Episode 5 Synopsis and Analysis

Synopsis – Yoo Jung Kim

Episode 5 begins with Ko Dong-Man’s ex-girlfriend, Park Hye-Ran, visiting Ko Dong-Man and leaving his apartment in the morning.

After Park Hye-Ran leaves, everyone goes home and prepares to go to work. While preparing to go to work, Choi Ae-Ra gets angry with Ko Dong-Man, knowing that the Street Fighter video posted on the internet is Ko Dong-Man.

And Choi Ae-Ra thinks it was the coach Hwang who injected fake hope into Ko Dong-Man and warns the coach Hwang who came to see Ko Dong-Man in the morning not to do anything strange.

Kim Tak-Soo, on the other hand, sees his own video and gets angry. In the constantly growing controversy, Kim Tak-Soo interviews that he was a celebrity and could not respond. And Kim Tak-Soo says that if they had met on the Octagon, he could make Ko Dong-Man crawl down, and disparage Ko Dong-Man is nothing but a street fighter.

Ko Dong-Man, who saw the interview, is angry and asks the coach Hwang to help him play in the RFC. However, the coach Hwang stops Ko Dong-Man because he has been out of action for over 10 years. So, the coach convinces Ko Dong-Man that he needs to train from the scratch and slowly prepare for the RFC.

Meanwhile, Choi Ae-Ra prepares an application form for the broadcasting announcer. And Choi Ae-Ra finds out that security team is looking for a male security guard at her department store. So, Choi Ae-Ra went to the security team to recommend Ko Dong-Man and she heard that the expensive watch was gone missing.

Choi Ae-Ra caught the thief, but the thief was a VIP customer at a department store. So the thief forced Choi Ae-Ra to apologize. Ko Dong-Man was angry when he saw such a ridiculous situation. Then, Ko Dong-Man said, “From tomorrow, Choi Ae-Ra is not coming to the work”.

Meanwhile, Baek Sul-Hee prepares food for Kim Joo-Man who is working late at night and visits him as a surprise event. But before Baek Sul-Hee, there was someone delivering food to Kim Joo-Man. It is Jang Ye-Jin. So, Baek Sul-Hee was a little confused.

That night, Baek Sul-Hee saw Kim Joo-Man’s text message from Jang Ye-Jin. Then Baek Sul-Hee asks Kim Joo-Man. Kim Joo-Man seemed to be telling Baek Sul-Hee the truth, but Kim Joo-Man lied. And Baek Sul-Hee, who knew Kim Joo-Man’s lies, was very disappointed.

Ko Dong-Man decides to play at the amateur RFC game without telling coach Hwang. Manager Yang Tae-Hee texts Ko Dong-Man that he will debut at 8:30 pm in Cheongdam-dong today. Ko Dong-Man tells Choi Ae-Ra to come and see to the game. So, Choi Ae-ra heads to Cheongdam-dong to watch the RFC game.

However, Ko Dong-Man, who is not quite ready, get beaten by the opponent and cannot get up. So he loses in the game.

Episode 5 – Discussion, Yoo Jung Kim

Episode 5 shows a very realistic bad Korean society. In the drama, Choi Ae-Ra catches the thief lady. But Choi Ae-Ra ended up apologizing to the thief lady. Because she was a VVIP customer. Immediately after the thief lady was caught by Choi Ae-Ra, the next scene shows the manager apologizing to the lady. She was the one who did something wrong, but instead of apologizing for her action, she was actually getting an apology from the manager. Also, the thief lady exclaimed, “I was going to show my husband the watch and then pay for it later”. which was an excuse not to make sense at all. And later she says, “The money I spend here includes her pay, tips and the right to make her kneel, doesn’t it?”. Which is crazy!!! Even if Choi Ae-Ra did the right thing, she had to kneel and apologize to the thief lady. And at the end, the manager thanks the thief lady for forgiving Choi Ae-Ra. Nowadays, Korean society thinks that you can do everything you want with money. Those People think that money is power. They think that the more money they have, the more power they get. Which is a very wrong. But these things do not always happen when they have a lot of money. There is a saying in Korea. “The Customer is the King.” That is, the customer is the king and the employees must always obey the customers. I think it started with good intentions at first. When a customer enters a store, and gets treated like a king, the customers will feel noble and pleased. So, the stores can increase the number of re-visits. This was a win-win operation. Customers were happy because they were treated noble, and the stores were satisfied with the increasing number of customer’s re-visits. But it went bad. The customers acted like they really were the kings. They thought they could do whatever they wanted. Korea is a country where respect for older people is really important. But these things are breaking down Korean culture. As a basic example, many times, during a day in many places such as supermarkets, restaurants, etc…, we can see customers often talk very disrespectful way to the people who are older than them. In addition, we can witness young customers who insult those older than their parents. But the elderly cannot do anything because the customer is king. In the drama, Choi Ae-Ra deserves the reward from the department store after doing the right thing, but instead, she had to kneel and apologize. The drama shows this problem now happening in Korea. And as Korean this is very sad.

Episode 5 – Discussion, Lisa Wu

The Republic of Korea claimed itself as a democratic state, but with authoritarian roots and centralist structure, the principle that everyone in a society is equally important, no matter how much money they have or what social class they come from, becomes an irony in K-drama, especially in the Ep. 5 in “Fight My Way.” Ae-ra found the thief who had stolen the expensive watch, it suppose to be a wonderful thing. However, as a VIP guest of the mall, the thief not only refused to confess that she had committed the crime but also had forced Ae-ra to apologize and even get down on her knees. It is not the first time the K-drama shows the inequality between higher level and lower level of social class. In “Boys over Flowers,” the prince-like male leading characters and Cinderella-type female leading character who seemed have millions of part-time jobs is the exaggerate but typical representations under authoritarian society (the original story comes from Japan, and Japan is constitutional monarchy). Why ROK have being democratic state for so many years, but still have not completed the democratic consolidation? Uk (2013) explained that Confucianism and authoritarian regime helped country in economic development and security, but caused personalism, factionalism, and regionalism, which led to weak political system. Moreover, Confucianism-based social norm also related to gender inequality, hierarchy system, etc (Koh, 2008; Chung, 2016).

References:

Chung, So-yi. “To have or to be? Narrating Confucian value in contemporary Korea.” International Communication of Chinese Culture, No. 4 (2016): 631-643

Koh, Eunkang. “Gender Issues and Confucian Scriptures: Is Confucianism Incompatible with Gender Equality in South Korea?” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, No.2 (2008), pp. 345-362

Uk, Heo. “What Delays Democratic Consolidation in South Korea?” Korea Observer, No. 4 (2013): 569-591