Kim Ji-Yeon(Bona): "Girls' Generation 1979" drama episode four recap

 Air Dates: September 11th to October 3, 2017 on KBS2 Monday and Tuesday nights at 10:00  for eight episodes with an average rating of 4.3%

 Main Cast:

Kim Ji-Yeon(Bona) as Lee Jung-Hee, the heroine

Chae Seo-Jin as Jung Hae-Joo, transfer student from Seoul

Seo Young-Joo as Bae Dong-Moon, has a severe crush on Jung-Hee

Yeo Hoi-Hyeon as Son-Jin, Jung-Hee absolutely adores him

Min Do-Hee as Sim Ae-Sook, Jung-Hee's arch enemy

Lee Jong-Hyun as Young-Joon, neighborhood handyman

Joe Byeong-Gyu as Lee Bong-Soo, Jung-Hee's twin brother

Kwon Hae-Hyo as Mr. Lee, Jung-Hee's father 

Kim Sun-Young as Mrs. Lee, Jung-Hee's mother

Park Ha-Na as Dong-Hwa, Jung-Hee's aunt

In Gyo-Jin as Teacher Oh

Sujin as Eon-Joo, Jung-Hee's school friend

Baek Eun-Kyung as Hyun-Hee, Jung-Hee's school friend

Park Ye-Seul as Eun-Ja, Jung-Hee's school friend

Kim Jaw-Hwa as the Drill Instructor

 Will have a promo video for each of the episodes, all of them are at the KBS YT site. Was thinking you don't see subbed videos like for Japanese dramas but have noticed many Korean shows do have them. Have also been noticing the songs played in the episodes, if you like less than stellar 70's pop hits from America and Britain you'll love this drama's soundtrack. So far we've heard the Bee Gees, Kansas, Mama Cass, Engelbert Humperdinck, The Carpenters and quite a few others along with some K-Pop tunes from that era.

 Good idea to read the first post in these back to back recaps as there's no sense discussing too much of what's already happened as the info is in the above post. The last episode ended off with Jung-Hee and Dong-Moon sitting on a bridge crying, both for different reasons. He treats Jung-Hee to a small meal, unknown to her Dong-Moon has just had a massive feast at her house and couldn't eat another bite but does force himself to keep that and his fight with Son-Jin a secret.
 Ever since falling head over heals in love with Hae-Joo Son-Jin's grades have slipped a bit and he's getting a bit of pressure at home from his parents. He's expected to attend the prestigious Seoul University which is a tradition for all of the family's males. Doesn't happen until later on but will bring it up now which is of Son-Jin's father warning him of a communist who is new in the area. That turned out to be Hae-Joo's father he was referring to which really throws Son-Jin for a loop, is it true or just one of those anti-communist rumors?

 Korean schools were quite strict many decades ago and Jung-Hee's teacher Oh was one of the most strictest. When a few students are unable to figure out some difficult math equations Oh is about to punish them, usually it's by them sitting on their knees on desks and raising their arms for an extended period of time. The top screenshot is of Oh saying Hae-Joo saved their lives, she's the only student who has the courage to talk back to teachers but she does it in such a wise way they listen to her. Hae-Joo felt punishments were not helpful but degrading, Oh agreed and for now no more punishments for the students which has made Hae-Joo a hero in the class and Jung-Hee more jealous.
 Also above is Jung-Hee's father making a rare appearance at her school, he ended up bringing his daughter out to eat. It wasn't to apologize for what happened in the previous episode but a warning for her to stay away from Young-Joon. The father does not trust him at all but Jung-Hee said not to worry as she never has any business with him. To me Young-Joon seems like a dependable young man of about 22 who is raising his seven year old sister but rumor is it could be his daughter.
 Dong-Moon is making his presence felt in the Lee household as Jung-Hee's mother has hired him to be a math tutor for Bong-Soo, Dong-Moon is #1 at his school in math. But we all know he's really there to be around Jung-Hee who says she doesn't need help in math which was a lie as she's horrible at the subject. Dong-Moon convinced her to let him help her with one problem which she agreed to. The way he explained it made the equation look so simple, slowly but surely think Jung-Hee is starting to like Dong-Moon a bit or maybe she has all along but won't admit it to herself.

 Hae-Joo is also another person who is there to solve problems and she had to with the class delinquent Ae-Sook. Where there's trouble she'll usually be around, Ae-Sook and her two cronies above were trying to bully a classmate into giving them money. Arriving on the scene to save the day was Hae-Joo who did just that and wouldn't let the girl pay any money. Naturally that infuriated
Ae-Sook who though short is feisty and began threatening Hae-Joo to give her cash.
 Another person who arrived at the scene was Young-Joon who was finally able to bring calm to the impending storm. In another case of falling head over heals for someone that's what happened to
Hae-Joo the first time she met Young-Joon, like all the others her love is one sided. Didn't mention it then but in the previous episode his sister Eng-Cho had gone to Hae-Joo's house without letting him know. When Hae-Joo was bringing her home they came across Young-Joon who had been searching frantically for his sister.
 He really tore into Hae-Joo at the time and deep down he's been a bit ashamed with yelling at her but it appears Hae-Joo still has such good vibes for him. Don't know what the relationship between Young-Joon and Ae-Sook may be or even if there was one. The two know each other from the past and Young-Joon is the only person she'll listen to, she desperately wants to be with him.

 No matter how hard she tries Jung-Hee just can't get over Son-Jin. Perhaps her love isn't as strong after witnessing his confession of love to Hae-Joo but Jung-Hee wants to be with him more than any man in the world. There was a mini party thrown for the participants of the dual broadcast show between the two high schools but Hae-Joo wasn't there which broke Son-Jin's heart. At least that was the impression Jung-Hee felt by looking at him and the pair had a talk after the party.
 The conniving Son-Jin explained to Jung-Hee that yes, he did have intense affections for Hae-Joo, but he couldn't tell Jung-Hee how he really felt as to spare her feelings. Son-Jin then also told her because he was rebuffed too many times by Hae-Joo he's no longer that fond of her, kind of BS to us but Jung-Hee seemed to buy his story.
 There was a reason Hae-Joo couldn't attend the mini party as it was because there was an incident at her home, her 'perfect life' is about to start crumbling down. Her father's house guest Kyung-Soo had become very ill and Hae-Joo had no idea what the problem was. She rushed to the pharmacy where
Young-Joon works but the pharmacist was out. He shouldn't have done it but Young-Joon left work and went to Hae-Joo's residence to help her, luckily the young man only had a bad case of indigestion. Up to now Young-Joon has tried to avoid Hae-Joo but he's slowly getting attracted to her, seems he's there often when she needs help.

 And help is of the utmost importance now for Hae-Joo as her father hasn't returned home nor contacted her in a few days. That's never occurred before so with no one else to turn to she goes back to the man she trusts the most, Young Joon. She doesn't give him many details mainly because she has no clue where her father could be, Young-Joon is now on the hunt for her father. Unknown to Young-Joon the man he helped treat Kyung-Soo is also gone and it appears he may have been kidnapped or worse.
 That bottom screenshot above shows what Hae-Joo went home to, someone had ransacked her residence thoroughly but was it from the struggle taking Kyung-Soo or were they looking for some evidence against Hae-Joo's father. If you remember earlier in the recap Son-Jin's father thinks someone new in town is a communist, no doubt about who he was talking about.
 So that perfect life that her classmates thinks Hae-Joo leads is now a myth, her situation is rather dire at the moment. That hasn't gone unnoticed at school as Hae-Joo was always so lively and helpful, not so these days which has attracted the attention of Jung-Hee. But she may not think of Hae-Joo as a close friend yet as she doesn't press her too sternly to open up and really just leaves her alone. Meanwhile Young-Joon had no success in his hunt for Hae-Joo's father though he will continue,
Hae-Joo didn't tell him or anyone else about her house being vandalized.

It's getting close to the end and the seriousness goes way down in the final scene which happened to be a long one. Jung-Hee's twin brother Bong-Soo had to attend a week long study class but he hates studying even more than his sister. However Bong-Soo had to attend the sessions or his parents will be notified, with no other options he asks Jung-Hee to take his place! Of course she flatly refused but her brother offered her every cent he had in the world to be his stand-in at the sessions, it was a good sum of money so Jung-Hee agreed to pretend being her brother for the week long session.
 That's Jung-Hee above and let's face facts, there's no way she looks remotely like a male!!!! She enters the study room full of boys, there's also a girl's study room. At the time there was only one cubicle open, Jung-Hee sat down at it and of course next to her cube was Son-Jin. He never looked up from his book and had no idea who was two feet from him, neither did Jung-Hee for a while and when she learned who was next to her she wanted to leave.
 That was out of the question as the students had to remain at the session for a certain amount of time. Jung-Hee had no other options so she stayed at her tiny cube and eventually fell asleep. Bong-Soo had told his plan to Dong-Moon who rushed off to the Rainbow Study Hall to see Jung-Hee but he was refused admittance, you had to sign up in advance for the sessions.

 Jung-Hee had once again tried to leave but it was now curfew, no time was given but perhaps 11:00 pm back in 1979? It became quite late and Jung-Hee decided to doze the night away, many students had left during the late hours which let Dong-Moon slip in unnoticed. He was able to get the cube next to the sleeping beauty(!) who never knew that Dong-Moon was in the room. Eventually the time is 4:30 am, Jung-Hee awakens and it's a perfect time for her exit.
 Not so perfect as near the entrance were two girls from her class and Jung-Hee couldn't be seen dressed as a boy. She didn't want to go back to the study room so she found that the door to the roof was open and went up there. By now Jung-Hee was wide awake and was actually reciting some of the English words she had been studying but became stuck on one word which was adorable.
 Jung-Hee just couldn't remember what it meant when she heard a voice behind her telling her the definition. That voice belonged to the one and only Son-Jin, don't think he realized Jung-Hee had been sitting next to him for hours. He tells her the word adorable can mean cute, at first she thought Son-Jin was talking about her. Son-Jin told Jung-Hee he wasn't  referring to her but then again it appears as though he may have. The pair end up staring at each other for a few seconds and in that short span the fourth episode came to it's conclusion.

 Another superb show, the series is only eight episodes so there's no time for filler and there's been zero so far. Looking forward to the remaining four episodes as there's we need to find out what happened to Hae-Joo's father plus I read in a synopsis some women from the clothing factory start disappearing mysteriously.
 Had said at the end of the second recap that the next pair would be next week so I'm a few days early with this set, the next two recaps will probably be posted about a week from now. Don't know of any other series that are in the 8-10 episode range, will be on the lookout for some or anyone who knows of an interesting shorter drama you can always leave me a comment.