Episode 19&20: Rules Were Meant to be Broken

One of the characteristics of Korean culture is the preference to conform rather than stand out; which means it is rarely alright to question authority and the rules that have been set. The use of honorifics within the Korean language enforces the difference in social status between a superior and a subordinate, failure to do so will cause the superior to lose face and the subordinate to seem ill-bred (Brown 2011, 112); this clear distinction in social hierarchy gives some context as to why subordinates face difficulties when questioning his/her superiors or company policies in the workplace as seen in Misaeng.

In episode 19 and 20, viewers see some examples of the difficulty to question authority. In order to do business honestly and with integrity, Mr. Oh had to start his own company after his resignation after exposing the questionable business practices of Executive Director Choi. Furthermore, as mentioned in the essays about previous episodes, it was hard for geu-rae to become a permanent employee despite his excellent performance due to his lacklustre educational background. The rules and social norms are followed blindly and this creates problems when something needs to be done for the sake of productivity.

Furthermore, throughout the episodes, there are little to no instances of authority figures re-evaluating the rules. There are several cases of corruption and viewers see the disciplinary actions taken against the guilty parties, however there is no mention of One International trying to look at whether there is anything it can do to reduce the likelihood of corruption amongst its employees. The corruption could be happening because the monetary compensation is not fair relative to the size of the deals. This could be remedied by providing increased commissions. Though it is human nature to be greedy, this could make employees feel less tempted to rely on corruption due to the existing serious repercussions and the smaller gap between the money attained through corruption and their commission.

The drama also implicitly shows that maturity comes with understanding that rules are a good guideline to follow, but one cannot always rely on it to get results. Viewers see this when Geu-Rae uses threats to make Seo Jin-Sang reveal the location of the stolen cellphone cases. In the early parts of the drama, audiences see an innocent Jang Geu-rae relying on baduk analogies to navigate his life in the corporate world, as he matures, he no longer mentions any baduk analogies, possibly due to the realization that in order to overcome difficulties in life, one may need to rely on solutions outside the rules; unlike baduk where you have to overcome difficulty within the rules of the game.

There is a saying in Singapore: “Law 是死的，人是活的“ , which means that laws are not living beings, but people are and therefore people should not blindly follow the existing rules and social norms because life is not a one size fits all type of deal, the rules cannot account for every single situation in life. This saying is a suitable moral for Episode 19 and 20 because it highlights the need to have flexibility in rules and the need to revise certain rules or social norms.

Written By: Johnathan Tao

528 words according to WordCounter

---

Here are some discussion questions..

   1. What did you think of Geu-rae’s dirty trick to get information? Do you think it’s right or should he be punished for it?

2. What are some changes to One International’s policies would you like to see?

Bibliography:

Brown, Lucien. “Korean Honorifics and ‘Revealed’, ‘ignored’ and ‘surpressed’ Aspects of Korean Culture and Politeness.” In Politeness across Cultures. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.