[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Drama Stage - Today I Grab the Tambourine Again"

Moon-sook (played by Park Hee-von) is a bank teller. She doesn't have a full contract yet, but the time is fast approaching when the bank either has to offer Moon-sook a contract or just let her go. Incidentally, Moon-sook goes out with her team every month for a celebratory party at the karaoke bar. While this would be a great time to make a good impression, Moon-sook has no talent for singing. So instead, she takes tambourine classes.

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If you're expecting "Drama Stage - Today I Grab The Tambourine Again" to be about the fine art of the tambourine, expect to be disappointed. All the technical features regarding how to be a good tambourine performer are condensed into a single montage. For what it's worth, Park Hee-von has obviously taken her tambourine training very seriously for this role. Although it's also possible that rocking the tambourine at the karaoke bar has always been her hobby.

The exact means by which Moon-sook is trying to secure her economic future are not important. No, what "Drama Stage - Today I Grab The Tambourine Again" is about is just the sheer absurdity of the premise and how it is actually a perfectly logical strategy for trying to get ahead in the modern economy. For all the talk about how we live in a meritocracy, whether Moon-sook is actually good at her job doesn't really matter. Lots of people can be good bank tellers. Very few people can make the tambourine seem like anything more than a gimmick instrument.

The long-term problems of Moon-sook actually succeeding in her employment goals via tambourine success are fairly obviously foreshadowed- but not excessively. For quite awhile "Drama State - Today I Grab the Tambourine Again" just plays out as a fairly standard motivational story about who lacks self-confidence acquiring it through an eccentric hobby. In a fary cry from the assertive role she currently plays on "Just Between Lovers", here Park Hee-von is extremely demure, which really sells the character.

Of course, this still proves to be a bit of a hindrance later on. Through her constant upstaging at karaoke shows, Moon-sook quickly realizes that her actions and goals are inherently aggressive, since she is implicitly competing with other temporary employees for a full-time contract. That's not even getting into the more sexist aspects of the situation. It's hard to ignore that all the temporary employees are essentially performing for the amusement of powerful men.

Review by William Schwartz

"Drama Stage - Today I Grab The Tambourine Again" is directed by Choi Gyoo-sik, written by Kim Dong-kyung, and features Park Hee-von, Lee Mi-so, Jung Kyu-soo, and Han Soo-hyun.