My Holo Love

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K-Drama Bingo Score

Using the Modern K-Drama set

• (Dis)possession

  (3 pt)

  Notes

  Ghosts, spirits inhabiting bodies, or body- or identity-swapping
  

  Bonus point for: Time travel or non-human disembodiment

  S01

  Holograms are the new ghosts, I guess.
• Childhood friends forgotten

  (2 pt)

  Notes

  Characters knew, or at least encountered, each other in childhood, but somehow forgot

  S01E03

  Nan-Do and So-Yeon were neighbors and played together as children just before tragedy struck Nan-Do's life. So-Yeon has definitely forgotten, but it isn't clear if Nan-Do remembered. Holo revealed the connection before anyone else.
• Crushing Debt

  (1 pt)

  Notes

  Characters are motivated by their debt (or a family member's), including the threat of foreclosure
  

  S01

  Nan-Do faked his own death, and so has to live in the GIO TECH company headquarters. The weakest point in this review.
• Korean Standoff

  (1 pt)

  Notes

  Two principal characters have a serious, sometimes emotionally confrontational, conversation while standing at least 1m apart
  

  S01E07

  So-Yuen faces off against Ko Nan-Do, to ask him if he is an AI or not.
• Piggyback

  (1 pt)

  Notes

  Someone gives someone else a piggyback ride

  S01E05

  Injured 엄마 is carried downstairs by Nan-Do from the apartment building. Also later, in E08, Nan-Do carries So-Yeon, apparently out of fatigue rather than drunkenness.
• Rumble tummy

  (1 pt)

  Notes

  Audible stomach rumbling to indicate hunger

  S01E07

  Nan-Do, pretending to be Holo, cannot eat, but almost gives himself away with stomach noises after helped So-Yeun prepared a meal!
• The Playground

  (1 pt)

  Notes

  Any scene taking place in a neighborhood playground

  SO1E03

  Nan-Do and So-Yeon meet in the playground at night (she thinks he is Holo), where Nan-Do dispenses memorable advice. They return in E07 to jog Holo's memory, since So Yeun does not know it wasn't Holo with her earlier.
• Thumbs up

  (1 pt)

  Notes

  Two thumbs up for "Good job!"

  S01E06

  Work colleagues canoodling in the supply closet gave So Yeun two thumbs up for agreeing to keep their activities secret.
• Wrist grab

  (1 pt)

  Notes

  Dramatically grabbing someone by the wrist as they walk away

  S01E07

  To help So-Yeun escape from men chasing her, Nan-Do grabs her wrist, thereby revealing himself to be human — and not Holo!
• 내 친구 ("My friend…")

  (1 pt)

  Notes

  A character tells a story about "My friend" that is actually about themselves

  S01E04

  So-Yeon asks hypothetical questions about falling in love with an AI. In a later episode, Nan-Do poses a hypothetical "moral" quandary to the half-restored Holo about "A person" and their "twin brother" in similar fashion.

Unmatched Bingo Spaces

• Vehicular tragedy

  Someone is/was hit by a car, truck, bus, or motorcycle

• Bullying

  Be Best, Korea

• Cartoony FX

  Animal or cartoon visual and sound effects to reinforce behavior or mood

• Chicken & Beer

  치맥, anyone?

• Cramped quarters

  Sleeping in a repurposed closet, or on a balcony, or in insane tiny student housing
  

• Finger hearts

  Any use of finger hearts by a character

• Memorial service

  Funerals and memorial services

• Middle-of-the-Road Soliliquy

  Verbal musings on deep existential questions and/or tragicomic situations while in the middle of the street

• Pinky swear

  Two characters doing a pinky swear

  Touching thumbs at the end is not a thing in America (based on my terrible polling), so that gets an easy bonus point for any wannabe K-drama.

• Shamans & Talismans

  Yellow paper talismans, written in calligraphic red ink; visits to a shaman for fortune-telling or body transfers
  

• Son Hyeung Min

  Mentions of Son Hyeung Min, or staying up to watch Tottenham Hotspur play

• 강한나 (Kang Han-Na)

  The presence of Kang Han-Na makes everything at least 1 point better
  

• 한국어학교 (Language lessons)

  Specifically linguistic wordplay, discussions about spelling, pronunciation, or Chinese root words