Sparks from the Wheel

Playful Kiss Ep 2, Part 2: U + Me = WTF

September 20, 2011 at 10:43 pm | Posted in TV shows | Leave a comment
Tags: kdrama, playful kiss, recap, 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 screen caps were made by me using by iPad and Netflix Instant.

In case you haven’t been riveted to my blog, here’s what the story starts:
Playful Kiss Ep 1: Part 1, Part 2.
Playful Kiss Ep 2: Part 1

Last time on Playful Kiss: Intrepid Dreamer Ha Ni is now living in the same home as Seung Jo, her distant and jerkfaced crush. She’s determined to score high on her exams and make it to the magical Study Hall and ends up getting accosted by a flasher on her way home from school one night. Seung Jo shows up in the nick of time to preserve her innocence. I’m showing the best screen cap ever again because I love it.

I thought for sure we were going to see a follow up scene of Ha Ni suddenly realizing the horror in being confronted by a naked man on an empty dark street late at night, and then she would get all weepy and The Dark Prince would be forced to hug her and his eyes would cloud with confusion over his jumbling feelings. 

Not our romantic Ha Ni. She’s trying to study but is lost in fantasies of  Seung Jo White Knighting for her.

Her recollections of her defender in tennis shoes come to an abrupt end when memories of him calling her stupid intrude on her love bubble.  You know she is infuriated because she makes a Scarlet O’Hara fist.

Her plan to humiliate him by making it to Study Hall is renewed and she tries to crack the books, but she goes through twenty intense seconds of studying before she cries in despair that it can’t be done. Seems that her commitment to causes is only linked to how good looking they are.

Luckily, Super Mom is here to advance the plot and interrupt the awful work of studying.  She comes bearing late night cupcakes for Ha Ni’s study snack break.   She giggles that she’s always wanted to bring someone a late night snack while they’re studying; it’s too bad Seung Jo is so naturally smart and wonderful and doesn’t ever study and goes to bed early. (I mean, of course he goes to bed early. I bet he reads really pretentious books, rolls his eyes, and it’s  lights out by 9.)  Ha Ni is both awed and disgusted to learn he is so naturally smart.

As Ha Ni muses that Seung Jo could really not get more perfect and I vomit a little in my mouth, Mama Bear wanders over to the computer and idly pulls up her blog like it’s totally normal to walk into your friend’s daughter’s room in the middle of the night and pull up your blog stats. I mean, I get the urge to check one’s blog stats twice a day, but this just seems odd. Anyway, the whole point of this seems to be to show a cute picture of Eun Jo, the ultra-bratty brother, that she has posted on her blog and which leads her to comment aloud that he’s kind of rude and leads Ha Ni to defend him for reasons I can’t understand.

Mama wants to see pictures of Ha Ni’s childhood and Ha Ni obliges, even though her house was destroyed in an earthquake and she didn’t even have shoes.  But there’s her baby book- chock full of darling photos and sweet little notes written by Ha Ni herself. This is also where we learn that Ha Ni’s mother died when she was 4 and Ha Ni barely remembers her.  I can’t say anything funny about that.

As you can see in the above picture, Ha Ni continues to say things heavy with meaning that probably offer some kind of foreshadowing for her relationship with Sourpuss.   Suddenly, Mama has the great idea you know was coming. Hell- it’s probably the whole point of this exchange. Why don’t we check out some baby pictures of darling perfect Seung Jo?

And then there’s another turn for the awesome…. it turns out Mama Meddler really thought she was having a baby girl, so she bought all kinds of girlie things while pregnant. When Seung Jo arrived with manparts, she shrugged and thought it would be  wasteful to not use everything she bought. She just goes about raising her boy like a daughter. Two questions: 1) Where was her husband in all this? and 2) REALLY?  She wonders aloud if that’s why he’s so cold and shut down as an adult. OH YOU THINK? She then shows off this picture:

Though Ha Ni has plenty of Girl!Seung Jo pictures at her disposal, this is the  one with the cheeky face that leads to a perfect Grinch smile.

The next day at school, Ha Ni is actually laughing aloud to herself about the greatness of this picture. It’s enough to gain some attention from her friends, but she’s like, “Oh, am I laughing? Guess I am. HAHAHA.”  She could go on but then the Dark Prince shows up in the door of the classroom surrounded by giggling groupies. He makes a bizarre request.

Ha Ni is puzzled until she gets out her uniform and we realize she has his uniform. Either Mama Meddler is not so perfect or she purposefully swapped the uniforms for her amusement. I vote option B.   Once they’re outside, they make the trade . Seung Jo is all “Ugh, you are awful and this blows.” And Ha Ni is like, “What’s the problem, hot shot? You could have worn that. It’s not like you’re not USED TO WEARING GIRL CLOTHES.”  He doesn’t seem really upset by this until she whips out the picture of him making the cheeky grin.  I maintain the picture of him in the dress would have worked better, but I suppose I’m missing something in the translation.

Then they engage in a madcap chase around the courtyard in which Ha Ni giggles and leaps around and he lunges after her. It’s supposed to be really cutesy and playful and is like something you dreamed of happening in middle school because if he’s chasing you he has to eventually touch you and you have to pretend like you don’t want him him to.  Anyway, it’s totally unrealistic because he could definitely catch her if he wanted to do so.  She is not that stealthy. The really interesting part is the class watching from the window. They’re watching because Seung Jo is a celebrity and they are dying to know what he wants with Ha Ni. As they’re all watching and laughing, Mean Girl approaches and is enraged to find Ha Ni engaging her man in flirtatious battle.

In a show of solidarity for the play fight, the Faithful Sidekicks take her down like a moose.

Duckie is also displeased, but I feel more sorry for him.

The play fight is winding down and Ha Ni is open to negotiations for keeping the picture a secret. She’ll give it back… if he will tutor her. Seung Jo points out the obvious flaw in the scheme by reminding her if she makes it to Study Hall, he has to give her a piggyback ride. She’s like, “Duh, obvi we annul that and you just help me study.” I suspect she sees the wisdom in spending more face time with him rather than getting one measly piggyback ride.  She goes on to assure him she doesn’t even want a piggyback ride from him anymore because she doesn’t even like him a little tiny bit. LIAR.

Showing a little more pizazz than usual, Seung Jo does the lean in and is like, “Oh reeeallly?”

She’s like, “Uh…afdsadg.”  And, being a douche noodle who likes to be in control, he leans even closer while the peanut gallery gasps.

Evidently, he agrees to her terms because next we’re after school and he’s telling his mom to make late night snack for two, but no cupcakes. They need brain food. They need….the most boring snack in the world.

Sitting at Ha Ni’s table, he taunts her that she doesn’t even know the simplest things and she should just quit.  Ha Ni then invalidates his argument wih this:

In fact, this is her comeback every time he tries to tear her down, and it proves to be quite powerful because it effectively shuts him down every time.   He figures they might as well start with the basics and tries to explain math to her. It goes something like this:

He’s trying to break it down for her and she’s just not getting it and questioning why she even has to know this nonsense.  Personally, I have not seen “log” since high school and I agree with Ha Ni that  it is mostly in high school to make some people look smarter than others.  Sueng Jo tells this story about researchers blasting binary code into space to communicate with aliens because math is a universal language.   He’s making a point about the importance of math in the real world. Ha Ni’s take away from this?

I admit, I actually laughed out loud at this. She’s completely earnest as she says this and it’s one of the reasons she’s too good for him. As he’s making another asinine comment about her ignorance, she whips out a glossy of a band and asks him to name any of them. Because he’s  a self isolating killjoy, he can’t do it.

She points out she knows things… just different things. He’s unimpressed and so am I. I admit that I know more about pop culture than about the economic crisis, but I’m sitting here watching a Korean soap on a Tuesday night while other people are saving the world.  I can see which one is more valuable.

For some one that never studies, Seung Jo sure knows a lot about studying and memorization.   What follows is a montage of him lecturing her in technique and her exercising her brain.

She stares at a dot on the ceiling to do something with her brain waves.

He has her putting post its everywhere.

He tells her to move around while learning to retain information.

Basically, he is her Miyagi.  She’s taking this stuff seriously. Even people at school are noticing.

Ha Ni is in the mothereffin’ zone.  She’s wearing a sweat band. She’s got on her rally pigtails. She’s mouthing things to herself. She’s not even reacting when the Child Most In Need of a Smack calls her names.

What does her headband say, I wonder? “Exams are my bitch”? “Kickin’ Ass and Takin’ Exams”?  ”You took my pride but you won’t take my Study Hall”?

Anywho, her eyes are on the prize and Seung Jo is noticing.  Actually, I’m sort  of refreshed that he’s not at all interested in cute antics but is turned on by study skills.

Since Seung Jo is a huge nerd, he’s made up a fake exam for Ha Ni to use for practice. Since it’s the night before exams, she should  just take his study guide and go to bed.   Fools! Don’t they know the best time to retain information is 5 hours before a test with your heart racing in panic? Adrenaline is a test taker’s friend. She says she’s touched and makes a schmoopy face and he’s like, “Lock that up, I don’t like you. THIS IS WORK.”

Regardless of the fact they’re supposed to be going to bed at a reasonable hour, guess what happens?

And, guess who shows up and then dashes off to get her camera to document this cliche? Hint: Not Mean Girl. Though that would be an excellent twist.

So, they take the Exams the next day. Time passes. The results go up. Our selfless little Ha Ni sighs happily because Seung Jo’s perfect record remains despite him falling asleep trying to help her– he’s still number one.  She doesn’t even look for her own name, which just proves my theory that she figured studying with him would just be a good excuse for face time.  She may not be interested in her score, but her tutor sure is.  He takes a glance and walks off without comment.

Ha Ni dances after him to congratulate him on continuing to be the most perfect and most smart and best person that ever lived and he’s like, “Whatev. Good for you too.”  This is when it occurs to her that she also has something on the line here.  She’s placed 50th! Made the cut for Study Hall!

There’s much bouncing and clapping and scurrying back to bask in her success. He puts out his hand. I assume it’s for a high five but Ha Ni grasps his hands in hers like he is the great master and and she shall now bow at his feet.

Because he is the paragon of tact, he says, “WTF are you doing? I just want my picture, idiot.”

He snatches the pciture and a little piece of her heart and saunters off. Ha Ni calls her thanks after him and the Stone Cold Douche Noodle actually cracks another big smile.

BUT WAIT. Just because Ha Ni and Seung Jo struck up a secret tutoring deal, doesn’t mean the rest of the world knows about it. The people were promised a piggyback ride and they will get their effing piggyback ride.  The Incompetent Teacher calls out Seung Jo on his promise. Ha Ni tries to tell her they called off the bet, but she’s like, “STFU! This is a miracle and none of my students will ever pull this off again and I want to see a smart kid brought to his knees. Not that you are fat and would cause him to fall because obviously you are very little. I mean symbolically, which you would know if I spent more time teaching and less time embroiled in student affairs.”

Really, Minerva McGonagall needs to sit this woman down and give her a lesson in being a fierce professor.

Ha Ni freaks out and is all, ‘No, no, no!”

Seung Jo rolls his eyes and looks constipated and starts to walk off, so he’s no help.

And Teacher, who clearly has some inadequacy issues, leads the chant, “PIGGYBACK! PIGGYBACK!”

We end on that note. Next time: Ha Ni finds out if her love will have to carry her around and we see her wear a very odd phallic costume.

A final thought: Why didn’t the parents seem to care that Ha Ni got accosted in the street? Where is the vigilante response or at least parental outrage? And why is everyone okay with a teen boy and teen girl alone in her room with the door closed, even if they claim to hate each other?  Everyone knows the ones who hate each other are the ones who end up getting the most passionate. Didn’t these people watch Dawson’s Creek??