Begins Youth Season 1 Episode 2 Mama

Interestingly enough, this title refers to a solo song by the member, j-hope, whose ‘character’ is Hosu. The actual song is him talking about the sacrifices his mother made for him, like working multiple jobs and moving far away, so their family could have money for him to take dance lessons as a kid. He talks about how he didn’t recognize then that her struggles led to his success, and how thankful he is to her. A short film was released with the song, that was more directly related to the story told in the drama, showing a kid struggling with illness (including fainting) because his mother left abandoned him, showing him eating a Snickers bar at the end. It’s interesting the contrast between the actual song and the way it plays into this story. A lot of the story is based on the themes of the book ‘Demian’, which a BTS album was based on and is the book we see Hwan’s father reading in Hwan’s bedroom in that scene towards the end. In ‘Demian’, the theme of the role of a mother is very important, it basically symbolizes ‘perfection’ in child’s eyes. So I think it is very purposeful that some of the characters have this ideal image of their mother (like Cein, Hwan, and even Hosu in a way of acting like she must have had good reasons to leave him/wanting to see her again) versus the ones that struggle with their mothers wanting perfection from them (like Jeha, Haru, and even Dogeon). It is absolutely heartbreaking that people accuse Cein of killing his mother when we see how close he was to her. He obviously loves and misses her so much, but people just continue to harass him and blame him. It’s sad to see someone who is obviously a good kid, just quiet and stoic, be treated so poorly. There are so many names in this, but some good ones to remember for the story are what Cein saw in that photo he found at Jooan’s house. The picture is of the ‘Seventh Songho Scholarship Foundation’, which is what Dogeon got into at that party. In the photo there are four names: Seonghun Kim (Jooan’s dad), Changjun Kim (Hwan’s dad), Eunjoo Kim (Cein’s mom), and Wonjoong Byeon (someone we haven’t met yet). And then standing besides them the principal. For Jeha, it's hard to tell because it's implied through the words they are using that doesn't translate exactly, but it's a "blended family". It's Jeha and his mom, then a stepdad and stepbrother. Which I feel like a lot of it all stems from. Jeha's mom married a richer man, hence Jeha saying that it was her who wanted the 'rich life' not him. I see both sides to some extent, but definitely don't like Jeha's mom that much.

Ophelia