Skip to main content

6.1 - Review of Episode 1 of Gyeongseong Creature

Welcome to Season 6 of K Drama Chat! In this season, we will recap and analyze Gyeongseong Creature!

Today, we’ll be discussing Episode 1 of Gyeongseong Creature, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Park Seo-joon as Jang Tae-sang, Han So-hee as Yoon Chae-ok, Wi Ha-jun as Kwon Jun-taek, Kim Soo-hyun as Lady Maeda, Ji Woo as Myeong-ja, Jo Han-chul as Yoon Joon-won, and Kim Hae-sook as Nawol daek. Gyeongseong Creature was written by Kang Eun-kyung, directed by Chung Dong-yoon and Roh Young-sub. The first seven episodes were released on Netflix on December 22, 2023. The last 3 episodes dropped on January 5, 2024. We discuss:

  • The song we feature during the recap, Time by Baek A.

  • How the setting of this show is personal to both of us because our parents were kids in Asia who lived under the Japanese occupation during WWII.

  • The Japanese Army retreating from Harbin, China. Turns out Unit 731 of the Japanese Army, which was based in Harbin and was later discovered to have been doing human experimentation and biological weapons manufacturing. This is absolutely horrifying!

  • After the war, the US basically hid the atrocities and pardoned the researchers in exchange for their data because the US was doing its own biological weapons research.

  • How Korea had been under Japanese rule officially since the annexation of Korean in 1910.

  • The characters who are introduced in this episode, specifically:

    • Jang Tae-sang, the self-made man and owner of the House of Golden Treasure, a successful pawn shop in Bukchong, a fancy neighborhood in Gyeongseong (what we now know as Seoul).

    • The three staff members of the House of Golden Treasure: Manager Gu, Mrs. Nawol, and Beom-o.

    • Police Commissioner Ishikawa, husband of Lady Maeda, who is the daughter of General Maeda.

    • Hospital Dr. Ichiro and Colonel Kato, who look like they run the hospital and are in charge of the human experimentation.

    • Sleuths Yoon Joon-won and Yoon Chae-ok, who are known to never give up when looking for missing persons.

    • Painter Sachimoto, the man that the two sleuths are looking, because he has some kind of connection to a missing mom.

    • Kwon Jun-taek, a nationalist who is also the son of a successful businessman.

  • The central plot line of this episode, which is that Commissioner Ishikawa wants Jang Tae-sang to find his mistress Myeong-ja, who disappeared a week before.

  • The human experimentation that appears to result in the creation of a scary creature that threatens painter Sachimoto at the end of the episode.

References


###

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 PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSpotify and Stitcher.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

5.4 - Review of Episode 4 of Mr. Queen

Today, we’ll be discussing Episode 4 of Mr. Queen, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Shin Hye-sun as Kim So-yong, Kim Jung-hyun as King Cheojong, Seol In-ah as Jo Hwa-jin, Na In-woo as Kim Byeong-in, and Choi Jin-hyuk as Jang Bong-hwan. We discuss: Then songs we played during the recap: Conspiracyby Kim Deuk-su  and Lost Memory by Howl.  Last week’s episode was so funny, while this episode is really dark and there are bad guys everywhere.  The Queen has figured out that it was the King who tried to kill her in the alleyway.  The King is still desperately trying to figure out what the Queen knows.  The many plots to frame someone for the Queen falling into the lake.  The Queen accuses the King of going after her because she’s weak; this makes him wonder if the Queen is plotting against him or if she really is someone different.  Jo Hwa-jin goes to Grand Dowager Queen to confess they she pushed the Queen into the lake When the King tries to defend Jo Hwa-jin, Queen Kim So-yong comes fo

7.4 - Podcast Review of Episodes 7 and 8 of Queen of Tears

Today, we’ll be discussing Episodes 7 and 8 of Queen of Tears, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Kim Ji-won as Hong Hae-in, Kim Soo-hyun as Baek Hyun-woo, Park Sung-hoon as Yoon Eun-Seong, Kwak Dong-Yeon as Hong Soo-cheol, Lee Joo-bin as Cheon Da-Hye. We discuss: The song we feature during the recap: Love You With All My Heart by Crush. Soo Cheol calls Hyun-Woo “maehyeong” 매형, which means older sister’s husband. How Hae-in loses her will to live when Hyun-woo admits that he wanted a divorce. How Hyun-woo decides to make Hae-in hate him so that she has a reason to live. How Hyun-woo wants to stay by Hae-in’s side even if it means being the subject of her rage, humiliation and hatred; he has powerful reasons for wanting to be by her side. Both Hae-in and Hyun-woo are left wondering if everything the other person said and promised was a lie. Through the flashback of the marriage proposal, we can piece together how our couple got engaged, broke up, got back together, and finally marr

7.8 - Podcast Review of Episode 15 and 16 of Queen of Tears

Today, we’ll be discussing Episodes 15 and 16 of Queen of Tears, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Kim Ji-won as Hong Hae-in, Kim Soo-hyun as Baek Hyun-woo, Park Sung-hoon as Yoon Eun-Seong, Kwak Dong-Yeon as Hong Soo-cheol, and Lee Joo-bin as Cheon Da-Hye.  Ernabel Demillo is back to help us analyze episodes 15 and 16! We discuss: The songs we feature during the recap: More Than Enough by Kim Tae Rae Heart Flutter by dori How crazy it was that David Yoon got to claim that he was Hae-in’s fiancé by donating a lot of money to the medical center. How Hae-in’s notebook was found by David Yoon, tossed into a fire, salvaged, and eventually made it back to Hae-in so she could read her own words about herself and Hyun-woo. How we despised Grace but she did manage to redeem herself by encouraging Moh Sul hee to track down Hae-in, returning the pink MP3 player, and making sure that the notebook made it to Hae-in. How David Yoon’s lies were so evil but because they had elements of trut