6.1 - Episode 1 of Gyeongseong Creature

Today, we’ll be discussing Episode 9 of Gyeongseong Creature, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Park Seo-joon as Jang Tae-sang, Han So-hee as Yoon Chae-ok, Wi Ha-jun as Kwon Jun-taek, Kim Soo-hyun as Lady Maeda, Ji Woo as Myeong-ja, Jo Han-chul as Yoon Joong-won, and Kim Hae-sook as Nawol daek. We discuss:

• How Jang Tae-sang and Yoon Chae-ok are reunited and they manage to sneak a few moments of joy together.
• How Yoon Chae-ok doesn’t want to be forgotten and she makes Jang Tae-sang promise that they will always remember each other.
• The amazing kiss between Jang Tae-sang and Yoon Chae-ok!
• Jang Tae-sang’s plan to blow up Ongseong Hospital.
• How the Japanese control the news; the killings by Myeong-ja aren’t reported until Ishikawa is dead and then he is reported as having died honorably while going after the Joseon serial killer.
• How Yoon Chae-ok was on a suicide mission when she killed Dr. Ichiro. She can’t see a future, while Jang Tae-sang is motivated by a better future.
• After so many years of looking for her mom, now that she’s found her, Yoon Chae-ok can’t imagine a future life, and she certainly can’t imagine a life filled with happiness.
• How Lady Maeda didn’t seem too upset when she heard about her husband’s condition; in fact, she asked Dr. Ichiro to put an end to his misery.
• Yoon Joong-won has gone back into the hospital to end his wife’s misery; he lets himself be imprisoned, but then manages to get away from his captors and is now loose in the hospital.
• Nobody can find Yoon Chae-ok but we learn that she is at Lady Maeda’s house.
• Jang Tae-sang has figured out that Lady Maeda has Yoon Chae-ok, and he challenges her, saying he’ll never stop looking for Yoon Chae-ok.
• When Lady Maeda tells Jang Tae-sang about his staff’s betrayals, he counters that his people would not have had to betray their loved ones if it weren’t for the crimes of the Japanese.
• Jang Tae-sang confesses to Mrs. Nawol that he knew about her betrayal a short time after his mother died, but she doesn’t need forgiveness because it wasn’t her fault.
• Yoon Chae-ok is taken to Ongseong Hospital and the creature breaks through the grate.
• The K Drama elements in this episode, including lots of crying, more information about the connection between Lady Maeda and Seishin from the past, the amazing kiss, and the funeral for Commissioner Ishikawa.
• A bit of information about Japanese funerals and the expected behavior of guests.
• The show we will recap and analyze in Season 7 of K Drama Chat! 

References

• Attending a funeral in Japan

Today, we’ll be discussing Episode 8 of Gyeongseong Creature, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Park Seo-joon as Jang Tae-sang, Han So-hee as Yoon Chae-ok, Wi Ha-hun as Kwon Jun-taek, Kim Soo-hyun as Lady Maeda, Ji Woo as Myeong-ja, Jo Han-chul as Yoon Joon-won, and Kim Hae-sook as Nawol daek. We discuss:

• How Jang Tae-sang was able to escape from Ongseong Hospital by getting the better of the Japanese soldier and holding up Lady Maeda to let him leave with her out of the hospital.
• Lady Maeda’s motivations for nursing Jang Tae-sang back to health.
• Lady Maeda calling Seishin, the creature, sensei or teacher.
• Commissioner Ishikawa confronting his wife about what is happening at Ongseong Hospital and what she did to Akiko.
• How we’re learning that Lady Maeda is the silent power behind what happens in Gyeongseong.
• How Jang Tae-sang negotiated with Ishikawa for the release of the Bonjeong merchants.
• How Mr. Gu was tortured and now we understand Mrs. Nawol’s warning about betraying your loved ones with faced with torture.
• How Jang  Tae-sang and Yoon Chae-ok are reunited and their hug said so much.
• How Jang Tae-sang and Yoon Chae-ok are able to steal a moment of happiness together while buying dumplings but it doesn’t last long.
• How Myeong-ja has been on a killing spree through Gyeongseong and now Ishikawa knows she’s the murderer responsible for killing people and eating their brains.
• How Yoon Joong-won, Yoon Chae-ok’s father, now knows what happened to his wife.
• The K Drama elements in this episode, including: crying, lots of triangles involving Lady Maeda, Jang Tae-sang’s confession to Yoon Chae-ok, umbrella scene, and JTS pulling YCO out of the way of a speeding car when they’re chasing Myeong-ja.
• What we think of the title of the episode: Awakening, between Justification and Excuse.
• What happened to Unit 731 after the war.
• The shows we’re watching now and the shows we’re considering for Season 7 of K Drama Chat!

References

• The Na people
• What happened to Unit 731?
• Does Torture Work?
• Unit 731 on Wikipedia
• Japan discloses details of notorious chemical warfare division
• https://unit731.org
• Details of the atrocities committed by the Japanese

Today, we’ll be discussing Episode 7 of Gyeongseong Creature, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Park Seo-joon as Jang Tae-sang, Han So-hee as Yoon Chae-ok, Wi Ha-jun as Kwon Jun-taek, Kim Soo-hyun as Lady Maeda, Ji Woo as Myeong-ja, Jo Han-chul as Yoon Joon-won, and Kim Hae-sook as Nawol daek. We also talk about Wi Ha-jun, the actor who plays Kwon Jun-taek. We discuss:

• The song we feature during the recap: Forever (instrumental version) by SUHO.
• The growing feelings between Jang Tae-sang and Yoon Chae-ok, although it’s not exactly the time or space to express their feelings.
• The conflict between our leads when Jang Tae-sang asks Yoon Chae-ok to go down to the truck with the other women and she refuses.
• The ultimate sacrifice of the Joseon soldier who helped our leads fight off the Japanese soldiers. 
• How Jang Tae-sang made a big sacrifice when he decided to not escape from the hospital and instead create a diversion so everyone else can escape. Is he being a martyr or does he have a plan to escape?
• The elaborate plan that Jang Tae-sang sketched out to Mrs. Nawol to help all of the prisoners escape.
• How the prisoners escape via the waiting rickshaws and Mr. Gu ends up getting beaten and arrested.
• How Mrs. Nawol seems to be everywhere, including when Kwon Jun-taek was returned to his father through the expensive vase from the House of Golden Treasure.
• Mrs. Nawol’s assertion that Master Jang has a hand in everything that happens in Bonjeong.
• How Jang Tae-sang met his deadline of finding Myeong-ja before the cherry blossoms fall.
• How Lady Maeda, through Dr. Ichiro, was responsible for Myeong-ja and Yoon Chae-ok’s mother getting picked up and imprisoned.
• How Lady Maeda had a huge role in the building and funding of the hospital.
• How Col. Kato is wracked with curiosity because *someone* drank the water with the najin in his office.
• The K Drama elements in this episode, especially the connection from the past between some of our characters, Jang Tae-sang helping the prisoners escape at personal cost to himself.
• What we think of the title: Chase, between Us and Them.
• Wi Ha-jun, the amazing and talented actors who plays Kwon Jun-taek. He’s been in many prominent shows, including Squid Game, Bad and Crazy, and Little Women.

References

• Wi Ha-jun on Wikipedia

Today, we’ll be discussing Episode 6 of Gyeongseong Creature, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Park Seo-joon as Jang Tae-sang, Han So-hee as Yoon Chae-ok, Wi Ha-hun as Kwon Jun-taek, Kim Soo-hyun as Lady Maeda, Ji Woo as Myeong-ja, Jo Han-chul as Yoon Joon-won, and Kim Hae-sook as Nawol daek. We discuss:

• The song we featured during the recap: Time by Baek-a.
• Our upcoming, fun-filled weekend with Ernabel in New York; follow along with our adventures on Instagram @kdramachat.
• What we think of Jang Tae-sang thinking that he was busy staying alive and only caring about himself and his business until he met Yoon Chae-ok.
• Jang Tae-sang’s origin story, including how his mother saved him and told him to stay alive, and how he came to meet Mrs. Nawol when she was thrown out of the local jail.
• Jang Tae-sang is clearly influenced by his mother: his mother made him promise he would do everything he could to stay alive, and perhaps his reluctance to join the Patriotic Society was because his mom was killed because of her involvement in the independence movement.
• We know now what Mrs. Nawol meant when she told Mr. Gu to betray her and everyone else if he ever finds himself tortured.
• Jang Tae-sang’s argument with the rebel leader in Ongseong Hospital, who unlocked everyone’s cell and didn’t for Jang Tae-sang.
• Hannah Arendt’s The Banality of Evil and Eichmann in Jerusalem. Eichmann was a normal, law-abiding person who followed the rules, and obeyed the law when he was told to round up Jews and have them killed.
• How Jang Tae-sang tells Kwon Jun-taek that he will turn a blind eye if Kwon Jun-taek gets in trouble at the hospital, but in the end, Jang Tae-sang devises a plan to get everyone out of the hospital, including Kwon Jun-taek and the other prisoners.
• We wonder why Commissioner Ishikawa is so motivated to save a nobody like Myeong-ja.
• Yoon Chae-ok holding Col. Kato at gunpoint, and how he outmaneuvers her and ultimately has her chained in the cell with the creature.
• How the creature recognizes Yoon Chae-ok when Yoon Chae-ok screams “mother” at her. The creature also saved Yoon Chae-ok when nitrogen gas was released and the soldiers started shooting at both of them.
• Col. Kato’s order to find Yoo Chae-ok and kill her!
• The plan to save Jang Tae-sak, Yoon Chae-ok, Myeong-ja and the rest of the prisoners that involves Mr. Gu driving a truck into Ongseong Hospital, Mr. Gu getting a guard drunk, and the merchants of Bukchon planning a big celebration.
• The K Drama elements we see in this episode, including crying, the sneaky back hug when Jang Tae-sang saved Yoon Chae-ok from the creature, how the creature saved Yoon Chae-ok at personal cost to herself.
• What we thought of the title of this episode: Chaos, between Monster and Human.
• The background and experience of the amazing actress Kim Hae-sook, the actress who plays Mrs. Nawol.

References

• Kim Hae-sook on Wikipedia
• Time by Baek-a on YouTube

Today, we’ll be discussing Episode 5 of Gyeongseong Creature, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Park Seo-joon as Jang Tae-sang, Han So-hee as Yoon Chae-ok, Wi Ha-hun as Kwon Jun-taek, Kim Soo-hyun as Lady Maeda, Ji Woo as Myeong-ja, Jo Han-chul as Yoon Joon-won, and Kim Hae-sook as Nawol daek. We discuss:

• The song we featured during the recap: Forever by SUHO, instrumental version. 
• Kwon Jun-taek’s background, motivations and relationship with Jang Tae-sang. 
• Kwon Jun -taek’s father now knows that his son is a rebel. He tries to bribe Dr. Ichiro with a briefcase full of money. 
• How Col. Kato is the scariest man in the base. He doesn’t care about the soldiers or the Joseon people being killed by the creature.  
• How Col. Kato realized that Yoon Chae-ok is the creature’s daughter and is now wondering how he can use her. 
• How Yoon Chae-ok wants to fight to the end, while Jang Tae-sang is going to do whatever he needs to do to stay alive. 
• The heartbreaking realization by Yoon Chae-ok that her mother had been, or is, at the base. 
• How Jang Tae-sang finds Yoon Chae-ok and while he wants to escape and find another way to learn about her mother, she can’t give up the search for her mother. 
• The possible kilig moments in this show between our two leads. 
• How Jang Tae-sang is a planner, while Yoon Chae-ok has a bias for action. 
• What’s happening with the other characters: Yoon Joon-won, Lady Maeda, Commissioner Ishikawa. 
• What our K Drama elements are and why we talk about them. 
• The K Drama elements we find in this episode: Crying, food, wrist grab, triangles, flowers. 
• The title: Desperation: Between denial and truth. 
• The beautiful and talented Kim Soo-hyun who plays Lady Maeda. She spent time in the US, speaks perfect English, and has played roles in American movies!

References

• Claudia Kim in Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald
• Claudia Kim in Avengers: Age of Ultron
• 41 Important Japanese Honorifics

Today, we’ll be discussing Episode 4 of Gyeongseong Creature, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Park Seo-joon as Jang Tae-sang, Han So-hee as Yoon Chae-ok, Wi Ha-jun as Kwon Jun-taek, Kim Soo-hyun as Lady Maeda, Ji Woo as Myeong-ja, Jo Han-chul as Yoon Joon-won, and Kim Hae-sook as Nawol daek. We discuss:

• The song that we feature during the recap: Time, electric version, by LEAFY.
• We thank listeners who recently commented on the website.
• We now know what Jang Tae-sang was really doing when he was goofing around Gyeongseong: playing mahjong, riding a rickshaw aimlessly, ordering a new suit at the tailor shop.
• Why Sachimoto risked his neck and help Jang Tae-sang; we think it’s related to Yoon Chae-ok’s mom.
• What we think of Kwon Jun-taek: where he came from, his relationship with Jang Tae-sang, and why he entered the hospital (to look for two comrades who were recently picked up by the Japanese Army).
• Why Jang Tae-sang didn’t reveal who Sachimoto was when Yoon Chae-ok first met Sachimoto
• The heartbreaking scene where Yoon Chae-ok talks to Sachimoto about his drawing of her mother. Sachimoto admits that he drew Yoon Chae-ok’s mother but he says he doesn’t know where she is or what happened to her.
• How Sachimoto is the only person who has the full picture: where Yoon Chae-ok’s mom is and what happened to her.
• Jang Tae-sang’s flashback of a boy in the snow.
• How Jang Tae-sang changed his mind and helped the children escape the hospital.
• Why Yoon Chae-ok continued to insist on looking for Myeong-ja.
• The growing feelings between Jang Tae-sang and Yoon Chae-ok.
• How Dr. Ichiro is trying to train the monster.
• How the monster broke out of her prison and managed to take the elevator upstairs, killing scores of soldiers in the process.
• We now know why Lady Maeda wanted Myeong-ja kidnapped: she wanted the baby!
• The cliffhanger of an ending where Jang Tae-sang is face to face with the creature.
• The K Drama elements in this episode, especially the brewing triangle between Col. Kato. Dr. Ichiro and Lady Maeda.
• What we thought of the title of the episode: Imprinting, Between Causality and Fate.  
• We talk about the amazing and varied career or Jo Han-chul who plays Yoon Joon-won
• Japanese honorifics, specifically the word “san” and “sensei.”

References

• Alabama executes man with nitrogen gas 
• Honorifics in Japanese

Today, we’ll be discussing Episode 3 of Gyeongseong Creature, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Park Seo-joon as Jang Tae-sang, Han So-hee as Yoon Chae-ok,  Wi Ha-jun as Kwon Jun-taek, Kim Soo-hyun as Lady Maeda, Jo Han-chul as Yoon Joon-won, Ji Woo as Myeong-ja, Jo Han-chul as Yoon Joon-won, and Kim Hae-sook as Nawol daek. We discuss:

• The song we feature during the recap: Time by Baek A, the acoustic version
• Whether or not we think Jang Tae-sang had an affair with Lady Maeda
• Jang Tae-sang’s plan to re-enter Ongseong Hospital
• The game mahjong
• The drawing of Yoon Chae-ok’s mom and how it landed in Jang Tae-sang’s hands through the tailor
• Jang Tae-sang’s encounter with the samurais who beat him up
• How Sachimoto helped Jang Tae-sang and Kwon Jun-taek  re-enter the hospital
• How Yoon Chae-ok doesn’t hesitate to kill the doctor when she saves the children
• The significance of fireworks to the Korean military and Korean culture
• The amazing cinematography in this episode, particularly during the fireworks scene
• How Dr. Ichiro is trying to train the creature
• What anthrax is really is and Joanna’s anthrax story
• What we thought about the title of this episode: Signal, Between Obsession and Perseverance
• The amazing and beautiful Han So-hee

References

• Rules of Mahjong
• FBI Investigation into Amerithrax Case
• Han So-hee in Wikpedia

Today, we’ll be discussing Episode 2 of Gyeongseong Creature, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Park Seo-joon as Jang Tae-sang, Han So-hee as Yoon Chae-ok, Wi Ha-hun as Kwon Jun-taek, Kim Soo-hyun as Lady Maeda, Ji Woo as Myeong-ja, Jo Han-chul as Yoon Joon-won, and Kim Hae-sook as Nawol daek. We discuss:

• How we are grateful to our listeners! We have listeners all over the world and our audience is growing!
• The song we feature in the recap: Forever by SUHO.
• How the Japanese and Korean characters in this show speak both Japanese and Korean and it can be very confusing.
• How knowing what language our characters are speaking gives you a sense of who has the upper hand in the conversation.
• The sleuths, who are really good, because they figured out where Myeong-ja is and how she got there (she was sent there by Lade Maeda).
• How Mr. Gu wonders if Myeong-ja is another of the many women and girls who have disappeared in Gyeongseong, a reference to the Japanese Army practice of kidnapping women and girls during WWII and turning them into sex slaves, or what they called “comfort women.”
• How we now know that Lady Maeda had a powerful motive for getting rid of Myeong-ja AND she has some relationship with Dr. Ichiro.
• The few lighthearted moments of the show, especially when Jang Tae-sang is dumbstruck when he sees Yoon Chae-ok all dressed up in the light blue suit and pillbox hat.
• The secret hand signal that the Korean independence army members use to signal each other.
• The significance of Manchuria because it shares a border with what is now North Korea.
• The origin story of Sachimoto, including the fact that he drew Yoon Chae-ok’s mom!
• How we know that the creature is Yoon Chae-ok’s mom through her swollen left eye and wooden flower pendant.
• Our thoughts on why Jang Tae-sang decides to go back into Ongseong Hospital.
• The K Drama elements we see in this episode, especially the triangle between Lady Maeda, Commissioner Ishikawa and Myeong-ja, and the umbrella scene with Lady Maeda.
• The meaning behind the title: Mother, between longing and anguish.
• How the intro scene at the beginning of each episode is NOT the origin story of Yoon Chae-ok’s mom. We made a mistake. The intro is the origin story of the first girl to swallow a najin, turn into a creature, and get captured by the Japanese.
• The amazing and handsome Park Seo-joon, including how his last name is pronounced Pahk, not Pak and not Park.
• How episode 3 has some gory scenes with the creature AND some scenes of cruelty by soldiers against prisoners and other soldiers.

References

• Korean Independence Movement in Wikipedia
• TIME Magazine article on the real history behind Gyeongseong Creature
• Park Seo-joon on Wikipedia
• Come To My Heart from A Witch’s Love sung by Park Seo-joon

Welcome to Season 6 of K Drama Chat! In this season, we will recap and analyze Gyeongseong Creature!

Today, we’ll be discussing Episode 1 of Gyeongseong Creature, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Park Seo-joon as Jang Tae-sang, Han So-hee as Yoon Chae-ok, Wi Ha-jun as Kwon Jun-taek, Kim Soo-hyun as Lady Maeda, Ji Woo as Myeong-ja, Jo Han-chul as Yoon Joon-won, and Kim Hae-sook as Nawol daek. Gyeongseong Creature was written by Kang Eun-kyung, directed by Chung Dong-yoon and Roh Young-sub. The first seven episodes were released on Netflix on December 22, 2023. The last 3 episodes dropped on January 5, 2024. We discuss:

• The song we feature during the recap, Time by Baek A.
• How the setting of this show is personal to both of us because our parents were kids in Asia who lived under the Japanese occupation during WWII.
• The Japanese Army retreating from Harbin, China. Turns out Unit 731 of the Japanese Army, which was based in Harbin and was later discovered to have been doing human experimentation and biological weapons manufacturing. This is absolutely horrifying!
• After the war, the US basically hid the atrocities and pardoned the researchers in exchange for their data because the US was doing its own biological weapons research.
• How Korea had been under Japanese rule officially since the annexation of Korean in 1910.
• The characters who are introduced in this episode, specifically:
  • Jang Tae-sang, the self-made man and owner of the House of Golden Treasure, a successful pawn shop in Bukchong, a fancy neighborhood in Gyeongseong (what we now know as Seoul).
  • The three staff members of the House of Golden Treasure: Manager Gu, Mrs. Nawol, and Beom-o.
  • Police Commissioner Ishikawa, husband of Lady Maeda, who is the daughter of General Maeda.
  • Hospital Dr. Ichiro and Colonel Kato, who look like they run the hospital and are in charge of the human experimentation.
  • Sleuths Yoon Joon-won and Yoon Chae-ok, who are known to never give up when looking for missing persons.
  • Painter Sachimoto, the man that the two sleuths are looking, because he has some kind of connection to a missing mom.
  • Kwon Jun-taek, a nationalist who is also the son of a successful businessman.
• The central plot line of this episode, which is that Commissioner Ishikawa wants Jang Tae-sang to find his mistress Myeong-ja, who disappeared a week before.
• The human experimentation that appears to result in the creation of a scary creature that threatens painter Sachimoto at the end of the episode.

References

• Unit 731 in Wikipedia
• The cast of Gyeongseong Creature
• US Response to Japanese Wartime Inhuman Experimentation

Today, we’re doing a special recap and review of Mr. Queen with Professor Ernabel Demillo. For those of you who don’t know Ernabel, or Ernie as we call her, she is Department Chair of the Communication and Media Culture Department at Saint Peter's University and host of the Emmy-award winning "Asian American Life" show on CUNY-TV. We discuss:

• Why we chose Mr. Queen in the first place for Season 5
• Our favorite scenes from the entire season
• The scenes we found the funniest, all of them involving Shin Hye-sun, of course!
• That we think the show is ultimately about identity, change and transformation
• How every one of the main characters was transformed in some way
• Whether the king will love the queen in the same way, now that Jang Bong-hwan has left her body
• The small issues we had with the show
• How King Cheoljong DID try to enact some reforms, but was not successful
• Asian-American Life (AAL), the only monthly TV show devoted to the Asian-American diaspora, life and experience in the US
• How the theme of identify keeps coming up in episodes of AAL
• Ernie’s favorite AAL segments, how they find stories, how they convince people to be featured, and how they
• How Ernie manages to be a full-time professor at St. Peter’s University AND be a producer and host of AAL; she’s also writing a book loosely based on her mom’s experience as a child in the Philippines during WWII
• Why we chose Gyeongseong Creature, the show that we will recap and analyze in Season 6 of K Drama Chat

References

• Why do some Joseon kings have a title of Jo and other Jong?
• Blog with recipes from Mr. Queen
• The person behind the hanboks and jewelry in Mr. Queen
• Cheoljong of Joseon on Wikipedia
• Asian-American Life on YouTube
• Feedspot's List of Top 40 K Drama Podcasts
• What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report