[Drama 2019] Extraordinary You / Suddenly One Day, 어쩌다 발견한 하루 - 2019 MBC Drama of the Year

[angelbeast90]

All this talk of Shakespear reminds me of this from  As You Like It, spoken by Jaques

 

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances;

 

 

So they exit Trumpet Creeper to Secret ...so where next!!!

[angelbeast90]

 

 

 

EDIT: If I could I would love to ask that art class teacher if she is cosplaying her inner Frida Kahlo!

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[nrllee]

@tinymel Romeo and Juliet was mentioned because it was one of the books on the shelf where the comic Secret was found.  Along with Pride and Prejudice, Turandot,  Merchant of Venice.  All these books are obviously inspirations for the story line or they wouldn’t have been placed alongside the comic.  Hence the quotes.  

[angelbeast90]

@nrllee What about Tower Bridge. She was carrying that tower of books and one book was named that. I couldn't help staring at that book when it was on the shelf too. Also I was thinking at the back of my mind that these books must mean something, thank god someone could make sense out of it.

Spoiler

 

Maybe this alludes to if you build bridges/stories with a weak base it will topple!! So story is going to go astray or something.

[tinymel]

19 minutes ago, nrllee said:

@tinymel Romeo and Juliet was mentioned because it was one of the books on the shelf where the comic Secret was found.  Along with Pride and Prejudice, Turandot,  Merchant of Venice.  All these books are obviously inspirations for the story line or they wouldn’t have been placed alongside the comic.  Hence the quotes.  

 

Ah!(I did notice the titles that but didn't realise that was why you using the quotes) But still!!! I don't want tragedy. 

[nrllee]

@tinymel @brielover and I are trying to work out how else to fit the other books on the shelf into the narrative.  I don’t mind tragedy.  In fact I rather prefer it.  It would fit in the arc thus far.  We’ll see how brave the screenwriters are.  If they are willing to suffer the ire of the audience to tell a story without the usual “trope” of KDrama.  Isn’t this the whole premise of the drama?  A satirical look at tropes and well worn ideals as set up by expectations of society?  

[tinymel]

@nrllee and @brielover thoughts on the other titles:

 

Pride and Prejudice-- Mr Darcy being the most famous tsundere character in the Western canon--BK will probably get a massive confession soon. Arguably also the difference between how people act in polite society and how they act one on one.

 

Turandot-- maybe riddles? or the fact that Turnadot says that the prince's name is Love; she gives him a name like DO gives Haru his name? And if she says his real name he will die, so maybe the idea of giving someone else control over your fate? (I haven't listened to the opera in a while)

 

Merchant of Venice -- I think there are a couple of parallels one being debt--"pound of flesh". Also the use of stock characters (the men who try to woo Portia are all stereotypes of where they come from). Portia also is the epitome of a perfect heroine (pretty, smart, wealthy) which is how DO sees herself at the beginning before discovering she is merely an extra... Arguably Portia, herself, is an extra in a play about Shylock, the Merchant of Venice. You could also say that the relatively minor character Jessica is an example of an Extra who proves crucial the way the play turns out (actually a lot of extras in MoV are important to ensuring the play ends the way it does)--she is also, ultimately, unhappy in her marriage "I am never merry when I hear music". 

 

EDIT: I am also intrigued by the other titles which all have to do with contemporary takes on historical houses or interiors. Again the idea of things not being what they seem. Also the nice duality of Historic and Contemporary like our two manhwa

 

I love all genres tbh and the idea that the writer and production team would be willing to have a tragic ending would be really refreshing. The whole drama feels very tragi-comedy but within the safe, quite sanitised confines of a high school. One thing I've found interesting is that it does not hold with the tradition romcom plot line boy meets girls, boy falls in love with girl, something keeps them apart, they start a new world/life together where the old way of doing things is overturned so that true love rules supreme. Instead we have a story of Hubris in the sageuk manhwa (v fitting and common trope for historical fiction) and Cinderella in Secret (in a high school, also well trodden path). Both have morals about being humble and putting the needs of others before your own. Then! There is the main Shadow love story. Again a common theme of wealthy girl trapped in a loveless relationship who is won over by the poor but kind and loyal servant(who can represent a romantic connection she won't find elsewhere). But that in turn is undermined by the story of the extras in the shadow (namely Squid, BK, DH, and JD). DH and JD are now the centre of a Romeo/Juliet doomed from the start romance, one consigned to the shadows--actually theirs is the relationship that most closely mirrors R&J imo. Squid is the puppet master who turns out to be more of a puppet than any of them (which is sad). I can't see how they can make everyone happy--perhaps the next manhwa is DH and JD trying to get together with Haru and DO either as the leads or absent altogether. Perhaps their disappearing from the Stage is ultimately the happy ending we should want because it means they no longer have to worry about the whims of an unseen writer.

 

Another thing that makes the drama so engrossing is that how it plays with internal referencing (BoF for instance) without alienating the viewer into thinking the characters are the same. NJ is essentially every LMH character squashed together (I'm sure to find a CH reference somewhere) and is so 2D that it is no wonder JD is falling for DH! Though I think it is done in good humour, behind all good jokes is a grain of truth. Interestingly I think tastes have changed to the point that straight romcom (and fusion sageuk) is going out of fashion. Maybe will have a comeback in a couple of years. This drama feels in some ways the nail in the coffin of High school candy girls--I couldn't be happier!

 

Ultimately for me this drama is THAT girl. The one who is perfect in every way possible but you can't hate her because she is just a genuinely good person. 

 

Ooof. Did not intend it to be that long but once you got me started I couldn't seem to stop.

[celebrianna]

@tinymel, I can’t see any similarities at all between Mr. Darcy and BK in character or situation. Both are rich but that’s about it.

 

Mr Darcy indeed was full of pride but as Elizabeth realized later after honestly admitting she was prejudiced, Mr. Darcy was a “principled” man and an excellent judge of character. He was indeed awkward in social gatherings and held the country crowd beneath him, but notice that she also recognized the improprieties in the behavior of the people in her neighborhood yet chose to turn a blind eye to them just because she was prejudiced against Mr. Darcy. Mr Darcy’s  letter to Elizabeth certainly demonstrated his excellent judge of character. Everything he said about Jane, her family and Wickham was spot on and it’s remarkable how everything he warned about in that letter came to fruition not long after Elizabeth received it. 

Notice also that after making that disparaging remark about Elizabeth, after observing her on subsequent occasions, he treated her “differently” than any other woman that someone as rational and realistic like Charlotte picked up on it first.

 

[tinymel]

7 minutes ago, celebrianna said:

@tinymel, I can’t see any similarities at all between Mr. Darcy and BK in character or situation. Both are rich but that’s about it. Mr Darcy indeed was full of pride but as Elizabeth realized later after honestly admitted she was prejudiced, Mr. Darcy was a “principled” man and an excellent judge of character. He was indeed awkward in social gatherings and held the country crowd beneath him, but notice also that his letter to Elizabeth was “spot on” about her beloved sister, her family and Mr. Wickham. It was really remarkable how everything he warned about in that letter came to fruition not long after Elizabeth received it.

 

Notice also that after making that disparaging remark about Elizabeth, after observing her on subsequent occasions, he treated her “differently” than any other woman that someone as rational and realistic like Charlotte picked up on it first.

 

 

Ah! Sorry for not making myself clear on that! I don't think that Mr Darcy and BK are similar people--rather they are meant to represent the same thing to the reader. A male character who represses his real emotions because a real or perceived barrier to a happy relationship with the woman he grows to love. So yet another stock character and relationship that the author/writer can play with/ subvert.

 

In my opinion/ by now well established, BK is meant to be a character who acts like he hates DO but secretly loves her--he rejects her because of his own mother's death/ doesn't want to be left by another person he cares about. Only BK is in fact an angry, arrogant man who is selfish and, frankly, horrible. But I still think that BK will have (most likely on the stage) a meaningful confession to DO--one that is meant to be the ultimate turning point in their relationship arc. By meaningful, I mean one that happens either in the hospital or another place where there isn't a group of people. If it happens on the stage and then flips back to the shadow it would be very interesting to see how BK will play it out... I don't think he actually likes DO, rather she is his toy that has been taken away. But he confuses that with love, which is tragic.

 

Hope that makes more sense! 

 

 

[brielover]

@tinymel @nrllee 

 

I think we've narrowed down Haru, Dan Oh and Kyung as Romeo, Juliet and Count Paris, buried together in a joint grave, stolen by the author but playing out the same tragic story line, even in a script where Romeo/Haru was not originally cast but blasted through to Juliet/Dan Oh anyway.  That's why they're always involved in tragedy.  That's why the heart condition. That's why the three objects, like grave objects, to prove or remember their existence, in the store: the flower for Dan Oh, the camera for Haru that may or may not have a photo of him, the tennis balls for competitive Kyung.  Juliet would likely have lived fairly happily with Count Paris if Romeo was not on the scene: Secret seems to have sidelined her and attempted to remove Romeo so she might achieve a happy ending.

 

If you look at the close up of the title on the shelf, it is not straightforward.  It has question marks. Romeo? And? Juliet.  Why include this oddity if we're not supposed to question Haru's identity - we do from day one - whether he's in the right book, whether he should be with Juliet?

 

But we've also got aware characters like JuDa and DoHwa and Squid, and three other fictional texts the writer was using either as reference or to steal characters from: Merchant of Venice, Turandot, and Pride and Prejudice.  We've not seen enough of JuDa to make a determination what her inspiration was, and we don't k ow enough about Squid.  But DoHwa should be someone recognizable as we know him, but he just isn't.  Or at least I don't recognize him.  Haru, Dan Oh, and Kyung match their characters from R &J not only in some situations but in personality.  Do Hwa doesn't match Darcy, Wickham or Bingley, nor that sponger Bassanio, Antonio or Shylock! 

 

So the strong identification of characters might end with Romeo and Juliet.  So far!  That doesn't negate that the other books with their characters are still an inspiration.  This is the writer's shelf - the main books the writer uses to construct the world of the manwha.  I know this because I write and belong to a writer's group and we all have similar reference shelves on our computers or on our shelves that we return to for help with descriptions, world-building, and characters again and again.  

[brielover]

3 minutes ago, Jillia said:

Actually Kyung is such a oldschool male character.... the tortured man with a cruel past who treats the female lead like crap but secretly LURVES her. And then in the end he will get the girl without little effort. Thankfully this won't happen here. But I just really hope he gets a well-rounded arc... for the sake of Lee Jae Wook who is playing him so well.

 

Anyways, you can find pretty much in any Korean drama some sort of reference to classic literature. Even in non-Asian tv shows and movies you will find motifs from classics because in the end the writer becomes a writer because he/she loves all these classics or at least has knowledge about them. So consciously or unconsciously a writer will always bring back those old plots and character types or even metaphors back in their own works - may it be a adaptation, new interpretation or simply a nod in their story towards those classics. I think it makes even sense for this drama because we're in a manhwa world and every character is full of clichés (stereotypes, setups etc.). So it makes sense that the writer (drama AND manhwa) is making usage of old classics like Romeo and Juliet and many more.

I have to disagree that it's just an underlying motif with regards to Romeo and Juliet.  See above.  Why is there a book titled with question marks: Romeo? And? Juliet, on a stereotypical writer's reference shelf, and with so many metaphors in EY strongly related to Romeo & Juliet?  You can dismiss it if you want, but I think the question marks, if nothing else, make clear the writer wants to draw our attention to and question what he or she is doing with this text.

[dairymilks]

People on Reddit were really heartbroken by this scene from last week:

 

 

Because apparently, Haru was heartbroken that Dan Oh repeated the same lines he saw in his dreams (“Thank you for giving me the chance to see the world’s most beautiful night sky, and for remembering my wish”). They believed it was an indication that Haru realized that the writer still had control over Eun Dan Oh.

 

Did anyone else interpret the scene this way? I merely thought Haru felt bittersweet in this scene. Even though they were happy in the shadow, he still felt anxious about what he saw in the past and where the manhwa’s storyline will take them. 

[dairymilks]

17 minutes ago, Jillia said:

@dairymilks

There seem to be many theories around about this scene. One being that Ha Ru was actually happy she finally said those lines to him, not Kyung. But also Knetizen are also talking about the possibility that Dan Oh is not aware at all but it's all a setup? But I think that would negate every character development she went through and it wouldn't be fair to us.

 

I'm wondering though if there are any lines, Ha Ru did say in "Trumpet Creeper" and is also saying in "Secret"? If that's the case it would mean that not just Dan Oh but he is still controlled by the writer. For example little things like him removing the flower from Dan Oh's hair in the early episodes, it's something sageuk!Ha Ru did as well.

 

I think the scene by the lockers with Baek Kyung? Dan Oh surprised Haru, Haru hugged her, and then Haru said, “I’ll wait for you” etc? Sorry I can’t dig up screenshots right now , but didn’t it trigger Kyung’s memory of having encountered the same line in Trumoet Creeper, spoken by sageuk!Haru as well? Which then led him to retrieving the unburnt pages of Trumpet Creeper...

 

ALSO the one where Haru said he will make his own answer if he can’t find the reason why he was “brought into this world”?? sageuk!Haru said this to Baek Kyung, while Secret!Haru said it to DSF.

[kawaiibooty]

I was just casually going through MBC's instagram and then:

 

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They did him so dirty...lol

[leeminhosny]

 

[taskdramafanatic]

23 hours ago, -Love Blossom- said:

Doesn't the scars the characters get in the shadow disappears when the next stage begins? In episode 3 when Dan Oh followed Haru to the nurse office and saw that he got hurt in his hand she said it will be healed in the next stage and it really did. But the scars Haru got from preparing the stars didn't disappear during pottery class. Is this a mistake from the director or the shadow is really becoming important?

i noticed this too and i've realized only when haru is used on stage his wounds go away, otherwise they stay because he is in the shadow and the writer didn't fix him up by drawing him. at least that is my assumption. 

 

7 hours ago, dairymilks said:

Because apparently, Haru was heartbroken that Dan Oh repeated the same lines he saw in his dreams (“Thank you for giving me the chance to see the world’s most beautiful night sky, and for remembering my wish”). They believed it was an indication that Haru realized that the writer still had control over Eun Dan Oh.

 

Did anyone else interpret the scene this way? I merely thought Haru felt bittersweet in this scene. Even though they were happy in the shadow, he still felt anxious about what he saw in the past and where the manhwa’s storyline will take them.

let's not psycho-analyse this okay. it's heartbreaking to think that the writer has control over them even in the shadows. 

 

7 hours ago, Jillia said:

Fox Ha Ru knowing exactly why Dan Oh is shy... also same, Dan Oh, same! We all need these gifsets because... angst is coming in the next episodes and we need to be ready.

the most precious af couple 

[leeminhosny]

this week again there isn't SF9 OST  really I got angry only final week left 

[-Love Blossom-]

@leeminhosny After all those mess I don't think we will get SF9 or Rowoon ost. Some people might use this to again blame him  For the time being it will be better to keep his acting and singing career apart. Moreover SF9 is also preparing for their comeback so chances are less. I checked them out because of Rowoon and their songs are actually good. It would've been nice if they could sing here.

 

 

Seems like tomorrow is the last "Flower" episode so I was wondering if we could get a saeguk kiss  Even a peck would be good too  I can watch 10 episodes of DanHaru just being lovey dovey. But only 4 episodes are left and there will angst too 

[taskdramafanatic]

 

 

the new bts. rowoon is such a cutie. like omg, they just over fed him so much. lol. i love this trio.one of my most fav trios. adrobs . 

i really love the main cast of this show, all of them are so pretty and talented and all of their character's in the drama are also awesome and loveable.

[leeminhosny]

5 hours ago, -Love Blossom- said:

@leeminhosny After all those mess I don't think we will get SF9 or Rowoon ost. Some people might use this to again blame him  For the time being it will be better to keep his acting and singing career apart. Moreover SF9 is also preparing for their comeback so chances are less. I checked them out because of Rowoon and their songs are actually good. It would've been nice if they could sing here.

 

But Rowoon said he went to record  agency after long times and Yongbin said "ssshhh this is secret" so I think still Ost will air  or I want to demolish MBC  how isn't SF9 Ost ? they prepare Asia Tour ( start 16 Nov.) before cb .So this " record" must OST.

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Please support to singer Rowoon and SF9 , they are so talented and still they didn't fist win  I am drama fan , I don't care kpop but first time I was fan a group thanks to Rowoon ( 3 years ago) and they are only group for me  really I want everyone love them 

4 hours ago, taskdramafanatic said:

 

 

the new bts. rowoon is such a cutie. like omg, they just over fed him so much. lol. i love this trio.one of my most fav trios. adrobs . 

i really love the main cast of this show, all of them are so pretty and talented and all of their character's in the drama are also awesome and loveable.

MBC reupload 3 times this video