Miss Truth (2020): Episodes 21-26

One of the first things that happen to RY when she arrives in Chang'an is stumble unwittingly into a homicide. Someone's cleverly inserted human skeletal remains into a faux jade screen and making it bleed. It causes quite a stir and as we expect, the case is given to Xiao Song. He knows quite well who is the best woman for the job of extracting the bone from the screen but seems to believe that she would have nothing to do with him if asked properly. So he does a convoluted thing of tricking her into doing the job for free. Of course there's also the matter that his rival in love has also made his way to the metropolis under a new identity. This raises all kinds of red flags for the suspicious Xiao Song who already has his hands full trying to keep his lady love's attention focused on him.

For a while I wasn't sure whether those two would end up together or that I necessarily needed them together as a couple but after Episode 22, when they are finally working so well together and are so much in sync during the deductions that it would be an absolute tragedy if they didn't end up together. 

It was so funny and so sweet when Xiao Song, broke protocol, volunteered to be her assistant at the autopsy. He knew exactly what to do, setting up her tools etc and he even deftly applied the deodorizers on her cleft palate. I can see why the head of the Board of Punishments, Lord Lu was looking faintly amused by their antics. It did look like they were flirting and I just adored how they replayed their quid pro quo relationship quietly during the set-up. 

It is obvious that neither Xiao Song or Ran Yan is sure what the lady wants. He hopes desperately that she's come to Chang'an because of him. I think it's clear that she does. At the very least she thinks that solving crimes with him has become her calling. But after being burnt by the ex-fiance, she's leery of being so open with her feelings or committing herself so soon to another man. She was given multiple opportunities to divorce XS but she hesitates each time. She could have not gone to Chang'an but she did after being expressly invited to join him there. Then she goes beyond the call of duty to try and sneak into the head of the Ministry of Justice's office to look at documents related to the case. She would most likely have been caught except for the timely intervention of her suitors. When Xiao Song tells her he should punish her for sneaking in and stealing documents, she is adamant that she was only helping him. Then there is the incident with the in-laws. On one side of her mouth she claims she was forced into marrying XS but as soon as the in-laws talk about dissolving the marriage, she protests and insists on being acknowledged as wife #3. Her rationale to him is that she wants to help him investigate the deaths of his late wives because he helped her previously... presumably in her mother's case.

Things get dicey on the home front so XS sends RY back to her cousin's place for her safety. She's really quite miffed and vents at the restaurant about the gender of the goose. Her cousin knows that she's angry about XS taking her home and tells her that things haven't been good at the Xiao household. In response she shows up at the brothel in the middle of a sting declaring to the prostitutes that XS is her man, brandishing a knife in menacing fashion. This makes XS a very happy man and he is quick, as usual, to adapt to the situation. My thesis is that even while she had opportunities to keep away from XS, she kept running back to him. She used the convenient excuse each time that she wanted to help him solve cases to stay at his side. Moreover, each time any one mentioned any of his late wives, she would... as the idiom goes... "be eating vinegar"... get very jealous.

There is a clear shift in her paradigm of operation but she is reluctant to comply with the reality of her own mind. I think XS senses it and asks her to stay... implying that he really wants them to consummate their relationship because he thinks... rightly... that he has finally won her heart. 

Of course, Su Fu interjects himself into the situation and his intervention to get her to cough up the Marquis of Sui's pearl by manipulating her compassionate side leads to the most serious rift between XS and her yet.

This show has resonances of classic Agatha Christie. Even while Xiao Song is on the hunt for the pearl which is inspiring carnage of the first order, the majority of cases so far seem to be about lost love of some kind... something that was an integral part of the Christie oeuvre. Except for the tomb raider murders, the crimes that our romancing detectives stumble onto are cautionary tales of obsession, love triangles and not being able to let go. There's no room for subtlety of any kind evidently. 

Apparently they knew about dissociative personality disorder even in those days. Surprising that people were so broadminded and they didn't think to bring in the priests to exorcise her etc. (Perhaps they did at some point) Ironic though that the man the lady at the centre of it all loved so desperately and couldn't let go off was a bit of a loser that bailed at the first sign of trouble. And the seemingly dodgy husband was the one who really cared for her and kept her secret for all that time.

This is one of the things I love about this drama. It moves. Everything moves. Cases close in record time after our team do their thing. Let's chalk it up to the fact that I've been burnt by C dramas far too many times but I really didn't expect the pearl to be found until Episode 34 at least. But here we are in Episode 26, it's in Xiao Song's hot hands. (And he does have really nice hands) So yeah, the pearl is real and if legend holds true, the owner has access to incredible wealth to do some serious damage.

So what was XS doing in Suzhou then? After all, the pearl was literally in his own backyard. Seems like a waste of time then to have made the trip. Well, not entirely. He had to find the lambskin too and he was under orders to gather clues about the pearl's whereabouts given to him by the Big Man himself. But in reality... going to Suzhou was narratively about him finding another wife. A wife. The third wife. The wife to end all wives. Or rather the wife to end all need for any more wives. Hopefully. Let's hope he's third time lucky. 

XS seems to have a hard time hanging on to women... poor fellow. It's the curse of the pearl being so close to home. I remember when he and RY were trapped in that stuffy ancient tomb waiting to be rescued. He cracked a knowing smile when she said that the death of his two wives probably had nothing to do with misfortune etc. There had to be some earthly explanation for at least one of them. I think he knew then... that she was the one. They were on the same page. He'd met his soulmate. 

Apparently all that love and affection he showered on Wife #2 was all a smokescreen. She was after something and he always knew it. Dear fellow... never lets me down. 

 And RY threw a jealous tantrum all for nothing. 

Miss Truth (2020) : Week 2

The latest and newest 6 episodes have definitely cemented my newfound fervour for this drama and for young Toby who plays Xiao Song. I'm even warming up to Zhou Jie Song who is the titular character. I've gone a bit fanatical and watched the last 6 at least twice already. For some unknown reason it just hits all the right notes with me.  It's not perfect of course. Editing continues to be a problem in C dramas although this is certainly not the worst I've experience. But the OST is actually reasonably good.

I've come to realise in the last couple of years of watching C dramas that often the gems are really to be found amongst those that feature lesser or unknown actors. Maybe it behooves the production team to rely less on star power and more on the writing and storytelling to do the heavy lifting. It's not as if the lesser known actors are talentless either but they're not the primary drawcard I expect.

I don't usually have a problem coming up with the "who" of the whodunnits here but I enjoy finding out the "whys" and the "whats". I'm also somewhat amused that they even managed to insert a serial killing case into the mix anachronistically explained with modern profiling tools.  I refer specifically to the third case that seems to be tied to a traditional Snow Witch folklore.

Because our leads are adamant that there are no supernatural elements involved in this case, we can certainly expect a Scooby Doo outcome at the end of it all. Here our killer or killers seem to have a deep-seated psychological hatred for men and women who are having extra-marital affairs.

As for the progression of the main romance, I'm largely content with how things are progressing. It's probably less common that the FL doesn't fall head over heels with the ML first but it isn't something that never happens either . As someone who isn't normally enamoured with love triangles, this one is actually tolerable and surprisingly well-integrated into the storyline. It doesn't come across as some unnecessary appendage for the most part. It also makes sense why Ran Yan isn't head over heels with Xiao Song because with their respective personalities, they're bound to clash hard at the start. He wants something from her, she drives a hard bargain so he pushes her buttons to make her give in, she does grudgingly. All the makings of a beautiful romance.  Truth be told, she didn't learn to be a coroner just to sit around and twiddle her thumbs. So he understands something about her that she doesn't realise about herself. Still Su Fu is her knight in shining armour future fiance with a sob story so the lonely girl in her is swept off her feet.

Of course I'm not a fan of the screechy step-sister (who could be) who has her eye on Xiao Song as potential husband material. She may have succeeded in getting her hooks into him but Ran Yan's efforts to trigger her is always a guaranteed laugh. Humour also comes from Cui Sang, the genius scholar that's crushing on RY. His plan of being stuck with her in the forest came to naught. Not a contender for suitor, I don't think.  Of course there's the banter between the leads that brightens up the bleakness around them... although lately he seems less inclined because his feelings for her have undoubtedly changed. Their nicknames for each other may have started as teasing and mutual insult but it's gradually becoming more about endearment and intimacy.

One of the surprising things is that Xiao Song confesses so early and then retracts by saying that he tricked her. Avoiding a loss of face? I don't think so. I suppose he did it partly to test the waters and he thinks he knows that RY is in love with SF... at least it's the obvious conclusion to come to. So he retreats. I doubt he's given up completely. Not that he really can if he's drawn to her like a moth to a flame.

It is telling that both men are not properly understood by RY. Given her background and age, it's not surprising. She has an anti-authoritarian streak from being mistreated by her own family so there's a prejudice there and she presumes that what you see is what you get. I also think that she doesn't quite know who she is or what she wants. Although she claims that the Merman puts her in jeopardy, the reality is that she relishes risk-taking. That he knows all too well. Why else would she deal in corpses and go after leads? She's never played it safe even as a child so why start now?

Despite how the odds are stacked against him right now, I still root for Xiao Song to get the girl. Ultimately he's a brilliant nerd that wants to play detective and she's a good fit for him. The other half, in fact.  While he may toy with her at times, he cares for her much more than she realises. Given time, I think she will realise fully that he is someone she can't do without, given his passion and hers.

Miss Truth (2020) : Initial Impressions

It's always a pleasure to find a drama where the leads are intelligent people and that's including the 2ML who has his own agenda. For me, this is the sort of detective drama that when done well surpasses everything else that come out of Cdrama land. The potential is there for that to happen but a lot rests on the writing which is so far pretty good. That said, I didn't think that the Ran Yan character really needed to be that impertinent towards Xiao Song right from Day 1 but it is one of those tropes that seems par for the course especially the show is determined to have the leads at odds in this early phase.

Xiao Song's strategy of course is to toy with her as would befit someone of his foresight and shrewdness as well as an innate self-confidence that comes from being certain of his abilities. Clearly he is a good judge of people and talent among his myriad of skills. On top of that he is rather open-minded for his time, engaging a feisty woman to be his personal forensic pathologists because he knows her skills are extraordinary. His nickname for her is on point: hu li... she can sniff out the details and from what I gather, foxes grip their prey with their canines until they're dead or disemboweled. He seldom takes offence at her outbursts (I imagine it's because he's generally in a superior bargaining position but also he's amused by her antics) and her bark is usually worse than her bite. He's the kind of male character that I relish watching. Not overly garrulous, not overly aloof but sharp and somewhat mischievous. While he toys with the FL, he doesn't feel the need to denigrate her. And that... I really really like. Plus his logical and pragmatic side also seems to override any egotistical tendencies which I also find very attractive. Her nickname for him is Xiao Ren Yu... Fishman Xiao or Merman Xiao because they have a meet cute in a steaming hot bath. All that to say is that her first impression of him is not a joyous one.

Unlike what she thinks initially, he isn't a heartless man even if he pushes her buttons to micro manage her recalcitrance. Her prejudice clouds her judgment somewhat but that gradually softens over time when she realises that he's not just a big shot official throwing his weight around. She's a good partner-in-crime for him not just to cover the forensic pathology side of things but as they deliberate over the cases. Like a Watson to his Holmes.  

Ran Yan's relationship with Su Fu, the 2ML is surprisingly less cliche. He has been set up to be a possible contender in that it is possible she could ride off with him at the end except for the fact that he's involved in some deep dark plot against the throne. He is a sword-carrying, walking bag of angst and, on some level he really does care about her. 

Whether he cares enough to abandon his role in the conspiracy that he's a part of, that remains to be seen. But she is crushing on him at this point so he does seem to be the frontrunner in this love triangle. At the very least she is responding to his gentle nature although his overt threats to kill her doesn't seem to be an impediment to them forming an attachment.

 That said, I can't see why Xiao Song can't be with Ran Yan at the finishing line even if he's handicapped by the fact that Ran Yan is already betrothed to Su Fu and that he's been very "unlucky" with marriage... being twice widowered already. The resolution of all that will be interesting to watch.

As she notes, it might not be anything to do with how his stars are aligned but that might be an explanation much closer to home. That is a telling statement and perhaps there's an avenue that will be explored down the track in the context of the investigations. It's evident that he cares about her beyond the bounds of business and work. The hu li nickname is becoming increasingly a term of endearment especially now that he's given her a jade fox to commemorate their successful working relationship. 

I also like the inclusion of the scholar character as a member of the team. A little bit on the timid side but has a useful skill set as well. Apparently he has picturing ability which should come in handy again.

The cases are nicely constructed and deconstructed by our detectives. This is the sort of thing I wanted more of in Under the Power. They are complex enough to be intriguing but not overly convoluted that they're dragged out unreasonably. The template is something I'm happy to buy into. Individual cases with an overarching storyline that functions separately. Any of that could change of course... but seeing that it's a 36 episode drama, I'm fairly confident we won't be bogged down by too many non-criminal related subplots.

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.