Sparks from the Wheel

Playful Kiss Ep 1, Part 2: Things Shake Up

September 12, 2011 at 9:28 pm | Posted in TV shows | 4 Comments
Tags: kdrama, playful kiss, tv

A disclaimer: Playful Kiss is an example of “kdrama” or “K Pop.”  This is an area of pop culture I know nothing about as it is mostly a phenomenon in South Korea and other Asian countries.  Truly, I am going into this basically blind with the exceptions of a perusal of Wikipedia and questions posed to a friend who knows slightly more than I do about this area.  I don’t pretend to understand what’s normal or good; I’m just commenting as an outsider. If you’re here because you googled Playful Kiss and you really love it, I’m not sure you’ll like me much as I’m a bit snarky about it. No disrespect is intended, and I would be horrified at the thought of being really culturally insensitive.  I’m actually kind of enjoying it, so I hope you can read along with a sense of humor.   If you have concerns, you can definitely  leave a comment or email me at sparksfromthewheel at gmail dot com.  All screencaps are generated using my iPad and Netflix Instant.

Last time on Recapping Playful Kiss with M: Ha Ni is whimsical and delightful but she likes Seung Jo basically because he’s attractive. She’s definitely not into him for his charming personality as he mostly walks around alone and then embarrasses her in front of the whole school when she confesses she likes him. He calls her stupid and notes that he hates stupid girls- major buzz kill! For more… see Part 1. 

In the wake of her public shaming, Ha Ni decides to burn off some steam. Does she write angry poetry and wear black? Does she burn pictures over strawberry wine with friends or sing really  horrible break up songs? No. She runs laps around the schoolyard.

To be fair, she’s not so much running as she is limping around and looking like she’s trying to outrun a zombie but can’t because she’s been running for 5 hours with no water.  Aggressive Friend beseeches her to quit but Mary Anne Spier shows some rare insight and tells Aggresso to shut the eff up and let Ha Ni do what she needs to do. Ha Ni smiles, rueful, and says:

She’s not referring to any astonishing sexual prowess but instead her long-standing crush on The Dark Prince.  She tells them she needs two more laps and stumbles off.  She rounds the bend, falls on her hands, and says something symbolic about getting there even if she has to crawl. In a  show of the power of friendship, the Faithful Sidekicks join her for last lap.

I don’t know. I think it’s probably easier to eat a lot of ice cream and watch John Hughes movies, but this looks better on film.

Since Ha Ni is the center of the universe despite being a virtual social nobody until now, everyone at school is watching her and whispering about her inevitable meltdown. Personally, I think it would be great if she showed up with  a kickass haircut, lots of attitude, and some breakdance fighting skillz. Instead, she skulks around and hides in the bathroom where she overhears the cleaning ladies discussing her and agreeing they would not have returned to school if they were in her shoes.

Ha Ni, hiding in her bathroom stall,  is appropriately horrified. Also- where can I get hot pink rubber gloves for cleaning my bathroom?

Back at the new house, Ha Ni unpacks boxes with her dad and shows about as much spunk as oatmeal. Her dad tries to goof off and cheer her up but she’s too focused on her deep blackhole of misery to respond.

Eventually, Dad puts together the pieces of the puzzle and asks how things went with her love letter. She acts like she has no idea what he’s talking about and he’s like, “Uh, yeah. I meant your ‘friend”s letter.”  Ha Ni sort of ignores this and unearths a plaque with everyone’s handprints. They wax sentimental about her deceased mother and she pulls herself out of her dark hole long enough to place the plaque in a prominent place and share a loving smile with her dad.

Right in the middle of the love fest, the fancy video doorbell rings and the Faithful Sidekicks announce they have arrived. Duckie is with them, though it seems like he may have invited himself along.

Dad pulls a virtual feast out of thin air and they sit down to shoot the shit. Duckie tries to pull an Eddie Haskell and is all, “My, Mr Ha Ni’s Father, isn’t this meal delicious tonight. You certainly are a genius with food, sir. One day I’ll take over your family business with Ha Ni and keep your honor alive.”  This seems pretty presumptuous of him to me, and Ha Ni’s dad agrees because he’s like, “Uh, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”  Then Duckie uses a pretty great expression:

Duckie, faced with the truth that Ha Ni is not interested in opening a noodle shop with him literally or figuratively, starts to bang his head against the wall in a totally socially acceptable reaction to rejection.  They all sort of laugh at him, but then a crack appears in the ceiling.

They’re all kind of uneasy and Duckie has a look on his face like, “Bugger! My allowance won’t cover this!” But then it becomes obvious this is actually an earthquake and everyone starts to run for the door. Halfway down the front walk, Ha Ni’s dad runs back in and everyone (myself included) yells, “Hey,  Pudding Head! Get back here! Nothing in there is worth your life!”

Right when he runs into the house, the whole thing collapses and we fade to black over Ha Ni wailing in horror. Spoiler alert: don’t worry- he makes it. We just needed a good excuse to fade to black.

So, as if things aren’t already bad for Ha Ni, it turns out the earthquake was actually extremely weak and their house was just built super shoddy and it’s the only one that fell down.  The news trucks are focused on their house and someone might as well put a target on poor Ha Ni. There’s a dramatic moment when the rescue crew unearths her father, who is clutching- you guessed it- the handprint plaque.

As the nation watches Ha Ni and her father re-unite (it’s actually adorable- they jump around in a circle kind of dancing and crying), a mysterious moustached man watches with a sudden look of interest. The plot shall soon thicken!

If you’re keeping score at home Ha Ni was 1) rejected by her crush, 2) called stupid in front of her class, 3) loved only by a dude she considers a huge dork, and 4) victimized by a poorly built home. Since she is a teenager, she is appropriately shamed and horrified to face the world and her friends console her on the way to school.

Her friends, who frankly don’t seem to exist beyond humoring her calamities, ask where she’s living while the Money Pit gets fixed and she reveals that her father’s childhood friend saw them on the news and invited them to stay. The mustachioed man is a savior and not a creepy pervert! Hooray.  But wait! There is more strange intrigue as an obviously disguised woman starts snapping their  picture.

Ha Ni and I both are like, “Really? The paps are here?  This is kind of not a matter of significance to anyone else. This is taking things a little far.”  Before Ha Ni can think about it much more, they arrive at school and find something even worse happening.

Duckie, in his continuing quest to earn the love of Ha Ni, is sponsoring his own mini-telethon and besieging classmates to donate to fund Ha Ni’s… I don’t know, her lifestyle? Construction on her house? Shoes that are more appropriate for running?  Anyway, he’s making a big fuss and it’s hugely awful to Ha Ni, so her friends try to sneak her past him. Fools! Duckie would know his lady love was near if she cloaked her scent in garlic. He pulls her before the group and starts to soapbox about her virtues.

Ha Ni is just starting to die a little on the inside when things get worse; Duckie spots the Prince of Darkness in the crowd and calls him out for causing Ha Ni’s predicament. Seung Jo looks through his Bieber hair and says:

He’s not the smartest guy in the class for nothing. Duckie then implies that Seung Jo some how caused the house to be built in a shoddy manner and no one thinks to point out that this is ridiculous.  Seung Jo looks like he just wants to be rid of the whole circus and starts to donate to get everyone off his back.

This is the part where Ha Ni suddenly gets a spine and is all,”Keep your filthy money, you assface!” Then she goes off on this speech about how he treats people like garbage because he thinks he’s so much better than everyone. It’s a completely satisfying scene….

… but then she goes on about how he’s tall and good looking and smart and sort of loses steam. She manages to rally and sets up a challenge of sorts- she can be smart too, dammit! Anyone can study! How hard can it be!?  You see where this is going? Yes, that’s right. The Mr Darcy-in-pop-star-hair challenges her to study and do at least well enough to get into the almighty Study Hall- that magical room open only to the 50 highest exam scorers.   Obviously, Ha Ni doesn’t care about being smart, so what does she get if she wins?

Ha Ni tries to look like this doesn’t set her heart blazing like a unicorn stampeding over a rainbow and deems these terms acceptable.  They shake on it and everyone looks on in varying degrees of curiosity. Can she do it?  I’ll bet you some contrived study sessions filled with inappropriate giggling and Moments of Realization that she some how manages.

Later, Ha Ni and her dad trundle down the interstate on their way to their temporary home.  They sing along with the radio in an impressive display of adorable father/daughter bonding to a song that seems kind of horrible.

When they arrive at their new digs, Dad’s friend and his wife buzz them in and  meet them at the door.  Everyone is just thrilled to see each other and there’s much discussion about how they haven’t seen each other since middle school. Okay, these guys must have killed a man together or else I’m not totally sure why they’re so good with living together after all these years. I love my elementary school friends and all but people change a LOT during puberty. Anyway, Dad’s generous childhood friend is married to a woman who looks like her legs can barely support her body. She solves a mystery for us and reveals that she is the sneaky paparazzo at the school that morning.

Oh, that sounds totally normal and not at all creepy. Is this where Playful Kiss takes a sudden turn for the horror movie and a weird single white female thing starts up? Sadly, no. Nobody other than me sees this as anything other than adorable. Attractive people get away with EVERYTHING.

So, the new landlords offer to get their son to help Ha Ni bring in her things and Ha Ni bounces out to the van to get started. She’s hugging her teddy bear and promising that only good things will happen from now on when a voice behind her asks if she needs help. Three guesses who is standing there and the first two guesses don’t count.

If you didn’t see this coming as soon as Ha Ni told her friends they were moving in with a family friend, then you need to re-take high school English and really focus on foreshadowing or something.

And that’s it for Episode 1. We leave off with Ha Ni looking thunderstruck and Seung Jo looking like he’s watching paint dry.   Stand by for next time where we are promised more wacky hi-jinks from Ha Ni and her Faithful Sidekicks and an impressive show of brattiness by Seung Jo’s little brother.