#none of this excuses his actions but he’s literally a boomer parent HDHFJFJD it’s so accurate i cant even complain

[dongshancai]

i just feel like i have to talk about this because i really love how they handled sangtae’s character. he was clearly written to be the main antagonist that’s keeping yongpil and samdal apart, and even to the point where holding onto this grudge for over 20 years sound almost unreasonable. however, i think it’s a great portrayal of grief and how it can ultimately consume you.

everyone deals with grief differently, and i saw a great post explaining how ko mija and yongpil handling the grief around sangtae made it even worse for him. the plot kept circling back to him being too stubborn to ease up on the hate that i began to wonder if they were going to be able to solve it well enough. but episode 14 delivered because while it was almost getting frustrating seeing sangtae relentlessly not listening to everyone around him, by adding the fact that due to his failing vision and memory, he’s afraid of letting go of this grief. which really ties in to the beginning of the episode between yongpil and samdal, when yongpil was saying how he’s afraid of forgetting samdal. by showing how similar yongpil and sangtae loves, makes it hard to truly hate him (even if he’s a stubborn old man) because our main character is exactly the same way.

but i especially love the way they wrote samdal talking to him. it tied it up so neatly that i can’t help but be impressed. by having her say word for word what he told bu mija a long time ago, after he visited her at the temple, made it seem like it was bu mija telling him that. and i think it was something he really really needed to hear. the actor did an AMAZING job at portraying the realization that he really doesn’t hate samdal, and he was too caught up in his grief that he didn’t realize other people were suffering too. so when he ran after her and seeing yongpil standing next to her,,,, bro TEARS

i just really appreciate how they handled his character because he’s not a bad person—he’s in pain and he doesn’t realize his actions are hurting people he cares about because,, he just happened to really love his wife. and the catharsis of having samdal being the reason to free him from his grudge when he was the one that deliberately kept our main couple apart just shows the intricate relationships of these families but how, at the end of the day, they still care for each other