Navillera

I'd put this one on my list when it popped up because the subject looked intriguing and poetic. And I saw someone posting about how beautiful it was, so I thought I'd give it a shot after my lukewarm feelings about My Shy Boss. So, it's Navillera. My first question was, honestly, what does that even mean? I did find this post which offers a few possibilities and all of them seem very fitting.

I've just watched one episode so far and I have to say that it looks very promising. We have two stories here -- Sim Deok-Chool (Park In-Hwan) is 70 and a retired postal worker. Ever since he was a child, he was interested in ballet -- Look, abeoji, how can people fly like that? -- but was forbidden by his father and then, life just never let up. He was always taking care of his family and never had time to indulge himself in his lifelong dream. Now, he's got time but will his body (and his family) allow him to finally learn to fly? This veteran actor has been in a TON of things, but somehow I've not seen him before.

Then there's Lee Chae-Rok (Song Kang). He's 23 and has a troubled past, though you're not entirely sure exactly what's what by the end of the first episode. The things you know for sure are that a) his mother is dead and b) his father was in prison (and was just released and there's definitely a lot of emotional baggage there) and c) some people from high school blame him for some reason on the implosion of the football club (?) and d) even though ballet was the thing that sparked a passion in him once, right now he is struggling. The actor is also in Sweet Home, which looks to be a VERY intense horror-y survival show. It's very impressive that he apparently learned ballet for the role; from the bit I've seen, he's quite convincing.

By the end of the first episode, the two are brought together, somewhat reluctantly on Chae-Rok's part. He doesn't want to have anything to do with teaching this old man to dance, as his own instructor is telling him to do. For the instructor's part, Deok-Chool burning desire to dance reminds him of Chae-Rok's beginning days. So you can see why he pairs them up.

I'll definitely watch this one, but I think it might be something I do a bit of at a time as it looks like it will be very emotional in both rewarding and draining ways, if that makes sense. 

It's an interesting one for me because, being the age I am, I'm very firmly situated midway between the two characters and there are elements of both of their stories that I feel I can relate to.