Summer is a very peculiar season of the year. One might remember summer to be merely just hot, without any other feelings being evoked. Contrary to this point of view, one might remember the summer of a year to be “cold”, figuratively speaking. Today, I would like to introduce the story of young people and their unforgettable summer.
The Korean drama, Our Beloved Summer, aired from late 2021 to early 2022. The drama got its inspiration from a documentary film made by EBS, Change Study, where first and last-place students in the whole school are put together to be observed. The main characters, Choi Woong, played by Choi Woo Shik, and Gook Yeon Soo, played by Kim Dami, meet for the first time in high school. When they become seniors, they become cast members of an observation documentary film. Yeon Soo, the first-place student of the school, has a completely different personality from Choi Woong, who happens to be the bottom student of the school. Whereas Yeon Soo is a very organized person with high self-standards, Woong is a very optimistic person who usually acts spontaneously. Not only their characteristics are opposing, but their financial statuses also differ. Because of these reasons, these two do not share a single harmonious moment during the whole film. With this setting, Our Beloved Summer starts with the two main characters meeting each other 10 years after they graduated high school, when the documentary aired. In the first episode, it is revealed that they actually dated each other for five years after graduation, so they actually hadn't seen each other for only five years, and for us viewers, it is pleasing to feel the atmosphere around those two.
When I was watching Our Beloved Summer, it made me think of some productive means that I could find by consuming the media. Then suddenly, a thought came into my mind, and got me pondering about it: the unemployment crisis. At a time like this, especially in South Korea, it is difficult to get a job easily, and it is common for us to encounter satires concerning this issue in SNS, or Social Network Services. Among those media, the one that remains in my head is that major companies prefer a person who already has experiences in that career. This is an ironic point of view in the sense that everyone, even the most experienced worker, needs a place to actually learn about the job for the first time. So, the fact that companies only attempt to hire the “experts” discourages first-time employees. Likewise, we can discover the fact that in any situation, experience is a crucial feature when considering one’s capability or mental maturity. If so, would there be any trouble-free methods that one can use to widen one’s perspective? The key is in consuming the media.
Even though it is a little early for me to be concerned about the employment crisis, as I mentioned earlier, experience is a crucial feature when considering one’s mental maturity. Usually, most people communicate with others during their everyday lives, and mature by learning from the interactions. However, it is evident that after the advent of Covid-19, it has become difficult to learn these people skills through "non-face-to-face" interactions.
Where most people acknowledged that they cannot gain experience and accept the reality, I would like to provide some new opportunities for those who read this article. The drama ,Our Beloved Summer, which has recently been popular, depicts detailed situations that one might encounter during the day. It delineates many characters’ lives, such as a popular painter, an ordinary office worker, a producer of a TV show, an entertainer, and a bar owner. People with these plain, but diverse jobs listed are the ones that we can undoubtedly come across even in our daily lives. Our Beloved Summer brings together these ordinary characters who have a hard time being harmonious together by stimulating the memories from 10 years ago. This somewhat enormous but also microscopic and detailed plot gives the viewers a glimpse of others' jobs and lives, while also reminding them of the faint and warm memories of their first love that everyone probably has.
Our Beloved Summer has evidently caught the viewers’ attention due to the marvelous usage of colors, camera composition, and staging. Not only the internal features, but also the efforts to make the film, such as the casting and the script, had an immense influence on its success. However, living the Covid-19 era, we have to gain more from the context of the show. Although it may differ from each individuals, as mentioned before, I personally believe that it is possible for us to secondarily experience other people’s lives and learn from them. Watching Our Beloved Summer, one can recall a warm memory of a particular summer, and at the same time, can possibly learn a priceless lesson regarding human experiences.
Taehwi Lee xognl1124@naver.com
<저작권자 © 홍익대영자신문사, 무단 전재 및 재배포 금지>
