Our Unwritten Seoul – K-drama Episode 3 Recap & Review
Knock, Knock, Please Open Your Heart
Episode 3 of Our Unwritten Seoul begins with Ho-su recognizing Mi-ji, though she successfully convinces him that he's mistaken.
Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that Mi-ji and Ho-su had been close in high school until Mi-ji suspected Ho-su of dating Mi-rae. On the day of her important race, she spotted the two hugging from afar, lost her focus, and tripped, breaking her ankle. With her athletic career derailed, Mi-ji felt abandoned by everyone. In a desperate bid to return to form, she removed her cast prematurely and resumed training, ultimately damaging her chances of ever returning to the sport.
Meanwhile, Ho-su jeopardizes a lawsuit by helping the victim involved in his client's case. His senior, Lee Chung-ku, a lawyer Ho-su has admired ever since seeing him give a lecture at university, immediately realizes Ho-su's involvement and excludes him from meetings and ongoing cases.
Mi-ji, on the other hand, meets with the elderly restaurant owner, only to learn that the woman intends to officially decline the company's offer. Determined, Mi-ji returns multiple times, cleaning the restaurant in hopes of changing the woman's mind, but her efforts are fruitless. She even follows the owner to a poetry class, only to be caught.
Seeking advice, Mi-ji turns to Ho-su. They discover that the restaurant owner is a well-known poet who has long supported students from single-parent families, Ho-su included. He had benefited from her sponsorship during his own academic journey.
Elsewhere, Mi-rae continues working diligently at the strawberry farm. Her intelligence and intuition shine through in the way she selects saplings and nurtures the yield. After her shift, Se-jin offers her a ride home and is surprised by her excellent driving skills, especially since she doesn't even know how to ride a bicycle.
Back at the law firm, Ho-su is excluded from a project he had been working hard on. Despite Chung-ku's orders, he asks his teammates to let him participate. Comically, this leads to him joining them on a triple date, where he runs into Park Ji-yun, a former high school classmate. They call Mi-ji to join them, since Mi-rae and Ji-yun had grown close after Mi-ji's athletic career ended.
Later, Ji-yun gives Mi-ji a ride to the old restaurant. Mi-ji pretends the elderly woman is her grandaunt, but her real motive is to return a bathroom key she accidentally took after being scolded by the woman during one of her uninvited visits.
Back at the firm, Lee Chung-ku introduces Ho-su to a humanitarian lawyer, suggesting he change teams. An argument breaks out, Chung-ku questions whether Ho-su is willing to abandon his ideals just to stay in his current position.
Meanwhile, Mi-ji is pressured by her director to secure the old woman's participation in a redevelopment meeting. Coincidentally, Ji-yun also wants to cast the restaurant in her new project. Mi-ji races to the scene, only for the old woman to meet them both and discover Mi-ji's lie. Despite this, she plays along with the pretense. After Ji-yun leaves, the old woman agrees to meet with Mi-ji's company officials, if only to refuse the offer in person. Mi-ji feels grateful, knowing that technically she's fulfilled her assignment.
While Mi-ji steps out to retrieve the bathroom key, Ho-su visits the elderly woman to thank her for sponsoring his education. Moved, he's the first person to ever thank her, she cooks him a meal.
Elsewhere, Se-jin apologizes to Mi-rae after discovering she cleaned and organized the warehouse. He explains that the old chair she moved had sentimental value, it had belonged to his grandfather, whose farm he now tends.
In the final scene, Ho-su reveals to Mi-ji (whom he still believes is Mi-rae) that he has quit his job and is ready to truly help her going forward.
The Episode Review
Episode 3 continues to explore the swapped lives of Mi-ji and Mi-rae. However, most of the plot twists involving Mi-ji and Ho-su serve as red herrings, and the narrative feels stretched thin. Mi-ji's repeated attempts to win over the restaurant owner start to feel repetitive, and Ho-su's internal conflict with Chung-ku lacks depth, many scenes and character decisions seem poorly justified or illogical, especially on Ho-su's part.
That said, Mi-rae's quieter story at the strawberry farm stands out. Though she has less screen time, her storyline feels more grounded and emotionally rewarding. Removed from the city's chaos, Mi-rae slowly makes her mark through patience and capability, offering a compelling contrast to the tension surrounding Mi-ji and Ho-su.
Overall, this is a decent episode but Mi-ji and Ho-su's story could use more urgency and narrative development. Hopefully, upcoming episodes will explore their evolving relationship in more meaningful ways.
Previous Episode
Next Episode
Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Mongolia PM resigns after losing confidence vote that followed weeks of protests
Mongolia's prime minister has resigned after he failed to receive enough support in a vote of confidence in parliament, Mongolian media has reported. The country's embassy in Washington confirmed it. Prime minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai received 44 votes, well short of the 64 needed, according to news site The vote early on Tuesday followed weeks of protests sparked by reports of lavish spending by the prime minister's son. Some called for the prime minister to step down. Before the vote, Oyun-Erdene warned the vote could lead to instability and shake Mongolia's fledgling democracy. 'If governance becomes unstable, the economic situation deteriorates, and political parties cannot come to consensus, it could lead the public to lose faith in parliamentary rule and potentially put our democratic parliamentary system at risk of collapse,' he said. He defended his integrity but acknowledged a mistake: 'dedicating too much time to major projects while paying insufficient attention to social and internal political matters.' Oyun-Erdene had held the post for four years and survived previous calls to step down. Last year, parliament was enlarged from 76 seats to 126 after electoral reforms. It resulted in a coalition government. Landlocked between Russia and China, Mongolia has struggled to become more democratic after its party-state era. A communist state during the cold war, it has been transforming into a democracy since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Protesters have said the country's mineral riches have benefited business interests and the wealthy, while many Mongolians still live in poverty. 'It's very difficult to build that foundation for democracy' at a time that Mongolia also must tackle economic problems, which are a major source of people's frustration, said Erin Murphy, deputy director and senior fellow of India and emerging Asian economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'We still have to see what happens next and how the new government plans to tackle these issues,' she said. While democracy is yet to thrive in Mongolia, 'it is taking root,' Murphy said.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
South Korea goes to the polls to elect new president after Yoon crisis
Millions of South Koreans are voting for a new president in a snap election triggered by the impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative who now faces an explosive trial on rebellion charges over his short-lived imposition of martial law in December. Pre-election surveys suggested Yoon's liberal arch-rival, Lee Jae-myung, appeared headed for an easy win, riding on deep public frustration over the conservatives in the wake of Yoon's martial law debacle. The main conservative candidate, Kim Moon Soo, has struggled to win over moderate, swing voters as his People Power Party remains in a quagmire of internal feuding over how to view Yoon's actions. The election serves as another defining moment in the country's resilient democracy, but observers worry a domestic divide worsened by Yoon is far from over and could pose a big political burden on the new president. The past six months saw large crowds of people rallying in the streets to either denounce or support Yoon, while a leadership vacuum caused by Yoon's impeachment and ensuing formal dismissal rattled the country's high-level diplomatic activities and financial markets. The winning candidate will immediately be sworn in as president Wednesday for a single, full term of five years without the typical two-month transition period. The new president will face major challenges including a slowing economy, President Donald Trump's America-first policies and North Korea's evolving nuclear threats. The election commission says voting began at 6am at 14,295 polling stations nationwide that will close at 8pm. Observers say the winner could emerge as early as midnight. More than 15 million people already have cast ballots during a two-day early voting period last week, accounting for nearly 35% of the country's 44.4 million eligible voters. In his final campaign speeches Monday, Lee promised to revitalise the economy, reduce inequality and ease national divisions. He urged the people to vote for him, arguing that a win by Kim would allow Yoon's 'rebellion forces' to return. 'If they somehow win, that would mean the return of the rebellion forces, the destruction of democracy, the deprival of people's human rights, the normalisation of martial law and our country's downfall into a backward, third-world nation,' Lee told the crowd gathered at a Seoul park. Kim, a former labor minister under Yoon, warned that a Lee win would allow him to wield excessive power, launch political retaliation against opponents and legislate laws to protect him from various legal troubles, as his party already controls parliament. Lee 'is now trying to seize all power in South Korea and establish a Hitler-like dictatorship,' Kim told a rally in the south-eastern city of Busan. Lee, who led the opposition-led campaign to oust Yoon, has been a highly divisive figure in South Korean politics for years. He faces multiple criminal trials, including charges of bribery and alleged involvement in a property development scandal, with South Korea's supreme court recently ordering a retrial of an election violation case after overturning his acquittal, with instructions for conviction. Courts have agreed to postpone further hearings of ongoing trials until after the election, allowing him to contest the presidency while the cases remain unresolved. Lee denies all charges, describing them as politically motivated persecution. Should he win though, legal questions remain over whether presidential immunity would halt his ongoing prosecutions, as opposed to simply preventing new charges, potentially setting up another constitutional crisis. As a former child labourer known for his inspirational rags-to-riches story, Lee came to fame through biting criticism of the country's conservative establishment and calls to build a more assertive South Korea in foreign policy. That rhetoric has given him an image as someone who can institute sweeping reforms and fix the country's deep-seated economic inequality and corruption. His critics view him as a dangerous populist who relies on a political division and backpedals on promises too easily. On foreign policy, Lee has not made any contentious remarks recently and has steadfastly vowed to pursue pragmatic diplomacy. He has called South Korea's alliance with the US the foundation of its foreign policy and promised to solidify a trilateral Seoul-Washington-Tokyo partnership, a stance that is not much different than the position held by South Korea's conservatives. Experts say there aren't many diplomatic options for South Korea as it tries to address Trump's tariff hikes and calls for South Korea to pay more for the cost of the US military presence, as well as North Korea's headlong pursuit of nuclear weapons. Experts say that has made both Lee and Kim avoid unveiling ambitious foreign policy goals.
BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
South Korea votes for new president after failed martial law bid
Update: Date: 22:33 BST Title: How did we get here? Content: Anti-Yoon protesters gather for the constitutional court's verdict on Yoon's impeachment on 4 April South Korea descended into political turmoil last December after former President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law. Yoon said he was protecting the country from "anti-state" forces that sympathised with North Korea - but it soon became clear that he was spurred by his own political troubles. The military takeover, which stunned the world, was voted down overnight. The turbulent months that followed saw parliament vote to impeach Yoon and prosecutors charge him with insurrection. The country also saw days and nights of protests in the chilly temperatures, with tens of thousands of people calling for Yoon to be removed from office. His supporters showed up in similar measure demanding that he stays. On 4 April, the constitutional court upheld Yoon's impeachment and permanently removed him from office, paving the way for today's election. Update: Date: 22:32 BST Title: Key events leading to today's election Content: South Koreans protest on 14 December 2024 Here is the timeline of key events that led to this snap election: 3 December: Former President Yoon Suk Yeol declares emergency martial law in a late night televised address. Heavily-armed troops surround the National Assembly to block lawmakers from entering. 4 December: Just past 01:00 local time, 190 lawmakers, including 18 from Yoon's own party, voted to overturn the law. Yoon rescinds his order about three hours later. 7 December: Opposition lawmakers try to impeach Yoon for the first time but fail after a boycott by members of his conservative People Power Party. 12 December: Yoon defends his martial law order, saying he did it to protect the country's democracy. He vows to "fight to the end". 14 December: Amid days and nights of protests - both by Yoon's supporters and detractors - the National Assembly votes to impeach Yoon. 31 December: A district court issues a detention warrant for Yoon. 15 January: Some 3,000 police officers manage to detain Yoon at his heavily-fortified residence. This is their second attempt. In the first, hundreds of them faced a six-hour deadlock with his security detail. 19 January: The court grants a formal arrest warrant for Yoon, leading a mob of his supporters to riot, some even breaking into the courthouse. 26 January: Prosecutors indict Yoon on charges of leading an insurrection using his martial law bid. 4 April: The constitutional court upholds Yoon's impeachment and formally removes him as president. Authorities announce the following week that a snap election will be held on 3 June. Update: Date: 22:30 BST Title: South Koreans head to the polls Content: It's election day in South Korea, where voters are choosing the country's next president after months of unprecedented political turmoil. It started in December, when former president Yoon Suk Yeol placed the country under martial law. It sparked an impeachment trial that led to his removal from office and for a snap election to be held today. Yoon's martial law and impeachment highlighted deep divisions in South Korean society and large protests have been staged for and against him. For South Koreans, today's vote offers an opportunity to restore stability and forge ahead. There are five candidates, but Democratic Party's Lee Jae-myung holds a strong lead over his rivals. Lee had lost to Yoon in 2022 by a razor-thin margin. Whoever gets elected president will have to deal with issues ranging from US tariffs to tensions with North Korea and a declining birth rate. Join us as our teams across South Korea, Singapore and the US bring you the latest updates as they come.
