The songs we featured during the recap: “On Your Side” by Sion and “Pinky Promise” by Park Sang Hee, and how the music reflects loneliness, connection, and emotional undercurrents.
Joanna’s NYC trip, including visits to Ellis Island, reflections on immigration, and Korean BBQ at New Wonjo.
Sung Hee’s upcoming Korean American story slam event and the importance of storytelling in the Korean American community.
Introducing K Drama Bingo with Naa Evans, and how we want to play Bingo with our listeners this season!
The powerful dual performance by Park Bo Young.
The character contrast between Mi Rae and Mi Ji, exploring identity, sibling dynamics, and the idea that “the grass is greener” doesn’t capture the full story.
The meaning behind the show’s title and how language nuances (like “unknown” and “Miji”) shape interpretation.
Historical context of the IMF crisis and how economic hardship shaped family dynamics and life trajectories.
Exploration of identity, nature vs. nurture, and how identical twins can develop into very different people despite shared genetics.
A discussion on hidden struggles, disabilities, and the importance of empathy and not making assumptions about others.
Cultural practices like jesa (memorial ceremonies) and food-sharing traditions, and how they reflect values around family and remembrance.
Themes of burnout, workplace bullying, moral dilemmas, and the emotional weight of responsibility and sacrifice.
The emotional turning point between the sisters and their decision to switch lives, highlighting love, regret, and renewed connection.
Reflections on contrasting lifestyles (city vs. countryside), including visuals, fashion, and emotional tone.
What we’re watching and reading now, including Phantom Lawyer, Encounter, Human Acts by Han Kang, and We’ll Prescribe a Cat.
References
KDramaBingo.com website
South Korea Should End Workplace Harassment for All Workers | Human Rights Watch
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, Amazon Music, and Pandora.
Please share your moochi banana bread recipe! Already love your start on Our Unwritten Seoul, it’ll be another banger.
ReplyDeleteHi anonymous! Here's my mochi banana bread recipe. If you make it, please let us know how you like it!
ReplyDeleteMochi Banana Bread
Wet ingredients:
4 ripe mashed bananas
3 eggs
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted salted butter
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk
Dry ingredients:
1lb (16 oz) Mochiko Flour or Sweet Rice Flour
1 cup brown sugar (original creator added 1 1/4 cup)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Instructions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
*In one bowl, add all wet ingredients and mix.
*In a separate bowl, add all dry ingredients and mix.
*Slowly add dry ingredients into the wet ingredient bowl, while mixing, until well combined.
*Pour the combined batter into a greased 9x13 baking dish and bake for 50 mins.
*Let cool and enjoy!
I wish I could remember who gave me this recipe. I found the recipe online and modified it after making it. I love this recipe!
And thank you for listening to the podcast. Sung Hee and I agree this season will be terrific!
Hi everyone! Still working with dictation here so please excuse any typos. I loved the start of this series and I have not watched it before so I don’t have a whole lot to say about the characters except that I have known identical twins growing up and they do seem to want to draw Sharp contrast between them as against getting dressed and identical, clothes with identical, haircuts, etc., and once you spend a significant amount of time with them, you can tell which one is which. An example would be the Property Brothers on HGTV. I I can tell Drew Scott from Jonathan Scott easily after all these years.
ReplyDeleteThis show has me thinking about lots of nature versus nurture questions. For instance, in school, I was kind of shy still am in larger groups. But living in Hawaii and working in restaurants, you spend all kinds of time initiating conversation, conversations with total strangers and getting to know them briefly and shy does not work as far as making tips. That experience changed me from being somewhat of an introvert to quite extroverted in small groups. Since I have not seen any of the rest of this show yet I have no idea what happens to these two but it’s an interesting idea that you can turn into someone completely different when you change your surroundings if you want to. The nature versus nurture question is going to be fun to watch these girls go through and whether or not they can do a better job living the other twin’s life than their own.
I’m wondering if any of you guys have known identical, twins, and how they seemed different and the same to you? we have such a great group of commenters for this podcast and I’m curious as to what all of you have to say on this topic.
Hey Ellen, I’ve only known a few people who had twins and met the siblings briefly. Agree with what you said - in my experience they looked quite different! I took the fact that people couldn’t tell Miji/Mirae apart as a literary device - only the father, grandmother, and Ho Su could really “see” them. Also Park Bo Young’s performance was really excellent. You knew who she was in each scene even without the hair as cue.
DeleteAlso appreciated the discussion on the title which I hadn’t thought about before - unknown future as unwritten. Looking forward to the next episodes!
Doremi
DeleteOkay -- my phone won't let me post here anymore (?), but I have access from the old faithful desktop! Hooray!
DeleteMy brothers are identical twins and I've taught many, many pairs of lookalikes. :)
I have always been able to tell my brothers apart, but my ID twin students would easily have been able to fool me. (Specialist teacher, so only had them for a hour or less a week.)
There is wide spectrum of closeness between twins, everything from those who attend 'twin conventions' and love to dress the same etc., to those who do everything they can to be different from each other.
Loved the first chat ep, love the series. Thought it might be too soon to revisit, but no, very happy to be back in the world of Our Unwritten Seoul.
Ellen, SDGuy and Doremi, I am so happy to see your comments here. I waited eagerly for comments and then worried when we didn't have any for days!
DeleteGlad you all are enjoying Our Unwritten Seoul. And hey, it's been nominated for six Baseksand awards! We have a winner this season!
It was super quiet! I appreciated your Laura Brannigan reference, Joanna, as I'd just been listening to her in the car. What a voice.
DeleteAnd Sung-hee, I also appreciated your picking up on The Prince and the Pauper, which I loved when the TV adaptation screened in the old Wonderful World of Disney kids'timeslot back in the day. I think they are not related, just doppelgangers?
Our Unwritten Soul is in my top Kdramas for 2025. I'm happy to rewatch it again alongside this community. Baeksang Arts Awards recently announced their nominees for this year, and this series has six (6) nominations including Best Drama, Best Actress for Park Bo-young, and Best Actor for Park Jinyoung. You picked the right series for Season 14. The timing couldn't have been any better.
ReplyDeleteIrma, I know, amazing! The director, the writer, both actors, and for best drama! Wow, just wow.
DeleteI loved the show when it came out and I KNOW now that I will love it even more after spending time discussing it in great detail this season. Thank you for sharing this great news.
Great episode. Looking forward to you exploring this show, which I had in my top three of 2025.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Park Bo Young gives an amazing performance in this show and she’s got to be the odds-on favorite to win the Bakesang. With the technology they have today, it’s probably not that difficult to digitally place two images of her in a scene, but I must imagine that it takes a special talent to “act with yourself.” I’d love to know how that whole process works. I imagine they have a stand in running the lines with her – maybe in person and they digitally erase her. Or maybe its off camera. In any case, it must be difficult to both act and direct. And they pull it off flawlessly.
It’s interesting that the title in English seems to a better title (IMHO) than the original Koren. Of course, neither title would work if directly translated into either language. There is a bit of word play in each title.
I can relate a bit to Min-ji’s work situation. When I worked in New York, I had a job that that I really did not like but I felt I was somewhat trapped there because of what I was being paid. I wasn’t bullied – the boss was a bully, but he bullied everyone! And I did not have the added pressure of having to financially support my family. But I did have financial obligations that made it seem like I could not move jobs because I wouldn’t find a job that paid as much. It’s not a fun situation to be in. Unfortunately, I did not have a twin that could come switch places with me while I went to work on a strawberry farm!
Looking forward to the discussion of this interesting drama this season!
Malcolm, thanks for your comments. I agree that Park Bo Young has got to be the odds on favorite at the Baeksang Awards next month! Her acting was amazing. She was simply two different characters. Her facial expressions, her demeanor, her energy levels -- all different and recognizable without the hair, just like SDGuy said.
DeleteThe episode was really good and comprehensive to the extent I really don’t have a lot to add. So, I am just going to say few things, most of them are not very related to the series.
ReplyDelete* I don’t buy the premise of the series (It is still really good though), but I will elaborate more maybe next episode since not everyone have watched it.
* I will also talk more next episode about the wonderful Park Bo Young since it will be an item on the podcast.
* Apparently one of the most accurate depiction of workplace is actually “Miseang”. It was very popular in Korea. I didn’t love it as much as I thought, but it is a really good series (easy 8/10+), and made me wish to never ever work an office job in Korea.
Lee Sung-Min (the first victim in No Other Choice) gives one of the best male lead performances I have seen in a Kdrama.
*Books. I love reading. It is actually my first love :). I have read the Vegetarian by Han Kang. It is a good and interesting book. Great for discussion because it is open to endless number of interpretations, but it is not very enjoyable, and certainly unusual.
I own “Human Acts” and “We Do Not Part”, but I haven’t read them yet.
My favourite South Korean author by far is Shin Kyung-Sook. (As a writer. I am more of a fan of Han Kang the person)
In general novels give a better picture of a place than the glossy and toned down TV series imo.
The Japanese book you mentioned Joanna, is a part of trend in the Western market. There seems to be a demand for those “cosy” novels (I think it all started with “Before The Coffee Gets Cold”). I read one of them few months ago (The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop), and just didn’t like it that much. It was average in my opinion. Not as deep as it thinks. Most of these books are basically variation on the theme. I don’t know whether this type of books really prevalent in Japan, or just Japanese authors realised that Western readers will read anything with that premise, and decided to cash in lool.
My favourite Japanese author is Mieko Kawakami ( And NO. I don’t like Murakami at all). I also loved “Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata.
For classics: The Makioka Sisters.
*The Glory: Joanna, I think you should just fast forward these scenes. They get significantly less after the 2nd episode if I recall. The one who steals the show though is Yeom Hye Ran. Ultimately though it is not a series I insist people should watch. It is really good and enjoyable, but not a must watch imo.
* I finished “You and Everything Else” yesterday. I loved it. Goes straight into my top 15% Kdrama bracket. I have some complaints about certain choices, and it wobbled for about 2 episodes, but I thought it was very well written, and extremely well acted by the 2 female leads.
Kim Go Eun is already an established star, but Park Ji Hyun was a revelation to me.
It is certainly on the heavier side, and right from E1 they tell you the big plot points. The series is basically telling you if you are here for the plot you can leave now. This is a series that goes deep, exploring a complex female relationship. After watching decades of shows where men have centre stage, Kdrama is filling a deficit by providing interesting and multi-layered female characters.
Had I watched this last year, it would have certainly been a contender for the top spot.
I will certainly look for this screenwriter other works.
Seven Seas, I waited all week for your comments!
DeleteExcellent review of books and shows I need to add to my lists. I loved Human Acts, even though it is deeply disturbing. The writing is really, really good. Perhaps it's the translation, I don't know, but excellent book.
As for We'll Prescribe a Cat, it's not as cosy as it sounds. It start out cosy, then it gets dark, kind of like a K Drama. And the writer does a fantastic job tying the chapters together. It would make for a fantastic TV series.
I adore Kim Go Run and You and Everything Else is on my list but I can't watch it right now. Someone very dear to me has cancer and it's really bad. Just reading the synopsis of this show makes me want to run away and cry. So not yet.
Thank you, as always, for your comments.