The Bechdel, Russo, and Race Test: Falling in Love with Soon-Jung – Season 1, Episode 16

Falling in Love with Soon-Jung has officially reached its end.

In the finale of Falling in Love with Soon-Jung, Soon-Jung learned that Joon-Hee had murdered Dong-Wook. Soon-Jung, of course, couldn’t believe that Joon-Hee could commit such an act, and when she learned that Ok-Hyun needed Joon-Hee’s watch (which had Dong-Wook’s blood on it) in order to arrest him, Soon-Jung took matters into her own hands and stole Joon-Hee’s watch.

Soon-Jung seamlessly stole Joon-Hee’s watch with the help of Ok-Hyun, Min-Ho and Woo-Sik, and once Ok-Hyun had the watch, she arrested Joon-Hee. Fortunately, this time when Ok-Hyun arrested Joon-Hee, Joon-Hee longer had any tricks up his sleeve. Joon-Hee was going to have to serve a lot of time in prison for what he had done, both for murder and shady business dealings.

As to Min-Ho, he experienced extreme heart problems in episode 16. More specifically, his body was rejecting his heart transplant, and Min-Ho tried to cure his heart problem by trying several different kinds of treatment but nothing worked. The question of the finale thus became, would Min-Ho survive?

The Bechdel, Russo, and Race Test

Episode 16 passed the race test but did not pass the Bechdel or Russo test.

The entire cast of episode 16 was Asian, and none of the characters ever mentioned White people so the episode passed the race test.

As to the Bechdel test, episode 16 did not pass this test because while there were several occasions where named women talked to each other, they always (whether directly or indirectly) mentioned men. Episode 16 also failed to pass the Russo test, and the episode did not pass this test because there were no LGBTI characters in episode 16.

*The Bechdel test entails three requirements:
1. It has to have at least two (named) women in it
2. Who talk to each other
3. About something besides a man

**The Vito Russo test entails three requirements:
1. The show contains a character that is identifiably lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex and/or transgender
2. The character must not be solely or predominately defined by her sexual orientation, gender identity and/or as being intersex
3.The character must be tied into the plot in such a way that her removal would have a significant effect

***The race or people of color (POC) test has three requirements:
1. It has two people of color in it
2. Who talk to each other
3. About something other than a White person

****Just because a show passes the Bechdel, Russo and race test does not mean that it is not sexist, heterosexist, racist and/or cissexist, etc. The Bechdel, Russo and race test is only a bare minimum qualifier for the representation of LGBTI individuals, women and people of color in television. The failure to pass these tests also does not identify whether the central character was a woman, a person of color or a LGBTQI individual and it does not dictate the quality of the show.