Finger-sucking shall never not be hot!
Right about now, I feel like the stupidest person on earth! Why? Because I did not fully realise it that these two characters were played by the same actor until I got to writing about this episode right now and I went to search for their hangul names!
Yeah, I am a complete idiot!
But in my defence, I had suspicions towards the end when Sister Sabina went to visit Jung-in to check up on her and also to find out where she could find Ho-joong and Jung-in had dyed her hair black or un-dyed it and then she looked like Ho-joong! But even then something stopped me from accepting the truth!
Now I know and you have my permission to laugh at me!
Anyway, let’s jump into the first entry of this futuristic series from South Korea that is considered the Korean version of Black mirror!
Here we are again – Za Fuccha! And once again humanity is at it asking the question it always asks in the future where most answers are available – What is life?
In this first episode of the epic series, we find ourselves in a not so distant future where it seems like Nurses and Doctors have been replaced by Androids who take over both positions which is quite an effective invention if I am being honest! I mean 24hr care for your patients? That is quite a life-saving move to tell the truth!
But is it really?
Just like we can see in software today (and in some cases hardware – see auto cars), everything can be limited and just like you have levels like free, regular, premium or business, in this future you also get what you pay for! You can get an Android that is on the level of a first class Doctor or you can get one that has the surgical experience of a butcher!
Care can also be extended, like in the case of our Jung-in here where she too was included within the Ho-joong plan where as their neighbour could only afford care for the patient!
But we are not here to talk about that, we are here to talk about our two women and their complicated relationship! Complicated is one way to put it because as I said, one is a machine while the other has sacrificed so much in her life she does not know what love is, I am sure. It is not specifically stated but those paying attention will come to that conclusion!
But how does a machine have feelings, everyone is wondering! Well, let’s call it a glitch in the system for a simple answer but not one brought on by a failure of the equipment but rather…Okay, maybe it is a failure of the system if her hardware couldn’t handle the problem it was trying to solve in understanding Jung-in’s problem and a way to solve it given that Ho-joong was also supposed to care for Jung-in and there she was, on suicide alert (literally)!
But really, even before then there were already peculiar actions from Ho-joong that were out of the normal operations of Androids – The Finger-sucking scene being the prime example and then the jacket scene!
But things did not stop to just the machines as the people too were made to question themselves and what they believed it! Sister Sabina was the most affected by Ho-joong’s unique actions where she went against everything believed and terminated her patient (Jung-in’s mother) in order to save Jung-in’s life!
I have a feeling that Sister Sabina’s life was changed from that moment forward and while it was weird seeing less of an impact from Jung-in, despite the fact that the after effects of Ho-joong’s actions were most beneficial to her, she too was also affected! Without Ho-joong’s actions there would be no Jung-in by the end of the story! She would have been deaded!
You see, like I said, Jung-in wasted and sacrificed all her life to care for her mother (imagine hiring a Doctor 24/7). All her free time was spent working to pay off the debts and even then she was not managing! She was so close to the breaking point she literally had a rope up at the ready and it was the call of her mother’s death that stopped her!
So, given that we had been shown that no Android could go against its duties, here was Ho-joong, an Android with feelings that decides to end the life of one person to save another! And before you ask, I am with the Android on this one! Jung-in’s mother had been in the coma since she was a schoolgirl and there were no signs of her waking up! Meanwhile Jung-in was on the spiral and the only end was death because of the hardships she was facing because of her comatose mother!
The right decision was made! Why not preserve the life that is still active instead of that which is dormant and without signs of ever being active again? Let’s say the mother does wake up, maybe years pass and she finds that her daughter killed herself because of her! What then? And if Jung-in died, then who would pay for the bills? Her mom would still end up dying because her expenses couldn’t be taken care of!
But of course the peculiar actions were an eye-brow raiser and Ho-joong had to be taken in for examination but seeing as she had feelings now, well, you can imagine! Which makes this episode all about miracles when another happened with Sister Sabina going to visit her at the labs and thus Ho-joong finding a way out of her suffering by asking Sister Sabina to ‘kill her’. You thought Sister Sabina’s life was changed by Ho-joong’s actions? Well, this right here would be the deal breaker!
But what is more interesting is that Ho-joong did not just take the decision out of thin air and just go for it. She debated the idea with the person of faith and in their conversation she found her answer. It was a machine that did something after consulting a human and dare I say – God!
But what of the gayness I hear all asking?
Well, there is a reason why this wasn’t the first episode I wrote about despite being the first I watched! Sure, like I mentioned in the first post about SF8, this is not a happily ever after series but even then the ending between Ho-joong and Jung-in is just so…tasteless, you know?
Sure I can understand Jung-in’s anger, at the time of finding out but she was still cross and even didn’t seem to give a fuck about Ho-joong later on when Sister Sabina went to visit her! She was the one supposed to have the questions Sister Sabina was having towards the end! She should have been the one who was faced by the decision of ending Ho-joong’s life! The poetic cinema in that alone would have made this one of the best episodes!
But alas, we did not even get to see the kiss they shared because of the way it was shot, if it was even a kiss, but it had to be a kiss, given their reaction afterwards when they were caught!
Oh well, at least the story and the theme was interesting!
And…that would be all..
Ja
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百合 Goggles 
November 15, 2020 at 03:50
interesting that the same actress played both characters, reminds me orphan black
sounds good!
thnks for sharing!
November 15, 2020 at 04:32
Ahh bluecat…it’s been so long!
Hope you are good!
November 15, 2020 at 08:14
I am alive !
live for the yuri and survive for it, love your blog and posts
keep going!
November 15, 2020 at 11:13
Thank you and you know I will never stop!
In for life!
February 4, 2021 at 16:44
I’m really glad you enjoyed both episodes! I thought they were interesting and loved them both. I enjoy the sci-fi/futuristic storylines. I just knew you’d love the finger sucking scene, but they both had such great chemistry! Honestly, I didn’t even know they were the same person either until I watched it another time and went to look up who played their roles. I can understand why Jung-In was upset with Ho-Joong, because I mean I would be too. But like you mentioned, her mother was in a coma for so long and it was causing Jung-in to be so depressed. Ho-Joong was just looking out for Jung-In and as an android with no family, she had zero feeling towards killing off the mother. I was really hoping for something between Ho-Joong and Jung-In but we can never have happy endings, plus I doubt she could have a “normal” life with an android that killed her mother. My favorite scene was of course the kiss scene, I honestly didn’t expect any scenes like that but when it happened, I was just shocked! If only they weren’t cockblocked it would’ve been great! Plus, I’m curious to how Jung-In would feel about it, if they had kissed. Anyways, I think it was wonderfully filmed and I really wish it was a bit longer. Thanks for the wonderful review for both of the episodes!