The Nuanced Acting of Yoo Ah In

I wrote this for a Soompi thread because we are rewatching and taking another look at Secret Love Affair. I don't usually put thread posts here, but since it took a while to write, I wanted it here so I could find it again.

The scene in the garage at the end of episode 3 was very powerful for me and stuck with me as a high point. It's one of the few scenes I can tell you off the top of my head which episode it is from, in fact. As I rewatch it, I think a lot of the reason is the body language and complex facial expressions of Yoo Ah In. No wooden faces for him. He stands in the entrance to the garage, but he's not just standing there. He's off balance, ready to move, full of potential energy. He looks dangerous to me, like a commando all psyched up ready to blow up a bridge. But when he walks up to Hye-won he becomes a little diffident, looks down, and opens and shuts his mouth without being able to say anything.

She asks him if he grew, and his expression lightens, he looks uncertain, and he says, “I do think I changed a bit,” with raised eyebrows and half a smile. When she asks if he read the book he raises his head higher and looks more assertive but withdrawn and a little hurt. This expression is hard to read but it is key because it shows the change in him. He's been through a lot and has been in hiding, but now he's screwed up his courage and decided to go fight for a life with her. But the expression is fleeting because he knows he has to be careful or she'll blow him off, so he's holding back. She tries to put him in his place, like he's a child - a student of hers - and questions him, and he goes back to diffidence. But when she asks, “how was it?” and makes him think, his mind goes to a painful spot. He goes through several expressions here; he purses his lips, then wrinkles his chin and moves his jaw sideways and his voice breaks. He is honest and admits he had given up but he was swayed. And using only his eyes he gives her the look of a dead man, because he knows he wants her but can't have her.

She says she can tell he's struggling and he gives an obvious lie that he's incredibly fine, grimacing to keep from breaking down. Then tipping his head up to look down his nose at her, he grasps at his pride to tell her not to send him anything again. Now he finds his feet. When she tells him not to lie to his teacher she can't disconcert him any more. With confidence he answers, “Yes it's a lie, but it doesn't matter.” His head is still tipped up and he cracks his jaw; only his eyes show he's keeping his distance but miserable. She puts her hand on his face for comfort and he is overcome and lets her at first, but then the corner of his mouth twitches, and pained, he says, “don't,” because it's a mixed signal. If she thinks she can pretend there's no attraction by treating him as a child she shouldn't have touched him, because it calls forth a response and he decides to cut the pretense and grabs her in a hug.

His forehead furrows and his eyebrows angle up as he squeezes her and then lets go and looks at her searchingly for a moment. This is a really memorable moment, and an important moment where he, full of kinetic energy, tips over the edge and gives the rest of the drama its velocity. Right here he gives her a chance to object if she wants to, but she evidently gives him an “I want you too” kind of look and he holds her by the neck and kisses her hard, even when she pushes back a minute later. IMO she got more than she bargained for and was surprised by the intensity. She didn't understand what she was stirring up. She gasps once and I don't know how she could with his full lips pressing so hard, but I bet she got a wet face because when they break apart, both gasping for breath, his lips are shiny. And he has a kind of “what was that?” expression.

The whole scene took only about three minutes and he went through 17 different identifiable expressions that I catalogued above; but I watched the whole thing in one go trying to count all the times he changed expression, and it was at least 25. If he doesn't get all the acting awards there are this year, it will be a gross miscarriage of justice. He carries you through so many nuances of meaning, and it all goes by so fast you can miss it if you are not paying attention. I can't imagine doing it on cue, several times, over and over for the camera. With a lot of actors you would be lucky to get one expression a minute and you would have gotten 1) Oh, hi. 2) Yes, it's a lie. 3) Don't touch my face because now I want to kiss you. This drama finished its run in the middle of May and now it's the middle of September, so that's four months. Most dramas I watch, I enjoy while I am watching them but the impression fades away before too long. This is one of the few that has stayed with me. And a big reason is Yoo Ah In's acting.

Secret Love Affair - Finale - Ep 16

It's been a week since this episode aired, and it's taken me this long to be able to sit down and write about it. On first viewing, as the traumatic events unfolded and piled up, the disagreement, the prosecutor, the trial, the prison, I felt pretty sick inside. But as I rewatch today, I can see that it fits and that it's a good ending.

The drama is book-ended by mahjong. The group from episode one plays together again and Dean Min says, "Oh the luck isn't with me tonight." The Chairman replies," Where is luck, you just read the opponents wrong." Which is about as good a summary of the dean as you could want. Hye-won wins the game again saying, "I'd hate to die a dog's death," meaning a meaningless death. CEO Daughter says they thought Hye-won was a dog but she's a tiger.

Hye-won waits for Seon-jae outside his apartment. When he comes he is curt and tries again to get her to give up her schemes. She says she can win and he says she can't. Seon-jae texts Tone-deaf hyung to invite him to a quintet recital. Hye-won tells him to bring his goddess, but he says he doesn't want to talk about it. She looks disturbed. He didn't invite her.

20:22 - Dvorak's Piano Quintet No 2 in A Major. The quintet play their good-bye performance. They are all quitting school, including Seon-jae. Students crowd in to listen and are backed-up out into the hall.

Even though we don't see hands on the piano, his movements and expressions fit so well and are so good. After SLA ended I watched one and about a third episodes of Beethoven Virus just because it is about music, and couldn't stand it. Of course we know most shows have bad fake musicians and the reason we are watching this one is because of the piano playing in the preview, but SLA has really spoiled us and set the bar high.

Hye-won sits mulling things over at her desk, gets up and goes out. She barely opens Mme Han's office door, slides in, runs her hand over the big desk chair, then calls Mme Han to tell her the chairwoman's chair doesn't suit her very well. She goes home and wanders around alone, seeing Seon-jae everywhere: at the door when he first came to audition, at the piano, at the dining table. She knows Seon-jae is letting go and makes a decision.

She heads for the prosecutor's office, stopping off first at Seon-jae's to explain. She asks for tea and he has a new kind someone gave him. She explains what she's up to and comments she'll remember this moment with the tea. He tells her to remember it with her body and they kiss. The next thing you see is them sleeping, wrapped together with their heads and arms sticking out over the quilt. 

At the prosecutor's office she hands over the red thumb drive, explaining that it contains Mme Han's files, those for the Chairman's money-laundering company, and the record of his payoffs to SIL Lawyer. She is giving the prosecutors enough evidence to put them in jail. Mme Han turns herself in because she doesn't like to get picked up by the cops. Ha. That means she has been picked up before.

45:18 - Chopin's Nocturne No. 1 Op. 62.
Prof. Jo plays this for Seon-jae, telling him to learn it and play it in competition. There is a small competition he can practice on before he goes to the big one in Italy. It will keep him busy and he can earn prize money.

In court Hye-won testifies that she did illegal things for money and prestige, but one day someone showing devotion to her by doing such a simple thing as wiping the floor for her to sit on made her realize what she had given up to get the things she had gained. This statement is kind of a surprise, because that scene was commented on a lot at the time. He was shown from behind. Everyone noticed his butt, and thought that's what she was thinking about. So humm. It didn't come across. 

47:56 - Mozart's Rondo in A Minor - Seon-jae plays for Da-mi and Jang-ho, who were at court with him.

Interior of the cell block. Five women are sleeping on the floor of a cell. Hye-won is snoring so they hold her down and cut her hair as an initiation of sorts. She is taken aback but doesn't fight it. Her hair, which was once kept so smooth and under control, is now not only down but cut ragged. She has let go of her need to control and connive and is now taking life as it comes.

Seon-jae comes to visit. He is startled by her hair, but at her calm acceptance he puts on a good face and is cheerful for her. He has passed the Busoni finals, so it's been a little time. She says she is thankful to him for helping her to change her life, but he doesn't have to wait for her; he can forget her. He replies that after all they have been through, they should at least try to be together, whether it turns out to be one year or ten. Otherwise it would be a waste. And, he adds, she is a little pretty too. 

1:05:54 - Mozart's Rondo in A Minor. Seon-jae starts every day playing this, with the handkerchief Hye-won gave him sitting on the piano.

The prison yard. She is sitting in the sunshine, by the chain-link fence. So different from all the dark and the shadows and the little bits of light peeking in through the blinds.Those perforated partitions we've been peering at her through all this time were a kind of jail bars, although she didn't realize it.

Seon-jae's apartment. Carrying a big backpack and pulling a small suitcase, he puts on his shoes by the door and says, "I'm going and I'll be back." He's on his way to the competition.

Hye-won sits by the fence again, enjoying the sun, looking out on the countryside, the distant mountains, and even the weeds. We remember Seon-jae saying he was like a weed and didn't need anything fancy. In a way, seeing out into the real world, she is free already.

This was a good show. It's so layered and rich and has so much going on. It fooled us in that instead of being a slightly racy story of a love affair with a little classical piano for bait, it turned out to be a story of redemption. A sophisticated woman mired in a dark world of graft becomes aware of what she has done to herself and turns towards the ray of light that is Seon-jae and his beautiful music. It would have been nice to see their reunion, but we know it is coming.

Thank you to the hard-working subbers at Viki, the people at Koala's Playground and others who did recaps, the SLA Jukebox people on Sikseekland, and the fans at Soompi who did analysis galore that enhanced so much the enjoyment of this drama.

Secret Love Affair - Along the Way - Ep 15

Seon-jae and Hye-won walk the downtown streets hand in hand. Seon-jae says it is something he has been wanting to do. "Aren't you scared?" she asks. "Of what?" he returns, because you can't arrest anyone for that. Someone commented on a blog that they looked out their apartment window and saw this scene being filmed, Seon-jae and Hye-won kissing on the sidewalk in front of passers-by. Korea getting a little dose of PDA.  It's very sweet.
11:30 - Mozart Rondo in A Minor, K. 511
Seon-jae practices at home, a melancholy piece that Mozart wrote when one of his friends died.

Hye-won sets out a laptop and tablet in her study for the prosecutors to find, and dressed in black, sneaks ala Jason Bourne out to the Han River to furtively slide two more into the water. The next morning as she and Hubs are eating breakfast, the prosecutors arrive and go over the house looking for evidence. Hubs goes to Dean Min for advice and is told that you have to sue for divorce before you can charge your spouse with adultery. Really, he didn't know that already? Everybody on all the blogs did.

22:00 and again at 25:36 and 27:38 - Dvorak Quintet

The quintet are practicing when Mean Cello Teacher comes and asks Seon-jae why he is playing with these trash, and if he has heard yet. He asks the other students, "That's your dean? Youch," He goes out to call Hye-won and find out what he should have heard, but she comes on her own and wants to hear the practice.

Seon-jae goes with Hye-won down to the parking garage and gives her his house key. He hollers out at any watchers around, and you can actually see the shadows of the watchers against the far wall haha.  She goes to his apartment, gets her phone out of a drawer, eats, falls asleep on his bed, and wakes up to find him watching her. Eep! Shades of Edward in Twilight. Creepy.

The Hubs with policemen come to cart them off to the police station. Hye-won calls SIL lawyer. CEO Daughter gets a call and heads off to see the show. Hye-won and SIL talk in the hall. She says she'll give him Mme Han's and Chairman's files if he helps her. He says if Mme Han is on the list of people to investigate, sure. He gets the case closed. The whole thing was probably planned by Hye-won in order to get the divorce. I'll bet she's not counting on SIL as an ally either.

59:50 -  the Dvorak quintet
1:03:46- we go out listening to the quintet.

Next comes the finale. I had an idea that Hye-won would do something clever so she could run the school in a way to benefit the students. Having seen episode 16 now, I see it didn't turn out that way. There is a different kind of ending. It doesn't answer all our questions and it's not all sweetness and light, but Hye-won does what she needs to do.

Secret Love Affair - Along the Way - Ep. 13

Just a little background info: Korean law says that adultery is a criminal offense and only a spouse can bring charges. They have to have proof, and they have to have started divorce proceedings. The penalty is up to two years in jail, which is usually suspended.

Hye-won meets Seon-jae at a friend's pottery studio. She plans to pretend to get along well with Hubs and wants Seon-jae to go along. He's distressed and tearfully asks her why she just can't leave the whole mess. She asks if he would still like her if she were a nobody and didn't have money to spend to look beautiful. He claims he wouldn't care about that because he is a weed.

She goes home and copies files from a black USB drive to a red one. They are the financial data of the arts center, the Chairman's company, and Mme Han. Thanks to someone on Soompi who read that for us. She saves the red one in her hidden safe. We've seen it before but couldn't tell what she was putting in it.

Here's our comic relief for the episode: Seon-jae and the TA are walking across campus when NRG comes along and asks him, "How would you like to go out with me?" He just tells her, "How would  you like to get lost?" Haha.

The TA says cello girl is having it rough in school ever since she filed a complaint about her faulty instrument, and is thinking about dropping out. Seon-jae decides to help her by playing a duet with her, but while he is running through the music she texts some other friends to come. The Saint-Saens sonata is very difficult and Rachmaninoff said it was the best cello piece ever written. The fact that she can play it means that she is a good cellist.

43:28 - Saint-Saens Cello Sonata No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 32

They are in the same boat as she is, dropped by advisers and not allowed to be in performance class, but still required to play the music or flunk out. He practices their piece with them, which is a Dvork quintet. They are shown playing the first and third movements, which are rather cheerful. The people in the quintet are actual music students and are doing their own playing.

46:02 - Dvorak's Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 81

The dean arranges a publicity interview. Hubs makes Seon-jae change clothes because his own aren't classy enough. They sit together for pictures with Hye-won and Seon-jae looking awkward and Hubs happy as a clam. It looks like a college kid with his parents. I haven't been too bothered by the age difference, but this picture creeped me out. 

Secret Love Affair - Along the Way - Ep 12

The Husband tells Hye-won to stop seeing Seon-jae and he'll forgive her, but he won't agree to a divorce. She tells him to look at the news. He gets out his phone, and sees an article that the Chairman was arrested 41 days ago. (This is according to a post on Soompi, but you can see the number 41 by his thumb when he looks at his phone.) Last episode Hye-won decided to lay low for awhile, so it's been that long since the lovers have seen each other.

At school, Cello girl asks Seon-jae to do a duet sometime and he says uh, sure. Then Nasty Rich Girl comes along and tries to talk to him and he leaves hurriedly in an allergic fit.  Her skirt is w-a-y too short and she has to cover up the gap with her purse when she sits lol. Seon-jae goes home to practice.

20:25 - Brahms Six Pieces for Piano Op. 118 No. 2, Intermezzo in A Major

When he goes downstairs to the cafe under his house, it is dark. He is surprised to find Hye-won there eating.  The next we see, they are on a bus out of town, winding up at a native-style inn. He asks if she's hungry. She answers, "Yes, there must be a hungry ghost inside me." Someone on Soompi said that is a common Korean expression for explaining unusual appetite. They talk about a music app he just put on their phones and listen to an old favorite of hers:

35:55 - Billy Joel's Piano Man

The lyrics are about people who have dreams that will never come true and HW really identifies with that and rocks out.

Morning view of the ryokan, surrounded by trees. Later they fix lunch in the ryokan group kitchen, which has a big window with a view of the trees. That's probably the first window with a view in this whole show. He tells her that he has sent his concert DVDs to a bunch of places and applied for school. Good job. He's proactive. They sit on the porch in the sunshine, he outside, she inside, and hold hands while they look at the trees and make plans. People have remarked that this represents he's in the light and she's in the dark, but open to a change.

When she gets home, hubs says they need to talk -- instead of asking where she was or about the affair, he asks her if she is joining with Prof Jo to send Seon-jae abroad. Oh man. That's what he cares about.

Well well well. Things are getting tight for our lovers. They ought to fess up and get married. In this show, there is only one marriage that is not dysfunctional, and that is Prof. and Mrs. Jo's. Is it just plain luck to have a good marriage? Who's responsible if it is not? How do the reasons for getting married in the first place factor in? Why did Hye-won and the Hubs get married anyway? They don't seem fond of each other at all.

Secret Love Affair - Along the Way - Ep 11

-OR- Not-So-Secret Love Affair.

Really, that's what it should be called. Who doesn't know by now?

The episode starts with Seon-jae looking through the little window above his computer desk, thinking he never realized before how small it is. And by extension, how little he knows. Hye-won's house and office have windows but no view; they are all blocked by blinds and curtains. There are no vistas and no perspective.

Seon-jae goes to see Prof. Jo to ask about Hye-won. Jo gives him a concert program with a picture of her at 20 and says it is the real her. What she is now is a variation, and he tries to be understanding.

That program revealed that 20-year-old Hye-won had played a very difficult piece by Schumann. He is supposed to have injured his hands by over-practicing that piece trying to learn it. A repetitive-motion injury like tennis elbow. We have been told that Hye-won had wanted to be a concert pianist but injured her hands and had to stop playing. Perhaps she got a similar injury to Schumann. She can only practice with Seon-jae every-other day, and has him practice with a recording the other days. Maybe one thing that makes her care about him is that he has a chance to live the dream she had to give up.

Hye-won skips out of the Chairman's house to go meet Seon-jae at a nearby construction site. He is angry at the graft she is involved in and can't just watch her and try to understand, the way Prof. Jo does. He can succeed as a pianist and wants her to go away with him. She says not yet, that they shouldn't see each other for a while and gives him her secret phone. She gets a threatening text and leaves but he takes her hand to go down the stairs because they are dangerous. Ah. More dangerous stairs.

Back at the house, Bad StepMom and Daughter try to take a high tone with Hye-won but she shuts them up quick by reading the text, saying it was one of them, and that they just lost half her loyalty. She has told Seon-jae that she is clever and can control things, but usually is subservient. This is our first look at her being controlling.

Da-mi and Jang-ho come to try to talk Seon-jae into giving up on the rich pickers who just toy with people's lives. In response he plays the piano for them. It's his go-to method of convincing people. They are touched and give up on him and leave.

43:15 - The Rachmaninoff with flashbacks of practicing and playing in concert.

Secret Love Affair - Along the Way - Ep 9 - 10

Episode 9

Madame Han - Big Fox- suggests that Sun-jae get double-eyelid surgery and Hye-won objects a little too strongly, saying his eyes are cute. Big Fox calls Dean Min to suggest Hye-won have the full tutoring of Sun-jae. She calls him Sweetie. Later, when Sun-jae objects to being on-camera while practicing, she approves turning the camera off. She has something up her sleeve, giving them more chance to be together. Considering there are no friends at the foundation, it's not just to be nice. She wants something to hold over Hye-won or she just wants to do anything to keep the prodigy happy.

Little Fox has two phones. Good idea, but she needs them password locked and to keep better track of them. The husband reads her texts when she leaves her phone around. She throws glances at her secretary while she plugs in the extra to recharge, to see if she notices. She doesn't trust anyone.  Hye-won eats out with Mme Han's secretary and Prof. Jo's wife, but tellingly, doesn't share confidences when the secretary is there. She's the one who made the recording of the husband and CEO Daughter bad-mouthing Hye-won.

The Dean gives the hubs the bad news, passing it off as his own opinion. He brings up the idea of George Sand and Chopin. Not a very secret affair? Da-mi already overheard people at the salon   talking about Sun-jae and his teacher. And she heard Madame Han talking to the dean, too.

Hye-won and Sun-jae meet at the practice room and she gives him a recording of herself playing the concerto accompaniment for him to practice with. He gets a kick out of that.

40:10 - practicing concerto - at home with the recording and earphones. It's important to see that he practices and has to work to do well.

Seon-jae picks up Hye-won for a spin on the scooter, and they end up at his house. She walks in untying her scarf and when she turns around to face him, he swoops in, takes her face in his hands, and  kisses her. Then taking her hand, he leads her into the alcove under the stairs where his mother slept. Very smooth.

They are sitting on the roof when Da-mi and Jang-ho come over. She hides and he lets them in.  Sun-jae tells Da-mi he doesn't care for her. She says fine, but he'd better not have another girl. We find out she had been second in command in a gang in high school and he had influenced her to get out. This may be a parallel construction of Hye-won being second at the arts foundation and Seon-jae getting her to leave and escape all the graft there. We can only hope. She asks him to call a cab with her phone. He looks in her purse and is stunned to find the two identical phones. The next day at school she needs her phone and has to get it from him. Her secretary thinks she is acting weird.

57:56 - Brahms Intermezzo - practicing at school

Hye-won goes to the salon to talk to CEO Daughter about money. Da-mi sees her and thanks her for watching out for her boy friend. Oh don't worry, she will.

Episode 10

Preparations are being made for Sun-jae's concert.

6:57 - practicing the concerto
Seon-jae plays his solo with Hye-won doing the orchestral part on the piano. We get to hear quite a bit and even with the Hubs standing behind them tapping his hand to the beat, it is just as intense for them as before. Hye-won is short of breath by the end. She gives Seon-jae a new handkerchief to wipe his sweaty hands during the concert.

Mme Han refuses to attend the concert, saying Dean Min isn't going either and the press won't be there. Isn't it wonderful that the people in charge of the arts school aren't even interested enough in music to go listen?

21:00 - the concerto. Rachmaninioff Rhapsody On A Theme By Paganini.
Sun-jae nods to the conductor he is ready, looking confidant, but when he comes to a break in his part he scans the audience looking for Hye-won. Your heart fails, thinking he'll get lost, but he comes in on time. I read that this orchestra is  the Incheon City Philharmonic, and that the piano coach says that Yoo Ah-in really is a piano genius because he gives him something to learn and he has it memorized by the next day. We get the ending again, with the glissando.

26:10 - the encore. Brahms Six Pieces for Piano, Op 118 Intermezzo No. 2
He told her he would play this as a love letter if he was asked for an encore. Brahms was in love with Clara Schumann, wife of Robert Schumann, and dedicated this music to her. Kind of parallel situations.

30:52 - Sun-jae and Hye-won sit in her office watching the playback of the concert on her laptop, totally not going to the party in his honor. Nice way to keep the affair a secret, guys. By the time Hubs goes looking for her, they are backstage, with Sun-jae showing her where he first saw her back in episode 1.

CEO Daughter gets a text that the prosecutors are at her dad's house arresting him. She tries to get Hye-won, can't, and sends Hubs after her. He checks the security cameras and tries the stage. They are on the floor behind the curtains, acting like two teenagers in the back of a Chevy. We had no idea our Geol-oh had such bad self-control. Hubs yells out the message and leaves.

There is a line of black cars in front of the Chairman's house. His son-in-law is there to go down to the police station with him. He's talking about what to wear to get sympathy. Reminds me of the dad in Protect the Boss. CEO Daughter is crying, she's the only one who really cares about him. Big Fox is crying crocodile tears into a handkerchief. As soon as the audience is gone she throws it down. Interesting there are two handkerchiefs in this episode, pointing up the difference in the relationships of the  two couples.

Secret Love Affair - Along the Way - Ep 5-8

Episode 5

The Husband is pleased with having brought the prodigy home and eventually goes to bed drunk. Seon-jae wants to talk to Hye-won about why she is ignoring him after they kissed. She grabs his face and kisses him again, claiming it is punishment, and he should stop messing with her. (How's that again?) He grabs her in a back-hug as she starts to leave and tempts her with more piano playing. They end up doing duets again. I like the part where he plays a run right over the top of her hands, laughing.

22:55  - Solo arrangement of Schubert's Fantasia in F Minor D 940
23:50 - Chopin's Etude Op. 10, No. 1 in C Major
24:25 - 12 Variations on "Ah vous darai- je Maman" for piano in C Major, K 265, by Mozart 
      (a melody used in several children's songs, including Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) 
24:50 - Mozart's Sonata for Piano Four Hands in C Major, KV 521 Allegro
28:20  - Tchaikovsky's The Seasons, Op 37 "The Snowdrop"


In the morning Little Fox must be happy because she is wearing bright colors for the first time. After she leaves for work, Da-mi shows up. She has been proclaiming herself Seon-jae's girlfriend, and does support him a lot, but he doesn't really seem to care about her. She does Hye-won's hair and is the one who told her about Seon-jae being in jail. She's a pretty tough girl, and beats up on Seon-jae in what I hope is  not The Korean Way. Later at the salon, a nasty rich girl sticks gum on her. She takes it for the moment. Notice that those of lower status have to lower their eyes.

The professor tries to dress Seon-jae up in nice clothes but he bails and decides to move back into his old apartment.

  Episode 6 

When Soen-jae gets home, Hye-won is waiting. She goes to see him because she likes him, but she doesn't want to admit it. He is excited she came and keeps her waiting while he cleans the floor to make a fit place for her to sit. She tells him it's not good for him to be seeing a 20-year older woman, and he tells her she doesn't have to try to impress him, she just needs to love him. When she changes the topic he tries music again, a recording of himself playing Liszt. She is touched and impulsively offers to hug him. He says seriously, "I'll hug you." Very emotional hug.

At 20:17 is Liszt's Rhapsodie Espagnole
At 39:38 is Variations flashback

The husband had just arrived outside the door in time to hear this. He turns around and leaves. When Hye-won gets home he asks her if Seon-jae should play the Liszt in competition.  This should be a hint that he heard it being played, but she doesn't get it.

The next time Nasty Rich Girl comes to the salon, Da-mi trips her, takes her into the toilet, and roughs her up a little. Hye-won sees it and is a shocked by the violence. She is also a little shocked by the Chairman getting her to set him up with a waitress, and telling her he's changing her job to helping CEO Daughter with a start-up. Stressed-out and needing some peace and quiet, she goes to Seon-jae and asks him to drive her around for a couple of hours.

Episode 7

He drives and she falls asleep. When he stops she wakes up and says home is like work; she can't relax anywhere. He goes off to get her a room to relax in and she takes it as Getting A Room and freaks out. She totally drives home and leaves him there to fend for himself. When he gets back he calls to say his jacket is still in her car and his house key is in the pocket. She goes through his pockets to see if it's really there, and opens the door just enough to drop the jacket out on the porch.

He plays his scholarship audition and it is anticlimactic. Small audience; no one makes a big fuss.
29:20 - audition - Liszt Spanish Rhapsody S.254, T. 90

Da-mi comes by and he tells her that she and their friend Jang-ho ground him and should still visit, but to call before they come. She doesn't realize she has just been friend-zoned.

Hye-won has a few more strained conversations with the Chairman's family and does some more dirty work for them. Now it looks like she's the one who might have a nervous breakdown. Seon-jae sees when they award him the scholarship that she is put upon and used, and he feels awful that he can't really help her.

Episode 8

The husband is listening at Seon-jae's door. Just as he leaves Da-mi shows up w/o calling and Seon-jae hurries off with her because he has just texted Hye-won to come. She sees them from inside her car. No one ever sees anyone watching from a car in a kdrama. Seon-jae starts to tell Da-mi to break up, but can't bring himself to do it.

The next morning he goes to see Hye-won.  She yells at him about his other girlfriend, hitting him and pushing him. He sits her down on the sofa to talk, saying he's glad she came to his house and that she's jealous. He acts more mature than she does, seeing past her behavior to her motivations, and being quite gentle. She is pretty much falling apart. I have noticed her in earlier episodes tucking her hair tightly into a bun and repeatedly making sure it is smoothly in place. I figured there was a reason for that, and we'd see some developments later. Now we see she has her hair in a loose puff, and it comes down from being jostled. Yes, she's coming apart.

He asks her about CEO Daughter and she tells him it's the class system, with her in the middle serving the rich above her, with greed at the top.  By now we have found out that she was a friend of CEO Daughter since middle school days, and the family sent them abroad to college together. She has been serving them ever since. He's been honest with her, now she's being honest with him.

They meet to practice the concerto at the school, and she's still yelling at him. It's her last resistance before giving in to her feelings for him.
34:10 - Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2 in C, Rhapsody On a Theme By Paganini
                
Secret love affair?  Secret means kept separate or hidden. All through this show we have been taking peeks at the characters from behind partitions and furniture. We saw only the backs of heads during the first kiss. Now we see Hye-wan in her office getting her coat, and hidden behind a pillar as she finds Seon-jae's jacket.

We see him arriving in front of his house and realizing he hasn't got his key again. He calls her and is surprised to be told she is already in his apartment. His face is suffused with happiness as he goes in and sees her.

And then it's hidden again. We see the electric meters in the hall, the dishes by the sink and the pans on the stove. And we hear them talking, tenderly and intimately. Whatever it means to the outside world, they are together for the first time. And then we see them sitting on the floor drinking beer and talking, completely at ease with each other. It's all so beautifully and tastefully done, although it seems rather sudden until you consider there has been a build-up going on.

The husband had gone to a fortune teller and was told that his wife was too responsible and would never leave him and have an affair. Well, he knows that's wrong. She didn't come home all night. He should get his money back.

Secret Love Affair - Thoughts Along The Way - Ep 1-4

It can be hard to choose something new to watch, because you are committing to so many hours. I have mostly spent the last year watching well-known dramas that were recommended by other people, but lately I have watched a few new ones that were airing. I was interested in My Love From Another Star right away because of the alien, and the very first episode hooked me. Nampyeon and I enjoyed talking about it as we waited for new episodes, and there is a kind of on-line liveliness with new shows. I haven't been part of that since the Harry Potter books were coming out, and it was fun.

Ever since Alien Show finished, I have been looking for another new one to be part of. Nothing really sucked me in. Until now. That's Robin Hood from Sungkyunkwan Scandal, I said. But meh on the having an affair part, I said. Then came the 21-minute preview. That's REAL PIANO PLAYING, I said.

21- minute preview

Peering longingly at a concert grand from behind a curtain. View of head when sitting at the piano. View from the back. View of hands. Head again. Body swaying and arms moving artistically. View of Yoo Ah-in actually playing. Face and arms and hands in the same frame! Hold it! Nampyeon and I both play the piano, and we are pretty disdainful of most musicians in tv and movies. The actors are so obviously faking it, with views of moody swaying from behind the piano, where you can't see their hands. Short views of fingers on violin strings or bowing a cello. Someone else doing the playing for them. So tacky. By the time the duet came along, I was sold. I only had to say "piano" to Nampyeon and he was sold. We're watching this show.

Googling around for information, I found that a professional pianist recorded the music for the sound track. Yoo Ah-in and Kim Hee-ae really play the piano, and were given special lessons on the pieces used in the drama. So the visuals are them, and the sound is someone else. That's good enough. If the rest of the show has such care taken with it, this should be a really good one. The duet was very moving and emotional, and both they and the audience were drained at the end of it.

Episode 1

This show is more film noir than anything else. It is a sepia-toned world of jaded, questionably-moral people wandering around in dimly lit, claustrophobic  spaces. It's moody and oppressive when it's not being hostile. It's very well shot, from peeking at our leading lady, Hye-won, from behind a lattice at the beauty salon, to watching her feet descend the stairs - remarkably dangerous-looking stairs, I might add. The sound is low-key and mostly apropos to the action. Walking into the music building, you hear little snatches of people tuning up and playing. It's classic and calm.

We are treated to the foreshadowing of fate when our leading man, Seon-jae, crosses a  bridge on his motorcycle with a girlfriend who asks him to stop because, "if you kiss on a bridge, love is supposed to last long."  He doesn't and she objects, "if you don't, someone else will appear." Well, we knew that already.

Sitting at her mirror at the end of the day, Hye-won sums up what we know so far: she is fake, her husband is useless, nothing really belongs to her, she wants her boss' position.

We see Seon-jae moving in the open white outdoor world at the clinic and before the facade of the music hall. When he enters he is swallowed by the rabbit-warren of stairs and progressively darker halls leading to the black curtain he stealthily pulls aside to get a glimpse of the grand piano and watch it being played. He sees her critiquing a student. He is caught.

The piano duet at 43:30 is Schubert Fantasie in F Minor for 4 hands D. 940
It is played by piano professor Jo In-seo and his top student, Min-woo. Prof. Jo is maybe the only honest person at the college, and Hye-won's husband is jealous of Jo having such a talented student. For the glory of having a student like that, not because he is a good teacher himself.

I love that there are a few humorous moments in this all too serious drama. The incident with the phone in the men's room. Fishing it back from under the door haha! Hye-won agreeing to audition Seon-jae and taking a bite of the apple.

They bring him in for his audition. He's a big awkward kid in his jeans and puffy coat, looking a little taken aback at the opulence. Here she comes stalking down her dangerous stairs. She looks straight at him and he looks away.

Episode 2

When she invites him into her lair and asks him to play, he is nervous and sits silently at the piano for a minute. He's trying to remember what he had played the day before, because he had done it out of his head. He plays, then explains how he condensed two parts into one. They spend the day together cocooned inside her piano room. He plays for her - beautiful piano music - that's what we're here for - she requests more. And then they play together, moving together, quiet together, intense together. They are both affected, and are exhausted by the end.

At 3:25    Sun Jae plays the Schubert condensed into 2 hands.
     6:33    is the Bach Prelude and Fugue No. 1 from Well-tempered Clavichord
     7:48    the Paganini Etude No. 4 Arpeggio
     8:07    Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 8 in A Minor, K. 310
     16:54  Tchaikowsky's The Seasons: April "Snow Drop"
     
At 28:34 they play the Schubert duet together. The dumb thing about it is that they make a video recording, but don't show the hands. All they get to watch later is the head. :-P

Back at the college, CEO Daughter is acting up, behaving worse than in Episode 1 if that is possible. Someone should drop her off the end of a pier. If this were real film noir, somebody would.

We cut back and forth between the college crowd playing politics, to the audition, to looking back on the audition. Seon-jae is ecstatic, running to release pent-up energy, on a bridge reliving the moments, playing the railing like a keyboard, grinning like an idiot to himself.

35:35  Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor Appassionata         

The tense mood is emphasized by low light coming from lamps and candles and through blinds or grilles highlighting faces against a dark background. We see that the house has a sliding bookcase with a secret safe behind it. nice.

It transpires that Hye-won is called the Little Fox and the Chairwoman is the Big Fox. They record CEO Daughter's (the Chairwoman's step-daughter) conversations and dump a college admissions scandal in her lap right in front of Chairman Dad. Good job.

The Little Fox and her husband go to see Seon-jae at his house and hear him play his own piano. It's another multi-level complicated space with tiny, steep concrete stairs. Looks like a fire trap. Strewn with laundry and piles of junk. Sliding door grille, looks like a jail. And then we end on a high note, with her stepping on a mouse trap and him picking her up and carrying her out. Whee!

Episode 3

Plot twist. Third episode and we have a major plot twist already. Here we have been expecting a clean little campus affair between two piano players, one with a dimwitted whiner husband. It's all gone sideways. The tone of this show is pretty dark. Someone posted that they worried whether to watch a show about an affair, but decided murders are bad too, and we all watch murder mysteries. It all depends on how it is handled. This show has uprooted us and we are waiting to see where we get planted next.

Of piano playing we get one new short lesson at 31:08 and a flashback at 12:10. Kind of a weird lesson. Who treats their students that way, putting a stick down their clothes? Looks pretty provocative to me. Then the twist happens and somebody goes into the army. Little Fox catches CEO Daughter drunk and reads her a lecture on morals and deportment. This can serve as a touchstone later, when she starts misbehaving herself.

Then she sticks her nose back into Seon-jae's business and now he can't leave her alone. Looks like he's going AWOL. Meets up with her in her garage. He's not a bashful kid anymore, and we're not waiting for the series to be half over for the first kiss, either. He grabs her and gives her a long enough anguished look that she could turn him down if she wanted, and kisses her, hard. We don't see their faces, but she pushes at him a little bit, just to show he's using muscle. And then she invites him in.

Episode 4

Hye-won pulls the come here- get away- come here- get away bit on Seon-jae, who loses it and is arrested for attacking a bad piano player. He looks like he is going a bit crazy in jail. Little Fox arranges for her husband to hear of it and he brings Seon-jae home and gets him out of army duty.

We get a look at the graft at the music school and in the Chairman's family. None of these people are likeable. Netizens complain about the shiny make-up on everyone, but I think it is appropriate. They are fake plastic people, not real at all. Either that or the shininess is so the people stand out against the dark background.

The only music is a cello student's lesson with a really bad/corrupt teacher at 35:50 and a flashback of the audition at 42:00.