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밀회 PIANO CONVERSATIONS 
Just reading these comments brings back the pleasure of seeing that genuine Love affair develop, blossom, and send down deep roots. SLA remains a Gold Standard among dramas for me.
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http://forums.soompi.com/discussion/comment/27784002/#Comment_27784002
@telzey said:
The scene in the garage at the end of episode 3 was very powerful for me and stuck with me as a high point. It’s one of the few scenes I can tell you off the top of my head which episode it is from, in fact. As I rewatch it, I think a lot of the reason is the body language and complex facial expressions of Yoo Ah In. No wooden faces for him. He stands in the entrance to the garage, but he’s not just standing there. He’s off balance, ready to move, full of potential energy. He looks dangerous to me, like a commando all psyched up ready to blow up a bridge. But when he walks up to Hye-won he becomes a little diffident, looks down, and opens and shuts his mouth without being able to say anything.
She asks him if he grew, and his expression lightens, he looks uncertain, and he says, “I do think I changed a bit,” with raised eyebrows and half a smile. When she asks if he read the book he raises his head higher and looks more assertive but withdrawn and a little hurt. This expression is hard to read but it is key because it shows the change in him. He’s been through a lot and has been in hiding, but now he’s screwed up his courage and decided to go fight for a life with her. But the expression is fleeting because he knows he has to be careful or she’ll blow him off, so he’s holding back. She tries to put him in his place, like he’s a child – a student of hers – and questions him, and he goes back to diffidence. But when she asks, “how was it?” and makes him think, his mind goes to a painful spot. He goes through several expressions here; he purses his lips, then wrinkles his chin and moves his jaw sideways and his voice breaks. He is honest and admits he had given up but he was swayed. And using only his eyes he gives her the look of a dead man, because he knows he wants her but can’t have her.
She says she can tell he’s struggling and he gives an obvious lie that he’s incredibly fine, grimacing to keep from breaking down. Then tipping his head up to look down his nose at her, he grasps at his pride to tell her not to send him anything again. Now he finds his feet. When she tells him not to lie to his teacher she can’t disconcert him any more. With confidence he answers, “Yes it’s a lie, but it doesn’t matter.” His head is still tipped up and he cracks his jaw; only his eyes show he’s keeping his distance but miserable. She puts her hand on his face for comfort and he is overcome and lets her at first, but then the corner of his mouth twitches, and pained, he says, “don’t,” because it’s a mixed signal. If she thinks she can pretend there’s no attraction by treating him as a child she shouldn’t have touched him, because it calls forth a response and he decides to cut the pretense and grabs her in a hug.
His forehead furrows and his eyebrows angle up as he squeezes her and then lets go and looks at her searchingly for a moment. This is a really memorable moment, and an important moment where he, full of kinetic energy, tips over the edge and gives the rest of the drama its velocity. Right here he gives her a chance to object if she wants to, but she evidently gives him an “I want you too” kind of look and he holds her by the neck and kisses her hard, even when she pushes back a minute later. IMO she got more than she bargained for and was surprised by the intensity. She didn’t understand what she was stirring up. She gasps once and I don’t know how she could with his full lips pressing so hard, but I bet she got a wet face because when they break apart, both gasping for breath, his lips are shiny. And he has a kind of “what was that?” expression.
The whole scene took only about three minutes and he went through 17 different identifiable expressions that I catalogued above; but I watched the whole thing in one go trying to count all the times he changed expression, and it was at least 25. If he doesn’t get all the acting awards there are this year, it will be a gross miscarriage of justice. He carries you through so many nuances of meaning, and it all goes by so fast you can miss it if you are not paying attention. I can’t imagine doing it on cue, several times, over and over for the camera. With a lot of actors you would be lucky to get one expression a minute and you would have gotten 1) Oh, hi. 2) Yes, it’s a lie. 3) Don’t touch my face because now I want to kiss you. This drama finished its run in the middle of May and now it’s the middle of September, so that’s four months. Most dramas I watch, I enjoy while I am watching them but the impression fades away before too long. This is one of the few that has stayed with me. And a big reason is Yoo Ah In’s acting.
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http://forums.soompi.com/discussion/comment/27604509/#Comment_27604509
@seungshinl said:
Just to wrap up my thoughts on the jail visit ‘marriage proposal’ so I can move on to the ‘butterfly kiss’.
I’m still reeling from realizing that the conversation at the jail in Episode 16 could possibly be a marriage proposal.
As I have already confessed a number of times, I came to this drama very very skeptical of this 20/40 year old relationship. I felt this not in abstract terms or as a social judgment but from a practical point of view of someone who is close to Hye Won’s age. Never in a million years would I personally be attracted to a 20 year old no matter who he is or what he has. Even if it’s Yoo Ah In!
And this has not changed even post-SLA. To this day, I don’t think a relationship with these variables is so possible or desirable. But if Seon Jae and Hye Won are the only ones who can make it I’m fine with that.
To me Seon Jae and Hye Won live on different planets in terms of their life experiences, expectation and their needs and goals in life which I believe are essential for a successful union (ok, apparently in KDrama every day people fall in love with people from another planet too, geesh). There were so many other things working against them, aside from the age difference.
Ironically, this strong held view is at the core of why I love the story telling in SLA so much (understatement here) and I always will. I fought with it hard the whole time and it fought me back with everything it had and won me over at every turn. Through all things perfect in how the drama was written, created, acted, produced and wrapped beautifully in music, I saw that the love between them were genuine and real and I was able to imagine the relationship going on after Hye Won got out of jail. So they convinced me as a couple. And I was satisfied with that at the end of EP 16. So I did not have to throw a tablet in the river out of frustration of open ending as some in our thread had done.
All this to say, I watched the drama willing to be convinced but a very high bar to meet. In so doing it appears that I was looking for all the wrong things right till the end of the drama. My need to be convinced of the relationship short changed my understanding of the drama and the love story.
In fact now I see that Seon Jae and Hye Won had gone right passed by me or my hill. I was asking them to climb @seungshinl‘s little hill (though I thought it was pretty steep) and they had climbed up and over Mount Everest in their relationship without me realizing it.
All their emotional passionate moments, every hug, kiss, love making, fights, piano playing, hanok getaways, crying and yes all the sobbing, I simply saw them as mere courtship milestone of regular sort.
Now I see that they were up to much much more. They were up to a marriage. Not a marriage as in a ‘fairytale happily ever after’ but a marriage, as in a total permanent commitment to each other as what a marriage should signify in my book, total giving of themselves to each other and disregarding all other distractions and detractors. And I have to admit I did not see that coming. I did not think ‘they’ (the PDnim and Writernim) would go there. Because in my biased view, if they could survive a good quality relationship of some kind, it was enough. It should be enough in the social context of our times.
My skepticism, plus our collective blindness to cultural sensitivities, to which I belong as someone who has been westernized for many years, is what I attribute to missing their epic ascent in their relationship.
Things that look differently now in this new light:
. Seon Jae’s room/house was so bright and sunny at the end of EP 16
. the Script says at the end of EP 16, ‘Seon Jae’s house where he will return and wait for Hye Won’
. the happy, comfortable and content look on Hye Won’s face and demeanour in the Prison yard in EP 16
. Seon Jae was touching Hye Won with Rondo as his life mate, not just as a lover he was waiting for in EP 16
. Seon Jae calling Hye Won dear, ’dang-shin’ in Episode 16.
. When Seon Jae called Hye Won a Goddess and didn’t like her being in same room with her husband in EP 5
. Going away for a weekend is a full relationship commitment, not a fling in EP 12
. saying ‘we are a couple’ means more than just being a boyfriend and girlfriend
. PDnim was conveying more than a boyfriend and girlfriend cooking a meal in hanok in EP 12
. Hye Won saying he should go abroad, and Seon Jae saying he would never go alone in EP 12
. when Seon Jae said he felt like he left bride behind in EP 12, he really meant what he said
Just a few I can think of, for now.
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@seungshinl , possible additions to your list (explanations further below):
The first 2 are of SJ and HW’s interactions, behaviors, facial expressions in the Visiting Room, one that you wrote about in your comment on Secret Love Affair Script Episode 16: I’ll Go and Come Back; and a second one I’m suggesting from the same scene.
– the qualities of their “you look pretty” laughter. EP 16.
– HW’s surprise at the “empty house” question. EP 16
– SJ’s responses to Kang. Throughout.
– My first addition to your list of “Things that look differently now in this new light:” is from your own comments here:
Secret Love Affair Script Episode 16: I’ll Go and Come Back
You said:
“One is in the first video where they break out into a happy prolonged laughter after Seon Jae says, ’cause you are a little pretty too’. I’m thinking it isn’t just that he called her pretty, which almost sounded in jest, that made them laugh like that. It might be that they were happy that they will live together and that they will be married when Hye Won comes out of jail.
“When I first watched scene I noticed they seemed so happy and almost playful in this laughter…but a little odd. After all they are visiting in jail and Hye Won could be in there for a while.. And Seon Jae’s expression is not just sad as he should be in a jail house visit. His face is such a mixture of happiness and sadness all rolled into one. That look – go see it again. Well a marriage proposal accepted could give that expression.”
When I read your comments, I thought: Me, too, I had the same reaction: “It wasn’t that funny!” I had sort of lamely attributed it to stress relief. The whole thing was such a poignant interaction, but definitely mixed with happiness as you @seungshinl described.
– Re: my next suggestion:
Another facial expression in the Visiting Room scene that makes more sense to me in light of the proposal theory is HW’s look of real surprise when SJ says, “where would I go, leaving the house empty?”
(interjection: I don’t quite get that phrase – is that a Korean idiom, @seungshinl ? another translation had, “where would I go when my home is here,” which made more sense to my English brain.)
Regardless, that stopped HW short: she thinks ‘is that so?’ but with such a look of utter surprise when he says that – she actually looks startled – and makes full, sustained eye contact with him for the first time in the whole visit. That makes me wonder if that were THE moment of the proposal… and the rest of what SJ says that follows is just the persuasion, the reasons she should say yes. But I think I need to understand that idiom better ( @seungshinl )
And my thinking about my third suggestion above is that SJ’s responses to Kang are certainly consistent with not seeing him as a valid husband for HW, and seeing his own relationship with HW heading in the direction of marriage or long-term committed relationship. This new concept of SJ thinking of them as married or heading that way really helps to make sense of some of his reactions – or non-reactions, really – to Kang. I think SJ realized early on that HW’s ‘marriage’ was an empty shell – maybe as early as when Kang left his purported wife with her foot in a trap while he ran away from the unseen mice, leaving her for SJ to care for.
SJ never showed embarrassment or guilt in front of or toward Kang for his connection with HW. In his interactions with Kang, it seemed like he just really didn’t like him, and certainly didn’t like how he treated HW. Although SJ once said to HW that he felt sorry to Kang because he didn’t usually like “another man’s woman,” he never really acted like that; in fact, his behavior gave the lie to those words (and I think he just said that because he was pissed at HW at the time). When SJ was supporting a drunk Kang after that horror party fiasco, and asked if JH was okay, he asked it so naturally without even thinking about the implications that JH then responded to (“you’re asking me if I’m ok?!”) – it didn’t even occur to SJ. All of that certainly fits with SJ feeling perfectly at ease with stepping into the role of being HW’s partner, since that role was in truth (from his perspective) vacant.
Additional thoughts re: the ‘dang-shin’ item on your list:
‘I touch you, Dear, like that everyday… Always! Wickedly sexy. You.’
I love that entire statement. And I loved the “Dear” when it showed up: it was so new, a whole new tone and felt so confident and settled in their relationship, even before we had @seungshinl‘s translation and commentary, and now this Proposal idea, which confirm those feelings. Hye Won is no longer “Seonsaengnim” to Seon Jae, but “Dang-shin”! Yay!
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