Episode Twelve Transcript - The Butterflies On The Concrete Podcast: What Got Me Through The Week?

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[Intro Music – “There is poetry all around me…”]

Hello and Welcome to this week’s episode of the Butterflies On The Concrete Podcast: What Got Me Through The Week? This week I’m gonna talk about the Korean Drama, Once Upon A Small Town. But, please listen to a very brief disclaimer before we get started. 

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Alright! Now, let’s get started.

Once Upon A Small Town is a short romance drama that I found on Netflix. It’s only 12 episodes, and the story is pretty simple, but I think that’s what makes it charming to watch. The female lead is Joy, who’s a member of the popular Korean girl group Red Velvet, and she plays Ahn Ja-yeong , a police officer in a small town four hours away from Seoul. I first saw her in the show The Liar and His Lover and she did a really great job portraying her character in that drama  so I was looking forward to seeing her in this show and she did not disappoint. The male lead is Choo Young Woo, and he plays Han Ji-Yul, who’s a veterinarian who lives in Seoul.

The story begins with Ji-Yul at work at a veterinary hospital in Seoul. He gets a phone call and rushes out of the hospital and then we see him end up in the small town where his grandparents live. He shows up at their house but they aren’t there and when he goes to hop over the fence to get inside, he’s caught by a police officer, and that officer is Ja-yeong. When she sees his identification, her demeanor changes into one of disbelief. Eventually we learn that he’s the grandson of the only veterinarian in town, and his grandfather tricked him into coming there by feigning an urgent medical situation so that he can manage the hospital while his grandparents go on a cruise together. He reluctantly adheres to his grandfather’s wishes and manages the hospital, but he doesn’t pretend to be happy about being there. We watch him adjust to living in a small town, and at first he doesn’t seem to like how nosy the town’s residents are because he believes in having healthy boundaries and they… don’t. However, over time he begins to see the value of being there, and falls for Ja-yeong, too.

Next, I’ll share some of the elements of the show that I enjoyed, but, please note that there are spoilers ahead.

The premise of the show is just really cool. I enjoyed watching Ji-Yul adjust to working with larger animals like goats and cows on farms instead of just cats and dogs and other smaller animals that you’d find in cities. In the beginning, though, we do see him help an injured dog. The dog gets trapped on a farm while raiding chicken pens and he rescues it. In the process, he scolds Ja-yeong for not reprimanding the farmer for violating animal protection laws and setting up traps that ended up harming the dog. Ja-yeong is somewhat lenient with the residents that she’s known throughout her whole life. Ultimately, she adopts the dog that he saved.

Ji-Yul has to adjust to walking, and riding his bike, over long distances to visit patients until he’s able to get a car, and he also has to work longer hours than what he’s used to. It’s kind of amusing to see him frustrated with all of these changes, and endearing to see him overcome the challenges he faces at work.

He also has to get used to his nosy, but caring neighbors. An example of this is when members of the women’s association barge into his grandparents’ home to bring him food in the first episode. The rules in Seoul seem very different from what he experiences in this new place where generosity and hospitality seem to come first. Ja-yeong is also very friendly, and welcoming and helpful towards him and it takes some time for him to warm up to her because her behavior is so different from what he knows.

Another element of the plot that I enjoyed was that Ja-yeong and Ji-Yul first met when they were younger, but he forgot about it while she has always remembered him. We see her go through the motions.  She wishes that he had remembered who she was and gets upset when he didn’t, but then she accepts that he forgot about her, because she recognizes that he won’t be in town for very long anyway, and it was a very long time ago, so it seems as if she realizes that she might’ve had too high of expectations. What’s nice about this plot point though is that he doesn’t remember her until close to the end of the show, and yet we see him gradually fall for her bright and kind personality, and empathize with her having been abandoned by her mother, even without knowing that they have a shared past, and that’s even better, isn’t it? That he doesn’t fall for her because he once knew her, but instead he loves her for who she is as he knows her right  now in this moment. That makes it just an added twist, a special layer to their relationship that they once were friends during the most difficult time in his life when he lost his parents in a car accident.

Lastly, I enjoyed the love square between the characters. Ja-yeong has a close friend, Sang-hyeon, who’s clearly in love with her but she doesn’t know it at first, and in the end she clarifies to him that she doesn’t love him in a romantic way. But before any of this gets cleared up between them, Sang-hyeon and Ji-Yul are in a bit of a silent competition for Ja-yeong’s heart and there ends up being some good romantic tension where they get jealous of each other. Sang-hyeon can tell Ja-yeong likes Ji-Yul, but he still tells her his feelings, and we have to wait a bit before she gives him the answer that we as viewers already know.  Things also get complicated when Ji-Yul’s ex-girlfriend shows up and tries to win him back at the last minute and Sang-hyeon tells her that he hopes that she’s successful in her pursuit, but, of course, she isn’t. Part of me wonders if I said too much, but I feel like the unwritten rule of these romance shows is that the leads will end up together, so I don’t think anything that I’ve said is all that surprising even if they are technically spoilers.

Overall, there are a lot of sweet moments between the lead characters and so if you’re looking for a laid back and low key romance drama where there isn’t too much conflict you’ll probably enjoy this show as much as I did, or maybe even more!

Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to me talk about Once Upon A Small Town.I’d love to hear your opinion of the show if you’ve watched it, so please leave a comment on this episode’s post on our Instagram page at WhatGotMeThroughTheWeek, or send an email to  whatgotmethroughpodcast@gmail.com. The transcript and audio for this episode will be posted on HyssopandEbony.com.

Until next time!

[Outro Song – “Ocean waves on busy streets, butterflies on the concrete. The beauty I could not see becomes a deeper part of me. You remind me, You are present in every single thing.”]

Intro & Outro from Magnified (a cappella) © Amber Eboni