Letter #100: Josee, IU, and the Centennial Letter Spectacular

Good morning, Erin.

And here we are: 100 letters. 

Nearly two and half years of opinions, impressions, critiques, crushes, rants, ruminations, and embarrassing grammatical errors I spotted waaaaaay too late to correct—all organized, enumerated, and collected in one place for your eyes only. 

…I assume. I actually have no idea who—if anyone—is reading these letters. But, no matter the case, the very idea of them was born of you, sustains itself on you, and will march ever onward in deference to you, whether it reaches its intended audience or simply inches ever closer to being Dear Mr. Henshaw.

And so, again, here we are: a celebratory 100th letter filled with my experience of 100 Korean movies I’ve watched over the last few months specifically in anticipation of marking this very important occasion. 

…okay, it’s actually 12 movies—but that’s still a lot! And certainly still a celebration of this fun, exciting, life-changing journey you sent me on.

So—you ready, seonbae? 

I. My Worst Neighbor

A man and woman in neighboring apartments with exceptionally thin walls annoy each other with noise, come to an agreement on how not to do that, then end up bonding because hearing everything the other person does makes it feel like they’re living together. 

1. I was hoping for something light, and I got it—in that it was both not-heavy and so thin on substance that it could only be light. For a romcom, there wasn’t a lot of rom and a debatable amount of com, but I also wouldn’t dissuade anyone from watching, if he needed something to watch to kill some time. But the pacing—especially regarding which parts of their relationship to spend time on—is a big, big drawback.

2. I knew three people in this one:

• Officer Min from Rookie Historian as the main guy

• the pudgy office manager from Secretary Kim as the main guy’s hospital-worker friend

• the antagonist’s lieutenant from Song of the Bandits as the main guy’s fruit store friend

3. I do not know who the actress playing the female lead is—but I really wish I did. She’s the best part of the movie. And not just because she (and her character) are very much my type.

4. Actually, speaking of: it sure is lucky that these two strangers who fall in love with each other without ever seeing each other end up being comparably attractive. Makes things a lot easier. 

5. There’s a needless, unfunny visual gag about the male lead getting an erection…but dammit if I wasn’t impressed by whatever weird mechanism they used to simulate it popping up in his pants. Very clever. 

6. Speaking of things that were clever: to emphasize the initial personality conflict between our leads, the man is wearing a New York t-shirt, and the woman is wearing a California t-shirt. It’s not quite the NY-Boston rivalry, but it’s still there. So, intentional or otherwise, I liked that detail.

6A. Okay, less clever was that his shirt technically said “NYC State,” which…I mean, it’s funny, but it’s also kind of dumb. 

II. Bargain

A short film in which a schoolgirl prostitute and the middle-aged man who’s hired her haggle over pricing and services in a hotel room. 

1. The whole thing is less than 15 minutes long, so any discussion of details is going to give away what happens. But I’ll say this: while I would never describe this as especially good, I think the movie’s worth seeing (you can find it on YouTube)—and literally everything will try to spoil it for you, from the video title to the video description to the comments, so…beware. 

1A. In fact, just search “k-crush bargain,” and the first video that pops up should be the one. If it’s about 13 minutes, click on it, and do your best not to read anything written anywhere. 

2. The actors do a great job of making the conversation seem natural, especially when it comes to the early awkwardness of their interaction. 

3. For a story about a dude paying an underaged girl for sex, there’s a fairly clever philosophical bent to the whole thing—particularly when it comes to the parceling out of our moral outrage. It’s subtle, perhaps even unintentional, but it’s there.

4. There comes a point in the conversation when things should become clearer to one of the characters than it does…and I think that says a lot about that character.

5. I don’t think the schoolgirl is a convincing smoker—but…the movie does a great job of hiding this: the focus is never on her when she goes to take a drag. 

6. I have no idea why I looked for this movie. A recommendation on MyDramaList? I want to say that it has to do with the actress (because I’m me), but I haven’t seen her in anything. So…yeah, I dunno. 

III. Next Sohee

A cop investigating a modestly unusual suicide discovers the dark side of telemarketing. (No, seriously.)

1. Before I get into anything else, let me mention the folks I recognized:

• the nurse from Kingdom (Bae Doo-na) as the cop

• the mother of the three “old maids” from The Matchmakers as the new call center manager

• despite what MDL says, the assistant from My Demon as the school teacher/counselor 

• the third guy in the club from My Liberation Notes as the vice principal

2. Now, I like Bae Doo-na, and I was in the mood for a thriller. So, on paper, at least, this seemed like a good call. In reality, though, it was a train wreck. Which might be an insult to train wrecks, because at least a train wreck isn’t boring.

2A. This movie is little more than a socially conscious screed: dull, preachy, and too lazy to do anything but make the most perfunctory gesture at storytelling—which sucks because, assuming the underlying issue is real, this is absolutely worth getting into the public consciousness. (Schools sending high schoolers to work for call centers as part of an “externship” program that essentially turns them into slave labor. It’s horrendous—with lots of blame to go around.) 

2B. Next Sohee barely qualifies as telling a story at all—and, worse, it’s barely telling a story twice-over: Bae Doo-na’s cop investigating the suicide of the girl who worked as a telemarketer happens about 70% of the way through the film! Everything up to that point was just a slow exposition rollout of how the girl got to the point where she decided to kill herself. Her section of the film had no narrative drive, and the cop’s section had no arc to it (despite it having all the “plot”). The two parts obviously connect, but they may as well be different films altogether. 

2C. And when I say different films, I mean sections of drafts of different films that still need A LOT of work before their scripts are done. At best, this is like a typical college student’s idealistic, limited-experience/limited-perspective rant about an exploited group, but—by sheer luck—this one happens to have found a target worth the rage. It’s so concerned with the righteousness of its message that it forgets anything else it could (AND SHOULD) be doing—including, y’know, making a movie. There's genuinely no excuse for writing this bad.

2D. Which is to say: skip it. 

3. No, seriously, I have “it’s been [XYZ] minutes and what the f*** is this movie?!” in my notes an alarming number of times. 

4. Whoever played the high school girl did a good job, though. According to my notes. 

5. Oh, and the woman who takes over as the call center manager is that perfect smiling, soft-spoken, even-keeled monster overseeing the call center staff. It’s a role that can come off as a caricature as easily as it can underplayed or forgettable, but she strikes the balance between villainy and the mundane: you don’t want to think people are like her, in real life, but you absolutely know they are—hopefully in the abstract and not because you’ve had to deal with them.

IV. Two Lights

A short film about blind people taking pictures and falling in love. Part 1 of our Han Ji-min film trilogy.

1. Before I knew that this was about people who were blind or near-blind, I was like, “Why the heck is Han Ji-min walking around so exaggeratedly stiffly? Is this some kind of arthouse piece or OKAY WAIT SHE’S BLIND never mind, I get it, sorry everyone.”

2. People I recognized: 

• Ye-bun from Behind Your Touch as the main (almost-blind) girl

• the slow patient from It’s Okay to Not be Okay as the fully blind guy

3. Even for something that was only 30 minutes long, this was thin on…well, everything. There’s a strange amount of wasted time, as though the story wants to be about several things in equal measure without having a runtime to accommodate that desire. We don’t really get much character, flavor, or plot—all of which absolutely can be done with limited time, but they all have to be offshoots of whichever one element is the central story you want to tell (about being blind? about going blind? about falling in love (as blind people)? about the nature of photography?). And this doesn’t make that choice. To its detriment. 

4. But Han Ji-min is really pretty, so…totally worth it.

4A. …seriously, though, it’s fine. It would have been better suited as something longer or maybe a short series, but it’s fine.

4B. That said, I’m also 85% sure this was just an advertisement for VR goggles to help people with extreme vision impairments, so…make of that what you will.

5. They have the actors do some…interesting things with their eyes to, I dunno, “look” like they are blind or otherwise visually impaired. And there’s a level of authenticity that it lends, I suppose, given my limited interactions with this type of thing, but I can’t imagine it was good for the actors. Like, imagine filming a 5-minute scene forcing yourself to be cross-eyed the whole time. I mean, maybe I’m wrong, but I couldn’t help thinking it as I watched everyone. 

V. A Year-End Medley

Essentially, it’s the Korean version of New Year’s Eve, one of several American attempts at ripping off Love Actually: a variety of people connected to a fancy hotel prepping for its New Year's Eve event fall in love—whether they mean to or not. Part 2 of our Han Ji-min film trilogy. 

1. In keeping with the way Love Actually (etc.) works, this movie is chock-full of recognizable folks:

• Ye-bun from Behind Your Touch as…maybe the concierge? I dunno. The main girl. Sorta.

• Mr. Death from Goblin as the hotel CEO

• the tall idiot detective from Busted! as the radio host/musician’s manager

• Ms. Choi from Hotel Del Luna as one of the maids

• the gangster guy from Sweet Home as the guy who goes on blind dates

• Secretary Kim’s eldest sister from Secretary Kim as the jerkface manager

• the main cop from When the Camellia Blooms as the dude who wants to kill himself

2. The movie is terrible. And I mean terrible. Which, if you’ve ever seen New Year’s Eve or Valentine's Day, you would not be surprised to discover. The moment I saw what the movie was trying to be, I groaned out loud. And, in that sense, it did not disappoint: it was exactly as bad as I thought it was going to be. Which is to say: it was terrible. Just…amateurish nonsense.

3. I mean, Han Ji-min spends the movie in a suit jacket and tie, Erin, and I still thought the movie was awful. And you know I love a girl in a tie.  

4. …however: the subplot about the guy trying to kill himself is EXCELLENT. It’s a straight-up dark comedy crammed into the cracks of the fluffy romance movie, and I loved it. Fascinating and hilarious and, yes, containing arguably the best romance of the entire film—and, as far as I am concerned, it was the movie. I thought of it as watching a short film on YouTube that had a bajillion ad breaks.

4A. It won’t be as funny to read it, but…best joke from the subplot: he goes to buy a pesticide form the florist in the hope of using it to kill himself, but the guy at the store clocks that he’s trying to commit suicide. “What? No no no, I’m just, um…” the man stammers—at which point the florist guy tells him it won’t work because pesticides have something in them to make people vomit the pesticide up so that they can’t use it to kill themselves…and then recommends rat poison. We then see the man walking away from the store carrying a potted plant (which he clearly bought as an awkward excuse for being there) and looking stressed. Hilarious.

4B. He then steps into the road and almost gets hit by a truck. I say almost, because he instinctively jumped out of the way. He then gets angry at himself. Also hilarious.  

4C. That said, most all the points where this subplot touches the plots of the hotel staff are stupid as hell. The romance sub-subplot is pretty good, but the rest of it…oof.

5. That said: jacket-and-tie Han Ji-min? Hot.

6. The romance subplot for the concierge is…well, it’s not any more obvious than the other subplots, but it is certainly quite obvious—but they do their darndest to make it seem like it’s not obvious, which only makes its obviousness all the more glaring. And annoying, because the romance subplot doesn’t even start until about 15 minutes before the movie ends—but it was the dozen first to be hinted at. Like, it comes up in the first 10 minutes. What the heck, movie?

7. Speaking of timing: there is virtually no buildup to the characters of any kind. We don’t really get any idea what they’re like outside of their desire to court their love interests, beyond maybe some extremely thin (often loudly declared) exposition to let us know who they are in the script: their roles at the hotel, when their most recent relationships ended—that kind of thing. The one exception is probably the guy who wants to kill himself, because we don’t need to know much of his backstory when his current character motivation is so vivid that it defines who he is for this story very, very clearly. (There’s probably also a similar argument to be made for the manager of the radio show host/singer, but his story is also far less interesting, so…I say it doesn’t count.)

8. AND YET…we get scenes of the couples being couple-ish intercut with the end credits, and there’s an absolute smorgasbord of character detail there, compared to the entire rest of the film. 

9. I like pretty much everyone in this movie, but good actors can’t save an awful script. 

VI. Josee

A rakish young man and a bitter woman become lovers after he helps her return home when her wheelchair breaks down. The 2020 Korean film adaptation of the 2003 Japanese film adaptation of the 1984 Japanese short story “Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish.” Part 3 of our Han Ji-min film trilogy.

1. I am a really big fan of the 2020 anime movie adaptation of this story, so I was VERY excited to see that there was not just a recent live-action Korean adaptation of the story but that my second-choice K-drama girlfriend, Han Ji-min, would be the star!

1A. …followed immediately by trepidation, considering she is about 20 years older than the character in the anime movie (and original short story). 

1B. …followed by a vague despair when I realized good ol’ Nam Do-san would be the male lead. (Which, again, is not a knock against the actor, just…I will never forgive Start-Up, is all. And I also don’t like how often he shows up in places I wouldn’t expect. It inexplicably feels like he’s following me.)

1C. BUT…I love Han Ji-min, I love the source material, so I decided this movie was going to be my Valentine’s Day celebration. This movie. Not the romcom starring actual K-drama girlfriend Jung So-min. 

2. Conclusion: train wreck. 

3. No, genuinely: I have no idea what this movie was about. It was vaguely the story I knew (girl in wheelchair, boy who helps her, friendship that becomes something else), but it was far, far more cynical. And almost entirely focused on him rather than them—though I cannot for the life of me tell you why. Or what his character arc is. Or, like, anything about the movie beyond things I saw happen. 

4. Worse: it’s kind of gross. Nam Do-san’s character is a sleazy playboy who basically gigolos his way through college, sleeping with his professors and his classmates so that he…I dunno, has a place to stay? Doesn’t have to pay for meals? I’m not really sure. Anyway, this is pretty much all we know about him. So, when he starts hanging out with Josee (the woman in the wheelchair), I’m thinking, “Ah, so the story is about him becoming less cynical, learning to substantively interact with another person—cleverly by connecting with a girl who’s even more cynical than he is!” Except no, Daryl, you sweet summer child. No, we don’t really get any sign that the two of them are connecting emotionally (and we’ll get to that in a moment), outside of the fact that he visits her a lot to help out. And then, one day, they f***. And then he lives with her. Until they stop f***ing and living together. 

4A. So, to recap: the gigolo guy meets the girl in the wheelchair and f***s her. That’s the romance plot.

4B. Now, yes, she wants to f***, but so did the women he was gigoloing. By what metric am I supposed to feel that this is not just more of that behavior from him? Why should I feel anything but icky about this? Why am I supposed to like it? THEY FALL IN LOVE IN THE ANIME! IT’S SWEET AND BEAUTIFUL! WHAT IS THIS MOVIE?!

5. That said, I’m 85% sure this was just an advertisement for Scotch Whiskey and Google Earth. So…make of that what you will.

6. And DO NOT GET ME STARTED on the FIVE YEAR TIME JUMP, Erin.

7. To his credit, Nam Do-san does some solid acting, even with the failings of the script. My girl…not so much. It’s all but a one-note performance: detached—from everything, all the time. While Josee is meant to be distant, thorny, and defensive, Han Ji-min never really strays from being frigid and depressingly introspective. While I have no doubt that the actress was feeling these layers of emotions, the performance didn’t do much to have us see that she was feeling those things. In my mind, this is as much a failing of hers as of the script and the direction, because she can only work with what she has in front of her—and what the director can pull from her. She seemed rooted in a single state of being, and nothing in the script seemed interested in indicating that it should be otherwise. (Whereas I think Nam Do-san had the same pitfalls but was able to add a little something around the edges, at times.)

8. Oh, and yes: the leads were the only two people I recognized. Just…for the record.

VII. Ballerina

A young woman kills her way to answers about the disappearance of her friend, a ballerina who is definitely not her lesbian lover, guys, we don’t know what you’re talking about.

1. Netflix advertised this as an action-packed revenge flick. And it’s…I guess that’s what it is. I’d say it’s more of an exploitation film than, like, John Wick, so maybe adjust your expectations before you go in. Because it’s thin on character, more than a bit sensationalist, and more concerned with style over substance. It’s fine, I guess. But I’d recommend Kill Boksoon over this, if you wanted a violent, stylish film on Netflix. Because I kinda cared about some of the people in that movie. Not so much in this one. 

2. It took me a bit to figure this out, but I actually know some of the writer/director’s work: The Call, which I watched a while ago (a dark thriller about time-traveling phone call), and Bargain, the short film I talked about above! (And I watched Bargain first, so…I still don’t know why I watched it.)

3. Folks I knew:

• the girl in the past from The Call as the main girl

• the second male lead from Love to Hate You as the drug dealer guy

• the man from Bargain as the drug-maker sidekick

3A. So, as we can see, this director likes to reuse actors. Which is nice. 

3B. Also, keep The Call in the back of your mind for a little while down the road. 

3C. And, yes, the main girl and the drug dealer guy were both in Money Heist together, so it’s a mini-reunion for them…but I also haven’t seen that show, yet, so I don’t think it quite counts for this segment of the letter. 

4. The main girl’s ability to fight and use guns is equal parts believable (even if in a heightened reality sense) and incredibly unrealistic. Sometimes, she seems like she’s outskilled her enemies, making up for obvious size and strength differences with know-how and experience they clearly don’t have. She’ll bottleneck groups of guys, take someone by surprise—but, when she’s up against someone waaaay bigger than she is, she’ll get knocked around. Except for all the times when she just has super-protagonist powers and reality no longer applies to her. (Especially with gunplay in the later parts of the film.)

5. But, hey, our protagonist is #TeamMintChocolateChip, so all of this is fine. 

6. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the drug dealer guy spends a noticeably long scene doing an impressive exercise routine—shirtless, of course. A little somethin’ for the ladies.

VIII. Badland Hunters

The awesome tough-guy fat dude from Train to Busan does awesome tough-guy stuff in the post-apocalypse after hearing his surrogate daughter’s relocation to a government safe-zone might not be as safe as it was made out to be.

1. I had absolutely no interest in this movie—until I saw one of those relay game/interview clips come up on YouTube, and I was like, “Whoa—who is that absolute babe that’s in this movie?!” 

1A. Answer: it’s NJ from Our Beloved Summer. And I don’t know what was going on with her on that promotional circuit, but…holy smokes. I’ve never seen her look that good before. I mean, you know I dig her already, but…[whistles] Whole other level.

1B. …of course, in the movie, she looks much more like I’m used to seeing her. So, still great. Just, y’know, maybe not “absolute babe” territory. 

2. But, okay, let’s note who I knew:

• NJ from Our Beloved Summer as the surrogate daughter

• the fat dude from Train to Busan as the tough guy main dude

• Coach Choi from Weightlifting Fairy as the safe zone representative/teacher

3.  I really like Coach Choi. It’s always great when she turns up in something. And she looked great, by the way, in her swish new hairdo. (Kind of that adorable Ye-bun from Behind Your Touch look.)

3A. But, oh my goodness, NJ. And her smile just…I melt. 

3B. Um, I mean…th-the actors are all trying their darndest! 

4. …by which I mean the action scenes are probably the only really “good” part of the movie. The whole thing is totally unserious—though not deliberately so. It’s schlocky even for schlock. (Like, everything—even the people—appears to be made of candy glass, which means anytime two things come into contact, one of them explodes into a million pieces.) So, it’s silly fun, but it’s also not very good. However much the actors might want to do well, there isn’t any chance for them to even try. 

5. Actually, the army woman was impressive. For her action stuff, I mean. She clearly comes from either a stunt or fighting background, because her moves were fantastic. 

6. The exposition dialogue is awful. 

7. The major surprises are really only surprises to the characters in the movie. And mostly only because they’re conveniently oblivious whenever a surprise needs to surprise them.

8. THAT SAID…there is one early plot turn that I genuinely didn’t see coming—and a late one that I don’t think anyone saw coming. So, credit where it’s due.

IX. My Wife Got Fat

A short film about a husband noticing that his wife is sad about gaining weight.

1. I knew the two leads:

• Coach Choi from Weightlifting Fairy as the wife who got fat

• the evil dickbag “brother” from My Demon as the husband who notices his wife’s weight issues

2. This one’s weird—but also quite cute. Some of the scenes go on a little too long…and/or there are a couple of scenes that don’t need to be there (because they’re redundant). But it’s a good time. 

2A. That said, it’s 12 minutes long and has Coach Choi. I’d watch Coach Choi eating breakfast for 20 minutes and still enjoy it. 

X. Broker

A young woman hitches a ride with the men who plan to sell her baby after she regrets abandoning him at a church (for adoption), hoping to find a loving family for him while negotiating a decent payout for herself—with the cops hot on their heels for baby-trafficking…and murder?

1. I see IU, I click. That’s as much thought as I put into choosing this movie. 

2. But did you know that I knew a bunch of people in it?

• Ms. Jang from Hotel Del Luna (IU...as you know) as the young mother

• the dad from Parasite as the older baby trafficker

• the nurse from Kingdom as the senior detective

• the short-haired friend from Weightlifting Fairy as the junior detective

• Actor Friend’s boyfriend from Thirty-Nine as the senior detective’s husband

• the main PTA mom from Crash Course in Romance as…something about the orphanage

• Sanchez from Hotel Del Luna as a potential baby buyer (mini-reunion! woo!)

• the goofy ex-husband’s assistant from Welcome to Samdal-ri as a potential baby buyer

2A. In a fun turn of events, the actors who play the senior detective, her husband, and the woman from(?) the orphanage were all in The Silent Sea together. So, mini-reunion! 

2B. And I think it’s worth mentioning: the girl from Weightlifting Fairy looked good! 

3. The subtitles I had for this movie were…not great. They were more than good enough, but you needed to put in a little effort to untangle some of the word choices—which was okay until somewhere near the end, when nuance becomes a major part of understanding exactly what you’re seeing. So…I sort of had to make my own assumptions about that part, for the record.

4. And of course there’s a f***ing time jump, at the end.

5. At one point, IU changes the baby’s diaper, and my first thought was, “I wonder how this kid’s gonna feel in 15 years when it really hits him that the prettiest girl in the world (probably) has seen his dick.”

6. The murder subplot is a bit much. Not in the way that they seem to float into romcoms with a strange frequency, these days, but in terms of it not really needing to be there for the story to conclude in the way it does. I mean, I know it affects the ending, but it wasn't the only way to get there.

7. I’m just sayin’: the good guys are in a Hyundai.

8. To the movie’s credit, there’s an “abortion vs. abandonment” discussion—in that the discussion is sort of touched upon, briefly (though still thoughtfully), and then quickly eschewed because it’s not the point of the movie. But, hey, they didn’t ignore it. And they didn’t get preachy. So, I call it a win. 

9. Overall, the movie is okay. It’s a bit muddy (even aside from the subtitle issue), a little pretentious, and sometimes the jokes clash with the tone of the scenes or subject matter. But, even so, it’s certainly interesting enough. 

9A. …to stare at IU for two hours, if nothing else. 

XI. Love Reset

A husband and wife at the end of a nasty divorce lose their memories in a car accident and gain a new start to their relationship—for better or worse.

1. I mean, it’s Jung So-min, my K-drama girlfriend, in a romcom. How can we go wrong?

2. Well…the movie’s kind of a mess, so…I guess that’s how.

3. Now, it’s not a bad movie. Just…not very good. It’s often funny, and I think Jung So-min in particular felt very engaged with the humor. But the gags go on a little too long or are a little too pointed (or are—in my opinion—ruined by the guy playing the husband leaning way too much into his patented over-exaggerated reactions shtick). And the pacing is way off: too much going on too quickly for a movie, but also not enough meat to the whole thing to make it a TV show. 

4. THAT SAID…the wife’s little sister is an absolute f***ing riot, and the movie is worth watching just to see her do her thing. She’s ludicrous, she’s hilarious, and she is 100% #bestgirl. 

5. So, folks I knew:

• Ji-ho from Because This is My First Life as the wife

• the main cop from When the Camellia Blooms as the husband

• the dad from My Name as the husband’s friend

• the main PTA mom from Crash Course in Romance as the husband’s mother

• the funeral director from May I Help You? as an actor

6. And as a noteworthy detail: per this movie, the go-to example of a “hot guy” is Timothée Chalamet. 

6A.  I am as confused by this choice as anyone else. And I went back to check: she literally says his name. It’s not a subtitle decision for western audiences. Which is not me knocking Timothée Chalamet, but…of all the options to choose from for this, they picked…[shrug] What do I know.

6B. Speaking of: Dune 2…not as good as Dune 1. 

XII. Dream (rewatch)

A down-and-out soccer player is roped into coaching the Korean Homeless Football Team by a desperate documentary film director.

1. Still awesome. Still recommend it to everyone. And IU is still the prettiest girl in the world (probably).

1A. No, I have not yet decided if I like “Holssi” or “Shh..” best off her new EP. (Though, the video for “Shh..” is clearly better. Better than “Love Wins All,” too? Potentially. (Leaning towards yes.))

2. I don’t have much to add to my notes from last time, except to say that the movie felt more like one cohesive film on second viewing. (As opposed to that feeling of having watched a two-part movie all at once, the first time around.)

3. Also…keep Dream in the back of your mind for a little while down the road. 

And that, dear seonbae, is Letter #100.

I’ve said it dozens of times before, I know, but this has been an absolute delight, this trek into Korean television. It readjusted my focus just when I needed…well, let’s say a little help getting out from under a run of gloomy thinking. I don’t know how you knew I had a hole in my life that could only be filled by Korean dating shows, but I’ll forever be grateful to you for taking the time to slow-walk me to it. 

Which all sounds very trite, I’m sure, but…seriously, it matters. A lot, actually. So…again, thank you.

I miss having you around to guide me, though. I know I’m not so lost that I still can’t find good things on my own (and I have one I’m in the middle of that I almost can’t believe is as good as it is), but, regardless, there was always something reassuring about knowing I could duck over to say hi. 

But, as we’ve established, very little that’s good for me is good for anyone else, so—knowing how you felt about being here, I’m glad to know you made your escape.

More soon. (In fact, so much more—whether you want it or not. But that’s for later.)

And, of course: happy birthday, Erin.

—Daryl