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gumtaek

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    [Drama 2016] Moonlight Drawn by Clouds / Love in the Moonlight ☪ 구르미 그린 달빛

    in k-dramas & movies

    Posted

    How can some say that Raon in the later episodes lacked spunk or rather lost her spunky self?

    Spoiler

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    Asking Chief Eunuch Han to get a glimpse of the father she has never seen nor knew: "The entire nation knows him except me.", is a foolhardy request but filtered through the prism of a daughter's love for her father---which I have to say is short of heroism because of the stigma she bore all throughout her life  by being his daughter---it ceases to be foolhardy but rather becomes the mark of true grit.

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    [Drama 2016] Moonlight Drawn by Clouds / Love in the Moonlight ☪ 구르미 그린 달빛

    in k-dramas & movies

    Posted

    In Defense of Raon:  Analysis of the Episode 15 Scene Where Raon wielded the knife at the CP Part 2

    I will post the following English subbed screencaps to further understand that "misunderstood" action of Raon:

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    The "knot" that Eunuch Han alluded to was the deep bond or attachment between Yeong and Raon. Eunuch Han spoke of the present state of the CP...he was pushing off the wedding, and his complete disregard of his health---not sleeping, resting nor eating which was taking a toll on the CP. As their bond was too deep , it was hard to "untangle". Since Yeong was showing no signs of wanting to untangle---as seen from his "heart over mind" moves to want to see Raon in spite of the perils involved---Chief Eunuch was making Raon see that for the sake of the CP, she has to be to the one not only to "untangle" but to "cut" it.

    Raon's act of wielding the knife at Yeong is not to be taken literally. It was symbolic in two sense: 

    1) One was precisely to cut off the thread with an untangled knot referring  their rooted relationship;

    2) Second, given the ugly character of the act, it will give Yeong the reason to "hate" Raon---not to be apologetic toward her as Raon has explained to her Mom in one of the screencaps above---so as to make the separation more tolerable and less painful.

    I hope this analysis will redeem Raon in the eyes of the viewers because when you understand better the story, you will realize that she is  not a "victim," a "damsel in distress" but a young woman who makes courageous choices  for the sake of the person she loves.

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    [Drama 2016] Moonlight Drawn by Clouds / Love in the Moonlight ☪ 구르미 그린 달빛

    in k-dramas & movies

    Posted

    In Defense of Raon:  Analysis of Episode 15 Scene Where Raon wielded the knife toward the CP Part 1

    Although I was initially disconcerted by Raon’s dagger scene with the Prince, watching the episode, I now understand that it was not a random act done out of hysteria, but a deliberate one…it was a decision she made and carried out after Eunuch Han told her these words:

    “While untangling your thread, when you face a knot that is impossible to untangle, you must cut it off with out holding back.”

    Raon had a choice whether or not to heed the advice, She freely chose to do it. In this she was the protagonist of her life. It may not sit well with us—it didn’t at first with me and I scratched my head wondering what led her to do it—but by doing so she was telling us with her action that she chose the CP’s well-being before her own. Noble idiocy?! If selflessness were an idiotic thing to do, then I would gladly follow that route.

     
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    [Drama 2016] Moonlight Drawn by Clouds / Love in the Moonlight ☪ 구르미 그린 달빛

    in k-dramas & movies

    Posted

    Moonlight Drawn By Clouds: Episode 16

    by javabeans | October 11, 2016 | 14 Comments
     

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    Despite my disappointment in yesterday’s episode, I was looking forward to what today would bring us, hopeful that it would do what this show does best in drawing meaning and emotion out of small, heartfelt moments and displays of interpersonal care.

    We get a little bit of that, but I’m sorry to report that my hopes were not to be realized and what we have is mostly rebel political hour, which is at least a plot driver. I do wish that plot being driven were somehow more exciting or moving, but okay, at least it moved. We are not standing in the same place we were yesterday. That lining is a little silver-colored.

    COMMENTS

    Nooooo, Byung-yeon, don’t you go breaking my heart too! *sniff* *choke* *wails* Life is hard enough without you turning on each other!

    I do follow Byung-yeon in this moment, since the show has been building up this internal conflict for a long time, showing Byung-yeon caught between his loyalties to the cause and to his friend. It hurts not only because it’s a betrayal of Yeong, but because we had seen that all series long, when pressed Byung-yeon always chose the prince—not necessarily over the cause, but he seemed to be willing to compromise in the little moments. I do respect that unflinching lack of compromise displayed by men like Hong Kyung-rae and Head Eunuch Han, because great change needs leaders to hold steady and make sacrifices along the way, but I never saw Byung-yeon as that kind of person. I saw him more as the alternate version of Dad that Ra-on and her mother longed for, the man who could believe noble thoughts but live for his family’s happiness.

    So it’s a meaningful shift to have him reach that rock-and-a-hard-place moment, and finally have to choose, and I can respect that he picked the cause despite looking a little like he hated himself for it. I do wish the show had spent a little more time building up Byung-yeon’s thought process so that this final switch had a little more narrative momentum, because while I understand intellectually exactly what happened, I didn’t really know why it happened now. It would have landed with more impact if something had happened to demonstrate just why he had to divorce himself from the idea that the prince was his friend; his traitor boss reminded him of that yesterday, but I didn’t really feel why that was true. I wish the show had pitted him in direct ideological conflict with Yeong, or forced his hand a different way that explained why he made this choice in this moment. Basically, if you’re going to rip my heart out, I want you to really do it good and proper—why leave it bruised when you could leave it shredded and bleeding?

    (I’m still holding out for a last-minute revelation in the next episode to show us a twist, but for now, there’s nothing to do but go with what the show has shown us. My hope is alive, but knows better than to get too confident.)

    I was dearly hoping today’s episode would be the turnaround that I was dying for, but found myself disappointed again by episode’s end. It’s not that the show logic-failed on me, or had characters acting out of character, or went off the rails—nothing so dire as that. But today kind of felt like every Episode 16 of every Joseon fusiony sageuk I’ve seen in the past six or seven years, and as such felt extremely paint-by-numbers: political machinations, claims of treason, noble victims, torture, prison, tribunals and interrogations and gloaty ministers. Basically, it made this drama feel ordinary, without the magic that has made this show so special in prior weeks.

    That doesn’t mean this show has suddenly become bad, and as ever, the strong directorial hand really elevates things. The moment when all goes silent as Ra-on braces for death, and the vocals start in without instrumentation—that was a spine-tingly great beat. Any moment that hinged on strong emotional acting was well-executed (even when I didn’t like what was necessarily happening plotwise). Hong Kyung-rae’s righteous defense in the torture chair was another highlight, and part of why it was so effective for me was that it was a melding of the personal and the political, which is the best kind of political. (The rest of the political maneuvering was cold and strategic, and thus less compelling.) And it was definitely encouraging that Yeong found a common ground that nobody else could see, providing hope that where swords and coups and plots fail, his brains might succeed in finding a solution.

    But even so, I feel like the dip is distinct and disappointing because the she show has spoiled me by always delivering at least one really rewarding emotional exchange or development per episode. It doesn’t matter if that gratification is happy or sad, since sadness can pull the heartstrings effectively when done well, but today it started feeling like we were spinning our wheels a bit. And I involuntarily laughed out loud when Yeong and Ra-on ran into each other again, despite the epic, tearful, final goodbyes they’d already exchanged multiple times. (Speaking of comical repetition, must we have Ra-on abducted from behind in every other episode? I love this girl as a person, but I am getting mighty exasperated with her role as a character; her narrative purpose has suffered greatly as the show has progressed, and now her narrative function is almost only ever bait, trap, or object of affection. I just want her to do something active again. I would even prefer her doing something careless or dangerous to doing nothing and getting bounced around as plot device, although really, those can’t be our only choices. Resourceful, witty, sly, stealthy, helpful—any of those things are vastly preferable.)

    I’m bummed that this week killed some of that extra something special in my heart, because without that bit of magic, I feel like all the little flaws suddenly seem more jarring, more noticeable. There’s a Korean saying about how being in love is like having bean chaff lodged in your eyes, i.e., blinders on to flaws, and I feel like something this week pushed me past the tipping point and shook the bean chaff away, and it’s changed the way I look at the show a bit. I’m still clinging to my hopes as we head into the final week, because we’re so close to the end and I’d rather be optimistic about it reaching a satisfying conclusion. I’m looking forward to that happy ending we’re totally getting next week, where Yeong and Ra-on live blissfully together forever and the bad guys are punished and all of the happy relationships are restored. I will accept no other realities.

    http://www.dramabeans.com/2016/10/moonlight-drawn-by-clouds-episode-16/

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