My heart!!!

[dangermousie]

Just finished ep 17 of Bridal Mask with subs and how does this drama get more and more prefect, how?

Proper post and caps to come, but for now I leave you with the amazing ending to the amazing ep.

I am in heaven.

Is it too much to ask for some delicious and shippy h/c?

Comments

[amandioka.livejournal.com]

*cries*

They better deliver a lot of shippy h/c and more MokDan and KangTo Badass-ness next episode for leaving us with a cliffhanger and making us wait SOO LOONGG!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I need h/c scenes so badly, I can feel them!

[cleobulle.livejournal.com]

I've just finished translating it. I'm about to connect my external hard drive to my TV and watch it comfortably on a bigger screen to see if there's any typos left. *bliss*

Also I just read Javabeans' take on Shunji and I just have to post it here because she explains everything I feel, only in a much more organised way^^

While we’re talking about dimension… how’s Shunji fer ya? I was growling at my screen for the first part of this episode because his two-faced ways were elevating my blood pressure, but as a drama character I have to say I LOVE him. I love to hate him, too, but it’s not a linear path of: Shunji evil —> I wish a pox on him.

Shunji’s descent into the dark side is one of the more realistic, complex paths I’ve seen recently in dramas, or perhaps ever. Usually you see a character struggle a bit to hold on to his goodness, then reach a point of no return and then say the hell with it, after which point he’s just eeeevil. Whereas Shunji, I find incredibly realistic. He doesn’t switch on an evil button in his brain and then conform to the expectations of that archetype. He’s constantly swinging back and forth, sometimes tapping into that earlier sweetness, then letting rage overwhelm his reason as he lashes out, Kimura-style.

Shunji fucks with my brain, but in a good way (narratively speaking), because I never quite know where he stands. And it’s not that you can’t read him, because I did believe his speech about wanting to go back to his teacher self and living a simple life. And I fully believe that he went into the police with only good intentions. So it’s not that I don’t think he’s being honest; it’s that his honesty swings wildly from extreme to extreme as he tries to reconcile all his warring desires.

For instance, Shunji wants to be the hero, and I believe his motivations are sincere. But he’s not noble enough to actually be the hero—he wants his grand gestures to be appreciated, he wants recognition. That’s why he alternately helps Mok Dan and punishes her: He needs her to praise him as he thinks he deserves to be praised, and can’t stand when she doesn’t then respond that way. When she calls him on his crap. It’s a selfish sort of helping hand, where he’s doing it more for his own gratification than for the help it actually does the other person.

I think she totally nailed it.

Can't wait for episode 18. I hope it's full of KT/MK's scenes with a liberal dash of hurt/comfort thrown in.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I loved her take on Shunji. The scene in the hotel with Mok Dan was chilling, as he goes from master manipulator with soulless eyes into a brief burst of humanity and then (when MD doesn't react as he wants) back into rage and abuse. Even if for some insane reason she picked to be with him, is there any doubt it would be an abusive relationship, with him beating her whenever she deviated from some ideal plan in his head, and he would blame her for it. One of Shunji's flaws (for want of a more serious term) is that he views himself as the victim and as the world owing him something. In a powerless man, this would just be whiny. Shunji is both powerful and left the world of sanity behind so that makes him incredibly dangerous (which is why Rie was an idiot when she tried to get Mok Dan killed. If Kang To didn't rescue MD, is there any doubt Shunji would kill Rie? He is not a rational person you can bargain with).

I think that scene with Shunji is part of the reason MD was as on edge with KT as she was - she doesn't know the difference, all she sees are two Japanese flunkies who profess to love her while torturing her. But I loved loved loved that she found out KT was young master before she found out KT was Gaksital because if she found out the latter first, everything else would have been swept under the carpet in her mind, I believe. I do love that he confess, despite his (quite correct) fear she would reject him, both because hes reaching breaking point but also to get her trust to rescue her father. Oh, KT!

And I loved that she learned he is Gaksital. Because now she knows everything in him - both his best and his worst. And if she can love him knowing all that, it will be a love based on uderstanding who he is and she will really love him for him.

[once-a-weaver.livejournal.com]

I think you just said everything I wanted to :) Yeah, all of that.

In all the main characters there is such a delicious blend of earnest need and incoherent anger, stirred together with whatever self-justifications they can find. It feels rather more believable than I expected.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I love how messed up yet understandable these people are - KT is very different from Shinji is very different from Mok Dan is very different from Rie. And yet all of th are believable as outcomes of generic heritage and brutal world.

And precisely because they are so broken and raw, they are so desperate for their goals as those beliefs to be achieved, which makes for a hell of a drama.

[cleobulle.livejournal.com]

Id on't get why some people say Shunji is faking his kindness toward Mok Dan. I've always thought he was in deadly earnest only, as Javabeans puts it, " his honesty swings wildly from extreme to extreme as he tries to reconcile all his warring desires.".

And how brilliant was it that Shunji tried to discredit Kang To in Mok Dan's eyes? Boy knows how to use his brain alright. You're right, Shunji's little stint put MK even more on edge just before Kang To came to her. His confession couldn't have come at a worse time.

I too loved the scene between Mok Dan and Kang To (and I can't believe some people are bashing MK for not swooning at his feet!).

She will have a difficult time putting together all of Kang To's facets: the Japanese officer, the young master and the Gaksital. It'll be interesting to see how she deals with it. As you said, it's the only way for us to be sure she'll love him for himself (both the bad and the good).

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, I don't think Shunji is faking his concern, especially given his frightening ability to believe his own lies (you just know that in his mind the whole DSR situation unfolded the way he told MD).

I can't believe people expected MD to swoon for Kang To. The man tortured her, captured her, almost executed her, hunted her father. Finding out they are childhood loves does not make any of this OK. I'd think she was insane if she fell all over him at the revelation.

[algelic.livejournal.com]

What a kickass scene (even for me, who dropped this drama about 8 episodes ago).

It reminds me of "City Hunter". I adored that drama and was unbelievably emotionally invested in it. So whenever Nana was close to finding out who the true CH was... my heart threatened to leap through my mouth. xD

In other news... NOTHING MAKES SENSE ANYMORE! Due to the Olympics there will be NO Gaksital episodes, only 1 AGD episode and yet... that craptastic JIN is unaffected! Not to mention the insane idea of extending it. >__>

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

City Hunter. I loved it!

Well, at least Dr Jin will be over sooner...