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dangermousie
NG continues to be excellent but also a rather hard watch. It's well-written and acted but, as a viewer, I am finding it hard to muster my enthusiasm for the story whose male lead invokes burning rage in me and a desire to bash him in the head. Song Joong Ki is acting his socks off, and Maru is as fascinating and complex as he is repulsive, but repulsive he is - not to mention morally bankrupt (so is Jae Hee, but that goes without saying).
After that scene in the bar (not to mention the truly appalling scene during the parade where he left just to see how EG would freak out), I have decided that Maru and Jae Hee are both monsters who deserve each other and should play their games forever, as long as they don't inflict themselves on others. I mean, that was - ugh.
NG is by far the darkest of LKH stories I have seen, mainly because of the vast imbalance of emotional power between Eun Gi and Maru. If you compare this with something like A Love to Kill, which also has a man using a woman for revenge, the difference is stark - not only is the hero of ALTK targeting the woman he wants revenge on, not some innocent bystander (the dramatic thrust of the story is that we, the audience, know he is targeting her wrongly) but, even more importantly, we are aware that despite his best efforts, he's been in love with his target since Day 1 and thus all the horribleness that he is doing isn't just going to rebound on him at some point in the future, but he is actively being self-punished by his very act of vengeance. There is no such balance in NG - sure, Maru feels pity for Eun Gi (and their chemistry is insane) but it's pretty clear he is not in love with his target. I wouldn't say he is in love with Jae Hee any more either (though seeing that he might still want her back, who knows), but whatever his very strong feelings towards the latter are, they are blocking any conscious romantic feeling for the former.
And without Maru having an equal emotional involvement in the relationship with Eun Gi, his using her is pretty much stripped of any tolerability and is exposed as this ugly, unforgivable thing that makes me want to take a shower after every scene (and not a sexy kdrama shower either). When he tells (drunk and sleeping) her that their interactions will all be a dream in her long life (i.e., trying to absolve himself of the guilt for wrecking her life), I seriously felt enough rage to power a small submarine - sure, sure Maru - that is why you are spending your whole life and destroying innocent bystanders in your quest for revenge on (or possibly trying to still get her back? It's very muddled) an ex. Why don't you treat what Jae Hee did to you as a dream? At least she didn't fuck you up on purpose.
This said, every scene between Maru and Eun Gi is riveting precisely because he is self-aware of his wrongdoing and guilt and she is just in love. And the chemistry and the gorgeous cinematography make me want to watch them despite the sane part of my brain. I mean, the whole sequence with drunk Eun Gi pouring out her feelings, and Maru almost not daring to touch her, and the morning scene where she is so luminous (contrast to Jae Hee and her husband and the sterility of that scene) but he is back to his games despite a half-hearted attempt to give up. These are sequences full of incredibly addictive tension. My problem is - I hate Maru. I plain and simple hate him and I am not sure how to deal with a drama like that.
Though maybe my dilemma is moot because Eun Gi finds out at least about his connection to Jae Hee by the end and I am so excited - I hope she gives him some of his own medicine back and wrecks both him and Jae Hee with a wrecking ball the size of Calcutta. But if not, at least she will now be an equal player.
