My ID is Gangnam Beauty (2018)

Out of sheer curiosity due to the raves I'd read online I decided to take a look at this late adolescent, coming-of-age Korean drama. I knew nothing about the drama going in except that a lot of people seem to like it. Oddly enough, I'm having a hard time relating to or engaging with the drama... a fact that I attribute to demographic and philosophical differences. To me much of the angst being portrayed seems to be non-issues or as someone has said quite rightly, "first world issues". Moreover, the value system of this particular world seems completely foreign to the one that I was raised in. I can't fault the storytelling much because it is good (probably too good) but I'm struggling to maintain interest in the subject matter and feel much sympathy for the woes of young men and women whose extracurricular interests seem largely confined to attracting the opposite sex and/or judging people by their physical appearance. The moniker "Gangnam Beauty" refers (pejoratively perhaps) to a woman who has had extensive cosmetic surgery done to enhance her looks.

Apart from the stand-offish, devil-may-care male lead, everyone else seems to have happily bought into the big lie that physical appearance is the foremost requirement in selecting a dating partner or at least the ticket to the popularity club.

Perhaps I spent a large portion of my life in the rarefied atmosphere of not having to obsess over looks... not that I had/have much to brag about... although I certainly heard comments and comparisons over the years that stung. But to spend so much of one's precarious existence angsting over one's appearance makes little sense and it makes other people's opinion the idolatry of one's life. And what a cruel master that usually is. It seems to be more the case too for the girls than the boys which I imagine is meant to show up the gender double-standards. Some of the boys who pop up regularly are really nothing much to boast about (and frankly there's nothing wrong with not being Adonises) but apparently they can afford to delude themselves while the ladies have to be "more realistic" about their dating expectations. Of course, they're all willing prisoners of this self-perpetuating system. The pain is entirely self-inflicted.

Even for the female lead, the hard-headed part of me feels that the panacea that she has chosen -- hiding behind a nose job -- is essentially a bandaid solution. Her desire for acceptance though understandable has only brought about another set of problems... unwarranted attention in which her history has left her ill-equipped to handle. Sure you can change what's on the outside but ultimately it's what goes on the inside that gives a person the ability to live as a free human being. 

I don't know where the drama is headed with all this but it is suggestive that the female lead claims to be in search of a "normal life" which is why she's turned down the Adonis that she likes. Because dating him will inevitably draw more attention to herself. She claims that she's unworthy and "out of his league" while the poor fellow hasn't the faintest idea what all those categories mean because he is the outsider/non-conformist in this reality. She claims to crave normality but it sounds like what she's really looking for is a conflict-free life so that she can quietly conform to the pre-existing system and get no push back from it. 

I suppose the current orthodoxy in all of this is that she needs to increase her self-esteem and realise that she is good enough or deserving enough to be hanging off his arm in a long term relationship. I beg to disagree. What she doesn't need is more self-esteem... but a complete overhaul in her thinking about what matters in life. Beauty in and of itself is not a bad thing. There's nothing wrong with men admiring beautiful women per se. What's wrong is the way it seems to impact perception of reality in all aspects of life. Perhaps it needs to be reiterated that physical beauty is something that passes with time (here today and gone tomorrow) and relationships built on that shaky foundation alone is doomed to end in tears. Mi Rae's nemesis, Soo-Ya is a girl who has self-esteem in spades but she uses it to manipulate others and situations for her own benefit. Her natural beauty hides her incessant need for more adulation and feeds her addiction, as it were, to be admired and pursued. In her case, self-esteem has led to delusionary behaviour. 

What Mi Rae also needs is courage to name the flaws in the prevailing "wisdom" and call them out for what they are. It isn't because she deserves to be loved and have love... whatever that means... But because ultimately such thinking is destructive and brings about unnecessary misery. Right now she hasn't got the courage to buck the system and so she's traded one form of misery that might not actually occur for one that actually does.

We are judged every time we rub shoulders with other human beings. In and of itself, I don't think that's automatically a bad thing. We are judged for character... how we treat other people... which is valid and for the work that we do -- performance. There's nothing inherently objectionable about making judgments about people. In fact, in many instances, it behooves us to do so. The reason why judging a person based on physical appearance is to be denounced is because it is a superficial criteria that doesn't guarantee an accurate or thorough evaluation of the subject's intrinsic value and even within their community.



"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Genesis 1:27

Money Flower (2017-2018)

I suspect this will be the closest we'll ever get to a K version of Nirvana in Fire and the Count of Monte Cristo. It occurred to me even in those early episodes how Count of Monte Cristo-like the narrative was. A child presumed dead who had taken on another identity and even went to prison in some else's stead. Then a long-term revenge plan involving large sums of money and public officials. Certainly it was riddled with overused K drama tropes like birth secrets, chaebol infighting and psychotic ridiculously ambitious mothers but unlike your run-of-the-mill weekend makjang, this was masterfully achieved. The acting, the writing, the direction were all top notch but there's no doubt that this series belonged to the wonderful Jang Hyuk who after Beautiful Mind and Money Flower has cemented his place as the best actor of his generation. He was mesmerizing... absolutely mesmerizing... from start to finish. He made every single moment of every single scene matter. His Kang Pil Joo was both an enigma and an open book. For those who saw him as their running dog he was an enigma but for those of us fortunate to be privy to his inner life, he was a lonely but determined soul carrying the weight of death on his shoulders. 

I think I was hooked practically from the start constantly wondering what KPJ was up to... what his endgame was... how he would extricate himself from a very tight corner that he would inevitably find himself in. His patience... his doggedness (no pun intended) was inhuman. Except for Grandpa, I don't even if anyone else was even in his league. As the old chairman himself soon realised, KPJ was the true successor of his indomitable spirit. All the other actors were good but they were playing pretty much standard stock characters from your weekend family fare... the usurping imposter, the ruthless patriarch gleefully looking on while he wavers on the succession issue, the highly driven mother, who would do anything for her child, the good girl that's exploited, a public figure who falls from grace, backstabbing relatives, children born out of wedlock etc etc. But KPJ seemed to be above the fray. His apparent god-like ubiquity were our ears and eyes into the self-inflicted insanity of the fabulously wealthy driven by a ludicrous sense of entitlement. Luckily it seemed, KPJ was streets ahead of almost everyone and yet Jang Hyuk was able to imbue the character with so much humanity.

Even though he was largely painted as an anti-hero, I don't know if there was ever a time I was never on his side. Even when he helped orchestrate BC and MH's marriage, and convinced Congressman Na to work with the family, I always thought that ultimately everyone made their own choices. I don't doubt they were manipulated to some degree into dancing to his tune but if the desire/greed hadn't been there, he wouldn't have had much sway. Certainly I had a lot of sympathy for MH who was largely an innocent in all of this. However, I realise that monsters are made and in this the old chairman definitely has a lot to answer for. On top of that, his lack of self-awareness is galling.

The one thing we certainly learnt from KPJ is that patience is truly a virtue. Maybe one of the most important ones especially in a day and age of instant-everything. Nobody waits much for anything anymore. But KPJ waited 20 years to finally expose Exec Jung for being the villain she truly was and reveal to Grandpa his true identity. But almost everyone else was anxious for things to happen quickly, take short-cuts without laying the groundwork that he did mainly because they feel entitled to the rewards as a birthright. Exec. Jung may have thought she was raising a dog to do her bidding but she relied so heavily on the dog to do all the thinking for her that it was finally in the position to bite back.

There's seldom anything pleasant about revenge. The casualties are high and innocents get caught in the cross fire but the thing I appreciate most about Money Flower is that in his bid for vengeance KPJ never entirely loses his head or his humanity... thus paving a road to redemption for himself. I was wondering about the stabbing scene at the end and the abruptness of it. In the end I could only conclude that it signalled a death to KPJ but the rebirth of JEC... a new beginning with no hidden agenda... just a gifted businessman looking for a fresh start professionally and maybe relationally too.

At the end of the day, KPJ was able to tear down a rotting house of cards because the superstructure had been weakened by corrupt practices over time. Like Mei Chang Su in Nirvana in Fire, he gained a foothold in places where he knew his adversaries were vulnerable despite the protections that their fabulous wealth afforded them. Even with all his workmanlike machinations, ultimately his opponents fell on swords they had forged over time.

Something in the Rain (2018) -- Thoughts about the ending

This was a show that I had watched and dropped after 5 episodes. After ending its run locally and on Netflix, I thought... well... I have a Netflix subscription... I might as well see how it ends. I was also quite aware of the online clamour regarding the ending and its prelude so that piqued my curiosity.

I can't say I was all that surprised by Episode 15. It seemed to me a long time in coming. What surprised me wasn't that the couple broke off their rocky relationship but that they managed to hold it together as long as they did considering the shaky foundations from which they began. Jin-A, who was the main reason why I dropped the show, was more or less in the same place mentally that she was in Episode 5. Certainly she'd gotten bolder on the work front but in the area that probably mattered most to her, she was still riddled with indecision. In that regard I think the show was extraordinarily consistent and realistic in how the romance resulted. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if it had ended in Episode 15, it would have worked just as well. Or something akin to a La La Land type ending. The ending of 15 was exactly right. It wasn't just a lack of communication which tore the couple apart... ultimately it was a lack of honesty. Not of the cheating kind but the weight of unspoken frustrations finally causing the relationship to collapse. Even though Jin-A made the decision to move out of home, she was still trapped in the same mental state of wanting to keep everyone happy. In reality of course nobody was happy, herself included. Moving out of home wasn't about freedom for her but a kind of "no-man's land" in a war zone that she was ill-equipped to fight. It was a place she'd hope to navigate the rough seas of placating her family on some level while still trying to maintain her relationship with Jun Hui. 

The beginning of their relationship resembled, it seemed to me, an intense secret love affair -- a socially forbidden relationship that took place in secrecy in its early stages. Fearing family disapproval, they lied about the true nature of their relationship to their nearest and dearest. Because they had put the cart before the horse, the foundation for their relationship was essentially quite weak because they leapt into not prepared to deal with the whirlwind that would follow. Passions came first and they went along with that but in the end for a fundamentally socially conservative girl like Jin-A, she was ill-equipped to deal the pressures that came her way and the ramifications that the relationship would have on her family. I saw the writing on the wall even before Episode 5. There was plenty of heat in that relationship but the lack of honesty it seemed to me demonstrated a clear reluctance to take a strong stand on the underlying issues. I always felt that JA enjoyed the pleasures of the relationship without wanting to deal the negatives. Would JA and JH have the wherewithal to conduct their relationship openly? Did JA especially have the will to make that decisive break necessarily for the relationship to move to the next stage and even flourish? In the end, they were 2 people mugged by reality. JA is a family oriented, daddy's girl at heart. Her affair with JH was something out of her comfort zone. True to form, her first instinct is to compromise. The terms of engagement were framed as a zero-sum game and in the end she chose the familiar and the family over starting afresh with JH overseas because the foundations there ran much, much deeper. I believe they both understood (in varying degrees) after all the pressures placed on them, what it would take to keep their relationship together but JA just couldn't cross their bridge.

I was mostly in agreement with JH unilaterally making the decision to take off overseas to start again if for no other reason to prove to himself where JA's priorities really lie. It was a test of the strength of their commitment to the relationship and I think it had to come to that because they were going nowhere with JA trying to maintain the status quo. The conversation they had in her flat when he gets back from China is quite telling. "Isn't that like running away?" is what she says. His answer is "I would like to think of it more as breaking free."

Another striking thing is how JA half-jokingly tells people she's just soldiering on and it demonstrates strength of character to double-down and persevere. In most instances I wouldn't disagree but with JA, it's a cover for not dealing with her inner angst or the rumblings of her heart. It's part of her mechanism to side step the issues. She can't be honest with others because she can't be honest with herself for fear of what others think about her. JA is a nice girl but her niceness seems to mean that she doesn't have to make a stand and it sees her reverting to her default position of sweeping things under the carpet

JH is a lot clearer and bolder. He wants honesty. He was right in that they had unfinished business. I thought it was fascinating how his comment to her that she's mean triggered a strong reaction in her. All the misery she'd been bottling up exploded in an instant. Though she tried to palm some of the blame onto JH, she had made her choice and she had lived with its consequences. He did respect her choice to stay after all. In the end, she made the choice to move out station because she realises that she can't be tethered to the familiar as her own growth and happiness is on the line.

I'm glad she comes to that place first before getting back with JH because it would mean repeating the mistakes of the past.  She can't just be her parents' daughter or the woman JH loves. Her conversation with BR at the Jeju restaurant was the most honest I'd heard from her.

It's an interesting journey that the writer takes JA on. Although she was a character I had trouble relating to, I could see the consistency in her choices and in how she dealt with unpleasant situations. It became clear to me at the end why the actress took on this role. She did a good job with the role and portrayed her misery and servility effectively while maintaining a stiff upper lip.

Nirvana in Fire 2: The Wind Blows in Changlin -- Grappling with the ending

(Spoilers galore... enter at own risk)

I've been pondering over the ending of the drama since the end of its broadcast, ruminating over what went wobbly at the end. The first three-quarters of the series was undoubtedly spectacular television in any language and arguably more emotionally gripping than its predecessor (although not as cerebral I would hasten to add) but then something happened on the way to the ending that altered the course of the narrative leaving behind a general feeling of dissatisfaction. Having just finished watching Money Flower in the last day or so has helped me better understand what my problems with NiF 2's resolution were. Rather than being an outright "bad" ending, it came across more as unsatisfying. And in the history of C-drama bad endings, (and there's been a fair number lately) it certainly wasn't the worst. Far from it.

My main (and hopefully final) conclusion after tossing it over at the back of my mind and chatting with people is that the drama doesn't really earn its ending. Why? Because first of all, there is a strong disconnect between the first three quarters and the last quarter of the series. It was as if that final phase of the series became its own separate spin-off in which the main character took a back seat and made cameo appearances while the villain of the piece took centrestage. The moment Pingjing took refuge in Langya Pavilion with his sister-in-law and nephew, his development came to a standstill while he sat on his hands. The shift in focus from the protagonist and then to the antagonist was jarring and ultimately this was arguably the show's biggest narrative mistake especially after investing so much emotional energy in the main character's journey. I suspect that nobody wanted to see the villain having long chats and drinking tea with other antagonists especially when what they really want to see is who they thought the main guy was. It occurs to me that if the show was always trying to say that Pingjing was just the support act, then they really did a confusing job of it. 

In the earlier phase where members of the Changlin family are front and centre in the story with glimpses of the villain plotting and scheming in his lair, the drama worked brilliantly as a political cum detective story as the protagonists were navigating their political climate while trying to decipher the puzzle that the primary antagonist was cooking up (often quite literally) behind the scenes. In the final phase, on the other hand, the bad guy plot was revealed rather easily and quickly so it was all about waiting for the right time and implementation.

I don't doubt that the writer always had in mind this vision of Pingjing riding off in the sunset with his lady love free of family responsibilities affirming individual choice and personal freedom. But I didn't go away feeling that he really earned that ending straight after dispatching the coup leaders and doing a little bit of housekeeping. It felt inconsistent to me that the Pingjing that I'd come to know and love would leave behind unfinished business like the taking back of the three provinces from Marquis Mozi of Donghai and a young emperor who needs him more than ever.  Even though he might have been bitter with how the royal court treated his family, he was someone although cavalier on the outside was someone who took his responsibilities seriously. Pingzhang said it best. Even though Pingjing on appearance would come across as casual and easygoing, he would deliver the goods at the end. I worry too about the vulnerable Yuanshi who could really use the support I imagine.

I accept to some degree the show's conclusion that Changlin is more than just a family or an army or an individual. It's a spirit or ideal of loyalty and brotherhood that goes beyond blood ties or a formidable fighting force... I understood all of that but this doesn't mean that individuals who embody such ideals don't matter or that being brought up in a family which holds to such values isn't crucial. Of course they are which is why we have a Yuanqi who is fatherless... then motherless... corrupted by his ambition to stand out because he has no anchor and carves out a trajectory that leads him to lose everything in a desperate gamble to be nobody's fool. Then there's the young, still impressionable sovereign who because of family is led astray although not irrevocably. There's hope for him and he has learnt a few painful lessons as the show comes to its conclusion but he needs people he knows and can trust until such time when he can assert his own authority. He's certainly not going to become a great leader of his country just because he saw his mother take her own life in front of him or because he's had a few bumps and bruises dished out to him.

To be fair, the show telegraphed this resolution several episodes earlier when Lin Xi tells Pingjing that she cannot go where he's going despite understanding the fact that he is the son of Changlin and can't leave the young emperor to his own devices. The problem for me is she doesn't really say why. We can only assume that it's because of her mother's bidding or that she's so fearful of losing her independence that she's completely unwilling to compromise at any level except to affirm her love for him. Sadly the show doesn't flesh this out in any great detail or give any justification for her stance except to labour under the presumption that the audience would understand. For me this does the character grave injustice especially because there is nothing prior to and after this conversation that demonstrates why she would cling to her stance so vehemently even in extreme circumstances especially when she fell in love with Pingjing despite all her mother's admonishments. Her rigidity and lack of development in the name of "independence" doesn't in the final analysis sit all that well with me. For a show that prides itself on being somewhat historically realistic... it's even more of a head scratcher.

Perhaps the show was attempting to steer clear of triumphalism or hubris that it avoided taking a strong position on the whole issue of how the Changlin was treated after the death of Xiao Tingsheng. Nonetheless probably the most disappointing aspect of the drama's ending was the lack of an "official" repudiation of Minister Xun Baishui's position on Changlin as a threat. Sure there were moments in the final arc where one could see the consequences of a Jingling with no Changlin presence. Even Yuanshi acknowledged openly to his mother that the coup was only able to occur because there was no Prince Changlin. But then at the end of the show, when Pingjing has his final exchange with Yue Yinchuan, there seems to be a tacit reinforcement of Xun Baishui's belief that Changlin would always be seen as a potential threat to the sovereign especially because Pingjing was able to rally the troops under its banner as readily he did.

I was always critical of Xun Baishui's position not only because it was hypocritical but that it was politically simplistic as well. No one is disputing that there needs to be a balance of power but maintaining a balance of power can only go so far in insuring the stability of the emperor's rule. He wanted a sure-fire guarantee that the sovereign's rule would never be undermined by his subject. Laughably not only was he trying to manipulate the young Yuanshi to sway his reaction to Changlin  but his own machinations inevitably created a political/military vacuum that was filled by an opportunist who was planning not only to destabilize the Liang court but to overthrow the young emperor also. It's not that I am naive enough to believe internal threats don't exist but the reality is that they always exist. However that is what good leadership is all about, the ability to maintain that balance without merely ruling purely for survival. Dynasties come and go in a matter of two to three hundred years, what sort of lasting guarantee is Xun Baishui looking for? But of course, ultimately it was about him maintaining the power base of his own clan. And as the rightly demonstrates, when the sovereign is politically weak/naive, he is probably as much of an internal threat as any powerful noble family or more so.

I'm wondering now if the show had been given a bit more time if some of the issues that were problematic at the end could have been resolved more satisfactorily. We can only speculate.

This is what I said elsewhere as well:

I suppose if I had written those last 10-12 episodes, I would have at least put half the focus on Pingjing, the last adult male member of the family, still bitter at how his family was treated, wandering around living among the common people for 3 years and realising after a while the important role that he can play in the country as a whole and there's no running away from that. He could even become an Yi Zhi Mei type character with his band of merry followers while keeping tabs on things in Jingling via Langya Pavilion and old Changlin connections. Perhaps we could have seen him spending some time out in Qian province meeting the people who suffered in the war with Donghai? Just a thought. At the same time, Yuanqi's star would apparently be on the rise like we saw and gradually trying to ingratiate himself with the royal court. I would highlight the parallels and contrasts in their respective journeys while still maintaining the themes of loyalty and brotherhood. Although I liked Yue Yinchuan, I really didn't think his character was a necessary inclusion especially at such a late stage. 

Princess Agents 楚乔传 Rants Mostly

(Left this in my in-box for a few months to stew over... thought that I should finally post it)

Princess Agents is without a doubt one of the biggest examples of wasted potential I've had the misfortune of witnessing, squandering all the currency that it had built up in the early episodes. My view as someone who came to it not knowing much about the original storyline is that it suffered from a case of trying to incorporate too much and losing focus. Whatever changes it had made from the novel made no impact on my final verdict as I had no knowledge of it to begin with.
While there was an egregious amount of untapped potential apparently left unshot or on the cutting room floor, there was also a lot to like about it. Certainly the series had an addictive quality which saw viewers coming back for more each week. A large part was undoubtedly the eagerness of fans wanting to see their favourite pairing coming together after patiently going through the upheaval and rigours of the neverending push-pull.

On a personal note, I stuck at it all the way to the end for the male lead Yuwen Yue because quite frankly I was just holding my nose watching what the show was doing to the female titular character Chu Qiao and its primary antagonist, Yan Xun towards the end. The relationship between these three individuals could have potentially been the most interesting aspect of the show but in the end it sank into a mire of ambiguous romantic complications.

Therein lay my biggest problem with the drama... the love triangle. Because it died a slow and painful death, the rest of the show limped along with it.

Confession time: In general love triangles are hit and miss with me. I have a ambivalent-hate relationship with them but I tolerate them because they are more or less a default Asian drama trope. In this drama, the love triangle had outlived its use-by date long before the last episode. In dragging things out, the show did a grave disservice to its titular character. It became increasingly obvious that the drama was determined to play out said love triangle to the bitter end regardless of what damage it did to the characters. A gutsy, supposedly independent female freedom fighter confines herself to her bedroom sulking and angsting over how much more she can take. A vengeful prince skulking around her room waiting for her to give approval to his blood lust by painting himself as the perpetual pathetic underdog. It's obvious Chu Qiao is miserable watching Yan Xun descend into the dark spiral but believes that she can somehow reverse his trajectory. So she has a bad case of hope triumphing over good sense despite having more than inkling that whatever little chats they had about freedom in Chang'an were conducted at cross purposes.

The problem I have with Chu Qiao at this point are many. But I will mention the most important one here. By tethering herself to Yan Xun (or by the show tethering her to Yan Xun to keep the love triangle going) she's not that much better off than the slaves she waxed philosophical about. Whether she loves him romantically or not (and I'm inclined to think not) she's trapped in a cycle of dysfunctionality with him and most likely giving tacit consent to his plans.

As for Yan Xun, his villainy came across as half-baked to me. The drama evidently did not want him to go full blown Sith Lord at this point so they brought in another guy to do all the dirty work for him so that he could on the surface keep his nose clean temporarily It's not that Cheng Yuan leads Yan Xun astray but he does the very things Yan Xun would like to do but is afraid to because he knows he will incur the wrath of Chu Qiao.

On top of all that, the show also did a grave disservice to the so-called male lead who was not only impossibly devoted but became a largely reactive character whose primary purpose in life was to save his damsel in distress from all her own miscalculations along the way. Of course a man with the patience of Job and the self-sacrifice of a martyr has his charms but it diminishes something from his earlier development.

Of course the thing that really has one in tears at the end aside from the moving scenes between the leads is the cliffhanger ending. With no news still of anything in the horizon, I don't hold out much hope for a second series at this stage.

Moon Lovers Retrospective Ep. 19-20

Spoilers and all the rest... as usual 

It has taken far longer to this point than what I had intended. With this, I feel that my journey with Moon Lovers has properly come to an end. This piece turned out to be a lot shorter than I had originally intended it to be but it's the downside of having left it to hibernate for too long.

No doubt this piece will end up sounding like an apologia for Hae Su and perhaps one is desperately needed, as she’s become the most derided character for her apparently inexplicable/inconsistent actions towards the end. For that I suppose the drama needs to take some responsibility but I think all the elements are there for us to piece everything together in some cogent fashion.

I found that taking sides in the matter of So and Su very unhelpful because it obfuscated the big picture. This tug-of-war wasn’t helped by the rapidity of Episode 19 and how rushed everything felt in the build up to Su’s exit from the palace.

When Su left the palace, all the scheming and plotting against So more or less came to an end. His adversaries had very little ammunition left and he was freer to act against them because he didn’t have “extraneous” baggage to hold him back. She was his weakness because he wanted to protect this beautiful thing in his life that gave him a reason to be something than what he had been labeled to be.

At the end of the day I am convinced that she’s much more courageous than she’s been acknowledged to be. Contrary to what popular opinion (and what I myself had initially thought), I don’t believe she left to save herself but to save the man she loved the most and their child. She understood that she had become a political liability, a pawn in the chess game for the throne. To his credit he had become too obstinate to let her go as once he promised he would never do.

I also tend to think (from what we saw in her final letter to him) that she was afraid that they would end up hating each other and leaving was her way to protect what vestige affection she thought he had left for her. Sadly she left thinking that he had grown to hate her.

It’s become clearer to me with each viewing that Su loved So as much as he loved her. While she may have physically left the palace via a fake marriage, giving the appearance of departure, in actual fact, her hallucinations reveal the true nature of her heart. In her mind she creates a kind of bubble or capsule in which time never passes for them. A place of respite from the hostile world that would never allow them to be happy together, as well as cocooning them from the political machinations that was threatening to tear them apart.

Su left the palace for three reasons: First and foremost, to protect their child. Secondly, to protect So’s kingship and thirdly, to protect their larger than life love.

It is easy to see how lonely So was at the end. After all, the last we see of him in standing in the courtyard of the palace starring alone into the distance. He stuck to his guns right to the end in the way he held on to his memories of Su and not trusting very many people, if any. Su was forever a fixed notion in his existence that drove every part of him including his political formulations.

It’s equally easy to forget that Su was rather incredibly lonely in the palace. She wasn’t allowed to continue at Damiwon and became the trophy mistress that she had been vehemently decrying about. She had been prevented by the political machinery from marrying the man she loved and become caught in a polygamous situation which she swore she’d never get into in order to help him strengthen his position in the court. What’s worse, to protect the man she loved and their child, she married someone else to get out of the palace something she also said she’d never do. She ended up sitting around all day waiting for him. She had no friends in the palace and things were fasting deteriorating between them. Bit by bit, everything that was GHJ disappeared.

This is why I have come to admire Su quite a bit after this retrospective. She demonstrated so much strength and practical sense in what she did. Like Lady O, she gave up what life she had so that the man she loved and their child could live on in relative safety. Remember what she said after she slashed her wrist? Remember what Lady O said in the cave? “I protected what I wanted to protect. It’s right that I should pay the price.” Whatever her flaws, she died as she had lived.

I think she understood all that better than he did and at the end of the day she understood his character much better than he understood hers. So’s loneliness is in part of his own making. If he hadn’t been so pigheaded and opened the first letter he had received, he would have been able to spend time with her in her final moments. But at the end of the day, he is his mother’s son… overwhelming in love and extreme in anger. He had to take some of the responsibility for how things deteriorated at the end. We can see that too with his own son with Yeon Hwa… the mistrust, the unwillingness to have a relationship with the boy, the lack of desire to even try.

In that scene where Yeon Hwa says she knows why Su left So was undoubtedly her way of getting a rise out of So while showing deep resentment against her bitterest rival. In her eyes, Su was an upstart who broke all the rules while managing to capture the heart of a future King in such a way that he could never let her go, that he could never love anyone else even when she had long left. Her death did not diminish his love for her in the slightest.

This scene positions YH as the woman who may on the outside seem appeared to have everything she had craved, plotted and schemed for but even though everything was finally in her grasp, she still came up empty. Thinking that if she took possession of the queen’s seat and bore the King a son, she would finally have full control of his heart but no, So doubles down and keeps his distance.

In and amongst all that must be a tale about greed and possession. One may get everything they want but still feel empty at the end of the day because what we think we want isn’t necessarily what satisfies.

I get some satisfaction from knowing that YH couldn’t get everything she wanted either because the only man she genuinely cared about despises her and her son so it a nice bit of poetic justice there. It’s also true, however, that YH couldn’t possibly know why HS left because she didn’t know about the daughter.

However, I think there’ s kernel of truth to what she says. There’s a streak of pride and stubbornness about So that can be frustrating. He is immoveable. On the positive side, he is extremely loyal but on the downside, he can’t understand how anyone can express different types of love to a whole lot of men but still choose to love one more with greater passion. He just doesn’t have this ability to compartmentalize or compromise. In the end Su had to walk away so that he could consolidate his position among the clans. Even if he doesn’t care about YH, Yu is still his son.

This, I think is So’s fatal flaw. His rigidity, pride. If he had let Su go on his terms, he could have been there when she breathed her last.  On some level his behaviour was understandable especially knowing his journey and what he had to go through to get to where he finally was. But yes, his mother’s son.

YH whatever her many faults did understand this point. Even if she was not wrong about why Su left the palace, she wasn’t wrong about So’s inherent talent for not making friends.

The bittersweet ending exemplifies to me the greatness of ML. For a show to be so consistent in its characterization is so rare. People don’t change people.  People don’t change easily or at all. They may adapt to circumstances but the core of who they are never changes. Love doesn’t conquer all but love can bring hope and new life.

So thought that Su had betrayed him in defending Uk and ultimately for leaving him through marriage with Jeong. For him love meant that she would go along with whatever he did but for her love was about the truth about what was right even if that meant standing up to So in order to protect him from himself. She loved him too much to overlook his flaws for fear that they would eventually destroy him. 

What of Jeong? Did he get the girl? I suppose he got to have her as she lived out her remaining days and had the privilege of having her die in her arms. Even while he couldn’t keep the ashes, he got to keep the little girl and raise her. In that regard, his love and loyalty to Su was genuine even if she didn’t care for him in that way. Much as I disliked Jeong earlier on, it occurred to me that he was the right person to send her off. With no agenda and utterly loyal, he would do what she wanted unencumbered by any emotional baggage. The great irony of this situation is that son who was preferred and greatly by the mother "lost" in the love stakes to the brother who was hated and despised by said mother.

History is full of ironies as exemplified by Moon Lovers. The son which was least likely to be king became one of the longest serving kings in the Goryeo era. He struck his enemies ruthlessly, yet he emancipated slaves. The woman he loved left him because she loved him too much to see him destroy himself. Though he was brokenhearted when she left, he gained some measure of strength in holding on to her ideals.

The scene where So finally reads Su's letter is for me the single most powerful scene in the finale. Not far behind is the one where So finally meets his daughter who bears a strong resemblance to her mother. Those two scenes become as it were, post-mortem evidence of Su's love for So. To finally be certain that the woman you loved so desperately, never stopped thinking and wondering about you until the day she died, while preserving a means of protecting the fruit of that love. If only he knew that she was still dreaming of him even having returned to where she came from.

Whatever flaws it may have had, there was something inherently powerful at the core of Moon Lovers. An unfulfilled longing for a love that goes beyond the grave, traversing across time and space. A forbidden love perpetually looking to find a safe place. A home. This was truly a drama meant to grab you by the throat, stab you in the heart, twist the knife in and rip your guts out. On that front, I believe the show succeeded. 

This retrospective is based on the SBS broadcast version. Subtitles for this episode can be found at Darksmurf Subs.

Moon Lovers Retrospective Ep. 17-18

As usual this post contains episode spoilers past, present and future.

For me Ep. 17 signals the beginning of the end for Hae Su’s stint in Goryeo. It struck me forcibly the first time and subsequently how the drama is quick to elucidate that Su’s purpose in Goryeo is limited to helping So ascend the throne in a bloodless coup. Despite all her experiences of the palace and misgivings regarding that “terrifying seat”, she helps expedite matters, in part to keep things civilized and in part to put a quick end to their separation. But expediting matters regarding his ascension doesn’t facilitate their romance and it’s clear that while getting throne would be easy, hanging on to it will be far more problematic.

Once So grabs the throne and becomes Gwangjong, every single thing that comes afterwards is designed to force his hand with regards to maintaining his rule. He is challenged at every point to give something up… to play the zero-sum game. It’s a game he adamantly refuses to play, obstinately holding on to everything he had previously gained. On a certain level, it’s an admirable position to take considering it’s an uphill wall with no end in sight. Again we see him as the quintessential existential hero.

At the end of 16, So declared that he wanted to have both the girl and the throne. This was contrary to his father’s lifelong mantra which mattered little when he did not have eyes for the throne. When the resolution to attain the throne emerged, he was quite prepared to move on and put his relationship with Su aside to protect her and to make his move under the cover of subterfuge. It was also clear that to gain the support of the Great General, he had to prove he was serious about overthrowing the incumbent ruler. Furthermore, So may have also believed that this was the end for the two of them knowing Su’s aversion to the throne and that he had to live by the mantra his father had built his kingdom on.

At the same time while maintaining his distance for as long as was possible, he was pining for Su. At the back of his mind it probably made no sense to him that someone who was so instrumental in instilling so much confidence in him was no longer a part of his life. Could he feasibly become King without her? After all, didn’t he tell others that she was someone he could never abandon and that “without her he was nothing.”

Even before consummating their relationship he realized he couldn’t do without her so he breaks and gives in to her pleas. In a way, he’s right… he could never be King without her but what he doesn’t understand is that all of that would come at a very high price. And… he would never be able to give her the kind of life she craves with him within the confines of the palace.

It was brazen of him to eschew long standing political orthodoxy. Raising his fist to the universe. Certainly I wondered if things would go his way. Now 2 episodes later, it appears that that declaration was pure defiance against the sovereignty of fate and it was always going to be a lost cause. Apparently Father's been right all along... no one can have both. Something's got to give.

One of the great myths of our time... perhaps the great lie... is that a person can have everything. I think it is the great lie often told to women... that they can have everything. A career, kids, marriage blah blah blah. In one sense it's true that women in modern contexts have more choices today than their grandmothers ever did but the reality is that no one can have everything. At least not all at the same time. Trying to have everything has brought about incredible stress to women in our day with the demands of child raising and keeping to a job pulling us in a hundred directions. And I say that from painful experience.

For Moon Lovers to espouse the zero sum game so vividly and so consistently to its bitter conclusion… is for me… dare I say it, rather courageous.

While the show was airing, many of us identified fate's hand in pushing Su and So together while pulling them apart. There is also a sense with this push and pull that inherent in love is a kind of greed. To love is to be greedy... in that it is all consuming in its focus on the object of one's affections. When So only cared about Su, he could be the devoted suitor with no thought for anything else. Which suited Su very well because that’s the kind of relationship she was looking for. But now that he is King as well as the ardent lover, he cannot be considerate of all her sensitivities lest he be thought weak. He has to make hard choices with larger considerations at play.

We saw that first with Uk. When he fell in love with Su, he was greedy enough to set aside his usual consideration for his wife and openly show his regard for Su (as open as a guy like Uk is capable of being). It should have been a hint to us and to him that the trajectory he was embarking on was potentially destructive but those were the early days. It's rather telling also that Uk has continued to be the primary instrument of disrupting So and Su’s relationship. 

So and Su have both been mugged by reality and have been confronted with the zero sum game. It was put to them that So had to choose… the throne or the woman, although for Su it was probably more the man she was supporting than the throne. I suppose she made his job a lot easier by pulling out first but she chose him over her own desire for personal happiness. There didn't seem to be any room for a middle ground. It was this or that, and it did make sense for the throne to come first because history must run its course. Sadly of course, Su has no real place in it except as a bystander not as a player.

 What struck me about Uk the second time I watched 17 was how he saw himself as some kind of arbiter of fairness. He just couldn’t accept what he thought was the injustice of one being able to have it all. As everyone knows I'm hardly a fan of Uk but he did have a point. If he had to give up the girl to pursue the throne, why shouldn't So have to as well. Therefore to make a statement about the injustice that he had to suffer, he forced So to make a zero sum choice. A choice that So was recalcitrant about making... one he fought kicking and screaming... one he didn't want Su to make so he refused to talk to her about it.

It may have been a false choice on some level but with the Chunju clan scratching at his doorstep, it was clear that trying to hang on to girl and throne was a much bigger challenge than he had been ready for. 

I wish Su had said why she chose So despite his suddenly becoming ambitious for the throne. I know she didn’t want Uk to think that he was the lesser man so she blathered on unconvincingly about him not having the king’s star. But… he was the lesser man! That was true. :D To be fair, he was a man much more tethered to convention. He saw the writing on the wall and he acted accordingly. Not necessarily a particularly wicked man… but his personality was ill-suited to being with Su. Maybe she just didn’t want to say that she loved So a lot more which may have been something of a slap in the face. Still, it would have been probably closer to the truth. ;)

Yeon Hwa put the same kind of zero sum option to Su. "We can co-exist", she said. Well, we know that she had no intention of co-existing but it was a negotiation tactic. Apparently she wants it all too... the throne, the man and his love but she plays her cards close to her chest. However, even if she has won the first round, winning the second and subsequent rounds is not going to be as easy. 

It's clear to me that the recent turn of events has awoken a sleeping dragon. Or to use the show's own metaphor, a napping wolf. Time and time again we see that people underestimate So, not only as a warrior but as a political opponent. Backing him into corners and tightening nooses round his neck aren't really that great in the long run. I think we're definitely witnessing his evolution as a politician in the way he triangulates with his adversaries. In a way I fear for them because they've unleashed a powerful weapon that they will have no control over. I imagine that once he starts, there's not stopping him. But frankly, I have a really tough time feeling sorry for any of them because they have brought this largely upon themselves.

I remember watching a well-made fan video where the editor claimed that Su changed So. I, however, tend to think that she tamed him rather than changed him. She certainly brought out his best qualities and put his “wilder” instincts in check. As I’ve said elsewhere, when he’s with Su, he’s an adorable little cub but provoke him long enough, the wolf returns.

We also see that while So did gain some albeit small measure of happiness with Su, his mummy issues would continue to dog him to the bitter end. Not all of it comes from his inability to move on from the past because Queen Yu with the aid of the Jeong does actively take steps to hamper his kingship right at the start. He desire for acceptance from her and his family does run deep but it doesn’t seem to be forthcoming.

I will preface what I say next by insisting that I’m not friend of Queen Yu’s or even of Jeong but I support Su’s attempts to bring some measure of reconciliation even if the results do not end up recommending that particular course of action. Why? I am certain it wasn’t entirely for Jeong’s benefit. In fact, I’m sure it isn’t the primary reason for her defiance of the King’s orders.

It was definitely for So’s sake that she informed Jeong that his mother was dying so that So would have no regrets in future about how things transpired here. In part, Su cares deeply about the princes and wants the brothers to stay brothers but more than that, she knows how much more it will hurt So when the anger dissipates and realizes eventually how much he regrets his actions here.

So made Su his confidant once by telling her years earlier how jealous he was of Jeong growing up, enjoying the lavished affection of their mother. Their mother created divisions in that family by playing favourites and So lived with the stigma of being rejected. Even then he’s always wanted acceptance and love from his family. He may resent Jeong and his mother for plotting against him but in his heart of hearts, they are still family. For going against him, Jeong is banished not executed.

Su knows this only too well. She understands So better than he understands her. Whatever he does now in a fit of rage… righteous or unrighteous… he will regret it. Just as he was so broken up over having to fight and kill Yo even as his elder brother had committed treason. He reached out to her for comfort and sobbed bitterly believing that he had a killed a full brother. Not just any brother but one that mistreated him, despised him and was ready to kill him if needed. Whatever their relationship had been, So always craved that familial bond that eluded him his entire life.

I think Su knows that So’s heart is tender towards his family no matter what outside appearances may indicate and in this instance attempts to mitigate the consequences of actions meted in a fit of fury. I imagine when once So cools down and reflects on the situation, he will be weighed down by regret and guilt.

I imagine my view on this isn’t the popular one but it makes the most sense to me in light of everything that’s transpired. Su chose So despite everything she knows about the Gwangjong of history. She was willing to sacrifice her greatest desire for his sake. She doesn’t have much power in the palace and court affairs. She can’t even marry him and be his queen. But what she can do is try her utmost to protect his heart. Whatever king So becomes, she hopes that he will always have the heart that loves his family.


This retrospective is based on the SBS broadcast version. Subtitles for this episode can be found at Darksmurf Subs.