! LOL.

[andius]

10 hours ago, h2ogirl said:

Ep 12-13 observations:

• YH and DH's choice of drinks symbolizes their different worldviews / values.
  
  YH = coffee = modern, Western values (like individualism, small family)
  DH = buckwheat tea = traditional, Korean values (like tribalism, large family)
    Reveal hidden contents

   

   

• When KH and SH step out, the camera pans over to DH's phone. She's by his side. He's not alone.
  
  Later this ep, DH says: "Thanks... for being by my side." ♡__♡
  
  Oh, and then JA embraces her phone and cries... Just embrace each other already, dang it!
    Reveal hidden contents

   

   

   

   

   

   

 

 

@h2ogirl I've always wondered about that shot on my first watch - the decision to insert a top shot and draw the audience's attention to their drinks shows that the director wants to convey something, since we've never seen the same type of shot before. Editing-wise, it's definitely out of place. I made a mental note to go back on it on further rewatches, but you beat me to it  

 

JA and DH both embrace and hold their phone so preciously...They could not reach out to each other, but this phone right here is the closest thing they could get. And I'm in tears again ;_;

I utterly love how heartbroken JA was every time she hears DH suffering on the other line, how hopeless she felt that there was nothing she could do.

 

Spoiler

Ep 8

 

Ep 11

 

Ep 13

 

Ep 14

I just love the way DH is wrecked with silent sobs here. He is trying to hold it in, to be nonchalant, but his breaths betray him.

1

 

Don't you just want to reach out to JA and say to her, 'Don't cry'? ;-;

 

@sadiesmith @justamom Before this I was mostly a consumer of Japanese and UK media, haha. I was actually trying to get over a manga series which deals with an age gap relationship as well (Koi wa Ameagari no you ni - it has a live-action released in cinema in May). The manga is really good and quite realistic, but I didn't like the way it ended. I was ranting to a friend of mine who's a K-media fan and she recommended My Ahjussi...and the rest, shall we say, is history  

 

@ccl82 @sadiesmith @justamom Thanks for the heads up about Goblin and for all the recs! I guess I'll try to keep a low standard then. And @justamom my friend also suggested Coffee Prince after she knew how hard I fell for LSK :)) 

[sadiesmith]

39 minutes ago, andius said:

 

@ccl82 @sadiesmith @justamom Thanks for the heads up about Goblin and for all the recs! I guess I'll try to keep a low standard then. And @justamom my friend also suggested Coffee Prince after she knew how hard I fell for LSK :)) 

 

Watch Coffee Prince if you want, but don't expect it to satisfy if you're hungry for more LSK.  But you might fall for Gong Yoo, so then you'd end up loving Goblin like the rest of them. 

 

For real LSK fares I would suggest his movies A Hard Day and Petty Romance, and his dramaThis Week My Wife Will Have an Affair (Listen to Love).  Or you can try his old classic Pasta, although it can be a miss with some people.  

[h2ogirl]

@andius Omo, I looove those screenshots!

 

I learnt how to make GIFs today, so I'd love to make some for you all. Request away! I can overlay "givemeslippers" on them to promote our fansite. @sadiesmith @justamom

 

Edit: Slightly longer version of this gif... @justamom

https://i.imgur.com/Pl3IVnN.gifv

 

@tiger457_stv Yep, already watched The Princess' Man. I enjoyed it, but Park Shi Hoo kinda distracts me in a bad way... so it's not one of my absolute favorites. It's a really good drama though.

[ccl82]

@andius Yes, yes. Once you've been hit by the love portrayed in MA, just lower your expectations for just about every show on earth. 

 

@h2ogirl Can you make one, of DH's face right before he enters CD's place? Before he met JA in episode 15. Also would love moments where DJY basically shipped DH-JA. I'm thinking I love DJY now. 

[andius]

I'm so hungry for MA content that I've resorted to browsing through the DC Inside forum...getting by through Google Translate...

Found this post that talked about the restaurant that JA and DH frequent, their special place:

http://gall.dcinside.com/board/view/?id=mymister&no=55697&page=1&recommend=1

 

What I could gather through Google Translate: They notice the appearance of the word 'Pandora' in several scenes. This could be intentional, as they could easily blur out or remove brand names in post-production. Or simply change the shot angle to not include it.

As it's shown repeatedly, they believe it's a reference to Pandora's box - a jar when opened, releases misery and unhappiness, and nothing is left - except for hope.

This might be a parallel with DH's inner soul: Once he found out about YH's affair, once he decided to let the world know about it, that's similar to opening Pandora's box isn't it? But inside the box, the hope for happiness remains - embodied within the figure of JA.

 

Don't know if it's overanalysis or not, but it's definitely an interesting take...