For my most recent drama I stepped into the Wayback Machine.
Of the first ten dramas I watched, the oldest was 2004’s Lovers in Paris; this one beats it by a full nine years. I only
watched it on the recommendation of The Korean at the blog Ask a Korean, and knowing what I do
about his political views, I’m not surprised he liked this drama so much. Thankfully
though, this drama wasn’t as politically preachy as I was expecting it to be. I
guess I should explain it.
Plot
This drama centers on three characters: Tae-Soo, Woo-Seok
and Hye-Rin.
Tae-Soo’s father was a Communist who died before he was
born, and he was raised by a single mother who runs a tavern/brothel. He’s a
tough kid who frequently gets into fights, and his superior fighting ability
gets him recruited by gangs, though he’s determined not to join them. Tae-Soo
plans to join the military after high school, but when the time comes for him
to enlist, he’s rejected because of his father’s Communist ties, and his mother
dies in an accident shortly thereafter. With no other options, he joins the
gang and lives his life as a thug. Tae-Soo doesn’t like being a criminal, but
it’s the only thing he’s able to do.
Woo-Seok is a boy who becomes Tae-Soo’s best friend in high
school. Woo-Seok’s father is a poor farmer who deals with hardships because of
the country’s corrupt dictatorship. Woo-Seok’s father recognizes his
intelligence at an early age and encourages him to study hard, so that he can
become a prosecutor and clean up the corruption. Woo-Seok gets accepted to university
after high school, where he studies law diligently. Woo-Seok is highly
principled and honest, and everyone who meets him respects his integrity.
Hye-Rin is a woman that Woo-Seok meets in college. The
daughter of a wealthy casino magnate, she defies the expectations of her
economic class by joining the student protests against the dictatorship. She
and Woo-Seok develop a close friendship, but it never quite blossoms into a
full romance. Hye-Rin is very outspoken and independent, and she is frequently
at odds with her own father, who’s involved with many shady business dealings.
This series follows the lives of these characters from the mid-1970’s
to the late-1980’s, a turbulent period during which Korea experienced
assassinations, military coups, martial law, student protests, and eventually
democracy.
This drama is notable in Korea for its cultural
significance. At the time of its airing, democracy was still new to the
country, and the people were still coming to terms with their recent history.
It was one of Korean television’s most watched programs ever.
Writing and Acting
Both were of a high caliber. Unlike the corny acting in most
modern-day dramas, the performances in this one were the work of people
dedicated to their craft.
The writing was good too. The story flowed well and felt
like it had a clear direction, and the final episode especially was great
drama. While it was to be expected, I was a little disappointed that this
series was mostly devoid of humor, as it dealt with serious issues that shaped
Korean history. There were a few parts that made me laugh, but it might’ve been
my own misinterpretations of the situations.
Music
There were three recurring musical themes, if I can recall
correctly. This was from the days before a Korean drama had an album’s worth of
pop songs produced for its soundtrack. I don’t believe any of these songs was
made specifically for the drama. In fact, one of them was in Russian.
There was also a classical music version of “Yesterday” in
the background for one scene.
English
Words: Dealer, boiler, casino, seminar, madam, melodrama, circle,
bonus, tank, “nice shot!”, slot machine, poker, tip, roulette, smog, death
mask, skid mark, tire, “what kind of dealer are you?”, VIP room, Miss Lee, paint,
housekeeper, night club.
The casino in this drama catered to foreigners, so there
were several scenes with people speaking English, as well as Japanese.
There was an early scene with two men at a gambling table,
and the dealer spoke English to them even though the men were both Korean. He
sounded like he had a British accent.
In a different casino scene, there were people gambling
whose accents sounded American, but their acting was terrible, because the
dialogue sounded wooden.
They also spoke English to a casino patron that was caught
cheating. Subtitles were included because the pronunciation was so terrible.
Hey, I Know That
Person
The actress who played Jeong-Eun in Spring Day played Hye-Rin here. Even though this was ten years
before Spring Day, her credits list
no other roles between those two. I found out that it was because she got
married and was retired from acting during that time. She later got divorced
and returned to acting with Spring Day.
It was another case of me not recognizing her at first, but once I saw her face
at a certain angle I realized it was her. She looked very different here.
The actress who played Baek-Moo in Hwang Jin-Yi was here as Tae-Soo’s mother. She was much younger,
but I knew her face looked familiar when I saw it.
Director Choi from Lovers
in Paris had a small role too, as Woo-Seok’s boss.
Other Observations
Several fight scenes looked really fake. In an otherwise
well-made drama, that was perhaps the one production aspect that I really had a
gripe with.
The first three episodes each centered on a different
character. It reminded me of LOST.
I was surprised at some brief nudity: At an office where military
medical exams are being given, they show a line of men dropping their drawers
and bending over behind a translucent curtain. I’d be surprised if they showed
that today. This was 1995. Maybe it aired at a late enough hour that it was
allowed, or something. Or maybe they figured they didn’t matter so much,
because they were just butts.
There were so many darkly-lit scenes that it was sometimes
hard to tell what was going on. I found that this drama was best watched in the
dark, because there’d frequently be a glare otherwise.
They mixed archive footage of some of the historical events depicted
with the dramatized stuff. It seemed obvious which was which, but it was a good
effort.
There were stylistic differences from modern day dramas.
Most dramas these days end with a cliffhanger and then pick up at the moment
the last episode left off in the next one. This one didn’t do that. Sometimes
it wasn’t clear if I was watching the correct episode, because it would be
beginning in a completely new scenario. I never realized how accustomed to that
construct my brain was.
Another difference was that it almost felt like a movie. The
film style, the intense drama, the lighting, it all just had a different emotional
texture than most dramas today.
I saw a parallel between Hye-Rin and Jeong-Eun from Spring Day, and I don’t know whether it
was intentionally put in there due to the fact that the same actress played
both parts. Early on in Spring Day,
Jeong-Eun is voluntarily mute, and Eun-Ho helps her break out of her
self-imposed silence by forcing her to get in touch with her emotions and let
out a cry. In Sandglass, Hye-Rin is
in shock after a traumatic experience at one point, but another character helps
her break out of it in a similar fashion. It seemed like it would be more than
coincidental, but for all I know it could’ve been.
There were four different scenes with people losing their
parents to death. In fact, (spoiler alert) Woo-Seok’s mother is the only parent
of the three main characters who isn’t dead by the end.
It’s interesting to see gangsters who don’t use guns, as
Korea doesn’t allow private gun ownership. In many scenes where I naturally
expect people to pull out their guns, it doesn’t happen. They beat people with
sticks and pipes, stab them with knives and hit them with cars, but no guns.
Inconsistency: In the final episode Tae-Soo’s birthdate is
given as 1957, but in the first episode it’s given as 1954. That annoys me.
Final Thoughts
This is just the impression I get from my observations of
Korean culture, but this drama supports it: Koreans have this tendency to
fetishize democracy. There’s an early scene where a young Woo-Seok reads out
loud a passage from a book that says democracy is the perfect system because
everyone has an equal voice and no one is oppressed (I guess the phrase “tyranny
of the majority” was never introduced to them).
That type of thinking works in a society high in social
capital (like Korea), but in the U.S., where there’s so much diversity diluting
a sense of national unity, essentially reducing us to warring factions, some of
us view democracy as its own worst enemy. Honest left-wingers love democracy
because it’s egalitarian in theory. The left-wingers with insidious intent know
that it’ll collapse once people can vote themselves into bankruptcy, forcing
big government to take over.
I believe the reason Koreans love democracy so much is
because it took so long for them to truly achieve it. For many years it was
their goal as a nation, and now that they have it, they can’t help but
celebrate it. So far it seems to have worked out well for them, so I guess
there’s no reason they shouldn’t. I just hope they’re aware that democracy has
failed many times, and that it requires the right societal configuration to be
successful, so it’s hardly a perfect system.
As for my ranking of this drama, I’m a bit conflicted about
where to put it. At times this drama kind of bored me, and other times it
really excited me. I feel like one would have to be Korean to truly appreciate
every aspect of it, so while it may be the most historically significant drama
I’ve watched so far, it wasn’t the one I enjoyed the most, which is what my
ranking is based on. All things considered, I think I’ll put it in the upper
middle of my rankings.
Ranking:
1.
Beethoven
Virus (5)
2.
City
Hunter (7)
3.
49 Days (9)
4.
Unexpected
You (4)
5.
Sandglass (11)
6.
Three
Dads, One Mom (2)
7.
Delightful
Girl Choon-Hyang (10)
8.
Lovers in
Paris (1)
9.
Hwang
Jin-Yi (6)
10.
Spring Day
(3)
11.
Protect
the Boss (8)
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