Letter #126: Monchouchou Global House

Good morning, Erin.

Y’know, YouTube, The Frog only came out on Friday—and you’ve been posting an awful lot of spoiler-y clips since then, as though you think I dropped everything going on in my life just to binge the whole thing. Well, guess what? I haven't watched it, yet. So, I dunno, maybe just go back to showing adorable clips from the new Jung So-min show that’s airing every week. Or do that thing where you get the cast to play that shouty telephone game where everyone’s in headphones. Anything that isn’t a steady drip of all the essential plot points of the series. Or, at the very least, maybe don’t put the spoiler IN THE NAME OF THE CLIP, hm? Thanks. Really appreciate it. 

Sigh.

But speaking of YouTube—did you know I was working on a web series letter? 

…by which I mean I planned to watch a slew of web series on YouTube and write up another “medley” letter but got distracted with my backlog of videos from my favorite dating show girls. Which, yes, was silly of me, since I know there’s no sense in telling you about what’s going on with the dating show girls (...unless you want to hear about Hae-eun throwing out the first pitch at a baseball game or Ji-young worrying about the NYC subway or Ju-mi buying a stairmaster for her apartment—in which case, we can ABSOLUTELY do that!)—but I did watch the first web series on my list, so…we can talk about that, at least.

So, are you ready for some Monchouchou Global House? I mean, apart from no one ever being ready for some Monchouchou Global House. 

1. I didn’t really think about it until I wrote it for this letter, but…I’m pretty sure “monchouchou” is an approximation of the French for “my sweetheart.” When I was in high school, I did a musical called The Boyfriend in which my character was reunited with his old French girlfriend, and she always called him “mon petit chou,” which meant “my little darling.” So, it’s probably meant to be something along the lines of “my dear international guest share house.” Which is only slightly more of a mouthful. 

2. So…this isn’t a very good show. It’s pretty amateurish from stem to stern, the dialogue is mostly clunky, and it ends really, really abruptly—which, I realize, just means it’s a web series. But it’s more than that, with Monchouchou: the story (such as it is) is uneven, muddled, and seems incapable of sticking to its own internal logic. Its first five episodes are pleasantly “whatever” enough, but the remainder of the series devolves into the most unlikely hybrid of filler and deadly serious plot relevance—that is, it becomes dull, disjointed, and spontaneously intense, hitting the first and last notes in the crescendo but skipping every note in between. It’s a prime example of either terrible time management or only knowing the punchline to a joke. I’d tell you to skip it, but I think it might be better if you just forget that I’ve brought the show to your attention. 

3. But why this web drama in particular, you ask? Well, I’ll tell y—

3A. “No no no, Daryl,” I hear you say. “I know this is because of a girl. Just tell me which one.” To which I say…nothing. Because I am blushing too hard to speak. 

3B. …but, yes, it’s because it’s the first thing I could find with the “babe playing Si-eun” from the final episode of Apartment 404. Of course that’s why. 

4. Speaking of—I knew three of the people in this series:

• the “babe” from Apartment 404 as So-ra, the main girl’s best friend

• the girly classmate friend from True Beauty as Yu-na, the main girl

• the Iranian fan of Yellow Pants at the end of Chicken Nugget as Raina (...doesn't matter)

5. The girl playing Yu-na is probably the only genuinely good actor on the show. 

6. …that said: So-ra and her ex-boyfriend have an absolute BLOWOUT in the final episode, and the two of them are great in that scene. They get very emotional about their disagreement over whether or not it would be okay for them to get married (they love each other, but her family would disown her for marrying him—which he refuses to put her through), and it’s easily the best writing of the series, which clearly made a difference to the actors. 

7. Relatedly: one of the least interesting things you can do in a series like this is leave it to the actors to improvise a scene or how an activity plays out. If you tell them to, for example, “just play on the beach,” it won’t look right, because they are unsure about what they’re supposed to do. Actors work from scripts for a reason. (So, if you want them to be good, you need to give them something to work with.)

8. There’s some kind of Winnie the Pooh-themed vitmanin water(?) that gets a bunch of product placement time. I have no idea what it is or why anyone would want it, but I laughed every time it came up. It was so awkwardly placed into its scenes—and these twenty-somethings DID NOT seem like the target demographic, whether they were meant to be or not. 

9. Not to digress for a moment, but…guess who got an entire free pizza to bring home for dinner? That’s right—ya boy’s havin’ a pretty good day. 

10. When Yu-na decides she’s going to run an errand for everyone, the main dude puts his sweater around her shoulders because he says he doesn’t want her to get cold. We can all see he didn’t need to put the sweater on her, just as we can all see he obviously did it to be flirty. But the reason I mention it is because I initially assumed he was going to tie his sweater around her waist—because those were not outdoor shorts you were wearing, young lady!

11. So, given this wasn’t a very good show, A LOT of my notes past a certain point are just me talking about So-ra and how cute I think she is—to the point where one of my notes literally says, “This is my letter, now: just a list of times I fawned over So-ra.”

11A. …and here they all are:

• I don’t understand what we’re doing at this museum, but…So-ra looks pretty. So, whatever.

• So-ra is rocking that beret. 

• So-ra stealing beer is adorable.

• So-ra pretending she’s a cat who is stealing beer is ADORABLE.

• Drunk So-ra is adorable.

• Adorable So-ra in adorable headband with adorable bow.

11B. Seriously, she’s the first character we meet, and right off the bat she’s RIDICULOUS, demanding her ex-boyfriend either get back together with her or literally take off the clothes he’s wearing RIGHT NOW because she’s the one who bought them, so, like, they’re really hers. Of course I fell in love with her immediately. 

11C. When she complains to Yu-na about her breakup, So-ra whines, “I’m so pretty—how could he dump me?” Which, y’know, I think is a valid question. 

11D. After she starts to stay at the sharehouse where Yu-na works, So-ra says that a percentage of Yu-na’s paycheck should go to her, because she stayed out of Yu-na’s way so chores could get done, lifting her feet when Yu-na vacuumed the living room and sleeping when Yu-na did the food shopping—the latter point prompting her to insist, “Do you know how hard it is to sleep?!” Which is ridiculous, and I love her for it. So-ra is the best. 

11E. (…I have a type. This isn’t news.)

11F. And then there was this dialogue exchange (paraphrased):

“So-ra, wake up. We’re going on a trip.”

“Where?”

“Dunno.”

“Sweet! Lemme pack.”

12. Relatedly: for the last three or four episodes, So-ra suddenly becomes the main character. Which I’m not complaining about, but…also, like…why?

13. At one point, the male lead is so distraught over realizing he might have a crush on Yu-na that he locks himself away in his room—for what turns out to be a literal month. Somehow. 

14. The show treats the reveal that So-ra and her ex-boyfriend are both going to wind up at the sharehouse where Yu-na works as some kind of major cliffhanger reveal—but Yu-na sees that he’s staying there almost as soon as she arrives, and that is a few days before So-ra asks to stay with Yu-na at the sharehouse. Which she seems to forget. And so she is blown away by the uneasy coincidence that brings the exes into contact with each other under the same roof. Somehow.

15. One of the first things we learn about Yu-na is that she doesn’t speak English. We know this because So-ra uses a lot of English, and Yu-na tells her to stop because she doesn’t understand what she’s saying. I leave it to you whether this detail comes into play when Yu-na is surrounded by guests from all over the world who tend to speak to each other in English. 

15A. Note: Yu-na will spend the last few episodes taking classes to finally learn English. I leave it to you whether this fact would at all indicate whether the detail about her not understanding English came into play in the scene I described above. 

16. During her main character arc, So-ra tries to get a part-time job at a cafe. We see her drop a couple of drinks and get fired for “breaking five glasses”—though the two cups we see her drop A) are demonstrably not broken, and B) are very obviously made of plastic, as the very loud and distinct sound effect of them hitting and rolling around on the floor makes clear. So…I’m pretty sure she got fired for exceeding adorableness safety levels. 

17. I think the show missed a trick when So-ra tells Yu-na that they should just run away to Switzerland and open a shop: Yu-na does not say, “What, now you want me to learn Swiss?!” Seemed an obvious callback, to me. But what do I know?

And…that’s about it. I’m sure you can rest easy, now, knowing we’ve covered such a seminal piece of Korean storytelling. 

I’m sure any number of the other shows I had planned to discuss alongside this one would have fared better, but…well, we both know I’m not inclined to make good decisions. 

Or maybe they all suck. I dunno. I suppose we'll find out in time. (Or not. Maybe you really are clamoring to find out what Yi-soo and Min-kyu’s trip to Japan was like. Or what Ha-jeong likes in a sandwich. Because we can absolutely do all of that, Erin—you just say the word.)

Hope all is well. Like I said, I got a free pizza. So, I’d like to think you’re having at least as good a day. 

More soon. 

—Daryl