Sigh. As I expected, this drama is a healing drama…
for the fangirls of the leading actor Kim SeonHo who were crushed that he didn't get the girl in "Start-Up." Instead of Hong Doo Shik, the screenwriter should have named his character Jjang Dae Bak since he can do nothing wrong in this drama.
Jjang = amazing
Daebak = awesome
The fan service began 0:01 mark with the staging of a houseboat in a most incongruous spot on top of a hill. This is obviously his houseboat.
Hong Doo Shik, or Chief Hong as the locals call him, is the Prince Charming in fairy tales, living in his castle of a boat, and guarding his sea village from Barbarians from Seoul. His kingdom stretches into the vast expanse as far as the eye can see.
…or cannot see.
It wouldn't surprise me if he owns this building, too. He surely has business and connections in the city.
Why do I assume that?
For one, only someone who does NOT have to survive on minimum wage would be happy to live on 8,720 won/per hour. The wetsuit he wore would have set him back anywhere between $140 to $300 here in the US. The canister that he picked up at the hardware store cost him 90,000 won or roughly 11 hours of work. He has expensive hobbies for someone who earns minimum wage.
For another, he's more cosmopolitan than he pretends. He must have traveled abroad – or to Russia, at least, given his language fluency. He's familiar with Audi cars, the brand of car that the female lead was driving. He knew there was no spare tire in the boot.
It seemed to me that the screenwriter shrouded Chief Hong's identity in mystery, but he/she made sure that Chief Hong's noble attributes were established through "binary opposition."
I told you what "binary opposition" was, right? Here's a refresher:
I didn't coin this term "binary opposition." The French anthropologist, Claude Levi-Strauss, did. He observed that in many stories told in books and films, the plot is driven by characters, values and/or concepts that are directly polar opposites.
Think of Batman vs. Joker, hero vs. villain, rich vs. poor, religious vs. secular, engineering vs. feng shui, war vs. peace, crime vs. punishment, individual vs. society, science vs. superstition, objective vs. subjective, good vs. evil.
Binary opposition is the theory that we can understand one character, value, or concept better when we juxtapose it with another character, value, or concept. We can see details better when there's contrast.
source: On Binary Opposition
Chief Hong's binary opposite is the female lead, Yoon HyeJin. Unlike Chief Hong whose real motives and end goals are obscured from the viewers, HyeJin is an easy read. It's by studying her character that we get to know Chief Hong's personality.
Let me list what we can observe about her.
1. She's competitive.
Her competitiveness was displayed during her morning run.
While she was jogging, a track team overtook her. Without breaking stride, she decided to sprint past the team. She easily left them in the dust.
Her behavior struck me as odd because the run wasn't a race until she turned it into one. It was apparent that she liked the thrill of competing. She wasn't complacently jogging behind the pack. She wanted to be in the lead. She's driven and ambitious.
In a way, her sudden retirement didn't come as a surprise. It's one thing to quit because of her boss' unethical practice, but it's another thing to quit because, in her mind, she brings in more clients than her boss. Her reason for quitting the job was a reasonable one until she turned it into a pissing contest on who was bringing in more business for the dental office.
In contrast to HyeJin's competitive streak, Chief Hong sees other people, not as his rivals, but as his circle of friends. He builds a sense of community by offering his service, fixing their problems, and keeping in touch with everybody. For instance, when the fire at the telecom company halted communication service in the village, he took it upon himself to visit and reassure the senior residents.
He naturally watches over them.
2. She's black-and-white.
Her black-and white track outfit is a visual shorthand to her personality. The color scheme tells us that she's a minimalist. With the classic black-and-white outfit, it's impossible to go wrong.
But black-and-white can also indicate a rigid, unyielding mindset. There's no gray area or tolerance for human errors. Her black-and-white morality was in full display during the Seniors Outdoor Bash in Ep 2. It didn't dawn on her that her blunt criticisms of her new neighbors would gain her zero clients and new friends. All she cared about was expressing her opinions which she deemed unassailable.
In contrast, Chief Hong wears monochromatic Henley shirts under his flannels (like Nam DoSan in "Start-Up," hahaha). His style is easy to analyze. It tells us that he's easy-going, down-to-earth, and approachable.
3. She's reserved.
Although HyeJin wasn't antisocial in her work setting, she was visibly uncomfortable talking with the Ahjumma in the elevator. She found the old woman's curiosity about her marital state, job, and take-out orders quite intrusive. Yes, she smiled through the Ahjumma's inquisition because good manners dictated that she showed respect to an elderly person. But she couldn't make her getaway quick enough.
Another interesting point: she lived across from the Ahjumma's daughter, but knew nothing about her neighbor. This could be interpreted as the screenwriter's social commentary on city life -- that is, city people are notoriously private and more guarded with their interactions with virtual strangers. However, HyeJin's motto for the last 20 years was "Don't be nosy and focus on myself." To me, this signified that HyeJin's aloofness and remoteness were more of a personal choice than a habit acquired from city living.
Again, she's being set up by the screenwriter to be the polar opposite of Chief Hong. He's a people-person. Not only did he greet everybody at the pier by name, but he also inquired about their families. He knows everybody's business because he's genuinely interested in their welfare.
Noteworthy: whenever HyeJin and Chief Hong interact with each other, their personalities switch. Despite being a reserved person, she's full of aegyo like when she asked for his help to find her shoe and to pay for the coffee. Conversely, he magically becomes ornery and unhelpful whenever she approaches him for help.
4. She thinks she's angelic.
That's why both her passwords, CheonsaHyejin and LovelyHyejin1004, included the word, "Cheonsa" or angel. (1004 in Korean sounds like cheonsa.)
Although the villagers don't see her as an angel at the moment because of her contretemps during the Senior Citizens' Bash, I'm sure she'll be regarded like a messiah at the end of this kdrama.
Meanwhile, Chief Hong only has one password, his date of birth, 870724.
Note: I think the reason she freaked out when she learned that his birthday was the passcode is because in Korea, a dating couple would use a lover's birthday as a passcode. She thought he was being presumptuous to use his birthdate as her passcode.
Chief Hong got even, though.
HJ: Are you 35, then?
Hong: Yes.
HJ: You're a year older than me then.
Hong: Was that a hint of affection I heard? Don't you dare show me any.
HJ: Are you nuts? I just got goose bumps.
To be fair, HyeJin's remark that he was a year older than her was just small talk. She was merely chitchatting. She didn't mean anything by it.
But in the same way that she misunderstood his intention when he used his birthday as her passcode, he pretended to misunderstand her comment as a sign of interest in him. He was paying her back.
It wouldn't surprise me though if, secretly, he did want her to show some affection. He looked too nonchalant as he said that.
5. She lost her mom.
To celebrate her mother's birthday, HyeJin returned to the beach where she had a happy childhood memory of their family outing. Although she didn't verbalize it, she must have resented that her father forgot the special occasion. He'd already moved on and remarried.
To me, the screenwriter was being too obvious in his/her message when Gongjin Harbor was described as a "mother's embrace." HyeJin needed her mother's solace during her time of distress so what better place to find it than in that seaside village? Her arrival at that place was like a homecoming that she didn't envisage.
In comparison, Chief Hong never left the place. He stayed at the seaside village because he wanted to repay the kindness that was given him after he lost his grandpa. He calls himself a "wish-granting genie" that can be summoned whenever help was needed.
Although both HyeJin and Chief Hong experienced the loss of somebody they loved at a young age, they responded differently to the childhood trauma.
HyeJin learned to be independent and self-sufficient. Her move to Gongjin, for instance, was a decision she made entirely on her own. In fact, her good friend was upset because she didn't consult her before her decision to up-and-leave.
Meanwhile, Chief Hong learned exactly the opposite from the death of his grandpa. He learned to value interdependence and reciprocity.
source: dingyuxi's tumblr
By the way, that quote from Thoreau
is here in full:
I want the flower and fruit of a man; that some fragrance be wafted over from him to me, and some ripeness flavor our intercourse. His goodness must not be a partial and transitory act, but a constant superfluity, which costs him nothing and of which he is unconscious. This is a charity that hides a multitude of sins.
—from Thoreau's essay on "Economy" in "Walden"
This quote applies to this scene because in this very charitable instant, Chief Hong was giving a portion of himself to the Grandma. His goodness was neither half-hearted or short-lived. He was truly generous with his time and concern for her.
6. Lastly, she's channeling French chic.
Oldtimers here on this blog know that I've a thing for shoes, so I recognized HyeJin's shoes right away. They're Roger Vivier pumps.
HyeJin likes to wear Roger Vivier's Pilgrim buckle pumps. Vivier was famous for making the sandals Queen Elizabeth II wore to her coronation. But the Pilgrim pumps with the big buckle were his iconic shoes. The shoes were popularized by the French actress Catherine Deneuve in the 1967 movie "Belle de Jour." In fact if you go to Roger Vivier website now and you'll see the leather shoes immortalized as "Belle Vivier" after the title of the movie.
When HyeJin wears these shoes, the impression she wants to project is the Parisian chic: demure but feminine, classic but sophisticated. That said, I doubt that she's aware of the duplicitous character that Catherine Deneuve played in the film. You see, in the film, Deneuve played a very prim-and-proper but sexually repressed housewife at night, and a kinky (hahaha) prostitute during the day when her husband is at work.
Anyway...to get back on topic here,
HyeJin's designer shoes are a far cry from Chief Hong's plastic slippers labeled "Toilet Use, HwaJeong Raw Fish Restaurant." Again, the screenwriter and director weren't very subtle about their messaging, were they? Their shoes are meant to show their binary opposition.
There are many other examples of binary oppositions in these two episodes but for me, the shoes sealed the deal.
You see, in the beginning, I was prepared to like HyeJin as a push-back against the screenwriter's blatant attempt to portray Kim SeonHo's character as Mr. Perfect. However, my contempt for HyeJin grew exponentially when I saw her walk in the sand in her heels.
source: songhwaya's tumblr
"Are you dumb, girl?"
I don't even wear my Vivier shoes when it's raining outside because I want to minimize damage to them, and here is HyeJin walking on sand with them.
Ugh! What HyeJin did to her shoes in this episode, and in Episode 2, when she climbed over the rocks, was sacrilegious to a shoe-lover like me. 
source: iamacolor's tumblr
Without a doubt, Chief Hong is hands-down the better person in this relationship. He's going to be the Sherpa to guide HyeJin become the Chieftess Yoon the community deserves.
Sherpa. lol.
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