Letter #24: When the Camellia Blooms
Good morning, Erin.
Q. Where do I go for my next K-drama without you?A. To watch a bunch of aging millennials stare out the window and wonder why everything sucks and no one loves them.
That’s right, I’m talking about My Liberation Notes, which Netflix seemed to think I’d be especially interested in. For some reason. That is utterly inexplicable.
Buuuuuuut—that’s a weekly series, at the moment, and we’re not yet at the week where it wraps up, so that’s a letter for another time. Instead, we’re going to talk about a series I pulled from—deep breath—my Netflix queue: When the Camellia Blooms.
“But Daryl, you lovable if foolhardy individualist,” I hear you say, “have we not been down this path before? Haven’t you proven that this is an absolutely unreliable way to traverse these shows when you still have a handful of choices from my pre-2022 list you could get to?”
Well, dear Erin, would I be me if I didn’t refuse to learn from the past and avoid obvious disaster in my future? And isn’t that predictable foolhardiness (as you put it) reassuring, like the familiar chime of a grandfather clock? “Ah, Daryl’s made a terrible judgment call, again. Feels like home.”
But, hey, who knows—maybe this time will be different!
…and, if it isn’t, at least you know this should be a comparatively short letter, since I don’t know if you’ve seen the show or not. So there’s always that.
Anyway. Without further ado:
1. Okay, okay—let’s cut to the chase: is it any good? And the answer is…actually, yeah. It’s clearly imperfect (and what show isn’t?), but when it gets things right it’s so, so, so good. Uneven, but consistently entertaining; sometimes frustrating, but predominantly compelling; good stuff safely outweighing the bad stuff. I don’t think I’d ever need to watch it again, but I’d definitely recommend it to someone who was interested.
2. This show is another instance of the Netflix trailer lying to you, but that’s also the fault of the show, honestly. And, even then, it’s only a half-lie—because, yes, this is a romcom about a guy falling in love with a single mom, just like the trailer says…but it’s also a grim crime drama about catching a serial killer. Like, not to spoil things, but the very first scene of the show involves the police finding a murder victim. It’s a weighty scene, even without any idea who anyone is. Which I was absolutely not ready for.
2A. That said, the two parts (romcom/crime) are both very good, even if they don’t quite mesh, tone-wise.
2B. And, of course, I totally solved the whole case well in advance of the ending. Because I’m the world’s greatest detective. As you know.
3. Speaking of: try as they might to digitally remove (…or cover with painter’s tape) all the car logos, guess who spotted a lone Hyundai emblem on the back of a car that was in frame for half a second? That’s right—it’s ya boy.
4. Speaking of logos, though: this show went ham on avoiding copyright stuff by juuuuuust altering things to look like but be legally distinct from actual things. (Or, well, enough for Korean television, which I guess Disney wasn’t watching, at the time.) Here are my three favorites:
· a bottle of Chadel #5
4A. A follow-up note about the GSI posters: there are three, each with a different color to match the three versions of the show in real life. But one of the posters is just visible enough that you can read it: GSI: Neverland. Cracked me up.
4B. A follow-up note about Harry Pottal: we actually see a snippet of the inside of the book:
5. The main couple, in this series, is so frikkin’ cute together. Whatever else I might have to say about them as individuals, they’re one of my favorite K-drama couples. I even started a list to rank all my favorites. (…and trying very hard to justify Good Boy and Ae-wol (from 100 Days…) as an official couple even though they are very plainly not.)
6. There’s A LOT of Marvel movie referencing, in this show. Which I’m all for—especially when Iron Man is everyone’s go-to hero of choice. (Even if the characters don’t always seem to understand much about Iron Man.)
7. Oh! Almost forgot—a handful of familiar faces in this one:
· Autistic Brother from It’s Okay… as the ***hole landlord
8. Did you know “foot volleyball” is a real sport? ‘Cus it’s apparently a real sport.
9. There’s a point at which the show can do a fake dating plot, and they don’t do it. And my heart is still pouting about that.
10. A lot of things revolve around Dongbaek (the female lead) being a single mom, and I’m obviously very out of step with what the show assumes either I think or what I assume other people will typically think about that fact. I mean, I cottoned on pretty quickly based on the way the people of the town treat or refer to her because of this (short version: people don’t like it), but I was surprised by not just the level of animosity over it but the distaste for the male lead wanting to date her. “Why would a guy date a single mom?” Um, I dunno…maybe he, like, likes her? I’m just spit-balling.
10A. I mean, yes, I get that some people would find the idea of going into a relationship having to contend not just with the person but that person’s kid is…not ideal. Which, y’know, fine. No one’s forcing you to date someone with a kid. But come on, really? This is the adoption thing from Thirty-Nine all over again. I just don’t get it.
10B. That said…I mentioned this to my mom and she was like, “Oh, sure. I’m not surprised.” She also asked me if everyone assumed she was a prostitute. Which they kind of do. And she was like, “Yup. Not surprised.” So…apparently I need subtitles and my mom for this stuff.
10C. I mean, Dongbaek owns a bar. I don’t know if that would have been a more obvious connection, to someone else. Like, someone else not my mom’s age.
11. Relatedly, Dongbaek’s kid is a bit of a prick. I mean, he’s 8. And he’s not had the easiest life, given how people treat his mom (because he exists). But my problem is less that he’s a jerk in the way that kids can be jerks, but that the show tacitly approves of the ways in which the kid is a jerk and what he’s being a jerk about. And I don’t like that.
12. In a similar vein, Dongbaek get a huuuuuuge pass (from the show) every time she decides to hold other people accountable for not knowing things she never tells them. And I don’t like that, either.
13. And connecting those last two points, there is this massive, repeated sentiment that the kid’s dad/Donbaek’s ex-boyfriend is a despicable jerkwad for abandoning them…except he didn’t abandon them. She dumped him without telling him she was pregnant and disappeared. Whatever else might make him a jerk—and there’s one thing in particular that kinda definitely does—it’s not this. And the show just allows this myth to be considered fact, even when put directly to the ex-boyfriend. I think there’s one instance of him weakly saying, “But I didn’t know you were pregnant,” but it’s batted aside immediately and never spoken of again. I was shouting at the TV every time this point came up. Total nonsense.
14. …that said, I mostly quite like Dongbaek. I mean, she constantly veers off into being totally frustrating to watch (either because of the above or because she’s written to be so needlessly ambivalent, at times), but there’s something quite winning about her. Or maybe I’m just so used to being mopey that I no longer recognize mopiness in other people. I dunno. Point is, I thought she was likeable.
15. The male lead is also quite likeable. He’s an idiot, but a good man. Or, well, he’s not an idiot, but he is utterly uncomplicated. If you can be a simpleton and fairly intelligent, he’s that. And he’s got the positivity and strong moral sense that only the most uncluttered mind can have. I wouldn’t put him on my list of favorite characters or anything, but he was a very solid protagonist.
16. Going back to people being jerks, we get several instances of journalists being absolute scum, which you know is one of my favorite things. But we also get plenty of stuff about people leaving moral high-horse comments under the scummy articles (either about the subject of the articles or that the media even wrote the articles to begin with) being equally as scummy, so that’s nice, too.
17. Wait, this just occurred to me: do I not particularly like drinking…because I don’t like socializing? Are those two things connected?
18. Best line of the series: “What a woman doing outside driving a car?!” (I mean…what could beat that?)
19. One of the best things about the male lead is how consistent his character is. By which I mean the principles that govern his character in one place govern his character in all the other places: his sense of justice meshes with his treatment of other people (whether positive or negative) meshes with his romantic pursuits meshes with his detective skills. He might be the best-written character in the show.
20. ...although the part-timer at the bar might give him a run for his money, now that I think about it, because she’s not just consistent but also very cleverly written. I don’t want to spoil how or in what way, in case you get around to this one (if you haven’t already), but just take it from me that it took competent writing to make her work the way they wanted her to.
21. That said, I’m sorry to report that, good as the character writing often is, there is no #BestGirl, in this show. I know you are as heartbroken about it as I am.
22. Still, the “we’re in love” realization moment in this is great, by the way. It may even be the best I’ve seen in any of these K-dramas—including the one in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha. (Maybe. Maaaaybe.) But, regardless of where it actually lands, it’s up there.
23. Here’s some fun subtitle nonsense: there’s a section where the characters are discussing the meanings behind flowers, and one character—in a very emotional moment—brings up forget-me-nots…which everyone is surprised to discover means “don’t forget me.” Which is a stupid line in English. But the point is obviously way less stupid in Korean, where the flower is not literally named the thing it represents.
24. In an amusing bit of synchronicity, both this show and My Liberation Notes make a point of saying—and I watched these two episodes on the same day—they both make a point of saying that women should play hard-to-get when a man is showing interest. And, in both cases, the woman getting the advice says, “Why? If you like someone who’s after you, why waste time instead of going for it?” Which, even as someone who likes a little coy back-and-forth to test the waters, I have to admit is probably good advice.
24A. Though, if you’re not great at expressing yourself or are a nervous person who struggles with saying something very directly, you’ll probably end up saying something both totally unclear and embarrassing, just like the male lead when he tries to let Dongbaek know he’s interested in her. Which is…not ideal. But, hey, what’s the worst that could happen—you lose some self-respect? What even is that?
24B. Of course, it’s less of a problem if, like the male lead, you’re kind of an idiot/uncomplicated.
25. The biggest downside to the show is how many different things it has going on at any one moment. A lot of it seems like it doesn’t really need to be there, except that it will eventually lead to the ultimate resolution of the main romance and crime stories. By which I mean characters and subplots often seem to bide time until that person or action either serves as a (frequently silly) misdirect or serves as a means for an otherwise unrelated payoff. Like, there are two characters who are getting a divorce, and that whole sub-drama plays out over many episodes, and it doesn’t really matter except it throws suspicion on one or both of the characters for a crime…except the audience already knows who committed the crime, so the suspicion raised as a down-the-road effect of the divorce doesn’t really need to be there, which means the divorce doesn’t really need to be there, which makes me frown about why we spent so much time on it to begin with.
26. The second-biggest downside is that the themes of the show are often quite muddled. And I’ll refer back to what I said previously about the show giving a pass to Dongbaek and her son for various things they say or do as a way of giving you the gist of what I mean. Just imagine that but with themes.
27. …to say nothing of how this show handles its F***ING TIME JUMP. Which…just…grr.
28. But we do get a pretty okay floppy beach hat, for a bit, so how mad can I be?
29. Very. The answer is very. You know I hate the time jumps.
ANYWAY—that’s all I’ve got for you on that.
I’m sure you’re sorry to say goodbye to this letter after just over four pages, but fear not, dear Erin—there should be something for My Liberation Notes very soon after this. And then at least one more very, very soon after that. So…no shortage of reading in your future.
Also, I’m going to rewatch Eungyo, the movie with my most beloved Eun-tak that I mention in one of my previous letters, probably sometime in the next month. I want to re-experience it with K-drama veteran eyes, see if anything hits me differently. And, of course, I’ll let you know how that goes.
BUT…every summer, I do a re-watch of an anime series I really like but haven’t seen in a long time, and I’m thinking of adding a K-drama to that re-watch list, as well. I mean, I’ve only been at this for six or seven months, so there’s really only a couple of shows that are far enough back in my memory that I might want to revisit them for these purposes (Hotel Del Luna and Vincenzo), but I’m kinda excited to give it a shot. And then you can check my new letter against my old one! Because I’m sure you’ve kept them all, in order, in a desk drawer and not thrown them out as soon as you were finished with them.
Cough.
Anyway. Barring you suddenly appearing at the office for no reason so that I can ask you for your preference in my summer re-watch, I’ll do my best to channel your thoughts on the subject in the ether. So…prep your astral-plane self for that.
--Daryl
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