Letter #93(A): Sweet Home 1 Rewatch

Good morning, Erin.

Happy New Year! 

What’s in store for 2024? Well, more of this—because gosh do I have a backlog, and the last thing I’d want is to spare you the chance to hear my thoughts about shows you probably have no interest in.

But I also did something fun, last night, just as the clock was ticking towards midnight: I tried my hand at some tarot reading to see if I could harness my resonance with the frequency of the universe and divine some insight on the year to come. 

Using one deck, I discovered that I am about to stumble into new love. Using a second deck, I discovered that I am on the path to calamity. 

So, identical readings.

But my apparently fundament-assured ability to actively run towards heartbreak aside, the one thing we can be sure of is, as I’ve said, a lot more of these letters—starting with, as you can tell from the title, something I should have had to you safely before Christmas but simply let myself be too distracted to get to: my re-watch of Sweet Home in prep for its much-anticipated sequel. I wasn’t going to let myself make the mistake of not refreshing my memory like I did with The Uncanny Counter.

So, did one of my favorite K-dramas stand up to the lofty heights of my memories? Let’s find out!

1. Yes. Yes it did. It’s still great, and I even spent a lot of my time appreciating the aspects and characters of the show I wasn’t as invested in the first time around. (Read as: I paid more attention to stuff that didn’t involve super-duper cute rocker girl Ji-su.)

2. Well, I mean, some of the CGI is worse than I remember it being. But some of it is…okay, still not great, but more than passable. Especially since the show is so good. We can forgive the little things if everything surrounding it is good. Which it is!

3. I still think the lady with the little dog is the most overlooked mystery of the show. Like, how does she know so much about everyone else? Why does she know so much—like, narratively, why have her know so much? It’s got to be something that comes up later, right?

4. This time around, because I now know this series is based on webtoon, I noticed how many of the shots from the first episode are unique and interesting—that is, very much unlike standard TV choices—which means they have to be one-for-one recreations of panels from the comic. There are two that especially stood out to me: a weird tilted angle of Ballerina Sister’s legs dangling over the doorway to the roof that’s shot from inside the building; and a shot of the Gangster Guy with Ballerina Sister outside of her apartment that’s so unnatural (he’s dramatically hunched his shoulders and looking away from the camera, and she’s holding a baseball bat in an uncomfortable but easy-to-see way) that it’s like the characters know they’re being filmed. 

5. In my original letter, I mention how absurd it is that that one woman’s daughter just so happens to be right by the apartment building and just so happens to be running to get inside when the woman just so happens to manage to get the front gate to lift—and it totally is absurd—but I didn’t remember that the show tries to wave it away by having one of the minor characters say that it was weird that it happened like that. Nice try, show. 

5A. Now, if there’s some storyline brewing about her having the same kind of weird sixth sense thing that the dog lady maybe has, that’s pretty cool. But…I am skeptical. 

5B. Also, I swear I know this actress from somewhere, but MyDramaList disagrees. 

6. I feel a little silly for not realizing the first time through that Ji-su inherited her bass from her boyfriend who killed himself, then inherits the sword from her new, ersatz boyfriend (Bible Man) after he sacrifices himself to help save everyone else. Great parallel. (And, as a fun fact, is similar to Andrea from the comic version of The Walking Dead, who spends the first third of the story sort of physically taking on aspects of those closest to her who die.)

7. Gangster Guy is still the only one who looks like he actually smokes when he smokes. Which just…you cannot tell me there isn’t someone to coach these people on this. It’s not hard. Just go stand outside a bar for 5 minutes. 

8. The little girl (of the brother-sister pair) is actually a pretty good actress. There’s a lot more nuance to her performance than I remembered there being. Like, she makes good acting choices when confronted with situations that are simultaneously terrifying and sad. Or she takes direction really well. Either way, she pulls it off. Which is not easy. So…good for her. Can’t wait to see what she does in Season 2!

8A. Cough. 

9. When they get the broadcast that martial law has been declared, the military personnel who do the broadcast have very specific, irregular insignia on their uniforms and a SLICKLY PRODUCED VIDEO ABOUT THE TOTALLY SURPRISE SCENARIO THEY’RE IN. Yeah, not at all sus as f***. 

10. At one point, the jerkface old man who runs the convenience store threatens Butterfly Boy (the main dude, who is the actor from Nevertheless) with a box cutter—which, this time through, I realized was really ironic, given the healed wounds up his arm. Well done, show. 

11. I hadn’t realized that the only reason Bible Man is able to stop Gangster Guy from killing the creepy child murderer guy is because he cannot believe someone is wielding a sword. That’s great. 

12. I’m 70% sure they changed some of the translations between the last time I watched this show and now. I mean, maybe not. But I’m pretty sure. 

12A. Oh, here’s a fun fact: I told you I’ve gotten Theresa to watch Single’s Inferno 3, so I was watching her finish an episode at lunch, the other day, and I noticed that her translation was different from mine—but in the exact same way that the hosts of the podcast I listen to were saying their translations were somehow different. Well, a little independent investigation (being the world’s greatest detective and all) and I discovered that there are two sets of English subtitles on Netflix: “English subtitles” and “English closed caption,” with the latter seemingly matching the lines from the English dub…and, to me, the much worse subtitle option. So…keep an eye on which ones you’re using.

12B. If you’re using subtitles. I’m still not clear on whether you need them or not. 

12C. Who am I kidding—you probably speak a dozen languages. There isn’t anything you can’t do. 

13. The sick, grandfatherly old man in this show is played by the same actor who was the main guy’s father in You’re the Best (as I noted back it that letter), but it’s ridiculous the difference in charisma he brings to this as opposed to that performance. I don’t know what accounts for the difference, but it’s a heck of a thing. 

14. Speaking of actors, though…there are three more people who I recognized, this time around, now that I’ve got even more shows under my belt—and a couple are extra-interesting, as I will show you:

• the soccer coach from Dream as the leader of the band of marauders who show up

• the secretary/chauffeur from See You in My 19th Life as the young soldier at the apartments

• the shaman girl from A Good Day to be a Dog as Butterfly Boy’s older sister 

14A. So, in a fun twist, the young soldier’s actor was also in Our Beloved Summer as the main guy’s manager. And the second male lead from Our Beloved Summer is the other “special” monster who is hanging out with the marauders who show up in the last couple of episodes of the season. So, it’s like a mini-reunion…except the young soldier is dead well before the other guy shows up in the story, so it’s kind of not. 

14B. Meanwhile, Butterfly Boy's older sister’s actress is in A Good Day to be a Dog with the actress who plays Ji-su, but she’s dead well before this story even starts, so, in a way, it’s like they’re having a mini-reunion (well, pre-union, since this show came first)—but also not, because the older sister is dead well before the start of this story. 

14C. And on top of that…the older sister’s actress was also in 19th Life as the main girl’s mechanic friend at the car testing facility in Germany. So, it’s a 19th Life mini-reunion (pre-union), as well—except also not, because, of course, the older sister is dead well before the start of this story.

15. People sure do let a lot of red food dye splatter into their open eyes, on this show. Like, almost comically so.

16. I feel like I totally missed that the emphasis on the flashbacks to Butterfly Boy being bullied are actually plot relevant, in that they establish why he’s willing to sacrifice his body for the benefit of those he cares about, which is what he did to protect his father’s job and what he does to keep his “family” at the apartment safe when he goes on missions into the upper floors of the building. 

17. Don’t think I didn’t notice you try to slip another one past me, show: when the Gangster Guy brings back the corpses of the daughter and young soldier who are killed by the tongue monster outside of the apartments, they seemed to both be in relatively good condition. After being killed by the tongue monster who sucks the life out of those it kills, leaving desiccated husks behind.

18. I want to take an opportunity to mention how well written women on this show are. They’re all strong, but they run the gamut in terms of types of strength, from quality badassery to pure survivalism to basic maternal protection. They’re not invincible, their emotions vacillate and get the better of them, they (or the script in their stead, I mean) don’t have to tear down the men around them to make them seem better by comparison—it’s like they’re real people trying to step up in a crisis and all with different thresholds for bravery and weakness. It’s great. 

19. The men, on the other hand, really only fall into two broad camps: cowards and heroes. Most of the heroes are fairly three-dimensional with their attributes, but the cowards are pretty much just cowards. Which isn’t unrealistic, just interesting to note. 

20. Also…I’d forgotten just how f***ing hot the girls are on this show. Not to get all whatever for a moment, but seriously—Ji-su, Ballerina Sister, and Hot-as-Fire(fighter)? Absolute, stone-cold foxes. And I love that the show isn’t afraid to remind us of that, every now and then. It doesn’t ogle, but it’s also not going to avoid giving us what we paid for, as it were. 

20A. I mean, you remember the scene where Hot-as-Fire(fighter) has to strip down to escape in the vents? Remember how frikkin’ ripped she was? That’s just admiring the beauty of the human form. And the actress was in her late-30s at the time! H-How?! 

20B. Oh, she was a boxer on the national team. That’s a good place to start. Okay, it makes a little more sense. But…still. Damn. 

20C. Oh—the caregiver girl with the crossbow was also a total babe, of course, but she’s in it less…and is the same actress who played Bu-yeon in Alchemy of Souls 2, so every time she opened her mouth, all I could hear was her totally different character in that, which colored by fawning. I still fawned, but I was also kind of giggling as I did. Which means I was less awestruck. 

21. Speaking of the caretaker girl, though: I don’t remember if I’d caught that Gangster Guy gave up smoking because he had a crush on her and she was asthmatic. Either way, I liked it. 

22. Also, I really liked Gangster Guy, this time through. Not that I didn’t like him before, but I didn’t remember just how much he does in the story. 

23. Still wondering what the hell the eclipse/time-freeze thing with the old man was.

24. Oh man—I’d forgotten how much of a drag the marauders storyline is! It gets so heavy-handed and stops the pacing dead in its tracks. Oof. It’s the first (and perhaps only) stumble of the entire season. 

25. …heh, not that the Ji-su appendectomy thing wasn’t a big ask. I mean, it’s mostly fine, but it is a bit silly.

26. …and, in retrospect, as much as I love the moment they set out in the super-van to get surgical supplies and are IMMEDIATELY stopped by the giant monster, the setup for that moment takes up so much time that it almost feels like filler. Which is maybe harsh. It sets up the subversion moment, which I really like. But a second viewing makes it seem a little less acceptable. Only slightly. It’s still good, and I wouldn’t argue for changing it—though it’s definitely possible to tighten it up a bit more. 

27. And, somehow, I found the “you’re changed by your desires!” explanation to not only make more sense but seem more plausible, this time around. And, no, I could not tell you why. 

And that’s the hype I rode into Season 2 on. What a great show.

But, as I recall, the coming change in venue had me worried, back then, and it still had me worried at the end of the rewatch. Were my fears allayed or justified? I guess there’s only one way to find out.

…hopefully sooner rather than later. 

See you in Part B, Erin.

—Daryl

P.S. - For reasons we won’t get into, yet, I started Backstreet Rookie on New Year’s Eve—and I was IMMEDIATELY hooked. I’m only halfway through, but…wow, is it good.