What is Your Choice?

너는 어떤 선택을 할까? "What is your choice?"

Everyone is given a choice, even though it looks like there is no choice, basically, we can still choose what we think is the best for ourselves. Life can seem so confusing sometimes. It makes the choice hard to make.

There are those who live their lives like flowing water (remember water always flows down), there are also those who always try to keep going up, trying to get the best. Many are trapped in their mistake of judging themselves so that they make the wrong decisions. Even though they finally realized, sometimes it was too late, so that what comes is only regret.

However, even when we are in a very difficult situation when it seems that there is only one choice, there is never one choice. Yes... the choice is never one, there are at least two... it's just that our considerations of other things make it seem like there's only one.

This is the conclusion I came to after watching two k-dramas this week. Yeah, for some reason, I'm very bored, and keep wanting to watch. Well, there's something that puts me in a bad mood, and it makes me want to distract it by watching. Watching these two dramas is quite entertaining. I will discuss the outline of these two dramas, why they are so interested in my eyes, and why do those dramas make me want to talk about choices?

These two dramas have very much different genres. The other is a romance, more precisely a romantic comedy, while the other is a suspense drama that focuses on the theme of psychopaths (as you probably know, I like the theme of psychopaths, for some reason this theme is very interesting for me).

So ... we will start by discussing the drama with the romance-comedy genre, High School King of Savvy. Anyway, I'm not here to recommend you guys to watch this drama, so I'm not going to discuss who the actors are (which might not really matter to you, lol) so I'm going to focus on the storyline and why this drama is memorable in my opinion. The story may be very out of line, a bit out of the ordinary (I don't know if it might happen in the real world or not) but there are messages that are tucked in some stories.

image taken from Asianwiki.com

So ... This drama tells the story of two brothers whose age range is quite far, actually around 10-11 years, but they have the same looks and can even be said to be twins. The only difference is the mole in the eye that only the younger has, their character and of course their age.

The outline of the story is about how the younger brother must replace the role of his brother, whose whereabouts are mysteriously unknown. The younger brother who is still 18 years old, a high school student, must replace his older brother who is aged around 28-29 years as a director in a large company.

This is the interesting part of the story, although of course there are lessons that are not good to follow. So, because he has to go to work from morning to evening, every day he skips school, but somehow he can cover it up with the help of his best friend (in this part it's a bit strange, it's very unlikely that the teacher doesn't realize his student isn't in class for almost a whole month). But then again, this is just a drama.

In the office, the secret is covered by the finance manager and the board of directors, only these two people know the secret and try hard to cover it up and help the success of the disguise. As I described earlier, the genre is romance comedy, so of course there must be a romance story. And the romance story is about how a high school boy likes his employees who are about 10 or 9 years older than him (actually it's not that far, but because he's still in high school, this difference looks very striking).

What's interesting here is, the woman he likes is a little weird. And very far from the ideal type of woman. Her body is very thin, flat, her appearance is a bit messy, and her personality is odd, but… she cares deeply about others and is a hard worker. That's what attracted this boy to her.

Long story short, this woman does have a mental growth delay, even though she is an adult, she is still like a child. She has a younger sister who is still in high school, but her younger sister is even like an older sister to her. Dramatically, her sister is very infatuated to the boy who likes her -- they are in the same school.

Of course, the conflict in this drama is when the girl finds out that the person she likes (who she initially thought was the director) is just a high school student, and how this high school boy can keep his high school identity a secret.

The story is wrapped in emotional feelings, as is typical of the romance genre. But the story flows pretty well, at least for me, who doesn't really like romance stories, I can stand watching it. And back to the main topic, choices... well there are a lot of choices that make this story flow pretty crazy, but of course all of this is definitely possible.

The craziest thing is when the lady decided to marry the boy, to keep him from continuing his studies in Germany following his brother (so it turned out that his brother had a plan to make the company where he worked -- which was replaced by his brother -- go bankrupt, because it turns out that the president of the company, once betrayed his father which he thought made his father bankrupt and eventually committed suicide) but . … he finally gave up his intention because he realized that what he did would not change anything (this is one of the big choices in this drama) the older brother who finally decided not to take revenge because he realized it would not change anything.

OK, back to the issue of marriage. So, during dating, the girl ends up paying for the meal every time they date, because she is the one with the money, while the boy is just a student. Feelings of inferiority surround this boy, moreover he is not a smart boy who likes to study, he is only good at playing hockey but because of an injury he was unable to continue it to the professional level. Long story short, he looks without a future. But strangely, this woman even asked him to marry. Logically, this thought could not have occurred to anyone. Who would marry a man who seemed without a future? Moreover, the man is much younger than you! This is what makes their parents doubt. All they echo is a matter of love, which in practice, love is not the only thing that can guarantee the continuity of a marriage.

Of course, after hearing various logical opinions from her co-workers about her decision, the woman was confused. And the boy who was already happy with the plan was a little disappointed, but instead he ventured to keep proposing to the woman. The woman wavered again and this time for the second time was sure to stay married to the boy. The boy's father reluctantly accepts the marriage, but the biggest obstacle lies with the woman's mother. No wonder why, every parent of course want the best for their child. Her child is a woman who is not good at taking care of herself, how could she leave it to a boy whose future is not even clear. But this boy characters are pretty great in my opinion. His character is able to make everyone like him, with the help of his former co-workers, his best friends and even his best friend's parents, the mother finally melted and blessed their marriage.

It turns out that they can prove that their decision to marry was not wrong. Their 3 years of marriage went well, they still love each other and live happily, and in the third year, the boy showed his skills in the business field which were honed when he replaced his older brother who worked before.

What I like about this drama is how it portrays a childlike love that is sincere and pure. Well, both the boy and the woman, they may appear to have made a reckless decision, but in fact they made a good decision. Sometimes thinking too much makes us even make the wrong decision, although of course deciding something without thinking is also wrong, lol. The point is that the future is indeed difficult to predict, it all comes back to our choices.

Actually, I just want to talk about the outline, but I'm very tempted to tell the whole story. But anyway, I think it's okay since I write this to spill what's in my head.

The second drama with the suspense genre is Remember You or also known as Hello Monster. This drama might be suitable for psychology students to watch because the theme is about personality. It is actually not pure suspense, crime, but also wrapped with a little romance, or maybe it can be considered 50:50, but of course the romance does not interfere with the storyline.

Image taken from fimela.com

This drama is about a criminal psychologist who thinks one of his children is a psychopath (which in this drama is considered a monster). This assumption is confirmed by the attraction of one adolescent psychopath to his child. So, his wife was killed by a criminal who had a grudge against him. This made his eldest son indirectly take on the role of mother in the family. His eldest son is very intelligent, and even seems precocious. He takes care of all household matters, and takes care of his father and lii' brother. He is still a child who is not even a teenager, but his behavior is like an adult, that's what makes his father feel his son is different and even thinks his son has a tendency to be a terrible person.

Furthermore, he found some psychopathic traits in his eldest son, such as killing animals and drawing strange things that did not match his age. But ... one thing he did not know, that the one who actually had these characteristics was none other than his youngest child.

because he has been in the criminal world for a long time, he is very afraid that his son will become one of the criminals he meets every day. His fear made him decide to lock his son in a special room in that part of the house. The eldest son who knows that his younger brother the true monster, doesn't dare to tell his father, but ... he made a mistake that turned out to be quite influential in his future life. He told one of the teenage psychopaths he met in prison which his father used to visit, that his father thought he was a monster when in fact it's his younger brother.

The decision to lock up his eldest son turned out to be a bad decision made by his father. by confining his eldest son, the youngest became lonely. A terrible tragedy occurs when teenage psychopaths who find out who the real monster is, escape from prison and kill their father. Unexpectedly when trying to save himself, the youngest child accidentally entered the car of the teenage psychopath. This is where the misfortune begins.

one of the policewomen in the prison where his father used to work, finally raised the eldest child. She sent the child abroad and the child succeeded in becoming a professor who focused on crime, his intelligence made him a reliable criminal profiler.

He grew up thinking his younger brother had died, so he never thought of looking for him, until one day he got an email from the teenage psychopath. Soon he returned to Korea to meet the psychopath. Of course it wasn't easy, because the psychopath had changed his identity.

Long story short, in his search to find the psychopath he also discovers the fact that his brother is still alive and the terrible fact that he has always feared, that his brother is also a murderer.

He felt a mixture of sadness and guilt when he discovered the fact that his brother had been sending him signals, clues to find him. However, he who thought his brother had died was not sensitive to these clues. on the other hand, his brother who had grown up and was cared for by the psychopath, thought his brother had abandoned and forgot about him. it made him kill everyone abandoning his family. he vents his frustration on his brother through the people he kills.

What's interesting about this story is, I can't hate the psychopath even though of course what he did was wrong. But the mistake he made was nothing more than because his life had been wrong since childhood.

because since childhood he was confined alone in a secret room in his house and was never considered as a family member by his family, he can't analyze which are good and bad deed. He has a different interpretation of judging other people. he often misunderstood the thoughts and hearts of others. because he had only interacted with himself for a dozen years, he couldn't think from other people's point of view.. Hmm, more or less he did a good deed but in the wrong way.

he is always confused by people's reactions to the actions he does, he is confused about why people consider him a monster, why people can't understand what he is doing. He needed someone who could understand him, and at that time he was attracted to the eldest child, because of all the people in prison at that time, only the eldest seemed to understand him. that's why he killed the eldest child's father and separated him (although not originally planned) with his younger brother who has a tendency to become a monster. According to him, personality was formed when he was a child, so he felt that he could no longer determine what he would be like, because he felt this was the result of his formation. while the eldest child, still has the opportunity to choose what he will be, whether like a psychopath or much different.

in essence, he believed that being a monster was a choice. 10 children born with the same conditions in the same environment will not necessarily become psychopaths, it depends on choices and genes. Speaking of genes.... I remember Mouse drama that talked about the psychopathic gene. so that psychopaths can be formed if they have psychopathic genes. but still, it's still a choice.

The psychopath was born as a result of sexual abuse. his underage mother was disgusted with him and never wanted to see let alone take care of im. His extended family also hated him and decided to lock him in a room where he never left the room until he was a teenager. Until he finally decided to kill his entire family. The desire to do so was triggered by his mother who committed suicide.

불쌍애 ...poor him. basically he just needs someone who can understand him, understand why he's like that. but... even though the eldest child felt sorry for him he didn't want to understand every single one of the psychopath's wrongdoings.

The conflict in the story of course is when the older brother finally recognizes his lil' brother and finds out the psychopathic figure who has been close to him all this time. the psychopath turned out to have been waiting for him for a long time and even became his neighbor who sometimes took care of the plants in the eldest child house to keep it tidy (his old house was abandoned for years when he studied abroad).

the story is wrapped in several criminal cases but that is just the spice, so is the romance. So... when reunited with his brother the younger brother hopes to live a normal life, but he also realizes that it is impossible, remember his past which has killed many people. so the choice is that he wants to live in the shadows, like the psychopath (live on the run) or live a quiet life by turning himself in to the police to pay for his mistakes. His decision is not very clearly described in this drama. but what is certain is that when the psychopath gives him a new identity, he chooses not to take it.

It's happy ending, at least the older brother had a woman who was important to him, although in the end he had to be separated from his younger brother again. and even though the psychopath is still free, I love the ending. it's open ending but quite satisfying, not like the drama Memories of the Alhambra (bad open ending).

uwaaa, it feels good to be able to express my thoughts, this may be my longest article here. I like to talk about dramas, movies or books that make an impression on me. and I feel excited after talking about it.

I know the topic I'm bringing up is probably not your favorite topic, but if you accidentally read this article, I thank you very much for taking the time to read my thoughts.

Special thanks to my new sponsor, My dear friend Yelena and ate Angela... thanks for the support, so far i have 4 sponsors and i feel so great about it, it makes me want to write more in future.

the last but not least, Talk about the last drama, it always reminds me of manga "monster" one of my favorite mangas written by my favorite mangaka Mr. Urasawa Naoki, Mr. Urasawa has a bunch great manga, i love his story idea, very unique.

until now i remember a phrase written by Johan Liebert one of the character in Monster.