Do Joon Young: Captain of the Ship

As mentioned in Part 1, Do Joon Young and Ji An spend a lot of time together. For someone who says, “What man would eat and drink with a woman he doesn’t like?” he meets up with her quite often. He even has her over to his house a couple of times. If only the Managing Directors knew about that!

Tracing the progression of Do Joon Young’s relationship with Ji An, we see how and when things start to turn against him. At first he believes (understandably) that Ji An is working with him to fire Park Dong Hoon. Then as he attempts to use her to trap Dong Hoon further, he starts observing troubling things about her — she seems to have feelings for the loser engineer! Suspicion turns to confirmation, confirmation turns to fear as Ji An starts working against him, and finally what he thought was a win-win situation crumbles.

By the end, Do Joon Young is our disgusted shipper in the show, the one that drives Ji An more into Dong Hoon’s orbit and then names the love between them. He had tried to pair them off to create a scandal….but his plan comes back to bite him.

Advertisement

All the Ending Scenes: A Deeper Look

by @actionscript from the Soompi Forum

It’s a K drama trope to end episodes with cliffhangers, and My Mister used it with great effectiveness. For My Mister, not only were these ending scenes cliffhangers, but most of them were the highlights of those episodes as well. Looking at these final scenes per episode, we get a glimpse of how the show moved the narrative forward.

The first 4 episodes established how the fates of Dong Hoon and Ji An have become intertwined:

Do Joon Young: Dong Hoon’s Antithesis

Do Joon Young is the slimy CEO we all love to hate, the cause of many of Park Dong Hoon’s problems and the one who doesn’t care if people get run over on his quest to maintain power.

There’s so much to say about him, but I want to focus on his relationship to Dong Hoon and his relationship with Lee Ji An. His interactions with these two demonstrate his character as well as one key role he plays, that of naming the love between Dong Hoon and Ji An.

Random Interesting Moments

Dong Hoon and His Cigarettes

Dong Hoon goes to the convenience store, buys cigarettes, and then throws them away on two different occasions.

The first time takes place in Episode 2 when he’s lost the bribe. He goes to the store, buys it all, throws it all away, and then the next thing he does is visit Yoon Hee in her office and tell her what’s happening.

My Mister Locations: Ji An’s House, #1

It starts with the question Yoon Hee poses to her husband, “Who is #1 in your life, honey?” He never answers her; I don’t think he could, for he himself does not know.  But as the story unfolds before us, is it possible that this mystery person in Dong Hoon’s life lives behind door number 1?

Ki Hoon – Mouthpiece for Dong Hoon

The only way the writer can reveal Dong Hoon’s feelings for Ji An is through a third party. If he says it out loud, he loses his integrity, and everything goes downhill. He is a married man. Remember, everything he says is being recorded. For example, if Kwang Il had heard words of love between them, he would never have trusted Dong Hoon with those recordings, and Ji An would have gone to jail. ~by Fauna

---

My Mister Locations: The Countryside (part 5/5)

by @oldschooler

“In the mountains there you feel free” ~ T. S. Eliot, The Wasteland

@rellea translated a post in DC Inside, which pointed out that Park Dong Hoon’s bag symbolises the weight of life that he carries. One place where he consistently does not hold on to his bag is in the countryside.

The countryside in My Mister is a place to which our characters escape to find peace and rest, and the insights they glean during their excursions often constitute a turning point in the characters’ development. In contrast to the city wasteland, with its crammed alleys and the neutral tones of office cubicles and subway stations, the countryside is replete with life and lush colours and wide open spaces. These qualities allow our characters to see clearly the most important facts of their lives for the first time, and to gather strength to act on these insights.

Park Dong Hoon: Built in 1974, Renovated in 2018. Part 3/3: His Reconstruction

Soompi members discuss how the drama’s structural engineering jargon (cracked concrete, structural reinforcement, pillars, emergency escape routes) mirrors Dong Hoon’s state of life / marriage. What causes these cracks to form, and how can they be reinforced?  Is there an escape route?  Part 3/3: Dong Hoon finally hugs himself and starts making changes to his life.

Why is Ji Seok in the U.S.?

Dong Hoon and Yoon Hee’s son Ji Seok, who appears to be no more than 10 years old, certainly younger than 12, is in the United States throughout the entire show.  Some Soompi viewers discuss this seemingly odd practice of sending very young children abroad and its consequences to the family.  Should studying really be that big of a deal?

Dong Hoon’s Awakening

As early as episode 12, after Dong Hoon and Yoon Hee’s confrontation, the show makes two things clear: (1) their marriage is over. It’s not a question of whether it will end, but how. (2) As Dong Hoon wonders about the ‘how’, Ji An appears. What does this mean?