Note from host: This post originally published in January 3, 2019 on my Medium account. Since I am planning to abandon that account, it is republished here with some minor changes, as well the 2 videos that is restricted to upload to YouTube due to copyright and other issues.
SPOILER ALERT from the first video:
There must be something happened after I’ve finished this 24-episode TV drama from South Korea. After watching 3 more times, as well several night of overwork, the result is the above video (All clips in the video essay belongs to their respective companies, as listed in the end of the video).
Certainly, I am not here to re-tell the story of Mr. Sunshine. I want, however, to answer some questions. One of those is: How can South Korea make such a TV drama series that can, as I said in the vlog, “ re-visiting their past, re-evaluating their present, as well re-thinking their future”?
I have to admit, even one 48 minute video essay can’t cover everything I want to discuss. Focusing on Eugene and Aeshin partly because I want to explore the theme of “revolution”, as well the motivation of “revolting”: for China, the past two centuries is one of the most heartbreaking and tragic period of their history, because Chinese has never learned from history, and reviewing history with reason; but falls into different form of partisan fight: pro-monarchy vs. pro republic, Nationalist vs. Communist, “Republic” vs. “People’s Republic” … We are surely reminded that South Korea is not an utopia, but things are progressing, and every time when something has happened, either demonstrations, regime changes, scandals … they learn a bit more to make a better society. I don’t think Chinese are doing the same.
Now even the American democracy is deterioring, which I also produced a vlog about almost 2 years ago.
What can I say?
I also want to point out that even the antagonists in the series have their reasons and motifs on every move: That Japanese officer who used to be Eugene’s neighbour said how to stop the Uibyeong (義兵) movement: “destroy their spirit … [otherwise] the sons and daughter of last revolution will become the new revolutionaries.” For us all revolutionaries who are fighting for some justice in our own societies, we really should ask one thing: Do we just want to fight for the unjustice status quo, or do we really looking for a better world?
Playing that centre of the universe in 1904, a.k.a. Aeshin, Kim Tae-ri herself’s journey as an actress is also worth a mention. I am sure everyone knows Lee Byung-han, some appreciate his acting because of his long career in South Korea, Japan, even in Hollywood, and others may reject to watch him because of his moral compass (he did have some scandals at the time when the series starting to air, but he is not Kevin Spacey). I read some articles praising Kim’s acting as “the emotion she made simply by her low jaw worth many actors and actresses’ whole face”. She may only have 3 movies under her belt (as of 2018), but every one of them is a masterpiece (just mention The Handmaiden, you will get my point), and so does Mr. Sunshine. Missing her great acting in this series will be a great loss in your own expense.
So, enjoy my little video essay at the top, and I hope you can enjoy Mr. Sunshine, either before or after reading this, now can be watched on Netflix.