Moving: Episodes 10-11
by quirkycase
Once again, we delve into the past this week for another love story amidst violence. It’s an action-melo that’s at times brutal and at times sweet. We spend time with another of our superpowered parent generation as he fights his way through the streets and finds himself at a crossroads. No matter how hard he tries, it’s not easy to start over. But he might just have a real opportunity to turn his life around.
EPISODES 10-11
I expected to continue Doo-shik and Mi-hyun’s story this week, but the drama had other plans. Instead, we switch focus to another couple and their unique tale. We go back to 1990 where Joo-won is a high-ranking member of a local gang in Ulsan. It’s a natural choice given his immense strength and inability to be injured, a skill that earns him the nickname The Monster. Not everyone can just rip those knives out of their own bodies and keep going.
Joo-won might be capable of monstrous violence, but he isn’t someone who enjoys it. He views his role as protector of his gang brothers, so he plows his way through rival gangs when they attack. He’s that quintessential gangster with a heart of gold – like a warrior teddy bear.
His unexpected naivety makes him easy to take advantage of, which is exactly what his boss does. Joo-won may not be in the gang life for the money, but his boss sure is. After a brutal fight that ends with multiple guys on both sides in the hospital, Joo-won is aghast that his boss accepts a merger and kowtows to the new boss.
This new boss hates Joo-won with his natural strength and regeneration that make him impossible to control. He decides to clean house and has both Joo-won and the old boss drugged. Joo-won wakes beside his boss in a car, both tied to their respective seats. They’ve handcuffed Joo-won to the steering wheel as an extra precaution.
Joo-won being Joo-won, he doesn’t beg for his own release but for his boss’s, not realizing that said boss has been playing him for quite some time. He orchestrated that initial fight between the two gangs so that he could offer the merger and rake in more cash. Then, he lied to Joo-won that the other gang started it, knowing he’d come through if he thought his gang family was in trouble. In a betrayal double-whammy, Joo-won then learns that his supposedly loyal gang dongsaeng Min-ki is the one who drugged them and helped orchestrate their deaths.
Done destroying Joo-won’s spirit, the new boss sends the car careening into the ocean. But we know that’s not enough to kill Joo-won who breaks himself out of his restraints and escapes, alone. He then visits Min-ki and the gang brothers who betrayed him and goes on a revenge spree. He lets Min-ki live but leaves him with a nasty scar (slashing his mouth open with a handcuff, yeesh) to remember him by.
If there’s one thing we know, it’s that Deputy Director Min is never far from a superpowered human. He’s been hearing tales of The Monster and hoped to meet him but shows up a hair too late. No worries though – disloyal Min-ki is all too willing to help bring Joo-won back.
Now we jump six months later to Incheon where Joo-won has made his new home. He’s barely scraping by, living in a motel and earning his rent by jumping in front of cars for settlement money. Not exactly on the up and up, but it’s a step in the right direction from gang life.
Joo-won starts taking notice of the tough woman who makes night deliveries for a local coffee shop. Based on her no-nonsense demeanor and natural confidence, HWANG JI-HEE (Kwak Sun-young) must be Hee-soo’s mom. If a nighttime coffee delivery service in 1990 struck you as suspect, that’s because it’s somewhat a front. Yes, the women do deliver coffee, but they also sit and drink with the men who order. And if paid for a “ticket,” they’ll sleep with the customer.
Given their role as discreet prostitutes, men tend to treat them more like objects than people. That makes Joo-won’s gruff yet respectful demeanor stand out all the more to Ji-hee. If that weren’t enough to make her remember him, seeing this grown, gangster-looking man crying in the middle of the street does the trick. He’s been roaming around for hours – he’s terrible with directions – and all he can say is, “I lost my way.” She takes it literally, but it’s clear he’s at his breaking point given all he’s been through.
Thus starts their adorable, unconventional courtship. All Joo-won knows about Ji-hee is that she makes deliveries, so he starts ordering coffee. He gets all spiffy by shaving his face and wearing a polo, and then he anxiously awaits … and deflates when the woman who shows up isn’t her. So he politely drinks the coffee and then makes another order, and then another, and keeps on ordering until Ji-hee arrives.
He’s bashful and awkward, talking to her about his favorite martial arts novels that are actually love stories. And how in wrestling, which he also loves, the good guy always wins. (How can Joo-won be so scary one minute and so harmless the next?) Ji-hee isn’t the romantic type but finds his romanticism amusing. When Ji-hee says she likes The Hulk because he looks like a monster but is a nice guy, Joo-won can barely contain his smile.
Ji-hee is suspicious at first, knowing most men aren’t serious with prostitutes, but it doesn’t take long for her to realize Joo-won is being painfully sincere and likes her. Not many players talk about wrestling to woo the girl. Over the coming weeks, Joo-won keeps ordering coffee and Ji-hee keeps showing up. Every time, he pays for the coffee and nothing more, chatting with her until she chooses to leave.
Meanwhile, Min-ki is still scouring Korea for Joo-won on Deputy Director Min’s behalf, but Joo-won is keeping a low profile. That is, until Ji-hee is put in danger. Joo-won hears her scream from inside one of the motel rooms as a group of men try to assault her. She holds her own by brandishing a broken beer bottle, but it’s her against four men.
Joo-won punches a hole right through the wall, peeking his head in. “It’s the Hulk,” Ji-hee says with an amazed smile. (These two are clearly made for each other.) Like the Hulk, Joo-won bursts into the room through the wall and knocks all the men out.
While he waits for Ji-hee to get out of the hospital, one of the assaulters escapes and brings back a lot of friends. Joo-won is stabbed (as usual), shot with an arrow (!), wacked with crowbars, chopped with an axe, and even has his arm set on fire. But none of that slows him down – he just keeps swinging with one arm ablaze until everyone else is down for the count.
As if that’s not enough, his old gang rolls up, so he has to handle them too. Deputy Director Min uses it as a test, watching from the sidelines (in the safety of his car) as the fight is taken outside where Joo-won is run over a couple times, jumps out of a building, gets stabbed some more, and keeps on trucking.
Ji-hee catches wind of the commotion and goes searching for Joo-won on her delivery bike. She finds him and refuses to leave until he gets on her bike. She drives them away, but they’re hit by a van. Joo-won shields her as they go down and then charges at the van like a boar, busting through the windshield. To make sure the van doesn’t run over the unconscious Ji-hee, he crashes it off a cliff. (Just how many ways can this man not die?)
THEN, Joo-won’s old pal Min-ki tries to finish him off himself now that Joo-won is trapped under a car and almost dead. But before Min-ki can harpoon (yes, literally) Joo-won, Doo-shik flies in to save the day! Deputy Director Min sent him to assess the situation, but we all know Doo-shik doesn’t like to stand around and watch people die for no reason.
Six months later, Joo-won is officially an agent alongside his new partner Doo-shik. Finished with his training period, Joo-won finally returns to Incheon to visit a certain coffee shop. He shows up in his suit looking for Ji-hee who lights up when she sees him. She’s been waiting for him to return and has even been reading the martial arts manga he likes. We end as they share a cup of coffee, ready to start a new chapter.
What a brutal yet sweet set of episodes! I’ve really enjoyed these trips to the past to get to know the parent generation. The characters are all so well-developed, and it’s fun to see the resemblance between the kids and their parents through their reactions and decisions. It’s also a great way to weave in backstory naturally, strengthening the world-building and making the stakes feel even higher.
Not only are the individual characters well-developed, but so are the relationships. Each couple feels so believable and is so easy to root for. I loved that the genre of each romance reflected the personalities of the leads: gritty Joo-won and Ji-hee’s story was action-packed and bloody, whereas spies Mi-hyun and Doo-shik’s was subtle and built on subterfuge. But poor Joo-won really went through the wringer here! You’ve got to appreciate the myriad of would-be fatalities the drama has him survive, and I have a feeling we’ll see several more before the story is done – we’ve still got the present to contend with.
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Tags: Cha Tae-hyun, Go Yoon-jung, Han Hyo-joo, Jeon Suk-ho, Jo In-sung, Kim Do-hoon, Kim Hee-won, Kim Sung-kyun, Kwak Sun-young, Lee Jung-ha, Moving, Ryu Seung-beom, Ryu Seung-ryong
![[Drama Chat] The drama you didn't know you needed](https://d263ao8qih4miy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/mmh1516_0-scaled.jpg)
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1 Seon-ha
August 26, 2023 at 11:05 AM
I am gripped for every single last one of the minutes of Moving that I can bear to watch. Gripped, I tell you, gripped.
But I wonder if I might open up a conversation within this community about the parts I can’t bring myself to witness—the scenes of vicious, violent, bloody, bone-crunching violence. What are they doing for this work of art? I think it must be something. I trust the creators that far, for sure.
Here’s also a truth. I didn’t find episodes 10 and 11 even more violent than the scenes with Frank from our original drop. Is that I’m getting used to it? I mean, the scenes were longer, but I hardly skipped anything in 10 except at the beginning! Or is it the “brutal but sweet” balance mentioned by @quirkycase that has me questioning my own tolerance for blood and gore???
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Kafiyah Bello
August 26, 2023 at 11:09 AM
I don't mind violence and gore, a lot of my favorite shows are stupidly violent, but this was certainly a lot, so maybe you are getting used it. I think it was also to show that our Joo Won is a gentle Hulk and only rages when attacked.
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Seon-ha
August 26, 2023 at 11:14 AM
Noooooo! That wasn’t the answer I was looking for!!! 🫨😉
Seriously, though, yes, he’s a gentle Hulk—he says himself that he’s never attacked others for the money, he’s only let himself be attacked for the money—but the creators could also show this side of his “work” in a more subdued way, as was also the case with Frank.
I’m interested to think through why the actual “shock and awe” is happening. This show is so clearly well-thought-through, you know? I don’t think they’re doing it to inure people Iike me…or are they?? 😁
Is this what life is like, I guess I’m asking? Or is this what super-natural life is like?
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Kafiyah Bello
August 26, 2023 at 11:16 AM
Definitely supernatural and gangster life.
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Bungaeman
September 3, 2023 at 7:28 AM
I think they are using this as an opportunity to show the "Aestheticization of Violence"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_in_art
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Seon-ha
September 3, 2023 at 7:45 AM
First of all, @crumpiteer, fantastic display name.
Second of all, I certainly agree that we surely have an example of "beautiful violence" here. I do wonder how much more of that we all need in this day and age, but hey...as this show changes and evolves, I'm not still not sure what I think the function of violence in Moving is going to end up having been.
Third of all, welcome (back) to the Dramabeans comment section!
Reply1988 -❣️Mother Bean❣️
September 3, 2023 at 12:06 PM
👋 Welcome back to the comments section. I hope you enjoy the drama.
hacja
August 26, 2023 at 1:47 PM
@attiton Drawing on something @elinor said yesterday, I'm going to say that throughout you see the brutal video game aesthetic of this show, which in fact most of us are indeed used to. It is one of the byproducts of cgi/computer animation. Now, please understand, I am not saying you or any of the shows enthusiasts on Dramabeans are loving this violence! They are just willing to overlook it or fast forward through, perhaps because of the actors involved, who are much better than the material merits; or maybe they think it is different from other violent superhero stories because it shows loving relationships.
BUT I'm going to demur a bit from everyone raving about the sweet loving relationships and say that, while I appreciated these stories as well, after the 7 episodes of kid stories, and 4 episodes of these two love stories, I still have very little idea about these characters, except maybe Bong Seok. They are not fully fleshed out. The writer and director are using these relationships MAINLY to set up violence.
In fact, while everyone can take what they want from any show—for me the true message of this show is the virtue of brutality. The superpower here is the ability to kill, not love. The show isn't unique in that--its the message of about 90 percent of recent superhero and revenge films. In a world dominated by conspiratorial government and corporate organizations pulling the strings, the only way you can survive, show you are not a puppet or one of the faceless sheep, is by shattering skulls and spilling guts on the floor.
I found it interesting that these lengthy episodes supposedly developing sweet love stories and the human background, every one was punctuated by violence. In these two episodes, for example, we learned virtually nothing about Ji-hee, presumably because they couldn’t figure out a back story that would involve her graphically sinking a knife into someone’s throat. But we did see her nearly getting crushed by a car. Also they never showed Ji-hee sleeping with any of her customers, because that would be totally offensive, involving as it does, sex. Sex is offensive. Violence is joyous. So they gladly showed Joo-woo shattering jaws, ripping mouths and abdomens. Violence = sex = romance. The show was open about that. Fighting is romantic, was a line that was repeated twice.
The show is gripping because you know that none of the friendships/romances/coming of age moments are of any consequence. At any moment blood is going to spatter. But the only reason they are showing these friendships/romances is so they can contrast it with what is more consequential: the violence.
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Seon-ha
August 26, 2023 at 2:37 PM
@hacja Thank you so much for this thoughtful commentary. I really appreciate the time you took to formulate and contribute it.
I’ve been pondering your argument's ins-and-outs, and can easily see that I’m with you almost all the way through. I feel you’ve offered a plausible viewpoint--depressing, in its own way--but one clearly supported by evidence both intrinsic and extrinsic to Moving.
The beautifully filmed violence is the point. Everything else is secondary. I especially take your point about how in this week the show describes, say, martial arts books as fundamentally romantic and, say, Hulk Hogan as being a good guy who always wins by the "good" violence of beating the crap out of his enemies (even if the violence of WWF was staged, it was staged, in its own way, exactly like the violence of Moving).
Unsurprisingly, I suppose, I do have one small caveat to my agreement. In so far as you were trying to describe my personal reason for being gripped, I’m not sure that you have it pegged. That said, in reading what you've written, I have been able to better identify a more likely reason for myself, personally. Such is one of the great joys of human communication!
I think I'm gripped here by the vain hope that the human connections being forged in the interstices of these ultraviolent scenes will somehow prevail. I want to see depicted for me that the world may be this outrageously dog-eat-dog...and we may all even need/have secret super-powers that allow us to participate and survive (even without a physical scratch or by hovering far above or by being able to hear the violence coming)...but at the end of the day, there will be an escape created by human love and connection.
I will surely be disappointed (again). But, in me, this particular hope springs eternal.
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indyfan
August 26, 2023 at 9:01 PM
A very simple response. I had to fast forward through most of these episodes. Whereas I felt the earlier stories were punctuated by violence, the reverse was true here. And I watch for story.
I wish along with Hacja and @bluejwoodz that some of that space dedicated to violence had been used to further story and character. Instead we got the tropey soft-hearted thug and the sex worker with a heart of gold. It's a testament to these actors tho, in the little room they had, they blew it away. As you said, Seon-ha, they showed a path that is forged through human love and connection.
An aside. I am glad the show didn't give the same stylized, voyeuristic treatment to sex work as it did to the fights. I do not want sexual violence glorified in the way it's done in shows like GoT.
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Seon-ha
August 27, 2023 at 5:25 AM
I gave this even further thought overnight (as ya do). Where my mind went was to Joo-won’s (eventual) approach to fathering.
I, too, would like to have had more exposition on how our leads this week ended up leading the lives they were living, but one of the hints offered to Joo-won's decision-making process was this: He knew the potency of his own strength, but he always took the "easy way out" in profiting from it. For me, that was enough (barely) to understand how he ended up in gangster-land, and also why he then chose to get run over, over and over, to extort settlement money.
But we do know a different Joo-won in the present. The one who moves from town to town to protect his daughter and then gets a job in a coal mine when she needs to settle down and finish high school. When her abilities are revealed, he calmly works to solve the situation.
And, yet, we also see the old Joo-won in the way he wrings a new phone out of that customer, and can threaten him with only his dialect/tone of voice (that whole thing still confuses me a bit). Gentle Hulk, indeed?
I didn't need or want THAT much evidence of the violence inherent to his past. I think it was probably even horribly titillating for some. I may even be on the same page as @sicarius that this much filmed violence is never, ever necessary. But since I can easily skip it, and imagine it as "happening off stage," I am persisting...albeit more uncomfortably now, after this recap conversation!!
hacja
August 27, 2023 at 4:10 PM
Thanks @attiton . First, I want to be clear I would never presume anything about your response to a show and I apologize if it sounded like I was saying "the reason YOU find it gripping is because..." I was talking about myself, only.
Anyway, I also want to be clear I'm not watching this show from the standpoint of an outraged critic. I have watched a lot of violent movies. I never really enjoy them, but there are some great ones that employ graphic violence effectively.
Even while I’m putting forth my interpretation of the violence, though, I’m still not entirely sure why, when a prominent theme is extraordinary people being exploited by "the system" and just trying to live their own lives and defend their families, it was necessary not just to show violence but also make it cartoonishly exaggerated? Obviously this isn't some family slice of life drama, but a comic-book superhero story, and fighting and violence is a necessary component. But was it the writer who said--"in order to show Joo-won's true character, we have to show him taking a hook to his former friends mouth and ripping his cheek so he gets showered with blood?" (I would have thought a simple punch to the mouth would have made the point that he was tired of Min-ki's lying obsequiousness.) Or was it the director who said "in order to make this scene effective we have to show Joo-won's hand being pinioned by a knife so that we can zero in on it ripping in half pulling it out?"
Could they have made a very successful, heartwarming superhero story by toning down the brutality, and not cartoonishly showing the mass shooting, blood pouring out on the ballroom floor, the severed hands, sliced abdomens, etc? Of course! That's why I mentioned Ji-hee's prostitution. We didn't need to see her sleeping with clients, we could pretty much guess what happens. That's the one part of Ji-hee we are familiar with, although @indyfan makes a good point that that didn't make her any less of a stock character.
I am not outraged by this comic book joy in exaggerated bloodiness and in the end more kind of curious about it. In the early days of video games, when there were marketed primarily to teenage boys, you could see how some perfectly nice, normal guys took adolescent pleasure in blowing characters heads off—it appealed to their primitive psyche, or something. In slasher films I know some very sophisticated viewers are interested in how creatively victims can be disemboweled.
But I don't think that's the majority of the very large audience for this one--I think most people find the characters really appealing, as they are. Whether they also accept one of the show’s clear messages, that family requires not just crushing skulls, but doing so in ways that fragments of bones and brains fly out, I don’t know!
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Seon-ha
August 28, 2023 at 10:00 AM
My mind's still working on this as a background process.
Today's thought: What if the question isn't what is the violence doing, implying what is it showing, but instead, what is the violence hiding? What the gore distracting us from seeing or keeping our attention away from?
fournier48
August 26, 2023 at 3:54 PM
As much as I admire this thoughtful analysis, I cannot help but remember that at then end of our first act Bong Seok decides to own his superpowers not to hurt others, but to protect the person he loves. And that makes me see that all of our heroes are doing the same. Even the retired characters are going to their deaths fighting hard to protect their children. I think love might triumph over brutality by the end, or so I hope!
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Seon-ha
August 27, 2023 at 5:27 AM
But we all suspect that the path to this triumph will, indeed, be very brutal in and of itself…love and brutality are perhaps inseparable?
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fournier48
August 27, 2023 at 12:25 PM
Or one must eventually fight hard for love?
Healer’s
August 26, 2023 at 7:34 PM
Comment was deleted
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Healer’s
August 26, 2023 at 7:41 PM
Wish I could upvote your comment 1000x. Tbh, if not for the cast, I would be close to dropping this show at this point.
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LaurenSophie
August 27, 2023 at 7:20 AM
I enjoy this show, but your analysis here is spot-on, especially the part about Jin-hee's lack of backstory and the way the show carefully avoids showing or even suggesting sex as positive, let alone joyous (instead either ignoring it all together or only showing it in the context of sexual assault), and yet has no issue exploring every possible emotional angle or consequence (both positive and negative) of violent expression. This frustrates me in general with kdramas, and it was particularly present in these two episodes which did, as you say, leave one with the unsettling realization that the sweet, "romantic" (and very chaste) moments between the leads primarily existed to set up the violence.
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💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
August 26, 2023 at 9:57 PM
My two cents answer is a non answer.
Because I dropped Moving primarily because of how it uses violence, and do not think there is any True (capital T) justification for it existing the way it does.
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Seon-ha
August 27, 2023 at 5:28 AM
This isn’t a “non answer,” it’s a perfectly valid response!
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💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
August 27, 2023 at 12:26 PM
🫰
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PYC
August 26, 2023 at 10:14 PM
I gather the question that needs be raised and becomes some PhD theses is - why total fantasies like the Marvel movies are now the mainstream dominating our screens. It must have been explored by film buffs alike or already topics of scholar research.
I have never seen any Marvel movies myself - except the first Iron Man (at a time when it wasn’t part of the franchise and also because I’m a fan of Robert Downey Jr). Is Moving more violent than those franchises - great to hear others’ views?
As for watching Moving, I’m sorry to say that the violence doesn’t bother me because I just see that as part of the deal and either turn my eyes elsewhere or reach a drink or something. Also, growing up with martial arts movies (and also with my hubby a keen fan of those movies), I’m sort of normalized knowing too well it’s not real but unfortunately designed to heighten the sense of interested viewers. In our digitalised entertainment era, I also like to know how these movie acts stack up against those in video games. (Again, I have never played video games myself, not even the basic Mario brother stuff when my daughter played them LOL.)
To me, my love for Moving is really about its characters and stories. It’s definitely head and shoulder above Squids Game (for comparison sake) and edging ahead of Sweet Home in my drama watching book.
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sirena
August 28, 2023 at 8:21 AM
@Seon-ha The violence in these last two episodes was difficult to watch at times.
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2 Kafiyah Bello
August 26, 2023 at 11:07 AM
WOOOOOOF, the writer asked, how many ways can we skin a cat, but make him human. Goodness, no wonder he is so calm. Nothing can faze him. The love story was really sweet though. I am sad she died in present day because it would have been nice to them in present times. That being said I really love how they saved each other in the end. I love how we see the parents in the kids too. The casting for this show is A+. From personality to physical traits.
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3 bluejwoodz
August 26, 2023 at 11:58 AM
Joo-won is clearly not afraid to use his special abilities to punish his enemies or those who have betrayed his trust, but he's not inherently a monstrous person despite his nickname being "The Monster." I think episodes 10 and 11 showcased this duality of his quite well, especially through his romantic nature and shy affection towards Ji-hee.
Also, I'm not sure if this was shown in the original webtoon, but it would have been interesting to see more about Joo-Won's background and what thrust our martial-arts novel-loving romanticist into the seedy world of gangsters.
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4 jillian
August 26, 2023 at 12:34 PM
The fight scenes were a bit too gory for me that I skipped through a lot of the latter fight scenes. I did enjoy Ju Won and Jin Hee's story. Ryu Seung Ryong is such a great actor and you can relate to the range of emotions he goes through every scene. Also he has good chemistry with Kwak Sun Young. Their story was sweet too. I like that despite Juwon's regeneration super power, he has loyalty and a good heart. Hee Soo definitely inherited the best characteristics of her parents.
As much as I enjoyed the parent storylines, I do wish we will go back to the present next week. I do want to know what is happening in the current timeline. I miss Hee Soo and Bong Seok.
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5 Kurama
August 26, 2023 at 12:48 PM
I didn't specially like these episodes. The guy is not really a bad guy but his actions are. He doesn't use very well his brain neither. The fact he demolished a wall when there was still a door and the conflict was settled.
The fact they used the same actors make me wonder how old he was because he has a 16 years old daughter and still looks the same.
I miss Bong-Seok 😥
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Kafiyah Bello
August 26, 2023 at 12:52 PM
He went through the wall because the door is metal and he couldn't get through it. Just a point of clarity, they established early in the episode that the walls were thin.
I miss Bong seok too.
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indyfan
August 26, 2023 at 9:06 PM
Using the same middle-aged characters to play their younger selves is one of my pet peeves in this show. It's fine at best, and really throws me off other times. That said, they have such a large cast of characters, so many storylines crisscrossing the past and the present, they might have thought it was easier for viewers to keep track of the same faces? I dunno. 🤷🏽♀️
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peachietime
August 27, 2023 at 12:28 AM
Lol this would be an exception because the actor actually explained and showed pictures of him in his 20s and I am not kidding I MEAN IT he looked exactly THE SAME in his 20s VS 50s LMAO
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indyfan
August 27, 2023 at 2:33 AM
Is that Ryu Seung-ryong you're talking about? Well, then.
I thought when the Ji-hee character muttered Joo-won looked 40 and he was all upset, that was supposed to be a joke the audience could get in on.
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Seon-ha
August 27, 2023 at 5:29 AM
I’ve decided that the show runners couldn’t afford a single additional member of the cast after seeing what it cost to employ all the lead characters, so they chose to make those folks play their younger selves because of the budget :)
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6 panshel
August 26, 2023 at 3:56 PM
I've no problem with the violence. I disagree that Episodes 10-11 were the most violent. Frank was way more violent because Frank was superhuman vs. superhuman, while Joo-won was only superhuman vs. humans. Moving is basically a movie starring movie stars, and since Joo-won was a gangster, this was just a noir film, and noir films are always violent.
The purpose of Joo-won's exposition is to reveal that he can die by drowning. Regeneration is the best superpower ever. Joo-won and Frank are so OP that they're basically immortal until they die of old age. LOL at
I loved Ji-hee. She was sassy, and I was touched when she repeated Joo-won's words back to him, "You must have had a reason."
I laughed when the gangs' vans rolled down the stairs and exploded in a pit of fire. Didn't they know that the road would end? They killed themselves. Joo-won should've never spared Min-ki, but at least Doo-shik ended him with a headshot. The drunk drivers deserved it, but I could only think how traumatizing it must've been for the honest drivers whom Joo-won scammed by jumping in front of their cars.
I knew that we wouldn't continue Doo-shik and Mi-hyun because their story was done. I'm looking forward to Jae-man's love story next week. Many thanks for the recap, @quirkycase!
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indyfan
August 26, 2023 at 9:41 PM
For me, it was more a question of how much violence there was rather than its quality. Moving has always been a dance between violence and love, with the latter leading the way. But in these two episode, I felt the violence dominated the dance, brutally so.
But it is about individual expectations and desire. And it may be that I (and possibly other Beanies) preferred the character-first stories. However, if we thought of these two episodes as an action movie—and the adult arcs have been structured almost as separate movies—then I can see they match genre expectations. Your point these were meant to be like a noir films, which are usually violent, is well taken. It's just not what I wanted, and I hope we have a better balance going forward.
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Seon-ha
August 27, 2023 at 5:32 AM
We probably do have that third backstory coming up…the one to set up our class president’s father? I wonder if it’ll lean relationship-heavy (like last week) or gore-heavy (like this week)…
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indyfan
August 27, 2023 at 6:43 AM
Perhaps a balance? Tho conflict often escalates as a show progresses. However, we’re about the smack into the current timeline soon so a lull before the storm?
You know my track record with predictions. So I’m hedging all my bets. 😀
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Seon-ha
August 27, 2023 at 6:51 AM
Yeah, that was a different genre, though…so it doesn’t count here 😄
LaurenSophie
August 27, 2023 at 6:59 AM
I agree that violence dominated the dance/story in this pair episodes, so much so that it practically became a third main character. One might argue that is generally true of the gangster life, and because this part of the story had to show an extreme version of that life in order for the rest of the story to work, I wouldn't say the violence was gratuitous. But it *was* extreme, unrelenting, and gory. I mean, the whole premise of the final part of ep. 11 was that the government agency wanted to see how much violence Ju-won could really take. Ergo, they threw everything at him that they could.
In the end, I felt there was an imbalance, too, in that it seemed obvious in a way it hadn't been before that the story could easily have been told equally well with a few less violent minutes per violent encounter.
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7 misshoggy
August 26, 2023 at 9:36 PM
This pair of episodes echoed one thing about all the parents: they chose to protect their children by hiding the past, which was actually counter-productive: Mi-hyun refusing to tell Bong-seok about his dad, Joo-won hiding his gangster past.
Hee-soo ended up using violence to protect a classmate mirrored her dad's brute way of showing his loyalty. If Joo-won told Hee-soo earlier about his past, maybe Hee-soo might rethink the violent choice to begin with. Hee-soo did learn the lesson about violence being the worst way possible to fight injustice eventually.
Non-webtoon reader here, I think Hee-soo might get used by the organisation and if Joo-won is to find out in the future how his daughter is going to be used like he was, he would see red. Ep 10-11 provided exposition to how Joo-won was treated in the past and I'm sure that he won't let that happen to his daughter no matter what.
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8 Nefret
August 26, 2023 at 11:41 PM
As with Doo-shik and Mi-hyun last week, it was absolutely genius to tell Joo-won's story in two episodes of its own rather than as little flashbacks. In keeping with the characters, these episodes, which are actually like a film, have their own personal style that could not otherwise unfold so forcefully.
I'm almost glad that I can only watch MOVING in chunks and not in one piece, who knows if the effect would have been the same then.
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misshoggy
August 27, 2023 at 4:27 AM
Yes! I like that each backstory is their own genre and style, like a mini movie within the drama.
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PYC
August 27, 2023 at 6:40 AM
Agreed - smart programming but makes sense to tell each arc more coherently. We get to know those characters better and those top movie actors deserve such treatments.
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9 Soyesterday
August 27, 2023 at 12:50 AM
I can understand why so many people are a bit put off by the extreme violence (not a big fan of it either).
But what makes me like the show (and the original comic its based on) is the central theme of parents who are willing to do anything to protect their children.
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Kurama
August 27, 2023 at 4:31 AM
It's kind a theme that comes back pretty often in Kdramas and I don't like because they often trample on a lot of morals, people, etc. to do it.
During the last 4 episodes who didn't see the kids and when they were there, the parents didn't communicate with their kids very well.
So for now, I don't think the theme of family is working.
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10 PYC
August 27, 2023 at 6:42 AM
For Jin Yon’s fans, I think Joo-won is reading the Condor Trilogy.
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11 sakuradaydream
August 27, 2023 at 6:32 PM
i LOVED Joowon & Jihee's story. It felt so much more natural and simply adorable. I have to admit I did fast forward through the fight scenes as the sheer amount of gore & violence was just too much for me. Like I get it, they are showing how strong and un-kill-able Joo-won is but its too much.
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12 djf
August 28, 2023 at 12:07 AM
Two more great episodes for this series. Very well written, and very well acted.
Good choice of the actress, Kwak Sun-young, for the role of Hwang Ji-hee. I liked her work in VIP, and Behind Every Star, but her performance in Brain Works showed her acting ability has another level. I'm a fan. And she is easy on the eyes.
Only thing missing was Ju-won saying - Hulk smash! when he is busting through the walls.
I learned something new this week. I never knew about Coffee girls and tickets. It didn't become 100% clear to me until the first coffee girl to meet up with Ju-won in episode 11 said - Should I go wash up? and You're not getting a ticket?
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13 Nadia1998
September 1, 2023 at 4:59 AM
I honestly wonder why no one brings up the historical and cultural context of these two episodes. I'm more okay with the violence in these two episodes rather than Frank scences. Episode 10-11 took place against a backdrop of Korean "War on Crime". Traditionally, criminal groups fought with their hands, feet, and heads. They later began using knives and metal bars. The violence scenes, although a bit excessive, are not there merely for entertainment purposes, but also necessary to potray the reality of that time. Many actually lived this kind of life. Jungwon respected his elders and wanted to support him. It was showed again and again while he did use violence to solve most of his problems, he was a byproduct of his environment. He lost his way when he was uprooted from all he'd always known. The show, for me, perfectly depicted the story of finding love and warmth even in the darkest place.
And for the sex, as an Asian living in Asia, I totally understand why they don't explicitly show nor talk about sex. It is deep-rooted in our culture to see it as something delicate and sacred. The only time it will be shown in positive light would be between couples or spouses. Even then, it will be treated very carefully as not to encourage people to think it as just an act of pleasuring oneself. Althought many shows in East Asia have started to show it as such. SA is still a major problem in Asia that's why most of the time you'll see the potrayal of it in shows as social critics. Shows are mostly influenced by current social problems that's why you'll see the same topics being brought up again and again.
I think the fact that the show never mentioned Jungwon and Jinhee's reason for doing what they're doing perfectly alligned with the message. They must have their reason, but it's not all that matters.
Honestly, after seeing the flashback episodes, I understand why the showmakers decide to show it the way it does. It actually makes me think what my parents stories are. They're their own person before they're my parents. What have they sacrificed to give me the life that I have now? I think this is the path the showmakers are aiming for.
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