Letter #11: Our Beloved Summer
DARYL: "Okay, time to
finally start reading Dune!"
ERIN: "Have you heard of Our Beloved Summer?"
DARYL: [throws book away] "Alexa, start Netflix."
Good
afternoon, Erin.
So...the
other night, I was—somewhat fittingly—having trouble sleeping (or, well,
technically, I had already been asleep and was having trouble getting back
to sleep, but that's...a detail I could have left out, but I've kept it in,
haven't I...sigh, why do I never just delete these things?), and, as I lied
there, squeezing my eyes shut in an attempt to lure me back to dreamland, my
brain kept saying, "Hey...hey, are we awake now?" And, no matter how
much I insisted that, no, we were not awake now, it kept carrying on as though
I had no say in the matter. Which...well, I guess I didn't, because I didn't
get back to sleep for hours. But the reason I'm mentioning it is because my
brain was really, really interested in posing a question: "So, like, in an
alternate universe where Erin asked how your day was going, and you were
the one who wasn't having the best day, and the conversation ended with her taking
an anime recommendation from you (as opposed to her recommending a K-drama
to you), what do you think alternate universe you would
recommend?"
Now,
my stupid sleep troubles aside, what I find interesting about this is that my
first recommendation (...because of course I sat up in bed and made
a list) would have been Toradora, which is, in my opinion, the best
anime romcom of all time—a point that is relevant here because it,
like Our Beloved Summer, is an exploration of what it means to have a
crush. Which I thought was a fun bit of synchronicity.
...um,
anyway:
1.
Okay, so, cards on the table right up front: I'm kind of mixed on this one.
There are a lot of things I absolutely
love, with this show...but there's something (well, a few somethings
that fall under one umbrella) that I reeeeeeallly didn't like—and which
dropped this show to the bottom of my rankings of all the shows I've watched so
far. Just to prep you for what’s coming.
2.
...but let's start with the best part of the show, which is NJ (the pop star).
And no, this is not an opinion—this is a fact. And I will fight anyone who says
otherwise. She is amazing and wonderful and everything good about the show writ
in miniature. I'm going to get into it more as we go on, but it's important
that we understand this point at the outset—or nothing that follows will seem
wondrous!
2A.
(That last bit is just me quoting A Muppets' Christmas Carol. Which
is my favorite Christmas movie. I was just really excited to talk about NJ, so
I mentioned her right away. And I don’t think anything about my notes is going
to seem wondrous. Just to, y’know, adequately set expectations.)
2B.
...Chae-ran’s my girl, though. (She's the one who works on the documentary with
Other-Ung, if you don't remember her name. Also, Other-Ung is the friend who is
directing the documentary. Because we're in another situation where I don't
quite remember everyone's names. But I know he and the main guy both had "Ung"
in their names. So. He's gonna be called "Other-Ung." And the main
guy will be “Main-Ung.”) NJ is #bestgirl, but Chae-ran’s my crush.
3.
Y'know who else is great? Other-Ung. Shocked the crap out of me that he turned
out to be my other favorite. Not as much as it shocked me that NJ turned out to
be my favorite, but it was close. And he, too, is a microcosm of what this show
does really well. And we'll get a little more into that in a bit.
4.
They didn't get a lot of screen time, but NJ had a sassy #MakeupGirlDuo, early
on, and you know I like those kinds of minor characters.
5.
Something else you know I like: characters with opposing personalities who hate
each other but then fall in love. Which...we are going to get into, later on.
But I'm never going to be sad to see that trotted out.
6.
It never quite becomes the daisy chain of love triangles I was
anticipating, but, instead, really does turn out to be the standard love
dodecahedron. Which I'm fine with, since Lord knows I can't get enough of
those. I just got my prediction wrong, is all.
7. I
feel silly for it taking three episodes for me to notice, but the aspect ratio
changes depending on whether we're watching a scene from the past or the
present. A lot of shows do some kind of visual cue to let you know when you've
jumped back in time, if that's a standard part of the storytelling, but the
aspect ratio change, here, makes sense since the documentary is so heavily a
part of the whole thing. Though I found it a little odd that the present day
parts of the story are what got the black bars at the top and bottom of the
screen and not the past. It's fine either way, I just thought it would be more
appropriate to literally frame the past stuff as being accessed like it was all
clips from some film...but maybe that's just me.
8.
There's a bit where the main duo are talking about seeing the cherry blossoms,
and I left myself a note to mention that cherry blossoms fall at a rate of five
centimeters per second. (Which I know because my favorite anime movie is called
5 Centimeters per Second. I have a poster of it on my office wall. And
the title comes from the rate at which cherry blossoms fall. It says.) So,
there's a fun fact. Break that one out at parties to amaze your friends!
9.
Rival Artist is Fake CEO Brother from Vincenzo!
10.
This show does a good job of making the actors seem like they're different
ages, when they jump between time periods. I was particularly impressed with
how they did it with Main Girl. I know they futzed with her hair and, I think,
had her in more turtlenecks as an adult, but...I dunno, she just seemed really
young in the flashbacks. So, thumbs up, there.
11.
Early on, I had a hard time deciding if I sympathized more with Main-Ung or
Main Girl, when it came to their feelings about each other and their breakup
and all that stuff. Because I knew how they were both feeling. Like, I've been
in both of their shoes. (Or, rather, I suppose I thought I had, since you later
learn that neither of them was reacting just to the situation of the breakup
itself. Which we will get into, I promise.) But I quickly decided that this was
a silly distinction to try to make. Because I soon realized that I had been
where basically everyone in the show was, at some point in my oft-disastrous experience
with crushes and relationships and stuff. So, good job running down my entire
list of traumas, show. Definitely appreciated being reminded of all that.
11A.
Hello
darkness my old friend...
11B.
No, the show did a really good job showing us the different ways pining can go.
And unrequited crushes are right near the top of my list of favorite subjects
(right after "they both like the other, but they don't realize the feeling
is mutual!"), so...again, thumbs up.
12
To wit: NJ’s numerous, vacillating freakouts over crushing on Main-Ung was a
mood. (Ugh, I love her. She’s so great.) I mean, I never buried my phone in a
plant pot, before, but I have absolutely gathered up the little stupid things
you gather up from your crush (in the hopes that they have a big secret meaning),
put them in a bag, and then dropped the bag at some random dumpster while I was
driving around…only to then, later, desperately try to remember which dumpster
it was because I wanted them back. So…yeah. Relatable.
13.
Also loved NJ and Other-Ung having that great conversation about what it's like
to have a crush and how much it sucks but also doesn't. Which, yes, is more NJ
being amazing (and Other-Ung showing why he’s a great character), but it's also
another bit of the show getting things right about crushes, which is probably
its strongest aspect. Because it’s a hell of a thing, isn’t it, that constant
swing from euphoria to despair. (Or maybe you’re lucky enough only to know the
euphoria part. I hope that’s the case. I’m wildly jealous, if that’s the case,
but I still hope it is.)
14.
One of my favorite moments is when the show officially announces to the
audience that Other-Ung has been crushing on Main Girl for a decade by saying
outright that OF COURSE he likes her, guys, don't you know what kind of show
you're watching? Made me laugh, that.
15.
Subway sponsorship is back! Oh, how I've missed you—it’s been so long since the
last time!
16.
Wait a minute—that van is a Hyundai! They just put a sticker over the logo so
you couldn't see it. CONSPIRACY!!!
17.
Chae-ran got Other-Ung a birthday present, and she never gets to give it to
him, and my heart is still crying about it.
18.
One of the clips from the high school documentary has Main-Ung describing his
ideal girl...and he's describing a girl who looks an awful lot like NJ. Which
is a really nice touch. (One of many nice touches this series has—and, yes,
we're going to get into that.)
19.
The kissing gets a passing grade, overall. Not top marks, but certainly
passing. With bonus points for implying sex, rather than showing it outright.
19A.
…I swear I'm not a prude. I just like keeping my sweet love stories, y'know, as
purehearted as possible. So, like, the characters can sleep with each other, I
just...don't need a whole scene about it. (I mean, you don't have to go as far
as having them in the same bed and wearing outdoor winter garb, like Main Girl
and Main-Ung basically do, but...I appreciated the effort to keep things clean.
Save the spicy stuff for spicy shows.)
20.
This is otherwise unimportant, but Main Girl likes to bob her tea bag up and
down in the hot water, when she makes tea. Which is what I do. So…twinsies.
(…twinsteas?)
21.
It amuses me to no end that, for the celebration of Main-Ung's debut, the
balloons along the back of the couch spell out CORGKATS (rather than congrats) because whoever arranged for
the props couldn't tell the difference between a cursive r and n and
a cursive k and R. (I actually took a picture of it and texted
it to my sister, I was laughing so much.)
22.
So, I've mentioned that my favorite characters are NJ and Other-Ung, and part
of that has to do with them being, in my opinion, the strongest characters in
the show. They've both got a lot going on, emotionally. But it took me a little
while to realize that their romantic struggles are fundamentally the same—except that
they're mirror versions of one another: Other-Ung is dealing with a secret
crush he's been holding for years, and NJ is dealing with a brand new crush
that she repeatedly tells everyone (including her crush) that she has. Which is
a really nice touch, in and of itself, but it's great that they eventually
sort of find each other to have a couple of crush-talk sessions. I really wish
there had been more development with that. Like, I didn't want them to date or
anything, but I'd have loved for them to become heartbreak pals.
23.
...actually, I would have loved them to be the main characters—but we'll get
to that.
24.
One of the things this show does A LOT is parallel character beats and call
back to previous story moments. Sometimes, like what I mentioned above about NJ
and Other-Ung, the show knocks it out of the park. Other times, it's the worst
possible decision the show could make.
24A.
"But Daryl, you charmingly long-winded raconteur," I hear you say,
"don't you love these kinds of internal repetitions?" Oh, Erin, how
well you know me! I am a huge fan of this kind of thing. But, here, many of the
instances of repetition feel...well, twee.
They come off cutesy and contrived, and you can sense the writers pulling the
strings to get the story to work this way or that, making whatever points they
want to get across in those moments so overt and obvious that the characters
(however temporarily) stop feeling genuine.
24B.
For example: Main-Ung’s concern over that store owner's dog. Y’know, that dog
that didn’t exist prior to that moment in the story. Did you get that it was a
metaphor for Main-Ung? Did you? Did you get how it was abandoned and afraid to risk
going outside, and how Main-Ung was abandoned and was afraid to risk going
outside (of his comfort zone)?
25.
There are also a dozen instances of the show having a character blatantly
explain to us what's happening in the story that is already clear by the way
the characters are acting. Like, when Rude Writer Lady sits there and tells
Other-Ung to his face (with Chae-ran right flippin' there!) that he has a crush
on Main Girl...even though the show has already done a more than adequate job showing us
that he's in love with her and has been since high school. Why do we need this
scene? It was enough to end the scene where Main Girl and Main-Ung kiss during
the rain storm in high school with a blurry figure in the background noticing
them to let us know that it was Other-Ung and that he was heartbroken over the
development of their relationship. And none of this is news to Chae-ran who
figured this out on her own. You didn't need to have someone else walk in and
tell us that's what's happening 6 episodes later.
25A.
Similarly, the choice for the three main characters to voiceover narrate their
feelings didn't work for me. I think, in some instances, it was clever-ish,
because of the whole documentary framework, so it was kind of like they were
answering questions for the camera as they reflected back on some past event,
but it more often got in the way of what was otherwise pretty good visual
storytelling with their facial expressions or body language. And, in many
cases, when it was getting in the way, the narration wasn't giving us anything
interesting. It just felt like writing for the sake of writing. (And kind of
lazy writing at that, telling us
things in places where it would take more work to show us certain
points.)
25B.
Which actually ties in with another problem I had with the show, which was the
stylized storytelling. The jumping back and forth absolutely did not work for
me. It worked well in 500 Days of Summer—which is not only one of the
episode titles but very clearly a movie that this show takes a lot of
inspiration from—but it doesn't serve the story here, in my opinion,
because the writers don’t seem to quite grasp why it worked so well in the
movie: the movie was designed to be told ENTIRELY in that style, so the whole thing
is meant to unfold with the paced revelation of context surrounding each
section in the couple's 500-day relationship timeline. In Our Beloved Summer,
though, there's really only one aspect of the whole show that is set up to
unfold this way, and it's that final breakup five years prior to the start of
the show. But that format doesn't match the pace of the show overall—which is
why it takes ELEVEN EPISODES for us to hear that Main-Ung was left in the
middle of the city by his biological father. And it just comes out of nowhere.
I mean, it adds a little more awfulness to his feelings of abandonment, after
the breakup, but the show isn't just about their breakup—heck, it isn't even
just about Main-Ung and Main Girl! For the slow peel-back reveal story
structure to work, there has to be one very specific throughline that jumping
back and forth provides context for. And that’s not how Our Beloved Summer is set up.
25C.
Which actually ties in with—and I swear I didn't think I was going to go off on
this little rant here, I’m so sorry—my other structural complaint: there is
just way too much going on, with this show. Why the documentary? You could just
as easily tell this story with them just having sat next to each other in class
and bickering and then getting together, and with them meeting again because
Main Girl's company wants to get Main-Ung to help with their store promotion
thing. Much as it pains me to say, why have NJ in the story at all? Her
affections influence absolutely nothing. Main-Ung isn't tempted by her, and
Main Girl doesn't, like, change her behavior to compete with her. She doesn’t
really help move Other-Ung’s story along. Why does Grandma have to be sick? Why
does Other-Ung have to have a dying mother? (Also: why do we need both of these story beats? Is that not
somewhat redundant?) Why is Main-Ung adopted? Why is NJ dealing with total
jerkwad fans? Does Rival Artist need to be in the story? Doesn’t the art
critics’ poo-pooing of Main-Ung’s exhibition make him question himself enough
to get him to go on hiatus on its own? How do these things help move the main
narrative of the show along? Why do we have all this stuff going on when the
show is really just about the romantic chaos that engulf everyone because of
Main-Ung and Main Girl meeting after all these years?
25D.
…aaaaand—scene.
26.
In other news, have I mentioned that NJ is great? Because NJ is great. And I
hate that she isn't in it more. And not just because her smile made my heart
skip a beat. I think she’s genuinely complex and dealing with a lot of
self-exploratory stuff, given that she’s kind of tiring of the trouble of being
an idol and has a real crush for the first time in her life. I wanted so much
more of that, but…well, like I said, she kind of doesn’t need to be in the
story at all, so it’s almost like the real problem is that they wrote her too well.
27. Oh!
Here’s a fun little thing: I figured out, somewhere near the last few episodes,
that Chae-ran had been calling Other-Ung essentially “senpai” the entire
frikkin’ series. It just clicked, suddenly, that I kept hearing this word (apparently
seonbae) when she was talking to him,
and that it was probably her referring to him as her work senior. My anime
brain suddenly decided to stop by, I guess, and it made the connection: “Dude,
if this was anime, she’d be calling him senpai.
She’s probably calling him…whatever the Korean word for that is. Also, you need
to wash your dinner dishes.” So, hey, look at me. Figuring stuff out.
27A.
Of course, if I’d had my wits about me, I’d have looked up Korean honorifics in
their entirety back during Start Up,
when I figured out Little Sister kept calling Big Sister eonni. But, hey, why give up the chance to kick myself for failing
to do something obvious, down the line, right?
27B.
Also, I assume this means I need to start calling you seonbae. Rather than Erin-sempai.
28.
Oh, going back to my point from #25A…wanna know something else that’s great
about NJ? She doesn’t use narration. She soliloquys, sometimes, which is what I
think everyone should have been doing, instead of voiceover narrating. And not
just because NJ was doing it but because I think it’s a better structure for
getting out internal thoughts as they happen, and it forces the writers to get
more things across without having to outright say them.
29. Unrelated
to any of this: I saw that Sunny and Mr. Death (from Goblin) were in another show together. It’s called Touch Your Heart. Have you seen it? Is
it any good?
30.
Uh, but back to this show—let’s talk
about some great paralleling/callback stuff, shall we?
30A.
Before the main duo starts working together, they have this long sequence of
running into each other wherever they go. When they meet at the supermarket,
they both have their shopping bags rip open and the contents spill out. Obvious
parallel. BUT…did you notice that they’re actually wearing near-identical
light-gray sweatshirts? (Why is this good? Because it shows they’re kinda on
the same wavelength, not just coincidentally (or by the hand of fate) running
into each other.)
30B.
When Main Girl runs into Other-Ung for the first time in years (when he pulls
her away from being hit by the guy on the scooter), she says, “How have you
been?” This is the exact question that, episodes later, Main-Ung desperately
wants to know why he and Main Girl can’t ask each other. It is such a throwaway
moment, when it happens, and the significance of it isn’t given context until
later on, but they have a quick flashback to it—amidst an otherwise unrelated
circumstance—and I happened to catch it. That was very good. Very subtle. I mean, maybe it’s accidental, but I still
think it’s very good.
30C.
In the same episode where Main-Ung is invited up to NJ’s apartment, he is later
invited into Main Girl’s house. He rejects NJ’s offer, but accepts Main Girl’s.
Which seems like it’s super-duper obvious, so why am I putting this on the list
of great stuff? Well, because the circumstances of the two offers are very
different (I think he only goes in to Main Girl’s house because of Grandma
seeing them outside…or something like that), so it’s actually less obvious a
parallel than you’d think it would be: he doesn’t accept or reject the offer to
go into Main Girl’s house but is at the mercy of (in effect) fate making it
possible for him to do so. Technically, he could have said no, but it’s that he
feels like there’s no choice that speaks volumes: in terms of the romance, NJ
is a choice, but Main Girl isn’t. (As in: he can say yes or no to NJ, but he
can only say yes to Main Girl.) Great stuff. I mean, terrible, because NJ is
great, but…
30D.
This one’s pretty subtle, but there’s a point where Main-Ung tells his parents
that Other-Ung always pretends to be busy when he isn’t. Which means Main-Ung
knows that “busy” is usually code for “going through some emotional stuff.” And
Other-Ung had used “busy” multiple times throughout the show prior to that
moment, which means Main-Ung was never fooled by the excuse.
30E.
This one gets kinda garbled, but there’s a tragedy of sorts with Main Girl
dumping Main-Ung, that final time, because she’s ashamed over (broadly) money
problems. Because his family is rich, and there’s undoubtedly something that
could have been done to help her and her grandmother out, if only she’d thought
to ask.
30F.
This is…not the biggest one, but the one I found most surprising (and that I
wish they’d done a lot more with): they “recreate” the kissing in the rain
scene from high school during the shoot for the new documentary—but, this time,
rather than Other-Ung stumbling upon it and getting his heart broken, Main Girl
stumbles across him, and he goes back
with her, leaving Main-Ung to stand heartbroken in the rain. It’s so painfully
contrived to parallel that moment that I totally thought they were going to
just do the same thing all over again…so when it turns out that it goes
differently, this time, I was pretty excited. Of course, they don’t really do
much with it, but…hey, you take what you can get.
31.
Y’know, relatedly, there’s a scene after this where Chae-ran is filming
Main-Ung drawing the house where they’re staying, and I felt a lot of chemistry
between those two. Which is narratively fitting because she’s seemingly so much
like Other-Ung, who is in a sort of an other-half/soul mate relationship with
Main-Ung (remember: as soon as it’s clear that last breakup was the real deal,
Other-Ung deleted Main Girl’s contact info—so he made his choice for who he
loved more). So…take that kind of complementary pair, add the twist that it’s a
girl (and thus someone Main-ung could find romantic interest in)…I’m just
saying. I thought there was a lot that could have been done with that possible
spark, but, alas, no. But maybe that’s just me reading into things. Or wanting
Chae-ran to have way more screen time than she did.
32. “I’m
thinking of going to architecture school—in France. Because we need a reason
for there to be a time skip.”
33.
Oh, how could I forget: that moment when Restaurant Friend realized she was in
love with Manager Friend (when she sees him prepping the clams she forgot about
when she went on her blind date) was adorable. A little frustrating that it
took years(?) for them to get
together, after that. But adorable, nonetheless. Same goes for when he finally
asks her out at that book donation thingy at the end, because—and maybe I
should have listed this with the good parallels stuff—she says yes and then he
(sort of) chases after her around the book shelves. Which, of course, is a
version of that flirty moment they keep going back to from the documentary.
34. Thank
God Chae-ran at least gets to tell Other-Ung that she likes him. And he does a nervous
laugh that lets us know that those two are going to happen. (…they’re going to
happen, right?)
35. …okay,
so, I know I’ve been fawning all over her, but—again—I want to emphasize how
surprised I was that I ended up liking NJ so much. I just would never have
predicted it.
36. So,
I’ve already mentioned this, but I wish Other-Ung and NJ were the main
characters, and that this show was about them becoming heartbreak pals. I just
think the two of them have so much
going on with their characters, not just dealing with their unrequited loves
but also with a sense of who they even are as people. (Does Other-Ung know how
to step out of his self-inflicted background role? Does NJ know how to actually
follow her desires rather than just her impulses? Can Other-Ung really be a
good friend while admitting he’s allowed to think of himself first? Can NJ be
an idol but also someone who can have normal personal connections?) And, bonus
points here, they’re mirror images of each other: one very much behind the
camera, observing, the other very much in front of the camera and being
observed; one is the steady friend everyone relies on, the other both
friendless and considered too impulsive to be reliable; both are isolated for
fear of the worlds they’ve built crumbling around them, but one is afraid of
ruining the personal connections he worked to create and the other is afraid of
ruining things by even having
personal connections. It’s great, meaty stuff for them both, and I think you
could absolutely center everything about the show around them and their
affections for Main Girl and Main-Ung (respectively) as Main Girl and Main-Ung
find their way back to one another after five years apart. (I mean, just
Other-Ung’s line about his mother proves him to be a more complex character
than Main-Ung and all his abandonment issues: “My mom is dying…and I don’t feel
sad.” That’s incredible stuff! Because it bothers him that he isn’t more
upset—or maybe he really is upset and doesn’t see it yet. Who knows? But
wouldn’t it be fun to find out?)
36A.
…which is, of course, my way of saying that I was not a fan of the main duo.
36B.
Okay, okay—wait, let me clarify: I like Main-Ung and Main Girl just fine.
They’re charming individuals, and I like them as characters…when they’re with
literally anyone else but each other. But together? Eh…they’re okay. Like, I enjoyed seeing them date,
in the last few episodes of the series, but I never thought the two of them
sparked like they did with all the other romance options they had. (Heck, even
arrogant Mr. Jang, the dude in charge of marketing for the company at the
beginning of the show, had more chemistry with Main Girl, I felt. And I already
told you my thoughts on Chae-ran x Main-Ung.)
ERIN: "Have you heard of Our Beloved Summer?"
DARYL: [throws book away] "Alexa, start Netflix."
36C. More specifically, though, I had a hard time rooting for them—and I don’t even think it was a matter of their chemistry being off or even other characters being more dynamic. I think my issue is that I don’t think the story warranted them being the main characters—and, even more specific than that, I don’t think their love story was strong enough to justify being not just the glue of the plot but the central conflict of the story.
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