Have you ever just jumped into a relationship without thinking twice? Only to find out that you didn’t actually jump, but that you slowly walked in? No? Watch this drama. You’ll know what I mean.
For someone who is a huge fan of everything love, I thought I understood it. But it took me fifteen episodes of this drama to fully understand what it was trying to teach me. That falling in love is just as easy as it is hard. And taking both ways for granted is a mistake you will make, even though you can’t afford to.
Synopsis
One Spring Night centres around two people in love and the story of their romance. Lee Jung-in, played by Han Ji Min, is a realist who finds happiness in the little, everyday things in life. She believes that the purpose of life is living on your own terms. Yoo Ji-ho is played by Jung Hae In. He’s a thoughtful and polite man, but once someone catches his attention, he won’t hesitate to pursue and make his interest known.
Spoilers ahead…
Thoughts
What I liked
I love how the drama makes our leads seem so ordinary in order to have them make extraordinary choices (within context of the drama of course). People are simple in the way that others perceive them. Jeong In is a beautiful librarian. She has the perfect boyfriend. Her life is moving according to plan. She will marry her perfect boyfriend and be the perfect wife. It’s that simple, except it’s not. Ji Ho is a pharmacist with a complicated past which continuously mars his present and future. It’s that simple, except it’s not. I think this is where Gi Seok’s (Jeong In’s initial boyfriend) understanding of the situation makes him short circuit in a sense. He sees what is happening and follows the norm of the situation. He is from a prominent family, dating the perfect girl, who he will marry, and he will become the perfect husband. It’s that simple, except… you get the idea.
I’m also learning that Ji Ho has a vulnerability to him that he seems to never want to admit to having. He has to be strong, but he’s really not. It feels like a false resilience that he’s created, but it only lasts him for the day. Then he goes home and builds it up again. It’s cute and heartfelt. I think that’s what makes it so easy to fall in love with his character. Especially when Jeong In comes in and breaks down the walls he tries to create on the daily. She’d do it hourly if she could, but she has a day job.
Jeong In to me is a mess, but a welcome one. I’ve never seen a character take to their flaws so well and wear them like a badge of honour. It’s refreshing to see. “Yes, I am a mess. So what? You’re a mess too, you just hide it better.” Is basically how she lives. It’s great to see.
I’m 100% on Seo In’s (Jeong In’s older sister) side. I hope her crummy husband ends up behind bars, reputation be damned! I’d rather be alive and hated than dead because of an asshole. The kind of steps she takes to lessen the blow of the situation she’s about to walk into really baffles me. It’s something I’ve never seen before. When I watched the scenes where she hands in her resignation, petitions for divorce and files for assault. It’s a process she’s had to think out and one where she’s had to choose her words carefully. Where most of us wouldn’t think twice about the consequences of such actions, she strategically plans what needs to happen not because she won’t do it, but because if she rushes into such decisions she will suffer. I didn’t know Korean society was this harsh on the single divorced parent. But seeing how her parents react to the situation with such little tact, I’m assuming it’s true. This is a shocker, and something about Korean culture I’m yet to understand.
What I didn’t like
Can anyone in Korea even keep a secret? I mean, come on! News travels way too easy. It may be for plot convenience sake, but it’s way too convenient. How can the whole of Seoul know everything about Jeong In and Ji Ho’s relationship?
I hate how everyone else’s relationships are determined by the outcome of the main one. What? Nobody else has a life? Is this all everyone else can do with their life? Wait for things to happen? That’s a lie. Please give other people proper character arcs. There should be at least two other story arcs running apart from the two main ones. It may be for the sake of the story developing in the right direction, but as far as I see it, the two main leads didn’t need as much screen time as the drama made it seem. The montages of them being all happy in parks were unnecessary, because the time they stole from other characters in the drama made most of them insignificant. Both Ji Ho and Jeong In’s friends became irrelevant in this story. We could have easily had one of the main characters narrate and get rid of the rest of the cast.
I’m not sure why Korean parents have to be painted in such a light, but I’ve met quite a few of them. They might be conservative yes, but not for the sake of conservatism. Jeong In’s parents seem to take the cake when it comes to being asshole parents. I include her mother in this, though she changes her tune once she sees what Ji Hoon has been doing to her daughter. I can’t ever imagine anyone marrying off their daughter to someone just because of either a job or because of social standing. I know some will argue how chaebol families do this all the time, but it’s not the same thing. Chaebol families do it so that both families have something to gain. Most kids who are born into such families understand the implications of their marriages. Both families will benefit financially. What Jeong In’s parents were doing is pawning off their daughters to the highest bidder. That’s wrong on so many levels. I’m not even sure how to react to the idea that Jeong In’s father was willing to hear nothing of Seo In’s abuse at the hands of a man she was supposed to have been living with. That disgusts me, and I feel I have every right to be angry at him, and in a sense call him out as one of the villains of this piece. I’m angered by his ignorance of the situation, and how despite everything that happens to his kids, he looks out for himself first. What a coward. This surely cannot be a real depiction of Korean values and morals. And surely it’s not what the writers would want us to think of Korean families and the hierarchal system they’ve silently put in place. I’m disgusted.
Yay or Nay?
This drama is very slowly paced, so if that’s not your thing, you’ll fall asleep. Trust me you will. But for those of you who, much like me, enjoy romance in its truest form, sans slapstick clichés in slow motion, watch this. I give it two solid thumbs up.
Let me know what you think of it if you have watched it in the comments. If not, give it a try. Let’s chat K community.
The K-Rant 