I Hear Your Voice (너의 목소리가 들려 2013)

There are two significant things that get female viewers hooked in drama stories. An attractive boy who is hovering around to protect a girl who doesn't know anything about the boy's existence. Plus, on the bus right next to the girl is the boy who looks very happy to be around her.

Sooha has extrasensory perception: reading people's mind through their eyes.  He is precocious since he has witnessed injustice/lies win over justice/truth. He tracks down to his long-lost hero, Hyeseong, and helps her get back her will to fight against injustice as a public defender.






 

Chanda's Secrets

I hope I'm not biased, but most Africans seem to have low moral standards when it comes to matrimony and commitment. When their spouse is dead, they instantly get married to another person. (Maybe it's because women don't have jobs and totally depend on men.) Most people are depicted as promiscuous, and thus AIDS prevails. What is worse is that they don't want an AIDS patient to be around them since the sick person brings stigma to the community. There's no difference even though the patient is their family member or relative.
Poverty and short life span are likely to cause orphans. Parentless kids have no means to make their living but to go to the streets. I'm just grateful of not being born in Africa. There, but for the grace of God, go I.

Chanda's mother get married three times to different men. Otherwise, she can't earn her living with her young kids from previous marriages. The second stepfather rapes Chanda. The last stepfather never takes care of his family and enjoys himself at a local bar. Chanda's little sister dies from unknown disease and then her mother gets gradually weakened. Chanda's best friend, Esther gets infected with AIDS from her prostitution. Chanda is worried about being HIV positive because of the rape.
Bright Chanda can't concentrate on studies at school because she has to take care of the sick people close to her. Other people in the community are callous and turn their back on Chanda's family and Esther. Her mother leaves her family to die somewhere else, but Chanda brings her mother home and helps her rest in peace.
The last scene where Chanda stands up for her mother/Esther is really touching. "If Mama's going to die, she's going to die at home, surrounded by family who love her. I'm tired of lies and hiding and being afraid. I'm not ashamed of AIDS! I'm ashamed of being ashamed!"

The Freedom Writers Diary

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In the 1960s, there were 7 whites and 6 blacks on the bus that traveled from Washington, D.C., though the deep South. They were mostly college students and they were called the Freedom Riders.
Here are colored minority teenagers. They're unteachable at-risk teens who have always thought that they can't escape from poverty no matter what. They never even imagined graduating from high school, let alone getting the positive spotlight from the media. They hold grudges against other races. However, Ms. Gruwell, their guardian angel, guides them into a life-changing journey against intolerance and misunderstanding. They unite as the Freedom Writers in honor of those trailblazers in the 60s who firmly believed that being tolerant of each other is good.

Diary 43 
If you could live an eternity and not change a thing or exist for the blink of an eye and alter everything, what would you choose? 
That's the million dollar question, I think. I've come to think of how to live/die well since Father passed away. Maybe life is existent for dying well. I'm not living. I'm closer to my death day by day.
If I'll be able to know when to die and get ready for the last moment, spending time with my loved ones, that would be better than just dying from an accident without any preparation at all.
And... I would choose the latter. I don't want meaningless, long life. It's likely to make me take the eternal life granted.

Diary 85
A quote from a German preacher:
They came for the trade unions, but I was not a trade unionist, so I didn't respond. Then they came for the Socialists, but I was not a Socialist, so I didn't respond. Then they came for the Jews and since I was not a Jew, I didn't respond. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me. 
What happens when no one takes a stand? At the end, it'll be your turn, and there's nobody to stand up for you, either, in return.
Most people think, "Why bother if it doesn't affect me?" But it's better to take a chance and make a change than it is to pass and pity.

The Reader

I wouldn't have read this book without the book club colleagues' recommendation. The relationship between a 15-year-old boy and a 30-something-year-old woman sounded weird. Besides, somebody reads books to somebody else. Does this the story that people talk a lot about?



As a matter of fact, this book is not about romance. I was wrong. It's about how to face cruelty in history committed by his people. How post-war German generations reconcile with their previous generation that witnessed and acquiesced in the Jewish genocide.
Hanna helps sick Michael on the street, and they have a relationship when he visits her house to send gratitude. She asks him to read books while he indulges in physical desire. A scene leaves an imprint on Michael's mind: Hanna running her finger along the back of the books in Michael's father's study. Michael feels guilty when he is turning away his head from Hanna when he is with his friends. Then Hanna vanishes.
It is in the courtroom that Michael sees Hanna again. She is a defendant and he is a law school student. She is charged with a hideous crime. She and other guards didn't help Jewish people in the concentration camp get out of a church on fire. However, what is strange is that she refuses to defend herself.
Michael later realizes that Hanna is illiterate. She chooses to become a criminal rather than to reveal her illiteracy. This is the part I couldn't understand most. Hanna is sentenced to serve long time in prison, and Michael sends her cassette tapes in which he records books with his voice.
Who is the READER in this story? Michael or Hanna. I think it's Hanna. She listens, but she is the one who in the first place asks Michael to read certain books and expresses her opinion about the books.
Is it worth that Hanna is hiding she is an illiterate at the expense of her acquittal? Maybe the following part explains it. Imagine a trial and a defendant is gay, and could not have committed the crime because he is gay, but is ashamed of being gay. It isn't a question of whether the defendant should be ashamed of being gay.

A Step from Heaven

The US is literally "a beautiful country" in Korean. I was taught like that during my school days, and I had believed it for a quite long time until I was enlightened by abundant historical insights in college. This book reveals that America, which we Koreans have truly believed a heaven, is no longer heaven.
Many Korean families immigrated to America in search for their American dreams. Some were successful, but others failed and quietly came back to their motherland. They had difficulties adjusting to language barrier, cultural differences, racial discrimination, and poverty.



Youngju's family departs for America, believing with no doubt that everything is going to be all right there since America is heaven. Contrary to their rosy expectations, problems arise and their lives in a new environment get harder and harder and the family breaks down.
Youngju's father is a typical Korean breadwinner that represents his generation back then. He doesn't want to lose his face and thus refuses an offer to stay at his sister's house in spite of his wife's wish. This decline makes his family trapped in poverty and hard to escape from it even though his wife works two jobs.
Youngju's parents don't approve of her making friends with American girls. Korean grown-ups are usually prejudiced against American teenagers because they think American girls neither study nor behave themselves. Youngju's brother in his teens starts hanging out with bad boys and plays truant. Youngju's mother falls a victim of domestic violence while she is trying to protect her kids from her drunken husband's battery.
Youngju had to call 911 to rescue her mom from the violence. Her parents ended up getting a divorce and her mother starts over with her two kids in a new home that reminds of their old home in Korea.

This book is a blatant revelation about Korean immigrants' life in America. There's no American dream. It's only harsh reality. But there's a ray of light at the end of the dark tunnel. I felt ashamed and humiliated while reading and facing the descriptive incidents in the story. "Does the writer have to go this far?" But now I know there's no need for embellishment. There's hope only when you honestly disclose your side of story, face the reality, and appeal for help. Now I applaud the author for having the courage to broach the sensitive topic.

Kira-kira is a story of another immigrant family. They're Japanese. Compared with Kira-kira, A Step from Heaven is down to earth and sounds realistic.


In the movie, Once Upon a Time in China, Master Hwang says to his disciples that here (China) is the Golden Mountain, not America. That's why they (foreigners) flock here. I guess he was saying, "Don't try to relocate to realize your dreams." People often think "anywhere but here." But shouldn't it be "here and nowhere else"? If you can't overcome hardship here and now, where could you stand on your feet?

Fifty Shades of Grey

I just wondered what this book is about. 50 Shades is abuzz in America and has been on the best-selling list. The story kept me thinking of some scenes from the movie, Twilight. I later found out that it's because this book is fan fiction of the vampire movie.
People depreciate, saying it's graphic and trashy. Well, I mostly have to agree. The beginning part where Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele are drawn into each other hooks me in the book, though. I've got lots of   new words and kinky culture.
Maybe this book is not worth spending your money and taking your time reading, but everybody seems to be curious about what's happening in it. Just because it's developed from fan fiction doesn't necessarily mean it gets criticism. As an English learner, I honestly don't know there's difference in quality between Twilight and 50 Shades.






College senior Anastasia Steele visits to interview an entrepreneur instead of her sick roommate. Innocent Ana is stunned by the facade of the headquarters, blonde workers, and, above all, the young wealthy attractive interviewee.
After all the following encounters that insinuate he likes her, Grey disappoints Ana. "I don't do the girlfriend thing. You should steer clear of me. I'm not the man for you."
However, he can't leave her alone. Their romantic relationship begins (I think it is romantic up until this part. Later it gets weird, though.) when Grey comes in the middle of the night to protect/rescue Ana from her male friend. She can't stay away from him, either and signs a contract. Their relationship develops into a kinky dominant-submissive affair.
Grey is an adopted kid whose biological mother is a prostitute and he had a relationship with his foster mom's friend when he was a teenager. These dark sides of his childhood and adolescence appear to make his present life complicated and enigmatic. But this time Grey happens to approach Ana in a different way than he did with other girls beforehand. Ana has a chance to meet his family and tries to develop into a normal relationship, but to no avail. She realizes they're incompatible and leaves him with teary eyes.