Six Flying Dragons Summary: Episodes 6-10

Episode 6

Bang-Won tries to get Boon-Yi to escape before the guards catch her for setting fire to the granary. But Sambong told her if she ever needed to find him, to go to a man who sells wooden plates in the market. (in Episode 2 he tied up Ddang-Sae in the cabin.)  Bang-Won recognizes her little wooden figurine and follows her to find out who owns that secret cave.

Moo-Hyul confronts Master Hong with lying in order to continue being paid for teaching. He admits it and Grandma tells Moo-Hyul to go out and get a reputation so he can earn money. He goes to the market and sees Boon-Yi. Who he has a crush on.

Gab-Boon asks her old beggar leader how to find Sambong. He says ask the guy who sells wooden plates. Hong In-Bang asks Eyeliner Monk how to find Sambong and gets the same answer.

Everyone converges on the poor guy who is attacked but gets away. Boon-Yi walks into his shop and is bagged up and delivered to Biguk Temple. Seen by Bang-Wan and Ddang-Sae.  Eyeliner Monk asks her about a coded message on a leather strip. Minister Hong comes to question her but gets sidetracked reminding Bang-Won about tormenting him when he was a student. There is a pretty good fight when Ddang-Sae arrives, highlighted by his jump from a pagoda shrine 15 feet in the air to attack Eyeliner. While all this is going on Moo-Hyul makes off with Boon-Yi as slick as you please.

Bang-Won goes back to the market where the wooden plate guy sees that he has a wooden figurine and gives him another coded message strip before expiring. We watch as Bang-Won and Boon-Yi separately pull a core out of the figurine and wrap the leather strip around it. The letters line up down the stick and tell them to go to Hamju and follow Yi Seong-Gye.

Historical note: Matching rods made to use with coded messages strips were called scytale (rhymes with Italy) and used in ancient Greece.

Episode 7

Boon-Yi brings Moo-Hul to Hamju, tells the all too common tale of losing her home to rich officials, and gets admitted to the camp. Bang-Won comes a little later and finds that a letter advocating protecting the border and gathering people is circulating there. He runs across his old school friend Hao Kang, now called Lee Shin-Jeok, and knows he's behind the letter.

Shin-Jeok kidnaps Boon-Yi (how many times is this?) pulls out her wooden figurine and accuses her as a spy. She just asks to see Sambong pronto and shows that Shin-Jeok has a figurine hanging around his neck too. This is all watched by Bang-Won and spies of Minister Hong who followed her here.

Madam Cho of the gisaeng house pools information with Monk Eyeliner to realize there is a new secret organization somewhere and sends out her lady ninjas. Minister Hong and Gil Tae-Mi plot against Prime Minister Lee.  Lee listens to a fortuneteller who tells him his path is in the northeast (where Hamju is).

Shin-Jeok agrees to bring the secret leader if Bang-Won brings his father. They both come alone however, and get kidnapped by Minister Hong's spies. Moo-Hyul rescues Bang-Won again and piggybacks him (he's wounded) home in time to see Sambong show up and stop the General from executing Boon-Yi.

Historical note: Women ninjas called kunoichi existed in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries. They were primarily used in espionage, including posing as maids and geishas.

Episode 8

Sambong tells General Yi that he has been sending people to him to secure the border and to show  how cruelly the government treats the commoners. Shin-Jeok (Hao Kang) and several others corroborate this. In a flashback we see that the General captured fake Japanese pirates, and when they told him that the government  had taken everything from them, he added them to his own army.

Sambong says he can tell the General's prime concern is to protect the people, and that can't happen as long as the three corrupt ministers are running things. They need a new government and General Yi needs to be the new king.

Bang-Won has overheard the whole thing and tries to encourage his father. When that goes nowhere he finds the paper about stabilizing the border, stamps it with his father's seal, and sends Shin-Jeok to Gaegyeong with it. Boon-Yi had caught Bang-Won with the stamp and he ties her up until she promises to not give him away.

General Choi Young orders Prime Minister Lee to lower the taxes, but he can't get the Evil Three to do it until he suggests bringing General Yi into the government. Since that worked so well, the prime minister rewards his fortuneteller. Minister Hong has Eyeliner Monk question this fortuneteller, and she tells them she is an actress hired by Sambong. She has a badly scarred face, but when she leaves she pulls off her latex appliance and we see she is Yoon-Hee. Sambong meets with Minister Hong and gets him to conspire against the prime minister.

Historical note: Pirates from outlying Japanese islands like Tsushima attacked Korea many times beginning about 1350, 175 raids being recorded from 1376 to 1385.

Episode 9 

After Yoon-Hee reports to Sambong she reports to her other boss, Madam Cho. She has a fake name here and doesn't tell Madam Cho everything.

Flashback to that meeting between Sambong and Minister Hong. He told Hong to side with Gil Tae-Mi and General Yi and drop Prime Minister Lee and General Choi.  General Yi would go along if the border stabilization plan passes parliament.

Sambong visits Boon-yi's people and has them complain to General Choi that their land had been taken away and registered to Hong's servant instead of the government. A furious General Choi arrests the servants. Hong realizes he's in trouble.

Now Sambong sends Yoon-Hee to pose as a noblewoman and hire Ddang-Sae's acting troupe to put on a a play about Gil Tae-Mi killing Baek Yoon. This happened back in Episode 4 but it was Ddang-Sae who'd done it. He recognizes her but she tells him to pretend he doesn't.

Minister Hong sends Eyeliner Monk to Hamju to ask what reward he will get if the border stabilization plan passes. When the General realizes what happened with the seal he arrests the monk and sends son #2 to Gaegyeong with a note that he did not send in the border proposal. Bang-Won chases down Bang-gwa and ties him to a tree.

The play starts such rumors that General Choi decides to push Hong and Gil out of power, but Prime Minister Lee wants to save his longtime friend Gil. He tells Gil to join them against Hong, but Gil decides they will give up half their assets instead and lie low for a while.

Meantime Ddang-Sae has seen his desolate home town and come for revenge against Hong. Gil Tae-Mi duels him and it's not till Madam Cho's ninja girls pitch in that Ddang-Sae runs off. But Hong and Gil think Prime Minister Lee had sent the assassin, and they vote against Lee and for the border plan.

Historical note: In 1383 General Yi defeated the Mongol invaders (Hobaldo in Episode 11), met Sambong, and submitted the border plan. Bang-Won using the seal was fiction.


Episode 10

Now that the border plan has passed, Bang-Won hopes that reform will come soon. Prime Minister Lee goes to Madam Cho to figure out why it passed. He yells at Gil Tae-Mi for voting for it, and Gil just growls back that he shouldn't have sent an assassin.

The General is determined to revoke the border plan even though Ji-Ran, his second in command, wants to let it stand. He knows it means he is indebted to Hong now. Boon-Yi's villagers and Moo-Hyul's family are admitted to the camp.

Yoon-Hee finds another letter from Ddang-Sae in the not-so-secret cave. Sambong is very worried about who this unknown assassin is and who is behind him. Then we get the scene from the first of the drama where Bang-Won waits in the cave for Sambong to show up and Ddang-Sae turns out to be there as well. Dang-Sae states his opposition to a plan that will get a lot of commoners killed, and stalks out. Yoon-Hee follows him and realizes that he is the assassin.

Sambong berates Bong-Won for forging the stamp because it destroyed the trust he wanted to build with the General. He relates how destructive it was once when a traitor forged an order from the king. He kicks Bang-Won out, but Bang-Won vows to do better and to return.

Historical note: Yi Ji-Ran was originally a Jurchen warrior named Kurun Turan Timur. Yi Seung-Gye gave him a new name when they became "sworn brothers."

Six Flying Dragons Summary Episodes 1-5

We recently started watching the 50-episode saguk Six Flying Dragons. It is so good, and also so complicated, that it needs an episode summary to keep track of events. The complete recaps can be found at dramabeans.com if you would like the detailed version. Most of the historical notes are from a tumblr blog called Six Flying Dragons at bodashiri.tumbler.com.

The basic story is that General Yi (pronounced ee) overthrows Goryeo (medieval Korea) to become the first king of Joseon in 1392 AD. It is a prequel to Tree With Deep Roots, which is about Joseon's most famous king, the grandson of General Yi.

The Six Dragons:

General Yi Seong-Gye (lower row, far right): a respected general with a dark secret. Northern Goryeo had been taken over by the Mongols. His family, ethnic Koreans, remained there as minor officials serving the Mongols, but were turncoats who helped Goryeo recapture the territory.

Yi Bang-Won (upper left): the ambitious fifth son of the general, a prime mover who helps his father become king and then fights his brothers for the throne.

Jung Do-Jeon (upper right): a noted scholar with the pen name Sambong, the mastermind behind the revolution and the form the new government would take.

Moo-Hyul (lower left): a fictional character who becomes Yi Bang-Won's bodyguard and then the bodyguard of his son in Tree With Deep Roots.

Boon-Yi (lower row, second from left): fictional character; a peasant woman whose family was destroyed by corrupt Goryeo officials; she is in Jung Do Jeon's secret group plotting revolution.

Ddang-Sae (lower row, third from left): fictional character; Boon-yi's brother, he becomes the fastest swordsman in the country. General Yi gives him the name of Yi Bang-Ji. He is also seen in TWDR.


Episode 1

We begin with a peek at Episode 10 which introduces three of the dragons. Sambong steals food from a peasant (that tells us a lot about him right there) and then enters his secret cave to find Bang-Won and Ddang-Sae already there.

We then go back in time to begin the story with 12-year-old Bang-Won, his older brother Bang-Gwa, and the General chasing down a spy. The spy had a letter bearing a stamp with a pattern like leaves with a sword, which they think is from Prime Minister Lee. Bang-Won grows up fast when he sees how his idolized father punishes the prisoner.

Next we meet the main villains. Prime Minister Lee In-Gyeom is at a bathhouse with his crony Baek Yoon when Gil Tae-Mi (eyeshadow guy) brings news that General Yi is being made a chancellor and coming to the capital city of Gaegyeong. Prime Minister Lee decides to prevent it.

Then we skip to Sungkyunkwan University where two teachers, Jung Mong-Joo (pen name Poeun) and Hong In-Bang cheer to hear that the general is coming. Prime Minister Lee supports the Mongols against the Ming Chinese, but that would cause the Ming to attack Goryeo. The General could prevent a war.

Bang-Won comes to Gaegyeong and falls afoul of some beggar kids, including Boon-Yi and Ddang-Sae. They are searching for their mother, who was kidnapped by a man with a leaf-and-sword tattoo. Their only other clue is a song she used to sing which nobody else seems to know. Ddang-Sae sees one of Bang-Won's guards with a letter having that stamp and they accuse him. With another friend, Gap-Boon, they help Bang-Won break into the Prime Minister's house to get that letter. They get locked into a storage room, but Bang-Won gets caught and thrown out.

The letter turns out to be an account of how the Yi's turned on their Mongol friends. When Prime Minister Lee gives a dinner for General Yi, he has some actors portray this story and then is able to blackmail the General into refusing the appointment and going home.

Historical note: Yi Seong-Gye (born 1335), Bang-Gwa (born 1357), and Bang-Won (born1367) became the first three kings of Joseon.  Poeun and Baek Yoon are historical figures, and Lee In-Gyeom, Gil Tae-Mi, and Hong In-Bang are based on real officials Lee In-Im, Im Gyeon-Mi, and Yeom Heung-Bang. General Yi opened the gate but did not really shoot the Mongol friend.

Episode 2

We find out that the leaf stamp does not belong to Prime Minister Lee. He has seen that stamp before though, on a letter warning him that King Gongmin had been killed.

Boon-Yi and Ddang-Sae escape the storage room and hide in a cart. Unfortunately it belongs to the acting troupe, which leaves with the two kids still inside. During the night the actors are run off by a masked swordsman. Surprise, it's Sambong! He searches for something inside one of the carts until teacher Hong In-Bang shows up. Dang-Sae overhears the plan to kill Baek Yoon so that other corrupt ministers would suspect each other and fight it out. Ddang-Sae follows Sambong to his secret cave, but when he returns to get his sister he is captured and tied up in a forest cabin.

Hong-In Bang gathers the other scholars to protest the Yuan alliance. He thinks Sambong's plan is to kill the envoy.  Prime Minister Lee's plan is for Eyeshadow Guy to impersonate the envoy and not have any Yuans there at all. Sambong gets tied up and left in the same cabin Ddang-Sae is in.

Boon-Yi has waked up and followed her brother to the cabin, and then gone for help. Bang-Won's bodyguard Jo Young-Gyoo makes short work of a couple of men at the door and sets Sambang free when he promises to stop the war.

At the city gate, scholars are protesting alliance with Yuan. A group of riders comes up the road and one with a large veil dismounts and goes in through the gate. Sambong walks up as the greeter, seems to stab the envoy and is knocked down. But another surprise! When Eyeshadow Guy takes off his veil to say he knew of this plot and has foiled it, Sambong reveals that his weapon is really a stick of taffy. The guards try to round up the protesters, the protesters resist, and Sambong starts singing a song that makes Ddang-Sae perk up. It's the one sung by his mother that no one else knows.

Historical note: King Gongmin was killed in 1374 and his 11-year-old son was made king by Minister Lee. Sambong was appointed greeter in 1375, threatened to kill the envoy, and was exiled for four years.

Episode 3

Sambong gets beat up a little and then Eyeshadow Guy tortures him with wet paper on his face.

Bang-Woo enrolls at Sungkyunkwan, but the very day he shows up the teachers are arrested. Hong In-Bang tells the students to not give up and to study their Mencius, which however gets banned.

Sambong is exiled, and as a group of guards are taking him through the forest in a jail wagon, Boon-Yi and Ddang-Sae run up calling him daddy and asking about the song. Sambong says it was written by King Gongmin and only he, Queen Noguk, and a few others would know it. He recognizes their mother's name (Yeon-Hyang), but says a maid of the queen by that name died 18 years ago. It doesn't seem to fit. Boon-yi goes home in case their mother returns, but Ddang-Sae stays.

Bang-Won plants a tree for Prime Minister Lee that he can chop down when he defeats him. He becomes friends with an older student named Heo Kang, but students start dropping out.  Eyeshadow's son Gil Yoo is part of a gang that  threatens other students with burning their Mencius books or getting their forehead tattooed. Bang-Won is one of the victims.

Teacher Hong In-Bang returns; he was tortured and caved immediately. To make sure he's on the powerful side after this, he helps Gil Tae-Mi chouse other people out of their land. When Heo Kang puts up a poster protesting the bullies,  Hong sends an assassin to kill three of them. The assassin finds them already dead, but Heo Kang is arrested and his father has to give half his land to Gil Tae-Mi to get him out of jail. Hong and Gil become in-laws.

Bang-Won had come home late and bloody that night, but told his bodyguard, Young-Gyoo, that it wasn't his own blood. You wonder how that kid could account for three older boys, but after that Young-Gyoo found three more trees that had been planted and destroyed.  In a confrontation with Hong, Bang-Won asserts, "I may not be good, but at least I am just."

Historical note: Sungkyunkwan was founded in 992 in Gaegyong and relocated to Seoul in 1398. The song was not historical; just in the drama. Heo Kang was a real person and became a civil servant.

Episode 4

Ddang-Sae discovers that Queen Noguk had a bodyguard as well as the maid Yeon-Hyang that were always with her. He was Gil Seon-Mi, the twin brother of Gil Tae-Mi. When found, Gil Seon-Mi warns Ddang-Sae that his mother had made a mistake which had cost the life of Queen Noguk so he should forget about her and never mention her name again.

A white-haired Chinese-speaking swordmaster  (Jang Sam-Bong) with a quarterstaff appears and trades blows with Gil Seon-Mi. He is looking for an expert who killed a student of his. Gil Seon-Mi tells him his best guess (Cheok Sa-Kwang) in exchange for taking care of Ddong-Sae. Master Jang agrees but Ddong-Sae disappears on him.

We take time out to meet Moo-Hyul killing a wild boar. He is one of nine kids his grandmother is raising, and she takes the boar to bribe Master Hong to teach him. Though not very good himself, he has taught many famous swordsmen.

Ddang-Sae makes it home to enjoy a brief happy time with his sister and the cutest girl of the village, Yoon-Hee, but it is cut short by a gang of thugs who arrive to take over. Hong In-Bang has become a government minister and is raising money to fight Japanese pirates by increasing taxes and confiscating land. The villagers fight back and Yoon-Hee is raped.  Boon-Yi blames her brother for not resisting, and he runs off to throw himself over a cliff. Master Jang sees him from a distance and reaching the cliff miraculously fast, keeps him from falling and promises to make him strong.

Six years pass. We see Bang-Won, now an adult, sitting morosely on a rooftop. He witnesses a miraculously fast swordsman in black with patterned white trim killing first a guard and then Baek Yoon. Bang-Won trails him up a canyon, where he leaves a message on a door hidden by vines. He is Ddang-Sae, and his note is for Sambang informing him that he has killed Baek Yoon as per plan and  who should he kill next? Presently Bang-Won opens the door, stepping on a small wooden soldier, and finds a cave full of bookshelves and a window with a view of the capital city in the valley below.

Historical note: Queen Noguk died in childbirth in 1356. The government did indeed confiscate commoners' land to give to the nobles in exchange for fighting off the pirates.

Episode 5

In the cave Bang-won finds a map renaming the country and papers outlining reform and plotting peaceful revolution.

The murder of Baek Yoon creates a furor, which Hong In-Bang remembers had been Sambong's plot. He goes to Monk Yuk-Ryeong (Eyeliner Monk) for information, and General Choi Young goes to the madam of the giseang house, Cho Young, but no one knows who the culprit is. Hong In-Bang comes out of it very well, as the leader of Baek Yoon's old faction.

Gil Tae-Mi, investigating the murder, hears that there were three sword hits. His son guesses that it might be Venomous Magpie, who is rumored to kill dozens of Japanese pirates all by himself.

A girl sitting on the stairs in the marketplace begins to sing. She is Gap-Boon, who helped break into Minister Lee's house back in episode 1. A fascinated Moo-Hyul stops to listen, and Bang-Won and his bodyguard Young-Gyoo show up next. A masked actor tells the story of the Magpie, who wears black with white trim. When the show is over and Gap-Boon leaves, some thugs take her money. She appeals to Moo-Hyul for help and he defeats all of them, including a sword fighter who comes out, keeping his wooden name tag. Young-Goo asks the actor about the Magpie and though he claims to only know rumor, when he washes his face we see he is Ddang-Sae.

Meanwhile Sambong has returned from exile and visited Boon-Yi. He advises her to clear forested land in the hills and farm it secretly and gives her one of the little wooden soldiers. Just as the villagers are harvesting their first crop the thugs arrive, taking all the produce and killing half the people. And to make matters worse, Japanese pirates arrive and kidnap the rest. The next day Moo-Hyul is practicing his moves when he sees the pirates go by with people in gunny sacks over their shoulders.

That night as Bang-Won and Young-Gyoo are looking for pirates (to try and meet the Magpie) they come across the kidnappers with Moo-Hyul sneaking around behind. Bang-Won gives his sword to Moo-Hul, and at one point when he finds himself greatly outnumbered he cleverly tries to turn the pirates against each other. This makes me wonder if that is what he did with the three bullies when he was 12. The pirates turn out to be Koreans disguised as Japanese, and Moo-Hyul and Young-Gyu beat them handily. One of them exclaims that Moo-Hyul's name tag indicates an elite warrior group, so he knows that his teacher, who had been telling him he wasn't good enough yet, has been lying to him. The next day, after burying their dead, Boon-Yi goes into town and burns the government storehouse where all the peasants' grain is stored.

Historical note: When Taejong became king he reformed land taxation and discovered there was a lot of this hidden land.

Kdrama Mothers

On Mothers Day we not only think about our own mothers, but all mothers. My grandmother watched out for all the children in the neighborhood. They always knew they could count on her for a popsicle in the summer or a cookie in the winter. My mom always had kids running through her house, helped with children's programs at church and in 4-H, and was a teacher to her grandchildren and neighborhood kids of things like wheat-weaving, bug collecting, and paper folding.

Being as how this blog focuses on Kdramas, it is natural to think about how mothers are portrayed in them. Agreed that many mothers in dramas are terrible (the Demon Moms in Boys Over Flowers and Secret Garden). The good ones can get killed off (I Hear Your Voice - I still haven't forgiven the writers) or aren't the focus of the story (Reply 1997, Kill Me Heal Me).

There are good single moms (Last Scandal of my Life, Punch). But I remember most vividly the women who mother someone not her own child. The first of these is Lady Choi, who watched out for and advised her nephew, the leader of the king's guard (Faith).

My favorite are the women who you watch getting to know and slowly care about children that come into their orbits. In two stories that were nearly ruined by the-return-of-the-not-dead-wife (Prime Minister and I, Blade Man) the lead ladies connected in a tender way with children who had lost their mothers. A woman in Bad Family was the fake mom to the little girl whose real mother was killed in a wreck. Watch as she takes responsibility for that little girl. The latest is Ok Da Jung (Ms. Temper), who first shows sympathy and then a kind of hard-line support for the little boy who lives across the hall.

These women, though fictional, represent real women who show these kinds of qualities. They all deserve recognition, especially on Mothers Day. And it would be a better world if there were more people like that. And fewer Demon Moms.

Nine Time Travels: What About That Ending?

There are a lot of theories about the ending scene of Nine Time Travels, all conflicting, and none quite encompassing all of the issues. My opinion: it is a metaphor of the whole story, and not meant to be taken as a scene in the timeline.

Why do I think that? Because the story is presented to us as a fantasy right from the start. It begins in episode 1 with a sweeping view of the mountains of Middle Earth and an accompaniment of the Lord of the Rings style music, complete with epic elf chorus and ethnic hobbit flute.

Why do I think that? Because the brothers are shown on high mountain slopes, nowhere near anywhere they belonged. In Asia nature is thought to uplift and purify the soul, purification being difficult. High mountains are particularly sacred places. White is the color of mourning. And snow not only indicates the hardships of winter, but in a contradictory way, since snow obscures all surroundings and transforms it into something new and different, it represents life-transforming experiences.

Why do I think that? Because of the close-up of the older brother, Jung-woo, lying in the snow with his compass and the open incense case on the ground in front of him. The case is empty, and he has one stick in his hand. This doesn't fit into the story anywhere. Jung-woo never had the case, and if he did he would not have wandered around the mountain trying to light the last incense stick. Yet this scene is shown in the beginning of the first episode as well as at the end of the last episode, over the closing credits. He has dropped the compass, representing how lost he is. And since the younger brother, Sun-woo, tells us in  episode 19 that the incense is the fruit of knowledge, the empty case symbolizes Jung-woo searching for knowledge and not being able to find it.

In episode 1, we see a shadow fall on Jung-woo's face, so we know there is someone else around to prevent him from dying in the snow. That proves this scene doesn't fit into the rest of episode 1, because Jung-woo dies there. In episode 20, that person turns out to be Sun-woo. He holds out his hand  to his brother and pulls him up. There you are. This whole story is about Sun-woo trying to save his brother who is lost, and we certainly hope it worked.

It fits in with all the symbolism that occurs throughout the show. In episode 1 when Sun-woo lights that first incense stick and lies down to rest, he suddenly finds himself outside in the dark in a flurry of snow. But the incense stick goes out and he is back in his hotel room by the time he stands up. This is not a normal time travel. He should have been in the hotel room of exactly twenty years ago, or at least in the town if the hotel hadn't been built yet. The town is in summer, with green growing things. The incense took him to a blizzard, a reminder to us of the snow in the  opening scene, and a warning to him.

The picture of Min-young in her fur-lined parka, that shows up on Sun-woo's phone all through the show, is a instance of this. It shows up in all timelines, even before the picture could have been taken. Child and woman, she's known him in all the timelines. In the last episode Sun-woo says that she is the key, and this illustrates that.

The whole thing is a fantasy anyway. Sun-woo sends a message to his friend, Dr. Han, at the end of episode 3, "Believe in the fantasies you want to believe." This phrase gets repeated several times during the drama. In the last episode, when he is on the plane, he reviews to himself, "Perhaps this is what happened: I made a big impression on Min-young so she fell in love with me at once. And I became a reporter because of the connection in the past. If that's true, I can save you [his future self] and prevent Min-young from being unhappy because of me." Then the subtitles read: "But that's not true." But if you listen to the words, he says, "Krum, fantastiche." So what he really said was: "Then that's a fantasy."

In episode 5 Dr. Han asks, "How is it possible?" Sun-woo replies, "It's pointless to ask that. None of it is possible." However, we are going to a lot of trouble trying to figure things out, and we want it to make sense.

In episode 9 I started noticing the mirrors. There may have been some before, and there were certainly a lot of them afterwards. All of the major characters are seen reflected in mirrors. In this episode the parallel function of the two timelines of 1993 and 2013 is highlighted with mirroring scenes such as young and adult Dr. Hans running down halls and up streets to find injured Sun-woos.  An important scene in episode 20 shows Sun-woo, changing back and forth to adult and teen versions, reflected in a mirror. He recognizes himself and knows he's been caught up in different timelines. Perhaps all the mirrors are showing that the people are caught this way.

In episode 16 after the incense disappears from Dr. Han's hand, he has a theory that it happened because Jung-woo died. Sun-woo disagrees; he says it was caused by a time change. He turns out to be right (the housekeeper took the incense), so we can believe his analyses after this. In episode 19 when he says,"I think I know why I can't go back. The incense is me. I used all of the incense sticks and my role is over," we can take it that he is right.

Did the Present6 timeline extinguish when Sun-woo died? We are all haunted by the idea that everyone lived their lives mourning his loss. Well, in episode 9 the timeline didn't change when he died on the operating table. It changed because of an event in the past that caused a new timeline: young Dr. Han finding the cancer pills and deciding to make Sun-woo get regular check-ups. This did not create two concurrent present timelines. The old one dissolved in smoke and the new one began, or rather, continued from the actuating event in the past.

In the same way, when he dies in the phone booth any change in the present timeline has to be caused by an event in the past. Sun-woo's watch shows 8:07 when he dies on April 24, 1993. Dr. Han and Min-young have 2013 scenes at 8:00 pm so the Present6 timeline could have ended any time after that.  At 8:07 pm on April 24, 2013, adult Min-young remembers (exactly 20 years later) seeing the man in the crashed-in phone booth when she was a child and making a pinky promise. That is the actuating event, and that is the point at which the Present6 timeline extinguishes. She grew up in Past7 remembering that event and avoided Sun-woo for quite a while.

She was indeed the key to his future, because when she told him about the man who looked liked him, he resolved to not use any incense. He couldn't have used it in any case, because it had already been used and we've seen that you can't use it again. Even if Jung-woo goes wandering around the mountains, Sun-woo will just have to find him that same day. He's been wearing beard stubble quite a bit anyway; growing a beard will be nothing.

Nine Time Travels: Timelines Untangled

Nine Time Travels is a fascinating story and also rather confusing, some of it intentional. There are several ways you could designate different timelines, but except for the prologue and epilogue, which are problematic, I have come up with 6 present timelines and 7 past ones. You could argue for a new timeline being created for every time travel with the incense sticks, but that isn't by itself what causes the changes. It is when someone makes a decision that will change things from the original timeline, that we get a new one. The present timelines are easy to distinguish by the smoke that dissolves something that is being changed - you could call them smoke changes. The past timelines are identified by the incident that causes the smoke changes.

Abbreviations-- SW: Sun-woo          YJ: Yoo-jin                  TT: Timetravel
                          JW: Jung-woo         BF: Boyfriend              E: Episode
                          MY: Min-young       EM: Evil Minion

The events that cause the time changes are underlined.

PAST	TIME TRAVELS	PRESENT
Past1: the original past- JW and YJ break up, Dad dies, Choi takes the hospital, mom alone on Christmas, YJ goes to Am and marries, JW aimless		E1-Present1: the original present. SW and JW meet at cafe, SW flippant to MY, JW dies in Nepal, SW goes to get his effects, accuses Choi of graft
	1: snowy waste	SW thinks it's a dream
E2- Past2: intruder, pager stolen; JW breaks aquarium, SW gets cut and pager	2: own room, sees past family	SW has a cut and the pager from his high school study hall
E3- SW and Han talk about missing pager, Dad disapproves of YJ	3: in green room talks to self on phone	SW thinks it is a hallucination, but reads notebook and learns of incense
Intruder at Maruna Lodge (SW) takes record and incense	4: retrieve incense sticks	SW decides he might live, marries, MY writes on record cover
E4- Choi sees SW, JW is unhappy and drunk over breaking up with YJ	5: reconnoiter the hospital	SW decides to make JW happy
Han, SW confused about card	6: takes Christmas card	Han is convinced about incense and runs through halls
SW takes YJ to hospital, gives phone number to MY	7: goes to see YJ	SW wants JW  and YJ to get back together
SW takes Mom to get new glasses, CCTV pix taken at optic shop. Past3: MY makes call to JW; JW decides to marry YJ	8: takes Mom a Christmas necklace	Care center calls SW, he remembers Mom had been alone for Christmas. Present2: MY disappears from cafe
E5- JW has been in America and become doctor		JW is head surgeon at hospital, Han and SW get new memories, MY has BF
E6- SW plans train trip, Choi tries to get Dad to invest in his research	9: visits teen self, takes minicams	JW is depressed and taking drugs, Choi claims he didn't kill Dad.
E7- Past4: SW asks younger self for help, they fight, SW drops pills, plants camcorders in office; Dad visits home and dies later than originally		Present3: news article about the fire and the date on Dad's urn are changed
SW sees Dad dead on floor, Mom and Choi see him, SW chases JW and disappears	10: goes back to hospital
E8- SW sees Mom-Dad-JW fight on tape; EM sets fire, SW leaves incense	11: retrieves tapes	SW beats up JW at restaurant, gives Choi the USB, collapses at home
E9- At funeral Mom tells Choi about witness; young SW has burns and is in hospital; Past5: young Han finds cancer pills, decides on early checks		MY and JW meet BF's family, SW gets two surgeries and dies; Present4: SW alive because of early cancer treatments
E10- Young SW in hospital with burns; writes messages on guitar and railings		SW becomes main anchor, BF finds the record, MY remembers writing on it and kisses SW.
E11- EM brings the CCTV picture to Choi, he remembers same guy at hospital		Choi has court hearings, gets new memory of that picture; MY and SW meet at playground
E12- Incense is delivered to young SW, Choi shows pix to JW		MY is sick, SW finds incense, Han explains to MY, SW explains to JW
E13- Adult SW talks to young JW, EM stabs adult SW, JW goes to police	12: to talk JW into confessing	SW is taken to hospital; Choi finds CCTV pix in storage
E14- Choi bribes police, destroys the tape, and threatens JW		BF slugs SW; SW and MY quit their jobs
E15-		JW OD's, EM is arrested, Choi visits JW in ICU
E16- Past6: housekeeper gives incense to cop, Choi calls EM, EM attacks young SW	13: Choi uses last incense in hospital	Present5: incense disappears from Han; JW's funeral; Choi in court, gets incense from storage; SW swipes it
E17- Teen and adult SW fight EM; Past7 young SW gives Reporter Oh another tape,	14: SW rescues young self	Present6: Choi's aides and car disappear, JW's funeral disappears, MY appears in wedding dress
E18- JW leaves wedding and confesses; Choi rams phone booth; JW and Choi sentenced		MY at wedding, Choi in shop, JW at China clinic, SW stuck in phone booth; Scene from Past7: SW meets parents
E19- SW in crumpled phone booth sees young MY; he dies.		Present6 again: Han hears phone messages from SW; JW comes to Korea, visits Choi; Choi dies in crash
E20- YJ and MY go to America, JW goes to jail, Reporter Oh helps SW		From Past7: SW becomes reporter, meets MY at work; SW and JW meet at cafe, MY, JW, and SW all go to Nepal.

Nine Time Travels Episode 20: The Finale

Nine: Episode 20

Here we are at the last episode. It is the story of the new timeline created when Sun-woo went to Reporter Oh with the videotape. Jung-woo and Choi both go to jail, and in fact we only see Choi at the very beginning, when he rams the phone booth. We don't see what happens to him after he gets out of jail. Sun-woo grows up with Reporter Oh as a mentor.

We begin with little Min-young standing in the alley by the wrecked phone booth. The man in the next house comes out to check the weather and sees it, and immediately calls out to other people and they get the police. Yoo-jin comes looking for Min-young and hustles her away. I wouldn't want my child watching a homicide scene either. Look, they both have yellow raincoats. Cute! They fly away to a new life in America.

Hyung knocks on Sun-woo's door and we see handcuffs and the police standing behind him. Sun-woo refuses to talk but he looks out the window as they leave through the gate to the weeping of the housekeeper. He is still moping when Reporter Oh calls him up and takes him out to dinner. Oh tries to console him by saying his brother's sentence will be light, and he's seen lots worse stuff happen. Sun-woo decides to be a reporter because they were able to catch criminals that the police couldn't. Oh says that he ought to be a good reporter, and someday he will hire him and give him a chance. One of the few heartwarming scenes in this whole thing.

Young Sun-woo gets a phone message from his older self. [7:00] He was going back at noon and couldn't return, so to forget about him and just live his own life. “Every decision you make will make me. If you live every day the right way, you will find me in the mirror after twenty years.” Young Sun-woo writes a message to himself in his diary and leaves it at that.

Fourteen years later in 2007 we see young Sun-woo, now grown up, as a reporter at the scene of an accident. He jumps in front of a truck to rescue the victim's severed arm, and is nearly run down himself. So he's still the reckless type. Now-Chief Oh calls him about a company party. When he walks in late he accidently hits rookie Min-young with the door and is told off to take her to the hospital. Being pretty drunk, she pulls his hair and throws up on him in the cab and says embarassing things. Later he gets after her and says he hates people who can't control themselves when drunk. She just looks at him with stars in her eyes and asks, “Do you have a girlfriend?” hahaha.

She worms her way into his taxi and flirts until he tells her to lay off, and suddenly his worried face in the dark reminds her of the ajusshi she had seen in the phone booth. Immediately she wants out. The next day she asks a co-worker if Sun-woo has a criminal record or anything. She makes such a fuss that Sun-woo asks why. (Although dragging her by the arm is a bit much.) She says she's had trauma, and she likes him but she's afraid he'll ruin her life. He thinks she's nuts. [25:35] At least her hair is good in this timeline. Now we get some vignettes showing how their relationship develops over the next few years.

2008. Min-young walks into the green room to find Sun-woo sleeping on the couch. She goes in for a closer look and (Who would do this? It's sexual harrassment.) lifts up his collar to peek at his chest. He wakes up and she tries to run off but he pins her down on the sofa, saying she had been treating him like a rapist and now she does this? When Chief Oh walks in, she calls for help and he asks for the police. Chief Oh merely says, “Look at you two having fun!”

2009. Min-young gets into the news van and sits next to Sun-woo, who complains that she can't sit by him or he'll ruin her life. He falls asleep later, though, and when his head flops down on her shoulder she smiles and takes a selfie. He wakes and snipes at her, but then turns away and smiles to himself.

2010. Min-young in her cute colored apartment is overjoyed that Sun-woo calls her up to go to a movie. She spends a lot of time getting ready only to find that the whole department is there. She sobs during the movie that enough time has gone past and he could have called her but he demurs why should he? And then gives her a fond smile.

1011. Min-young wakes Sun-woo with a phone call. (His phone has the picture of her with the parka, and she hasn't even been to Nepal yet.) She's coming in from New York and wants him to meet her at the airport. It's her vacation. He objects but hops out of bed.

December 2012. Now we're up to when the drama started. [36:32] Sun-woo meets Jung-woo at that cafe. Hung is visiting, and there's no clue whether he's a doctor or not. They mention that their mother speaks sometimes. Jung-woo remarks that Sun-woo looks more and more like that man who helped them twenty years ago. Sun-woo looks a little conscious and says he doesn't remember. What? Doesn't hyung remember the other timeline? Did Sun-woo never tell his brother about the time-traveling? They ask each other about getting married and Jung-woo just shakes his head. He seems hesitant, not confidant. Does he still think about Yoo-jin? Sad. Sun-woo says that if he ever marries, he has a girl picked out who would never let him get depressed. So I guess he gets depressed. Jung-woo says he is going to Nepal (he has his red parka) and Sun-woo says Min-young is going there too, on assignment.

When Sun-woo gets back from lunch the other news staff are just leaving for the airport. He asks for Min-young and finds her in the green room. She complains he hadn't said good-bye and they bicker, and then he locks the door and lifts her onto the counter. He almost kisses her and then pulls back. “That reminds me,” he says. “I promised never to touch you. You said I would ruin your life.” She backpedals, someone knocks on the door and he goes ahead and kisses her. She leaves but comes back to tell him that this is how he is ruining her life, because he teases her and she will never get married. She tells him that long ago she saw a man who looked like him and had said to avoid anyone who looked like him because he would ruin her life. [46:00]

They replay the scene where he says that in the phone booth, but we can't tell if Sun-woo is remembering it. But he asks questions and she tells him that this man was really hurt, he told her that, and then he died. It was when she went to America, so 1993. She leaves with a co-worker but he remains, stunned by the news. He puts things together and figures out that his other self died.

She answers her phone on the plane just as they are telling people to put away their electronics. He asks her why she didn't stay away? What will she do when he dies? He looks at his last entry in the diary, which reads, “Did you get back safely? I will trust your words. I will understand my brother some day.” He orders a ticket to Nepal and as he packs he sees himself in the mirror [51:20] and the words come, “If you live every day the right way, you will find me in the mirror after twenty years.” And there he is. The same person he had seen as a boy. The image flashes several times between the young and adult versions, and perhaps at this moment his memory merges and both versions become one. “I will trust that I will make the right decisions.”

At the airport he turns in his bag (how did he have room in that little bag for that big puffy coat?) and buys the watch he used in all his time travels. Dr. Han calls and he tells him that he's going to see Min-young because she is the key to his fate. There was more trouble than the brain tumor; his future self from 2013 died in the past in 1993. Could that be a set fate, or can he avoid it?

December 4, 2012, he boards the plane and sits on the other side from before. He records a message to himself: I can no longer live without caring about the future. (Does that mean he has been flippant because his past trauma made him want to avoid making connections and being hurt again?) He wonders if these events were true. If so, he can save his future self and keep Min-young from being unhappy. But he decides it's a fantasy and that: I will believe what I want to believe and just love the girl I love.

The epilogue during the credits shows Jung-woo from episode 1 in his red parka, with his incense stick, lying in the snow. A shadow falls on his face; it's a man in a yellow parka who reaches out a hand. That scene obviously doesn't belong in the beginning because Jung-woo died in that timeline. Does he go out on the mountain a second time looking for the Maruna Lodge? Does Sun-woo find him on the mountain right then, or does hyung die again and Sun-woo uses the one incense stick, and only that one, to rescue him twenty years later?

Running count – time travels: 14; remaining incense sticks: 0; Timeline: Past7 has taken over.

Three Years of Kdramas

Here we come around to the Ides of March again. What a great day to have begun watching Korean dramas three years ago! We watched 23 dramas this year, and dropped just as many. I find that I don't have as much patience with drama tropes, fluff, and silliness. I need a good solid plot with good writing to enjoy a show. If course we need good actors, and good actors is more important than cute actors, which is a different standard than a lot of watchers have. As before, they are rated out of five stars.

1. Punch – Started the year with one with a great plot! A crooked prosecutor decides to fly right in order to protect his daughter and ex-wife after he gets a fatal cancer diagnosis. To do this he has to outsmart the machinations of his erstwhile buddy, the chief prosecutor. This is well-done and interesting, but with a bittersweet ending. ****

2. Two Outs in the Ninth Inning, also called 9 End 2 Outs. A man and a woman who have been platonic friends since childhood share his apartment after he sublets it to her when his company transfers him abroad, and then cancels the transfer. He becomes jealous of her boyfriend, and then they start falling for each other. ***

3. Let's Eat - A show about eating, with close-ups and discussions about food. Oh, and there's a plot about a legal secretary, the people in her office, and the insurance salesman who lives next door. **

4. What's Up! The students at a fine arts college learn to work together as they cope with personal problems and secrets, and with a famous professor who is always drunk. One side story is about a voice student who is afraid to sing in front of anyone, and then belts out an amazing finale to their musical production. **

5. Falling For Innocence, also called Falling in Love With Soon-jung – A cut-throat businessman is fighting his uncle for his father's company when he gets a heart transplant from a kind-hearted man who was engaged to a woman in the company. He starts to fall for her and becomes more like the man who died. ***

6. Warm and Cozy, also called Jeju Island Gatsby - A slow-moving show about a man who sells his restaurant to a woman he thinks is dying, but isn't really. They slowly become fond of each other over the interference of his annoying old girlfriend who really just wants his money. Yeah. We would have dropped it except for the cute storyline about his uncle and the lady pearl-fisher. **

7. My Girl – Cute show about a girl who works as a tour guide to pay off her father's debts and meets a rich guy who admires her ad-libbing skills. He pays her to impersonate a long-lost cousin to make his dying grandfather happy. The grandfather recovers and they start falling in love but are stuck with the impersonation. ***

8. I Remember You also called Hello Monster – An expat detective returns to Korea to find his kidnapped younger brother and solve his father's murder. There are two serial killers in this one, both of whom you come to sympathize with because of their rotten backgrounds. It's a very good story with a very lame ending. ***

9. Oh My Ghostess – Kim Seul-gi does a hilarious job as a virgin ghost who possesses bodies trying to find a man so she can move on. Park Bo-young does another hilarious job as the shy chef who gets possessed and acquires all the traits and mannerisms of the ghost. The poor head chef doesn't know who he's in love with, and neither do we. In the suspenseful second half of the story the ghost comes across another ghost who possesses people and finds out how she died. *****

10. Heard it Through the Grapevine – A serious, very well done drama about a young man who gets his girlfriend pregnant and marries her over the objections of his wealthy snobby parents. The baby is cute, the boy is struggling against his parents, and the girl is very smart and trying hard to get along with everyone. Eventually she wins over the staff, his mother, and almost everyone except his stubborn dad. ****

11. Twenty Again – A girl who had to get married lives in her husband's shadow and lets him push her around. When her son goes to college she signs up also, finds out she can do well, and meets a man who always had a crush on her. She's rather too naïve to be believable however, and there is a weak ending. ***

12. Miss Granny – this is a movie, very imaginative and funny. A grandma who feels unappreciated gets magically turned young again and gets to sing with her grandson's band. She finds out who really cares about her, and learns to interact with her family better. There is a surprise ending when someone else get turned young by the magic.****

13. King of Dramas – A young screenwriter is alternately helped and manipulated by an unscrupulous television producer, Anthony. He uses all kinds of tricks used by real dramas to gain power or audiences, so the catch-word from this show has become: What would Anthony do? ***

14. Dr. Champ – A young doctor is recruited to work at the Korean Olympic training camp. She learns from the senior doctor how to work with the athletes and trainers and to navigate power struggles. **

15. Miss Korea – To save his fledgling cosmetics company a young businessman talks his ex-girlfriend into entering the Miss Korea pageant and advertise his wares. Most of the contestants come from one of two beauty schools. The head of one is a classy, glamorous ex-Miss Korea. The other is her embarrassing slapsitck ex-assistant. ***

16. Plus Nine Boys also called Age Ending in Nine Boys – Since it is bad luck for your age to end in 9, it is a rough year for a family with a 9-year-old actor, a 19-year-old judo player, a 29-year-old travel agency agent, and their 39-year-old tv producer uncle. They all have joys and woes at work and with girls they like. ***

17. The Pirates – this is another movie. A humorous one set in historical times, about a whale swallowing the royal seal given to Korea by the Chinese emperor. Pirates, bandits, and the Korean army compete to find it first. It appears there is going to be a sequel. ***

18. Couple or Trouble – A spoiled, rich heiress fights with a repairman working on her yacht and dumps him and his tools overboard. Later she gets drunk and falls off the yacht herself, and comes out of the water with amnesia. They meet at the hospital, and since he needs a nanny for his orphaned nephews, he lies that she is his live-in girlfriend. ***

19. Splish Splash Love – two episodes. A high school girl afraid of taking her college entrance exams, steps into a puddle and falls into Joseon times. She teaches the king algebra and science, and helps him invent hangul; and realizes that she knows more than she thought she did, and gains confidence for the test. ****

20. Imaginary Cat – What could be cuter than a man and his cat? The man draws webtoons and the big orange cat makes sly remarks on the side. There is a girl who likes the cat and thinks it may have once been hers, and then starts to like the boy. Cute, but not a whole lot of plot. **

21. She Was Pretty – Slightly amusing story about a girl who was very pretty when young but has now apparently become ugly because of frizzy hair and red cheeks. She is afraid to meet a childhood friend who used to be ugly and is now very good looking, so she asks a friend to stand in for her. They both fall in love with the guy. ***

22. I Am Sam – The spoiled daughter of a mob boss gets a crush on a high school teacher and gets her father to put her in school with that teacher. They get involved with a student who has a sick little brother, and another one who looks tough but tries to keep his best friend out of trouble, as well as thugs from a rival mob. ***

23. Signal – Awesome time-travel police drama in which a detective from the past talks to a modern-day profiler over a magical walkie-talkie. The profiler is on a cold case squad with a woman who knew the detective years ago, before he went missing. Often dark, always intriguing, and full of surprises. *****