sunlightnmoonshine - Tumblr blog

[sunlightnmoonshine]

I'm just seeing the behind the scenes footage of ksh and kjw playing with baby baekhong and you mean to tell me the director and writer thought we'd prefer seeing the ultimate death of the main couple than see more of them playing with their baby?? Like who thought that was the better idea and I know that they were going for symbolism blah blah and that these two would be together forever but like did anyone need to see that, like the audience has basic common sense to figure that out. Anyway I'm just annoyed that I was deprived more scenes of baekhong being parents, especially cuz they were initially so excited for it.

[sunlightnmoonshine]

I would also like to add, hyunwoo's friend deserves a lot of praise. Like this dude has been loyal through and through and he's always just been looking out for hyunwoo like even the will plot that was him saying look man you hate them all why leave with nothing while also continuously asking him if he was still in love with haein and being hyunwoo's occasional voice of reason. On top of that man stuck by hyunwoo, helped him out with the divorce, helped him get shit on the villains, got mad for him when people were insulting him (and haein) online, helped him keep his job, helped him find more dirt on the villains, very passionately defended him at the murder trial and it all came full circle with ep 16 where you really see how much he cares about hyunwoo and just wants him to be happy.

[sunlightnmoonshine]

This show in its wider plot writing since ep 3 ish has been mediocre half baked writing BUT hyunwoo and haein carried the show on their backs and were truly it's saving grace and I stand by the fact that there's been no relationship like theirs' on a kdrama screen, with the trope reversals, the complication, the communication, the passion, the love and importantly two well developed well rounded personalities that were a delight to watch even when it was frustrating. And because every ep I tuned in for them and was truly entertained with their relationship the show gets a 8/10 (1 point deducted for how they didnt talk about the loss or their baby which was criminal and 1 point deducted because they didn't kiss since like episode 5/6 I mean what even) and even with the 8/10 I think I'm being a little too generous cuz I still think they could have been written better.

But oh well kim soo hyun and kim ji won, the actors they are, get all the awards, there's no question about how much they deserve it.

[sunlightnmoonshine]

It is unfortunate that the writers intention was to make the audience feel sympathy for eunseung but lop sided writing meant irritation was only ever directed at the character. The ending that eunseung got was clearly an attempt meant to tug at sympathy strings especially the zoning in on the necklace and the dialogue prior, of him not understanding why he was unloved, but the issue is -

1. there has been no valid attempt to show us why he should be loved in the first place, every attempt to get haein was by ruining her life first, we don't even have a clear reason as to why he liked her in the first place except for pure obsession (which just seems weird now given we have that flashback now and know that he despised the family and you mean to tell me that one dog scene was all it did???). The writer could have even gone the route of saying his need to be with haein was so that he could be closer to his mother or something, like even that would have made more sene than what we got, and so when he looked at haein in with that hurt after literally being a jackass the whole series with no reason why she should have ever liked him it's difficult to give a shit about his death although it's clear the writer was aiming for that.

2. his relationship with his mother has been so poorly executed, we should have got this messed up dynamic in earlier episodes so that we could see how little moh seul hee actually cared about him and how eunseung was broken by this, instead we got a few mediocre conversations that always ended with him willingly benefitting from her plans, plotting with her, ruining characters with her, and all in all just being all "you abandoned me" one scene and then "that's what we need to do to maintain our wealth" the next. We could have had such character exploration by delving into his hatred and abandonment issues had they linked it to the story instead of just shoving his meaningless obsession down our threats.

3. there is little added to his character at all, he doesn't care about anyone, you dont see him meaningfully interact with anyone, even his business prowess is a lukewarm tell don't show situation, when da hye felt bad for him I was like why? there has been nothing shown to the audience where you have reason to feel bad for him, if anything his end seemed too kind after everything the main characters had been put through and more importantly outside of haein he hasn't had a single moment of kindness. Frankly he didn't have a single meaningful moment.

A good villain does not in anyway need to be redeemable, but they do need to be enjoyable to watch and it seems like the writer tried to create a complicated villain but fell short by just giving him three main traits "I have mommy issues, I am obsessed with a woman who has shown no interest me, and I hate the man she loves because I am not him" that for the most part were poorly unpacked and then failed to invoke feeling from a perceptive audience.

With all this said, park sung hoon did a great job working with what little he had and deserves all the praise and well so long eunseung I'll miss yelling at you every week.

[sunlightnmoonshine]

I know I was mad a lot about the show yesterday but oof baekhong has my whole heart, all their scenes have been glorious and I'm so glad I got to watch it unfold, it's the way you are destined to be with someone, but the way you take the effort to make things work and then you'll get to witness why love is worth it.

[sunlightnmoonshine]

As much as I hated ep 15, it really did give us great moments of hyunwoo and his family and coming from someone who didn't care about his sibling's storyline one bit, their reunion with hyunwoo was so precious (the little head bumps and hugs) and the way his dad rounded up the entire village and the way his mom made his favourite food, each expressing their love in the way they know and it was poignant and seeing hyunwoo happy was a breath of fresh air from that dumpster fire ep.

(also haein confusingly stalking hyunwoo in the background - although due to stupid plot reasons was a treat to watch).

[sunlightnmoonshine]

It is ironic how a lot of these unnecessary plot points happen to add tension to baekhong's relationship (the business takeover, eunseung's existence, etc.) but then the writer goes ahead and forgets key points about baekhong (while they try to resolve the unnecessary plot points they added) and just makes them suffer for 15 episodes, did I say irony, I meant the audacity.

[sunlightnmoonshine]

It really does seem like the writers just completely forgot the very public press conference and the surge of comments by the public because I am still not over how haein "confirmed everything" without looking online even once. The way the secretary had every chance to tell her the truth but just didn't and instead gave her confusing clues like please what are these unnecessary plot points? It's also just particularly funny that hyunwoo had to plan how to get out of this murder accusation, working tirelessly with his friends but no one thought to tell haein to look online?? And so let's say eunseong deleted every article on the internet, one there's absolutely no suggestion of this and two there's an epilogue of hyunwoo's friend taking screenshots to sue and you are telling me no one thought to send her that, in the era where if something is online 5 minutes and then deleted it's still on the internet forever???

The way this show insults the characters and then me lol.

[sunlightnmoonshine]

It would have been interesting to have seen haein questioning hyunwoo's intentions regarding her will (since they really did brush over this) instead of giving us that same dance of you abandoned me when I needed you most and also the cheating lie?? Please all of this could have been refuted if someone opened their mouth and said he made it snow for you just before you left for Germany and you were thrilled. And we could have had a scene of haein ending up at hyunwoo's apartment, seeing the recording from hyunwoo (because oof this could have been an opportunity for haein to see proof of hyunwoo's love thereby seeing what she needs to, to believe but also trusting in hyunwoo's love) , pieces of their relationship coming together, the familiarity she could have felt in that space (instead of a book that just didn't burn lol), but most importantly the password, and giving us a glimpse more of what went on with the loss of their baby where we actually have an entry point to discuss why this mattered so much to them but noooo things had to happen the way they did, cuz eunseung needed to be in range to run hyunwoo over.

[sunlightnmoonshine]

Honestly to me it isn't even a matter of at what point the show went off the rails, it's had weird plots dangling since the beginning, but they really said hey lets focus less on the main plot and instead deal with the other contrived ideas we set up and couldn't remember how to deal with and oops we are at ep 15 time to waste some more time and try to cram everything into ep 16 while we continue to forget the main plot, le sigh.

don't think anything can portray my feelings about how this drama is currently going for me better than the following image:

[sunlightnmoonshine]

I'd just like to add that while I dislike the ending of the ep, it's actually very on brand of eunseung lol so hey at least his character was consistent with the 3 traits or so the whole show :)

[sunlightnmoonshine]

I can't believe that I had to give up baekhong talking about the loss of their baby for whatever the hell ep 15 was. Make it make sense.

[sunlightnmoonshine]

The way haein's illness was just used poorly as a plot device to create tension between hyunwoo and haein and have haein's family have redeeming moments is really just awful. Suspension of disbelief can only go so far and it's really important that when doing that the audience doesn't feel insulted lol and so making up an illness is a starting point but then showing such serious symptoms, repeatedly suggesting the character is going to die and then providing a miracle surgery situation is so contrived. And hey I wanted haein to live and so I can deal with the surgery, but the way it was used to set up such a poor display of amnesia with no suggestion of any other recovery issues is just so weird and you know what I might have ignored this had I not spent an entire ep watching such nonsense (that too the saving grace was a notebook that didn't burn although it was thrown into fire - and okay fine I can deal with that too), only to have the main lead go through such shit the whole ep and then get thrown across the road?????? Why was this necessary????

This writer needs to watch flower of evil, so that she can understand how to deal with amnesia better.

[sunlightnmoonshine]

You know what is an absolute shame, that queen of tears had all the potential to be so so great. All it would have taken was a little more writing comprehension and understanding that a story doesn't need 50 something plot points, everyone would have tuned in for just baekhong and them navigating the complexities of marriage, dealing with their families, and dealing with the potential loss of life, and the way two people can be so destined for each other, fine they could have had villains but the villain didn't need to be a one dimensional character that had such plot armour throughout the show to the point that the main female character who has such intellect in all other moments somehow loses it around him just so we can entertain mediocre moments of ridiculousness, at the very least focus could have been placed on one villain, instead we have some deranged execution of mommy/son issues that had such potential but was just wasted and it's the way this drama feels like it's insulting my intellect that really just gets to me.

With that said, I still think baekhong is precious and that no drama has had characters like them before but I really think that it isn't even the writing anymore, it's that soohyun and jiwon have given this story their all and watching them has been a treat because they bring out the best parts of baekhong while the writer runs around in circles.

[sunlightnmoonshine]

The way i can't take this drama seriously right now watching these first 20 minutes. You are telling me haein didn't Google herself once and see a single article abt her accusing eun seong of threatening her??? Like okay, I get the family since eunseung was a rat about that too, but like what is her secretary doing not telling her about hyunwoo???

It's clear this drama doesn't take itself seriously lol but hey at least I get to watch haein confusingly simp over hyunwoo.

[sunlightnmoonshine]

Okay so I've had time to calm down and think of ways to make eunseong eat dirt and so now to the positives of this episode which was completely overshadowed by those awful 15 minutes.

- baekhong, how far they've come. To me this was one of their strongest episodes, one because it was truly the most vulnerable we had seen of them together and that scene outside the hospital and then outside the church oof??? The way I could feel the pain, the way I could understand where each was coming from and the way it just hurt because you want only good for them, most importantly though it was the way they were finally communicating with each other and knew why the other was behaving the way that were and were making active efforts to be there for each other irrespective of what they felt.

- at first I had whiplash at how they kept going from tears to just casually hanging out with each other, but it just made so much sense? Like here they are, not walking away but are dealing with the pain together, hyunwoo still trying to convince her but also just being there for her, and haein not wanting to budge but also entertaining hyunwoo's antiques because this is how they work through things, they cry, but they still stay by each other, they try to understand, the effort is all.

- hyunwoo's reaction after the accident deserves special mention but lol what even was that accident, nothing but shock factor and the way they hired that one white dude to just casually be like oh my god lemme call an ambulance and then disappear (bad bad writing) but I couldnt care about any of that because did you see the way kim soo hyun acted his heart out that scene????? Did you see the shortness of breath, the on the verge of a panic attack, the despair then the relief in his eyes, the crying, the way he held her?? The way I could feel every emotion and personally while I think the accident itself was stupid I found it poignant that haein changed her mind when she saw hyunwoo like this and we all know it's not because of the "ooh he looks so sad some lady will come hug him when he's crying after I die" but because haein herself has never seen hyunwoo like this, she saw entirely how destroyed he looked and felt when he thought she died and that hurt her more than anything and oof I just love these two, it's the way they just love each other so much and just want the other to be happy, in this moment haein said I'd hate to forget you but I'd hate it more if my death destroyed you and I think that speaks volumes.

- every other baekhong scene was gold lol, in the hospital, them just being domestic and just talking, the words they say before haein goes in for surgery (poorly written surgery, poorly written illness), the way hyunwoo just collapses once she's in - (and that's it I can't talk about the last 15 minutes lol even though there's a lot of baekhong glory there too).

- special mention for aunt beomja who really is a little ray of sunshine and for soocheol and his little family (I have issues with their bad qualities just being disregarded by this writer but that's for a different post).

Anyway, the ep is flawed just like every ep has been, it's clear the writer has no idea how to navigate complex plot lines and really should have just stuck to baekhong, because that's truly been worth the watch and has been very well written.

[sunlightnmoonshine]

I'm literally not over eunseong being dressed like hyunwoo with a bandaged hand like what even?? All this shit only works cuz this hospital is incompetent and haein's family continue to have little to no common sense.