Early one, grandmother and Han Kyul discuss the issue of the perfect "daughter-in-law" and what that all implies. We find out that in order to be married into Han Kyul's family the woman must come from the an appropriate family background. This of course translates as coming from a wealthy family. The issue here is the opportunity women have in improving their economic standing by marrying into financially better off families, however, we know that Eun Chan will never be good enough for the Kyul's family due to her working class background. This is heartbreaking yet enforces these glass ceilings class centered societies.
Another concern for me while watching this episode was when Eun Chan was discussing her disguise with Hwang Min Yeop and he tells her that she is better off being a guy due to her lack of beauty. To be beautiful in such a vain society is a great and heavy issue as women who are not considered by society's standards they face more obstacles. It is a fact that people do get treated differently based on their physical looks. So here we have the question for Eun Chan that for her it is better she is a guy than a lady, as she would have a tough time in enduring female responsibility due to her lack of beauty. This rings true for Eun Chan's character since she is naturally tomboy which challenges the role and expectations of women.
Staying the role of women in society, in episode eight I took more notice of Han Yoo Joo and her character's independent role. Before I just saw her as this very coy woman, a typical beautiful, talented woman who could have any man she wanted. Yet, in this episode I was able to get over my own prejudices towards her and truly see that she is the representing the independent, career focused, and not relying on men female. In fact it finally caught on that because she does not see the rush of getting married she is considered as being snobby and even cold-hearted, but it is just her not seeing marriage as making her happy. So in the in end, my feelings towards Han Yoo Joo is more of compassion and it will be interesting to see how she balances her independence and feelings towards Han Seong.
Han Kyul takes the initiative to seek out the help of a psychiatry for his attraction to Eun Chan. My question is, his attraction one of sexual or emotional attraction? The doctor prescribes him medicine which I thought was funny and sad since we have the medical field sending the message that this attraction could be "cured." It goes back to all the people who have suffered from being homosexual whether it was electric shocks, summer camps, etc. What is frustrating is that I still am not getting a grasp of how the Korean culture views, tolerates, and places homosexuality, period.
A small point that I wanted to make was that we discover, Han Kyul is the child of his father's mistresses which brings us to the point of what Sandra Bullock had stated in accepting her Oscar, "This goes out to the mothers who raise children not their own." Now we see the added pressure of Han Kyul succeeding in his life as he is the "bastard" child of his father and this powerful matriarchy family has taken him in and raised him with a silver spoon in order for Han Kyul to have a brighter future. This makes the grandmother and mother not as heartless as I had thought of them before.
Finally, this episode ends with the kiss of both Han Kyul and Eun Chan and then Han Seong and Eun Chan. This was surprising as I really did not think that Han Seong would make a move on Eun Chan, yes we saw his adoration for her grow, but I just thought he viewed her as a kid sister. Obviously,I was wrong. I really wish, Eun Chan would just put down her disguise and let Han Kyul know that she is a woman. It's almost not fair and it's really frustrating as a viewer, but I guess that is part of the soap opera's magic in keeping the audience tuning in for the upcoming episodes.
No comments:
Post a Comment