"Misaeng" Doesn't Let Drama Forgets Reality (Spoiler Alert)

Working life has been a theme for many TV Series. In K-Dramas and Japanese Dorama there are a lot of them. One of the popular working life K-Drama is Misaeng: Incomplete Life (2014). This drama was based on the webcomic "Misaeng" by Yoon Tae-Ho (20-01-2012 until14-10-2013) . The 20 episodes drama is aired in TvN station, written by Yoon Tae-Ho (original comic) and Jung Yoon-Jung and directed by Kim Won-Suk. At the Baeksang Arts Award 2015 this drama has won three awards (best actor, best newcomer actor and best director). Misaeng’s main character is Jang Geu Rae, a former Go prodigy player who struggles to adjust his life as an employee with no college education background in a busy company. Due to certain personal reasons, Jang Geu Rae, who spends his entire life in Go Academy, only has a GED certificate because after high school he had to work for his family and had no chance to attend college. He got accepted in the big company through some sort of wild card from the director. With this condition he tries to adapt in the company with various types of colleagues and circumstances. In 2016 a remake of this drama is released in Japan with the title Hope: Kitai Zero no Shinnyu Shain.

Note: for every video in this post, please don't forget to turn on the subtitle/caption by clicking the CC button if it's not automatically displayed.

To be honest, I'm interested in this drama because of Kang So Ra and Kang Ha Neul, not because I don't like the other actors and actresses but because I just simply "found" them first before the others. I've seen some cuts of the series on youtube, and I saw Kang So Ra is a charming character there because her character is so smart. If you want to know further details about this drama just check on this Asianwiki's page or imdb’s page. So, I finally started to watch this 2016 K-drama. Later on.. I'm invested (I even couldn't finish it yet because I can't say good bye to this drama, hahaha), because in my opinion their portrayal of working life is more real compared to most working life themed K-Dramas, Dorama, etc. And how is that? Here it is..


But before we start, let's get to know with the main characters:

left-right: Jang Geu Rae (Im Si Wan), Manager Oh Sang Sik (Lee Sung Min)

, Kim Dong Shik (Kim Dae Myung)

left-right: Jang Geu Rae (Im Si Wan), An Young Yi (Kang So Ra)

, Han Seok Yul (Byun Yo Han), Jang Baek Ki (Kang Ha Neul)

And now, why I love this drama so much because how closer it is to the reality:

1. They "really" work.

In Misaeng there are many working scenes such as, calling the client, reporting to supervisors, meeting, making report, presentations, etc. and also some scenes that shows softcopy files or paperworks. Unlike many working life dramas that don’t show further of how working in an office looks like (it often revolves around the private life of the main character, relation between the employees, or only talking about 1 or 2 main projects), Misaeng have it regularly and varied. It makes me feel like watching real people work on daily basis. Misaeng not only showing scenes of employee (looks like) typing something whatever, manager commanding stuffs, or occasional meeting and presentation, instead they do have a lot of scenes showing the team meeting and when the employee calling their clients/partners. Most of the scenes take place inside the office and the characters do talk about work. There’s even one certain small meeting room which is often used every time any team need to have a team meeting.

   

 

    

2. They do fail, more realistically.

Just like the reality, failure is unavoidable here in this TV drama. Their failure is not always dramatic and only related to their sad life, sometimes it’s just simply their character missed something and didn’t do well. They’re not afraid to showcase our favorite characters to fail in a more makes sense way and relatable which is because they're simply incapable at certain moments. Just like when they constantly face challenges in many projects and have to redo or review stuffs, or when something is wrong with their presentation, or when even the experienced team manager got complained harshly by the general manager. It becomes more interesting especially because those who fail are also those who are actually competent. This show displays that even these smart and bright characters don't always shine and have it easy. Being smart on paper doesn't always guarantee them working effectively at workplace.

   

 

3. Jang Geu Rae's life is sooo sad, but they make him put effort and allow him to process, not romanticize his suffering and exploit the viewers feelings

Many TV Dramas likes to use main character’s sad life and how they struggle as a main attraction for viewers. Misaeng is also no different at some point. Jang Geu Rae’s life is so sad it made me cry in just two first episodes. However we could witness the dynamic process of Jang Geu Rae in this show. It takes some times for him to adapt with the situation because he lacks of office work experience. The way he doesn’t get “it” instantly just because of his miserable life is what makes it more relatable. The scriptwriter lets him takes time to learn and show the process to us. They don’t spoil him too soon in order to make the audience feel comfortable and relieve. Jang Geu Rae really learns from the simplest thing such as organizing file in the computer until one day he’s able to communicate with clients and partners, do paperwork and even create a project by himself. There is almost always something to learn or to process in each episodes.

    

    

    

4. They show how women struggle in a male dominated workplace

This TV drama are (unfortunately) still packed with male characters, but understandable and sadly quite realistic because that’s just how it is in a more patriarchal culture. We know how women are considered as burden for companies in certain patriarchal country or by certain patriarchal society because first, they are used to the doctrine that women belongs at home to take care of the family and because of that so called “destiny” they think women shouldn’t be working in a long term. Second, they think women are such an emotional creature thus women can’t work as efficiently as men. Third, pregnancy and menstruation makes women looks less beneficial for the company since there will be less working days caused by having parental or sick leave. That’s why no matter how super clever or competent a women can be, they’ll often be considered as less qualified compared to men. Also no matter how a common family is “built” mostly by a husband and a wife, the wife will be the only one who have to work hard juggling the domestic and professional life just simply because they’re the woman (as if house chores can’t be shared and men are that incapable that all they can do is “only” work). These kind of mindset are still exist in many Asian countries, South Korea is no exception.

However despite the lack of female representation in this show, some of the female character hold important position and they are also reliable and capable. The scriptwriter shows these female characters as competent figures, such as Sales Team 1 Manager Sun Ji Young, Finance Department Head Kim Sun Joo and An Young Yi from Resource Team. We will mostly see how Manager Sun and An Young Yi have to faced problems because they’re simply women. Manager Sun has to face challenges in balancing life as mom, wife and career woman while An Young Yi has to endure discrimination at work because the seniors keep underestimating and ignoring her just because of her gender. Both characters also have to endure sexist comments and attitude from their colleagues.

    

    

5. They give their best in speaking foreign language

The company where Jang Geu Rae works is One International so as we can see the company handle international business affair. There are scenes of the employees calling their international business partner or branch. They did a great job and didn't make it cringey. It's effortless in a way that they don't look like they're showing off their skill. Because many times actors looks like they are showing off: "hey, I can speak in a foreign language". They tend to portrays the character as that fluent but didn't act like they actually "drive" the language. Accent is not the problem here, it's more like wo can act more naturally as if they do learn to speak the foreign language and not only reading scripts.

6. They acknowledge that sexual harassment happened in workplace

This point emphasizes what happened in point 4. It's sad and disappointing that this happened and still has a high possibility to happen in reality. But to show that it happened can hopefully bring more awareness to the society and help comfort the victim by showing that there are people who do view their experience as valid. The scenes can be a reference of how sexual harassment happens in workplace. Many people should know these acts are considered and acknowledged as sexual harrasment too. Misaeng also shows that sexual harrasment can happen verbally too. As we know, verbal sexual harrasment perpetrators are easy to go away with it without being criticized or sanctioned because most of the time people don’t considered word as malicious and real as physical act. Another good thing is Misaeng also show how to handle the perpetrators and take the matters seriously.

   

 

8. There’s a portrayal of problem between the company and factory workers

Company and factory compliments each other in bussiness. It's really nice to see Misaeng also covers the issue between them. We are familiar with news reporting that labors are not treated fairly by the company. So having misaeng showing the other side of the company by also involving factory and it's workers issue is a pretty good effort to inclusivity. It also makes the story more dynamic because most of the times the scenes happen inside the office and only about office works.

The extra factors that are not always happen in reality but very nice to see:

1. Fair Play still exist

No matter how Jang Baek Gi often dislikes Jang Geu Rae, at the end of the day he plays it fair and still somehow helps Jang Geu Rae when it's needed. A kind of fair play is also portrayed when manager Oh criticizes and compliments Jang Geu Rae based on his works despite many times Jang Geu Rae makes him stressed. Also when An Young Yi really did make mistakes, the department head criticizes her no matter what her reputation is (smart and capable employee). But most of the time it’s Jang Baek Gi character because since the beginning this character always keeps an eye on Jang Geu Rae, because he doesn’t think Geu Rae deserves the job. He subconsciously sees Jang Geu Rae as a comparison to his condition, creating an indirect competition. Most of the time this kind of relationship in TV dramas will lead to one character trying to sabotage another character to make the other person fail. Schadenfreude at it's best for these kinds of people. But however Jang Baek Gi still willingly helps Jang Geu Rae, even if with a tsundere* or tough love vibes.

2. Allies for Women at Workplace

The male characters in Misaeng such as manager manager Oh and Jang Geu Rae don't see their female colleagues as lower being. They respect and value their female colleagues capability. Manager Oh is clearly seen as someone who respect manager Sun and view her as a competent colleagues. When he sees her struggling he becomes an ally and helps her not because he feels pity of her weakness but because he feels sad that other people don't value manager Sun as they've should be. He helps her project just because she's already on her limit and hospitalized. This will be followed up later by him and the juniors taking their weekend volunteering to work on manager Sun's report, they also choose to become allies for manager Sun. In one of the video showing the sexual harassment issue mentioned in a meeting, Manager Oh also said he was the witness of the department head sexual harassment case. Again, he chose to be ally for women and testified for a sexual harassment case against his senior.

3. Healthier senior-junior and colleagues relationship

Asia cultures highlight hierarchy and age a lot. Especially in eastern Asia, they have this senpai-kohai relation in Japan and sunbae-hoobae in South Korea. In Indonesia we call it "senioritas" (act of seniority in a negative way). How the hierarchy applies is definitely portrayed well in Misaeng but unlike other teams, sales team 3 where Jang Geu Rae is, has a healthy kind of senior-junior relationship. They're supportive of each other in a constructive way. If someone needs to be criticized, they'll do it and if someone needs to be supported, they'll motivate and help the other person, also when someone did well they don't hesitate to compliment the other person. The relationship between the 4 newbies is also kind of healthy as colleagues, no unhealthy competition between them (despite how Jang Baek Gi sees Jang Geu Rae, hahaha..). Most of the team managers also cooperate pretty well (most.. okay? hahaha..)

    

4. Women are Portrayed as Competent

A Damsel in Distress is not how the main and lead female characters in Misaeng portrayed (well they're not all as young as the word damsel but you know what I mean). Manager Sun, An Young Yi and Head Department Kim are all hardworking and competent women. Unlike the judgement they got from the point 4, the female employee is not actually a burden for the compamy considering how smart and serious they are at work. They work as hard as their male colleagues. The company needs their capability too. One episode a female employee faints because of overworking while she is pregnant and just like how toxic masculinity works, the male colleagues judge her for allowing herself being pregnat again without them even considering that she couldn't be pregnant if the husband (also a male) is involved. A pregnancy is not only woman's responsibility but also man's, well it takes two to tango. The fact she force herself to continue to work (knowing how strict work culture in South Korea is), doesn't it means she's capable in at least forcing herself to take extra effort for the company's sake too? Judging her for being irresponsible is not fair, pregnancy is not something easy. Personally, as a woman I think it's unfair to consider career's woman pregnancy negatively, however the men still .

    

However this is a drama TV Series, which is somehow a form of art in telling a story and of course dramatic scenes and aspects still naturally exist. But there's always room for evaluation and critic, right (?), such as:

1. No need for unnecessary pervert scene

On the early episodes one character named Han Seok Yeol is often portrayed as womanizer. There are scenes where he's "scanning" women on the street with his eye and one particular scene where he looks at a woman's butt and then later touches it. Later when Jang Geu Rae exposed him, he described his act as an observation method to know about which fabric is comfortable for women (because he was in the textile team and trying to collect fabrics sample). In my opinion, this idea can be delivered in another way without having to show an unnecessary harassment scene where he suddenly just touches the woman's butt. For example, with Han Seok Yeol sly character he can maybe become playboy and dates multiple woman just to observe the fabrics they wear (not that I support this act too, but based on the portrayal of Han Seok Yeol). Well, at least that woman fights back and slaps Han Seok Yeol, sending the message to the audience that his act is wrong. Jang Geu Rae also points out that Han Seok Yeol act by touching the woman's body without consent is wrong for whatever his reason was. Compared to the other scenes related to the sexual harrasment issue in the workplace this one particular scene is not really necessary.

The scene is at minute 4:30

2. Miracle is good, I just hope it doesn't happen too much coincidentally

As much as I'm impressed with Jang Geu Rae's character, I feel like his character still has too many miracles. This is probably due to the drama aspect of this show, thus Jang Geu Rae always manages to be "saved" in certain critical circumstances. For example in Jordan project presentation, the climax is when the CEO praises him from hearing his naive short touching answer despite the presentation itself also being well made. The same thing also happens when he can convince manager Oh to accept his project plan. It's his charm, sometimes being pure and honest is also a good trait, nonetheless I don't think such a coincidental event like that would likely to happen often in real life. Also Geu Rae's very first assignment as an intern was quite miraculous. He had to accompany a foreign client although he doesn't speak any english. However he gets by with it just by asking the foreign person to play baduk or go game with him. Somehow it makes no sense in real life for a professional mannerism. I mean with him lacking in requirements of working in an office, having his teammate and An Young Yi keep helping him is already a miracle, because in reality you can't rely all the time in the office on that, right? Well, probably Jang Geu Rae is gifted but it can also be him being simply lucky or tolerated by the other characters. Nevertheless, seeing this from the entertainment industry point of view, I still can "endure" it hahaha.. This is not a documentary work, however.