Daebak K-Rambles

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Re-watch value: 1 out of 5 stars

Synopsis

*partially taken from Netflix*

A jaded rom-com screenwriter in her 30s mines four love-sick women for their stories under the guise of providing them with romantic advice. Four women, all damaged by a creep named Ito. This isn’t a love story; it’s a heartbreak whodunit. Based on the award-winning novel by Asako Yuzuki.

Rambling

*beware of spoilers*

I had my reservations coming into a J-drama completely blank, but I placed a little trust in Netflix’s track record of putting out decent shows, and it paid off.

Look, this show was smart. It felt like a mystery, a low-key thriller of a sort. The ending transcends the basic “whodunit” premise we get fed throughout.

Rio Yazaki is a world-weary screenwriter in a years-long writing slump after she peaked with a hit show (judging from the poster we see, it’s got a Sex in the City vibe). Rio has been making the rounds with her dating “how to” book, spouting very believable but total BS romance advice.

You’d think that, with this being a J-drama, we’d naturally have really peppy characters, overacting, and the whole bit. Nope. Rio is accompanied by a voiceover (and later a physical “evil” version of her) that reveals her true bitter thoughts.

Her producer friend (/manager?) pushes her to play her part in a fan contest where she’s supposed to give dating advice to women that submit their story but slyly channel their anecdotes into a fiery new show. And that’s when things get juicy.

The four women (A thru D) chosen for the contest each talk about a fuckboy named Ito who, you guessed, is the same guy.

Per the show’s namesake, as Rio is taken through each woman’s history with Ito (with her “evil” form cameoing and commenting as the story unfolds in front of her), Rio inserts familiar faces in place of Ito, as Ito is of course faceless to her.

For woman A, Rio inserts her producer friend’s face for Ito based on the description woman A provides. (Very telling, more on that in a sec…) Rio inserts her Junior Screenwriter acquaintance (who later becomes a real part of woman D’s story) for woman B’s story and then her Sex in the City show’s male lead for woman C’s story.

We find out in the last episode why the limited male faces in Rio’s arsenal: she’s a fraud, only dating one man her entire life—her producer friend. Ouch. Rio fights with her evil projection who belittles her as we get glimpses of what happened to that precious romantic relationship. He left her in the middle of their relationship (although at that point it looked like it devolved to strictly sexual) to marry another woman. He couldn’t mix business with pleasure, vowing to just produce her amazing work instead.

So Rio basically locked away her talent and aspirations in a bathtub, still hurt and bitter over their nasty break-up. If she had no writing talent, they’d still be together… Or perhaps if she had no writing talent, they would never have been together at all? The symbolism of the bathtub seems random until you look at how sealing it was her attempt at separating business from pleasure. She needed to write, and he was distracting her. He simply finalized the separation with his marriage; she was free to reach her full potential.

I love that after she rips open the sealed tub in a frenzy, she looks at the bottom and it’s spotless, “so clean,” she exclaims. She’s not washed up; her talent is just as new and fresh as it once was; she’s finally clean, free of her own Ito.

Each story shows so much about not only Ito, who is an atrocious human, but also the women themselves. It made the underlying argument that these women choosing Ito was a symptom of a larger issue or insecurity that they were dealing with.

• Woman A: Needy and unassertive, she essentially wastes a decade waiting for Ito to love her. She felt beautiful but unwanted, just like the luxury yellow bag she couldn’t seem to sell in her store.

• Woman B: Lazy with a defeatist attitude, she hinders her own career progress by not even trying/applying to a stepping-stone job. Although she dodges a bullet by avoiding Ito, she refuses to do the dirty work of outright shutting Ito down herself, shoving the responsibility onto her bff. She needed to get out of her comfort zone.

• Woman C: She’s a sloppy serial dater who gets a thrill out of seducing men and sleeping around, although deep down inside she’s unsatisfied and ashamed. Seeing her shy, virginal best friend achieve romantic success made her jealous, so she seduced and had sex with Ito before her friend could.

• Woman D: She’s a hesitant prude who gets her man stolen, but she royally screws up when she, without knowing her friend’s betrayal, sets out to lose her virginity to a college acquaintance (aka Rio’s Junior Screenwriter). The encounter is close to perfect before she calls Ito to let him know what’s going on. Ito shows up to shit on their party ~DRAMA~ Woman D hurts Junior Screenwriter, who had sincere feelings for her.

Particularly frustrating was the C/D storyline. I couldn’t stand that D actually wanted Ito even after he cruelly revealed that he slept with her best friend. And our Junior Screenwriter friend was absolutely perfect to her, really trying to make her first time special. I’m still kind of shocked that she even called Ito after he treated her so tenderly. Fool. Also, I would NEVER have forgiven woman C. Holy hell, no matter how apologetic she is, that bitch won’t change; she’ll ruin the next relationship D has if it has a chance of happiness. Trust lost.

Woman D’s climactic hotel room scene with Ito & Junior Screenwriter was significant because we FINALLY see the real Ito. And funny enough, this Ito, the real one, is worse than any version Rio imagined. He’s revolting, so disgusting in all his fuckboy glory, even going so far as to humiliate Junior Screenwriter by spilling the beans about JS’s feelings for woman D. Douchbag.

Lastly, who was woman E? Well, Ito’s next victim—per his enrollment in her writing class, his creepy drawing of her, and his late-night visit to her house that’s left open-ended—was Rio herself. We don’t get to see how it ends, but you just know Rio will shut that shit down so fast.

All in all, this show makes you think, makes you upset, makes you ogle at the audacity of any fuckboy. It’s cold and dark, classy and relatable. First watch was decent, but I’ll never circle back around to this bad boy. One and done.

Did you see The Many Faces of Ito? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below!