2.4 - Episode 4 of It's Okay to Not Be Okay

Jen is on vacation, so Sung Hee is filling in. In this episode, we recap and analyze episode 4 of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, the hit K Drama on Netflix. The children’s story from this episode is Zombie Kid, the boy who couldn’t feel emotion and was only interested in eating. The assemblyman’s son causes havoc at his father’s political rally; he is chastised by his mom and his father tells the hospital director that his son will forever stay in psychiatric hospitals. Meun Young upsets Gang Tae with her talk of parents abandoning useless children, and children pushing away demented parents. But when her father tries to choke her, Gang Tae has a change of heart and goes to look for Meun Young in the rain. We have an important flashback of Meun Young as a young girl, her mom brushing her hair, and her mother lying face down in a pool of blood. 

We do a recap of the show, and then we dive deep into the episode. We discuss:

• The song Hallelujah by Kim Feel

• The Zombie Kid story and how we think this story is about a boy who ultimately was looking for warmth and love from his mom

• How Gang Tae is going through a transformation; he’s showing more emotion

• How Gang Tae and Meun Young are both childlike and childish in this episode

• Gang Tae’s flashbacks of his mom prioritizing Sang Tae when the boys were younger

• How Sang Tae is infatuated with Meun Young and he has another episode when Gang Tae yells at him

• How this episode is about each character’s need to be seen

• Our thoughts re: why Meun Young’s dad said “die” and “why are you still alive?” when he saw Meun Young

• How we need to know more about Meun Young’s mother, the circumstances of her death, and her relationship with her daughter

• Two characters who we think will become really important: Nurse Park and Ju-ri’s mom

• The K Drama elements we see in this episode, namely:

• Flowers

• Food

• Wrist grabs

• Umbrellas

• Lots of crying, especially by Gang Tae

• How in Korean slang, telling someone “do you want to come over to my place for ramen” means “do you want to spend the night together.?”

• Our favorite Meun Young outfits

• Our favorites lines from the episode

• The amazing cinematography in this episode

• The wonderful animations in this show

References:

• Magnolia Festival in Taean

• Cinematography of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay

• Filmmaker Reacts to It’s Okay to Not Be Okay Cinematography and Sound Design

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K Drama Chat is a weekly podcast where we take one Korean (K) Drama each season and and recap and analyze each episode. K Drama Chat is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.