Padam Padam
The Sound of His and Her Heartbeats Episode 20
Intro
This is it guys and gals, this is the last episode of Padam Padam. I’ve finally reached the goal! wooh! It’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy watching it, but lately writing the recaps was almost impossible, I’ve been crazy busy and I’m really sorry for how late the recaps took in coming out, it’s actually pretty embarrassing, hehehe, but any who here it is.
I have to warn you this one is actually not that long, because not much actually happened, all the issues about the murder are resolved. This whole time we’ve ridden on a fun and interesting train ride but with this last episode we eased into the final stop of our Padam Padam ride.
Recap
Gook Soo is working in a construction site where he’s making friends of the ahjussis there thanks to his upbeat smiles and hard working and helpful demeanor. Though he’s told Hyo Sook that he didn’t think a relationship ship is a good idea between a human and a mutant, she apparently has not decided to move on and continues to go see him.
Kang Chil and Mi Ja prepare for a mother-son trip, teasing each other. Mi Ja is learning how to text so that she can send them to Jungie. Kang Chil wonders if Jungie has even asked about him and his mom just tells him to call Jungie if he really wants to know.
Jina’s father looks on as Jina makes preparations for her leave to Kang Wan Do with Kang Chil and says nothing. When Jina tells him that she’s not going alone to KWD he tells her that he already knows and doesn’t really need to hear the details.
Hyo Sook is pretty much the sister that Kang Chil never had and has been put in charge of booking the hotel and restaurant that Kang Chil wants to take hismother, while he plays around with her daughter.
Then they do the whole family bickering thing that’s so cute and makes me want to bicker with my parents… kekekeke…
At the restaurant Mi Ja looks around at the other patrons and notes that they’re the only mother-son pair as compared to the several mother-daughter pairs. She tells Kang Chil that she never regretted not having a daughter because she has a good son like him. When the food arrives Kang Chil cuts it up for her and when she says she won’t eat it after all he feeds her.
After dinner comes musical entertainment time with wine for Mi Ja. He tells Mi Ja that she must have be happy in having such a good looking son sing and play the guitar for her. Mi Ja agrees but the wine and the fact that this seems like a farewell trip have got her down and she looks away from him.
Kang Chil starts to sing but Mi Ja asks him why he chose it since it’s a sad song about parting. He asks if he should stop but she waves for him to continue.
I almost cried yet again when tears came to his eyes and then his voice started cracking from the sobs that he was trying his best to swallow.
After the song is finished he tells Mi Ja that he’s going to be a horrible son again. He’s going to leave her and go with Jina. A cry escapes from Mi Ja’s lips but she swallows the rest of it and tells him that it’s better that way because it’s hard for her to see how he dies a little every day.
The next morning Mi Ja has Hyo Sook go pick her up while Kang Chil is sleeping and they take the truck home.
When Mi Ja gets home she’s surprised to see Gook Soo sitting on the floor of her house eating melon. He’s come back to stay since his father doesn’t need him or have room for him now that he has a grandchild.
She hurriedly goes out again to buy the chicken Gook Soo likes and Gook Soo asks her if she’s happy he’s back and she matter of factly tells him that of course she’s glad that her son is back.
And then it’s proposal time for Jina and Kang Chil… he’s on his knees like he said he’d seen in dramas and he holds out a little box. inside are wooden rings he created with each other’s names on them. He tells her that he’d looked at diamond rings but he hadn’t liked any of them. in fact, it’s because diamonds never get damaged that relationships don’t last, because people think that like diamond rings they don’t have to care for the relationship because it won’t break. So for them he created these wood rings that would require care to remind them that they must take care of their relationship.
We get a montage of Kang Chil’s and Jina’s days together the good and the bad. At one point Kang Chil breaks a little and tells Jina that he misses Jungie so she arranges a video chat for the both of them.
At first Kang Chil didn’t want to lift his head in front of Jungie since he’s the one that sent him away but Jungie insists that he wants to see him. When asked Jungie tells Kang Chil that he hadn’t called him because he’d been afraid that once he heard dad’s voice he’d want to return to Korea right away. Kang Chil tells him that he can’t return at least for one or two years and that meanwhile he should do well in school. Jungie asks that Kang Chil take care of himself in the meanwhile.
After the call Kang Chil wanders into the next room where Jina fell asleep in front of his carved family set. He lifts all of them one by one, remembering the good times and the bad spent with each of them.
On another day Kang Chil calls up Gook Soo and tells him that he’s been granted a huge miracle and that it’s greatly thanks to having met Gook Soo who has been his guardian angel. Kang Chil tells him that he’s won the fight that he always said he’d have with the world, because despite everything that the world has thrown at him, he’s happy. Extremely happy. When Gook Soo hears this his wings appear again, as they hadn’t for a while.
After the talk with Kang Chil, 
Gook Soo stares at the heavens and tells his mom that he won’t go to heaven just yet, he’ll stay down on earth with everybody just a bit more.
The next time it’s Jina writing an email to Gook Soo asking after Kang Chil’s mother and how he’s doing, etc… My heart almost leapt out of my chest, I thought we were getting a funeral scene, but no, Kang Chil is still sick but he’s hanging in there, in fact, now he wants to go and run around naked in the snow, to feel it on his skin. Jina is not as enthused about this idea because he’d been sick the week before, but she ends up giving in to him.
The last scene we see is them playing around in the white snow, taking each day as it comes.
Comment/Review
This drama was solid throughout it’s whole run and it didn’t have to wrangle my tears, it coaxed them out until they poured without stopping. Yet I don’t feel despondent; at least not in the way that A Thousand Day Promise made me feel depressed and angry because I spent so much time on something that was so fatalistic.
Though Kim Bum was the draw for me in this story, the one that kept me watching was definitely Jung Woo Sung. His acting was incredible, I never felt like he wasn’t Kang Chil, and all of his emotions, be they elation or despair were expressed in a completely organic way. Kang Chil was more than just a “thug” and JWS really is the reason why, thanks to him, Kang Chil was completely relatable if a little frustrating at the end.
Kim Bum was also really good, though his character was a lot more confusing and sometimes Gook Soo seemed a tad bit bipolar, I never quite knew if he was going to be happy for very long or suddenly be thrown in the pits of despair. I did however feel that Gook Soo the angel was at his core very human, he loved and needed love in return like we all do to flourish. I liked that the thing that brought his wings back was the fact that the person he cared about was happy, and in turn that made him happy and freed the guilt he felt at not being able to accomplish the “Big” miracle he had wished for Kang Chil. I am however glad that the drama finished and now Kim Bum can go back to a healthier weight instead of staying this half starved version of himself.
In regards to Han Ji Min, this is actually the first time I finished a drama with her in it. I’d started Cain and Abel and Capital Scandal (cuz of Kang Ji Hwan) but I never finished them and in both she wasn’t actually memorable to me. However in Padam Padam I couldn’t ignore her Jina, even when she was annoying I still couldn’t ignore her presence in the drama. I found the pairing so adorable because the view of HJM next to JWS was adorable. Her slight figure scolding this big tall guy was so funny. I also have to give it to HJM; she sure can cry pretty.
Next up is Jungie!!! Choi Tae Joon, incredible incredible incredible!! I foresee a very succesful acting career. The next time we see him, he’ll probably no longer be playing kids and instead will either be second lead or leading man, and I’m looking forward to it! Thankfully he’s not jailbait having been born in ’91- so he’s 21 yay! Anyways, his role as the boy who grew attached to Kang Chil as his father figure was really heart warming. He was awesome that he let everyone know where his feelings for them stood, he showed that he loved his father, his grandma and his uncle even if they weren’t blood related. The fact that he fit in the makeshift family they all created and that he was still missed and included despite his move to another country really gladdened me and CTJ really did well, when he cried I swear tears also came to my eyes, because I know how hard it is to move away from family and the fact that his move wasn’t his decision unlike mine made me feel for him even more.
The story and the way it moved through it’s episodes was very distinctive of Noh Hee Kyung who’d impressed me with “The World they Live in” before with it’s really introspective qualities that almost cajole you into thinking about your own life, what you could take from the story she presents. I know that Padam Padam had that whole “supernatural” thing attached to it’s tagline but at it’s core it was really a story of how a person can conquer the odds and make it on their own terms in a harsh world.
That said, I disliked many of the supporting characters especially Detective Jung, Chang Gul (what an idiotic foppish daddy’s boy), fish market Ahjumma (not even how she did a 360 turn about her attitude towards Kang Chil made her any more palatable), Yong Hak (he annoyed the crap out of me) and sometimes… well at least in the beginning Young Chul (his entitled player ‘tude about how he could cheat and he’d still be forgiven annoyed me).
Also some of the storylines were so superfluous and unneeded, like Detective Jung’s crush on the pharmacist lady… really?? WHO CARES?! But I guess they were created to give the world a fleshed out feel but I really couldn’t care less about that.
Noises From the Closet 
I agree that Jung Woo Sung did a fantastic job and I was overhelmed by his interpretation of Kang Chil. I didn´t like Han Ji Min, she was annoying most of the time, both as character and an actress, but the chemistry between the two main leads was excellent. I watch her now in Rooftop Prince paired with Park Yoochun, and this is just a far cry from what we could see in Padam Padam. I liked Kim Bum aka Kim Bones, especially because I had known him only from BOF before. Otherwise what I remember the most from this drama is Kang Chil thoughts about miracle, what´s the essence of that. That´s what makes this drama memorable.
Thanks a lot for your recaps 🙂
Thanks for your recaps! Loved reading them and looking at the pictures! This drama was one heck of a tear-jerker but I agree that it doesn’t leave a hollow feeling in your chest afterwards.
It’s great to read such well-written insights into this drama. I really loved this one, as it’s not trying so hard to do so many things like other dramas do. Everything just flows naturally, and I just want to find the writer and the director and give them huge big hugs for making a drama that’s as natural and as organic as it could be (even though we have a supernaturally divine twist to it). I’ll never forget the journey I’ve embarked on with these characters, watching them develop and change with every episode. I’m really glad I decided to watch this series.
You’re a great writer! Hope I get to explore more of your recaps.
This is the 2nd korean drama that I manage to finish it. I am the kind of person that hardly spend time on some romantic or sad drama or movie. But when I watch this drama, I can’t ignore it. And I absolutely not regret to spend a lot of time to watch this drama. In fact, sometimes I watch it again especially this episode. If I can someone (other than my parents and siblings,of course) to love me in happy or hard moment just like Ji Na and Kang Chil.
I have been watching “highly recommended” A list, 10/10 Kdramas for a little over a year now, even if they were filmed some time ago. (Watched Legend, The King’s Four Deities” which is pretty early for Kdrama, and definitely enjoyed it.) So far I have been fortunate in that, with the exception of “A Gentleman’s Dignity”, they have been sufficiently compelling to keep me watching to the end. However, after thoroughly enjoying Padam Padam’s excellent writing and acting up until the last few episodes, I almost didn’t manage to slog my way through episodes17-19. ( I did finish episode 20 last night.)
I can’t help but suspect that the content was stretched out and thus diluted due to viewer popularity. Truly touching, believable, “true to life” situations were overly extended and simply drowned in excessive tears. All the situations were authentically sad, but their portrayal was dramatically excessive and, for me, lessened the total impact of the situations such as Jung leaving, Mom having to let her son move on, etc..
Finally, Kang Chil’s character did not need a malignant tumor to make him interesting. He had plenty of complexity without a physical illness.
In episode 20 we are left with another of the, apparently typical, Kdrama open ended final episodes where the future is ambiguous. I like that. I just wish the uncertainty had been the realistic one of meeting life’s ongoing challenges such as: Will Kang Chil actually become a sculptor? Will Ji Na develop in her work with animals? These would have been just fine instead of: How long will Kang Chil live? It shifted the focus from someone overcoming social adversity to overcoming a physical illness. That story line was fine in “Scent of a Woman” as her illness was the main motivator of the plot. It was gratuitous in Padam, Padam.
With that off my chest, I definitely enjoyed that the characters were complex, not totally predictable and that the nature of loving relationships was explored on so many levels.
Thank you! It was definitely a well-written and interesting drama.
One of my favorite quotes from that drama was when they were watching the sun rise and in his(KC) innocence he says (paraphrasing) ” there isn’t anyone or anywhere I want to be, and only one thing that I am envious of, the sun. It is constant. We never have done anything for it and don’t show any interest in it.But It comes to us everyday, never resetful, always steadfast and gallant” Of course I didn’t word it like be did, so it doesnt sound as innocently profound as the character had a way of doing. I liked the way everybody was always trying to say how ignorant he was supposed to be because he spend his entire youth in prison, yet his naive way of living life gave him the ability to say things that could make the smartest people feel stupid. In fact in looking from our point of view he was the wisest one there, then Angel. It shows you that you should never look down on anyone regardless of where they are from or the color of their skin etc. We all come and go in this world the same way, and you can’t take a penny of it with you, so why does it matter.