Jungjeon-mama
Nostalgialand
This review may contain spoilers
One HELL of a masterpiece, the ratings were deserved.
I watched this drama oftentimes with my hand covering my mouth, while I was cussing to my hearts' content. I am already into the 90s drama scene and the 80s music scene so I understand the value system, society and the emotioans, vibe and aesthetic of the times that Sandglass portrayed. We should watch 90s dramas from the eyes of the 90s.
The story is written by a very respected writer, Song Ji Na. Written with a heavy hand and a lot of fingers pointed towards real people, it's the ultimate story of sacrifice, and how good and evil in real life is a wide spectrum, blurring each line and border.
Hye Rin, Jae Hee, Tae Soo and Woo Seok each sacrificed important things for each other, putting their friend, lover or protege in front of everything else in that moment. Sacrifice, according to the drama, can absolve any bad deed you did. The end justifies the means. Oftentimes, in so many scenes, you don't really realise the full weight of what happened and you realise it a few seconds later. You so want to transport yourself to the scene and help out- but you can't.
It's not a light-hearted drama per se. It was made with an intention to get people talking, get them caught up in this world so they can realise what actually happened in Gwangju, what happened to those gangsters that they used to hear about, what happens in the lives of those rich people that seemingly got off with no consequemces.. There are a lot of light-hearted, "simple" scenes but even they seem so... heavy. It's like you can foreshadow something bad happening later, like the momentary happiness of the characters could shatter any moment.
The drama was never a makjang, never really made my blood pressure rise, but it was like watching destiny unfold. Watching certain scenes knowing the intention behind it. And sometimes, just reveling in the glory of a particular scene. "Sandglass" is as good as art, cinematographical art. And performing art too. Because the acting? Certain scenes and shots should be in acting school textbooks. It just cannot be described with words, so I'll try to shower my praises in my sailor's mouth.
---
First off, Tae Soo. OOF.
Choi Min Soo, you absolutely batshit crazy motherfucker. The god of acting in this industry. How in damnation did you do this. How the actual fuck did you manage to make a gangster - a whole ass violent mobster that has blood on his hands - look human and lovable without unnecesarily romanticising him? Where did we learn this, in which textbook, which university course was this lesson on charisma and the art of crazily expressive eyes? Where's the lesson on effortlessness? How did you make me - a person who regularly watches your and your lovely wife's TV shows - forget you were acting? I was cussing through my phone screen, trying to tell you, no, you mofo, this is not how you're getting Hye Rin back. No, don't go in there. I had to a take a day break after I watched the ending, because I felt like the drama didn't mourn Tae Soo's death enough. One thing's for sure, If the Daesang came that year, it came for a very good reason with as good as no competition.
(One thing tough, Uncle Min Soo - I think we skipped the class on diction back in acting school, huh? I needed Korean auto-generated subtitles sometimes to understand what you're saying. Like, come on, let me know! I wanna know what you're saying without having to replay it thrice, goddamn! ENUNCIATE THEM WORDS!)
Tae Soo as a character is the main focus of the whole drama, because in the end, it somehow all circles back to him. He is not all evil but has blood on his hands too. He is given many, many chances to turn his life arund, but he doesn't, thinking that the world will not take him, a gangster and an orphan, back again. Woo Seok sacrifices his integrity for him not just once but many times, but Tae Soo doesn't seem to want the hard way up when there's a easy way up, thinking that the "good way of living" isn't possible for him anymore. While we, the viewers, know that it could have been possible. We sit there, waiting for him to say bye and leave it all behind him, but end up watching how the world leaves him behind. Woo Seok says it too - taking the easy way out every time is the biggest crime of Tae Soo's life. It's distressing, to say the least, to see him walk towards doom withut him knowing it. In the words of Tyra Banks, we were all rooting for you!
But Tae Soo appears so innocent, so naive. Just like Choi Min Soo's actual IRL personality, he harbours a lot of un-matured feelings and emotions in him. He loves with his whole heart, almost very child-like. A heart that roams around, waiting for love, that dies by the hands of it. HE is the ultimate sacrificial goat, for the sake of the justice system and bringing down corrupt people and the gangsters that threaten Hye Rin. For the sake of Woo Seok's law career - and for the sake of putting an end to his destructive life style. It might have been that generations ideal - that a gangster, who is seen as morally corrupt and violent has the purest heart. Fly high, Tae Soo.
Hye Rin, you're next.
I have so many thoughts about you, girlie. The first few epsiodes, Hye Rin is a little bit grating, slightly annoying, even, you'll wonder if she even fits into the world that Tae soo and Woo Seok live in. At the end you'll realise, they were living in her world, because she has the money to make it go round. She goes from happy-go-lucky to having her lover's blood on her hands, she goes from "I hate my father and his job" to taking the position and business over. I look back at Hye Rin from episode 1 to 6 and it is NOT the same Hye Rin in Episode 19 - 24. And they did it all without switching out the actress- and Go Hyun Jung's eyes make it believeable. Her character had flaws, had it's moments where you kinda know what the writer was going for but it just can't be understood in that situation.
Hye Ris is almost as flawed as the average human being - the almost meaning that she is way more flawed than that. Since she was raised so spoilt - even with her personal bodyguard to help her out of every situation - she sees the world in a extremely naive and innocent way. Some arguments can be made about Hye Rin's intentions - we don't want to imagine that she would ever want Tae Soo or Jae Hee to suffer for her like they did. Wasn't she Hye Rin that withstood torture to not rat out her fellow protesters? But If the Ep 1-6 Hyerin was ready to sacrifice for the sake of good - like the student cause, democracy, or Woo Seok - the passing of her father, the insecurity of her own lifestyle, her being caught up in Jae Hee's devotion and Tae Soo's pure love for her, and her gradual ascent to power corrupted her to the point she would rather see someone suffer than her. And despite spending a night with Tae Soo, that is just the salt in the wound of betrayal that Hye Rin left in Tae Soo. And he knew it! He knew it all and yet, put a hand on her shoulder and asked her to use him. And she just accepted. Student protester Hye Rin would have made a fuss - older Hye Rin just accepts it. That's just how it ends, and we are left with the realisation that Hye Rin has changed and we don't like her anymore. Probably the only character that has a big change of heart in this drama, and that's for the negative.
Go Hyun Jung, you didn't only bring this girl to life, you LIVED through her. I feel like I saw everything you had to offer at that point in your career. Every eyebrow raise, every dialogue, every hairstyle and evry smile was so beautiful and menaingful You made me curse, you made me hope that maybe, maybe now Hye Rin will relaise how much Tae Soo suffered and now she should protect him the way he used to...
Anyways, you iconic badass bitch. Take this W. You should have continued acting after this. Can I just go back to 1995 and tell you not to marry a certain chaebol son? You'll find thousand other men that will treat you like the princess you are, not a baby-making machine, a trophy wife and disposable daughter-in-law. We can't lose you in your best years yet. You did come back with a bang, but you should have been at another whole level than you are. You shouldn't have come back with a bent head and the baggage of a "scandalous" actress. Block that mfers number right now, girlie.
Woo Seok, the goody two shoes, you aren't innocent in all of this either.
You also have the worst blood on your hands. I have a lot of things to pick out here. But first off we need to put you on some sunscreen and a good anti-wrinkle serum. I don't believe you're in law school, my man. You look like you failed law school 9 times. But you were the calming factor in this drama.
Park Sang Won has an older and more mature look to him that helped greatly in the later episodes, in the first few, not as much. He is very serious, very lawful and full of good moral values. For him, the world is black and white, good and evil, depsite him having crossed and blurred that line a lot. It's ironic that he was the one that was always listened to orders and lived the way society told him to, and was the designated "good guy" of the drama - but he technically has caused the painful death of more people than the average gangster. None of his decisions are, by the law, questionable or wrong. Even when he shot protestors in Gwangju, he was doing his duty, which is a good thing to do. Even when he read Tae Soo's death sentence, hell, even when he put the cloth over his eyes, he was doing nothing but the "right" thing in the eyes of the law.
Woo Seok makes us all think about how far we would go when it comes to following the orders. Would you be able to look your childhood friend in the eye as you read his death sentence? Would you be able to gun down a pregnant woman? Would you be able to handle a case clearly where millions of won is involved? Would you do the wrong thing for the right thing?
Last but not least at all, I would love to highlight Sun Young! Woo Seok's wife. The one character that has no blood on her hands. There were other characters at her "size" in the drama, such as Tae Soo's brethren-turned-rival gangster Lee Jong Do (who even kidnaps Sun Young), Hye Rin's casino owner father, the female reporter Shin. But I want to put a highlight on Sun Young.
Sun Young, I see you. An angel that's living in the dirt, who deals with the enemies your husband can't seem to leave behind. I see the "Sun" in your name, meaning goodness. You were exactly that, a candle, in the middle of gasoline-fueled fires, that burnt quietly yet resolutely. You were there for him, you made me feel that there is some person in that world that doesn't have to bring upon the destruction of someone else to make themselves look good. You might not have been in a lot of episodes, but you were my favourite character for sure. Actress Jo Min Soo, your presence in this drama was greatly appreciated. I kept on waiting for those loving, warm and yet sad eyes of yours.
-----
There were of course some smaller flaws in the story. Hye Rin's character was one of them - just goes to say that even a female writer can sometimes not handle the weight of her own female character. Also, the fact that there were only three female characters with a name, out of them, we don't even know some of their full names, Sun Young's, for example. Jakkanim, we're not passing the bechdel test with this one, aren't we?
The world of violence, brutality and poverty is not just a man's world. And in a drama like this where the emotions run high, it would have been nicer to have a lot more female characters standing alone. The women who revolted and protested, the women in every day life, maybe even female gang members. There was a lot of space left for the girls, in my humble opinion.
Then, some events, years, the timeline, didn't really match up. Very liberal artistic freedoms were taken especially in the hair, outfit, props and makeup department that made the whole story take place in the mid 90s than the actual time the drama is supposed to be in, the late 70s to early to mid 80s. As a fashion and makeup enthusiast, I also had to sit down and wonder, why couldn't they just use some of the clothing from back then? Why make the real life images versus the acted scenes so jarring? That is just a minor nitpick though.
The story is written by a very respected writer, Song Ji Na. Written with a heavy hand and a lot of fingers pointed towards real people, it's the ultimate story of sacrifice, and how good and evil in real life is a wide spectrum, blurring each line and border.
Hye Rin, Jae Hee, Tae Soo and Woo Seok each sacrificed important things for each other, putting their friend, lover or protege in front of everything else in that moment. Sacrifice, according to the drama, can absolve any bad deed you did. The end justifies the means. Oftentimes, in so many scenes, you don't really realise the full weight of what happened and you realise it a few seconds later. You so want to transport yourself to the scene and help out- but you can't.
It's not a light-hearted drama per se. It was made with an intention to get people talking, get them caught up in this world so they can realise what actually happened in Gwangju, what happened to those gangsters that they used to hear about, what happens in the lives of those rich people that seemingly got off with no consequemces.. There are a lot of light-hearted, "simple" scenes but even they seem so... heavy. It's like you can foreshadow something bad happening later, like the momentary happiness of the characters could shatter any moment.
The drama was never a makjang, never really made my blood pressure rise, but it was like watching destiny unfold. Watching certain scenes knowing the intention behind it. And sometimes, just reveling in the glory of a particular scene. "Sandglass" is as good as art, cinematographical art. And performing art too. Because the acting? Certain scenes and shots should be in acting school textbooks. It just cannot be described with words, so I'll try to shower my praises in my sailor's mouth.
---
First off, Tae Soo. OOF.
Choi Min Soo, you absolutely batshit crazy motherfucker. The god of acting in this industry. How in damnation did you do this. How the actual fuck did you manage to make a gangster - a whole ass violent mobster that has blood on his hands - look human and lovable without unnecesarily romanticising him? Where did we learn this, in which textbook, which university course was this lesson on charisma and the art of crazily expressive eyes? Where's the lesson on effortlessness? How did you make me - a person who regularly watches your and your lovely wife's TV shows - forget you were acting? I was cussing through my phone screen, trying to tell you, no, you mofo, this is not how you're getting Hye Rin back. No, don't go in there. I had to a take a day break after I watched the ending, because I felt like the drama didn't mourn Tae Soo's death enough. One thing's for sure, If the Daesang came that year, it came for a very good reason with as good as no competition.
(One thing tough, Uncle Min Soo - I think we skipped the class on diction back in acting school, huh? I needed Korean auto-generated subtitles sometimes to understand what you're saying. Like, come on, let me know! I wanna know what you're saying without having to replay it thrice, goddamn! ENUNCIATE THEM WORDS!)
Tae Soo as a character is the main focus of the whole drama, because in the end, it somehow all circles back to him. He is not all evil but has blood on his hands too. He is given many, many chances to turn his life arund, but he doesn't, thinking that the world will not take him, a gangster and an orphan, back again. Woo Seok sacrifices his integrity for him not just once but many times, but Tae Soo doesn't seem to want the hard way up when there's a easy way up, thinking that the "good way of living" isn't possible for him anymore. While we, the viewers, know that it could have been possible. We sit there, waiting for him to say bye and leave it all behind him, but end up watching how the world leaves him behind. Woo Seok says it too - taking the easy way out every time is the biggest crime of Tae Soo's life. It's distressing, to say the least, to see him walk towards doom withut him knowing it. In the words of Tyra Banks, we were all rooting for you!
But Tae Soo appears so innocent, so naive. Just like Choi Min Soo's actual IRL personality, he harbours a lot of un-matured feelings and emotions in him. He loves with his whole heart, almost very child-like. A heart that roams around, waiting for love, that dies by the hands of it. HE is the ultimate sacrificial goat, for the sake of the justice system and bringing down corrupt people and the gangsters that threaten Hye Rin. For the sake of Woo Seok's law career - and for the sake of putting an end to his destructive life style. It might have been that generations ideal - that a gangster, who is seen as morally corrupt and violent has the purest heart. Fly high, Tae Soo.
Hye Rin, you're next.
I have so many thoughts about you, girlie. The first few epsiodes, Hye Rin is a little bit grating, slightly annoying, even, you'll wonder if she even fits into the world that Tae soo and Woo Seok live in. At the end you'll realise, they were living in her world, because she has the money to make it go round. She goes from happy-go-lucky to having her lover's blood on her hands, she goes from "I hate my father and his job" to taking the position and business over. I look back at Hye Rin from episode 1 to 6 and it is NOT the same Hye Rin in Episode 19 - 24. And they did it all without switching out the actress- and Go Hyun Jung's eyes make it believeable. Her character had flaws, had it's moments where you kinda know what the writer was going for but it just can't be understood in that situation.
Hye Ris is almost as flawed as the average human being - the almost meaning that she is way more flawed than that. Since she was raised so spoilt - even with her personal bodyguard to help her out of every situation - she sees the world in a extremely naive and innocent way. Some arguments can be made about Hye Rin's intentions - we don't want to imagine that she would ever want Tae Soo or Jae Hee to suffer for her like they did. Wasn't she Hye Rin that withstood torture to not rat out her fellow protesters? But If the Ep 1-6 Hyerin was ready to sacrifice for the sake of good - like the student cause, democracy, or Woo Seok - the passing of her father, the insecurity of her own lifestyle, her being caught up in Jae Hee's devotion and Tae Soo's pure love for her, and her gradual ascent to power corrupted her to the point she would rather see someone suffer than her. And despite spending a night with Tae Soo, that is just the salt in the wound of betrayal that Hye Rin left in Tae Soo. And he knew it! He knew it all and yet, put a hand on her shoulder and asked her to use him. And she just accepted. Student protester Hye Rin would have made a fuss - older Hye Rin just accepts it. That's just how it ends, and we are left with the realisation that Hye Rin has changed and we don't like her anymore. Probably the only character that has a big change of heart in this drama, and that's for the negative.
Go Hyun Jung, you didn't only bring this girl to life, you LIVED through her. I feel like I saw everything you had to offer at that point in your career. Every eyebrow raise, every dialogue, every hairstyle and evry smile was so beautiful and menaingful You made me curse, you made me hope that maybe, maybe now Hye Rin will relaise how much Tae Soo suffered and now she should protect him the way he used to...
Anyways, you iconic badass bitch. Take this W. You should have continued acting after this. Can I just go back to 1995 and tell you not to marry a certain chaebol son? You'll find thousand other men that will treat you like the princess you are, not a baby-making machine, a trophy wife and disposable daughter-in-law. We can't lose you in your best years yet. You did come back with a bang, but you should have been at another whole level than you are. You shouldn't have come back with a bent head and the baggage of a "scandalous" actress. Block that mfers number right now, girlie.
Woo Seok, the goody two shoes, you aren't innocent in all of this either.
You also have the worst blood on your hands. I have a lot of things to pick out here. But first off we need to put you on some sunscreen and a good anti-wrinkle serum. I don't believe you're in law school, my man. You look like you failed law school 9 times. But you were the calming factor in this drama.
Park Sang Won has an older and more mature look to him that helped greatly in the later episodes, in the first few, not as much. He is very serious, very lawful and full of good moral values. For him, the world is black and white, good and evil, depsite him having crossed and blurred that line a lot. It's ironic that he was the one that was always listened to orders and lived the way society told him to, and was the designated "good guy" of the drama - but he technically has caused the painful death of more people than the average gangster. None of his decisions are, by the law, questionable or wrong. Even when he shot protestors in Gwangju, he was doing his duty, which is a good thing to do. Even when he read Tae Soo's death sentence, hell, even when he put the cloth over his eyes, he was doing nothing but the "right" thing in the eyes of the law.
Woo Seok makes us all think about how far we would go when it comes to following the orders. Would you be able to look your childhood friend in the eye as you read his death sentence? Would you be able to gun down a pregnant woman? Would you be able to handle a case clearly where millions of won is involved? Would you do the wrong thing for the right thing?
Last but not least at all, I would love to highlight Sun Young! Woo Seok's wife. The one character that has no blood on her hands. There were other characters at her "size" in the drama, such as Tae Soo's brethren-turned-rival gangster Lee Jong Do (who even kidnaps Sun Young), Hye Rin's casino owner father, the female reporter Shin. But I want to put a highlight on Sun Young.
Sun Young, I see you. An angel that's living in the dirt, who deals with the enemies your husband can't seem to leave behind. I see the "Sun" in your name, meaning goodness. You were exactly that, a candle, in the middle of gasoline-fueled fires, that burnt quietly yet resolutely. You were there for him, you made me feel that there is some person in that world that doesn't have to bring upon the destruction of someone else to make themselves look good. You might not have been in a lot of episodes, but you were my favourite character for sure. Actress Jo Min Soo, your presence in this drama was greatly appreciated. I kept on waiting for those loving, warm and yet sad eyes of yours.
-----
There were of course some smaller flaws in the story. Hye Rin's character was one of them - just goes to say that even a female writer can sometimes not handle the weight of her own female character. Also, the fact that there were only three female characters with a name, out of them, we don't even know some of their full names, Sun Young's, for example. Jakkanim, we're not passing the bechdel test with this one, aren't we?
The world of violence, brutality and poverty is not just a man's world. And in a drama like this where the emotions run high, it would have been nicer to have a lot more female characters standing alone. The women who revolted and protested, the women in every day life, maybe even female gang members. There was a lot of space left for the girls, in my humble opinion.
Then, some events, years, the timeline, didn't really match up. Very liberal artistic freedoms were taken especially in the hair, outfit, props and makeup department that made the whole story take place in the mid 90s than the actual time the drama is supposed to be in, the late 70s to early to mid 80s. As a fashion and makeup enthusiast, I also had to sit down and wonder, why couldn't they just use some of the clothing from back then? Why make the real life images versus the acted scenes so jarring? That is just a minor nitpick though.
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