I don’t know how to feel about 괜찮아, 사랑이야. The music directing is awful, its portrayal of psychiatric patients is at times cliched and insensitive, the writing makes me cringe, and the camerawork is just whack. On the other hand, Gong Hyo-jin and Jo In-sung. Swoon. That was enough of a plus that I marathoned the first six episodes in 1.5 days. Things are getting just interesting enough that I may actually continue with the show for a while longer.
Anyway, there is particular scene at the end of episode two that reminded me of an idiom that my language partner taught me last year; I’ve wanted to make a post about it since and hearing it again in this drama prompted me to finally do so. In this particular scene, mystery-horror novelist Jung Jae-yeol accidentally (and very tactlessly) revealed that his housemate – psychiatrist Ji Hae-soo – was being cheated on by her boyfriend. After several days of bearing the brunt of Hae-soo’s cold shoulder, he finally tries to reconcile the relationship by offering her a late-night glass of red wine.
지해수: 뭐?
정재열: 말이 쩝네요.
지해수: 용건이 무엇이옵니까?
정재열: 위로주.
지해수: 위로주. 병주고 약 주니?
The phrase ‘병주고 약 준다’ literally means ‘giving the disease and giving the medicine.’ You use it when a person who initially caused you some kind of grief or problem later attempts to better the situation by offering a remedy. In this case, Jae-yeol caused Hae-soo and her boyfriend to break up in a humiliating way by revealing the boyfriend’s two-timing during a house party; Jae-yeol then tries to make Hae-soo feel better about the breakup by offering her a glass of wine (위로주). Hae-soo scoffs at this conciliatory gesture, rhetorically asks if he’s trying to give her a remedy for the hurt he caused her, and then – in true K-drama fashion – she splashes a glassful of the proffered ‘약’ right in his face. I’m not sure if this was intentional on the part of the writers but using this idiom is even more appropriate considering that Hae-soo is a doctor herself.
Another idiom with a similar meaning is ‘술 먹여 놓고 해장 가자 부른다’ which translates to something like ‘making you drink alcohol and then helping you get over your hangover.’ For some reason, that sounds more sinister than the disease/medicine version.
In terms of the drama itself? Gong Hyo-jin and Jo In-sung are electric on screen but whether or not the chemistry is enough to keep me watching is another question entirely. I might just do it, though.
