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Thursday, October 1, 2020

"Do You Like Brahms?" drama: Episode's nineteen and twenty recap



 Air Dates: August 31st until October 20, 2020  Monday and Tuesdays at 10:00 pm on SBS
Ratings for these two episodes, 3.6 and 5.5%

Main Cast: The college referred to is Seoryeong University, a very prestigious music school though it does have many other programs.

Park Eun-Bin as Chae Song-Ah.... 'Chae' sounds quite a bit like the Korean word for sorry and she constantly has to tell others it's her real name. Song-Ah is 29 and graduated from the university at 22 with a business degree. However she hasn't had a steady job since then as her first love was playing the violin. After four attempts she was finally accepted into the school's musical program, she's finished three years yet is still not a very accomplished player.

Kim Min-Jae as Park Joon-Young.... He's an award winning pianist and the same age as 
Song-Ah. He too graduated from Seoryeong University and for many years has been touring the world performing concerts. He's a very respected pianist yet has returned to the university for their graduate program but see no reason why.

Lee You-Jin as Yoon Dong-Yun.... Friend of Song-Ah's and went out briefly with Min-Seong. We didn't see him in this first episode as he was in Italy but has just returned in this show. He owns a violin shop though doesn't play much these days.

Bae Da-Bin as Kang Min-Seong.... Song-Ah's best friend who is going to the same college, she's getting her Masters in Chemistry.

Park Ji-Hyun as Lee Jung-Kyung.... She's just returned from America where she tried so hard to become a professor of music at some colleges but failed. She's a violinist whose mother died when she was fourteen, she's been semi-dating Hyun-Ho though she secretly wishes to be with Joog-Young

Kim Seong Cheol as Han Hyun-Ho.... He too has just returned from America and is a talented cello player. He's best friends with Joon-Young and has been dating Jung-Kyung but he's more serious about their relationship than she is.

Lee Ji-Won as Kim Ha-Nae....Also a violinist who is seven years younger than Song-Ah but both have just started at a Summer internship for the Kyunghoo Foundation.

Seo Jung-Yeon as Cha Young-In.... Manager of Song-Ah and Ha-Nae at the foundation.

Choi Dae-Hoon as Park Sung-Jae.... Employee at the foundation.

Ahn Sang-Ein as Jung Da-Woon..... Another foundation employee

Ye Soo-Young as Na Moon-Sook.... Director of the Kyunghoo Foundation and whose daughter died in 2006 who was the mother of Jung-Kyung.

Yoon Chan-Young as Seung Ji-Min.... Very talented younger popular pianist

Baek Ji-Won as Professor Lee.... Song-Ah's professor who is pushing her to enter the graduate program but is more interested in who she knows than Song-Ah's music

Joo Suk-Tae as Yoo Tae-Jin.... Joon-Young's music teacher from the ages of 14 to 22. Their relationship was a bit rocky but the pair are now working together again.
  
  These two episodes also had a drop in viewers, at one time close to 1.05 million were watching the two shows but it's dropped to 954,000. Can't understand why as I've never heard one negative comment about this series to date and it's truly one enjoyable drama. This recap picks up where the above one ended off or should I say we see it from a different angle at first. Song-Ah had been at a mini reunion with some of her old mates, Dong-Yun was there and it was the first time they had seen each other since he confessed that he's had a crush on her forever. Unknown to the pair behind them were Min-Seong and Joon-Young, she had been running late for the get together and happened to bump into Joon-Young. She dragged him along and and they arrived just in time to hear most of the conversation.





 They overheard Song-Ah saying that she too had liked Dong-Yun for a long time but those days have passed and her heart only has room for Joon-Young. It's hard to say how Dong-Yun has accepted those words, he didn't seem angry nor sad, maybe a tad stunned as he didn't have any response to her words. Joon-Young really is a decent chap, he heard what his new girlfriend said and wasn't upset in the least, he too knows what it's like to have a crush on someone and it's a normal thing. Perhaps being a concert pianist has helped him stay on an even keel during trying times and to not get too high or low. Though we haven't seen her as much these past few shows someone getting on my nerves is Min-Seong. Have come to realize what a self centered woman she is and tries to make herself the center of attention too often plus she's such a whiner and crybaby.

 While Joon-Young understood what was going on with Song-Ah and Dong-Yun the same can't be said for how Min-Seong handled the situation and blew it way out of proportion. She blamed Song-Ah endlessly for having a secret crush on Dong-Yun for so many years but that's all it was, a secret crush. Think it's time for Min-Seong to look at herself in the mirror and realize why Dong-Yun wants nothing to do with her and why she may never be happy with anyone. Two days later Song-Ah did try to apologize to Min-Seong who refused to listen to her ex best friend, sure these two will make up eventually but it's hard to have any positive feelings for Min-Seong. Least things are still going quite well for Song-Ah and Joon-Young as everyone else's love live has crumbled. 

 As has been the case for the last few recaps Song-Ah is working hard to enter the graduate program at Seoryeon University. But during that time she's been used badly by her professor Lee who has Song-Ah doing too much for her. She's arranging a concert performance for her professor who undoubtedly will take all of the credit for it. Lee has told Song-Ah to have the ensemble buy even more tickets to make sure the performance is sold out, five tickets at first was the demand but Song-Ah whittled that down to three. The main problem there is that tickets cost $50 each, the players already bought some and 
Song-Ah wonders how will they get the cash for more tickets? Song-Ah is a very excellent office worker which makes sense as she does have a degree in Business. In all honesty she'd make for a better office manager than a musician, Lee knows that too and is really using Song-Ah for her talents.






 That top screenshot is of He-Ne who worked as an intern with Song-Ah during the Summer at the Kyunghoon Foundation. They were starting to become much closer which evaporated once she learned Song-Ah was dating Joon-Young but Hae-Na has had some other issues such as failing to get into a graduate program at an American university. She told Song-Ah in that scene about how badly she's being used by Professor Lee, Song-Ah made no comment but think she knows what's going on but helping Lee out may be her best shot to get into the school's graduate program. Lee even dragged 
Song-Ah to a ritzy gala so Lee could rub elbows with some of the 'elites' and to me made a fool out of her self. To top it off she even made Song-Ah find her own way home as instead of giving her best student a ride she packed her seat with flowers and had two other passengers.

 Naturally the one person left able to give Song-Ah a lift was.... Jung-Kyung! Have to say her attitude has gotten a bit better these last few shows but then again she's been in situations where she's needed to impress people and has had no options but to act like an unsnotty(?) person. We don't know if she's gotten over the fact that her true love Joon-Young is now dating Song-Ah though Jung-Kyung did say not to worry about her doing anything during their ride. What's shaping up is a duel between her and Hyun-Ho on who gets the professorship at Seoryeong University, wouldn't be surprised if it came down to those two being the pair of finalists. Hyun-Ho gave his 'musical test' in front of the hiring panel and to date they seem more impressed with him than anyone else. But that's the only thing working out well in Hyun-Ho's life as he's broken up with Jung-Kyung, still is a bit estranged from Joon-Young and soon he'll be off Lee's orchestra. She heard Hyun-Ho had been dating Jung-Kyung but didn't realize the two are now history, Lee felt why should someone like him need money dating such a wealthy woman? 

 Actually don't think Jung-Kyung herself is all that wealthy though of course her grandmother Na is. But a possible monetary situation has arisen for Jung-Kyung as her grandmother asked how much was she paying Joon-Young to play at the recital she has to give for the professor's position. She didn't realize pianists got paid and Na has hinted $20,000 may be a starting point for him. Joon-Young also didn't know he should be getting paid and was doing it to help out such an old friend but these days the two are definitely estranged. That was the only mention of it during these shows but sure it'll be a matter that will be brought up again. 






 
 That's Park right above who has taken over watching Joon-Young's activities for his American agency. He used to work for the Kyunghoo Foundation which scheduled his performances and such in Korea but his main agent based in America, Chris, no longer wants to deal with them which has upset 
Joon-Young who would rather not work with Park. Seems the foundation is not doing so well financially and the first mention of it was made towards the end of these two shows. Park wanted 
Joon-Young to have some TV specials that concentrated on what he does besides play piano which he nixed, in an odd maneuver Park has gone to Joon-Young's mother to enlist her help but how that turned out is unknown. For the first time Song-Ah paid a visit to Joon-Young's apartment and he lives so sparingly, two pics above are from that scene.

 It's mainly a studio apartment, even though his finances have dwindled you'd think he'd have a much more spacious place plus shouldn't there have been a piano there? The way Joon-Young lives seemed to impress Song-Ah as he's not someone obsessed by material things and such, least the apartment has an impressive view of Seoul. Wasn't that long of a scene and these two are just so innocent, wouldn't surprise me if they don't sleep together until their wedding night but that's really looking ahead. Did say that Joon-Young didn't have a piano at his place which is quite odd. He needs to depend on open rehearsal halls to practice and he really needs to play more for the upcoming Tchaikovsky competition as there's a high monetary prize for winning. Joon-Young is still working with his old teacher Yoo for the competition and as usual things aren't going so well between them.

 They've had a rocky relationship for many years but now it seems they've come to an understanding. Joon-Young had just learned Yoo had put out a CD some months before which was heavily panned, that's one reason for his teacher's recent snarly attitude. But Joon-Young did notice Yoo drinking his sorrows away one night and they pair had a real in depth discussion about just about everything that's been bothering the two. They really cleared the air about so many things and think from this point on Yoo will be very beneficial to Joon-Young's piano playing which has slipped a tad over the years. Perhaps he just need some inspiration for in the final scene he was rehearsing with Jung-Kyung for her recital. The pair sounded terrific and seemed Joon-Young hadn't had that much fun playing in years. They were rehearsing in a small room at the college which drew a crowd outside to watch, they weren't aware of it. In that crowd was Song-Ah who looked on a bit dejectedly, was she jealous of how well they played together or was she thinking they've relit the feelings they once had for each other?





 Song-Ah also may have been jealous that Jung-Kyung had been playing so well with her pianist as Song-Ah is not getting along well with the one that's supposed to play for Song-Ah at her graduate program exam. Though Jung-Young for now has said he can't play with her at the recital think it's something that will happen. We're slowly getting there, twelve shows to go, will have a pair of recaps next week for episodes 21-24. Then will take the following week off and return with shows 25-32 in a row, hope the ratings improve as I can't understand why they've fallen off a bit.





































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