That Harem Drama Epi 20

[spsn]

The series is finally ended, and I thought I could sleep better… not really. It took me 2 more times of rewatch and the whole ordeal of experiencing emotional pain and pang in the chest (thankfully not to the point of Soo's style of chest pain) to actually have the ending sunk into my brain and said, 'yeah, it's over, it's okay and I'm not bitter about it.' Not really. There's still 1 tiny bit of darkness in my what's left of my so-called soul (LJK shredded my soul in this episode, honestly) saying 'how dare you bloody writers, do you even understand what your consumers aka fans want, after you make the characters so compelling, pitiful, and went through so much shits and we spent 17 hours watching (excluding the wait, the rewatch, the discussions, the stalking on anything, and the list goes on), and only then you realize that you have some sort of obligation to follow the Chinese version and lumped all those angsts of resentment, jealousy and regret in the last 3 episodes, and you still have a cheek to think that giving us a cliffhanger super wide open ending in hope for 2nd season - which I don't think will ever happen, and you writers, having to work in the industry should have known better!!!' Phew, OK, I already let all out. No wait, there's more, 'Writers, if you want to follow Chinese version, then do it right! Don't just do it half-heartedly and left both of our main characters without closure at the end of the show. At least in Chinese version they met again like how destiny/fate is supposed to be portrayed, for goodness sake!!! If deep regret and sorrow is what you mean by closure, then I'll be wary the next time I watch a drama and see your name(s) as script writer, even those who write fanfics did a much better job with the ending with their creative mindsets, and so much of 'creative license' that you've been pasting on the beginning of every episode'. *exhale... ah better*

Hey drama, throwing in this kind of cute Gwanjong doesn't mean that you can get away with everything, no?

Something went amiss if you have to watch this episode more than 1 time, just so that you don't feel so awful. And each time you watch this episode, you get a different interpretation of the ending because it's so wide that your imagination just ran wild on it. Hence, so much fanfics now offering a much better ending, ranging from fluff, cute, more fluff and heartwarming for our healing purposes and as the interpretation of such ending. That's how wide that open ending that they put on the table for us.

The episode itself, well, we all know from episode 19 that Soo won't survive till the end, she's going to die anyway, so there's no big surprise there, but the twist is that she's pregnant! That came out of nowhere and kind of closing the jarring gap of her persistence to get out from the palace, at the expense of So (sigh), and our brain still have to think on what's the connection really is with our own imagination. Then only after she's out of the palace she started to miss the King and had 1001 kinds of hallucinations of having him sitting next to her, which will make you tear up further. That's the consequences of her decision and she had to bear it. Upon her deathbed, soon after she gave birth, she started sending letters to So wanting to see him and finally she died in Jung's arms listening to the song which So spread throughout the nation, indirectly his love declaration since it's her song anyway. In all this sad sad 30 minutes run (yes 30 minutes, so what's the rest 30 minutes all about, we'll get to it later), I wonder, does Soo trusted So, ever? After hurting him that much in the last episode, she expected him to be oh so forgiving and come to her immediately after she sent the letters, which to make it worse, Jung covered the envelope with his own writing (out of good intention) and So thought the letters are from Jung, not her. How big she expected So's heart is, it's too unreal. I think So's reaction to the letters is just human, especially with the strained relationship that he has with Jung. I do hope with my own imagination that when Soo listened to the song, she realized how So still loves her after all the crap. She didn't get to see So for the last time, but at least the feelings come across.

And, we have this at the end, this scene along makes me feel very sad for Soo because she has to remember the regret and the hurting and yearning for not be able to see her love (worst, it's 1000 years behind!) and she has to bear with this for the rest of the life. How cruel is that!!! This is why I hope So gets to find Soo in the future, as in literally there's a scene on this, but nope, we don't have that.

Then how about So? What happened to him when he realized that Soo has gone and the letters are from her, not from Jung? This is where the brilliance of LJK's acting shines aka the magic. The shock, desperate, regret, hurt, you name it, it's all very raw, and it's done just within seconds of screen time (yes, the crying scene is so short yet so impactful, and I still had a pang when I took the screenshot). How can you hate this character when he's crying like that. All along he thought that Soo doesn't love him, but in fact it's the opposite, how would he feel finding out a tad too late, and it's because of his resentment towards Jung, which is understandable.

That muffled sobbing after reading Soo's letter, OMG...

And when he rushed to Jung's residence, only to see the urn. The breakdown, OMG. Screenshot only doesn't do justice for these scene. The 3 brothers really did a superb job, and seeing So broke down with him heaving like that *sob sob*.

Seriously... this scene... the sadness of losing the loved one... *my heart was thrown to paper shredder*

Only in this scene that I feel kind of sorry for Jung as he really loved Soo and he couldn't even tell her out of respect to Soo's feeling. But that sorry feeling quickly disappear when I remember how he screwed So up in the past episodes, so many things he could do to prevent all the shits, but he just kept quiet and blamed everything to So instead. Now he's redeeming himself by taking care of SoSoo's daughter.

At the end of the day, So's left alone, even Ji Mong left him, for goodness sake, his relationship with Baek Ah is estranged (I'm quite sad about this because at least in Chinese version 13th prince is loyal to 4th prince to the end, why we can't even have this in Korean version???) and shouldering the weight of the throne, alone. He cannot even acknowledging his daughter as his own even after he found out, and instead had to let go and had Jung continue to raise his daughter.


How he had to think quick and let go of his daughter, don't you think it's just... too much for So? #WangSoDeservesBetter

The only thing that he has left is memories of Soo, one of them is where they talked about how life is fleeting and vain and Soo said that if only their love happens in different time then she can love him freely (though I don't agree as she's been told repeatedly to live in present, not worrying over future that not happened yet, but did she ever listen? Not really, sigh).


This kind of memory... probably before all hell breaks loose...

I guess this memory is what So clings to in the end and he vows to find his Soo, wherever she is.

It's really open ending, but I must say it's an impactful one, especially with the scar made the final appearance in this drama. So's determination to find his Soo, gah... it'll make you want more, right? But nope, this is the end... end, end end...

Then after this is all the stuff that I don't particularly like. The snakes are treated too nicely in this drama. No brutal death that they actually deserved, and how on earth that 8th prince lived in peace and died quietly and even get to say goodbye to Soo, and even got Soo to kind of forgive him after all the shits that he's done (epi 19), this doesn't sound right. Standard saeguk will see that justice is served, that means all bad guys got slashed or punished severely, not quietly live and die in peace! I don't think I want to extract any lesson learned or message from this drama because what message will come out of it if all the bad guys enjoying peaceful life while our protagonists were left alone with regret and sorrow? Even Baek Ah didn't get his happy end, and Jung lived with obligation and promise to Soo, all the good guys basically have no happy end. If we're in the 80s, this kind of ending may be okay, but we're in 2016 now and so much crap happened in the real life and life is as stressful as ever, and massive riot reaction is to be expected. If the writers didn't even have a clue to suspect this, they're living in lala land.

At the end, the only winner of this Goryeo's game of throne is Yeon Hwa! She knows what she's dealing up against, and has no remorse whatsoever for whatever crap that she did on people that she perceived as obstacles.


Bonus because I just have to take the screenshot of this cuteness, and at the same time, in the end it's just So and Soo, not King Gwanjong, not the court lady, but just So and Soo *go back and cry at the corner*


My fave screenshot... the chemistry here is off the chart, and at the same time, this screams 'Goryeo wedding photoshoot'. Heck, this is much more lovely than all the real life pre-wedding photos of my friends...

such cuteness must be banned... we want to see this as an end, but unfortunately this is just one of So's memories of Soo *sobs*

And now what should I do? I don't even have the motivation to watch other drama, yet. The only healing that I think works is watching Eric cooks, damn he can cook! His Japchae looks freaking good. Another one is listening to Arashi's new album Are You Happy? Like this one better than Japonism, this one is LOVE 2.0 with some major upgrades.

Plus anybody can link me to a good tutorial on how to put together a clip, basically a tutorial for editing that is quite user friendly and not mind boggling with freeware coz I wanna cut all my favorite Wang So scenes into 1 file so that I don't need to watch the whole painful 20 hours episode just go see the scenes that I like.

Comments

[tokeruyouna.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your continuing recaps to keep reminding me not to be tempted by this drama because it will just betray me in the end. XD

[spsn.livejournal.com]

haha! you know that you shouldn't touch this drama then. i love love the acting n the characters, even the evil ones, but the story, sobs, it just goes nuts in the last 3eps.... but So didn't turn evil like the 4th prince in c version for sure, which was a relief, else i'll be extremely sour with the ending, lol