I started watching Forest (2020) last night. It has been on my watchlist almost since the day I started watching kdramas. Very early. I just finally was in the mood.
Forest (2020) So Far
I like Park Hae-Jin, though I've only seen him in My Love from the Star, as I recall. Cheese in the Trap has been on my watchlist forever too... because of Seo Kang-Joon of course (still my favorite Korean actor). But anyway.
I also think No Gwang-Sik is doing a good job. He isn't quite giving me 2nd Lead Syndrome, but he is doing a good job of being cutesy, if a bit of an aggressive d-bag at times.
For his very first acting role, it is a job well done, and he's adorable, so I'm sure he'll do well. I also found out that he's involved in an electronica act, which was unexpected:
Korean Culture: Blame the Family
A scene from Forest did bring up a topic I wanted to talk about though.
Now, I am familiar by now with the Korean culture surrounding family members doing shitty things. If your dad killed people, you might suffer some consequences for that (like in Come and Hug Me, which I'm watching concurrently). If your dad is a garbage man or something, that reflects on you. That type of thing.
In short, you have some ownership of your family member's actions, good or bad. That leads to good things like a heavy focus on academics and pushing kids to work hard. It also leads to some things that seem unfair.
From the U.S. perspective, where we are "fiercely independent" as a national personality trait, this seems like bullshit. Family doesn't mean that much to everyone. I haven't seen a member of my family (parents, siblings, aunts/uncles, cousins, grandparents...) in almost 10 years. And I like my family.
Needless to say, what they do has nothing to do with me. What I do has nothing to do with them. My older brother is not a very useful member of society, to put it mildly. But I don't view it as a reflection on my parents.
Neither does anyone else. After all, they raised 2 others kids who are normal people. Even if all of us turned out to be losers, people would still say, "They did their best. They must have fallen in with a bad crowd." Blame anyone but the parents, actually... even when they are at fault.
The Forest (2020) - WTF Level 1000
Let me paint a picture now of the scene that brought this topic up. There is a little girl maybe 7 or 8 years old... lying in a hospital bed with her head bandaged. Both of her parents have just died.
And there is a swarm of grown adults circling her bed, screaming and shouting. They want their money back. Give us our money. "Where are your parents now, huh?"
This is a seriously shocking scene from my perspective. Honestly, I might just have resorted to violence if I'd seen such a thing in person. A sick little kid whose parents just died being harassed by a bunch of adults? She's in a hospital bed!
Now, I have not yet asked my Korean language partners if this is something that would ever happen in real life. This is a drama... things are dramatized to a pretty high degree I'm sure. Maybe this would never happen in reality. I sure hope not.
However, I'm also going to ask if this is something they would find shocking if they'd seen the drama. Or is it just a heightened version of reality. Blaming the family is a thing, but how far would people really go?
It is an interesting cultural difference, but I sure hope no one would go so far as to verbally abuse a newly orphaned and injured child. Until I found out otherwise, I will assume this was for dramatic effect and that adults wouldn't do something so disturbing.
화이팅!
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