[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Pinocchio" Episode 4

Having thoroughly established what it means to be a bad parent, this time "Pinocchio" works out what it means to be a good parent. Dal-po and In-ha may be adults, but they're still living at home, and this crazy idea of becoming reporters is a bit hard to reconcile with what their fathers expect from them. Or is it? While the turnabout here is technically surprising from the perspective of our leads, in broad perspective it's not all that difficult to see at all. Parents don't exist to be pleased by their children. They're their to help their kids out, and that's exactly what happens here.

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It's pretty sweet stuff after the wringer In-ha went through last episode. We haven't actually seen much in regards to positive filial relationships since the first episode, with the family that was ceremoniously destroyed. It's nice to find, though, that even an obviously nontraditional family like this one can still back up and support each other when times are rough. Pay attention to Dal-po here in the moment where he realizes that Gong-pil's love is genuinely unconditional.

Aside from that, we finally get a close look at the secondary leads- Beom-jo (played by Kim Young-kwang) and Yoon-rae (played by Lee Yu-bi). Unfortunately all we really know about Yoon-rae is that she's enthusiastic and driven. Beom-jo, by contrast, is an obvious foil for the drama's greater theme of lies and the truth. He's deliberately hiding the fact that he knows an unusually great deal about In-ha. This is mainly because he kind of comes off like a stalker, even if Beom-jo's access to her personal information was acquired by accident.

All of this comes to an abrupt head with the discussion of journalism ethics which makes up the greater part of the climax. The very fact that Gyo-dong (played by Lee Pil-mo) is willing to have this discussion in the first place creates an obvious contrast between his understanding of reporting and Cha-ok's. Cha-ok wouldn't accept a debate founded on critical ethical inquiry. She'd expect the answer to simply be "no" and dismiss anyone impertinent enough to disagree.

The parallels are really all over the place. Even though the cast members here all have completely different motivation, their understanding of the distinction and relevance between truth and reality makes up an essential part of their character. It's hard to ignore, for example, that Dal-po and Beom-jo are both passively telling big lies to In-ha even though their motives to her are perfectly friendly. Of course, there's one lie exposed here that isn't going to be forgiven- and how the characters react to that is what looks most likely to define the actual plot at this point.

Review by William Schwartz

"Pinocchio" is directed by Jo Soo-won and Sin Seung-woo, written by Park Hye-ryeon and features Lee Jong-suk, Park Shin-hye, Kim Young-kwang, Lee Yu-bi, Lee Pil-mo, Kang Shin-il and many more.

 

 

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