#aadsig

At A Distance Spring Is Green (2021) // Weak Hero (2022)

I actually hate to put Spring is Green next to Weak Hero bc Weak Hero makes everything look like trash in comparison but I love these clips together bc I think they show 1.) Park Ji Hoon's growth as an actor and 2.) how they accomplish similar goals in directly opposite ways. They both flip the switch on their characters, revealing new sides to them with just a change of expression.

Yeo Joon, who wears his smile and geniality like a shield, and let's it drop in a moment of frustration with Soohyun, who refuses to be moved by it. Yoon Sieun, who is experiencing love and friendship for the first time -- both giving it and receiving it. And who is caught off guard by the way Suho sees right through him, maybe even through to something Sieun hadn't been able to fully recognize in himself. In both moments, they are revealing a truer side of themselves to people who see right through the shields and perceptions they give off.

And in both, the audience sees a new side of the characters for the first time. One of which is chilling, and a little alienating -- maybe we don't know Yeo Joon at all. Maybe he's not quite as innocent or pathetic as we thought. Suddenly, we're seeing there's a real tangible darkness under the skin of him. The other, is equal parts heart-breaking and heart-warming. Under Sieun's aloofness and cold demeanor there's a sweet boy who loves his friends deeply and sincerely. He is also learning, for the first time, that he's a good person.

this is why sobin and soohyun are so important to his character growth and development. with sobin, joon genuinely likes her, but he doesn’t have any experience with having romantic feelings for her. sobin is a person he doesn’t necessarily know how to navigate, which is why he uses his more manipulative tactics to try and trap her. it’s why he makes sure to set it up so that she’ll come to him and end things with chanki; because chanki is, of course, a threat to him, and for someone like joon, who’s never been chosen first, who is literally second to his family and has grown up as such (when he’s acknowledged at all), chanki is a threat to something he wants. does he know his actions are manipulative? yes. but he also believes his intentions are good (while also knowing he’s being selfish), because he understands where sobin stands, and he wants to do to her what he’s unable to do with his own family, which is cut off an unhealthy relationship to her. of course, while he’s right about the fact that chanki isn’t necessarily a good or exemplary friend, chanki is not his family. this further represents the tendency yeo joon has to project his own familial relationships onto everyone else around him, such as when he sees soohyun and his younger brother. it’s why he’s so scared when he’s finally honest, because he wants sobin to stick around, he wants her to like him, but no one has ever actually liked him before.

with soohyun, it’s a bit of a different story. soohyun is more representative of what yeo joon is used to; not necessarily give and take, but something similar, like he states at the end of episode four: he’s good at being clingy, at holding on, and soohyun is good at pushing away. that’s a familiar rhythm to yeo joon, which he can navigate with more ease than he can his own relationship with sobin. unlike everyone around him, soohyun doesn’t like yeo joon on a surface level, and he can’t be swayed by manipulation or money. he sees straight through yeo joon, though that doesn’t exactly equate to him seeing yeo joon, or even that he meant to get right to yeo joon’s core, to peeling back his mask. he just knows yeo joon isn’t the image he projects to the world. soohyun, like sobin, gives yeo joon honesty, even when blunt. they both aren’t afraid to say what they mean or state is as it is, even though sobin isn’t as blunt as soohyun - she still gathers up her courage and confronts people when it comes down to it. soohyun, too, puts up his own mask, his own front, which is what makes their dialogue so emotionally tense, because they both are somewhat cruel to each other, but not exactly; their words and exchanges are barbed and they are both relentless people. as seen in the recent episode, yeo joon has also obviously latched onto the idea that soohyun could sort of be the brother he never had, especially after seeing him interact his own brother. he seeks tenderness, a different sort than from sobin, or a girlfriend, but something familially and friendly, something secure. i could go on and on about their dynamic, but i’ll cut it short.

A common theme in At A Distance Spring is Green is the trauma our three main characters carry.

All of them have complex trauma that has hindered their life in one way or another. Yeo Joon, impacted by the neglect he suffered and by the previous abuse before that struggles to find a proper healthy relationship. He thinks of himself as a punching bag. I've touched on this particular issue at the beginning of the series, but now that we're seeing the true depth of the abuse and neglect, and how complex it is, we can begin to understand more aspects of his character properly.

It is not that he seeked love in the beginning, but that he was using fawning as a survival mechanism. Pleasing those around him in order to avoid being hurt. In So Bin and in Soo Hyun he found acceptance and comfort, with the latter, more than that, he found someone who would like his wounds for him.

Soo Hyun and Joon are two sides of the same coin, their issues laid in using defense mechanisms to prevent being hurt. More than that, they thought their lonely existence was proper for them, a divine punishment for sins they never committed.

Soo Hyun issue stemmed not only from his awareness of class differences, but from his belief that he must shoulder the burden alone. His inability to build relationships was that he never had the time to truly be young and interact with others, Joon breaking into his bubble and continously pushing his displaced affection to him that he started to experience those things, that he realized that by distributing the burden, the pain would be less.

So Bin has abandonment issues which reflect in her perceiving herself as not good enough. So, she learned to navigate the world as a wallflower that would not cause issues.

It is not that she felt that she was average and no matter what, she would never make it big, but that that feared being the center of attention. With the other two by her side, she realizes she can use her own voice and be heard. She slowly builds up her self steem.

Their issues were not that they were too young and inexperienced, but that the world had given them out too much before they even had plates to carry their pain on.

Park Ji Hoon and Kim Su Gyeom in

Park Ji Hoon as Yeo Joon and Bae In Hyuk as Nam Soo Hyun in At A Distance, Spring Is Green (tvn, 2021)