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“Daughters of Club Bilitis” recap

Being an ex-pat American lesbian living in South Korea, when I turn on the television, I don’t expect to see anything that reflects me. Especially, I don’t expect to see anything queer. So I was as surprised as the rest of the country that KBS, a publicly owned broadcasting network, had produced The Daughters of Club Blilitis.

The one-hour drama special follows three couples, each from a different generation, and the ways in which being queer has affected their lives.

Juyeon and Yeongyeong

The show starts with Juyeon, a student at a homophobic all girl’s high school. She is making a documentary about “people like her,” and generally trying to get through high school without being discovered as a lesbian. However, she naively keeps photos of her crush on her smart phone and stares at the object of her affection whenever she gets a chance.

Then appears Yeongyeon. She catches Juyeon staring at her crush, Nari, from afar.

Yeongyeon: If you’re going to be that obvious, you might as well just confess, otherwise you should try to hide it better. I could tell right away that we are on the same team.

Later, Yeongyeon apologizes via text message for being so shocking, and the girls meet outside of school to talk about Juyeon’s documentary. There Yeongyeon recommends that Juyeon join an online community in order to meet some cooler, older adults.

So Juyeon does just that and meets an older woman in a cafe to interview for her documentary.

And that woman is Hanna. Unfortunately, Hanna seems a bit on the irritated side. She has to leave the interview early, but not before she writes something down in Juyeon’s notebook.

Hanna: Go here if you are looking for advice. You can find someone to talk to.

That night, while studying, Juyeon dreams about touching Nari’s cheek while she is asleep, and then getting smacked when Nari wakes up and catches her.

Upon waking up, Juyeon goes down stairs to find her parents spewing hate at the actress who has just come out on the evening news. Her mother says she would rather die than have her child be gay. Talk about unconditional love. Thanks, mom.

The next day, while sulking to Yeongyeon, Juyeon sees the class bullies holding her phone and squealing that the owner must be a lesbian, because of all these pictures of Nari!

As if she wern’t cool enough, Yeongyeon saves the day by taking the phone right out of the girls’ hands like it is her own, and then walking away. She later returns the phone to Juyeon by cleverly leaving it in a subway station locker with a note: “Didn’t I tell you not to show off? It’s the last time I’ll warn you.”

That was a close call for Juyeon, but things are worse for Yeongyeon. Somehow a teacher found pictures of her and her girlfriend and now the whole school knows about it. Clearly they aren’t supportive. Unless you call writing “crazy bitch” in red paint being supportive. (BTW, in Korean school lore, writing some one’s name in red ink is like basically cursing them to a million painful deaths.)

Due to humiliation, Yeongyeon’s parents decide to move and so she has to leave Juyeon and the homophobes behind. But of course, they promise to meet again.

Hanna and Yeongeun

Meanwhile, at the PR agency, Hanna is busy being a PR team manager. In the middle of her business, she gets a phone call from her girlfriend, Yeongeun, asking her to come home a bit early today. Hanna explains that she has a company dinner that night so she might be late. (Sidenote: If you say you have a “company dinner” to your spouse in Korea, you are basically saying, “Sorry, honey, but you know I’m gonna come home at an ungodly hour, completely wasted and reeking of soju.”)

We then see Yeongeun sitting alone in a public bathroom with her big problem, the infamous pink stripe on the pregnancy test.

When Hanna comes home drunk that night, she sees the pregnancy test not so carefully left on the night stand. Judging from her angry drunk hollering, this was not a planned pregnancy.

The next day the couple processes their problems in Hanna’s car outside the convenience store where Yeongeun works. We learn that she slept with her ex two months ago while she and Hanna were fighting. Hanna is rightfully pissed, and she accuses Yeongeun of using sex to catch a man and the associated comfortable life that comes with him.

Hanna then heads over to Club Bilitis to bitch some more and explain her back story to the third couple, Hyangcha and Myeunghee. Hanna explains that Yeongeun started acting weird after she read a comment that Hanna left on a lesbian cafe message board, advising another woman to leave her girlfriend.

When Hanna comes home that night, Yeongeun moves out of the apartment. And the next day Hanna discovers that Yeongeun has been taking depression medication.

And here is where Hanna meets Juyeon from high school, but has to leave the interview early to rescue Yeongeun from a singing room (kinda like a private karaoke booth).

Yeongeun cries as she explains that she went to have an abortion, but backed out of it because she was scared. Cut to Hanna’s apartment, where Yeongeun tries to explain more about her reasons for cheating in this monologue.

Yeongeun: When I said I met boys before, that’s true. It’s not just one or two. It’s quite a lot. Because I wanted to live like an ordinary girl. As soon as I went to college, I started meeting boys. If someone saw me, they would probably think I’m boy crazy. Once I met 5 different boys in one day. But since I met you, I realized I couldn’t live like that anymore. This was the love I was supposed to have, and I was very happy. That was until last spring, when you said you might have to go on a blind date. I know it was just set up by your mother, but it made me think many different things. What would happen if I broke up with you? I don’t have any money or career. I just depend on you. Should I just grab you? It was around that time that I started to doubt about you. The day after we fought, I wanted to test myself, for the last time. Maybe now I can love men again. I thought I should at least grab a man, so, like a crazy person, I grabbed him. But the next morning, I was so scared. I didn’t know what I had done.

While Yeongeun is meeting her baby daddy, Hanna visits her mother. Afterward she goes to Club Bilitis and gets advice from her older friends.

Myeunghee: If you had a daughter, and the daughter wanted to live like you do, how would you feel? Wouldn’t it be hard? If you feel that it might be difficult, then how would your mom feel? I know it hurts you but trying to hide your life as much as possible is a favor to your parents.

Hanna asks Hyangcha if she has any regrets. Hyangcha replies that since she came out to her husband she hasn’t seen her children for ten years. She says, “Now I look back, and I can see that it’s not only me who was punished.”

The next night Hanna and Yeongeun are walking happily together on the street and see a fortune teller’s booth. They go inside and ask for a couple’s reading. The man is shocked to read for two women, but takes their money anyway. Happily, the fortune teller says they are a perfect match for each other.

So they sit in a cafe and think of baby names, and all harmony is restored to their secret lesbian lives.

Hyangcha and Myeunghee

The third act starts at Hyangcha and Myeunghee’s home.

There is an unexpected ring at the door. As it turns out, it is Hyangcha’s estranged daughter, Dojin, come to see her before she gets married and moves to the United States.

After an awkward lunch, Dojin asks her mother about the bar she works at. Dojin says she would like to see the place. While there, she overhears some clients talking about her mother and Myeunghee as if they are celebrities.

Hyangcha drinks too much and Myeunghee has to put her to bed early. While Hyangcha is sleeping, Dojin and Myeunghee have a heart to heart.

Dojin: I heard some customers talking about you. I guess your love is quite amazing.

Myeunghee: It’s not that amazing.

Dojin: Why didn’t you ever get married?

Myeunghee: Hyangcha got married because she couldn’t resist her father, but I couldn’t live like that.

Dojin: Why didn’t you just take her back then? If you had taken her then, my brother and I would never have been born, and everyone would have been happy. I think what you both did was irresponsible. Because of your famous love, my dead father and my brother and myself, we lived through a nightmare.

Myeunghee: Maybe there is some misunderstanding. Your mother didn’t come out to live with me. People often called us star-crossed lovers who waited 20 years for each other, but where in the world can you find love like that? You just have to live with a half-buried heart. One day during her marriage, she said she felt like she was always wearing a mask. Whatever she did – eating, washing her face, it wasn’t her. She thought that if she had to live like that forever, she should at least tell her husband. She lived her life for 10 years with regret. If she knew that something she said to her husband would cause her to lose her children, then she would have buried those words in her heart for the rest of her life.

After their conversation, Dojin goes to the bedroom to lie down next to her mother. In a touching moment, Hyangcha puts the blanket over her daughter and says she’s sorry. They cry and embrace and the camera fades out.

Finally, we see all three couples at Club Bilitis again. Hyangcha and Myeunghee have just sold the club to Hanna and Yeongeun. Juyeon and Yeongyeon just came along for the party. And as the credits role we see that they all live happily ever after!

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