With Eyes East

Episodes 13-16

I cannot imagine that, upon finishing the finale of Love is for Suckers, one doesn’t immediately go back to episode one and rewatch the very first scene. Not because it’s a twist-movie “now it all makes sense,” but because the show opens with a flash-forward tease that doesn’t come back in the end. For those who didn’t be-kind-rewind, the first episode opens with our heroine Goo Yeo-reum taking a van to the Kingdom of Love house. She scrolls through articles on her phone about a wedding between contestants after a controversial season. On the set, she first speaks with Sang-woo, who says it’s been a long time. The contestants are gathered nearby, dressed up like brides and grooms. Han Ji-yeon excitedly calls out to Yeo-reum – which, like, whoa. This makes Jae-hoon turn, and the lovebirds lock eyes. Sang-woo corrals everyone for pictures, and then Jae-hoon and Yeo-reum make eyes again. The clock winds backwards, taking us into the show…

So, assumedly, this is the wedding of Chef John Jang and Park Ji-wan, arranged as a special episode to help save face after a season that, we can all admit, fellas, was a shit show. On-set accidents, a knife attack, a fling between a contestant and a producer?! I didn’t see Kang Chae-ri there, who might have already moved on to her production about dysfunctional families, and it isn’t clear if Yeo-reum is visiting in an official capacity. She’s wearing black, but Lee Da-hee is always stylish. And I say Lee Da-hee because I knew I recognized one of her outfits.

Okay, on closer inspection, they’re actually not the same

As the final episode was winding down, I kept tapping the iPad to check how much runtime was left. Half an hour? Okay. Twenty minutes? Getting close here, guys. Ten minutes? Are we doing this or not? It’s something they tease every episode because of this shot in the credits:

So I remembered the scene but not the details. As we appeared to be approaching it, I assumed it would be the climax of the show. The relationship between Jae-hoon and Ji-yeon would be resolved here, our main couple would overcome the scandal, and Chef John would leave Jang Tae-mi for Ji-wan, stunning the crowd. Seriously, how did that not have an audience?

It is, I suppose, the final subversion. But as far as K-drama finales go, this one feels pretty complete, despite what I’d briefly read in user reviews. The last episode was entirely dedicated to loose ends, to an almost comical degree – we learn that Jae-hoon’s younger sister is also lucky in love and career (doing what?) although we don’t hear from any of the Kingdom staff, like the head writer or the male gopher. Everyone ends up in a good place, even con-man Kim Joon-ho, Inferior Ji-yeon, and jilted Tae-mi.

What if Chef John had made a public show of rejecting Tae-mi? Apparently, that would’ve been too mean – but it would’ve been dramatic. Oftentimes with K-dramas, I feel as if I’m curled up on the ground like, “Please, no more drama!” because after a fashion, I do want the characters to be happy. No more crazed stalkers or car accidents or terminal illnesses. Have mercy! In this case, Chef John showing interest in Ji-wan is the start of a tangle that will, at some point, be untangled, right? The actress Kim Ji-su never got to do the scene where she’s rejected – for the webtoon artist?!

This gets to the central problem of the show, beyond but related to its insecurity as outlined previously. It never really commits. It doesn’t push on its characters. In the beginning, I was grateful that Jae-hoon wasn’t the typical jerk whose cold heart needed warming, but by the end, I remember why K-drama male leads often are jerks. We want to see them grow and change. He and Yeo-reum are pretty much the same in the beginning as they are in the end: they’re good with each other. Her wedding disaster and Kingdom of Love are obstacles to wait out rather than overcome.

Most ruinous is the effect this has on Jae-hoon and Ji-yeon. Their relationship is similarly static, with the most affecting moments coming from what I only realize in hindsight reiterate the same idea. Like, look at it from Ji-yeon’s perspective. She knows that Jae-hoon has feelings for Yeo-reum, but she’s determined to pursue him on Kingdom of Love so she doesn’t look like a loser on national television, and because there might be a chance. But then she doesn’t really try to win him over. What was her plan, aside from agreeing to fall into the pool in the very beginning? After that, she lets him blow her off and apologize in a cycle. When she hits Jae-hoon in the face with the cake, it was so shocking because it was the only choice she’d made in ten episodes. And also, because I thought that was gonna happen in the make-believe climax.

It’s unfortunate, because she’s such a rich character, just as Shin Ha-young’s was in Doona!. We have redundant scenes where she’s out in public overhearing her nickname – Inferior Ji-yeon, to Superior Jae-hoon – which, by the way, I love that one of the snickering comments is “She’s so pretty.” Maybe do, like, one of those scenes, and then push on that moment with her students, when they ask her about the article. Show me that Kingdom of Love is starting to undermine the things she values in her real life, like her ability to connect with students or be taken seriously as a professional, or something!

I also feel bad, because drunk Ji-yeon was actually really funny, when she’s trying to see if it’s the taxi she ordered. But for the most part, it was hard to see her suffering like that. And we can call this, like, the “K-drama Zone,” because these moments are emotionally affecting by fiat. The best K-dramas have substance to back up the really good acting and production, but woe is me, we have only the latter two – and it still kind of works. That reminds me: product placement for “A Wosome Place.”

It should be “A Twosome Place,” not that that makes much more sense in English

The chicken feet scene is a good microcosm. This takes place in episode 15, which is a perfect episode. By now, Kingdom of Love is over and the staff is taking a wait-and-see on the whole “producer/contestant” scandal. The episode has a slightly mournful tone – my favorite – and opens with the best of the flashback teasers. We rewind to Chae-ri’s college days, where she’s all alone, observing from a distance how this preppy girl Goo Yeo-reum is dropped off every day by her doting father. Later, she’s making dinner plans with her mother! It’s the perfect villain backstory, that the reason Chae-ri is so cold toward Yeo-reum is sheer jealousy.

It definitely comes too late, because theoretically, it would inspire Yeo-reum to do some inventory. But I like this setup, and how it’s paid off in the present-day scene. First, however, some girls enter the pojangmacha and call Chae-ri “a psychotic bitch.” How do they even know? Yeo-reum confronts them, and when she stands up it just seems to go on forever. She’s so tall! And of course, I’m hoping to see her inner Scarlett come out, but instead, Yeo-reum jabs at them with chicken feet, which she proceeds to eat in an aggressive way. Duly frightened, the girls apologize for calling Chae-ri a bitch and leave. Yeo-reum then sits down and asks why Chae-ri is such a bitch.

Now, what did we learn here? Was this scene needed? I’m really not sure, but – it was entertaining.

In the end, the flaws are more like missed opportunities. In the case of Doona!, the problem was that the male lead was a dud, and that had a rippling influence on everything else. Love is for Suckers was good, and I enjoyed it. Frequently, I was teary, but in the aftermath of the show’s conclusion, I’m left disappointingly intact. Most of the time, after an effective K-drama, I can’t get past it for months. It’s all I can think about; I don’t dare jump into another one. For Twenty-Five Twenty One, it was almost a year. At the moment, I’m feeling energized. I rewatched the trailer for Our Blues, which released in that post-Twenty-Five Twenty-One period. And maybe that’s the better comparison. I remember Na Hee-do’s story as something thrilling, which isn’t what I’d expect from a romance. It had stakes. Admittedly, it was dealing with pretty for-serious themes, but I still cared about the central relationship like it was the most important thing in the world. Despite also depicting a relationship between two people, it just didn’t happen with Love is for Suckers.

This would only be a problem because the next time I watch Search: WWW, I’m gonna be disappointed that Lee Da-hee is downgraded to supporting character. I loved her as the lead. She’s warm and playful but convincingly confident and then vulnerable. She’s perfect. And she has plenty to do, like fall off a balcony or have her wedding implode, but, you know, these are things which happen to her. A lot of the time, she’s reacting. Yeo-reum, also, is a little too goodie-two-shoes. Everybody loves her, and I just don’t get a lot out of when characters tell the lead that they’re always putting other people first. “Why are you worried about that! You’re in a hospital bed!”

Up next for Da-hee is a show we’re calling S Line, which seems to be more supernatural-themed (bleh), but it also stars Arin from Oh My Girl. That’s an intriguing combination. But who knows when I’ll get my next meat-and-potatoes K-drama fix? Is it gonna have to be Kwon Do-uen’s third show in 2025? No news on that yet. Not that I can complain; this year is overstuffed. I somehow managed to avoid the triage decision between Love Lies Bleeding and Dune: Part Two but didn’t for Monkey Man and Civil War – the latter won out, twice. And later, Evil Does Not Exist, Alien: Romulus. I just saw the first episode of The Sympathizer – have mercy!