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[Drama 2019] Love Affair in the Afternoon, 평일 오후 세시의 연인


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@ktcjdrama Thanks for the recap chingu:). But what a mess lol. I'm still gonna watch it though:mrgreen:.

Spoiler

So they were high school classmates. A disaster is waiting to happen..... :(. Not to mention, their marriage is not even registered in South Korea yet but they are still legally married in USA.  But I wonder if he will register even when the affair starts. Hopefully not.

 

By the way, I thought the artist wasn't married. 

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Ep3 leaves me with mixed feelings even as it begins to reveal more of the men in the story.

 

So YJW is not legally married, but merely had a wedding ceremony in the US. Yet he committed to paying for NMY's PhD studies at the expense of his own after obtaining his Masters degree, by teaching in what she dismisses as a rundown school. Of the two, it is clear the legality of their marriage means far more to him, while she considers it a mere formality, deeming their feelings for each other to be more important. He appears the more committed of the two to their marriage, and the disparity of that commitment has chipped away at their relationship as far as he is concerned, hence slowly gravitating towards SJE. I wonder too, whether he is drawn to her because there is no sense of inferiority when they are together, as opposed to with his wife, who is now better educated, and commands a more prestigious post than he as a mere biology teacher? 

 

DHY is a grey character for now, and I cannot help but wonder whether he is baiting CSA with the sketch to obtain inspiration for his work, since the book covers the topic of a married woman who is desperately clinging to her lover. Is he deliberately enticing her towards him then drawing her in deeper by a show of disdain for her, just so that he could live out first hand, the raging affair that he is meant to illustrate? I am curious at his estranged (?) wife's reaction when she heard that the cryptic one thing he wants from LYJ is something means nothing to him, yet is his all. Can it be that DHY's MO is to conduct affairs with wives of those he is collaborating? Or does she suspect what he is really asking for, knowing his predilection for immersing himself in the topic at hand in order to produce his best work? If that really is true, does he then, end up falling into his own trap, and be as hopelessly entangled with the woman he is deliberately trying to seduce?

 

JCK's sudden change towards SJE early on in the episode comes as a surprise. Whatever brought it about? A stab of guilty conscience as he finds himself drawn to his colleague, and a belated effort to remind himself that he is married? It is pure irony to see his utter confidence that his wife would never cheat on him, which goes to show, not so much his trust in her love, but rather how much he has taken her for granted. Of course, that does not stop him from going hysterical over the loss of Love, nor his unreasonable demands that SJE finds it back for him. With the symbolic loss of Love, would we see Faith take flight next, or die of the virus that JCK keeps harping about? 

 

Apart from a roving eye and a callous attitude, LYJ reveals an often masked disdain for his wife when he disapproves of her choice of companions, preferring that she spends time with people from a higher class. His one statement effectively tears her down, relegating her to being the same as those he despises. Is that her real reason for meaningless dalliances after dalliances? To numb herself from her eroding self-worth and identity, as well as using it as her way of getting back at her husband who belittles her in his own way?

 

To be honest, I have a hard time reconciling what is bandied around as "love", with the context that I am seeing it in the drama. I can't understand how being rebuffed in such derogatory terms after approaching DHY at his studio with the clear intention of adding him to her list of lovers, would serve to make CSA believe that she has found love. If that is what she thinks it is, her concept of love is purely superficial, since she clearly knows nothing about him, and her reaction smacks more of a child who is so used to getting what she wants, that she is fixated on the one thing that is denied her. As for SJE, I can empathise more why she is captivated by YJW, but I have to wonder if she would have even entertained a closer relationship with him, if not for CSA's machinations and skewed but so alluring rationale. Or perhaps she was already at the brink anyway, that all she needed was just a slight nudge towards the first person who treated her like a human being.

 

I am unsure if my discomfort in the narrative is deliberately provoked by the script, or naivety on the part of the writer to somehow encourage the viewers' sympathy for the soon-to-be adulterers. Hopefully the former. We'll see... 

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I wanted to punch Ji-Eun's idiotic husband badly..:angry:  I mean when he wailed like a baby over the loss of his pet bird, I couldn't help but burst out laughing. He sounded like a dying seal!:lol:

 

I find myself snoozing at certain parts of this drama LoL:P 

 

@liddi

I like reading your post as it was both articulate and echoed my thoughts exactly.

It does appear the writers are making it OK for the characters to commit adultery in particular, Soo-Ah & Ji-Eun. But I don't know why I can't seem to get into this drama & maybe that's why I've a hard time staying awake ha:lol:

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@Latte_Anyday Thank you very much for your kind words. I don't know yet that the script is advocating adultery - during the press conference, the PD and PHS were very vehement about not glorifying it at all. As such, I hope that it will be a stark look at choices made out of circumstances, and the consequences of those decisions, even though we as viewers may sympathise and root for them to find happiness in their lives. 

 

OST Part 1 sung by Jang Hye Jin has been released:

 

 

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Have only watched the first 15 minutes of ep.4... and I am so emotional about it ~ anger, sadness... There are good dialogues/reference about Love (the bird and the abstract noun)

Spoiler

YJW asked SJE are you looking for Love? Did you lose Love?

So the search for Love continued till late night. SJE injuring her leg in the process, while JCK at home drowning his sorrow for the loss of Love in bottles of soju. Later he went out of the building, standing there and screaming out the name of Love that the neighbor (MIL's friend) noticed him while taking out the trash. Later at home, SJE returned, JCK immediately asked her whether she found Love. She told him calmly no, and Love is not going to return. Why would it return when it has gained freedom from being caged in a pathetic life. He said then it will die. SJE replied it's the bird's fate then. The bird has made a choice so let it live the life it has chosen. JCK said do you know how scared it might be? SJE replied "If you love it that much, why don't you go look for it then? Maybe your love can move its heart to come back" He claimed he did try to find it all night and again yelling at her "whyyyyy?! why did you leave the door opened?!" SJE screamed back at him is that all he cared about? That Love has flown away. Does he not care about her heart at all? Where her heart is heading? JCK replied: What are you talking about? We're talking about Love here. SJE: Exactly, love, we're talking about love. She continued that one day she might just walk out the door and disappear. She went out again. In front of the building, she thought, how wonderful it is if she has wings like Love. Then on days like this she could fly away somewhere else. Fly to the person she wants to see most. MIL came rushing, must have heard of it from neighbor. She saw SJE and confirmed the Love incident and angrily went upstairs to smack her son. He was seated at the sofa and thought it was SJE returning and even asked why did you return so fast? have you found Love? MIL smacked him for making her DIL suffer, but he dared talk back to her and demanded her not to interfere in his marriage.

SJE continued walking and sat by a garden. YJW called her and asked if she is safely home. She lied, but he knew she is out because he could hear the crickets in the background. She just leave the phone on and started crying.

Okay, I am an animal lover, but the way JCK is reacting to Love's flying away is really really too much! And then, if he really love the bird so much, why is he not trying to find it immediately but have time to drink soju.... <_<

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Just some tidbits, because I can't do the recaps yet.

- DHY and wife are divorced. But ex-wife is quick to pick up that he fell in love, and that's why he is drawing again.

- YJW's wife is really something. She picked him up at school, they argued about the school he works at again, and she got angry, stopped the car and asked him to go home by himself, using the excuse that she left something at school, which was clearly something made up.

 

And first date started for both the couples...

Spoiler

The males initiated the meetings, and then there were skinship, handholding... and the females initiated the kiss ~ one full kissing and embracing, another is just an almost kiss as the cliffhanger.

But in next episode preview, we see that the affairs seem going to be quickly discovered by each of the spouse.

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I'd like to empathise with Soo-Ah & Ji-Eun @liddi However their marriage woes could be resolved by means of proper communication perhaps?

 

With Soo-Ah, I just find her infidelity frivolous in comparison to Ji-Eun's.. Soo-Ah seem to relish the attention she gets & of course the physical gratification. Ji-Eun is craving kindness & warmth which is what Jung-Woo has given her~Still it looks like they're giving these characters the green light to cheat on their spouses.. 

 

Honestly this drama looks like all characters are swapping partners & jumping each other! 

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7 hours ago, ktcjdrama said:

Just some tidbits, because I can't do the recaps yet.

- DHY and wife are divorced. But ex-wife is quick to pick up that he fell in love, and that's why he is drawing again.

- YJW's wife is really something. She picked him up at school, they argued about the school he works at again, and she got angry, stopped the car and asked him to go home by himself, using the excuse that she left something at school, which was clearly something made up.

 

And first date started for both the couples...

  Hide contents

The males initiated the meetings, and then there were skinship, handholding... and the females initiated the kiss ~ one full kissing and embracing, another is just an almost kiss as the cliffhanger.

But in next episode preview, we see that the affairs seem going to be quickly discovered by each of the spouse.

The social difference between YJW and his wife is what driving him away from his marriage imo. Like her parents, his wife seems like want to dictate what he should do/supposed to do to keep the pride/status. He can't continue in this kind of marriage. It's toxic. 

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A pensive air hangs over the 4th episode, as more and more cracks are evident in the marriages at stake. The dialogues are punctuated with double meaning, the apparent loss of a bird aptly named, a reflection of their own lives. YJW's innocuous remark about SJE always falling when she is with him is an unintentionally clear mirror of her emotional state and moral downfall as well - falling for him, and falling astray from her marriage vows. Love, the bird who flew away from her mate, becomes a state that both women cannot help but envy - to be able to break free from the shackles that bind them to their own marriages, where love too is gone.

 

It is interesting that this time, after the spectacular outburst, JCK comes to his senses, apologises to his wife, and later even praises her beauty to his colleague. Her MIL too stands firmly in her corner, taking JCK to task for treating her this way over a mere bird. It makes me wonder if this is the norm in their marriage, with him blaming her first, then contrite later? Or has he always had the last word in the family until now, when she, pushed to the edge in her frustration particularly due to her own straying heart, at last stands up to him, revealing what she has kept within herself all these years. Nonetheless, is it too little, too late for JCK to turn things around if he realises that he is losing her? @Latte_Anyday brings up a good point about breakdown in communication contributing to the cracks in their marriage. Still, I wonder if any attempts in communication would have helped to change JCK whose affection runs far deeper for his "children" than his wife. Perhaps he does not realise what it is she is craving all this time. Yet can one really be so obtuse if there is truly any real affection left? I still find that he takes her for granted, and she by the same token, driven also by a sense of inferiority in the marriage, allows him to treat her like a doormat until she is pushed to the brink.

 

On the other hand, the reveal of the real state of affairs in CSA's marriage feels a little contrived. Where is the warm, doting husband and family man from Ep1? Instead, we now see a nastiness in his treatment towards her that seems to come out of left field, outright shaming her for her lack of talents apart from cooking, even deriding her as one who does not read, not realising that it is her way of fighting against her husband's treatment of her, by refusing to be associated with books which are so much a part of his business. By the same token, her affairs seem to come from the same reasoning - a stab in the dark against a husband who sees her as nothing. Once again, I dislike the flippant use of the word "love" in describing CSA and DHY's feelings for one another. For me it is not that, at least not yet. In this episode, it is implied that DHY is drawn to her upon witnessing how LYJ undermines and belittles her, even in front of his guests. If he felt instinctively protective and chivalrous towards her, how does the words he threw at her during her visit constitute love in any form? If anything, I am more inclined to accept it as a physical attraction on her part due to his perception of who she is, but not love. Not yet.

 

YJW is clearly the underdog in his yet-to-be-legalised marriage. Is that of his own volition because of his initial commitment to NMY's ambitions? However, it is obvious that this has taken a toll on their relationship. If SJE had not entered his life, would he try to save it? Or is he, like SJE, so passive in his handling of his relationship that he just goes with the flow until it is way too late?

 

Bad influence notwithstanding, I am glad that SJE finds camaraderie and happiness in CSA's friendship - her shy request to call her "Unni" is proof of that. And while she is the instigator, I believe the same holds true for CSA... that she has found a confidante in the unassuming, mousy woman from next door, possibly for the first time in her life. I wonder if this friendship will still hold fast when their lives fall apart as they each embark on an affair that would take a toll on them emotionally and destroy their marriages. I cannot imagine a happy ending for any of them for their infidelity, except perhaps to finally find the courage to break free from their own toxic marriages for good. We shall see...

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14 hours ago, liddi said:

 

 

On the other hand, the reveal of the real state of affairs in CSA's marriage feels a little contrived. Where is the warm, doting husband and family man from Ep1? Instead, we now see a nastiness in his treatment towards her that seems to come out of left field, outright shaming her for her lack of talents apart from cooking, even deriding her as one who does not read, not realising that it is her way of fighting against her husband's treatment of her, by refusing to be associated with books which are so much a part of his business.

i think the husband or the happy family we saw in Episode 1 is just a show they put up in front of the kids... they are programming their kids to feel like they are one happy family and their parents are loving towards each other. But the fact... is what we see now. 

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I just finished up the 4 episodes over the weekend.  Though I don't condone adultery, the premises set up shows the circumstances that how in some instances, it can come to that.  No doubt, if they had open communication in their marriages, it might work out.  But do remember communication goes both ways with both parties having an open mind.  In both marriages, the situation is set out such that the husbands are holding themselves in a higher place than the wives and they think they know best. In CSA's family, the elder daughter seems to know that her parents are not all that happy based on some of the questions she ask.  Like, do all adults stray?

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55 minutes ago, emmie said:

I just finished up the 4 episodes over the weekend.  Though I don't condone adultery, the premises set up shows the circumstances that how in some instances, it can come to that.  No doubt, if they had open communication in their marriages, it might work out.  But do remember communication goes both ways with both parties having an open mind.  In both marriages, the situation is set out such that the husbands are holding themselves in a higher place than the wives and they think they know best. In CSA's family, the elder daughter seems to know that her parents are not all that happy based on some of the questions she ask.  Like, do all adults stray?

i agree with you. i do not condone adultery too but I guess this show wants to show us sometimes people are push to conduct adultery because the supposed to be legal marriage of theirs are too toxic and not working. These people do not do an affair for fun. They have their own reason that no one will understand if they tell them. This show also trying to show us how CSA understands SJE even before she knows her marital problem. She can read her when the MIL failed to do so. 

 

I guess there is the reason why the writer create the husbands are such a jerk and pain in the richard simmons. To make us understands why the women conduct adultery. If the husbands are saint, of course we cannot accept such behaviour. 

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Took the plunge and decided to watch both versions after all - with the remake first, then the original, but pacing it so that I do not spoil any future reveals for myself.

 

Hirugao Eps 1-3 are in essence Eps 1-4 of the remake, and I am already enjoying the differences as much as I love the similarities and the alternate spin that the remake has taken. Current impressions are that in the original, Sawa's attraction to Yuichiro stems more from the simmering frustration of her marriage state despite her spirited attitude; and her loneliness from her husband's lack of interest in her as a woman becomes a catalyst to her being drawn to Yuichiro who she finds easy to banter and talk with. This is a contrast to SJE whose reserved nature and passivity continues to accept the emotional and physical neglect until she teeters and falls for the man who has shown her nothing but kindness and warmth. The original appears to be a conscious decision to reach out for a taste of something better than what her marriage is offering her, while the remake is more of her being involuntarily drawn to him like a moth to the flame, a light at the end of her desolation.

 

On the other hand, I find Rikako and Osamu to be far better conceived compared to CSA and DHY thus far. There is no sentimentalism in Rikako's interactions with Osamu from the start, no conceit in her matter-of-fact statement to him that her beauty has gotten her what she wants all this while, and her wish to be drawn by him who has so accurately perceived her,  is to remind who she is truly when that beauty is gone. He is brutally honest with her but that does not deter her, and there is nothing more than mere physical attraction between them that I can see for now. Yet, their very interactions are far more realistic than the insistence of the remake to plug in "love" into the equation, which, at this point in time, is a highly unlikely factor. As such, I personally prefer the portrayal of the original as far as this couple is concerned. Hopefully, the remake will recover from this misstep and convince me that what transpires between CSA and DHY does make sense in the overall narrative.

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Just finished ep 4 and I am rooting for the main couple as wrong as it sounds. To them it's like forbidden love but us as the viewers can see that they're meant to be together, it's just that they met at the wrong time and the wrong place. The bird that flew away to me is a metaphor that SJE should fly away and find her happiness too instead of being trapped in a loveless marriage. Her husband is such a d*****, he clearly did not look for the bird and just blamed her for it. As for YJW's relationship with his wife, it seems as though she's from a well off family but he still sent her tuition funds when she was studying in the States? I'm a bit confused on that but they don't seem to be on the same path in life as she is not very supportive of what he loves to do. 

 

CSA is a conflicting character, she seems like a strong minded woman but yet succumb to her husband's rules so her outlet is to have affairs but won't leave her husband. I want to know more about her past or what made her the way she is. So far the drama is moving at a good pace, I think the storyline between the two kids is unnecessary. Other than that looking forward to next week!

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The writing/portrayal of the scumbag husbands and the women/wives doing all the sacrificing and compromising is very accurate and true to life. I don’t really care if they romanticize affairs, I find myself empathizing with CSA and agreeing with everything she says, lol. Their husbands have checked out and been emotionally cheating on them for quite a while, which I view as worse than physical cheating, so it’s an eye for an eye at this point. It’s a grey area and telling people who don’t have the power in the relationship (usually women) to just leave is simply very naive and ignorant esp when children are involved. It’s ironic Knets are so concerned about romanticizing affairs in an unsalvageable marriage when you have probably the same netizens shaming exclusively women for mutually and consentually leaving a defunct relationship. Not even an accomplished, famous woman like SHK can escape the misogynistic public backlash.

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2 hours ago, anng said:

 

 

CSA is a conflicting character, she seems like a strong minded woman but yet succumb to her husband's rules so her outlet is to have affairs but won't leave her husband. I want to know more about her past or what made her the way she is. So far the drama is moving at a good pace, I think the storyline between the two kids is unnecessary. Other than that looking forward to next week!

in my opinion, for her case she has her girls to think off. She cannot easily ask for divorce if she wants the custody of her daughters. She is  a non-working mom. She used to be a ballerina and it is almost impossible for her to make a comeback after 15 years or more not dancing. So if she wants to ask for a divorce, she needs really a reliable man who can accept not only her but her daughters and can give the lifestyle she has now. I think in the Japanese version, Rikako did explain that why she have affairs and not getting a divorce because she already used to the lifestyle and she felt it's hard to let go. I guess that must be similar to CSA. Furthermore, CSA self confidence that she can stand on her own has been trampled by her husband. I think he had made her sees herself as a good homemaker and nothing else. 

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Poor SJE is still desperately searching for Love, even to the extent of posting details of the flyer on her IG, and tagging her husband as contact person. And he is still blaming her with his response to her post: "Why did you leave the door to the veranda open!!!!" :crazy: Time to open the cage door again and let Faith fly off too!

 

 

Meanwhile, JCK himself posted this group photo... hmmm... would he be so chummy with YJW if he only knew what was going on with his wife? :phew:

 

 

New BTS released!

 

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