By: Jasmine Kan
Episode 10: “We Believe Because We Want To Believe #Lie”
In the tenth episode of Age of Youth, it shows how each character in Belle Epoque are tackling their obstacles. Yi-na is selling all the materialistic goods she bought with her escorting job and trying to live her life properly by attending classes and working part-time. Ji-won is figuring out how to tell her roommates that she is lying about the ghost in the house. Ye-eun is trying to move on from her ex-boyfriend by finding new ones. Eun-jae is trying to deal with the insurance investigation on her father’s death. Lastly, Jin-myeong finally stood up for herself against her manager and quits her job, goes on a date with Jae-hwan before attempting to kill her comatose brother. However, her mother reaches this step before her resulting in her mother’s imprisonment and her brother’s death.
Image 1: Jin-myeong kissing Jae-hwan on their first date (Dramabeans)
Through the tenth episode of Age of Youth, the show reveals the difficulties of having a disabled family member via the character Jin-myeong. We see that due to the financial burden caused by her brother’s hospital bills, she becomes emotionally stressed, which is pushed further when she is rejected from her job interview. As a result, we see Jin-myeong planning to undergo social suicide via murdering her brother. Thus, in this essay, I argue that due to the current views Korean society has towards disabled patients and mental well-being, the society fails their people such as Jin-myeong and her mother who have to resort to social suicide in order to relieve their emotional and financial burden.
Social suicide takes form as imprisonment because of how damaging it can be to one’s reputation. In 2016, the time the drama aired, it was illegal to remove a patient’s life support unless they had an extremely low chance of living or a supreme court order (Jung 2018). This crime was committed by Jin-myeong’s mother who is jailed at the end of the episode, resulting in her social suicide. Simultaneously, we also find out that Jin-myeong was also planning to attempt social suicide.
Image 2: Screenshot of Jin-myeong’s mother arrest (Netflix: 59:56)
In the episode, Jin-myeong’s emotional state plummets after her job interview’s rejection as she lost her chance at financial relief. At first, her actions throughout the episode were seen to be a positive change as she quits her waitressing job and goes on a long-awaited date with Jae-hwan. However, her hesitation to the words “next time” foreshadows her ‘suicide’ attempt. Because mental health is not widely discussed in Korea (Jang et al 2018: 8), she is unable to open about her emotions to her roommates or Jae-hwan to relieve her stress, leading her to contemplate ‘death’ via imprisonment. Thus, the fact that there is a stigma on discussing mental health, society fails Jin-myeong, leading her to resort to social suicide.
Image 3: Jin-myeong finds out her mother ‘killed’ her brother (Dramabeans)
Additionally, Jin-myeong’s mother’s delusional decisions stemming from her love and social stigma resulted in her family’s financial and emotional stress. During the episode, it was revealed via a military enlistment letter that Jin-myeong’s mother never registered her son’s disability. One reason being her undying hope that her son will wake up but also the stigma her family will face if this is revealed (Park 2017: 921). Furthermore, the idea that her son can be ‘cured’ and return back to society (Kim 2018: 4-5) contributes to her undying hope. This hope resulted in both financial and emotional exhaustion on her family which may have led to their decision to commit ‘suicide’. Thus, the social stigma on disabled people created the seven-year emotional and financial stress on both characters, leading to their social suicide.
Overall, the social stigma on disabilities and mental health has drastically affected the decisions of the Yun family, making it extremely eerie to real-life incidents, allowing us to question the validity of the society’s stigma. Word count: 486
Bibliography
“Age of Youth: Episode 10.” Dramabeans. http://www.dramabeans.com/2016/08/age-of-youth-episode-10/ (accessed 06/13/2019).
Jang, Jieun, Sang Ah Lee, Woorim Kim, Young Choi, and Eun-Cheol Park. “Factors Associated with Mental Health Consultation in South Korea.” BMC Psychiatry 18, no. 17 (2018): 1-10.
Jung, Hae-myoung. “Rule on Ending Life-sustaining Treatment to be More Practical.” The Korea Times, Nov. 25, 2018. https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2018/11/119_259281.html.
Kim, Eunjung. Curative Violence: Rehabilitating Disability, Gender, and Sexuality in Modern Korea. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2017.
Park, Jung Youn. “Disability Discrimination in South Korea: Routine and Everyday Aggressions toward Disabled People.” Disability & Society 32, no. 6 (2017): 918-22.
Discussion Questions
- Up until this year, patients were not allowed to be removed off life support unless the patient had a low chance of survival (but must have at least 2 family member’s consent) or there was a supreme court order. This is different in North America where only the family’s consent, or at least spouse, is needed. If the new law was in place at the time of the drama (2016), do you think Jin-myeong’s mother would still have ‘pulled the plug’ illegally or filed the paperwork for it? Also, would Jin-myeong and her mother have ‘pulled the plug’ earlier?
- This episode talks about going to the extreme and committing some form of suicide to relieve one’s stress. Each character faces some large obstacle each with its own level of stress. Other than Jin-myeong, is there any other character in the drama that was hinted to go down this path? If not, is there a character that’s close to reaching this point?
- Death, or in this case social death, is a way to remove all of one’s sins or shame they had during their time of living. Is it possible for one’s reputation to be truly rescued via one’s death?
Age of Youth (Hello, My Twenties!) 
In regards to the first question, I almost feel as though the same events would have happened because of their hope that Jin-myeong’s brother would have recovered eventually. In the relationship we see between her and her mother, I do not think her mother would have communicated with Jin-myeong about wanting to “pull the plug”. Especially knowing the amount of hard work she has gone through, I feel that her mother would not want to burden her with the decision.
As for the second question, Eun-jae is definitely facing some difficult decisions in her life regarding the re-investigation of her father’s death and over the course of the drama we have heard cryptic lines from her. She seems highly conflicted and troubled by the matter.
For the final question, I don’t think social death can remove all of one’s sins or shames but it would create another, bigger topic of discussion besides past sins or shames. There would need to be a necessity for the revival of the person in order for their social death to be worth.
LikeLike
I don’t think Jin-Myeong’s mom would “pull the plug” earlier, as @kmengo said, they are still hoping her brother will recover at some point. It is a really hard almost impossible decision to make, removing your beloved families off life support as long as you believe he/she will recover no matter how many years you need to wait.
In regards to the second question, Yi-Na now starts working and attending classes, we can see she used to buy expensive clothing and designer bags easily using her “boyfriends” credit card, but now she needs to stressing herself to work hard to get what she wants.
For the third question, I agree with @kmango social death cannot remove all of one’s sin or shames. I think it would actually make ones lost themselves even more and make them feel even more depressed and stressed.
LikeLike
The purpose of Korean policy to mandate hospitals and families to keep patients alive might be originally good to consider humanity and responsibility. However, I think it is really unfair to exhaust countless families when there seems no hope to bring a patient to remain in the coma for years back to conscious. Jin-Myeong’s family was one example. They have to bear the enormous amount of cost for several years on the younger brother, and I don’t think they would “pull the plug” earlier because Jin-Myeong’s mom obviously has hope on bringing her son back. Though the reality is cruel and they have to face it. For the second question, Eun-Jae seems has the potential to be taking too much pressure and eventually break, because Eun-Jae is pressed by the insurance company for her parents’ problem and she is having a hard time with her boyfriend. Hence, Eun-Jae might go on a path similar to Jin-Myeong if she does not address these problems well. For the third question, if one believes that oneself has sin and suicide in the faith that death will rescue his or her reputation, then this person is lying to him/herself. Death for this person is only a coward way to escape from truth. I think nothing is going to change via death.
LikeLike
For the first question, I don’t think Jin-Myeong’s mom would “pull the plug” too. Because, she, as a mother, wouldn’t give up on anything to keep her son alive, and she’s been doing it already for many years. For the second question, as Jasmine said, “Each character faces some large obstacle each with its own level of stress.” All of them may have thought about ways to escape their stress, such as suicide. I think whether suicide or other psychological problems are very close to us, may appear in our mind at any time, and it depends on how we think about them at that time. Whether we totally understand the advantages and disadvantages of suicide? Does suicide really solve my problems? About the last question, I think death cannot remove one’s sins or shame. Suicide is just a way for people to escape problems, and it’s not a way to solve them, the problems still in there. I think only through their own to change their conditions, such as change their reputation in society by changing themselves.
LikeLike
For the first question, I don’t think she would have “pulled he plug” even with the law enacted during the time. Throughout the series, Jin-myeong’s mother keeps her son alive. Clearly, she still had hope that he would recover and so I don’t think if the law had been in place would her actions have changed. If one truly cares for someone, I don’t think any financial situation or burden would stop someone from “pulling the plug” unless they truly know that there was no hope or the other person really wanted to die (and even then, I believe most people would still try to change mind of the person who wants to be euthanized). As for the second question, I agree with @menghangao that all of the characters are going through something that causes stress. Each of the housemates are all going through obstacles in life that are all very serious, just in different ways. I believe each have thought of ways to relieve these stresses that are happening in their lives, however I don’t think will ever know the different ways they have thought about. All of them are so different from each other and have such varying personalities that I don’t think us viewer’s will ever know what ways they may decide to relieve these burdens that have affected their lives.
LikeLike
In response to the last question, I don’t believe ones sins can’t just be washed away from death alone as problems can’t be solved if the person that causes them are no longer here. Death is basically just running away from the sins which will always be remembered by others.
LikeLike