East of Eden: all aboard the Love Boat!
Oct. 15th, 2008 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieEast of Eden has a lot of things to say about heredity, revenge, redemption, political idealism and corruption.
All well and good. But we all know the dirty secret: most people are in it for the ships :P
And luckily, EoE obliges, presenting such a smorgasbord of ships that my mind whirls sometimes trying to follow them.
First off, we have Dong-Wook and Ji Hyun, who break my heart into a million, million pieces. They are never going to stop loving each other, are they?
It's been three years since they've seen each other and they still cannot let go. Ji Hyun is living a happy life on the surface: a daughter-in-law of an upperclass family, with a cute child and a devoted husband. But in reality, she is trapped in hell. She is married to her rapist, to the man who had Dong-Wook tortured. No matter how attentive and devoted Myung Hun is now, nothing can erase that, or the fact that she only married him because she was pregnant and did not want to drag Dong-Wook down further into the sick violent world that was Myung Hun's obsession. And as for Dong-Wook, I wonder if part of his reason for fighting the power for the dispossessed at the risk of his life, health and sanity (he's been tortured literally within an inch of his life) is atonement, because he was powerless and could not protect Ji Hyun. I think of all the romantic relationships in EoE, DW and JH is the most star-crossed, the most doomed, and the most powerful: he wanted to marry her despite her being pregnant with her rapist's child and did not blame her when she was tortured to name him as a Communist which led to days or weeks of torture for him, and she tried to protect him at the cost of her happiness. I really hope at the end of the drama, whatever else happens, they can be together. I am not holding my breath though. I do think Dong-Wook is the 'purest' character in this drama so far. Not cloyingly saintly or anything (he is too terrified of pain even if he pushes through, too emotionally caught in Ji Hyun, too childlike in his brother's presence, too human, ultimately) but he is an amazing, amazing person. Ironically, he is a lot more like his supposed father than even his brother (this idealism in the face of death), even if he is not Lee Ki Chul's biological son.
Here Ji Hyun comes across the paper which talks about Dong-Wook's arrest and that is intercut with him thinking of her in his cell.
She has to pretend everything is normal, and her only bit of privacy is going to the bathroom, turning the water on as loudly as she can, to stifle her sobbing.
The scene where she sees Dong-Wook at the hospital kills me. (And he asks for her to pray for him not to lose his sight in the injured eye. Awwww).
(The way he looks at her. *dies*)
And then we have Dong-Chul and Grace (whose Korean name is Young Ran btw), another relationship that really can't be. The actors have psychotic chemistry together.
Grace really is ready to give up everything for him, and she offers it, openly. See this awesome kissing scene. This must be paradise to someone as starved of affection as Dong Chul is and it's pretty clear he loves her too: whether it's the little things like his flashbacking to her kissing him in the middle of a mob meet, or big ones like the fact that she was the first person he went to visit when he came in Japan, and the staring, and the thwarted possibilities, and their eyes, and his comment that maybe he wanted to see her before she got engaged as she keeps hitting him and saying 'bastard, bastard, bastard' made for a hell of an awesome scene.
But of course he can't have her. He has sold his soul (or at least the portion that relates to loving Grace) to her mob father in exchange for power. And he cannot give it up: he needs this power to protect his family or else they would be destroyed, and he would also earn the enmity of the powerful mob boss, who made it clear in no uncertain terms he would not tolerate a relationship between his daughter and his helper (and as his conversation with Grace indicates, he can be utterly ruthless even to his near and dear. I wonder why he is so hellbent on her marrying Mark Packer though). Dong Chul might be willing to risk it all if it was just himself, but it is not. And even if it was, he does not want to wreck Grace's life: I think he believes he brings only bad luck to those around him, those who love him and depend on him.
Anyway, it's all very doomed. I do wish, whatever else happens, and whoever they ultimately end up with, that at least once he would be the one to hug her, or to kiss her first - that would be such a delicious loss of control.
Here she is watching him sleep:
Hotness:
She is so worried for him and just wants him to stay alive. I think in a way that is what makes her so irresistable to him: he has nobody to care whether he is alive or dead in his world (Dong-Wook obviously does, but he is also not there and also disapproves of his choice of career).
The biggest relationship in the drama, and the most important, even if it is not romantic is between brothers Dong-Chul and Dong-Wook who will back each other no matter what. I wonder what would happen when they find out they are not related, after all. Blood is important and whatnot, but they have been together since DW was born and I think it counts for more.
For me, the emotional lynchpin of the whole ep was the scene where DC sees DW in the hospital, and he is weeping, seeing what the torturers have done to his little brother (electrical burns, OMG) and DW trying to incoherently say that he realizes that turning to the dark side, to the mob, is Dong Chul once again sacrificing himself for Dong-Wook, enabling him to live, to be righteous, protecting him (it's clear if not for DC that DW would have been tortured to death) and he is full of so much regret and horror at the inability to stop DC from continuing to do this no matter how much he pleads for DC to not worry about DW and live his life.
There are also two potential relationships of cuteness developing. One is of Hye-Rin and Baek, her older sister's fiance, who left the older sister because he is head over heels in love with HR.
HR might still carry a torch for Dong-Wook (to whom she is invisible) but to someone as starved of love, Baek's attention, clear love, and caring must be as irresistable as food to a starving person.
Here they are drinking together:
He carries her home and leaves, but not before making her something to eat. AWWW.
This is just cute:
We also have Ki San, DC and DW's half-sister, and Wu Gun who is working for the bad guy. Ki Sun is just such a rain of sunshine and WG used to be good and a friend of DC before he thought DC betrayed him. Hey, when she was a child, Ki Sun thought of him as "angel adjusshi". Heh. He is going to kidnap her to get DC to come out and mmmm...I see possibilities. The actors have nice chemistry.
And then there is Myung Hun and Ji Hyun, a perfect couple to outsiders, but very much not so, with the shadow of Dong Wook over then (and MH knows it) and the fact that MH was only able to get her through rape. One of the saddest things in EoE is seeing someone who was a good person (MH) have any humanity slowly crushed out of him by his enviornment and his father despite his attempts to stay human. I don't forgive him, but I pity him.
All well and good. But we all know the dirty secret: most people are in it for the ships :P
And luckily, EoE obliges, presenting such a smorgasbord of ships that my mind whirls sometimes trying to follow them.
First off, we have Dong-Wook and Ji Hyun, who break my heart into a million, million pieces. They are never going to stop loving each other, are they?
It's been three years since they've seen each other and they still cannot let go. Ji Hyun is living a happy life on the surface: a daughter-in-law of an upperclass family, with a cute child and a devoted husband. But in reality, she is trapped in hell. She is married to her rapist, to the man who had Dong-Wook tortured. No matter how attentive and devoted Myung Hun is now, nothing can erase that, or the fact that she only married him because she was pregnant and did not want to drag Dong-Wook down further into the sick violent world that was Myung Hun's obsession. And as for Dong-Wook, I wonder if part of his reason for fighting the power for the dispossessed at the risk of his life, health and sanity (he's been tortured literally within an inch of his life) is atonement, because he was powerless and could not protect Ji Hyun. I think of all the romantic relationships in EoE, DW and JH is the most star-crossed, the most doomed, and the most powerful: he wanted to marry her despite her being pregnant with her rapist's child and did not blame her when she was tortured to name him as a Communist which led to days or weeks of torture for him, and she tried to protect him at the cost of her happiness. I really hope at the end of the drama, whatever else happens, they can be together. I am not holding my breath though. I do think Dong-Wook is the 'purest' character in this drama so far. Not cloyingly saintly or anything (he is too terrified of pain even if he pushes through, too emotionally caught in Ji Hyun, too childlike in his brother's presence, too human, ultimately) but he is an amazing, amazing person. Ironically, he is a lot more like his supposed father than even his brother (this idealism in the face of death), even if he is not Lee Ki Chul's biological son.
Here Ji Hyun comes across the paper which talks about Dong-Wook's arrest and that is intercut with him thinking of her in his cell.
She has to pretend everything is normal, and her only bit of privacy is going to the bathroom, turning the water on as loudly as she can, to stifle her sobbing.
The scene where she sees Dong-Wook at the hospital kills me. (And he asks for her to pray for him not to lose his sight in the injured eye. Awwww).
(The way he looks at her. *dies*)
And then we have Dong-Chul and Grace (whose Korean name is Young Ran btw), another relationship that really can't be. The actors have psychotic chemistry together.
Grace really is ready to give up everything for him, and she offers it, openly. See this awesome kissing scene. This must be paradise to someone as starved of affection as Dong Chul is and it's pretty clear he loves her too: whether it's the little things like his flashbacking to her kissing him in the middle of a mob meet, or big ones like the fact that she was the first person he went to visit when he came in Japan, and the staring, and the thwarted possibilities, and their eyes, and his comment that maybe he wanted to see her before she got engaged as she keeps hitting him and saying 'bastard, bastard, bastard' made for a hell of an awesome scene.
But of course he can't have her. He has sold his soul (or at least the portion that relates to loving Grace) to her mob father in exchange for power. And he cannot give it up: he needs this power to protect his family or else they would be destroyed, and he would also earn the enmity of the powerful mob boss, who made it clear in no uncertain terms he would not tolerate a relationship between his daughter and his helper (and as his conversation with Grace indicates, he can be utterly ruthless even to his near and dear. I wonder why he is so hellbent on her marrying Mark Packer though). Dong Chul might be willing to risk it all if it was just himself, but it is not. And even if it was, he does not want to wreck Grace's life: I think he believes he brings only bad luck to those around him, those who love him and depend on him.
Anyway, it's all very doomed. I do wish, whatever else happens, and whoever they ultimately end up with, that at least once he would be the one to hug her, or to kiss her first - that would be such a delicious loss of control.
Here she is watching him sleep:
Hotness:
She is so worried for him and just wants him to stay alive. I think in a way that is what makes her so irresistable to him: he has nobody to care whether he is alive or dead in his world (Dong-Wook obviously does, but he is also not there and also disapproves of his choice of career).
The biggest relationship in the drama, and the most important, even if it is not romantic is between brothers Dong-Chul and Dong-Wook who will back each other no matter what. I wonder what would happen when they find out they are not related, after all. Blood is important and whatnot, but they have been together since DW was born and I think it counts for more.
For me, the emotional lynchpin of the whole ep was the scene where DC sees DW in the hospital, and he is weeping, seeing what the torturers have done to his little brother (electrical burns, OMG) and DW trying to incoherently say that he realizes that turning to the dark side, to the mob, is Dong Chul once again sacrificing himself for Dong-Wook, enabling him to live, to be righteous, protecting him (it's clear if not for DC that DW would have been tortured to death) and he is full of so much regret and horror at the inability to stop DC from continuing to do this no matter how much he pleads for DC to not worry about DW and live his life.
There are also two potential relationships of cuteness developing. One is of Hye-Rin and Baek, her older sister's fiance, who left the older sister because he is head over heels in love with HR.
HR might still carry a torch for Dong-Wook (to whom she is invisible) but to someone as starved of love, Baek's attention, clear love, and caring must be as irresistable as food to a starving person.
Here they are drinking together:
He carries her home and leaves, but not before making her something to eat. AWWW.
This is just cute:
We also have Ki San, DC and DW's half-sister, and Wu Gun who is working for the bad guy. Ki Sun is just such a rain of sunshine and WG used to be good and a friend of DC before he thought DC betrayed him. Hey, when she was a child, Ki Sun thought of him as "angel adjusshi". Heh. He is going to kidnap her to get DC to come out and mmmm...I see possibilities. The actors have nice chemistry.
And then there is Myung Hun and Ji Hyun, a perfect couple to outsiders, but very much not so, with the shadow of Dong Wook over then (and MH knows it) and the fact that MH was only able to get her through rape. One of the saddest things in EoE is seeing someone who was a good person (MH) have any humanity slowly crushed out of him by his enviornment and his father despite his attempts to stay human. I don't forgive him, but I pity him.
