Episode 2 Synopsis and Analysis

Synopsis – Daisy Zhu

Time was backing to 1993, Ko Dong-man, Choi Ae-ra and Baek Seol-hee were the three kids often played games together, and they pretended themselves as a family. Choi Ae-ra played a role as an announcer and Ko Dong-man played a role as a tae kwon do athlete but once Ko Dong-man made Baek Seol-hee cried, Choi Ae-ra could also beat him to cry.

Time returns to 2017, Choi Ae-ra asks Ko Dong-man for help to throw the garbage in the morning that she can wear a nice suit to join a wedding. Then for Kim Joo-man, he has made great contribution to his company but does not receive enough bonuses from his superior. However, he is surprised that he received two movie tickets. Then he and his girlfriend Baek Seol-hee go into an elevator quietly. From the talking, Kim Joo-man found the movie tickets were not given by his girlfriend but from another his colleague.

Later Choi Ae-ra comes to join her classmate’s wedding but her other classmates think she is a life loser so her feels injured. While when she is invited to pretend to play as one famous host for that wedding, she received many people’s admiring glances. After the wedding, Ae-ra knows that there are several wealthy men taking her as a wager so she cries and even smashes those men’ cars. Thus it directly results one man be angry and beats at her. However at this time,  Ko Dong-man saw it so Dong-man also beats back to the man. At the end, when Ko Dong-man and Choi Ae-ra recall their past childhood memory, they encourage each other and Ae-ra also encourages Dong-man to continue his practice on tae kwon do…

Ep 2 Discussion: Wedding Party in South Korea – Nicole Chan

As EP 2 devotes quite a lot time to Chan-sook’s wedding, we are going to dig into the culture of South Korean’s wedding party. Chan-sook’s wedding shown in the drama is a modern wedding party. Comparing to traditional wedding (hollye), modern ones do not pay as much attention to Confucian value. Brides wear wedding dress rather than a set of Hanbok, which includes a long-sleeve jacket (jeogori), a dress (chima) and a norigae (a decoration tied to the dress). While grooms suit up rather than wearing a loose-sleeve jeogori, trousers and an overcoat. In a modern wedding, marriage ritual is also much simplified when compared to a traditional wedding ceremony, which centers on Confucian values and involves a large amount of time preparing for both the pre-ceremony and the official ceremony.

The modern wedding party (kyeolhon piroyeon) is often a blend of traditional Korean and western culture. For instance, during Chan-sook’s wedding, a dance and sing performance by the groom’s granny is presented. A performance by someone who is a close friend or relative of the couple, or the couple themselves is usually program in a traditional wedding party. Performances by the couple, for example dancing, singing or playing a musical instrument can be a way to show how well their parents have brought them up.

 Ep 2 Discussion – Yang Li

 In episode 2, we can see both Ko Dong-man and Choi Ae-ra were single-minded of their dreams when they faced the struggles in lives.

 The beginning of this episode, the dialogue between three kids, indicated some political nationalism and sports nationalism. Choi Ae-ra imitated the TV announcer mentioned some words like Kim Jong II, Bill Clinton, missile. The kids don’t even understand who those people are, but what they said tells us what they heard, and what the kids heard tells us the political nationalism in South Korea back then. The imitation told us the relationship between South Korea and North Korea, and the relationship between South Korea and America. Also, the taekwondo that Ko Dong-man mentioned also indicated the sports nationalism. In South Korea, the sports like golf, taekwondo, archery, and soccer are used to establish the sports nationalism in the country; people can feel the national pride by watching those sports.

 There are two details in episode 2 indicates the relationship between superior and subordinate in Korea, one is Kim Joo-man and his supervisor, 300 million sales, and 300 K bonus. Another one is Ko Dong-man and his supervisor. The machine. Those details are struggles in their real lives, also was a contrast of their dreams

 The housing price that Ko Dong-man answered in the TV show reminds me the house price in Vancouver.

The wedding ceremony is the main body of episode 2. The microphone and the formal dress allow Choi Ae-ra to “achieve” her dream. And also, Ko Dong-man shows us his fly kicking when he protected Ae-ra. It seems like the dreams are so close to them when we see Choi Ae-ra became the host of the wedding ceremony and Dong-man proved he still has it. But the truth is, the dreams are so far away from them. Ae-ra’s chance of being the host is because the real Cindy wasn’t able to come. And the fly kicking was not be used in the game. However, our main characters still have the positive attitude towards their struggles in lives, which give the audience some positive energy.

Episode 2 – Discussion, Yoo Jung Kim

In the second episode of “Fight for My Way”, it showed about Korean hierarchical (class) society. At the beginning of the episode, Ko Dong-Man was scolded by his boss for not cleaning the motor. But the person who did not clean the motor was Ko Dong-Man’s senior. Ko Dong-Man’s senior is older than Ko Dong-Man. The older age in Korean society shows that older people are above the younger ones. So older person usually thinks he can control a person younger than himself. These things are strongly applied among men, and in the army. Ko Dong-Man asks his senior why he did not tell the truth. But senior get angry with Ko Dong-Man and asks him, whether he did not learn about hierarchical (class) society at the military. Other character, Choi Ae-Ra was invited to her friends wedding. At the wedding, Choi Ae-Ra met old friends. They all had a better job, home environment, and boyfriend than Choi Ae-Ra. So they thought that they were better than Choi Ae-Ra and looked down on Choi Ae-Ra. And there were three men who thought Choi Ae-Ra was an announcer, but they acted differently when they found out that she was not an announcer. They expressed Choi Ae-Ra as a masterpiece and gold when they thought that Choi Ae-Ra was an announcer. But when they realized that she was not an announcer, they called Choi Ae-Ra a Cinderella, a gold digger, and a fake. And when they thought Choi Ae-Ra was an announcer, they were really nice gentlemen, but after they realized she was not an announcer, they turned into a really bad person who slaps women. This episode shows bad side of Korean society. Not all Korean are like those people I mentioned in drama. But they are still many people who think and act like those people in the drama “Fight for My Way”.

The DPRK – Lisa Wu

At the beginning of the show, the drama showed the childhood of Ae-ra, Dong-man, and Seol-hee. When they were engaging in pretend play, Ae-ra started to announce News about North Korea’s Kim II Sung’s decision to withdraw from the Neo-proliferation Treaty. This was a shocking news that alarmed not only South Korea but also US and many other countries. Such event became a milestone that help the drama to demonstrate the time of their childhood. Moreover, since the news was imitated by Ae-ra when she was a kid, it also gave audiences who are not familiar with this event a impression of how influential this event are.

Mothers-in-law/Daughters-in-law relationship – Lisa Wu

The drama also expressed the MIL/DIL relationship between Ae-ra’s friend Park Chan-sook and her mother-in-law in her friend’s wedding party. Park’s mother-in-law was constantly judging her from the first appearance in the show. Her Mother-in-law criticized her due to the facts that she had to host her own wedding for a few minutes because of the delay of her Hongkong MC friend’s flight and her performance of a sad song on the stage. As Tilland stated in her article, MIL/DIL relationships are a powerful emotional resonance that stands in for many other types of difficult emotional work in families in South Korea, which might be why the scriptwriter stated such specific scene in the show.

References:

Tilland, Bonnie. “Family is Beautiful: The Affective Weight of Mothers-in-Law in Family Talk in South Korea.” Journal of Korean Studies, No.1 (2016): 213-244.

“North Korea in 1993.” Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/place/North-Korea-Year-In-Review-1993 (Access Sept.23, 2017)

Money and class – Jenny Zhang

In episode 2, Ae-ra went to her friend’s wedding ceremony and was asked to be the announcer of her wedding to take the place of the one who was not able to come. It was quite embarrassing at first when she saw all of her old friends had a better job and lived with a better life. The low social status hindered her being part of the membership, which makes her feel uncomfortable. Though she pretended to be indifferent and try to make conversation with them, it is clear that getting into the environment is hard for her. She can not hide her resentment of her friends’ sneer and she knew that she was not part of the one. When she decided to leave, her friend asked her to stay and be the announcer of the wedding. That was a big change of her after she walked onto the stage that she became confident and attractive. She was asked to act as a highly educated woman with international background who was very famous in Hong Kong. Because of that, people started to respected her. Men started taking to her and attracted by her charm. However, after they knew that she was not the announcer, they changed attitude and humiliated her. This shows the hidden dark side of Korea, which treat differently with people of different social and money classes. However, not only Korea, but also other countries have the same attitude as Koreans do— the ones with higher social status gains more respect and attention.