May I Just Express My Absolute Love And Adoration For The Way Ahn Pan Seok Directs His Shows?

May I just express my absolute love and adoration for the way Ahn Pan Seok directs his shows?

How he creates sets that are very lived in and just sets his actors loose to just BE in them? So there's no real blocking to speak of and actions take time? Like that scene in One Spring Night where a character is waiting for extras to exit the elevator, but it closes on her as she pushes the cart in and her coworker has to push the door open button. Or the moment in The Midnight Romance in Hagwon when a character is fumbling her way through her house at night to turn on a light. Or that moment in One Spring Night where characters are talking while eating and one of them grabs tissues to wipe his mouth as he keeps up the conversation. Those aren't scripted moments, they're just actors being told to treat the set like real life. AND THEY DO. And then he does not edit those moments away in post! It creates a very atmospheric, lived in style.

And how he insists on getting scenes done in single takes with multiple cameras rolling rather than recording all character A's lines, then all of character B's lines? It just makes it feel very organic and real because the actors can really play off each other, build tension, and develop tangible chemistry that's not reliant on camera tricks. It's why they're all very explosive onscreen, regardless of the subject matter. I mean, Secret Love Affair had me rooting for adultery and sympathizing with a criminal. Because they felt real.

People bandy around the phrase "slice of life" to describe genre conventions, but Ahn Pan Seok has mastered the art of making dramas feel like actual slices of actual lives.

nothing more embarassing than when you develop personal beef with a piece of media thats entirely petty. like sorry no i cant talk about that show it. bit me.

Start crying or something so I can comfort you. Give me a second.

NO GAIN NO LOVE - EPISODE 9

A mood.

a little background plus (very amateur) translation of the full poem for those of you interested:

蘇軾 (Su Shi) at 19 married his wife 王弗 (Wang Fu) at 16, who unfortunately passed away at 27. Ten years later Su Shi had a dream about Wang Fu and wrote this poem in memoriam at the age of 40:

十年生死兩茫茫，不思量，自難忘。 Separated by death for ten years, I try not to think of you but I can't forget. 千里孤墳，無處話淒涼。 Your lonely grave is a thousand li* away, there's no place for me to express my sorrow and despair. 縱使相逢應不識，塵滿面，鬢如霜。 Even if we were to meet again you wouldn't recognize me, with dust covering my face** and my temples already graying like frost. 夜來幽夢忽還鄉，小軒窗，正梳妝。 I dreamed that we were back in our hometown, and through the window I saw you grooming your face. 相顧無言，惟有淚千行。 We could only look at each other, all the words we wanted to say just turned into tears. 料得年年腸斷處，明月夜，短松岡。 Under the bright moonlight on that hill with the pine trees (where you're buried) is where my broken heart lies.

*li, 500m (thousand li is general term for a great distance) **dust all over face = old, time has left their marks on one's face

I will leave it up to you to interpret why a show that's been highlighting the brightness of youth chose to open with a poem about death and loss