That Winter, The Wind Blows: Final Thoughts

I can't believe I just made like six posts about this show. To be honest, I could write a whole book on Young's high school crush alone. But I won't do that. No one would read that. Just like how no one reads this blog. Should I kill myself? No. Too time consuming.

ANYWAY! I have a bunch of pics from the show I stole off Google that I want to comment on so I'll do that and you can go fuck yourselves! 

Should I talk about these^two? lol. 

Mami on the left is Oh Soo's ex, the one who framed him for stealing Boss Kim's money dollars. She's cute as hell and obsessed with Oh Soo for some reason. Like, she's a famous actress who can date anyone, yet she wants some con man playing mindgames with a fucking blind girl. Come on, do better.  

Papi on the right is Young's FUCKING FIANCE. He is like if someone drew a stick figure on a napkin and then cast that napkin in this role. THERE IS NOTHING GOING ON. Like, can someone tap this dude and ask him if he's alright? Please, put a mirror under his nose to see if he is still breathing. Young being engaged to this anti-human is really ridiculous. Like, she can't see BUT SHE HAS ALL HER OTHER SENSES, DUMMIES! Come on, do better: part II. 

Young whips Oh Soo across the face with her walking cane really early on in the game. I think that was the moment I knew I loved everything about this show. 

This sweater.

This other one. 

CHOCOLATE COFFEE. Do they have cool places like this in America? WHERE DO THEY DO THIS? Omg, I can't wait to start blogging about I Miss You so I can talk about their way-cooler Dunkin Donuts. But anyway, characters on TWTWB (mainly Young) are constantly drinking chocolate coffee. It made me really want some. The dark roast I always get from my local Quick Chek (which is a fucking gas station) has chocolate undernotes. DOES THAT COUNT? YES OR NO?! ANSWER MEEEEEEEEE!

(Also, that sweater/coat thing. Please stop, Oh Soo. I can't do it anymore)

Oh Soo gives Young wind chimes which was pretty gay. In turn, Young gave him a little bell bracelet. He sounded like a fucking cat jingling around like an asshole. This possibly means I thought all of this shit was really cute. HAVEN'T DECIDED YET, LET ME BREATHE DAMN! 

I liked all the times Oh Soo hugged Young from behind. Hmm, that sounds weird. Their love story is pretty much always creepy, but I thought there were some really cute moments and also nice intimate moments. The backdoor hugging I approved of. The first time it happened was when Young attempted to jump in front of a train. IT REALLY SET THE TONE! #romance #emphasis on man #man is king #slightly sexist everything 

This was cute. Young was doing that sexual harassment thing blind people do to determine what people look like. In real life this would have been Boner City, Population: Any Straight Dudes. What did I just accidentally reveal about Oh Soo???? (Or is that his boner right there? Eugh) 

I'm just really into these suspenders. Praise Allah. You just know Allah wears suspenders.

Do I want to talk about that atrocious ending? N O P E

                                                        NVR4GT

That Winter, The Wind Blows IV

Okay, now I want to talk about stuff that got to me emotionally.

I think...this show was really unintentionally hilarious. As melodramas often are. But there was also a lot of stuff that was legit harrowing and sad and tragic and heartbreaking. So I laughed a lot but I also had a few teary moments. There were two scenes, in particular, that had me quietly sobbing in the dark. Okay, sobbing is a bit of an exaggaration. I'm not a sobber due to being mostly dead inside. But the wind was def blowing in my face and causing some tearing up (I Miss You reference lol! :( ) 

Okay so the first scene that had me crying was 

^this one, when Young, Oh Soo, Jin-sung and Hee-sun go on some adventure. I'm totally forgetting wtf it was they were doing. I think it was a camping thing. Fuck, I don't remember but Oh Soo and Jin-sung cook and Young can hear that Oh Soo chops food badly even though he's supposed to be an Italian chef (LIE). Oh Soo says some dumb shit like "No, it's the Chinese who chop well". 

BUT ANYWAY THAT'S NOT EVEN THE SCENE I'M TALKING ABOUT. The four of them are staying in this place and Young and Oh Soo have a quiet moment alone to talk. Something inspires Young to ask Oh Soo about the man she met when she went to find her real bro. That man was him, obviously. Oh Soo says something like: Don't worry about him, that man is a con-artist piece of shit scumbag. IF IT'S NOT CLEAR, HE IS TALKING ABOUT HIMSELF. Then I think Oh Soo mentions that "that man" was abandoned as a baby. Young surmises that "that man" must be really angry because of that. Maybe he should give himself a break and try to forgive himself for the bad things he's done. Something like that, and I'm totally ruining it, but it was beautiful of Young to be so understanding of "that man". That man, being Oh Soo. As Young is saying these things about him, Oh Soo is getting all choked up and it just killed me. Like, it was the first time someone ever said something like that to him. The self-hate he had for himself was so obvious in that scene and it was just touching that Young, someone Oh Soo was falling in love with, could sympathize with such a "monster". 

Another scene that had me crying was towards the end of the series after ~everything is revealed~ and Young kicks everyone out of her house. She is apart from Oh Soo and misses him. 

I think in this scene she is imagining Oh Soo reading her a story. IT'S SO SAD BECAUSE IT'S NOT ACTUALLY HAPPENING. The scene just ends with her crying alone in the bed. Idk, it just got to me. I think I felt so exhausted after watching all the drama with them the whole series that their separation and this quiet little breakdown with Young just broke me. 

Two entire characters that killed me were my baby villains Secretary Wang and Jo Moo-chul. 

I could tell from jump that I was not going to hate Secretary Wang no matter what it was revealed that she had done. Her worst transgression, it turns out, was not taking Young to get her eyes fixed when she was a child and keeping her blind. It's clear immediately that Secretary Wang does this because she wants to keep Young dependent on her. THIS IS FUCKED UP.

But. Also. Super sad. Her whole life was Young. She had no one else. I'm not sure what her relationship with Young's dad was, but it was clearly not a good or intimate one. Young was her everything. It's not okay that she allowed Young to remain blind, and I supported Young's cold treatment of her. You just don't do that shit. Like, couldn't Secretary Wang have just been a really good stepmom to Young and nuture her and watch her grow? Why did she need to imprison her? Because, ultimately, she imprisoned herself as well. I don't know, clearly Secretary Wang had some untreated mental problems. But she devastated me. 

I think here she puts it all out there for Young. I just...I loved her. I felt bad for her, I wanted Young to love her properly, I wanted her to feel whole or something. I also thought the actress who played her was really good. This was just really good work.

This takes place after Young has kicked everyone out. At some point, she tries to casually ask Attorney Jang if Secretary Wang called. That almost made me cry. Then she called her and I was like YESSSSSSS. I don't know, I still feel weird shipping this mom-daughter thing. The fact that Secretary Wang kept Young blind loomed over everything. But I guess, that's just how life is and everything is a fucking mess. Okay, this is a TV show I need to calm down. 

Now Jo Moo-chul. 

L  U  N  G  C  A  N  C  E  R

Of course, he has lung cancer. Of course he does. 

It's revealed that Jo Moo-chul was in love with Oh Soo's dead girlfriend. He, like Hee-sun, blames Oh Soo for her death. Actually, Hee-sun probably feels Oh Soo is vaguely responsible as sort of a way to deal with her grief. Moo-chul legitimately believes the dead chick's death was Oh Soo's fault. Dead Girl was pregnant with Oh Soo's baby (gasp). She goes to tell him, thinking he'll be super pumped. HE'S SUPER NOT PUMPED. Essentially he tells her to fuck off. He might even shove her, I don't remember, but the show wants to get across that nineteen year old Oh Soo is a massive cunt. Dead Girl flees and is immediately hit by a truck. Moo-chul witnesses all this shit. 

Oh Soo is number one on his shit list now. Good thing he's been assigned to kill Oh Soo if he doesn't pay his debt to Boss Kim. 

I only accepted Moo-chul as the villain for like one episode. Pretty quickly I decided he cared about Oh Soo and was definitelty not going to be killing him even if Oh Soo failed to pay his debt. Moo-chul was upset and sad, but not on any murdering shit. He was a fake ass gangster, but not in a cheesy way. Just in a, look at this wounded lil deer way. 

This took place at Dead Girl's grave. I don't even remember what this fight was specifically about, but Moo-chul def called Oh Soo to acount. Also, he gave him a euthanizer pill or some shit???? But anyway, anytime Oh Soo and Moo-chul fought it was super revealing. I never felt like: This is not going to be good. The fights were more like therapy sessions. Um, to be clear though, Oh Soo always got his prissy ass kicked. Moo-chul took his man-feelings out on Oh Soo's face. Do I think Oh Soo deserved it? No. I'm not into violence.

Speaking of violence. 

In this^ scene Oh Soo asks Moo-chul to ask his doctor sister to operate on Young. Moo-chul immediately kicks the dick out of him. BUT THEN HE ASKS HIS SISTER TO DO IT. Because he loves Oh Soo and is also not a bad person. Yeah, all the characters are three dimensional, but Moo-chul isn't even trying to be villany. Okay, he fucks Oh Soo's shit up multiple times, but I feel like a lot of people watching would explain it away like..."well, um, Oh Soo is kind of a dick, so..." 

Moo-chul's arc ends with him being stabbed or dying of lung cancer or both. I was upset. I don't want to talk about this. LIKE, I KNEW HE WAS GOING TO DIE BUT STILL. Ugh, no, I can't. 

That Winter, The Wind Blows III

Okay, I think I need to address Oh Soo's two friend-things: Park Jin-sung and Moon Hee-sun.

Here they are. As you can see, they are adorable. Looks-wise. Other things wise, they are super annoying. At first, Jin-sung is more annoying. 

When Oh Soo goes to move into the mansion with Young, for some normal reason, Jin-sung tags along. NOW, Jin-sung and Oh Soo are..."partners". They appear to do semi-crimes together as a team. So, naturally, Jin-sung is in on the plan Oh Soo has to get money from Young. But why does Jin-sung also move into the mansion? He isn't related to Young (or fake-related, anyway). AND IT'S SO WEIRD BECAUSE NO ONE SAYS ANYTHING ABOUT THIS. It's just accepted that Jin-sung will get a room. In episode 2 when Oh Soo first meets Young and co. he brings Jin-sung along and they sort of just look like boyfriends. I wonder if everyone was like: "Oh, well, ugh, if Oh Soo is going to be staying here he probably expects his boyfriend to stay, too. Ugh, maid, get out an extra set of sheets and pair of slippers." IT'S JUST OKAY THAT JIN-SUNG IS MOVING INTO THE MANSE. And it's so funny because I don't think he ever really introduces himself to anyone. He's just...around, eating food and adding input to conversations that have nothing to do with him and no one is ever talking to him. 

There he is just, like, at the table even though he is irrelevant to everyone who lives at the mansion. I mean, I guess if you have a mansion, it's just, like...fine if some rando off the street wanders into your house to live and eat all your fucking rice. (Oh Soo in suspenders shout out!)

Another thing about Jin-sung...he is quite loud. At least in the earlier episodes. The plan is that Oh Soo will get close to Young by pretending to be her brother and she will give him money. Fine. This could work. BUT NOT IF JIN-SUNG KEEPS LOUDLY EXPLAINING EVERYTHING THEY ARE SECRETLY UP TO ANY CHANCE HE CAN GET IN REALLY OPEN SPACES ALL THROUGHOUT THE MANSION SO EVERY FUCKING BODY CAN HEAR. Like, you really want Oh Soo to fail, right? It's ridiculous how sloppy and dumb he is. But so cute tho so I forgive you!

Especially when you consider his future-wifey Hee-sun. 

Her^. I am a little confused about her introduction. She appears to be shouting at Oh Soo, complaining  about him sleeping with other girls. I assumed from this scene that she was fucking Oh Soo. She finds a pair of panties in his bedroom and dumps soju or some shit on his head. BUT, later it's made clear that Oh Soo used to date Hee-sun's sister, who is now deceased (of course). Hee-sun seems to blame Oh Soo for the death of her sister. SO. WHYYYYYYY...IS SHE FUCKING HIM??? Who fucks the ex-boyfriend of their dead sister? ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU BLAME THE DUDE FOR HER DEATH??

Did I get it wrong? Were Hee-sun and Oh Soo not actually hooking up? I actually don't think I got it wrong, because Hee-sun spends a healthy chunk of the show acting super annoyingly jealous about Oh Soo and Young's budding relationship. 

I didn't really get Hee-sun. Also, she was all like to Oh Soo early on "why don't you just die?". And Oh Soo got all man-emotional and was all like "Because I wake up alive." I am paraphrasing, and obviously they were speaking in Korean, but it was actually beautiful. This made me sort of hate Hee-sun. One, don't tell your "friend" to kill himself. Two, don't make me feel bad for Oh Soo. I don't like it. 

I wasn't here for Hee-sun in that scene and I wasn't here for her jealousy shit. I wasn't here for her being jealous over a dude she blamed for the death of her sister. Also, Jin-sung expressed feelings for her early in the game but she was too busy being like WHY IS OH SOO SO OBSESSED WITH THAT BLIND GIRL??? Like, can't blindies have anything, Hee-sun? You have Jin-sung's adorable boyband affections, cool clothes, and a cool last name. Let Young have Oh Soo. He's super damaged, anyway. It's not like he's some great prize. 

Speaking of not being some great prize...

Shout out to Oh Soo's mom (apparently not Secretary Wang, ugh) for realizing early on what a piece of shit Oh Soo was and discarding him in a laundry bag outside in the middle of the winter. LOLJK HE TURNED OUT THE WAY HE DID BECAUSE OF YOU, YA DUMB BITCH! 

Getting back to Oh Soo's half-heartedly "adopted" fam, Jin-sung and Hee-sun eventually toned down their annoyingness by being cute. And not cloying cute. Just, awww cute. 

They get a little romance going. Clearly Jin-sung is disgusted by the female form, but I still liked their little thing. It was a nice distraction from their dramatic scenes. Like, can they stay out of Oh Soo's business? Can he breathe?? 

Mmm, apparently, no, because Jin-sung stabs Oh Soo at the end. 

I'll get to that mess later. 

That Winter, The Wind Blows II

Instead of recapping That Winter, The Wind Blows in episode order, I think I am just going to recap it using random pics from the show I found on Google. Mainly because I forgot a lot of shit and also the order in which it happened. But pics will revitalize my stupid memory!

Also, PICS!!! Because I have no attention span and PRETTTTTTTTY!

Okay, one of the main things I want to address about the show are - okay, I will attempt to correctly write the actor's name - In-seong Jo's acting ticks. Or, "choices". 

So, the pic above^ illustrates one of his go-tos. It's sort of this open-mouthed angry breath thing. He does this so much. Oh Soo has like two modes: angry and angry tears. Actually, really just angry tears. But sometimes Oh Soo is just something I'll call dry angry, where there are no tears. Possibly because the actor is too dried up from all his many wet angry scenes. So, anyway, anytime Oh Soo is pissed or offended, or shocked or whatever you get the above face. It's great but also terrible. Like this show. 

Here is another example. I think in this pic he is ~shocked~. This is probably when Attorney Jang visits him looking for Oh Soo 2. Should I explain Attorney Jang? NO, I DON'T FEEL LIKE IT. 

One other "acting choice" In-seong Jo does a lot in the first ep, but then it sadly disappears, is this laugh-scoffing thing. Like, he's offended by something but you can see he's mentally telling himself "It doesn't matter I'M COOL. FUCK YOU, MOM!" Oh Soo in episode 1 is super cocky and obnoxious. He is obnoxious all throughout the show, but he loses the majority of his cockiness after his year in jail, as well as the laugh-scoff thing. He seems sort of beaten-down in his soul. The laugh-scoff thing is replaced by open-mouthed angry cry breathing for the rest of the show. There are a few moments when Oh Soo is ~happy~ and the laugh-scoff returns, but it's never the same. He's never the same. Wait, why do I miss episode 1 Oh Soo? He was a fucking dick. Well, at least episode 1 Oh Soo never sleep-kissed anyone. 

SPEAKING OF SLEEP KISSING!

So, I have watched three Korean Dramas thus far: this shit, I Miss You and currently The Master's Sun (which is really more of a comedy). I am about four episodes into The Master's Sun, and so far, no sleep-kissing. But it's happened in both That Winter, The Wind Blows and I Miss You, causing me to wonder if this may be a theme in k-dramas (because two means a theme ugh). 

Sleep kissing is when one character is asleep and another character takes advantage of this by kissing them. The intent behind the kiss, as far as I can tell is, "Please don't ever find out that I kissed you. THIS IS A SECRET THING I AM DOING." It's very...creepy. A lil rapey. I am being a bit unfair. It's pretty harmless and there really is no ill intent, especially in I Miss You where the sleep kiss occurs between two teenagers and it's accidental. Um, but in That Winter, The Wind Blows...Oh Soo...Wait, let me post the pic of the sleep kiss heard round the world.

Okay. Oh Soo attempts to sleep-kiss Young one or two times before he eventually succumbs to his ~desires~. The first time, Oh Soo stops himself from kissing a sleeping Young and says to himself something like "What am I doing? Am I crazy?" And I was like, YES GOOD DON'T DO THAT AND DEFINITELY FEEL WEIRD THAT YOU WERE ABOUT TO. But then a few episodes later...he does it anyway. In the pic above, Young's eyes are open. Because she is awoken by some dude macking on her face while she is unconscious. I get that it's supposed to be this romantic, sleeping beauty esque thing...but it's just weird. OH, ALSO, YOUNG THINKS OH SOO IS HER FUCKING BROTHER AND ALSO SHE IS BLIND. Not to take any agency away from blind people, but idk, it just makes it...especially worse? 

Speaking of worse. 

The cotton candy scene. Maybe...I should sum up the show from when Oh Soo 2 is rammed to death by a car in the street. So...Oh Soo 2, Young's real bro, dies. Oh Soo goes to jail because he was framed by his girlfriend. She stole money from Boss Kim but told Boss Kim it was Oh Soo who did it. A year later, when Oh Soo is released from prison, he is told that he has like 90 days to repay all that money back, or Jo Moo-chul will murder that ass. It's a lot of money and it's impossbile for Oh Soo to make it via gambling because Boss Kim has had him and Park Jin-sung blacklisted from the casinos or gambling rooms or whatever. LUCKY OH SOO, he gets a visit from a man named Attorney Jang looking for Oh Soo 2, the unclaimed heir of THE BUSINESS AND MONEY AND STUFF. Oh Soo is like: oh, yep, yeah, I am him. He moves in with Young, pretends to be her bro, and attempts to get close to her by lying about all kinds of shit, so he can gain access to dem funds. EVERYONE suspects that Oh Soo isn't really Young's bro. Like, he is not convincing at all. But despite everyone's deep, and justified suspicions, Oh Soo is allowed to remain at the mansion and force Young's blind ass to fall in love with him. ~~Her brother~~. At some point, Young mentions that Oh Soo owes her something from her childhood. She's like "don't you remember? If you bring that thing to me, then I'll know you're really my bro." Because Oh Soo is not actually this bitch's brother, he has no idea what she is talking about. But, even if he was, this is something that happened when Young was six. Who the fuck remembers shit when they were six? AND THE THING SHE'S TALKING ABOUT IS SUPER WEIRD AND SPECIFIC. It's fucking cotton candy. And how Oh Soo figures out what she is talking about is ridiculous. Like, literally it appears that he looked at a photograph of child-Young and was able to recreate the day that photograph took place in his brain. Like, on the show, it's playing as an original memory in his brain. BUT HOW I HAVE NO IDEA AS HE IS NOT YOUNG'S BROTHER AND WOULD HAVE NO MEMORY OF ANY OF THIS. NOR WOULD HE BE ABLE TO JUST CONSTRUCT AN ENTIRE MEMORY BASED ON ONE PICTURE. But anyway, he looks at a picture and a cotton-candy shaped lightbulb appears atop his dumb head. So he buys some AND BY THE WAY PULLS IT OUT OF THE TRUNK OF HIS CAR AND IT'S SOMEHOW PERFECTLY INTACT????

idk, anyway, Oh Soo and Young both smush their faces into the ball of perfectly intact cotton candy even though it was in the trunk of a car and it's the worst thing I have ever seen. 

Look^ at his face. I can't do this. Pray for me, Jesus. 

smh

SOMETHING THAT WAS INTENDED TO BE CUTE THAT ACTUALLY WAS

was a scene later on in the series when Oh Soo and Young go out to some weird ski lodge place for a conference or some shit. All the ski lodge shit is really cute, to be honest. But the thing that I rewinded because it killed me was

this^. Did I mention that Young is BLIND?? In this scene she is baking a fucking gateau or some shit. Because she is a blindo, she burns her hands on something. Immediately, Oh Soo takes her hands and presses them to his ears. Idk, to cool them off? To...heat his ears? ...Because he is a moron? DOESN'T MATTER - IT'S THE MOST ADORABLE THING I HAVE EVER SEEN. LOOK. AT. THAT. SHIT.

Young still thinks Oh Soo is her brother in this scene, btw. SO CUTE!~

Okay, here's a pic of Oh Soo (right, ugh) and his partner in dumminess Jin-sung (left). I had no idea what his name was the entire time I watched the show. I thought...maybe it was Jyung. Or something. But imdb tells me differently...so, I guess. Anyway Jin-sung is really cute but he is solidly irritating for at least the first two episodes. Then he started to grow on me. Not, like, a lot. I just found myself able to tolerate him...better. To be honest, everyone on this show is super annoying except maybe Jo Moo-chul. 

Before I resume recapping the show I must address the ~villains~ of the show. Jo Moo-chul is the man hired to collect the debt that Oh Soo "owes" to Boss Kim. Boss Kim is like, the head gangster. He is, probably, the main villain, but I found his character so weak and non-scary. He also ran shop terribly. Like, Jo Moo-chul is Boss Kim's underling but is spitting in his face and disrespecting him all the time and Boss Kim doesn't do shit. Jo Moo-chul is a far more interesting villain but, really, he's not a villain. MORE ON THIS LATER, OBVI. Here's the only pic I could find of him on google:

He wears this like the whole time. He was the least annoying character to me even though he was trying ~really~ hard to be a badass. And it's just, like, stop. arrêter. 

The other main baddy of the show is Secretary Wang. Really, no one is presented as a straight up jerk-off except for Boss Kim. And that may have to do with the fact that he has very little screentime. No character is just black or just white, and I really loved that the antagonist-types had pretty well fleshed out backstories that gave you a good idea of why they were the way they were. Anyway, Secretary Wang is...Young's sort of stepmom. She never married Young's dad, so Young can act all sorts of disrespectful to her because Young views Sec Wang as more of a housemaid. Also, Young pretty strongly believes Sec Wang is responsible for her blindy blindess (MORE ON THAT LATER UGH). Anyway, this is what Secretary Wang looks like: 

She is a cutiiiiiieeeeeeee pie. Does she look evil? At first, I thought - yeah. Because of the haircut. But pretty quickly she just seemed really pathetic and sad and also she's just way too cute for me to believe she'd be mostly responsible for a small child going blind. (Spoiler alert: she totally is.) 

Anyway, my thoughts on Secretary Wang were heavily colored by the fact that I thought she was Oh Soo's fucking mom. I REALLY thought they were setting that up and was C R U S H E D when the show never went there. Such a missed melodramatic oppurtunity, ugh. 

They had such good chemistry! And also the show set it up like: both Oh Soo and Secretary Wang are obsessed with Young. They seem to come together towards the end when Young needs a surgery but is being hesistant. Their goals are common and so are they, just in general. Also, they have some pretty intense fight scenes. I was like: "Woah, why is Oh Soo all up in this bitch's face like that? This is weirdly aggressive, even for him." And midway through, after one of their intensely weird arguments, I was like THERE'S ALL THIS PASSION BECAUSE THEY'RE MOTHER AND SON OMG. And I thought omg this will explain EVERYTHING about the both of them. But, then, NOTHING. Secretary Wang being Oh Soo's birth mom was never revealed. I still can't get over this, ugh. 

But, anyway, this post was to talk about some characters I mentioned and provide a face. Boss Kim's face is irrelevant just like his life lol

:(

That Winter, The Wind Blows

(look at these beautiful idiots)

Disclaimer: I am terrible with these fucking names. This is me being racist again. But, like, the names are confusing...and hard to remember? Well, for now, anyway. It's easier for me to create nicknames. Or, use the show's imdb page for reference. I'll try to summarize to the best of my stupid ability.

OKAY. Arguably, the star of this show is Oh Soo. I will not even attempt to state who the actors are who play the characters because I will fuck it up. Let me just try super hard to not fuck up the characters' names please.

Oh Soo, to the best of my knowledge, is a professional piece of shit. He appears to be fairly...rich, maybe? He lives in a super swag penthouse and only wears designer clothes. Like, it's fucking insane. I nicknamed him GQ, because seriously he looks like he is modeling half the time. I kept asking out loud (to myself, alone in the dark)..."Is he wearing Comme des Garçons???" (The only reason I know anything about Comme des Garçons is because John Waters talks extensively about the brand in his book Role Models. He describes the clothes as being purposely unfinished, or like, weirdly tailored...and a lot of Oh Soo's coats sort of looked like that. But also like they cost five gamillion won or twelve gamillion in US coins).

(I couldn't find great examples of his outfits/coats,  but look at this GQ fucking idiot. I think this photo might be from a magazine, but this is definitely a scene from the show. Also, spoiler alert?) 

So ANYWAY, I nicknamed him GQ. Other characters refer to Oh Soo as "con man". I wasn't very clear about...what or who exactly he was conning. Also, there are a few card games scenes I think. I don't know anything about card games so I had no clue what was going on, or the subtext. Like, in the first episode Oh Soo and his...partner in...crime (Park Jin-sung) win at a card game. They appear to be playing with some gangster/businessmen types. When they win, the gangster businessmen appear...upset. But I couldn't tell if they were upset because they lost or because Oh Soo and Jin-sung maybe cheated in some way?? Whatever, it's made clear that these two (especially Oh Soo) are fucking degenerates.

Oh Soo is an asshole. That is all he is. Deeply unlikeable and rude. I was confused why he had friends. Possibly, it's because he's super hot. My own personal requirement for friends is that they be super hot. (I have none.) Aside from Jin-sung, Oh Soo has another annoying (did I mention Jin-sung is fucking ANNOYING AS SHIT?! AND LOUD AS FUCK! At least, in the first few episodes. It's like, turn the cap locks off, bro. More on this later.) friend who goes by the name...Oh Soo. Oh Soo has a friend with the exact same name as him. Oh Soo 2 is set up as a funny guy...I guess. The actor who plays him is atrocious. He makes a lot of terrible faces. I really wanted him to die. Jesus clearly loves me, because by the end of the episode Oh Soo 2 is punted off to hell.

OK, but before we get into that, I need to talk about the other star of the show: Oh Young, whom we'll just call Young. Now, when I say "other star" I mean...second billed. There is only one star of That Winter, The Wind Blows and it's Oh Soo. It's his world...these other peasants just occupy breath space. Young does take up a lot of screen time, though, so I don't want to throw shade at her. She is, technically, the other star. This is a romantic drama. Can't have one without the other, though I suspect this entire show would be no different if it was just Oh Soo acting out Young's part with himself in a mirror. 

BUT I DIGRESS! (also that's a window sigh)

Young is gorgeous. Also, BLIND. When she was about six, her parents divorced. Her brother went to live with their mom, and Young stayed to live with her dad. Shortly after this, Young developed a brain tumor. There's a lot of going back and forth about what caused her blindness. I was initially under the assumption that it was due to the shock of her mother and brother leaving and that once her heart was healed, her sight would return. Pretty immediately, though, it's made clear that Young had an actual disease that caused her blindness. She also had a fucking brain tumor. You're made to think it was caused by the brain tumor, but it...wasn't. I forget the name for the illness that took her sight...we'll call it RM. SO! To recap: Young is blind; her parents divorced (mom is dead); she had a brain tumor and also this other thing called RM.

Young's dad is the CEO of some company (I forget the name, I'll just refer to it as THE BUSINESS) and he is rich. Also, he is dying. The person who looks after Young is a magnificent cotton-tailed monster bunny named Secretary Wang. Immediately, you're like: this bitch is the devil. But she's also very cute and sort of fragile-like, so it's disconcerting and hard to believe she's this monster-woman that she's being set up to be (definitely more on this later). Young's dad dying prompts Young to seek out the brother she hasn't seen/spoken to in twenty-some years.

Guess who her fucking brother is?

Did you guess Oh Soo? Because that's what I guessed. But, no, it's Oh Soo 2. It's actually explicitly set-up that Oh Soo 2 is Young's brother, but I thought it was some mix-up and it would turn out that Oh Soo was her real brother. I NEED TO MENTION RIGHT NOW THAT THE SHOW STARTS OFF WITH OH SOO BEING ABANDONED AS A BABY BY HIS MOM OUTSIDE IN THE MIDDLE OF FUCKING WINTER. Like, this bitch reallllllly did not want this kid. But, anyway, Oh Soo 2 is Young's bro. She goes to find him.

In his letters to Young, Oh Soo 2 used Oh Soo's address to make his sister think he lived in a nice place or some shit...so, naturally, when Young goes to find him, she's instead "greeted" by Oh Soo. And by "greeted", I mean...Oh Soo tells Young that Oh Soo 2 isn't fucking there. He'll be home later. Go the fuck away and stop ringing my doorbell. (Note: no one curses on this show. Maybe...a bitch or asshole is thrown around? BUT DEFINITELY NO FUCKS. Though, you just know Oh Soo is a fuck-sayer.)

Sort of deflated by Oh Soo's rude treatment of her, Young leaves from Oh Soo's front door (he never opens up his apartment to her, he just shouts at her from his video intercom) and goes to stand aimlessly on the stairs of the hotel place that Oh Soo lives in. Eventually, he comes downstairs and sees her and realizes she's blind, but...still acts sort of callous. TO SPEED THIS UP, Young asks Oh Soo to read the letter Oh Soo 2 sent her. (Secretary Wang has been hiding them from her for years and this is the first one she's gained access to). The letter is sweet and there are also a couple of lines devoted to slinging shit Oh Soo's way. Oh Soo declines to read those lines to Young to protect his privacy. He actually says that to her. Young thinks it's cute and laughs instead of snatching the letter from his hands for taking advantage of her blindness.

During this "cute" letter-reading scene, the cops arrive at the hotel-place and Oh Soo is instantly nervous. WHY? I HAVE ZERO IDEAS. I want to think my confusion about Oh Soo's criminal stuff is just a lost in translation thing. Like, maybe the subtitles were translated weirdly or...I don't understand Korean laws?? But I truly have no idea why the cops...OH! I am totally forgetting that he was framed for stealing money from a gangster. Okay, so that's probably why they were there. Or, maybe framed for stealing money from a casino? Because...why would a gangster call the cops? SO ANYWAY HE RUNS TO HIDE. He pulls Young's confused, blind ass with him to hide behind a wall. Before he flees the scene he tells her that Oh Soo 2 says in the letter that he loves her very much which is real sweet of him and then like two seconds later he inadvertently causes Oh Soo 2's death and you're like...finally, Oh Soo does something good.

I forget why Oh Soo 2 starts chasing after Oh Soo, but he gets hit by a car. Dumbass Oh Soo stops to stare at Oh Soo 2's newly crumpled body and the cops catch up with him. Meanwhile, Young's blind ass is standing over this cute scene in the street, cry-screaming for a taxi. She has no idea what's just happened. But she's afraid and scared. Prob due to being blind and hearing a bunch of crashing sounds and sirens and shit.

Now that I've written all of this, I realize I can still sort of liveblog the show. Well, not really liveblog. But definitely recap as much as I remember. This show deserves nothing but the best. I am, however, currently watching a new k-drama (The Master's Sun) that I'd also like to liveblog. So maybe I'll do both. YAY NO ONE CARES!! (Oh, also I have to not-live blog the k-drama I watched after TWTWB: I Miss You. Which...just needs to be recapped. If for Harry alone. So...all these things!)

Okay so, That Winter, The Wind Blows recap to be continued...
And then...other recaps. Yay?

oh, p.s.

(here is a better example of one of his designer coats. I know nothing about fashion but you should see this thing. It has to be designer. I was wondering if maybe he was getting some of these clothes from THE BUSINESS' men's fashion line, but even before he fell into semi good graces with Young (spoiler alertspoileralert) he was rocking super swag attire. Like, after he got out of jail. I had assumed all his shit was taken when he was locked up. Definitely getting ahead of myself here, but what - did he have all these clothes on racks in a storage room somewhere? I mean, come on. And the little beauty there is Young, btw. I'm sure you figured that out, but some people are idiots. Also, seriously, these photos I added are super-spoilery. Maybe? But...that's like...the whole point of recaps. UGH)

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R.I.P Oh Soo 2

 You will not be missed 

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OKAY ONE MORE THING AND THEN THIS POST IS OVER ugggh (can you tell I just figured out how to add pics?)

This is the letter reading scene. You can tell just by looking at GQ that he is a dick. Look at him. Confession: I was obsessed with him the whole time. It was a very deep love/hate thing. My favorite kind of thing. Another note about this pic: Young looked really meek and unremarkable in the first episode. Gorgeous, but weirdly made up in a plain way. Then episode two kicks off a year later (which I'll get to in the next recap) and she's hot as shit with bangs and her lips and stuff. I don't really know what they were trying to do here. They WERE trying to do something, it's just my dumbassness that I can't tell. I want to say hot-Young was her coming out of her shell post-daddy death, but...she also became colder and more closed off. So...how could that be? No idea. Maybe I'll figure it out as I'm recapping. Just like I figured out why the cops were after Oh Soo! LIFE IS GREAT! loljk