(What happened the night before made Yi Qing'e vaguely understand why people in the mountains love opera and love to sing opera, because it lets people cry out what weighs on their hearts.) // You know why so many Shaanxi people love rock? Why? What's the essence of rock? If you can't fly, run. If you can't run, walk. If you can't walk, then crawl. Crawling is still moving forward. When you don't feel sad even while crawling, then you've grown up.
I hate talking about wounds. It feels like the language of the weak. But... that's what I'm doing right now. Whenever something goes wrong, I tell myself I was shattered back then, and that's why I'm like this now. I connect everything back to that time. But... If my life had worked out, would I still be holding onto and struggling with what happened then? Am I constantly bringing up my past as an excuse... for why my present situation isn't working out? How can you not bring up your past? Aren't you being too hard on yourself?
MY MISTER (2018) -> MY LIBERATION NOTES (2022) -> WE ARE ALL TRYING HERE (2026) writ. Park Hae Young
Do you... really not hate me? Once you know someone, once you really know someone... nothing they do bothers you. And I know you. // Why are you always so good to me? Because you deserve it.
MY MISTER 나의 아저씨 (2018) -> WE ARE ALL TRYING HERE 모두가 자신의 무가치함과 싸우고 있다 (2026) writ. Park Hae Young
What did I do wrong? I'm tired of you getting hurt over every little thing. When have I ever— You think you're hiding it, but it's obvious. You make me feel guilty, like I've done something terrible. I end up getting hurt because you're always getting hurt. Why do we make movies? It's because we want to see people with power. Why do you think we want to see that? Because we don't have power!
How do people gain power? Like a hyena searching for prey at the foot of the mountain, I went searching for power. But I failed, so I'm heading home, right now. After eating a ton of meat, that is. Do you happen to know where they sell power? I'd like to buy some. Maybe if you love someone... What if the protagonist... was driven by love for his niece or nephew who wants to see the weather? Or maybe for his beloved older brother? Then his heart would race, because he'd do anything to make it happen. I realized something as I read your screenplay: "Ah... This director has nothing... that he loves."
WE ARE ALL TRYING HERE 모두가 자신의 무가치함과 싸우고 있다 (2026)
If I have nobody to talk to, I go to the rooftop and shout my name. Everything my voice reaches is mine. That tree is mine. That boulder is mine... Once my voice reaches something... It no longer feels completely unrelated to me. I heard you.
WE ARE ALL TRYING HERE 모두가 자신의 무가치함과 싸우고 있다 (2026)
Oh, please continue to gif We Are All Trying Here! Your gifs are so crisp and bright! Would you be open to gifing their scene from episode 9, where they hug in the cafe?
hiii anon sorry it's late this hellsite kept fighting me on loading the gifs for a whole day 😑 i hope you like it ❣️
It'll be incredibly scary, but I'm even more afraid... of looking pathetic if I admit that I'm scared. Don't worry. If you want to run away, I'll do whatever it takes to help you. Fear isn't something you endure. You can't endure it. What kind of reward justifies putting up with that? I won't let you go through that.
WE ARE ALL TRYING HERE 모두가 자신의 무가치함과 싸우고 있다 (2026)
The only girls in my life were those who dreaded sitting next to me in class, until a woman as shiny as a blade walked in. There's nothing I wouldn't do now. What would you like me to do? Who should I kill for you? // What kind of weather should I make for you? Tell me what kind of weather you like, Eun Ah-sshi, and I'll make it for you. I like any kind of wind.
WE ARE ALL TRYING HERE 모두가 자신의 무가치함과 싸우고 있다 (2026)
I'm freaking scared, too. But I endure it. Even if I go blind from her brightness, I'm going to keep both eyes open and endure it. That's the respect you owe someone who believes in you, you jackass.
WE ARE ALL TRYING HERE 모두가 자신의 무가치함과 싸우고 있다 (2026)
#KDRAMAWOMENSWEEKS 2025
[year 2017 day six; strong foundations // ON WOO JOO]
Perhaps all of this was caused by your desperate sincerity.
FRANKLY SPEAKING 비밀은 없어 (2024) dir. Jang Ji Yeon
frankly speaking is possibly my favorite kdrama of 2024. it's written and directed as two women's sophomore project that often suffers from indecision on what sort of story it wants to tell at the beginning, but if you ask me it gradually finds its footing along the way. and it does so in a manner that makes you glad to have stuck around to see the process at work.
i don't want to wax lyrical on what the drama itself is about & i'm of the opinion that it's best to go into it blind, so that makes talking about what i love in on woo joo, its enterprising & people savvy senior variety writer heroine, all the more difficult.
all 3 main characters of frankly speaking are connected to one another via either a lie or an unfortunate truth that they've spoken aloud while trying to help each other. all 3 of them are people who are so accustomed to donning a mask that it's gradually replaced their own faces, and their bodies have kept the score. song ki baek embraces the artifice in order to set himself apart from his origins of poverty, kim jung heon his celebrity persona in the hopes that eventually his success will prove redemptive & bring back the people he's lost along the way. on woo joo's case is a bit different from the other two's in that she doesn't have anything she's running away from or toward, in the beginning: against all odds, she's just trying to do the work she's good at.
she's the responsible center of the story & a place of stability for many characters of the cast. she keeps her emotional distance, makes concessions wherever necessary and keeps the torch burning, so to speak. even to the people she can't forgive she's never unkind. kang han na plays her with such dynamism that even watching her in her element makes you want to find yours.
but the entrance of ki baek into her life and the responsibility she feels about having indirectly caused his plight upends her world. she's no longer a writer but character, and no character is ever allowed permission to not participate in their own life. what do your attempts at caring for others & the mistakes you make surrounding those attempts look like, once you cease to have control over their narrative weight?
it's not until the last quarter of the story that we delve into the things that have made on woo joo who she is today & it occurs during her period of hibernation where she's virtually unemployed & not working on a project. the ties that bind her have always been those of gratitude, and regardless of how much she's stifled herself while adhering to them, the story itself has a place for her very late teenage rebellion and the airing of her grievances; the support she's provided to the people around her returns to her tenfold in her moment of crisis that she doesn't even manage to acknowledge as one before she has to articulate someone else's for them, later on.
it's nothing particularly subversive & the bar itself is very low, but i've really admired the quiet but steadfast way in which frankly speaking loved her. in our eternal pursuit to be good to the people we care about in order to stave off the inevitable dread of existence we often forget that they want to be good to us, too. it hurts them when we don't hold them to the same standards that we do ourselves. the work of showing up for others itself is not thankless, not when it is all that we have to keep ourselves tethered to the world at large. and i liked how this drama let on woo joo have the time to reach her own conclusions about it :)
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