We Are All Trying Here: Episodes 7-8
by quirkycase
It’s amazing how the simple act of asking for help can be life changing. Both of our leads make strides in their lives as they come to terms with their emotions and recognize they don’t have to do it all alone. Not only are they finding more happiness in their personal lives, but our hopeful director begins to see progress in his professional life as well that takes everyone by surprise.
EPISODES 7-8
While I wouldn’t say this week is upbeat exactly – there’s still trauma to deal with, after all – we do get a bit more lightness after all the heaviness. Dong-man feels like a new person after realizing all he’s needed to do was ask for help. Saying “help me” lightened his burden and has helped him shift his perspective. He recognizes now that so-called success isn’t the goal in life – living to old age is.
Even so, Dong-man still struggles to view himself positively. When he calls himself incredibly embarrassing, Eun-ah disagrees. He’s a little embarrassing, but very lovable, which is a great and honest assessment from her as always. It’s so beautiful to see them blossoming as they heal together. Sometimes one person seeing you differently is all it takes to show you a better version of yourself. Dong-man sees Eun-ah’s unique insight and creativity, and Eun-ah sees his resilience and determination.
And Eun-ah is not the only one who sees Dong-man’s good qualities. Mi-ran drops by the bar one evening and starts a party with everyone getting drunk into the night. They end up at the beach where the one sober member of their party can’t take it anymore and demands to know who is crushing on whom because that’s the only reasonable explanation for why people their age are out this late (lol).
To everyone’s shock, Mi-ran raises her hand and without an ounce of hesitation announces she likes Dong-man. Then his watch reads “awkward,” and Mi-ran demands to know why, so he announces that he likes Eun-ah. Guess it’s all in the open now!
I initially thought Mi-ran was going to be the rich mean girl, but I should’ve had more faith in this writer. Mi-ran is a little entitled, sure, but she’s also bold, charismatic, and emotionally direct. She’s surprisingly likable.
But Mi-ran has no chance with Dong-man as he grows closer to (and more infatuated with) Eun-ah by the day. Naming that terrible feeling of desperation and pain has helped Eun-ah and Dong-man open up to each other even more and start to move forward. For Eun-ah, that means finally facing her mother for the first time in decades.
Jung-hee proves as selfish as ever, only worrying about how Eun-ah’s choices may reflect on her. She wants her to live more lavishly and date more impressively, so no one will criticize Jung-hee for letting her daughter live in a shabby apartment with her non-biologically related grandmother.
Eun-ah doesn’t let Jung-hee get away with throwing money at her to try to feel better about her past choices and dictate how Eun-ah should live. Instead, she calls out her mom’s contempt for everyone and everything. Eun-ah vows to become successful, but her mom better not try to cling to her then – that would make her even worse than a mother who abandoned her child who wasn’t good enough. Rather than sitting with Eun-ah’s pain, Jung-hee makes it all about her and her own painful childhood as if it’s a contest.
After their first meeting, Eun-ah stays strong until she leaves the room and then texts Dong-man “help me,” and he comes running. Or, well, he tries to. Nothing ever works out quite as expected with Dong-man. He drives off, heedless of the snowfall and ends up flipping his car and getting trapped beneath the snow. Miraculously, he’s unhurt but has to call 911 to dig him out. Still, he talks to Eun-ah on the phone like nothing’s wrong until her nosebleed stops.
Because Dong-man is Dong-man, he even takes a call from Jae-young while hanging upside down and freezing to death. Jae-young has oh so kindly agreed to give Eun-ah credit for the screenplay under a pseudonym (she chose Young-shil with Dong-man’s blessing), and Jae-young wants to make sure Dong-man keeps quiet.
Everyone assumes Dong-man is angry due to his legendary jealousy at seeing his former student debut (which is part of it), but of course, he’s the only one who knows how Jae-young did Eun-ah dirty. Dong-man is so angry about the situation, it leads to his and Eun-ah’s first fight. He berates her for giving Jae-young so much and letting him use her like that. And for the first time, Eun-ah gets a nosebleed because of Dong-man’s words.
One thing I appreciate about them is how communicative they are without letting things fester. Dong-man immediately apologizes, feeling horrible for making her feel that “help me” feeling. And once Eun-ah gets home and processes, she calls Dong-man to ask him to tell her something interesting – her go-to for getting over her nosebleeds. Dong-man thanks her for her forgiveness, and they move on.
On the work front, Jae-young’s (and, secretly, Eun-ah’s) script is making waves. The screenplay is so good that Dong-hyun swoops in to steal it from Hye-jin, getting Jae-young on his side and bringing in a big name for the lead role. He offers to give her 10% of the profits, as if he’s being generous. Hye-jin isn’t having it and refuses his offer, fully cutting ties with Dong-hyun instead.
What is it with these men and refusing to collaborate or share credit? Kyung-se throws a little tantrum when Hye-jin makes him meet with a TV writer to help him develop a new drama series (which is not his specialty). Then he gets all sexist when it’s a female writer, thinking she won’t be able to handle his gritty material or whatever. But he overcomes his feelings about female writers when she praises him and finds his ridiculous ranting funny.
At the end of the day, Kyung-se is like a kid who needs to be looked at and praised to accomplish anything. His wife refuses to coddle him seeing as he’s a grown man, so when this pretty young woman finds him hilarious and hangs on his every word, he’s enchanted. But it’s Hye-jin who has stood by his side for decades, supporting him and opening doors. Her competence has given him a career. He may not be the most talented, but Hye-jin respects his drive, even if he whines and requires some handholding.
Then, at the opposite end of the spectrum, we have Jin-man. Some fans of Jin-man’s poetry approach him, and we learn more about why he quit writing. His best poem came after he lost Young-shil, and that was his final poem. He felt disgusted over being caught up in writing something beautiful when his child was gone, so he quit writing altogether. He clearly doesn’t feel like he deserves to find comfort or success in life.
Meanwhile, Dong-man is ecstatic when Eun-ah says his revised screenplay was so good it made her cry. She even calls it the best script she’s read this year. Now that Jae-young is foregoing the grant to make his movie with Dong-hyun’s company, the grant can go to the runner up, which is Dong-man. Hye-jin initially wants to pass on it – the first draft is a bit rough – but she’s sick of Dong-man’s complaints. Let him fail once and get it all out of his system. We end as she makes the call to say she’ll take on his screenplay to teach him a lesson. So in the end, it’s spite that finally gives Dong-man his chance to debut.
Given Eun-ah’s very positive assessment of the revised script – and her infamous brutal honesty makes me believe she’d say if it weren’t good, regardless of who’s script it is – I have a feeling Hye-jin is going to be surprised. I can’t tell if she’d be happy to see the film succeed (and make her money) or upset because now she has to deal with Dong-man being a respected director. Either way, it’s bound to be an entertaining ride. Hye-jin is surrounded by needy, insecure men she has to either babysit or ego stroke, so I get her frustration at Dong-man’s complaining or whining. I can’t wait to see them work together because her no-nonsense style with his chaotic energy is going to be something.
One thing I haven’t talked about yet is how meta this drama is about the entertainment industry. There’s been a lot of talk throughout the drama about the lack of originality in film and television and how factory-produced everything feels. When everything feels the same due to a desire for a sure bet that will generate profit, nothing feels authentic or artistically engaging. It’s always interesting to hear commentary on the state of an industry from someone on the inside, and this drama is certainly not holding back on its critiques, but also its hopefulness that there are still hidden gems that can break through and remind everyone of what makes storytelling special.
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