Still IRIS...
Dec. 17th, 2009 06:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieI keep thinking about the ending of IRIS. I really don't think a drama haunted me this much - ever.
The thing that makes this so awful to me is that this ending is NOT out of nowhere, that it perfectly makes sense. Hyun Joon has been living on borrowed time since he was a child. And sooner or later, his luck was going to run out.
You can't root something like IRIS out, not really. It was a matter of when they were going to get him, truly.
But still - in the annals of kdramas I have seen, this is going to go down as the most brutal ending ever. Happiness within his fingertips, almost, and then put out, so easily, as if he's never been. People at soompi are upset it didn't happen in a heroic meaningful fashion (saving Sa Woo, shielding the President etc) but that is precisely why it rings so bleakly true to me.
If you think about it, it's a horrifically dark ending - sure some of the IRIS guys are dead but the leader is out there and so are many others. It's a small set-back, they'll be able to regroup pronto. And anyone who defied them is dead or punished - whether it's Sa Woo, who finally shook them off, redeemed himself, and got shot. Or Sun Hwa, who will be faced with the loss of a man she loved and looked up to.
Or Hyun Joon, who fought them so hard and so well (I think the thing that kills me about him is how human he was - he was amazing, true, but you saw the effort it took him to fight, the fear and the nightmares and just - how real he was, and how he pushed on despite his limitations. And how he kept this enormous capacity to love even after it all. And how he never got to enjoy life, not really. The fact that he was in sight of her when he was killed, when he finally felt able to relax, to not be hunted ot tortured or afraid...Oh God, I am crying again.)
And above all Seung Hee. Whether one takes at face value Seung Hee's explanation (she was Baeksan's quasi-daughter and was offered to be in IRIS but refused) or think it was something more (she was involved in some capacity but as a rebellious, improper member whose love for Hyun Joon and general humanity made her uniquely bad for her tasks and she thwarted her 'alma mater' repeatedly), the fact remains that IRIS had plenty of reason to punish her - and they did, by taking away Hyun Joon and doing it in such a manner.
I cannot help but think and replay in my head what will happen after the last minute of the drama. Seung Hee waiting by that lighthouse, eager and happy and slowly getting puzzled and worried not seeing him. And calling his phone and nobody picking up, and growing more and more panicky. And then driving off, to look for him, and seeing his car on the road, and finding him there, dead, with a ring for her.
My God.
That is horrific.
The first time she thought she lost him, she had support of Sa Woo and some small chance at first that it wasn't true (and by the time she believed he was dead, she had time to adjust). And even then she almost broke. This way? Out of nowhere, no possibility of error, no support, and she is the one who finds him? I cannot see how she can function, how she can cope. She is going to snap.
The thing that makes this so awful to me is that this ending is NOT out of nowhere, that it perfectly makes sense. Hyun Joon has been living on borrowed time since he was a child. And sooner or later, his luck was going to run out.
You can't root something like IRIS out, not really. It was a matter of when they were going to get him, truly.
But still - in the annals of kdramas I have seen, this is going to go down as the most brutal ending ever. Happiness within his fingertips, almost, and then put out, so easily, as if he's never been. People at soompi are upset it didn't happen in a heroic meaningful fashion (saving Sa Woo, shielding the President etc) but that is precisely why it rings so bleakly true to me.
If you think about it, it's a horrifically dark ending - sure some of the IRIS guys are dead but the leader is out there and so are many others. It's a small set-back, they'll be able to regroup pronto. And anyone who defied them is dead or punished - whether it's Sa Woo, who finally shook them off, redeemed himself, and got shot. Or Sun Hwa, who will be faced with the loss of a man she loved and looked up to.
Or Hyun Joon, who fought them so hard and so well (I think the thing that kills me about him is how human he was - he was amazing, true, but you saw the effort it took him to fight, the fear and the nightmares and just - how real he was, and how he pushed on despite his limitations. And how he kept this enormous capacity to love even after it all. And how he never got to enjoy life, not really. The fact that he was in sight of her when he was killed, when he finally felt able to relax, to not be hunted ot tortured or afraid...Oh God, I am crying again.)
And above all Seung Hee. Whether one takes at face value Seung Hee's explanation (she was Baeksan's quasi-daughter and was offered to be in IRIS but refused) or think it was something more (she was involved in some capacity but as a rebellious, improper member whose love for Hyun Joon and general humanity made her uniquely bad for her tasks and she thwarted her 'alma mater' repeatedly), the fact remains that IRIS had plenty of reason to punish her - and they did, by taking away Hyun Joon and doing it in such a manner.
I cannot help but think and replay in my head what will happen after the last minute of the drama. Seung Hee waiting by that lighthouse, eager and happy and slowly getting puzzled and worried not seeing him. And calling his phone and nobody picking up, and growing more and more panicky. And then driving off, to look for him, and seeing his car on the road, and finding him there, dead, with a ring for her.
My God.
That is horrific.
The first time she thought she lost him, she had support of Sa Woo and some small chance at first that it wasn't true (and by the time she believed he was dead, she had time to adjust). And even then she almost broke. This way? Out of nowhere, no possibility of error, no support, and she is the one who finds him? I cannot see how she can function, how she can cope. She is going to snap.
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-17 11:42 pm (UTC)Perhaps we will get a second season where she takes revenge. WHo knows :)
But as bad as it sounds, this was the only reasonable ending there was ... Hyun Joon and Seung Hee - I doubt that they would have really functioned after all what had happened and what they had to do.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-17 11:50 pm (UTC)But I agree - this ending makes me distraught emotionally but it makes rock-solid sense narratively. And no way could they (especially Hyun Joon) been able to function out in the world after all of this.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 01:38 am (UTC)I would not begrudge her of killing herself after realizing that Hyun Joon is dead.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 05:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 07:17 pm (UTC)It is true, that narratively speaking, we cannot have happy ending all the time. Just like in life.
Emma
no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 07:20 pm (UTC)