Rather Disturbing ~ epi. #3

[Nalbal]

I found this rather difficult to watch. It was terrible that everyone who was on the list (that Choongnyeong brought to his father) were arrested and "interrogated" when the little prince thought his father would help them. Then of course... the torture scene of Choongyeong's servant, Yang Won, was horrible, while Choon was screaming and crying in the background. Choon did a lot of crying throughout the episode, in fact, and it was pretty heart-wrenching. No offense to anyone, but this is what bugs me about many Asian drama's (and don't get me wrong, I love these dramas)... they seem great for having long crying scenes and it's pretty despressing. And to me, seeing a child weeping is decidedly NOT entertainment. I know it's all part of the drama, but still.

[pip]

A crying child is excellent *drama*, but it is nearly impossible for me to watch, so I agree with you, Nalbal. I missed both of this week's episodes, but now I am a little relived that I missed the one you describe. I can't watch torture scenes, either.
Who was the kidnapper, or was that part shown?

[tinkerbell]

I agree with you both. It is difficult to watch. I got my parents interested in AOW, but when Seoul 1945 came on and they were beating up the children, my mom stopped watching.

[Lila]

I don't care to watch all of that gore, either, but I have to give them credit for the realism! And I agree with you all about the crying. Not too long ago I wrote a post about it, too. It's not confined to the dramas, which makes me think it's part of the actual culture. On most of the interview programs and serious programs I've seen on Korean television, although not all, the ultimate goal seems to be to pry rivers of tears out of the people. It's apparent in the way the questions are phrased ("You must have suffered terribly, right? Life must have been so difficult for you, right? Your heart must break from missing them, right?"), and in the way the camera starts zooming in to capture the tears. The interviewers/MCs don't seem to be satisfied until they've succeeded in pushing the waterworks button, but the people on these shows must expect that kind of thing, since it's so pervasive. Also, sometimes a person will volunteer information about how long, how hard, and how often they cried about something, without even being asked. Perhaps tears are considered mandatory in that culture as proof of the depth of someone's emotions and sincerity. This kind of thing is so common in the dramas, and also in the non-fiction programming, that it's difficult for me to not see it as a reflection of the actual culture. Of course, the Koreans really have suffered a lot, even in recent memory, so perhaps the manifestations of suffering kind of became ingrained in the national pathos.

We can talk about all of the hitting and shreiking some other time.

[seven stars]

Agreed that it's a trend.

I don't know that these scenes were very different than others that we've watched in previous series.

[tinkerbell]

Jul 10, 2008 9:45:12 GMT -5 seven stars said:

Agreed that it's a trend.

I don't know that these scenes were very different than others that we've watched in previous series.

They're not 7S. It's worse to see children hurt in any way, but it's still disturbing to see anyone being tortured.

[seven stars]

Point well taken Tink. Sorry I didn't intend to sound insensitive.

I don't enjoy it either.

[ajk]

Well, I guess the cheese stands alone.

I completely agree that there are too many of those kinds of scenes and some of them are dragged out beyond what's tasteful or necessary. But this one, I think it was very important to show the depth of the trauma that the prince suffered. Remember that when the episode started, he was a naive, idealistic kid who completely believed that daddy would just take care of everything. He had no clue about the ugliness of government and stirred up a hornet's nest for his father because of it. By the end of the episode he was a very different person, and the thoughts he expressed to Yi Su turned out to be very influential in his adult life. We all get shaped by whatever traumas we go through as children. He had an ugly, difficult lesson to learn, so I can't disagree with them showing us that he had learned it painfully.

But just to reassure everybody, and I don't consider this a spoiler, scenes like that one absolutely do not become a practice in the series. So don't be concerned that things will turn in that direction.