Fencing With An Umbrella
In the past, Min-Chae was a ballerina who was very talented. However, she lost her nerve after watching a more talented dancer perform. She decided to quit the competition altogether. ..
Min-Chae, after running away from her home, ends up at her grandmother’s place. There she finds numerous fencing medals that her mother had won. She also finds her mother’s diary, which has juicy details surrounding her life. Min-Chae begins reading the entries and sees us cut back to the heavily saturated world of 1998. ..
The main protagonist in this time period is Hee-Do, who shows up to class on a Saturday and is in a joyous mood.
This is the one day of the week she enjoys because she can see “that kid.” However, we’re also in the midst of IMF situation too. For those unaware, this is the financial crisis experienced by Koreans in the late 90s, causing a severe foreign exchange shortage, leaving South Korea on the brink of defaulting.
Anyway, there are protests in the street about protecting the film industry but for Hee-Do, she’s too young and naive to even think about this and continues on her way to Tae-Yang High. There, she finds Go Yoo-Rim.
Hee-Do is a talented fencer who has big dreams of one day becoming her rival. Unfortunately, the IMF crisis sees the fencing team disbanded and that means Hee-Do’s dreams now rest solely with trying to make it into Tae-Yang High. She wants a transfer but her mum is having none of it, instead telling her to quit the sport.
As the paperboy, Baek Yi-Jin, arrives at the house with the newspaper. It’s his first day and he overhears everything, eventually throwing the newspaper but breaking the peeing boy statue outside. As fate would have it, there’s even a note specifically saying not to deliver newspapers. Unfortunately, this fake statue has had its penis knocked off and it’s the crux of Hee-Do’s anger as she heads out and confronts the paperboy.
Yi-Jin, a recent resident of the neighbourhood, has found employment at a comic book store. Hee-Do, another resident of the neighbourhood, is a regular customer and often looks for new volumes of Full House, a comic she’s been reading. Yi-Jin notices that one of the volumes he handed her has a large advertisement for a product on the cover and he calls her out on it. ..
That night, Hee-Do sneaks into Tae Yang High and drops to her knees, pleading with Coach Yang to teach her. She declines but does encourage her to try and transfer there if she can.
In a fight between a bunch of girls, Hee-Do uses her skills as a fencing weapon to thwart a guy who arrives to mess up her plans. She is so desperate to transfer that she is willing to get herself arrested in order to see this happen.
The other girls all stop and watch her fight but everything goes horribly wrong when she fails to get arrested. However, this scene does help to show the girl has some serious skills. That same umbrella though, is eventually thrown down to Yu-Rim later that afternoon by Hee-Do, who hides up on the roof and calls out that she’s a fan.
Yi-jin is not happy with Hee-Do either, but he can’t do anything about it. The other guy is going to get him in trouble if he doesn’t do what he’s told.
Yi-Jin ignores the warnings of the men and takes Hee-Do outside. He warns her that things could have gone really badly. It’s here she opens up about losing her dreams of fencing. Yi-Jin though, knows all about losing things (given his family history) and encourages her to come up with a better plan if she wants to succeed.
After learning each other’s names, Hee-Do decides to continue delivering newspapers after all. ..
Hee-Do’s mother is not happy with her daughter and she starts to argue with her in the morning. As things escalate, Hee-Do starts ripping up her comic book which is a step too far. You see, Hee-Do’s mother is pretty cold toward her daughter and over the years, Hee-Do has always found solace in the words and pictures of the comic.
Since her father’s death, Hee-Do’s mother has been in a deep depression and has been distant from her daughter. As tears well up in Hee-Do’s eyes, she eventually composes herself and leaves the house for work. ..
Hee-Do is in a difficult situation because her comic, which she is returning, has ripped pages that are not fit for the shelf. She tries to replace them, but they are not easy to do.
When Hee-Do returns the book, she’s an absolute wreck and struggles to get her words out around her cries. For Yi-Jin though, he takes the comic back home and begins reading what she’s done, struggling to hold in his laughter. Her spelling is pretty atrocious!
In the morning, Hee-Do shows up to see Coach Yang. She manages to pass the first test, swiping an apple in her sword in mid-air. The second test? A compete and utter failure. She guesses odds or evens…and she fails every time. However, her tenacity and Coach Yang’s skills are enough for her to allow Hee-Do to study at Yang High. ..
It turns out that Hee-Do’s mother was already granted a place at the school before she came. She seems prickly and standoffish, but this woman also has a heart too.
Hee-Do manages to make it to her new high school after all, and calls out to Yi-jin for his help in achieving this. Only, he’s already passed the house and dropped off the paper. Still, he happens to overhear all of this from behind the hedges, and smiles warmly, issuing a congratulations her way.
The Episode Review
The show starts off strong with a well-done homage to Reply series vibes. The story is well-paced and the stakes are high, leading to some great moments late on. The mix of sport dramas andReply series vibes works surprisingly well, making for an enjoyable watch.
It’s clear that Hee-Do is going to become an amazing fencer, but the ride to get there is paved in doubt and uncertainty. Hopefully these flashbacks will show what’s happened, as well as inspiring our little ballerina to don her shoes again and jump back into the lion’s den.
The main message of this episode is that never give up on your dreams and that will help you through anything. The development of Hee-Do’s relationship with Yi-Jin is interesting, but it’ll be interesting to see who her online friend is.
There’s a lot to like about this show, and it seems like tvN may have hit a home run with it. However, it’s too early to get too excited about it, so we’ll have to wait and see what the next episode has in store for us! ..
