By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
August 25, 2019
☆☆☆☆
Yoo Ji-Ho (played by Jung Hae-in)
Lee Jung-In (played by Han Ji-min)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.
It’s not surprising that “One Spring Night” has the same melancholy vibe as “Something in the Rain” (aka “Pretty Noona Who Buys Me Food”). Besides the same leading man, the series reunites screenwriter Kim Eun and director Ahn Pan-Seok.
While the storyline is different, the main thrust remains the same: The central male character is deemed as unsuitable to be with the female character, because of an unforgivable character flaw. In “Something in the Rain,” he was considered defective because his mother was deceased and his father was a serial womanizer. Therefore, he came from a lineage that no woman would want to marry into.
Erm, no.
In “One Spring Day,” he is considered to be unsuitable for marriage because — wait for it — his college girlfriend got pregnant, didn’t tell him about it and then left him with their baby before moving overseas without ever contacting him again. With the help of his parents, he is raising his kindergartener without a woman in his life.
Shameful! Not.
In the United States, a man raising his child after his partner ran away would be celebrated. But in South Korea, the stigma against having children out of wedlock is still so severe that raising a child by yourself is a cause for national shame. Make no mistake about it: The shame is tenfold if you’re a single mom. Ji-Ho has a nice job as a pharmacist. Such a career most likely wouldn’t be available to a single mom.
Despite all that Ji-Ho has gone through, he refuses to demonize his ex-girlfriend. He says that she must’ve gone through rough times herself and did what she had to do to save herself.
One spring day, Jung-In walks into his pharmacy, asking for hangover medicine. They easily banter with one another. She has a long-time boyfriend, so she can’t get involved. But she also is intrigued by this man.
It’s clear that after dating her boyfriend for the past four years, the relationship has run its course. Jung-In knows that her boyfriend’s wealthy father doesn’t think she’s good enough to marry into their family. And while he at first comes across as a good guy, it becomes clear that Gi-Seok (Kim Jun-Han) has stopped trying in their relationship, because he figured that since he was the better catch of the two, he could get away with being lazy. He does care for her, but he views Jung-In as an inferior and therefore unacceptable suitor. After all, how would it look when people find out that he was dumped for a … single father!
It is brought up repeatedly that Ji-Ho should know his place — that he shouldn’t dream of being with a woman like Jung-In, because of his past. Even his own mother says that the most he should allow himself to hope for is to marry someone who also has a past, like a divorcee.
I wondered: If he had given his child up for adoption, would he have been viewed in a less harsh light? Would society have considered that a better option for Ji-Ho? After all, out of sight, out of mind, right? 😒
As if there wasn’t enough turbulence in his life, Ji-Ho has to deal with Gi-Seok, who has turned out to be a vindictive tattletale. He makes it his mission to ruin Ji-Ho’s life by announcing to anyone who’ll listen that he is a single father. Because Ji-Ho does feel less than in many ways. he lets Gi-Seok get away with his pettiness. But then he starts to fight back.
There are so many elements of “One Spring Night” that seem like a throwback to another era, when women couldn’t do anything without their father’s permission. Jung-In is surrounded by caring women (her mother, sisters and friends), but her father is an oligarch whose wife and children fear. Say all you will about how he’s emasculated at work (by Gi Seok’s father), but that doesn’t make it right for him to treat the women in his family as bumbling children.
And no matter how many times Jung-In told Gi-Seok that they were through, he refused to listen to her. And even after it was public that she was dating another man, Gi-Seok, his father and her father still wanted to plan a wedding date for them.
W. T. F.?!!
Don’t even get me started on the subplot between Jung-In’s older sister, who was married to an abusive man. When the latter pretended to be sorry and apologized to her father (why are you apologizing to him? Oh yeah, because he’s a man…), the latter accepted it, saying that it happens.
Yes, it happens when you’re married to a wifebeater. Instead of encouraging them to remain together, the dad should’ve planted the soles of his feet on his son-in-law’s ass. And then he should’ve supported his daughter’s wish to divorce.
That said, I enjoyed watching Lee Moo-Saeng chew up the scenery as the abusive husband. I wondered why I couldn’t stand him at first sight (and he’s a good looking man who normally wouldn’t generate that kind of reaction from me). Then I remembered: He played a horrible character in “The Crowned Clown,” too.
A Few More Thoughts:
Incidentally, Gil Hae-Yeon is beautiful in her role as Jung-In’s sympathetic mother. Her character is 180 degrees different from the female lead’s disapproving mom in “Something in the Rain.”
Unlike most K-Dramas, both this series and “Something in the Rain” had a soundtrack full of songs sung in English. Rachael Yamagata returns here to help set the mood. And former supermodel (and former French First Lady) Carla Bruni also has a track.
Airdates:
MBC aired 32 episodes — each 35 minutes long — from May 22 to July 9, 2019
Spoiler Alert:
Jung-In’s elder sister, Seo-In (played by Im Sung-Eon), is a top anchor for a television news program. She learns that she’s pregnant. Her husband raped her (this isn’t depicted in the series, but it’s clear what happened) and is hoping to use the unborn baby as a way of staying in his wife’s life. When he realizes that she will prosecute him for his crime and he’ll serve time in jail, he agrees to the divorce and to give up any parental rights. Realizing that Seo-In will become a single mother, her family begins to sympathize with Ji-Ho.
Though Seo-In’s career trajectory is on the upswing, she knows that netizens will drag her through the mud when news of her upcoming divorce is revealed. She quits her job to avoid a scandal. I wish that she had kept her job and then sued her employers if they tried to make her leave. Of course, it’s easy for me to say that. But it’s not so easy for women to live that life.
© 2019 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved
They were similar (and had a lot of the same cast) but I loved “One Spring Night” and hated the ending for “Something in the Rain.”
I felt that the last two episodes “Something in the Rain” were rushed and I generally felt unfulfilled with how it ended. It just didn’t ring true with the characters had developed.
“One Spring Night,” on the other hand, is now one of my favorites. While at times it was heartbreaking, I loved seeing a storyline revolve around a single dad. And I felt Jung Tae-in played Ji-ho so well. I loved how the sisters learned to stand up for themselves and each other. So, so good!