Tag Archives: Analysis

Synopsis

The first love of Ko Dong-Man, Park Hye-Ran appears, and Choi Ae-Ra is nervous and warns Hye-Ran to stay away from Dong-Man.

On the other hand, Baek Sul-Hee works with Kim Joo-Man. They work together to shoot video images of eating cherries. However, Cherry was caught in the throat of Baek Sul-Hee and she began choking. Kim Joo-Man, who saw it, jumps and saves her.

 

Choi Ae-Ra is delighted to have an in-house broadcast of the department store by chance. And she wants to record this glorious moment. So she calls Ko Dong-Man to come to the department store to record her broadcasting. By seeing Choi Ae-Ra’s love and happiness of doing what she always wanted to do, Ko dong-Man began to think about the days he wanted to become a Taekwondo national player.

 

Ko Dong-Man goes to an old coach and asks if he can earn a lot of money by playing RFC(Fighting Challenge). But Coach Hwang gets angry because Ko Dong-Man only thinks about the money.

The next day, Choi Ae-Ra arrives at the department store and finds that someone other than her own is broadcasting. Eventually, Choi Ae-Ra gets a chance to have the interview for the in-house broadcast announcer but the competitor’s brother-in-law was the owner of the department store, so Choi Ae-Ra could not win over the competitor.

 

Ko Dong-Man suddenly visits Choi Ae-Ra. He hears about everything and tells Choi Ae-ra  “No one can’t see you crying if you are behind my back” to offer words of consolation.

 

That evening, Ko Dong-Man goes to see RFC(Fighting Challenge) game to make coach Hwang’s wish come true, and then he sees Kim Tak-Soo….

 

Episode 3 – Discussion, Yoo Jung Kim

This episode was very dynamic. Comparing with first two episodes, third episode had more characters showing up but still not telling much information about the character yet.

The drama is still hiding a lot. For example, why did Ko Dong-Man stop playing Taekwondo? But those hiding stories makes me feel very mysterious and wonder about the drama “Fight for My Way”. And I think it makes the viewer more interesting.

Also this episode provided a little more information about Ko Dong-Man and Choi Ae-Ra. In this episode, it explained why Choi Ae-Ra gives up her dream as a news announcer. She said, “I don’t want to be a prop. It says the school I attended and age aren’t of importance. But it is all a lie”. Also it gives little bit of information about how Ko Dong-Man feels about Taekwondo and why he gave up his dream as Taekwondo national player in the middle of episode three when he visits his family. There are a lot of new characters in this episode. Dong-Man and his father talked about Ko Dong-Man’s sister, Ko Dong-Hee. Also Ko Dong-Man’s ex-girlfriend, Park hye-Ran showed up in the beginning of Episode 3. It foreshadows conflicts with Ko Dong-Man. And at the end of the episode, new character Kim Tak-Soo appears. In this episode it does not tell much about Kim Tak-Soo Character but we can definitely tell something bad happened in the past. And Ko Dong-Man and Kim Tak-Soo are rivals. Episode three was the episode where the writer builds up the storyline. It provides more information about the future conflicts. Also shows and tells more characters in the drama so the viewer can understand more about the drama and anticipate the direction of the drama.

 

Money and Social Class – Lisa Wu

Workplace is one of the main themes of “Fight for My Way”, episode 3 particularly described the correlation between inequality of opportunities and social class. The retirement of formal announcer of the mall gave Ae-ra an opportunity to prove her ability in broadcasting service. However, the connection between the other candidate and the mall manager left her no choice but gave up her dream to be an announcer, even if this job is only for the mall. On the other hand, Ko Dong-man was facing the verbal abuse and slightly physical abuse of his manager, who both fabricate machine fault on Dong-man and forced Dong-man do all the work that half of it suppose to be his job. As Cho et. al stated in their article, social class (i.e., the indicators of the socioeconomic state) is negatively correlated with job insecurity and job strain, which means people in low social class suffered from higher insecure employment and job strain. Ae-ra and Dong-man, these two leading characters were not one of the high social class or even medium social class, which limited their job opportunities. With high sense of insecure, Ae-ra and Dong-man feared the possibilities of being fired by people from higher position, leading the results that Dong-man subjected to daily prosecutions by his manager and unfair treatment of Ae-ra. However, things for Ae-ra seemed far more serious than Dong-man. Gender inequality has alwasy been a issue in labour market. With study of Jung et. al, women generally fare more poorly in multidimensional approach (mainly are income, education, health, employment, social capital, leisure, work-family reconciliation, housing, and social security) than men in South Korea. From the chart showed in the article, the younger people experienced low income, but with the increase of the age, the possibility for new employments decreased. These explained Ae-ra’s difficult situations in the drama. She got limited amount of income, with a big dream far from her, also struggled to get a new job.

References:

Cho, Sung-II et. al. “Social Class, Job Security, and Job Strain in Korea.” Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health. (2008): 60-65.

Jung, Hae-Sik, Kim, Soo-Wan, Ahn, Sang-Hoon. “Multidimensional Inequality in South Korea: An Empirical Analysis.” Asian Social Work and Policy Review. No. 8. (2014):170-191.

 

Ep 3 Money and Class – Daisy Zhu

In this episode, Ko Dong-man and Choi Ae-ra both experienced unfair treatments in their job. Then Ko Dong-man came to ask his coach that he wanted to be a boxer to make money. He thought people had to use money to achieve their dreams, and only money could support his family and his wishes. Hence, in contemporary Korean society, the traditional class system still exists. People from lower class must follow their leader’s direction and often receive less. For Dong-man, he did not make mistakes in his work but he still had to be responsible for his director’s fault. Upper class’s people always hold the authority to control the subordinates, and this order system is difficult to change. When people have their dreams, sometimes they are hard to achieve because they do not have money and authority to control even though they are more outstanding. Like the character Choi Ae-ra, she really strived to reach the announcer’s job position in her department store but she failed just because her competitor had closer relationship with the manager. Thus, the traditional class system still can be reflected in the contemporary Korea that to obstruct the lower class people to achieve their dreams.

 

Ep 3 Money and Class – Zhengyi Zhang

Ae-ra in ep03 gave up her dreamed work of being an announcer. She was treated unequally in the company when she was competing with another girl, who also wanted to do the job. Because she did not graduate from an academy that has an advanced degree, and she did not have any connections to the company, even though she had a higher ability to take this job, she was not chosen by the manager. We can see that the social status in Korea has been the main privilege of job seeking in the job market. In the film, the girl who did not have much work experience gained the job, because she knew someone who was related to the company or was the company’s executive. Due to the higher social status, she was more possible to get the job. The society divides people into different hierarchy, threatening lower social class people who suffered from job insecurity getting into the society. Job opportunities are privileged to the ones who were born in a higher social class family, and this may becomes the main issue in nowadays Korean society.

Fight for My Way Week 3 Discussion – Nicole Chan

Offering your seat to others – a blessing or a curse in South Korea?

In EP 3, Ae-ra successfully finishes her one-day position as the anchor of her mall. She gets on a bus for home and meets Dong-man, who is pretending to be asleep as he does not want to offer the seat to Ae-ra. Eventually he is forced by Ae-ra to offer his seat to her. We know in the reality that people seldom force others to offer their seats. However, in fact, offering seats to someone in need is a social norm to show your respect in South Korea.

Being strongly affected by Confucianism, the culture of South Korea places great emphasis on respecting the elderly. This also is reflected when Koreans must absolutely obey their seniors in family, school and workplace. The Korean put high value of the hierarchy system. There is a common Korean saying, “Offering your seat to the elderly or someone in need is a part of life, regardless of it is a tram, a train or a bus”.

In recent years, the Seoul Metro has set up priority seating for the elderly, and seat for pregnant women starting from last year. Even when the train is extra full in peak hours and everyone gets exhausted from a day of work, people still avoid taking those seats. One reason is because they want to make sure that people who are in need (but cannot be seen) can sit down easily. Another reason, is that they are possibly afraid of “Korean stank eye”.

However, such culture is said to be changing gradually. As mentioned in class by Dr. Saeji, the aging problem in South Korea is serious nowadays. Sometimes the amount of priority seats cannot satisfy the demand from the elderly. As a result, they have to go for regular seats, which are occupied by people who look down at their smartphones. They do not seem to be aware of their surroundings and realize the need to offer their seats. This implies a gradual change in social culture, and the apathy of the newer generation in South Korea.

The “Loser” Image of Leading Casts – Lisa Wu/Jenny Zhang

The first episode of “Fight for My Way” gave a brief introduction for the four main casts in the drama, with the flashback of their school-age when they still dreamed of a big dream and expected bright future, it was the time they never need to worry about tomorrow. But at the current time in the drama, four of them are failed to pursue their goals. The Ep1 especially portrayed Ko Dong-man and Choi Ae-ra’s pathetic and miserable adult life, a life of “loser.”

Ko Dong-man, who watched Tony Jaa’s fight scene in Ong Bak 1 with his best friend Kim Joo-man in Seoul at the beginning of the Ep1, was very concentrated on taekwondo which is something he excelled at. Although he came from Choongnam with no intention to change his act or dress to fit into the atmosphere of Seoul, he still became a rebellious hero in the school and won hearts of girls and the ire of teachers and other male “rivals”, regularly caused trouble along with Kim Joo-man in the class. However, contrary to the glory of old days, his adult life seemed dull and pitiful. The scriptwriter and director emphasis two major points of change: his current marginal occupation (tick doctor) vs. a famous taekwondo prodigy in the past, his unsuccessful experience with the date vs. a heartthrob in his high school. There are two things consistently exist from the past to the future though: the features of his incompatibility with Seoul (e.g., fashion, speak annoyingly loud, etc), and the warm-hearted long-term friendship with Choi Ae-ra, which will develop into romantic relationship in the rest of the episodes.

On the other hand, Dong-man’s longtime friend, Choi Ae Ra is a vigorous and sassy girl, and also his biggest fan of taekwondo. They both lived in the same hometown in Choongnam before Ko Dong-man moved to Seoul studying high school, about 1 hr driving from Seoul. In school, she dreamed of being an anchor, and loved taking her fake microphone to Dong-man’s matches. Later, she became a department store of employee, and continued striving for her dream to come true. In ep1, it seems that she was not satisfied with her life. She had to break up with her boyfriend, Kim Moo-ji, who cheated on her by having a sexual relationship with a wealthy, middle-aged woman. However, Ae-ra and this middle-aged woman shared a common features that they both spend plenty of money on Kim Moo-ji. The differences are the gap of wealth between Ae-ra and this middle-aged woman. In comparison, the middle-aged woman was capable of afford luxurious life that Kim Moo-ji was seeking for. To emphasis her miserable situation, there is also a comparison between her and her university friend. Though these two girls had similar background, her friend won a better life. She would marry to a wealthy man, she was able to buy expensive staffs and wear fashion cloths because of his credit card. It is so ironic that she shopped in the store that Choi Ae Ra worked for. The situation leads these two girls into different levels of social hierarchy. There is a huge difference between her dream and the reality. It seemed that her real life is such a big mess, with no romantic relationship and lack of money. The director uses comparisons to emphasize the unsuccessful beginning after graduation to lead the following story.

The other two leading characters, Kim Joo-man, the best friend of Ko Dong-man, and Baek Seol-hee, the best friend of Choi Ae-ra, were revealed that they were in the underground relationship for six years (so far it did not show that whether Dong-man and Ae-ra know about their relationship, at least their relationship is a secret in their company). Their dream seemed not fulfilled as well, Kim Joo-man was very keen to taekwondo too but worked as, Baek Seol-hee dreamed of being a kind housewife, but her boyfriend Joo-man was hesitating whenever she asked about their marriage. But their love seemed lovely and both caring for each other for now.

 

In general, it is a fascinating drama at first sight. As a K-drama blogger commented about this show, there are neither wealthy handsome, perfect princes nor feisty poor girl-next-door girls who have a million part-time job, this drama seemed goes completely opposite direction with only one remained theme: love. Their life used to be full of sparks and possibilities, their worlds were at their feet. But now their life was considered as “three rated,” with negligible occupations, painful romantic relationship experiences for both Dong-man and Ae-ra, lack of belongingness in Seoul, and stagnant in the crossroad of their life. The director and scriptwriter shape the image of “losers” on the four leading characters, which also represent the young generation who suffered from the burden of reality.

 

The Importance of Quality of Marriage – Daisy Zhu

In the first episode of “Fight for My Way”, I find an interesting scene that shows the chat between Choi Ae-ra and her previous school friend in a coffee shop. They came from similar family background but had very different life when they met at the department store where Choi Ae-ra worked at. The girl told Choi Ae-ra that she would marry with an old rich man soon and advised Choi Ae-ra not to take high expectations for her marriage. While, Choi Ae-ra did not listen to her and satirized that she was a snobbish person. From this scene, I think it reflects a younger generation’s issue of marriage in Korea. In class, Dr. Saeji mentioned there was a trend of single life in the aging society of Korea. I think one reason behind this is Korean people start to value more on their quality of marriage. For example, in the two girls’ chat scene of the drama, the girls showed an opposite attitude towards marriage so it helps to illustrate a worry on marriage for Korean young people. Choi Ae-ra disagreed with her friend’s view that to marry with a not bad person because she still considered her marriage should contain love even though she needed to struggle for a better life by herself. Therefore, she valued her marriage that should waiting for the true love. In this drama, the character of Choi Ae-ra can represent some Korean people’s attitude on marriage. They are willing to stay in single until they find the right person so resulted a delay on the age of marriage. However, for the character of Choi Ae-ra’s friend, she also valued her quality of marriage but was related to her material living standard. Her time was spent on seeking a wealthy man to marry. No matter what type of attitudes for the two girls, it can show an existed phenomenon that the quality of marriage becomes important for most Korean people. They are willing to spend more time to find the right person so it can become a reason to cause the trend of single life in Korean society.

 

The Regional Discrimination and the Importance of Social Class – Yang Li

In this paragraph, I will discuss the first episode of “ Fight for My way” regarding the geography and Demography of Korea.

From the “red evil” and Burberry scene, the director told us that Dong-man is not from Seoul, also, it took Ae-ra and Seol-hee three hours to go the stadium. Therefore, we know that the main characters of this drama might either from the suburban area or from countryside area, which carries a foreshadowing of their struggling life because of their lifestyle, social class, and career development. Those regional discriminations or cultural diversity can be found in almost every country. Such as north and south in the UK, east and west in USA and Canada and north and south in China. That regional diversity is consisted of many different aspects, such as language accents, dressing habits, lifestyles, and of course, different level of economic development.

In the second half of the first episode, we can see the director emphasized the topic of career. Occupation is one of the hottest social issues in Korea nowadays. One reason of that is the aging problem of Korea. The latest census statistic from the Korean government shows that the South Korea is aging faster than any other developed country. Here are some fun facts: it took Japan 24 years to go from an aging society to an aged one, it took Germany 40 years and France 115 years, and Korea became an aging society just 17 years ago. Besides that, about half of Korea’s elderly live in poverty. The aging problem brings the pressure to the younger generations. Imagine a mom and a dad who are both from the single child families. When they become 30 years old, they have to support four parents and at least one child; clearly, that is not an easy task. Therefore, the occupation becomes one of the most important topics when they date, so we saw some names of occupations in the drama, again and again, procurator, doctor, restaurant founder, and student.

Therefore, the first episode of the drama gives us the general background of four main characters and Korean society regarding geography and Demography, which also gives the audiences some hints about the following stories.

 

Social Class – Nicole Chan

As an introduction episode of the drama “Fight for My Way” (삼, 마이웨이), EP1 portrayed the dream of the two protagonists, Ae-ra and Dong-man, when they were at school. It then made a contrast by showing how they are living their “third-rate” lives after eleven years: Ae-ra, who wished to become an anchor, became a receptionist at a mall; while Dong-man, who wished to become a taekwondo athlete, failed to pursue his goal because of an accident, and became a pest exterminator. EP1 emphasizes the contrast between the two “third-rate” protagonists and other people who used to be on the same path as them, but are living much better than them after all these years.

The difference of social class is shown when a university classmate of Ae-ra, Chan-sook appears and announces her marriage with a wealthy bald man. Chan-sook shows off her huge diamond ring and her “oppa”‘s premium credit card. She asks Ae-ra to get married with a good (i.e. rich) man as soon as possible so that she does not have to work that hard as a receptionist with a small salary.

Nowadays, it is difficult to look for a job in South Korea, especially if one do not have a shiny education background, just like Ae-ra and quite a number of Korean students or fresh graduates. In class, Dr. Saeji has mentioned that students nowadays prefer to defer their university studies by looking for internships that cannot even support their daily expense. They therefore have more time as a student to look for the occupation they want and will not become unemployed. As a result, teenage girls seek a shortcut to a luxurious life, which does not require too much hard work – marrying a wealthy man who they do not like.

This is apparently a social phenomenon that should not be encouraged at all. However, if we dip deep the problem itself, it is not hard to realize that it arises from the governmental and social aspects. The price of apartments is surging; aging problem is serious which implies an adult has to bear 4 to 5 seniors; pension is not enough to support their retired lives. Citizens are insecure about the prospect of their society. Such situation can be worrying. A lot more problems can lie beneath. However the government and social atmosphere of South Korea are both inevitably to be blamed.

 

The Absurd Geography – Yoo Jung Kim

In the first week of studying contemporary Korean culture, I learned about Korean geography. While watching the drama, I have realized something very interesting. This drama, “Fight for My Way” was filmed this summer when I visited my family in Korea. You will probably think why this is an interesting thing. Because, you would have thought that this drama was taken somewhere in Seoul just like any other Korean dramas. But you will be very surprised to know where this drama was actually filmed. In this drama, “Fight for My Way” has a background of Seoul. Ko Dong-Man, Choi Ae-Ra, and Baek Sul-Hee lived in Seosan, Chungcheongnam-do since childhood. However, as becoming a high school student, Ko Dong-Man went to school in Seoul. Only, and Choi Ae-Ra and Baek Sul-Hee continue to live in Seosan. The background of this drama changes to Seoul entirely according to the time when Ko-Dong-Man, Choi Ae-Ra, Baek Sul-Hee, and Kim Joo-Man become adults. At the end of Episode 1, there is a scene where Ko Dong-Man and Choi Ae-Ra walk together on the pedestrian overpass. Looking at the background of this scene, you can see Namsan Tower on the back. Which indirectly indicates that Ko Dong-Man and Choi Ae-Ra are in Seoul. Then, the next scene shows the apartment they live in. Perhaps people will think this apartment is somewhere in Seoul, but actually this apartment is in Busan, not in Seoul. Now people may think where is Busan. Busan is located about 400km away from Seoul. it takes about 5 hours to drive from Seoul to Busan by car. So, if you think realistically, Ko Dong-Man and Choi Ae-Ra walk about 400 kilometers to go home. Also it did not appear on Episode 1, But the ”Nam-Il bar” (rooftop bar) that they use as a safe house (in this case, “safe bar”) does not actually exist on the roof of the apartment they live in. In fact, you need to drive about 15 minutes by car to get there. Korean dramas are very enjoyable by itself. Many people around the world love Korean dramas these days. People think that the places appearing in drama are beautiful when they watch Korean dramas. However, many people are not interested in where the places are located. Most Korean drama viewers unconsciously think that all these places are in Seoul. However, if you watch the drama with interest, you will find that there are various places to see not only in Seoul but also in various regions. Also, having more informations, you can have more fun watching Korean dramas. For example, you can laugh about the unrealistic geography in the Drama “Fight for My Way”.