A tacit alliance of losers

I wrote it on 30 April 2018 on www.imdb.com. You can find my article on this website with my name "dingding-90547".

On Friday, April 27, 2018, I have finished watching EP12 of My Mister. This TV serial is indeed worth watching.

On the whole, this TV series is highly fascinating and very attractive. The picture of this TV drama gives an excellent sense and quality feel. The OST is another main attraction. The actors' emotional performances are also in place. The makeup and costumes of the various characters are an important part of the plot development of this TV series. For example, the close-ups of her bare ankles and thin, dirty shoes appearing in various parts of the play, plus the fact which Lee Ji-an has been wearing shabby clothes, indicate that she is very poor and short of money. The dark eye sockets and swollen eyes also illustrate that the life of Lee Ji-an is miserable and depressed.

In terms of actor's lines, this TV series is still very excellent. For instance, facing a rogue property owner in EP4, Park Dong-hoon took advantage of his professional knowledge of the building structural engineer to speak out excellent lines, including the story of "prison break". Finally, he performed practical actions to make this rascal property owner to apologize to his mother and brother. In EP 8, Park Dong-hoon is a building structural engineer with solid basic construction knowledge and strong structural technical skills. When he was on his way home with her, Park Dong-hoon told Lee Ji-an not only about the contents of the work of the building structural engineer, but also described the relationship between internal forces and external forces in the construction structure. Thus, he derived the philosophy of life from the content of the knowledge of architectural structure. The lines are as follows:

Lee Ji-an: When everyone knows that you are an architect in future, you must be asked to provide help everywhere.

Park Dong-hoon: Not an architect, but a building Structural Engineer. After working here for so long, you don't even know what the company is running.

Lee Ji-an: Aren't they all the same?

Park Dong-hoon: Not the same. The architect is responsible for the design. But building structural engineer have to think: if you want to construct the new building according to the design drawing blueprint, what kind of material you should use and how to do to make it safe. It is the person who performs calculation over and over again. As literally speaking, it is the person who creates the structure. All buildings are the struggle between external forces and internal forces. The wind, the load, the vibration. Calculate all the possible external forces. Then design the internal force stronger than the external force. The apartment should be designed to bear 300kg per square meter. A crowded schools or lecture halls requires to be designed a much higher load. Only one level of dining room needs to be designed different loads for different places where people sit and where the weight apparatus are laid up. It has always been necessary to design internal forces more strongly than external forces. Life is also the same. Maybe it is the war between internal forces and external forces. No matter what happens, as long as you have internal force, you can hold on.

The characters of this TV series can represent various kinds people in today's society.

Park Dong-hoon represents a class of people: It is a part of the middle-aged middle class that is under a lot of great pressure, but still struggling to live. In the plot of this TV series, he is a kind and considerate person who always wants to take care of his family and loved ones (not just his wife alone). He didn't want to tell his wife and other family members about unfavorable things what he encountered at work. Without no income problems, he still suffered from other sources from mental stress, causing him to live like a walking dead in daily life. The reasons for the above problems are:

a. Park Dong-hoon had to provide for his elder brother and younger brother in need because they had a very poor life at that time.

b. His marriage was under strain at the moment.

c. His mother eagerly hoped that he would prove to be an elite in the family.

d. In the power struggle within the company, Park Dong-hoon was marginalized by Do Joon-young who is a high - ranking officer, his college juniors and his wife's secret lover. 

The above points indicate that many problems can not be solved by money. These are the frustration of a part of the middle class. Looking at this type of crowd on the surface, the conclusion is not bad for all aspects, such as good work, good family and adequate leisure time. Even if they work diligently and conscientiously every working day, the troubles or misery of life given to this type of people are endless, so they cannot live a relaxed life.

Lee Ji-an represents a class of people: the bottom class of the society. In this TV series,Lee Ji-an is a very hard-to-reach young man with a callous face all day long, which is due to her heavy burden of life. Many time during working hours, she deliberately made the sound of the photocopier so loud that she irritated her office colleagues because of certain problem with the photocopier. Her colleagues asked her to take an A 4 paper, but she opened the drawer with her feet and asked her colleague to bend over to pick it up by himself. Close to the end of the working day,she stole the free coffee powder from the tea-room in the office unobtrusively with the purpose of serving as a part of dinner. At night she also continued to work part-time in the restaurant. While washing the dishes, she stole the leftovers and then took them home to eat. Even worse at the age of 15, she killed a loan shark who abused and assaulted her and her grandmother due to usurious loan. Today, Lee Gwang-il, who had inherited his father's debt collection as the loan shark, not only asked Lee Ji-an to pay back the money like an evil landlord, but also often beat her like a demon and even vowed to torture her forever. To fight against the harsh circumstances, she had the maturation that was not commensurate with her age and owned her inborn instinct wisdom. At the starry night when the moon is clear, Lee Ji-an smuggled her paralyzed and deaf grandmother out with the bed because she could not afford the cost of the sanatorium. In order to survive and because of the distrust of this society, she can basically ignore the corresponding rules when at works, but her heart is yearning for kindness. With the development of the drama caused by the merchandise coupon which was worth 50 million Korean Won, the contact between Lee Ji-an and Park Dong-hoon had increased gradually. Lee Ji-an understood Park Dong-hoon's kindness, tolerance and love for his family. Park Dong-hoon also knew Lee Ji-an's goodness and strength. For example, Park Dong-hoon said to Lee Ji-an, "you are really kind." Besides, Lee Ji-an told Park Dong-hoon "because he scolds you" and "because you hate him." They were guarding each other in their own way with mutual sympathy but without any trace of comfort. It seems that two people who are about to freeze could gather together to warm themselves up. In EP9, when Park Dong-hoon fought with Lee Gwang-il who was the loan shark due to Lee Ji-an's debt problem, Lee Ji-an eavesdropped on this scene through his mobile phone, and then squatted on the side of the road and cried. The plot of " My Mister" finally ushered in the first climax. For people like Lee Ji-an in the lower classes, survival has been the greatest victory and the rest things are luxuries.

Wait for me to update