The terrorists are successfully defeated but Hyun Jun and Seon Hwa are taken in for questioning by the NIS. After Mi Jeong downloads information from the NSS, Vick kills her.
In IRIS, Korean gender inequality appears a bigger issue as what I thought initially. The number of working female in any hired and paid position is significantly lower than men. This is the case even though NSS idolizes the new trend of independent women model and tends to have more women in working places. Somewhat when governors having meetings in Blue house Hong Soo-jin appears the only one female in a room of 20+ people, and her job function is only as an assistant who serves the people or sends message for the president. I often find her at odds with the head of the chief advisor, and (because of her gender) she rarely speaks her mind freely and appears to have allegiances beyond those that are already apparent. In real life, Korea appears as one of the lowest ranking in terms of gender in economic participation and equality (125th, score of 0.557), the number suggests the huge difference between the chance of getting hired and payroll between gender (no wonder “kimchi” girls appear as a norm).
Baek San said in this episode: “You (Hyun Jun) were being punished for eating the forbidden fruit. The life I designed for you did not allow for you to do that.”
This is not the first occurrence where nods towards Christian imagery has been used in the drama. Baek San refers to the forbidden fruit from the Book of Genesis where the story is of Adam and Eve eating the fruit that God commanded them not to eat. It is a very familiar narrative that makes the metaphorical meaning of temptation and pleasure over something that is off limits easily understood by most people. The first that comes to mind about this quote is that Seung Hee is the forbidden fruit that Hyun Jun was not supposed to “eat.” What really perplexes me is why Baek San appears to be like a “father-figure” to Seung Hee. Why must he feel the need to protect Seung Hee? He begged the head of IRIS so save her when she was captured by the terrorists, meaning that she may have a big part in the plan—bigger than getting the NSS code. It has lead me to speculate that Seung Hee has been (or once was) allied with Baek San (and possibly with IRIS) since the beginning and has been a part of the plan since the beginning. Why was the idea of Seung Hee and Hyun Jun falling in love so detrimental to Baek San’s plans? Baek San claims that he forged a plan for Hyun Jun since he murdered his parents. If Seung Hee was allied with Baek San, then if she fell in love with Hyun Jun, she must have changed sides in favour of love and therefore Hyun Jun was detrimental to the plan.
After the conflict with the terrorist and the arrest of a few IRIS members, they were interrogated by the South Korean and North Korean government. These two countries have their own interrogation facilities which contrast with one another. In South Korea, the rooms are completely white and there is just a table in the center. The room looks really clean and the agents are just asking questions. They stay on their side of the table and are calm through the whole process. On the other hand, the North Korean rooms have dim lighting and are dirty. They resort to physical punishment and death threats to the prisoner’s family. South Korea is seen to be cleaner, more civilized, and less violent when treating people. From the differences of the rooms and methods of interrogation, we can see how badly North Korea can be portrayed in South Korean popular culture.
Like Donny, I think it is interesting how stereotypes of North vs South Korea is displayed in this episode. This is reflected in the interrogation rooms where Hyun Joon, Sa Woo, and Baek San were questioned versus where the North Korean cative was interrogated. The South Korean interrogation rooms were extremely bright, as if there was a bright light directed at the captives. On the other hand, the North Korean interrogation rooms seem dark and somber. This use of light and dark can be analyzed as utilizing the general underlying relation between light and goodness, and darkness and evil. The contrast in the interrogation rooms can be an effort to portray North Korea as the “evil twin” of South Korea, with the purpose of invoking certain feelings of detest in the audience towards the North (for the purposes relating to the plot of this drama, I hope).
In this episode, there were three female characters that had a significant scene. Seung Hee's scene was not too significant, but I am mentioning it because she comes in and saves Hyun Joon and Sun Hwa. Although she does come in and saves everyone, it does not add much to her character development since her characteristics are on the more dependent side. I mean this isn't the best example of a female character saving the day, but it is a huge improvement for the portrayal of female characters. The other two portrayals both involve men, in which one is for the better and one is for the worse. We have Sun Hwa who had Hyun Joon in her life when she needed someone the most. When her family was killed and her country abandoned her, Hyun Joon was the only one who cared for her. Her emotions finally showed on her face when she had to say good bye to Hyun Joon, in which she smiled a I'm-okay-and-I-wish-you-all-the-best smile, and also broke out into a cry when she was in the car (the first time she cried was when she failed in killing Hyun Joon and accepted his kindness, and she didn't even cry when she confirmed her family's death). On the other hand, there is Mi Jung falling for Vic, which seemed like a bad idea from the very beginning. She trusted him, but not only did he end up betraying her (like in most dramas), he ended up killing her. Her character was a stereotypical female in which once they fall in love with a guy, they will do anything for them. In this case, it was "borrowing" Hyun Ku's security pass and downloading information, which lead to Baek San and Sa Woo escaping. She would've had a perfect life before and a good representation of feminism, when she would dress "rebellious" but would save the entire computer system even if she would get killed. I am not satisfied at all with the female portrayal in this drama, as all three main characters are fairly dependent on male characters (not so much for Sun Hwa, but she needed a male to help her).
Sa Woo’s makeup in this episode made him almost unrecognizable. His eyes were bloodshot, his skin was sweaty, and I noticed how foundation was used to make his lips look lifeless and pale. His hair had a disheveled appearance since it was not styled up anymore, showcasing how being locked up in prison can take a toll on one’s image. He looked utterly drained with his skin’s imperfections (pores, fine lines, and redness exposed) being exposed. The dry and cracked lips paired with the lack of foundation on his skin emphasized the rawness of his physical state and the emotions he must be feeling. In sharp contrast, I got the impression of Seon Hwa feeling much softer than usual. Whether it was the natural blush, minimal eyeliner, or lack of glaringness in her eyes that made her look that way, she just gave a totally different feeling from the past episodes. This drama also had the most cliché stereotypical kdrama scene when she rode away in the car and the repeating scene in slow motion ensued. This juxtaposition of the two secondary characters highlights the opposites of their duality (bad/good character, hard/soft feeling, bitter/in love emotions, etc.).
In this episode, we finally see where the terrorism takes place which is in the Gwanghwamun area of Seoul. They chose this spot since it is a central area and found that it is the best place to put a nuclear bomb to affect as many people as they can. This is one of the reasons why South Koreans in reality use this space to protest for what the people want. For example, the massive protest against the old president of South Korea, Park Geun Hye. Crowds up to 1.5 million people came and protested ending up with the result that they wanted. It was amazing to see so many of Korea's citizens to come together to make a change for the better. From my experience about hearing protests, the result usually does not favor the protestants but in this case, I found this extremely cool about South Korea.
In IRIS, Korean gender inequality appears a bigger issue as what I thought initially. The number of working female in any hired and paid position is significantly lower than men. This is the case even though NSS idolizes the new trend of independent women model and tends to have more women in working places. Somewhat when governors having meetings in Blue house Hong Soo-jin appears the only one female in a room of 20+ people, and her job function is only as an assistant who serves the people or sends message for the president. I often find her at odds with the head of the chief advisor, and (because of her gender) she rarely speaks her mind freely and appears to have allegiances beyond those that are already apparent. In real life, Korea appears as one of the lowest ranking in terms of gender in economic participation and equality (125th, score of 0.557), the number suggests the huge difference between the chance of getting hired and payroll between gender (no wonder “kimchi” girls appear as a norm).
ReplyDeleteSpeculations Surrounding the “Forbidden Fruit”
ReplyDeleteBaek San said in this episode: “You (Hyun Jun) were being punished for eating the forbidden fruit. The life I designed for you did not allow for you to do that.”
This is not the first occurrence where nods towards Christian imagery has been used in the drama. Baek San refers to the forbidden fruit from the Book of Genesis where the story is of Adam and Eve eating the fruit that God commanded them not to eat. It is a very familiar narrative that makes the metaphorical meaning of temptation and pleasure over something that is off limits easily understood by most people. The first that comes to mind about this quote is that Seung Hee is the forbidden fruit that Hyun Jun was not supposed to “eat.” What really perplexes me is why Baek San appears to be like a “father-figure” to Seung Hee. Why must he feel the need to protect Seung Hee? He begged the head of IRIS so save her when she was captured by the terrorists, meaning that she may have a big part in the plan—bigger than getting the NSS code. It has lead me to speculate that Seung Hee has been (or once was) allied with Baek San (and possibly with IRIS) since the beginning and has been a part of the plan since the beginning. Why was the idea of Seung Hee and Hyun Jun falling in love so detrimental to Baek San’s plans? Baek San claims that he forged a plan for Hyun Jun since he murdered his parents. If Seung Hee was allied with Baek San, then if she fell in love with Hyun Jun, she must have changed sides in favour of love and therefore Hyun Jun was detrimental to the plan.
After the conflict with the terrorist and the arrest of a few IRIS members, they were interrogated by the South Korean and North Korean government. These two countries have their own interrogation facilities which contrast with one another. In South Korea, the rooms are completely white and there is just a table in the center. The room looks really clean and the agents are just asking questions. They stay on their side of the table and are calm through the whole process. On the other hand, the North Korean rooms have dim lighting and are dirty. They resort to physical punishment and death threats to the prisoner’s family. South Korea is seen to be cleaner, more civilized, and less violent when treating people. From the differences of the rooms and methods of interrogation, we can see how badly North Korea can be portrayed in South Korean popular culture.
ReplyDeleteLike Donny, I think it is interesting how stereotypes of North vs South Korea is displayed in this episode. This is reflected in the interrogation rooms where Hyun Joon, Sa Woo, and Baek San were questioned versus where the North Korean cative was interrogated. The South Korean interrogation rooms were extremely bright, as if there was a bright light directed at the captives. On the other hand, the North Korean interrogation rooms seem dark and somber. This use of light and dark can be analyzed as utilizing the general underlying relation between light and goodness, and darkness and evil. The contrast in the interrogation rooms can be an effort to portray North Korea as the “evil twin” of South Korea, with the purpose of invoking certain feelings of detest in the audience towards the North (for the purposes relating to the plot of this drama, I hope).
ReplyDeleteIn this episode, there were three female characters that had a significant scene. Seung Hee's scene was not too significant, but I am mentioning it because she comes in and saves Hyun Joon and Sun Hwa. Although she does come in and saves everyone, it does not add much to her character development since her characteristics are on the more dependent side. I mean this isn't the best example of a female character saving the day, but it is a huge improvement for the portrayal of female characters. The other two portrayals both involve men, in which one is for the better and one is for the worse. We have Sun Hwa who had Hyun Joon in her life when she needed someone the most. When her family was killed and her country abandoned her, Hyun Joon was the only one who cared for her. Her emotions finally showed on her face when she had to say good bye to Hyun Joon, in which she smiled a I'm-okay-and-I-wish-you-all-the-best smile, and also broke out into a cry when she was in the car (the first time she cried was when she failed in killing Hyun Joon and accepted his kindness, and she didn't even cry when she confirmed her family's death). On the other hand, there is Mi Jung falling for Vic, which seemed like a bad idea from the very beginning. She trusted him, but not only did he end up betraying her (like in most dramas), he ended up killing her. Her character was a stereotypical female in which once they fall in love with a guy, they will do anything for them. In this case, it was "borrowing" Hyun Ku's security pass and downloading information, which lead to Baek San and Sa Woo escaping. She would've had a perfect life before and a good representation of feminism, when she would dress "rebellious" but would save the entire computer system even if she would get killed. I am not satisfied at all with the female portrayal in this drama, as all three main characters are fairly dependent on male characters (not so much for Sun Hwa, but she needed a male to help her).
ReplyDeleteSa Woo’s makeup in this episode made him almost unrecognizable. His eyes were bloodshot, his skin was sweaty, and I noticed how foundation was used to make his lips look lifeless and pale. His hair had a disheveled appearance since it was not styled up anymore, showcasing how being locked up in prison can take a toll on one’s image. He looked utterly drained with his skin’s imperfections (pores, fine lines, and redness exposed) being exposed. The dry and cracked lips paired with the lack of foundation on his skin emphasized the rawness of his physical state and the emotions he must be feeling. In sharp contrast, I got the impression of Seon Hwa feeling much softer than usual. Whether it was the natural blush, minimal eyeliner, or lack of glaringness in her eyes that made her look that way, she just gave a totally different feeling from the past episodes. This drama also had the most cliché stereotypical kdrama scene when she rode away in the car and the repeating scene in slow motion ensued. This juxtaposition of the two secondary characters highlights the opposites of their duality (bad/good character, hard/soft feeling, bitter/in love emotions, etc.).
ReplyDeleteIn this episode, we finally see where the terrorism takes place which is in the Gwanghwamun area of Seoul. They chose this spot since it is a central area and found that it is the best place to put a nuclear bomb to affect as many people as they can. This is one of the reasons why South Koreans in reality use this space to protest for what the people want. For example, the massive protest against the old president of South Korea, Park Geun Hye. Crowds up to 1.5 million people came and protested ending up with the result that they wanted. It was amazing to see so many of Korea's citizens to come together to make a change for the better. From my experience about hearing protests, the result usually does not favor the protestants but in this case, I found this extremely cool about South Korea.
ReplyDeleteJiyong! This is ep. 16. EVERY MEMBER of this group has commented on EVERY episode, until this one. And you're the one to drop the ball. Oyyyy 실망.
ReplyDelete17... anyway you know what i mean.
ReplyDelete